Pages: 199-205

In this work we are talking about the Russian town of Tara founded at the Irtysh River in 1594, and its role in the fate of the Siberian Tatars, who were citizens of the Siberian Khanate and at the end of the 16th century became citizens of the Russian state. The town, established only to ensure the ultimate defeat of Kuchum Khan, began to play a very significant role in consolidation of the Siberian Tatars, unexpectedly for the Tara voivodes. The Muslim community, which emerged under the leadership of one of the first Islamic preachers in Siberia — Din-aul-khojah, turned into the center disseminating Islam among all Turkic-speaking population of the Western Siberia. Trade ways, passing through the Irtysh region near Tara, were not closed upon the emergence of the Russian town, and, what is more, they turned it into a key point in Siberian trade with Central Asia, and later with China. For a long time, the Irtysh area near Tara remained a stronghold of Kuchum Khan and his successors and, contrary to all actions of the local Russian administration, the town of Tara became a source for the replenishment of weapons and supplies for the Kuchum’s troops. These interesting pages in the history of one of the first Russian towns in Siberia are addressed in this article.

Keywords: Siberian Khanate, Irtysh basin, town of Tara, Kuchum Khan, ethnic genesis, trade, history

Information about author:

Sergey Tataurov. Candidate of Historical Sciences. Omsk Branch of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Karl Marx Ave., 15, Omsk, 644024, Russian Federation.
E-mail: [email protected]