Abstract
Tiş-Tiyiş (Walrus Tusk): A Kind of Tribute Paid by Muscovy to the Crimean Khans
The Tsardom of Muscovy paid tribute to the Crimean Khanate, too, as to its predecessor Golden Horde. If the tsars fail in paying, it was a casus belli and the Crimean cavalry used to reply with punitive raids. The tributes were called in a few way, and its amount changed directly in accordance with the balance of power between Muscovy and the Khanate. One of the tributes the Russians had to pay was the “tiş/tiyiş” tax. This term frequently occurs in diplomatic documents and has been subject to scholarly debates since the 19th century. This paper aims at elaborating this interesting tax, which was one of the prominent sources of income for the Crimean Khanate during the 16th and 17th centuries. Besides, walrus was popular in the Ottoman Empire, too, as a significant commercial commodity from early ages on. Ottoman court records have a lot of documents mentioning about this exotic product. It seems walrus kept its importance also in the European market through centuries.
Keywords
Tiş-Tiyiş, Walrus Tusk, Crimea, Muscovy, Tribute