Historical Legends of the Volga-Ural Muslims concerning Alexander the Great, the City of Yelabuga, and Bāchmān Khān

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Alexander the Great, the City of

Yelabuga, and Bāchmān Khān
Légendes historiques des musulmans de la région Volga-Ural concernant Alexandre le Grand, la ville de
Yelabuga, et Bāchmān Khān.

ALLEN J. FRANK
p. 89-107

Résumés
Français English
Depuis le début du XIXe siècle, les traditions écrites des musulmans de la région Volga-Oural
ont transmis un cycle de légendes historiques et généalogiques impliquant Iskandar Dhū 1-
Qarnayn (Alexandre le Grand) et la ville de Yelabuga, située sur la rivière Kama, dans le
Tatarstan, actuelle république de la Fédération de Russie. L'auteur tente ici d'identifier et de
retracer les variantes de ces légendes trouvées, pour la plupart, dans les collections locales de
manuscrits islamiques, et de déterminer le rōle qu'elles ont joué dans le développement d'une
identité commune chez les musulmans de la région Volga-Oural.
Le voyageur Abū Hamid al-Gharnātī (XIIe siècle) mentionne que les Bulgares de la Volga
considèrent qu'ils descendent d'Alexandre. Ces légendes semblent tirer leurs origines
complexes des traditions de certains nomades musulmans de la steppe et des Bulgares de la
Volga, d'avant les Mongols. Certaines généalogies, en particulier celle des Tatars Chepets du
nord de l'Oudmurtie, font remonter leurs origines ā un certain Sōqrāt Hakim (Socrate), que

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l'on dit ētre venu jusqu'en territoire Noghay ; ces traditions semblent, dans une certaine
mesure, s'ētre mēlées.
CATALOGUE
Énigmatiques également sont les légendes concernant la ville de Yelabuga, dont il est dit Tout
qu'elle fut fondée par Alexandre et son compagnon Sōqrāt Hakim. Yelabuga est décrite ā la
ACCUEIL tombes
fois, comme le lieu sacré de nombreuses DESde557 OPENEDITION
saints, et comme SEARCH
un centre de mécréants, OpenEdition
dirigés par des souverains infidèles, en particulier, un certain Bāchmān Khān qui semble ētre
lié ā un personnage historique du mēme nom, mentionné dans les traditions tatares comme
REVUES
étant le fils de Sōqrāt Hakim.

Since the beginning of the 19th century the written traditions of the Volga-Ural Muslims have
recorded a cycle of historic and genealogical legends involving Iskandar Dhū 1-Qarnayn
(Alexander the Great) and the city of Yelabuga, located on the Kama River, today within the
Russian Federation's Republic of Tatarstan. This paper will attempt to identify and trace the
variants of these legends, to a large degree found in the region's Islamic manuscript
collections, and to determine what role they played in the development of a communal identity
among Volga-Ural Muslims.The traveler Abū Hamid al-Ghamāti (12th century) mentions that
the Volga Bulgarians considered themselves descended from Alexander. These legends appear
to have their complex origins in the traditions of certain Muslim steppe nomads and pre-
Mongol Volga Bulgarians. A number of genealogies, especially those of the Chepets Tatars in
northern Udmurtia, trace their origins to one Sōqrāt Hakim (Socrates), who reportedly came
to the Noghay lands ; and to a degree these traditions appear to have become intertwined.
Enigmatic too are the legends concerning the city of Yelabuga, which is said to have been
founded by Alexander and his companion, Sōqrāt Hakim. Yelabuga is depicted both as the
sacred location of numerous Muslim saints' tombs, and as a center of unbelief, ruled by infidel
rulers - particularly, a certain Bāchmān Khān who appears to be connected with a historical
figure of the same name and who is mentioned in Tatar tradition as the son of Sōqrāt Hakim.

Notes de la rédaction
Avertissement :
Ce document est issu d'une numérisation par OCR (reconnaissance optique de caractères), il
peut contenir des erreurs.

Texte intégral
1 The Muslims of the Volga-Ural region, today known as Tatars and Bashkirs, have
retained a rich body of historical legends that have yet to be studied systematically.
These historical legends circulated both in oral and written form, and were an
important element in maintaining communal cohesion at all levels of Volga-Ural
Muslim society. The Russian conquest of the Volga-Ural region, that began in 1552 with
the conquest of the Kazan khanate and ended in the 1730’s with the final subjugation of
the Bashkirs, affected the development of local Islamic historiography, where in lieu of
written sources, oral-circulating historical legends were recorded and included into
historical works. As a result, the most important Islamic historical works produced in
the Volga-Ural region in the 17th century, the Jāmi' al-Tawārikh by Qādir 'Ali Bēk
Jālāyiri, composed in Kasimov in 1602, and the Daftar-i Chingiz Nāma by an
anonymous author, composed at the end of the 17th century, consist essentially of
historical legends of the steppe nomads, primarily of the Bashkirs.
2 Of particular interest are the cycle of legends concerning Alexander the Great
(Iskandar Dhū 1-Qarnayn), along with his companion Socrates, and their connections
with local cities and landmarks, as well as with other historical figures. This cycle of
legends has remained unexamined as a whole, yet they offer an especially useful
example of the interplay in the Volga-Ural region between Islamic historiography and
oral historical legends. Such legends were already recorded in the 12th century by
Muslim travelers, but appear to have reemerged in « Bulgharist » shrine-centered
historiography that developed at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, apparently in

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conjunction with the creation by Catherine II in 1788 of the Orenburg Muslim Spiritual
Assembly. Similarly, other legends concerning Alexander the Great and Socrates have
also been preserved in Tatar genealogies (shäjärälär).
3 In addition to these legends, there are also other cycles of legends concerning the city
of Yelabuga, today a small district center in the republic of Tatarstan, but formerly a
fortified Bulghar frontier outpost. Some such cycles concern Bāchmān Khān, a figure
apparently derived from a 13th century leader of the Qipchaqs. All three of these cycles
are intertwined in both the « Bulgharist » historiography of the 19th century, as well as
in the oral traditions of the Volga-Ural Muslims.

