Meshchera as a Point of Political Interaction between Muscovy and the Tatar World

Abstract

Meshchera (also known in the historiography as the Kasimov Khanate, in diplomatic sources as the Meshcherskiy iurt) played a special, very specific role in the relations between Muscovy and the Tatar Khanates during the fifteenth through sixteenth centuries. As a kind of specific frontier zone, it was situated within Muscovy and the Muscovite grand prince possessed authority over it, but at the same time, it became widely regarded as a Tatar iurt. For instance, in Crimean eyes, it was a iurt of the Girays and the Shirin clan. It became for some Crimean servitors a home-away-from-home, a colony of sorts, where they came to serve a Gireiid dynast and enjoy material support and opportunities for campaigning. Certain of Nur-Daulet’s (initially a Crimean, then a Kasimov khan) followers moved back and forth between Meshcherskii Gorodok (the capital of Meshchera) and the Crimea. This Tatar enclave, which served for Muscovite rulers as a pattern for other Tatar enclaves of this type (Kashira, Serpukhov, Zvenigorod, Romanov etc.), became an integral part of the steppe appanage system. Muscovite and Tatar political histories overlapped at this point. Although the Kasimov Khanate was not large in size, it figured very prominently in relations between Muscovy (Russia) and the steppe khanates, such as Kazan and the Crimean, as well as the Great and the Nogay Hordes. It, like other iurts of this sort, often acted as a bridge and arbiter of conflict between Orthodoxy Christians and Muslims. The existence of such Tatar enclaves within Muscovite territory influenced Muscovy’s status within the whole of the lands of the later Golden Horde.