The ancient city, which reached its peak during the Golden Horde, Hadji Tarkhan is a direct historical ancestor of the modern Russian city of Astrakhan. Surprisingly, Astrakhan is a distorted pronunciation of the Turkic name.
Foundation of the city
The exact date of the formation of the city of Haji Tarkhan has not been established, it is believed that it was formed in the second half of the 13th century. One of the researchers, M. G. Safargaliev, believes that the city was founded in 1250, when the ruling elite of the Golden Horde converted to Islam. The Flemish monk Guillaume de Rubruk, who traveled to the Mongols, wrote in his book “Journey to the Eastern Countries” that, passing the Volga delta in 1254, he saw a village on the right bank of the Itili River, which served as the winter headquarters of Batu’s son, Khan Sartaku. However, during excavations of the settlement of Sharyeny Bugor, the places where the city stood did not reveal layers of the 13th century.
The first written mention of the winter rate of Khans of the Golden Horde Haji Tarkhan is found in historical notes of the Arab wandering merchant and traveler Ibn Battuta, who arrived in the city in 1333, accompanying the Uzbek Khan, the Khan of the Golden Horde. He writes that this is one of the best cities with large bazaars on the banks of Itil, one of the largest rivers in the world.
Etymology of the name
The same Ibn Battuta in 1334, in a book about the countries he visited, wrote that the Tarkhan of the Tatars is a place free of taxes. The city got its name from the Haji, a pilgrim in the Turkic language, who received this place as a gift from the Sultan, who gave it duty free. The place became a village, then grew into a city. The same version was later confirmed by Russian historians V. N. Tatishchev and S. G. Gmelin, who were informed about this by authoritative Astrakhan Tatars and religious figures.
In his book Walking Over Three Seas, the Russian merchant and traveler in 1466 wrote that Aztorhan, Astrakhan and Hadji Tarkhan are one and the same place. The name of this ancient city was written by travelers in different ways, adapting to sound in their native language, there are several dozen pronunciation options. The main reason for the distortion is the appearance in the 16th century of the Crimean pronunciation of Azhdarkhan, from which the word "Astrakhan" could have come from when writing it on old maps in Latin letters.
Location
In 1966, large-scale excavations of the ancient settlement of Sharyeny Bugor were carried out before the construction of the Astrakhan pulp and cardboard mill. Material traces of the city of Hadji-Tarkhan were found, now this place is located in the city of Astrakhan, in the territory of the village of the Central Committee of the Central Committee of Culture. Quarters of dugouts, workshops, pottery furnaces and an old cemetery located on the outskirts of the ancient city were excavated. Many museums in the country store thousands of archaeological finds excavated in the territory of Haji Tarkhan - coins, fragments of tiles, ceramics, the remains of iron tools and weapons.
Currently, the ruins of the city are inaccessible, the main part of the cultural layer was washed away and carried away by the river, the other is built up by the plant and residential buildings of the village of Streletskoye.
On ancient maps
A 1351 medieval map of an unknown author shows the city of Azhitarhan in the Volga River Delta. The 1367 Venetian cards of the brothers Francis and Dominic Pitsigan placed Hadji Tarkhan on the west bank of the Volga, in an inheritance belonging to the emir Hadji Cherkes, whose nomadic camp, signed by Casade Gercasi, was located north of the city. The famous Venetian cartographer, monk Fra Mauro, famous for his accurate maps, also designated this ancient city on his portolans.
Francesco Pegolotti, a Florentine merchant and compiler of the international trade guide Pratica della mercatura of 1340, wrote that the day was a journey along the river from Jitarcan to Sarai.
Golden time
The excellent geographical position of the city, which was located at the intersection of trade routes from China to Europe, quickly made it the center of international trade of the Golden Horde. Hadji Tarkhan in the 13-14th centuries. became a transit hub on the caravan route. Oriental goods arrived in caravans from Sarai and then went in two directions. To the south - to the steppe regions, then headed to Transcaucasia, through the Derbent Pass and west to Azak, where Italian merchants from Genoa and Venice were waiting for them.
Venetian diplomat Josaphato Barbaro in his book Travels in 1480 noted that all spices and silk go to the Italian trading colony in Azaka via Haji Tarhan. His compatriot, Francesco Pegolotti, a merchant, also wrote that silk and spices are brought from this transit center to the port, and then transported to Italy by Venetian galleys. The city was famous for its wealth and vastness.
In Haji Tarkhan, metalworking, jewelry and pottery were developed. It was built up with mud and burnt brick houses. Strong, well-fired brick, which was nicknamed "Mamaisky", was later used to build the Astrakhan Kremlin. When in 1488 Tsar Fedor Ioannovich ordered to break down the buildings of the Golden Horde and build Astrakhan from it.
The fall of the city
In the harsh winter of 1395, the troops of Timur began to approach the city, who, having left the princes in the North Caucasus, himself led this campaign. Hadji Tarkhan was well prepared for defense, as noted in ancient chronicles, there were high walls on the steppe side. And from the side of the river, which is vulnerable in winter, residents in the coastal strip built a powerful high wall of thick pieces of ice, pouring them in for fastening with water. However, the city authorities decided not to wait for the assault and surrendered the city of Timur without a fight.
In the writings of the Arab scholar and traveler Ibn-Arabshah it is written about the capture of Haji Tarkhan by Tamerlan. The great lame man gave the troops a few days to plunder. All living and non-living property was looted, after which the residents were driven out of the city and set on fire. The Venetian Barbaro wrote that it was an almost completely destroyed town. Since that time, the settlement began to be called Kuyuk-Kala, which translates as "fried-burned."
The city rebuilt again and even grew a little after the destruction. However, never again in the history of Haji Tarkhan did he ever reach his former wealth.
Astrakhan Khanate
After the collapse of the Great Horde, Haji Tarkhan in 1459 became the capital of the Astrakhan Khanate. But the former political and economic significance no longer had. In 1476, Ambassador of Venice Ambrogio Contarini wrote that this is a small city surrounded by a low wall, the houses are almost all adobe, and the remains of the destroyed large buildings are visible. The Astrakhan Khan spent several winter months here, traveling in the steppes closer to Russia in the summer in search of grass and coolness.
A weak state quickly became the object of attacks by neighbors, in 1547 the city was captured by the Crimean troops of Khan Sahib I Giray. The Dervish Ali heading the khanate fled to his ally, Ivan the Terrible. In 1554, Russian troops recaptured the capital of the Astrakhan Khanate almost without a fight and again planted their ally. However, he soon betrayed the king, and in 1556 the Russian troops stormed the city a second time.
New town
The governor of the conquered region was Ivan Cheremisov, who had been using Hadji Tarkhan for six months since the fall of 1556. Then a new fortress was built already on the other side of the Volga, on the left. The first foreigner to visit her was Anthony Jenkinson, a representative of an English trading company, who wrote that he walked past the old castle, where there was old Astrakhan, which was conquered by the Russian tsar.