Legends concerning Alexander the

Great and Socrates

Pre-Mongol traditions
4 Legends depicting Alexander the Great as the founder of local cities and the ancestor
of local figures in the Volga-Ural region began to circulate among the Volga Bulghars
well before the Mongol conquest of the region in the first half of the 13th century. The
conversion of the Volga Bulghars to Islam is commonly dated to the first decades of the
10th century, and by the middle of the 12th century, it is apparent that Islamic
historical figures and Islamic forms of communal validation had become important
factors for Bulghar communal and political cohesion. The Andalusian traveler
AbūHamid al-Gharnāti who visited Bulghar in the 1150s, noted that Iskandar Dhū 1-
Qarnayn passed through « Bulghar », that is, the Volga-Kama region, on his way to
build the iron walls that contained Yā'jūj and Mā'jūj within the « land of darkness »
(Bol'shakov, 1971, p. 53) while Najib al-Hamadāni reports that the rulers of Bulghar
claimed descent from Iskandar Dhū 1-Qarnayn (Davletshin, 1991, p. 63).
5 Al-Gharnāti and al-Hamadāni are not our only source for such legends among the
medieval Bulghars. 'Alā' al-Din b. al-Nu'mān al-Khwārazmi, who visited Bulghar in the
13th century, related a Bulghar legend about how Iskandar had built a large fortified
tower at the edge of the inhabited earth, as part of the wall to defend against Yā'jūj and
Mā'jüj (Izmailov, 1996, p. 100). Medieval Bulghar traditions concerning Iskandar are
even transmitted by Russian historical chronicles. For example, the Tver' chronicle tells
us mat the city of Oshel', presumably on the banks of the Kama River, was founded by
Alexander the Great (Fakhrutdinov, 1986, p. 90). The connection of Bulghar with
Iskandar Dhü 1-Qarnayn was not limited to historical works, but also became a
common association in pre-Mongol Persian poetic literature, such as in the Sikandar
Nāma-yi Bārā, where we are likewise told that the rulers of Bulghar are descended from
Iskandar Dhu 1-Qarnayn, who founded that city on his way to the diyār-i zulmat
(Clarke, 1881, p. 789-790).

« Bulgharist » traditions
6 How these legends concerning Iskandar fared and evolved in the period when the
Volga-Ural region was ruled by Chingisids, including Muslim Chingisids, is unclear but
probably Chingisid dynasts were more likely to rely on their Chingisid credentials than

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on their connections with Qur'anic prophets. There is, in fact, no evidence that the
Chingisid rulers of the Golden Horde and the Kazan khanate used Qur'anic figures to
buttress their personal charisma. The annexation of the Volga-Ural region by Moscow
in 1552 eliminated Muslim dynasts from the Volga-Kama region, with the exception of
the Chingisid puppet khanate of Kasimov. It was only at the turn of the 18th and 19th
centuries that we begin to see historical legends concerning Iskandar Dhūü 1-Qarnayn
reemerge among Volga-Kama Muslims, at least in written form, and it was not until the
19th century that such legends were recorded from local Muslim oral tradition. In one
of his earliest historical works, entitled Ghilālat al-Zamān and written in 1877 the
Tatar theologian, Shihāb al-Dīn Marjānī wrote that according to Arabic and other
Muslim writings, as well as according to popular legends, the city of Bulghar was
founded by Alexander the Great. He also cites the Qāmūs, presumably by Fīrūzābādi, in
addition to a legend concerning IskandarDhū l-Qarnayn in an unspecified work of 'Abd
al-Rahim b. 'Uthmān al-Ūtuz Īmāni, a prominent Volga-Ural 'ālim.1In this legend,
when Iskandar was headed to fight in the east, he stopped at a cave and buried some
supplies. On his return journey he stopped at this place and founded a city, calling it
bunighār, « the bottom of the cave ». With time this word came to be pronounced as
bulghār (Marjānī, 1884, p. 40-41,51).2
7 Historical legends, in some cases displaying close parallels with the medieval Bulghar
legends, emerged at the turn of the eighteenth and 19th century in locally produced
Turkic historiography. The emergence of this body of historiography appears to be
connected to the creation of the Orenburg Spiritual Assembly by Catherine the Great in
1788. The purpose evident in the works appears to have been to promote a communal
identity among Volga-Ural Muslims centered on the city of Bulghar, the site of the
conversion of the Bulghars to Islam (Frank, 1996b, p. 266-268 ; 1998, p. 213-217). The
most popular historical works in this genre were the Tawārikh-i Bulghāriyya,
attributed to a certain Husām al-Dīn b. Sharaf al-Din al-Bulghāri and the Tārikh
Nāma-yi Bulghār by Tāj al-Dīn Yālchighul ōghli. Both of these works contained
variants on a conversion narrative that bears numerous parallels with a Bulghar
conversion narrative recorded by al-Gharnāti as well as with extensive catalogs of
Muslim saints' tombs. In addition, both works include legends about Iskandar Dhū 1-
Qarnayn, that similarly paralleled the accounts of al-Gharnāti and al-Khwārazmī.
8 The Tārikh Nāma-yi Bulghār was written in 1805 by Tāj al-Dīn Yālchīghul ōghli, a
Bashkir 'ālim and Sufi from the Ayle tribe. The work exists in numerous manuscript
copies and versions. But it is clear that it was written as the author's genealogy,
beginning from the Prophet Adam, and including within it the « ancestors » of various
Turkic peoples as well as the khans of Bulghar. There are numerous digressions dealing
with the founding of the Bulghar conversion narrative, and legends concerning
Iskandar Dhū 1-Qarnayn and Socrates. According to the account, Socrates was born a
Christian in Samarqand and went to Greece to serve Iskandar Dhū 1-Qarnayn
(Iskandar Rūmi). Together, they went to the Land of Darkness (diyār-i zulmat) to seek
the Fountain of Youth (āb-i hayāt). In the northern lands they built a city and called it
Bulghar ; Yālchīghul ōghli mentions that this word in the Greek language means
« pleasant » and « having trees and water ». Furthermore, the river (i.e. the Volga) also
took this name. While in Bulghar, Socrates married a local girl, and he and Iskandar
spent nine months in Bulghar. Then, they went to the Land of Darkness, and Socrates
died there. As for the girl, she bore a son named Ghūftār who became king in Bulghar,
and from whom the Bulghar khans are descended (Yālchigul ōghliī, T 587, 5ab ;
Galiautdinov, 1990, fol. 149-150).
9 In the Tawārikh-i Bulghāriyya, Iskandar Dhū 1-Qarnayn appears both as the

