When did the Khanate of Sibir exist?

The Khanate of Sibir existed 1468–1598. On this map it is drawn 1429–1587.

How large was the Khanate of Sibir?

At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Khanate of Sibir covered about 3.9 million km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.

Northern Eurasia · Muscovy, the Tsardom and Siberia

Khanate of Sibir

1468–1598

The Khanate of Sibir (Siberian Khanate) was a Muslim Turco-Tatar state east of the middle Ural Mountains, a successor fragment of the Golden Horde in the Irtysh–Tobol basin. Its name gave "Siberia" to the world.

See it on the map → Wikipedia ↗

Existed: 1468–1598
Shown on the map: 1429–1587
Peak area: 3.9M km²
Region: Northern Eurasia

Name and character

Structure and rulers

The khanate was contested between two dynasties: the local Taibugids and the Chinggisid Shaybanids. In 1563 Kuchum Khan, a Shaybanid, defeated his Taibugid rival and seized the throne. Before 1571 the khanate paid limited tribute to Moscow; Kuchum then repudiated this and raided Russian-held Perm.

Yermak's conquest (1582–1598)

At the urging of the Stroganov merchant family — who held Ural charters and recruited Cossacks — the Cossack ataman Yermak Timofeyevich (a former Volga river-pirate) led an expedition of some 540–840 men, armed with firearms, into Siberia beginning in 1581. After riverine engagements on the Tura and Tobol, Yermak won the decisive Battle of Chuvash Cape (5 November [O.S. 26 October] 1582) near Qashliq, capturing Kuchum's capital and effectively ending his power. Yermak's small force (reportedly 107 casualties against far larger Tatar losses) exploited harquebus firepower against bow-wielding cavalry.

Reversal and final fall

Kuchum regrouped in the steppe and, in a night attack on 6 August 1584/1585, killed Yermak (who drowned in the Irtysh) and destroyed much of his army at the Battle of the Irtysh, briefly retaking the ruined Qashliq. But Russia poured in reinforcements; Kuchum was finally defeated by Andrey Voyeykov in 1598 and the khanate dissolved, opening the whole of Siberia to Russian expansion to the Pacific. The Siberian Chronicles that record these events are incomplete and contradictory, and English secondary accounts differ on the expedition's start date and route.

Common questions

What was the Khanate of Sibir?: The Khanate of Sibir (Siberian Khanate) was a Muslim Turco-Tatar state east of the middle Ural Mountains, a successor fragment of the Golden Horde in the Irtysh–Tobol basin. Its name gave "Siberia" to the world.
When did the Khanate of Sibir exist?: The Khanate of Sibir existed 1468–1598. On this map it is drawn 1429–1587.
How large was the Khanate of Sibir?: At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Khanate of Sibir covered about 3.9 million km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
How did the Khanate of Sibir end?: Kuchum regrouped in the steppe and, in a night attack on 6 August 1584/1585, killed Yermak (who drowned in the Irtysh) and destroyed much of his army at the Battle of the Irtysh, briefly retaking the ruined Qashliq. But Russia poured in reinforcements; Kuchum was finally defeated by Andrey Voyeykov in 1598 and the khanate dissolved, opening the whole of Siberia to Russian expansion to the Pacific.

Sources

This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each polity, ruler and battle as the basis of these profiles, cross-checked against Encyclopaedia Britannica, the World History Encyclopedia and the Encyclopedia of Russian History, and against the scholarship of Janet Martin, Charles Halperin, Serhii Plokhy, Simon Franklin and Krivosheev. The article this entry is anchored on:

Wikipedia — Khanate of Sibir en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khanate_of_Sibir

This entry was last updated 20 September 2026.

This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made

Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.

Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).

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