The Khanate of Kazan was a Tatar rump state of the Golden Horde that existed from 1438 to 1552, with Kazan serving as its capital. The khanate existed in the former Volga Bulgaria, and Islam was its state religion. The khanate's nobility consisted of ethnic Bulgars, but the court consisted of steppe Kipchaks and Nogais. The Nogais would later be transplanted and replaced by Kalmyks, and Tatar Cossack troops defended the khanate from the Nogai Horde. Muscovy was raided by Kazan several times before Ivan III of Russia occupied Kazan in July 1487 and made Kazan a protectorate. In 1496, 1500, and 1505, the people of Kazan launched failed uprisings, but they broke away from Moscow in 1521 and allied themselves with the Astrakhan Khanate, Crimean Khanate, and Nogai Horde. In 1551, the pro-Russian Shah-Ali was enthroned by disgruntled noblemen, but anti-Moscow elements staged a coup in 1552, resulting in Ivan the Terrible's siege of Kazan. Most of the defenders and population were put to the sword, and pro-Moscow and neutral nobles kept their lands, the Tatars were resettled far away from rivers, roads, and Kazan, free lands were settled by Russians and pro-Russian Tatars, and Orthodox bishops forcibly baptized many Tatars. Thousands of Tatars were slain during failed rebellions until 1556.
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