Astrakhan

The Astrakhan Khanate was a Tatar successor to the Golden Horde on the lower Volga, with its capital at Xacitarxan near the delta.

Mahmud bin Küchük established the khanate in the 1460s, and its merchants connected Moscow, Crimea and Central Asia. In 1554 Russian forces installed Dervish Ali as khan after Yamghurchi turned against Moscow. Ivan the Terrible conquered Astrakhan in 1556, and Russia built a new fortress downstream in 1558.