Qasim Khanate

The Qasim Khanate was a Tatar khanate on the Oka river in what is now Ryazan Oblast, established in 1452 when the Muscovite grand prince Vasily II granted lands to Qasim Khan, a prince of Kazan. Its capital, Kasimov, was named after him. The khanate lay initially within the sphere of the Grand Principality of Moscow and later depended on the Tsardom of Russia; its rulers served Muscovite interests, and some were enthroned in Kazan. From the middle of the sixteenth century Russian governors and a resident okolnichy increasingly controlled its administration, and after the conquest of Kazan the khans' self-government was curtailed. The khanate retained a ceremonial role, and one khan, Simeon Bekbulatovich, was briefly proclaimed grand prince of all Russia in 1574. It was abolished after the death of the queen Fatima Soltan in 1681, and its lands were absorbed into the Russian state. The khanate was also a centre of Tatar settlement and Islamic learning in the Oka region.