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founder of Bulghar and as the founder of the city of Ālābūghā, i.e. Yelabuga (the cycle of
legends concerning this city will be discussed in detail below). The author also tells us
that the Greek name for the city is Sōdōm which, we are told, corresponds to the Greek
word for « perch fish », (Ālābūghāa is also the Tatar name for this sort of fish) (al-
Bulghāri, fol. 20b).
10 Legends about Alexander the Great, then, appear to have been important symbols of
Islamic genealogical and political validation among the medieval Volga Bulghars, but
they lost at least a degree of significance with the advent of Chingisid dynasties and
Chingisid charisma. With the emergence of the Orenburg Spiritual Assembly in the late
18th century, the Volga-Ural 'ulamā' began promoting the idea of a « Bulghar »
regional identity among Volga-Ural Muslims. It is in this « Bulgharist » historiography
where we see legends about Alexander the Great and Socrates reemerge (Frank, 1996b).
It is unclear whether these legends had remained current in Volga-Ural Muslim oral
tradition from the period of the Mongol conquest to the end of the 18th century, or
whether they reentered « Bulghar » tradition and derived their origin from Persian
Alexander romances or other Islamic literary sources.

Legends concerning Yelabuga

Historical background
11 The town of Yelabuga, located on the right bank of the Kama River, at the confluence
with its tributary, the Toima, is featured in a cycle of, at times, contradictory Muslim
legends. These legends identify the town, on the one hand, as a sacred place founded by
Alexander and containing a number of Muslim saints' tombs, and, on the other hand,
as a locus of unbelief, paganism and sedition.
12 The earliest mention of Yelabuga dates from the 17th century, when it is already
described as a Russian town, although the site had been inhabited by numerous
prehistoric archeological cultures when it became a Bulghar settlement at some point
before the Mongol conquest. It is likely that Yelabuga was the Bulghars' main
northeastern defensive outpost, since a massive stone tower dominates the site. In fact,
this tower is the only large scale surviving example of pre-Mongol Bulghar architecture.
It was probably this tower to which 'Alā' al-Din al-Khwārazmi referred when he
described a tower in the form of a lighthouse located on the frontier of the Bulghar
lands during a visit to Volga Bulgharia in the 14th century (Izmailov, 1996, p. 100).
Since the city of Yelabuga was the site of such impressive fortifications, it is possible
that later Muslim observers could have identified the great tower there with the great
walls that Iskandar Dhū 1-Qarnayn is said in the Qur'ān to have built to retain the
hordes of Yā'jūj and Mā'jūj in the land of darkness. As seen, some later « Bulgharist »
authors related the legend identifying Iskandar as the founder of Yelabuga.

Sacred history of Yelabuga

13 Inasmuch as the « Bulgharist » historical tradition that emerged in the 18th century
among Volga-Ural Muslims presented a « sacred » history of the region centered
around the city of Bulghar, it is perhaps significant that Yelabuga was the only other
city, besides Bulghar itself, to be attributed both a sacred origin and a sacred character

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as the site of Muslim shrines. As we have mentioned above, in the Tawārikh-i

Bulghāriyya we are told how Yelabuga, also known as Sōdōm, was founded by
Iskandar. The passage discussing the founding of Yelabuga is as follows :

« On the north side of the Kama River [Āq Īdel]is Sōdōm, that is, Ālābūghā. In
the Greek tongue, Sōdōmmeans « perch fish » [i.e. ālābūghā bālighī in Tatar].
That Sōdōm was a big city. Iskandar Dhū 1-Qarnayn reportedly built it as well
as Bulghar. However, Hadrat Mir Timūr destroyed them. » (al-Bulghāri, fol.
20b).

14 As seen above, Yālchigul ōghli's Tārikh Nāma-yi Bulghār identifies Iskandar as the
founder of Bulghar, but he mentions another figure, from his genealogy, as the founder
of Yelabuga. This account is as follows :

« Our ancestor is his younger son [i.e. of Qurnāqi], Daymas. In the northern
region he built a city called Sōdōm. However, the place where Qurnāqi is buried
is not known, and Daymas' place of burial is not known either. Nowadays, they
call this Sōdōm Ālābūghā, it is a rather small city. » (Yālchigul ōghli, T 587, fol.
5).

15 The Tawārikh-i Bulghāriyya continues this sacred history of Yelabuga by describing

the tābi'in, i.e. the followers of the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad who,
according to the narrative, effected the conversion of the Bulghars to Islam. These
include Āqbāsh Khwājā, described as a « the greatest tābi'īn'akbar tābi'in) as well as
several other figures, namely Kirsān Emamat ōghli, Alimghul Mullāghul ōghli, Āydār
Āyit ōghli and Yūldāsh Maskāw ōghli (al-Bulghāri, fol. 20b-21a).
16 In a shrine catalogue appended to two copies of the Tārikh Nāma-yi Bulghār, there
is also a discussion of Yelabuga that differs in several ways from the account in the
Tawārikh-i Bulghāriyya. The account in these manuscripts is as follows :

« And in Sōdōm [one version has Salām] from among the tābi'in are Shilān
Hājji, Yūchilān, Äbāq Nōghāyî, Chāqlān, Māchkārā and Äjkarā ; all of these
were tābi'in. » (Yālchigul ōghli, T 1388, fol. 14b ; T 587, fol. 13a).

