Relations between the Shamkhalate and the Principality of Tyumen in the 15th–17th centuries

Abstract

The article examines one of the least studied problems in the history of medieval Dagestan: the origins and evolution of the Principality of Tyumen and its relations with the Shamkhalate which ultimately resulted in the incorporation of the former into the latter. Research Objective: To reconstruct the ethnopolitical history of the Principality of Tyumen, determine its place within the system of regional political entities, identify its role in the transformation of the Shamkhalate, and further clarify the processes underlying the formation of the Kumyk community. Research Materials: They comprise Arabic geographical and historical works, Ottoman and Russian documentary records from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, accounts of European travellers, and relevant Russian and international historiographical work. Both narrative and documentary sources are employed. The methodological framework draws on approaches from historical sociology and world-systems analysis, allowing for an examination of the political and ethnic processes of the North Caucasus within the broader context of interregional and intercivilisational interactions. Results and Scholarly Novelty: The present work provides of a comprehensive reconstruction of the history of the Principality of Tyumen and its relations with the Shamkhalate. The study substantiates the proposition that the Tyumens emerged in the early sixteenth century from among the nomadic groups of the Great Horde and gradually became integrated into the structure of the Shamkhalate. By the end of the sixteenth century, their incorporation had resulted in the relocation of the political centre of the Shamkhalate to the lowlands, changes in its social structure, and led to an institutional transformation. This study demonstrates that Tyumen was an important centre of the “Old Horde” population that became one of the key components in the formation of the Kumyk community. These processes are interpreted as part of broader imperial and world-system transformations in the North Caucasus during the late medieval period.