Note 91 — Chapter VIII · THE SPREAD OF ISLAM AMONG THE MONGOLS AND TATARS.

Of the spread of Islam among the Tatars of Siberia, we have a few particulars. It was not until the latter half of the sixteenth century that it gained a footing in this country, but even before this period Muhammadan missionaries had from time to time made their way into Siberia with the hope of winning the heathen population over to the acceptance of their faith, but the majority of them met with a martyr’s death. When Siberia came under Muhammadan rule, in the reign of Kūchum K͟hān, the graves of seven of these missionaries were discovered by an aged Shayk͟h who came from Buk͟hārā to search them out, being anxious that some memorial should be kept of the devotion of these martyrs to the faith: he was able to give the names of this number, and up to the last century their memory was still revered by the Tatars of Siberia.91 When Kūchum K͟hān (who was descended from Jūjī K͟hān, the eldest son of Chingīz K͟hān) became K͟hān of Siberia (about the year 1570), either by right of conquest or (according to another account) at the invitation of the people whose K͟hān had died without issue,92 he made every effort for the conversion of his subjects, and sent to Buk͟hārā asking for missionaries to assist him in this pious undertaking. One of the missionaries who was sent from Buk͟hārā has left us an account of how he set out with a companion to the capital of Kūchum K͟hān, on the bank of the Irtish. Here, after two years, his companion died, and, for some reasons that the writer does not mention, he went back again; but soon afterwards returned to the scene of his labours, bringing with him another coadjutor, when Kūchum K͟hān had appealed for help once more to Buk͟hārā.93 Missionaries also came to Siberia from Kazan. But the advancing tide of Russian conquest soon brought the proselytising efforts of Kūchum K͟hān to an end before much had been accomplished, especially as many of the tribes under his rule offered a strong opposition to all attempts made to convert them.