Serving Tatars ( tt-Cyrl, йомышлы татарлар, translit=Yomışlı Tatarlar; russian: Служилые татары) were a class of ethnically

Tatars The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

state servants in

Muscovy Muscovy is an alternative name for the Grand Duchy of Moscow (1263–1547) and the Tsardom of Russia (1547–1721). It may also refer to: *Muscovy Company, an English trading company chartered in 1555 *Muscovy duck (''Cairina moschata'') and Domest ...

and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

in 14th–18th centuries. Originally this class was formed Tatar nobles from

Golden Horde The Golden Horde, self-designated as Ulug Ulus, 'Great State' in Turkic, was originally a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fragment ...

and Tatar khanates that enjoyed membership of the Russian service class. Later, ''qara xalıq (black people)'' peasants of

Kazan Khanate The Khanate of Kazan ( tt, Казан ханлыгы, Kazan xanlıgı; russian: Казанское ханство, Kazanskoye khanstvo) was a medieval Tatar Turkic state that occupied the territory of former Volga Bulgaria between 1438 and 1552 ...

enjoyed this status after the fall of khanate in 1552. Their own ownership of shares in state land were granted to Russian and Qasim nobles. The elite of the Serving Tatars were those served as translators, scribes, clerks, ambassadors to Central Asian countries and so on. The majority participated in

Livonian war The Livonian War (1558–1583) was the Russian invasion of Old Livonia, and the prolonged series of military conflicts that followed, in which Tsar Ivan the Terrible of Russia (Muscovy) unsuccessfully fought for control of the region (pre ...

of 1558–1583, as well as other campaigns. They also, with the

Cossack The Cossacks , es, cosaco , et, Kasakad, cazacii , fi, Kasakat, cazacii , french: cosaques , hu, kozákok, cazacii , it, cosacchi , orv, коза́ки, pl, Kozacy , pt, cossacos , ro, cazaci , russian: казаки́ or ...

s, protected the Eastern borders of

, especially in the modern

Orenburg Oblast Orenburg Oblast (russian: Оренбургская область, ''Orenburgskaya oblast'') is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Orenburg. From 1938 to 1957, it bore the name ''Chkalov Oblast'' ...

. Unlike most Tatars, they had the right to use firearms and some of them became officers in the Russian Army. Serving Tatars received land, taxation privileges, financial support and food. They also had privileges in handicraft production and trade. In the 18th century they were reclassified as members of the class of ''State Peasants''. After

Vasily II Vasily Vasiliyevich (russian: Василий Васильевич; 10 March 141527 March 1462), also known as Vasily II the Blind (Василий II Тёмный), was the Grand Prince of Moscow whose long reign (1425–1462) was plagued by the ...

the numbers of Tatars entering the nobility of Muscovy rose dramatically. According to a 17th-century compilation by Zagoskin, 156 noble families were of Tatar or similar origin, while 168 were of the Viking-origin House of Rurik and 42 of unspecified Russian origin. There were also 452 families from Western Europe and Poland-Lithuania, but most of these only settled in Russia during the 17th century. Russian and Tatar nobles intermarried. A modern estimate suggests that one-third of all Russian nobles were of Turkic origins.

References

*{{TES, Йомышлы татарлар Tsardom of Russia History of the Tatars