Kasimov, the old seat of Tatar khans
Editorial contextPallas notes that the Russian town of Kasimov is built entirely of logs, even its streets are paved with timber, although good building stone lies all along the Oka. The Tatar rulers who once lived here did use the stone, and he found the remains of their court: a gate with Arabic inscriptions, a long stone residence and a mausoleum. The descendants of the old Tatar townspeople still lived in their own quarter as prosperous fur traders.
In the days when Kasimov was still the residence of Tatar rulers, this store of stone was not left so wholly unused, and the town still has fine remains of Tatar buildings which deserve to be preserved. … This place really seems to have been the court of the local khans.
Working translation
Original wording
Zu denen Zeiten, da Kasimof noch der Wohnplatz Tatarischer Beherrscher gewesen, hat man diesen Vorrath von Steinen nicht völlig so ungebraucht gelassen, und die Stadt hat noch izt schöne Ueberbleibsel tatarischer Gebäude aufzuweisen, welche erhalten zu werden verdienten. … Dieser Platz scheint würklich das Hoflager der hiesigen Chane gewesen zu seyn
About Tatars of Kasimov (the Kasimov khanate on the Oka)
Continue in this sourcePallas's journey through the provinces of the Russian Empire1768 to 1774 · 20 passagesA stone minaret and a khan's tomb at Kasimov
Editorial contextIn the Tatar quarter Pallas measured a tall round tower (a minaret, which he calls Misgir) of dressed limestone, all that stood of a ruined mosque (Metsched) built of large bricks. On the next page he describes the plain stone mausoleum of the khans with a small prayer room, and reports that the owner of the land had pulled down the carved gate and the khan's house and burned much of the stone for lime.
there still stands in the highest part of the town a tall, strong, round-built tower or Misgir, from a ruined house of prayer… The old house of prayer, or Metsched, was of bricks more than 13 inches long; but the tower is built entirely of smoothly dressed and fairly large blocks of stone.
Working translation
Original wording
stehet noch izt in dem höchsten Theil der Stadt, ein hoher und starker, rund aufgeführter Thurn oder Misgir, von einem zerstöhrten Bethause… Das alte Bethaus, oder Metsched, hat aus Ziegeln bestanden, welche über 13 Zoll groß sind; der Thurn aber ist aus lauter glattgehauenen und ziemlich grossen Baustücken… erbaut.
About Tatars of Kasimov
Continue in this sourcePallas's journey through the provinces of the Russian Empire1768 to 1774 · 20 passagesA khan's tower, mosque and mausoleum at Kasimov
Editorial contextGeorgi says that across the old Tatar lands one finds ditches, ramparts and ruined towns, which Russians call gorodishche. At Kasimov on the Oka he lists a tall round tower, a mosque, palace walls and a mausoleum, all of rubble stone and fired brick, with an Arabic inscription naming the local khan Shah Ali. On the same page he describes the 'splendid' ruins of Bolgar on the Volga (towers, mosques, houses and tombs of stone and brick) and the stone walls, towers and former khan's palace inside the Kazan fortress, which he calls a monument of the Tatar kingdom.
At Kasimov on the Oka, for example, the Tatar suburb (sloboda) seems to have been the court of a khan. Among the ruins there is a tall round tower (Tatar misgir [minaret]), a prayer house (Tatar mechet [mosque]), walls of a palace, and in a cemetery (Tatar mazar) a handsome mausoleum, all of rubble stone and fired brick.
Working translation
Original wording
In Kasimow an der Oka z. B. scheint die tatarische Vorstadt (Slobode) ein Hoflager eines Chans gewesen zu seyn. Unter den Trümmern daselbst ist ein hoher, runder Thurm (Tat. Misgir), ein Bethhaus (Tat. Medsched), Mauern von einem Pallast, und auf einem Todtenacker (Tat. Masaret), ein ansehnlich Mausoleum, alles von Bruchsteinen und gebrannten Ziegeln.
About Kasimov Tatars (a Tatar khanate under Muscovite rule)
Keep in mind
Georgi does not say whether he saw Kasimov himself; like much of the book it may rest on colleagues' reports.
Kasimov: a Tatar prince's town on the Oka
Editorial contextWhen 'wind-swift' Tatars of Sayyid Ahmad's horde raided Muscovy, Sultan Kasim drove them off, and in gratitude the grand prince granted him a yurt (here, a domain) on the Oka in the Murom district, and 'there he built a town'. Hammer adds that the district town that still bears his name, on a height at the mouth of the Babinka, ringed by an earthen rampart, was in his day home to about five hundred Tatars with their own quarter and mosque. A rare case of a Tatar town founded inside Russia with Russian consent.
Out of gratitude the grand prince granted Kasim a yurt on the Oka, in the district of Murom. There he built a town … His name is still borne today by the district town at the mouth of the Babinka into the Oka, which, lying on a height and surrounded by an earthen rampart, and still inhabited today by half a thousand Tatars, preserves the memory of its origin through its Tatar quarter and mosque.
Working translation
Original wording
Aus Dankbarkeit dafür räumte der Grossfürst dem Kasim einen Jurt an der Okka, im Gebiethe von Murom, ein. Dort baute er eine Stadt … Seinen Nahmen erhält noch heute die am Einflusse der Babinka in die Okka gelegene Kreisstadt, welche, auf einer Anhöhe gelegen, mit einem Erdwall umgeben, noch heute von einem halben Tausend Tataren bewohnt, durch tatarische Slobode und Moschee das Andenken ihres Ursprunges bewahrt.
About Sultan Kasim, a Tatar prince in Muscovite service, and his Tatars
Keep in mind
The same sentence oddly says Kasim named the town after 'the Khan of the Crimea'; the modern details come from a handbook, not Hammer's own visit.