Khanate of Astrakhan
| Khanate of Astrakhan³ | ||||||||||
| Xacitarxan¹ Xanlığı Хаҗитархан² Ханлыгы |
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 Astrakhan Khanate in 1466-1556
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| Capital | Xacitarxan | |||||||||
| Languages | Turkic (Tatar4, Nogay) | |||||||||
| Government | Khanate | |||||||||
| Astrakhan Khan | ||||||||||
| • | First | Makhmud Astrakhan | ||||||||
| • | Last | Darwish Ghali | ||||||||
| History | ||||||||||
| • | Established | 1466 | ||||||||
| • | Disestablished | 1556 | ||||||||
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| Today part of |
 Russia
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| ¹ Ästerxan ² Әстерхан ³ Xacitarxan (Khajitarkhan) 4 Astrakhan dialect |
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The Khanate of Astrakhan (Xacitarxan Khanate) was a Tatar Turkic state that appeared after the collapse of the Golden Horde. The Khanate existed in the 15th and 16th centuries in the area adjacent to the mouth of the Volga river, where the contemporary city of Astrakhan/Hajji Tarkhan is now located. Its khans were the patrilineal descendants of Toqa Temür (Tūqāy Tīmūr), the thirteenth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan.
The Khanate was established in the 1460s by Mäxmüd of Astrakhan. The capital was the city of Xacítarxan, also known as Astrakhan in Russian chronicles. Its territory included the Lower Volga valley and the Volga Delta, including most of what is now Astrakhan Oblast and the steppeland on the right bank of Volga in what is now Kalmykia. The North-Western Caspian seaside was a southern boundary and the Crimean Khanate bounded Astrakhan on the west.
The area surrounding the lower Volga was populated by various Turkic tribes since the 6th century AD. There were, for example, the Khazars. Following the invasion of Mongol tribes from the east and the splintering of their empire, the area came under the rule of the Golden Horde. This empire, too, was wracked by civil war, and the semi-independent Astrakhan Khanate was established by Qasim I around 1466. Its location at the mouth of the Volga, straddling important trade routes, allowed it to accumulate significant wealth, but also attracted the attention of neighbouring states and nomadic tribes, subjecting the khanate to numerous invasions. Meñli I Giray, the khan of the Crimea who had destroyed the Big Horde's capital of Sarai-al-Jadid caused significant destruction to the khanate.
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Wikipedia