Isker, the real Tatar name of the town of Sibir
Editorial contextMüller says Khan Makhmet moved the princely seat from the Tura to a high headland on the Irtysh and fortified it, because the old capital Chimgi (Tyumen), though protected by ravines, a rampart and ditches, lay on flat ground. The ruins could still be seen above Tobolsk. He rejects the idea that 'Sibir' is a Tatar word for 'capital': the Tatars call the fortress Isker, and the name Kashlyk used in the Tobolsk chronicle was, he says, used by no people he knew.
This place is the so-called old Tatar town and fortress of Sibir, whose remains can still be seen upriver of Tobolsk … The true Tatar name of this old fortress is Isker, by which name the Tatars call it to this day.
Working translation
Original wording
Сіе мѣсто есть такъ именуемое старинной Татарской городъ и крѣпость Сибирь, котораго остатки повыше Тобольска … еще и теперь видны. … Подлинное Татарское имя сей старинной крѣпости есть Искеръ, которымъ именемъ Татаре еще и понынѣ оную называютъ.
About Siberian Tatars (khans of the Taibugid line)
Keep in mind
The distance from Tobolsk is garbled in the OCR and has been left out.
Kuchum's empty capital and the mosque the Tatars still kept
Editorial contextJust up the Irtysh from Tobolsk, by a stream called Sibirka that he thought gave all Siberia its name, Spafarii notes the empty little town and earthworks of Kuchum, the Tatar khan who ruled when Yermak's Cossacks came. The site was naturally strong, an island, but deserted. Only the Tobolsk Tatars still renewed a mosque there and came to worship. The editor adds that the historian Müller later described these ruins.
near the stream lies the empty little town and earthworks of Kuchum, tsar of Siberia, who ruled at the time when Yermak came into Siberia; and the place is very strong: it is an island, yet now it lies empty, only the Tobolsk Tatars, in remembrance of their unclean Mahometan faith, renewed a mosque before this and renew it now, in which they come and perform their rites according to their unclean faith.
Working translation
Original wording
близъ рѣчки лежитъ пустой городокъ и шанцы Кучюма царя Сибирского, который владѣлъ въ то время, какъ приходилъ Ермакъ въ Сибирь; и мѣсто то самое крѣпкое: островъ есть, однакожъ нынѣ лежитъ пусто, толко Тоболскія Татары для воспоминанія нечистые ихъ вѣры магмецкіе обновили прежъ сего и нынѣ обновляютъ мечеть, въ которой по ихъ нечистой вѣрѣ приходяще дѣйствуютъ.
About Siberian Tatars (Tobolsk Tatars, former subjects of Khan Kuchum)
Keep in mind
Spafarii does not say he visited the site, which lies a short way upriver from Tobolsk where he stayed; 'unclean faith' is his Orthodox hostility to Islam.
Isker, the khan's capital: 'if one can call it a town'
Editorial contextMüller visited the remains of Isker, the capital Yermak's Cossacks entered in 1582, on a steep height of the Irtysh above Tobolsk. He describes a small round hill protected on the landward side by a triple rampart and ditches, the river and a ravine guarding the other sides, and an interior only a few dozen fathoms across, room for little more than the khan, his family and servants. Part of it had fallen into the river.
The remains of this former capital of the land, if one can indeed call a place such as this seems to have been a town, can still be seen today.
Working translation
Original wording
Die Ueberbleibsel dieser ehmahligen Haupt-Stadt des Landes, wenn man anders einen Ort, so wie dieser gewesen zu seyn scheinet, eine Stadt nennen kann, sind noch heut zu Tage zu sehen.
About Siberian Tatars (the khanate of Kuchum)
Continue in this sourceMüller's Collection of Russian History, with his history of Siberia1733 to 1743 · 11 passagesSibir, 'the chief town', built on the Irtysh
Editorial contextEsipov continues: Taibuga's descendant Mamet killed Upak (Ibak, khan of Tyumen, whom Esipov calls 'the Kazan tsar'), destroyed his own town of Chingiden, went deeper into Siberia and built a town on the Irtysh, naming it Sibir, 'that is, the chief one'. This is the Tatar capital also called Isker or Kashlyk, which Yermak took in 1582. The Russian name for the whole region comes from this Tatar town.
Mamet killed Upak, the Kazan tsar, and destroyed his own town Chingiden and went away from there into the interior of the Siberian land and built himself a town on the river Irtysh and named it the town of Sibir, that is, the chief one; and the tsar lived in it many years
Working translation
Original wording
Маметъ Казанского царя уби Упака и градъ свой Чингиденъ разруши и отиде оттуду внутрь Сибирския земли и постави себѣ градъ на рѣке Иртише и назва его градъ Сибирь, сиречь началный; и живяше в немъ царь лѣта многа
About Mamet (Muhammad), Taibugid prince; Upak (Ibak), 'the Kazan tsar'
Keep in mind
Esipov's 'Kazan tsar' Upak is Ibak of the Shibanid dynasty; the meaning 'chief' for Sibir is Esipov's gloss, not a proven etymology.
Old Sibir: a rampart and a name
Editorial contextGmelin and Müller rode 18 versts up the Irtysh from Tobolsk to where, by common report, the old town of Sibir had stood, seat of Siberia's former rulers. Apart from traces of a rampart they saw nothing at all. Gmelin suggests that both the little Sibirka stream and the whole province of Siberia took their names from this vanished town.
where, according to common report, the old town of Sibir stood, which is said to have been the seat of the former rulers of Siberia... Apart from some traces of a rampart that had been thrown up there, we could see nothing.
Working translation
Original wording
wo der gemeinen Sage nach die alte Stadt Sibir gestanden hat, welche der Sitz der ehemahligen Sibirischen Beherrscher gewesen seyn soll. … Außer einigen Spuren von einem Walle, der daselbst aufgeworfen war, konnten wir nichts sehen.
About Former rulers of Siberia (the Siberian Tatar khanate)
Continue in this sourceGmelin's journey through Siberia, volume 11733 to 1743 · 15 passagesSibir, 'the capital of the Tartars'
Editorial contextCochrane retells the Cossack Yermak's conquest: after taking Tyumen he marched on Sibir, 'the capital of the Tartars', twelve miles from where Tobolsk now stands, entered it in triumph on 26 October and 'from the head of a banditti, became a sovereign prince'. He notes that the town's name 'seems to have given name' to all Asiatic Russia. He admits the history is translated from a note printed on a map given him by the governor of Tobolsk.
Yermak instantly directed his march against Sibir, the capital of the Tartars, distant twelve miles, and on the 26th October entered it in triumph, received the oath of allegiance of his new subjects, and, from the head of a banditti, became a sovereign prince.
About Siberian Tatars (Khanate of Sibir)
Keep in mind
Second-hand history, as Cochrane says on n112.