Bolghar

Bolghar stood on the bank of the Volga about 30 kilometres downstream from its junction with the Kama and some 130 kilometres from later Kazan. Founded in the tenth century, it served intermittently as the capital of Volga Bulgaria alongside Bilyar and Nur-Suvar. Russian incursions and dynastic disputes repeatedly forced the Bulgar rulers to move their court, but the city retained commercial and political importance because it controlled a great river corridor.

In autumn 1236, Mongol forces sacked Bolghar, killed or displaced its inhabitants, and conquered Volga Bulgaria. The city then lay within the Golden Horde's economic world, although Mongol policy prevented the former capital from recovering its old status. It was raided again during the late fourteenth-century troubles, and the rise of Kazan reduced its standing.

Even so, Bolghar remained a Muslim religious centre until the mid-sixteenth century, when Ivan IV conquered Kazan.