The Tatar Ruling Houses in Russian Genealogical Sources
50th Annual Meeting of the PIAC, Kazan 2007
The first official Russian genealogical book, the Gosudarev rodoslovets “the Sovereign’s Genealogical Book” was compiled in 1555 and its supplemented and rewritten version from 1687, the so-called Barkhatnaia kniga “Velvet Book” was published by N. I. Novikov a century later (1787). It was N. P. Likhachev who pointed out in a fine analysis that the version of the Gosudarev rodoslovets compiled by the d’iak Ivan Elizarov, must have come about after the conquest of Kazan (1551) and before the capture of Astrakhan (1556). Interestingly enough, besides the Riurukovich and Gedyminovich princes, the most elegant and upper layer of the Russian aristocracy, the clans of the Astrakhan, Crimean and Kazan sovereigns were also registered. After the capture of Kazan and prior to the siege of Astrakhan, the Gosudarev rodoslovets described the different Tatar ruling elites at the first stage of a century-long transitional period which has gradually resulted in their incorporation into the Russian elite. The Nogay princes were also planned to be included in the Gosudarev rodoslovets, in the list of contents of the original copy of the Barkhatnaia kniga it is written: “Rod Magnitskikh kniazei Nagaiskikh. Ne pisan”.
Later, in the 17th century, this habit of inclusion the Chingisid ruling houses, moreover the Ottoman House, into Russian private genealogical books was maintained. This paper deals with the Tatar genealogies of two Russian sources. One is preserved in a private genealogical book compiled at the beginning of the 17th century, probably during the reign of Tsar Vasilii Shuiskii. It belongs to the “redaction of the beginning of the 17th century” type of the genealogical books, designated as Si- nodal’nyi II and is now preserved in Moscow, in the Gosudarstvennyi Istoricheskii Muzei, Sinodal’noe sobranie, No. 860 (published in Vremennik Imperatorskogo Moskovskogo obshchestva istorii i drevnostei rossiiskikh 10 (1851): 1–130). The rather detailed genealogy of the Turkish and different Chingisid ruling houses in the above synodic copy deserves special attention. It contains the following chapters: Rod tiurkskikh tsarei, Rod tsarei Bol’shie Ordy, Rod tsarei Krymskikh, Kazanskikh i Astrakhanskikh, Nachalo Orde Nagaiskoi, i Rodoslovie Kniaziam i Murzam Nagaiskim.
The other Russian source is also a private genealogical book of the 17th century preserved in Moscow, in the Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennyi Archiv Drevnikh Aktov, f. 181, ed. khr.385 (unpublished) which contains the genealogies of several noble families, and among others, a short description of the sovereigns of the Great Horde, the Nogay Horde and the Turkish sovereigns.
The present paper makes an attempt to verify the authenticity of these Russian genealogical sources and find a plausible explanation to the continued interest of the Russian gentry in the Tatar ruling houses thereby trying to live up to the expectations of the one-time publisher (“Zhelatel’no by bylo, chtoby orientalisty obratili vnimanie na sei rodslovets i poverili ego s svoimi istochnikami” Vremennik 10 [1851]: IV).