The North Caucasus Borderland: Between Muscovy and the Ottoman Empire, 1555-1605

The wars and relationship between the Ottoman and Russian Empires have shaped the history of the Balkans, Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. Historians who ask when and where the rivalry between these two empires began have turned their gaze to the Balkans or Eastern Europe to find an answer. But while the bigger wars and conflicts took place in the area between modern-day Ukraine and Turkey, the origin of the rivalry lies further east in the North Caucasus, which in the mid-16th century became the first borderland between the two imperial powers. This book analyses the hitherto poorly understood boundary region between the Ottoman Empire and the Tsardom of Muscovy from the Muscovites’ annexation of the nearby Khanate of Astrakhan in 1556 to their expulsion from the region by the Ottomans and their allies in 1605. Drawing on a wide array of Ottoman and Muscovite primary sources, it addresses the story of imperial entanglements from multiple perspectives, analysing the actions of both empires and considering the motivations of the peoples caught in between.