About the Shajara of Mamai 'Khan'

Research objectives: To study the handwritten shajara of Mamai “Khan”, the persons mentioned in it, and its chronological attribution. Research materials: A handwritten genealogy of the descendants of Mamai “Khan” deposited in the archive of orientalists of the Institute of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Academy of Sciences, civil cases of the Buinsky district court of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the archive of the Simbirsk district court, the materials of state audits of the population, official documents of the authorities and administration of the Simbirsk and Saratov provinces, and a legend about the founding of the village of Old Zelenaya, Khvalynsky district, Saratov province. Results and novelty of the research: Based on an analysis of a corpus of published and archival sources, M.A. Usmanov’s version of the “Mishar” origin of Mamai’s genealogy was confirmed. For the first time ever, the chronological framework of this genealogy was determined, and a description of its main representatives was given. The shajara is studied in the context of the history of the Tatar service class, which participated in the protection of the fortified lines and actively populated the “wild steppe” in the Volga and Trans-Kama regions. The article shows the process of transformation of the Tatar military class, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, from landlords and lashmans to state peasants. It is noted that many descendants of the clan of Mamai “Khan” in this period began to engage in theological and educational activities, being parish imams. The set of documents involved in the study of the genealogy contains valuable information about the migration of the Meshchera Tatars to the southeast of the Russian state in the eighteenth century.