17 The meaning which these names may have had for Muslim readers of these
manuscripts is not immediately evident, although the name Māchkārā corresponds to
an important Muslim village located near Yelabuga. Moreover, the name Ābāq Nōghāyi
is similar to Ibāq, the 15th century Chingisid ruler of the Tiumen khanate in western
Siberia, who is known in Russian sources as Ivak, tsar nagaiskii. It is not known,
however, if the site of the old Bulghar tower at Yelabuga was a Muslim shrine ; the site
is entioned by a 19th century Russian observer to have been a Muslim shrine and it
continues to be remembered as such among local Muslims. In fact, the local Yelabuga
Muslims still call the archeological ruins Aq Maschet [the White Mosque] and Izgelär
Maschete [the Saints' Mosque] (Äminev, 1996, p. 5).

Yelabuga as a center of unbelief

18 One group of legends, therefore, depicts Yelabuga/Sōdōm as having been founded by
Iskandar Dhū 1-Qarnayn and as a Muslim shrine and the resting place of a number of
Muslim saints. However, another quite different cycle of legends depicted the city as
the abode of demons, and as a center of unbelief.
19 The equation of Yelabuga with demons first appears, naturally enough, in a Russian
narrative from the late 16th century, Kazanskaia istoriia, which is a history of the

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Kazan khanat and its conquest by Ivan IV. The author remains anonymous, but some
scholars believe that he was an eye-witness of many of the events and places he
described. He may have been a captive of the Muslims in Kazan for some time before
the Russian conquest. In any case, within his history is the earliest mention we have in
a Russian source of the Bulghar tower in Yelabuga and, although it does not mention
the site by name, there can be little doubt that the place under discussion is this tower.
He relates that there was a small city (gradets) on the banks of the Kama that the
Russians called besovskoe gradishche (devil's fort). The author tells us that it was a
shrine of the old Bulghars (starykh bolgar molbishche zhertvennoe) which was visited
in his time by Muslims (varvary, littéralement : Barbares) and Maris (cheremisa) who
would offer sacrifices there (Moiseeva, 1954, p. 91). The account from the Kazanskaia
istoriia reflects some of what we know from later Muslim legends, namely that this was
a shrine and that Muslims would come and offer sacrifices there. In discussing this
passage, V. Kudriavtsev, a 19th century Russian author on the popular traditions of the
Kama Valley, has suggested that the site must have been a « pagan » shrine, since he
interprets the « starye bolgary » as a reference to un-Islamized Bulghars. In addition,
it was visited by « Cheremis », that is, local non-Islamic Finno-Ugrians (Kudriavtsev,
1897-98, p. 76-77). However, this cannot be accepted as conclusive, since we know from
19th century sources that it was not uncommon for local Finno-Ugrians to make
offerings at Muslim saints' tombs (Äminev, 1996, p. 5). In any case, while the
identification by 16th century Russians of a Muslim shrine with demons should not be
surprising, it is not clear whether this tradition developed among Christians or whether
it was inherited from local inhabitants either in part or in whole.

The Khans of Yelabuga and Tīmūr

20 Yelabuga is again mentioned in the Tawārikh-i Bulghāriyya in the khatima, in the
section of the work describing Amir Tīmūr's campaigns, including his destruction of
Bulghar. In this account we are told :

« Hadrat Mir Tîmūr went from Kazan to Sōdōm, that is, to the city of Ālābūghā.
At that time, the khan of Sōdōm was īlbāqti Urāzbāqti khān ōghli. He was a
khan who knew no religion or piety [hich bir din u diyānat bilmāgān]. He
[Tīmūr] summoned [da 'wat] him to the faith, but they did not accept it. That
Sōdōm was a smallish city. He reduced it to nothing. He ordered the city and
the citadel destroyed and thrown into the [Kama] river. He made prisoners of
them and scattered the rest in all directions. » (al-Bulghāri, fol. 38ab).

21 Yet, we are told that after destroying the city, Tīmūr then performs pilgrimages to the
tombs of the tābi'in buried in Yelabuga.

Yelabuga during the time the khans of Kazan

22 An even more elaborate narrative concerning the khans of Yelabuga, their lack of
piety and their perfidiousness is found in a history and commentary on the Tawārikh-i
Bulghāriyya. This work also bears the title Tawārikh-i Bulghāriyya ; it was written by
Husayn Amirkhān ōghli (Amirkhanov, 1883), the imam of Kazan's Iske Tash Mosque,
and was published posthumously by his son in 1883.3 The work is essentially critical of
the older Tawārikh-i Bulghāriyya and its author but, at the same time, Amirkhanov
subscribes to the validity of Bulghar identity for the Muslims of the Volga-Ural region.

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In doing so, he includes a semi-legendary history of the khans of Kazan based on a

manuscript that he claims was compiled by Kazani scholars resident in Daghestan. The
section on Yelabuga is included in a discussion of two khans of Kazan, Al-Muhammad
(i.e. Ulugh Muhammad, d. 1438) and Mamat Girāy. Amirkhanov's account is as
follows :

« When this 'Ālim Bēk went to Bulghar they put his son, al-Muhammad Bēk in
his place. Al-Muhammad Bēk ruled in Īskī Kazan for ten years, and moved from
there ; he founded Yāngi Qazān and lived there nine years. He ruled a total of
twenty years, and [died] at the [age] of 64. In Yelabuga, Sūgin Bēk, the son of
Īlbāqti was khan. Since [Sūgin] was without religion and cruel, and since he was
sinful and iniquitous, mixing and spending time with infidels, al-Muhammad
Bēk sent him a letter to a large degree exhorting him to be strong toward Islam.
Sūgin Bēk was quite disrespectful and, because he was insulted, and with the
need to strengthen religion we went [to Yelabuga], seized Sūgin Bēk, sent him
to Kazan, and made Yelabuga strong in Islam. He died in Yelabuga and they
buried him on a hill that is not far from the city. When al-Muhammad had gone
to Yelabuga they came and put [in his place] Mamat Girāy, the son of his
brother 'Ālim Bēk. Mamat Girāy Bēk was lust filled and frequented many
women. Since his own wife was the daughter of îlbāqti and the sister of Sūgin
Bēk he conspired with Sūgin Bēk and after exchanging letters, they came to an
agreement that three notables of Kazan, along with Sūgin Bëk would give Kazan
over to the Russians. When Mamat Girāy went hunting, they seized him and
made Āltūn Bëk's son Khalil Bēk khan in Kazan. » (Amirkhanov, 1883, p. 57-
58).

