Chimgi-Tura[1] or Chingi-Tura[2] (Siberian Tatar: Цимке-тора, Russian: Чинги-Тура) was a medieval city in the 12th to 16th centuries located in Western Siberia. After the Russian conquest, it was refounded as Tyumen.[2][3]
Name
The word "tura" (тора) in Siberian Tatar means "city", "chimgi" (цимке) means "spruce".(Geographical names on the territory of the Republic of Bashkortostan are associated with this word. This is the Mausoleum of Tura Khan, Mount Turataw, etc. According to Utemish Haji, the word "Tura" means both Western Siberia and Bashkortostan. [4]
History
According to Russian historian Hadi Atlasi, Taibugha founded the settlement which was then named Chinkidin in honor of Genghis Khan. The settlement later evolved into Chimgi-Tura.[5]
It was a capital of the Khanate of Sibir until the early 16th century, when its ruler Khan Muhammad decided not to remain at Chimgi-Tura, and chose a new capital named Qashliq located on the Irtysh.[6]
After the Cossack ataman Yermak Timofeyevich conquered the Siberian Khanate in the 1580s, the city of Chimgi-Tura was abandoned or burned. In 1586, the Russian fort Tyumen was built nearby. Modern Tyumen, one of the centres of the Russian oil industry, covers the site where Chimgi-Tura used to stand.[7]