A prefabricated wooden town floated down the Volga
Editorial contextTo besiege Kazan, Ivan IV had a whole timber town made in advance upriver, carried it down the Volga on big Beloozero boats, and set it up quickly on a hill at the mouth of the Sviyaga, 15 versts from Kazan. The chronicle adds that churches, monasteries and houses were built inside. The fortress that ended the Kazan khanate was Russian-built and timber.
carrying with them a ready-made wooden town on great Beloozero boats, new that same year and skilfully made. And sailing … they came into the Kazan land to the river Sviyaga, to the place appointed for them
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везущи съ собою готовы градъ древяны на великихъ лодіяхъ Белозерскихъ, тово же лѣта новъ, хитръ сотворенъ. И плывше … придоша въ землю Казанскую на рѣку Свіягу, на мѣсто указное имъ
About Ivan IV's builders; Shah Ali of Kasimov and Muscovite voevodas
The Devil's Fort: an empty town of the old Bulgars on the Kama
Editorial contextThe author describes an empty little town on the high bank of the Kama, which the Russians called the 'Devil's gorodishche'. A demon lived there, answering questions through soothsayers, and people of the Kazan land came to sacrifice; travellers on the river threw it some of their goods or risked drowning. He credits the ruin to the 'old Bulgars', whose sacrificial prayer-place it had been. Several manuscripts call it a 'small stone town'.
there is an empty little town standing on the high bank of the river Kama, which the Rus call the Devil's Fort, in which a demon lived, working illusions for many years; and it was a sacrificial prayer-place of the old Bulgars.
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имать градецъ пустъ, на брезе высоцѣ Камы реки стоя, его же Русь имянуетъ Бесовское городище, въ немъ же живяше бѣсъ, мечты творя отъ многа лѣтъ; и то бѣ еще старыхъ Болгаръ молбище жертвеное.
About Kazan Tatars, Cheremis and their soothsayers; the 'old Bulgars'
Keep in mind
The identification with the stone 'Devil's Fort' at Yelabuga is by later scholars; the demon oracle is the author's Christian reading of a local shrine.
Given to the khan as a present: twenty years at court
Editorial contextThe author explains how he knew: for his sins he was captured by 'barbarians', taken to Kazan and given to the khan as a gift. The khan took him into his household to stand before him, and he stayed twenty years, until Kazan fell and he left for the Moscow tsar. He says he often questioned the wisest Kazan nobles and heard things from the khan's own mouth. Captives in service at a Tatar court were common.
For my sins it befell me to be captured by barbarians and taken to Kazan, and they gave me to the tsar of Kazan as a gift; and the tsar took me with love into his service, into his court, and set me to stand before his face. And having been there 20 years, after the taking of Kazan I left Kazan, in the name of the Moscow tsar.
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Грѣхъ ради моихъ случи ми ся плененну быти варвары и сведену быти въ Казань, и даша мя царю Казанскому въ дарехъ; и взятъ мя царь съ любовію къ себѣ служити, во дворъ свои, постави мя предъ лицемъ своимъ стояти. И бывъ тамо 20 лѣтъ, по взятіи же Казанскомъ изыдохъ исъ Казани, на имя царево Московсково.
About The anonymous author; the khan of Kazan
Keep in mind
The author's own claim; no other source confirms his identity.
A Tatar convert tears his beard
Editorial contextA lame Tatar from the Arsk district came to Kazan to be baptized, saying his legs were healed the moment he heard that the Moscow tsar had taken Kazan and filled it with churches. Warned not to return to his old faith, he tore out some of his beard and crumbled the hairs, saying he would sooner be crumbled like them. Later his kinsmen hacked him to death. It is a story of conversion and of Kazan Tatars' resistance to it.
The Tatar at once suddenly tore out with his hand part of the hair of his beard and crumbled it into small bits, saying: 'I have so understood the great power and mercy of your God that for his sake I am ready not only to suffer many sorrows, but even if I am crumbled like this, as I have crumbled my hairs, I will never renounce him.'
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Татаринъ же абіе рукою напрасно исторже часть власовъ своея брады и раздроби ихъ на малыя крупицы, глаголя: «Азъ тако уразумѣхъ великую силу и милость Бога вашего, яко его ради готовъ есмь не токмо многія скорби терпѣти, но аще и сицевъ раздробленъ буду, яко же раздробихъ власы моя, никако же не отвергуся его».
About A Tatar from the Arsk side, baptized Stefan
Keep in mind
A pious conversion tale in the hagiographic style.
