Söyembikä of Kazan

Söyembikä (also spelled Söyenbikä, Sujumbike, pronounced [sœˌjœmbiˈkæ]; Cyrillic: Сөембикә) (1516 – after 1554) was a Tatar ruler, xanbikä. She served as regent of Kazan during the minority of her son from 1549 until 1551.

Söyembikä with son Ütämeşgäräy.
Captured Princess Söyembikä leaves Kazan, by Vasily Khudyakov.

Life

She was the daughter of Nogay nobleman Yosıf bäk and the wife of Canğäli (1533–35), Safagäräy (1536–49) and Şahğäli (after 1553). In 1549, she became regent during the minority of her son, Kazan khan Ütämeşgäräy.

In 1551, after the first partial conquest of the Khanate of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible she was forcibly moved to Moscow with her son[1] and later married to Şahğäli, the Russia-imposed khan of the Qasim and Kazan Tatars.

Suicide Legend

She is a national hero of Tatarstan. Her name is associated first of all with Söyembikä Tower, that Ivan the Terrible wanted to marry her, so she agreed that if he built her a tower made with seven tiers (one for each day of the week) then she would marry him. Ivan the Terrible supposedly finished the tower within the week, so Söyembikä went up to the top of the tower and after looking out at her beautiful home of Kazan she became so overwhelmed with emotion for her people that she couldn't bear to marry the tsar and jumped off. However, the true date of her death, and her gravesite, remains unknown.[2]

See also

References
  1. "Сөембикә". Tatar Encyclopaedia (in Tatar). Kazan: The Republic of Tatarstan Academy of Sciences. Institution of the Tatar Encyclopaedia. 2002.
  2. Kefeli, Agnes (2008). Smith, Bonnie G. (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History. Oxford [England]: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195148909.
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