23 In Amirkhanov's account, we see some of the characteristics attributed to Yelabuga

more sharply defined than in previous ones ; and we see that his account is presented
as a continuation of the account in the original Tawārikh-i Bulghāriyya. Specifically,
the father of Sūgin Bëk, īlbāqti Khān, is presumably the îlbāqti Orāzbāqti Khān ōghli
who defied Tīmūr. Furthermore, not only in both accounts is Yelabuga described as
being deficient in Islam, but in Amirkhanov's account we even see Sūgin Bëk conspiring
with the khan of Kazan, Mamat Girāy, to hand over Kazan to the Russians. The
association of Yelabuga with unbelief was not limited to « Bulgharist » literary works,
but also seems to have circulated orally among Muslims in and around Yelabuga itself,
the old Bulghar fortifications being known as Jennār shāhare (the city of Jinns) and
Shay tan Qalasī (the Devil's fortress) (Āminev, 1996, p. 5).
24 How this association became established in the minds of Muslims and coexisted with
the « sacred » history of Yelabuga described above is unclear, but there are two likely
possibilities. Historically the Yelabuga region was a very mixed area both ethnically and
in terms of religious affiliation. Not only were there Turkic Muslims and Russians in
the area, but also Krāshen Tatars or starokriashchennye tatary as they were called in
Russian, that is, Tatars who had been converted to Christianity in the 16th and 17th
centuries as well as « unbaptized » Udmurts. Although there is insufficient evidence to
determine whether or not the Muslim legends were derived or borrowed from the
legends of non-Muslims, the overall religious and ethnic environment of the Yelabuga
region may have had a broader influence on Muslim oral traditions, both locally and in
terms of the Volga-Ural region as a whole.
25 Among Muslims, the identification of Yelabuga with unbelief may be connected to
the very presence of the Krāshen Tatars in the region. Krāshen communities were, and
are, located throughout the Volga-Ural region, but the largest concentrations are
located on the right bank of the Kama River, especially in the Mamadysh and Yelabuga
regions. The ancestors of these Krashens were converted to Christianity soon after the
Russian conquest of the region in the middle of the 16th century. In oral traditions, they

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attribute their conversion to tsar Ivan IV. Kräshens have been divided into a number of
ethnographic groups, but most ethnographers distinguish the Yelabuga Kräshens as a
distinct sub-grouping within the Krashen community as a whole (Mukhametshin, 1977,
p. 22 ; Iskhakov, 1993, p. 133-134). In their own oral traditions, Krāshens claim to be
the region's original inhabitants and, while they are ethnically Turkic, it is evident that
the ancestors of many Yelabuga Krāshens were assimilated Udmurts. In his study of
oral traditions of the Yelabuga region, V. Kudnavtsev has argued that the Yelabuga
Krāshens are descended from the « starye holgary » mentioned in the 16th century
Kazanskaia Istoriia. He interprets these « old Bulghars » to have been Bulghars who
never converted to Islam and who maintained a shrine at Chertovo Gorodishche (the
Devil's City) (Kudriavtsev, 1897-98, p. 76-77). However, Kudriavtsev fails to take into
account that, for ideological reasons, Russian authors of the 16th century did not
always distinguish between Islam and « paganism ». And in any case, as seen before,
since the late 18th century, the Chertovo Gorodishche at Yelabuga was venerated by
local Muslims as the resting place of Muslim saints. Moreover, in the few Russian
written accounts and oral Krāshen traditions concerning their conversion to
Christianity, we are told that the ancestors of these Krāshens had been Muslims.
Unfortunately the sources (available to me) for the Yelabuga Krāshens are silent on this
question, but it is likely that at least some of their ancestors, especially their Turkic
ancestors, had been Muslims. The Muslim Tatar traditions concerning unbelief in
Yelabuga may be an echo of the mass apostasty in the Yelabuga region of Muslims to
Christianity in the 16fh century.
26 Besides Christian communities, such as the Krāshens and Russians, there also
existed Udmurt communities in the Yelabuga area that remained « unbaptized » or
« pagan » (iazycheskii) as the Russian sources refer to them. The Yelabuga Udmurts
were, and are, strongly influenced by local Muslims and, even today, many if not most
Udmurts in this area speak Tatar, as well as Russian and their native language, showing
that contacts between local Muslims and Udmurts were extensive. These contacts were
so extensive that many Udmurt communities were Islamized, and eventually became
culturally and linguistically assimilated by their Turkic Muslim neighbors.4 The
conversion of Finno-Ugrian ancestors to Islam is readily noted in many Tatar and
Bashkir genealogies and village histories, and in the Yelabuga region, this is even
integrated into a version of the conversion narrative featured in the Tawārīkh-i
Bulghāriyya. This manuscript does not seem to have come down to us, but its contents
are summarized in an article by the Russian archeologist Nevostruev. In this account
we can see that, in its outlines, this conversion narrative is identical with that of the
Tawārikh-i Bulghāriyya, except that Āydār Khan is not a Bulghar, but a Cheremis,
andthat the missionaries are not Companions of the Prophet Muhammad but envoys of
the Ottoman sultan Mehmet the Conqueror (Nevostruev, 1871, p. 578-579).
27 The local Russian communities also circulated a number of myths concerning
Yelabuga and the Chertovo Gorodishche in which the site of the Bulghar tower was
associated with malevolent spirits. As we have seen, the tower was already known to
Russians in the 16th century, who referred to it as besovskoe gradishche. Today, it is
still known as chertovo gorodishche. During the second half of the 19th century, a
number of legends were recorded among the Yelabuga Russians in which the building
of the tower was attributed to demons. One such legend was recorded by V. F.
Kudriavtsev, published by him in 1877, and republished twenty years later in his study
of the oral traditions of the Kama Valley. In this legend, we are told that the hill at the
site of the tower was originally inhabited by a pious hermit (pustynnik). His holy way of
life was an irritant to demons (besy) in the area. The demons would torment the hermit

