Chura Narykov-Chura batyr: “grand Prince”, “volostel”, “voivoda” (historical bases of definitions of “Kazan history”)

Abstract. The article is devoted to the explanation of three definitions found in the famous Russian source of the 16th century – “Kazan History”, applied to the Kazan prince Chura Narykov, under the name of Chure (Shore) batyr, who became the main hero of a special dastan, common among a number of Turkic peoples. These are the concepts of “grand prince”, “volostel” and “voivode”. They actually hide the Turkic terms “ulubey”, “karachabek” and “batyr”, associated with the socio-political structure of the Kazan Khanate, as one of the Late Golden Horde yurts, that inherited this structure from the Golden Horde era. It was based on clan grounds, and in the case of Chura Narykov, we are looking for a case with the leader of the Argyn clan – one of the four ruling original Tatar clans of the Kazan Khanate, associated with Khan Tokhtamysh. In general, a detailed study of the three historical concepts contained in the “Kazan History” allows us to conclude, that this source needs further analysis because of the uniqueness of the information available there.

Keywords: “Kazan History”, socio-political structure, ruling clans, Karachabeks, Ulubeys, batyrs, Argyn and Tama (Tana) clans, genealogy.