Historical origins of academic orientalism in russia
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CHAPTER 3
RELIGIOUS AND THE BEGINNING OF THE ACADEMIC ORIENTALISM 3.1 Russian Expansion into Central Asia and Siberia After the end of the Mongolian period, Russia started interacting with the outside world including its neighbours in the West. In the post- Mongolian period, although the Golden Horde came to an end, other khanates descending from Chingiz Khan, the Kazan Khanate, Astrakhan, the Crimean Khanate, Siberia and the Nogais were competing to inherit the Golden Horde. Even the Crimean Khanate, the strongest of these, was not at an economically or militarily sufficient level. That is why Moscow could manage to make use of the power struggles within the Kazan Khanate and bring several prominent leaders of Kazan to the Russian side. 57
Moscow’s conquest of Novgorod in 1471 and the confidence this provided paved the way to a more active political strategy against Kazan after 20 years of indirect pressure. Eventually, in 1552, Kazan was added to Russian territory under the rule of Ivan the Terrible. Soon after the conquest of Kazan, Ivan the Terrible conquered Astrakhan in the same way he conquered Kazan by making use of domestic political struggles. Astrakhan
57
Kurumu, 1999, pp. 152-159. 25
was in the middle of the Volga Delta at the crossroads of East-West trade routes.
The conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan had not only turned the balance of power in the steppes to the advantage of the Russians but also played a crucial role in the development of Russian state and society. First of all, despite the existence of Crimea, Siberia and Nogai Khanates from the Chingizid descent, the Russians thought that they were militarily superior to their neighbors in the steppes. Second, through both conquests there was a huge increase in total population with the addition of non-Russian population. This situation made Russia multi-cultural, multi-religious and multi-ethnic, which led the Russian leadership to found the bases of an empire. This also necessitated the creation of new political strategies. Concerning the gaining of knowledge for the Russian bureaucracy, the conquests of the 16 th century increased the interest in the East. However, different than the Mongolian period, the rising interest in the post-Mongolian period was accompanied by the Russian perception that they were no longer under the rule of an Eastern power and they became more powerful. During the Mongolian period, while Moscow was administratively linked to the Mongolian Empire, there had not been any influx of eastern people into Moscow. However, after the conquests of Kazan and Astrakhan there was a significant eastern addition to the Russian population. With the addition of the Eastern people, it can be argued that the cultural interaction which used 26
to be at the administrative level had spread to the whole strata of the Russian society.
Before the conquests of Kazan and Astrakhan, Russia received information on Central Asia through the Nogais. 58 After the 15 th century several Nogai tribes had aligned with Russia against the other Chingizid descendents. During the conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan Nogai Ismail had played a crucial role and was awarded by Ivan the Terrible with the city Romanov along side of Volga. In 1561, Nogai Tohtar Kutimov, his brothers together with 70 other prominent Nogais pledged loyalty to Moscow and accepted the Russian dynastic hierarchy. 59 The relations were not only on political grounds but also on commercial grounds. While the Russians bought all their horses and furs from the Nogais, the Nogais bought from the Russians various products of sedentary societies particularly clothing. The Nogais bought these products from Russia on the north and from Bukhara on the south. Prince Ismail had written to his brother Yusuf: “ In order to conduct trade your men go to Bukhara and mine go to Moscow. Going to war with Moscow is enough to make me walk naked and not able to find thread to sew shrouds for our deaths. ” 60
58 Bartold, op. cit., in note 4, p. 368. 59 Yemelianova, op. cit., in note 25, p. 33. 60 Bartold, op. cit., in note 4, p. 368., “Tvoi lyudi khodyat torgovat v Bukharu, a moi khodyat k Moskve; a tolko mnye zavoyevatsya s Moskvoyu, to i samomu mnye khodit nagomu, i mertvym ne na chto budet savanov shit.” 27
This situation, the hesitation of north and the south on economic and indirectly political dependency, will be a major feature of the Central Asian steppes in the following centuries. 61
While controlling Kazan and Astrakhan, Russia started pursuing a more effective policy towards the Crimean Khanate in the second half of the 16 th century. The relations with Crimea and the Ottoman Empire had commenced in the 15 th century. In this period while Moscow was under the threat of the Golden Horde – Polish alliance, the Ottoman Empire paid special attention to the developments in Iran and Arabia. In 1475, Ottomans’ acquiring Kaffa, the most important trade port on the Black Sea, made the Crimean Khanate dependent on the Ottoman Empire. The Golden Horde’s intention to invade Moscow and Crimea brought the Ottoman Empire and Russia closer. During the Genoese period, Russia was buying eastern products such as spice and silk and Aegean region products such as wine via Kaffa. After the Ottoman Empire settled its power on the Crimean peninsula, the continuation of trade on both coasts of the Black Sea became important for the Russian State. Moscow also wanted to conduct free trade in the Ottoman lands making use of similar privileges given to Venetian and Genoese merchants. As part of the rapprochement process against a mutual enemy in 1492 Ivan III informed the Ottoman authorities in Azov and Kaffa that the Russian state wanted to establish good relations with the Sultan. 62
61 Ibid., p. 368. 62 Sultan means the sovereign of the Ottoman Empire. Yüklə 485,57 Kb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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