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day and night, trying to frighten him and trying to break his concentration during his
prayers. This struggle, the story continues, began to bear its weight upon the hermit
who resolved to use the demons' strength to glorify the name of God. He then
challenged the demons to show their power by building a large stone church in one
night. The demons accepted the challenge. During the night, the demons brought rocks
from the center of the hill and quickly built the foundations, the walls and the roof. In
the middle of the night, just as they were about to place a large metal cross on the roof,
a rooster crowed. At the sound of the crow, the demons became frightened and
disappeared back into the earth (Kudriavtsev, 1897-98 p. 71-72).
28 In this legend, we can clearly see the Russian interpretation of these ruins where the
ruined tower is described as having been a church built by demons who were tricked by
a hermit into building it. As shown, since the 16th century, the site was consistently
identified by Russians as being inhabited or built by demons. It is quite possible that
local Muslims, who still call the site Jennār shāhāre and Shaytan Qalasī, may have
taken these names from the Russian legends. Similarly, the identification of the site
with unbelief and wickedness, evident in the « Bulgharist » historiography of the early
19th century in which Yelabuga is actually referred to as Sōdōm, may also have been
taken from legends circulating among Christians, both Russian and non-Russian.
29 In any case, during the 19th century, it is evident that among Muslims, two layers of
traditions concerning Yelabuga coexisted. One layer described Yelabuga as a city built
by Alexander the Great and as the site of numerous Muslim saints' tombs ; it is clear
from Russian sources that, during the period of the Kazan Khanate, the site was already
an important Muslim shrine. The second layer of legends, which is on the whole better
documented than the first, associates Yelabuga with unbelief, wickedness and
malevolent spirits. How such associations came to coexist with the first layer is unclear,
but the presence of large communities of Krashens whose ancestors were apostates
from Islam, as well as the presence of « unbaptized » Udmurts, and the existence of
Russian legends associating the site with demons are all possible explanations. In any
case, since both layers of legends revolve around the massive ruins of the Bulghar
fortifications, it is clear that the presence of such an impressive landmark demanded
explanations that would fit the historical self-perceptions of the local communities,
both Muslim and Russian.

Legends coecermimg Bāchmān Khām

30 Legends concerning Iskandar Dhu 1-Qarnayn and Socrates did not only enter the
Volga-Ural region through the medium of the medieval Volga Bulgharians, but also
through the 19th century Muslim historians who sought to resurrect their legacy. Such
legends also came to the Volga-Ural region through the medium of the steppe nomads,
specifically the Noghays, whose own historical legends, as Devin DeWeese has recently
shown, featured their ruler's Bakrid descent line both to bolster the Islamic charisma
rulers and challenge the Chingisid charisma of their political opponents (DeWeese,
1994, p. 420-423). One cycle of legends of Noghay origin concerns a figure named
Bachman Khān, who is identified as a descendant of Iskandar Dhū 1-Qarnayn or, more
commonly, of Socrates and the ancestor of a number of Muslim communities in what is
today northern Udmurtia. Not only were these Noghay legends concerning Bachman
Khān widely circulated in the Volga-Ural region, but they became intertwined with the
legends concerning Yelabuga discussed above.
31 As with Iskandar Dhū 1-Qarnayn and Socrates, Bachman Khān was a historical figure

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who is discussed in Rashid al-Din's 13th century history of the Mongols. According to
Rashid al-Din's account, Bāchmān Khān was a Qipchaq ruler who carried out a
determined resistance against the Mongol conquerors in the 1230s, and who died
fighting the Mongols along the lower reaches of the Volga River. Bāchmān remained in
the historical memory of the Qipchaqs, and his heroism is the subject of oral traditions
among the Bashkirs of the Qipchaq tribe.5Bāchmān Khān also appears in the Turkic
romantic epic poem, Tiilak and Susilu, as the father of the heroine Susilu.6
32 Bāchmān Khān is also mentioned in the 17th century Turkic historical work, Daftar-i
Chingiz Nāma (largely based on oral traditions of the steppe nomads), in a chapter
listing numerous « khans » of western Inner Asia and their homelands (yūrt). In this
section, we are told that the Bāchmān Khān's yūrt was located at Āq Tūba, (Edinburg
University MS Turk. 7a, 65b-66a).
33 The Noghay tradition concerning Bāchmān Khān was first recorded in the first half of
the 18th century by P. I. Rychkov, who heard it from a Bashkir elder named Kadrias
Mulakaev. In this account we are told that Bāchmān (here rendered as Basman) was a
Noghay khan from the Crimea who migrated with 17,000 tents to the mouth of the
Saqmar River, a tributary of the Ural River. He called this place Āq Tuba, which was
near the site of the city of Orenburg. He was later killed by one of his biys, named
Altakar', who lived along the Emba River, and was buried at Āq Tuba (Äkhmätjänov,
1995, p. 18-20).7
34 This Noghay tradition did not only circulate among Bashkirs, but also among Tatars,
especially among the so-called Chepets Tatars, who live along the Chepets River, a
tributary of the Viatka River, in what is today northern Udmurtia. In the 19th century,
this was one of the most northern settlements of the Muslim world. These groups wrote
a number of genealogies that include the ancestor Qara Bēk who brought them north to
the Chepets valley, as well as Qara Bēk's ancestors which include Bāchmān Khān,
Socrates or Alexander the Great. One of these genealogies is located in the St.
Petersburg Branch of the Oriental Institute of the Russian Academy of Science, and was
published in Cyrillic transcription in 1995 by Marsel' Äkhmätjänov. In this account we
are told that Soqrat Khākim (according to the Cyrillic transcription) came together with
Alexander the Great (Iskandar Shah) to find the fountain of youth (mangu suwi). From
Socrates the genealogy is as follows : Soqrat Khākim > Ghīyffat Soltan > Gabdalaziz >
Alwar > Birde > Ghabdarakhman > Bajtan Soltan > Balīm. Bajtan Soltan (i.e.
Bāchmān), we are told, came from the province of Rum (Rum wilayātennan kilep) and
settled on the Ural (Yayi'q) River at the mouth of the Sakmar River. Later, Qara Bëk,
one of Bajtan's descendants, submitted to Ivan I of Moscow and was granted the lands
along the Chepets River (Äkhmätjänov, 1995, p. 12).8
35 Another version of the genealogy of Qara Bēk, dating to 1851 is found in a larger
genealogy that was discovered by Sāyet Vakhidi. This genealogy begins from the
Prophet Nūh and traces the descent of numerous Islamic dynasts of Inner Asian origin,
including the Chingisids and the Seljuks. We are told that Pāchmān (i.e. Bāchmān)
Khān is descended from Seljukid rulers from the Erzerum region of Anatolia. Pāchmān
Khān, the account continues, was a descendant of Iskandar Dhū 1-Qarnayn, and he left
Erzerum and settled at the mouth of the Sakmar River where he built a city. Pāchmān's
son was Balim Soltan, who went to the īq river where he settled ; Qara Bēk kenāz is
descended from Balīm (Äkhmätjänov, 1995, p. 20-22).
36 These geneologies did not only circulate among the Chepets Tatars, but also among
groups who live in what is today Tatarstan. One variant of this genealogy was found in
the village of Tūbān On (Nizhniaia Ura), in Arsk kanton. According to Äkhmätjänov, in
the 17th century, some murzas from the Chepets region received land grants in this