Who lived in the Kazan land: Bulgars, Cheremis and runaway Rostovians
Editorial contextThe author says the khan drove the Rus out of the district and brought in 'a fierce pagan people' from the Kama, the Bulgar commoners with their princes and elders, as savage, he adds, as the 'dog-headed Samoyeds'. He also claims the Cheremis, called Votiaks, were Rostov commoners who fled there to escape baptism. It shows a Russian view of Kazan as a mix of peoples under a Tatar ruler, with a dose of prejudice and folk etymology.
and he brought from the Kama a fierce, pagan people, the Bulgar commoners, with their princes and elders, much like in savagery and evil custom to the dog-headed Samoyeds. He filled that land with such people, that is the Cheremis, called Votiaks; these, they say, are the Rostov commoners who fled there from Russian baptism
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и наведе исъ Камы языкъ лютъ, поганъ, Болгарскую чернь, со князи ихъ и со старѣишинами ихъ, и много ему сущу убо подобну суровствомъ, обычаемъ злымъ, песьимъ главамъ Самоедомъ. Наполни такими людми землю ту, еже Черемиса, зовемая Отяки, тое жъ глаголють Ростовскую чернь, забежавши тамо отъ крещенія Русково
About Volga Bulgar commoners, Cheremis (Mari), Votiaks (Udmurts)
Keep in mind
The Rostov origin of the Cheremis is the author's own folk explanation; 'dog-headed Samoyeds' is a stock insult drawn from marvel literature.
The people of Kazan, rank by rank
Editorial contextWhen Kazan surrendered its boy khan Utemish-Girey and his mother Siuiumbike in 1551, the author lists everyone who submitted: mullahs, seyyids, sheikhs, hafizes and other Muslim clergy; ulans, princes, murzas, ichki (court nobles) and 'rear-court' Cossacks; and the subject peoples, Chuvash, Cheremis, Votiaks, Mordva, tarkhans and Mozhars. It shows Kazan as a Muslim state of many peoples, not a single 'Tatar' mass.
And the Kazan people, the mullahs, and seyyids, and sheikhs … and hafizes, and ulans, and princes, and murzas and ichki, and the rear-court Cossacks, and the Chuvash and Cheremis, and Votiaks, and Mordva, and tarkhans, and Mozhars, and all the Kazan land
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Казанцы же молны, и сеиты, и шихъ … и афызы, и уланы, и князи, и мурзы и ички, и задворные казаки, и Чюваша и Черемиса, и Отяки, и Мордва, и тарханы, и Можары, и вся земля Казанская
About Kazan clergy, nobility and subject peoples
Keep in mind
Some Tatar titles are garbled in the manuscripts; the omitted words are variously spelled.
The two-headed serpent of Kazan
Editorial contextBefore the town, 'many say', the site was a serpents' nest ruled by a huge two-headed serpent: one head a snake's, which ate people, cattle and beasts, the other an ox's, which ate grass. The khan's sorcerer drew a line around all the snakes, heaped hay, reeds and wood on them with sulphur and pitch and burned them, and the stench killed many of the army's horses and camels. Then the khan built Kazan there. The author reports it as hearsay.
there lived, having made its nest, a great and terrible serpent with two heads, one a serpent's head and the other an ox's head; with one it devoured people and cattle and beasts, and with the other head it ate grass; and other serpents of every kind lay around it and lived with it.
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живяше ту вгнездився змій великъ, страшенъ, о двою главу, едину имея змиеву, а другую главу волову; единою пожираше человѣки и скоты и звѣри, а другою главою траву ядяше; а иныя змія около его лежаша, живяху съ нимъ, всяцеми образы.
About 'Tsar Sain' and his sorcerer
Keep in mind
A founding legend (related to the Zilant dragon of Kazan's later coat of arms); the author marks it as hearsay.
A holy fool cries: 'Tatars will not live here'
Editorial contextAmong the omens of Kazan's fall the author lists a Tatar holy fool who walked the streets shouting that Tatars would not live there, only Russians. The khan forbade killing him and had him shut in an empty house, but he broke out. The next chapters tell of a calf born in human shape that turned into an armed man, and a fish-net that brought up a live old man who urged surrender to Moscow.
A certain Tatar in Kazan, a holy fool, walking through the city, began suddenly to cry out and say without ceasing: 'Tatars will not live here, but Russian people.' The Tatars wanted to kill him; the tsar did not allow them to kill him, but ordered him shut up in an empty house.
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Нѣкто Татаринъ въ Казани уродивъ, по граду ходя, нача напрасно вопити и непрестанно глаголати: «не жить здѣ Татаромъ, но Рускимъ людемъ». Татарове же хотяху убити его; не повелѣ имъ царь убити его, но въ праздну храмину повелѣ затворити его.
About Kazan Tatars under Khan Safa-Girey
Keep in mind
Prophecies written after the event to show that Kazan's fall was fated.