Söyembikä (also spelled ''Söyenbikä, Sujumbike,'' pronounced ; Cyrillic: ''Сөембикә'') (1516 – after 1554) was a
Nogai ruler, ''
xanbikä''. She served as regent of Kazan during the minority of her son from 1549 until 1551.
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
The Khanate of Kazan was a Tatar state that occupied the territory of the former Volga Bulgaria between 1438 and 1552. The khanate covered contemporary Tatarstan, Mari El, Chuvashia, Mordovia, and parts of Udmurtia and Bashkortostan; ...
by
Ivan the Terrible
Ivan IV Vasilyevich (; – ), commonly known as Ivan the Terrible,; ; monastic name: Jonah. was Grand Prince of Moscow, Grand Prince of Moscow and all Russia from 1533 to 1547, and the first Tsar of all Russia, Tsar and Grand Prince of all R ...
she was forcibly moved to
Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
with her son and later married to
Şahğäli, the Russia-imposed
khan of the
Qasim and
Kazan Tatars.
Suicide legend
She is a national hero of
Tatarstan
Tatarstan, officially the Republic of Tatarstan, sometimes also called Tataria, is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia located in Eastern Europe. It is a part of the Volga Federal District; and its capital city, capital and largest city i ...
. 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.
See also
*
List of Kazan khans
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soyembika of Kazan
1516 births
16th-century deaths
Khanate of Kazan
Tatar people
16th-century women rulers
Tatar women