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area. In this account, we are told that Senqorat came from Turkey (Torek) and settled
in Russia (urīs yortīnda watan tortip qalghan). His son was Pāchmān Soltān (i.e.
Bāchmān), and Pāchmān's son was Balīm Bēk (Äkhmätjänov, 1995, p. 16-18). Thus,
while this genealogy appears to be a simplified version of the latter version, it
nonetheless quite clearly establishes the community as being descended from Bāchmān
Khān and Socrates.
37 An even more simplified version of this genealogy only mentions that Bāchmān was
located in the village of Ismaghiyl, near the city of Tuimazy, located in modern day
Bashkortostan. In all likelihood this version is not derived from the versions recorded
among the Chepet Tatars, but may have originated among the Bashkir legends first
recorded by Rychkov. This genealogy is as follows : Khoja Seyyid > Qutlīyar > Ilmāmat
> Dawatyär > Ishmāmāt > Qodash > Bāchmān > Mūsā (Äkhmätjänov, 1995, p. 18).
38 In both an article relating to this group of genealogies and a monograph devoted to
Tatar genealogies, in general, Marsel' Äkhmätjänov has argued for a Noghay origin for
this genealogy ; the appearance of Anatolian ancestors descended from figures such as
Iskandar Dhū 1-Qarnayn and Socrates is fully in keeping with the consciously Islamic
orientation for Noghay oral traditions and historical legends as discussed by Devin
DeWeese (Äkhmätjänov, 1992 and 1995).
39 Bāchmān Khān, however, also appears in a rather confused account in two
manuscript versions of Tāj al-Din Yālchighul oghli's Tārikh Nāma-yi Bulghār, where
Bāchmān Khān is identified both as the founder of Yelabuga, and as an opponent to
Islamization in his city Āq Tuba (Frank, 1996a, p. 278-282). This account begins by
connecting Bāchmān Khān with Āydār Khān, the Bulghar ruler featured in the
Tawārikh-i Bulghāriyya and Tārikh Nāma-yi Bulghār, who accepts Islam at the hands
of the Companions (sahābā) of the Prophet Muhammad. This account is as follows :

« In the ninth year of the hijra, Āydār Khān became a Muslim at the hands of
the Companions. So, Āydār Khān's father-in-law [qōdā] was Pāchmān Khān.
He was a fire-worshipper [mājūsi]. In the vicinity of Āq Tuba, he [Pāchmān]
built a chūrghāt. In accordance with his religion, he would perform his fire-
worshipping at a spring. He would burn great fires and carry out his deeds. He
did not accept the summons of the Companions. On the opposite bank of the
river,9 he built a city and called it Sōdōm. This Sōdōm was supposedly
destroyed by Mir Timūr Hadratlari. Pāchmān Khān's first homeland [yurt] was
in the east at Āq Tuba. » (Yālchigul ōghli, T 587, fol. 13a ; T 1388, fol. 12a).

40 Thus, we can see in this account that Yelabuga [Sōdōm] is again associated with
unbelief since it is founded by Bāchmān, identified as a relative of Āydār Khān and a
ruler who was a fire-worshipper who refused the summons of the Companions.
Curiously, this account appears in two manuscripts of the Tārikh Nāma-yi Bulghār
where, as seen, we are told that Yelabuga was founded by Daymās Qurnāqî ōghli.
Presumably, the author was trying to reconcile conflicting or confusing traditions
concerning Bāchmān and Yelabuga. In fact, in the discussion of the saints buried
around Yelabuga that appears further along in these manuscripts we are told that the
father of one of the saints is Bāchmān Khān. However, the account continues, the
Bāchmān Khān who refused the summons of the Companions and who was killed by
Timūr was a different Bachman Khān from the father of this saint (Yālchīgul ōghli, T
587, fol. 14b ; T 1388, fol. 13a).

