2025, vol. 13, no. 4. Aryayev L.N.

2025, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 746-769

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22378/2313-6197.2025-13-4.746-769

EDN: https://elibrary.ru/DHGSJD

   THE KAZAN TSARINA KARAKUSH
IN SOURCES AND HISTORIOGRAPHY

L.N. Aryayev
Independent Researcher
Saalfeld, Germany
l.aryayev@yandex.ru

Abstract. Objective: A review of the information about the Kazan queen Karakush contained in synchronous authentic sources; a consideration of the transformation of her image in later sources and historiography.Research materials: Russian chronicles of the 15th–16th сenturies; embassy books on Russia’s relations with the Crimean Khanate and the Nogai Horde; the most important historiographical works on the Moscow-Kazan conflict of 1505–1507.
Research results and scientific novelty: The pieces of information in the Russian chronicles about Karakush generally agree with each other, although they go back to four independent chronicle traditions (grand ducal, “oppositional”, Tver, and Ustyug). Together with the embassy books, the chronicles provide reliable but extremely sparse information about Karakush. Her father was the Nogai Murza Yamgurchi. She was married to the Kazan King Ilham and was taken prisoner with him to Moscow in 1487 after the first conquest of Kazan and then exiled to Vologda. Her father urged Ivan III to grant her release. Karakush was married to Muhammad-Amin in 1502 after his second accession to the throne in Kazan. Information about the important role of Karakush in the development of the Moscow-Kazan conflict of 1505–1507, contained in the “Kazan Chronicler” and supplemented in “Russian History” by V.N. Tatishchev, is widespread in the historiography. However, as demonstrated in this present article, the story of the “Kazan Chronicler” about the events of 1505 was compiled more than half a century later, and is not confirmed by other sources, being based on the biblical story about Queen Herodias. Thus, the story about the queen’s “inspirations” that caused Muhammad-Amin to turn against Ivan III is a purely literary narrative and cannot be considered historically reliable.

Keywords: Kazan Khanate, Karakush, Russian chronicles, embassy books, Nogai Horde, “Kazan Chronicler”, V.N. Tatishchev, historiography, Moscow-Kazan conflict 1505–1507

For citation: Aryayev L.N. The Kazan Tsarina Karakush in Sources and Historiography. Zolotoordynskoe obozrenie=Golden Horde Review. 2025, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 746–769. https://doi.org/10.22378/2313-6197.2025-13-4.746-769 (In Russian)

Acknowledgments: I would like to express my gratitude to Cand. Sci. (History) M.A. Ne­sin for important information regarding the chronicle dating of the events of 1487.

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Leonid N. Aryayev – Independent Researcher (Saalfeld, Germany); ORCID: 0000-0002-8394-5856. Email: l.aryayev@yandex.ru

  Received  25.08.2025
Revised  03.11.2025
Accepted  02.12.2025