Khanate of Sibir - Taibugids and Shaybanids

Taibugids and Shaybanids

The Khanate of Sibir and the town of Tyumen were founded by Taibuga probably some time between 1405 and 1428. The latter was probably of Kerait origin. However, some scholars attempt to link the Taibugids to the Kipchak elites and others. Control alternated between the descendents of Taibuga and the Shaybanids who were descended from Genghis Khan. There are hints that the Shaybanids were more connected to the steppe nomads and that the Taibugids were more connected with the forest peoples to the north and east.

Taibuga's father was called On (On-Son, Onsom and other variants). Grousset says that they were 'the issue of Taibugha-bäki' without explanation ('bäki' (beg?) was a princely suffix and Taibuqa was a Naiman chief at the time of Genghis Khan.) A few sources identify him with Bek Ondi Oglan, the great-great-great grandson of Shayban, and thus a Shaybanid. The Stroganov chronicle says that On was killed by a chief called Chingii who spared Taibuga, sent him to fight the Ostyaks and granted him his own principality. Taibuga founded Tyumen and named it Chingitura in honor of his benefactor. Another source makes On a Nogai whose 'Hoflager' (German for 'court-camp') was Kasyl-Tura at the mouth of the Ishim River about 100 miles east of Tobolsk. Another source says that when Tokhtamysh was defeated he fled to the 'land of Sibir' (the first mention of 'Sibir' in Russian chronicles). Here he was protected by On until both were killed by Edigu about 1405.

There is no more information about Taibuga except that some say he drove the Novgoroders from his lands.

In 1428 a 17-year old Shaybanid called Abu'l-Khayr Khan was chosen Khan on the Tura River (at Tyumen?). This implies that the Taibugids had been pushed aside. When he led his followers south for better things the remaining Shaybanids gathered around Ibak Khan, who was from a junior branch of the house. The Taibugids must have been restored because some time between 1464 and 1480 Ibak killed the Taibugid Mar and made himself Khan. In 1483 Fyodor Kurbsky is said to have led an army to the Irtysh River, but this had no lasting effects. Ibak went to the Volga where he killed the last Khan of the Golden Horde. Returning, he was killed by Mar's grandson called Mamuk or Makhmet or Mamet(about 1495). Makhmet moved the capital from Tyumen to Sibir and was briefly Khan of Kazan (1496). In 1552 the Taibugids Yediger and Bekbulat congratulated Ivan the Terrible on his conquest of Kazan. Later they paid limited tribute to Russia. In 1563 Ibak Khan's grandson Kuchum seized the throne from Yediger and Bekbulat. In 1573, following the Russo-Crimean War (1571) he stopped paying tribute and raided the Perm lands. In 1582 he was driven out by Ermak and died some time after 1600.

List of Taibugids:

1. On
2. Taibugha
3. Khoja
4. Mar(killed by Ibak)
5. Obder(perhaps died as Ibak's captive)
6. Makhmet/Mamuq(killed Ibak)
7. Abalak(son of Obder)
8. Aguish
9. Kasim(son of Makhmet)
10. Yadiger(killed by Kuchum)
11. Bekbulat (brother of Yadiger and possibly co-regent)
12. Seid Akhmat(reoccupied Sibir after Ermak's death, captured by Russians in 1588).

List of Shaybanids:

1. Ibak Khan
2. Murtaza Khan
3. Kuchum Khan

• • Ali ibn Kuchum (tried to reoccupy Sibir after Ermak's death),
  • Ishim (Asim?) ibn Kuchum (married a Kalmyk & settled in their territory in 1620)