Conclusion

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41 From the materials examined, we can conclude that, already at the earliest periods of
the Islamic history of the Volga-Ural region, a cycle of legends concerning Iskandar
Dhū 1-Qarnayn was in circulation among local Muslims. Despite scanty knowledge of
the Volga Bulghars' political structure, there can be little doubt that these legends were
utilized by the Bulghar rulers to bolster their Islamic credentials. In fact, the Volga-Ural
region, under the name of « Bulghar » became associated in medieval Persian poetry
with Bulghar. At the same time, specific landmarks came to be associated with these
legends, specifically the city of Yelabuga whose huge stone fortifications continued to
be associated with Iskandar Dhū 1-Qarnayn by local Muslims well into the 19th century.
42 Another cycle of legends concerning the « Anatolians » Iskandar Dhū 1-Qarnayn and
Socrates, seems to have reached the Volga-Ural region through the Noghays. These
legends center around a figure named Bāchmān Khān, usually identified as a
descendant of Socrates, but at other times as a descendant of Iskandar himself. The
appearance of Noghay rulers claiming descent from important Muslim figures is
evident, as Devin DeWeese has demonstrated in the emergence of Idigu's Bakrid
lineage. The emergence of « Anatolian » and Qur'anic lineages for local Noghay rulers
seems to fit into the same pattern of appealing to the Islamic allegiances of Muslim
nomads. Such lineages were preserved in the genealogies of the Noghays who migrated
to the northern reaches of the Volga-Ural region, where genealogical numerous
versions have been uncovered.
43 With the emergence of « Bulgharist » historiography at the turn of the 18th and 19th
centuries, we see the authors of such works reinterpret these old legends in such a way
as to reconcile the numerous versions that must have been orally circulating or in
manuscript form at the end of the 18th century. Thus, in the Tawārikh-i Bulghariyya
we are told that the shrine centers of Bulghar and Yelabuga were founded by Iskandar
Dhū 1-Qarnayn. Nevertheless, Yelabuga is simultaneously portrayed as a locus of
unbelief and sedition, apparently reflecting other legends concerning Yelabuga that
were current among Volga-Ural Muslims that may have originated from Russian
traditions, or that may have emerged independently as a result of local developments.
In the Tārikh Nāma-yi Bulghār the situation is even more confused, where Bulghar's
founding continues to be attributed to Iskandar while Yelabuga's is attributted to
otherwise unknown ancient ancestors. In certain versions of the Tārikh Nāma-yi
Bulghār, Yelabuga is further identified with the tombs of local Muslim saints, while
Bāchmān Khān is identified both as the founder of Yelabuga, and as the fire-
worshipping ruler of Āq Tuba who rejected the summons of the sahāba to become
Muslims.

Bibliographie

1. Unpublished manuscripts
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YĀLCHĪGUL OGHLĪ, Tāj al-Dīn b., Tārikh Nāma-yi Bulgār, T 1388.
YĀLCHĪGUL OGHLĪ, Tāj al-Din b., Tārikh Nāma-yi Bulghār,Kazan University, ORRK, T 587.

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Kugelgen and D. Yermakov (dir.), Muslim Culture in Russia and Central Asia from the 18th to
the Early 20th Centuries, Berlin, Klaus Schwarz Verlag, p. 113-127.
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1788-1917 », Journal of Islamic Studies,7/2, p. 265-286.
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Panorama-Forum,1, Kazan, p. 97-113.
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KUDRIAVTSEV, V. F., 1897-98, Starina, pamiatniki, predaniia i legendy Prikamskago kraia,
I-II, Viatka, Gubernskaia tipografiia.
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nauk SSSR.
MUKHAMETSHIN, IU. G., 1977, Tatary-kriasheny, Moscow, Nauka.
NEVOSTRUEV, K. I., 1871, « O gorodishchakh Volzhsko-Bolgarskago i Kazanskago tsarstv v
nyneshnikh guberniiakh Kazanskoi, Simbirskoi, Samarskoi i Viatskoi », in Trudy pervago
arkheologicheskago s'ezda, Moscow, Sinodal'naia tipografiia, p. 521-594
URMANCHEEV, F. I., 1980, Epicheskie skazaniia tatarskogo naroda, Kazan, Izdatel'stvo
Kazanskogo Universiteta.
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Izdatel'stvo Kazanskogo Universiteta.
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Imäni äl-Bolgari : Shirgirlar, poemalar, Kazan, Tatarstan Kitap Nashriyāti, p. 338-386.

Notes
1 On this important figure, cf. Usmanov, 1986.
2 A similar etymology also appears in the 13th century Persian Sikandar Nāma-yi Bārā, cf.
Clarke, 1881, p. 790.
3 For a discussion of this work, cf. Frank, 1996b.
4 The assimilation of Fino-Ugrians by Muslims in the Volga-Ural region is especially well
documented in Muslim genealogies and village histories.
5 Cf. Bashqort, 1980, p. 157-158 ; in this account his name is given as Boshman-Qïipsaq Batïr.
6 For an extensive discussion and publications of the manuscript versions of this epic cf.
Gosmanov, 1994, p. 225-300 ; see also Urmancheev, 1980, p. 92-93.
7 Interestingly, the account also identifies the semi-legendary Tiuria Khān as Bāchmān's
brother. This Tiuria Khān, whose mausoleum is near the village of Nizhnee Tirmia along the
Dëma River in Bashkortostan, is identified elsewhere as a descendant of the Muslim saint Baba
Tukles ; cf. DeWeese, 1994, p. 470-471.
8 This genealogy is also discussed in Usmanov, 1972, p. 181-183.
9 This is presumably a reference to the Kama River.
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Pour citer cet article

Référence papier
Allen J. Frank, « Historical Legends of the Volga-Ural Muslims concerning Alexander the
Great, the City of Yelabuga, and Bāchmān Khān », Revue des mondes musulmans et de la
Méditerranée, 89-90 | 2000, 89-107.

Référence électronique
Allen J. Frank, « Historical Legends of the Volga-Ural Muslims concerning Alexander the
Great, the City of Yelabuga, and Bāchmān Khān », Revue des mondes musulmans et de la
Méditerranée [En ligne], 89-90 | juillet 2000, mis en ligne le 12 mai 2009, consulté le 07 mai
2021. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/remmm/274 ; DOI :
https://doi.org/10.4000/remmm.274

Auteur
Allen J. Frank
Takoma Park, Maryland.

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