Kuchum Khan (died 1605) was Khan of Sibir from 1569 to 1574 and from 1578 to 1598, succeeding Yadgar bin Qasim.
Biography[]
Kuchum was the son of the Shaybanid prince Murtaza, and he seized power from the Russian-vassalized Khan Yadgar bin Qasim of Sibir in 1563. In 1573, he raided Perm, prompting the Tsar of Russia to support a Cossack invasion of Siberia. In 1582, Yermak Timofeyevich defeated Kuchum's forces at the Battle of Chuvash Cape and captured his capital of Qashliq, forcing Kuchum to retreat into the steppes. In 1584, he ambushed and killed Yermak and most of his army, enabling him to regain Qashliq's ruins. However, he failed to reunite the nobility and failed to establish a new khanate south of the Irtysh River. His wives and son were captured by the Russians in 1591, and Kuchum was forced into exile in 1598 after the Russians killed two of his sons and captured five other sons, eight wives, and eight daughters. Kuchum died in Bukhara in 1605.