Astrakhan

Astrakhan lies on the left bank of the Volga, some sixty miles from the point where the river runs into the Caspian Sea. Ibn Battuta, who passed through in 1333, mentions for the first time a settlement supposed to have been founded by a pilgrim from Mecca, whose religious reputation brought the district exemption from taxes. This is said to explain its name, Hajji Tarkhan, since tarkhan in later Mongol usage meant a man exempt from taxes, a nobleman. Other forms are Cytrykan or Zytrykhan in the account of Ambrogio Contarini (1487), and in Turkish-Tatar sources Azdarkhan and Ashtarakan. The first coins from the settlement date from 776 AH (1374-5) and 782 AH (1380-1). ¹

In the winter of 798 AH (1395-6) Timur destroyed the city, as well as Sarai. Astrakhan rose again and eventually took over Sarai's importance as a centre of trade, becoming the centre of traffic on the Caspian Sea and the lands bordering it. In 871 AH (1466), during the decline of the Golden Horde, a Noghay dynasty was established in Astrakhan, stemming from the Tatar Khan Kuchuk Mehmed. Its territory under Khan Kasim (871-896 AH, 1466-1490) and his brother Abd al-Karim (896-910 AH, 1490-1504) reached as far as modern Stavropol, Orenburg, Samara and Saratov. The population lived mainly by cattle raising, hunting and fishing. ¹

After 910 AH (1504) the rapid change of khans, quarrels with the begs, and interference by the Crimean Tatars and the Noghays weakened the khanate. Khan Abd al-Rahman sought help against these and against the Ottomans from the Russian tsar. In 962 AH (1554) the khanate was conquered by the Russians, who had nominated its khan; when Darwish Ali, allied with the Crimean Tatars and Noghays, was deposed in 964 AH (1556-7), the khanate was incorporated into the Russian state. ¹

Russians settled in the town, rebuilt by them in 1558 seven miles downstream on the left bank, and it has always had an overwhelmingly Russian population, with Tatar and Armenian suburbs. Kalmucks came from 1632, and Kazaks from 1801 with Russian permission; 25,000 Astrakhan Cossacks were settled there in 1750. The city was threatened in 1569 by an Ottoman and Crimean Tatar army, after which the Russians built a stone wall and in 1589 a fortress. It was repeatedly plundered by Tatars and Cossacks, especially by Stenka Razin in 1667-8, and suffered from earthquakes and epidemics. From 1722 to 1867 it was the Caspian naval port. The entry notes that in 1897 the city had 113,001 inhabitants, of whom about 12,000 were Muslims. ²