Chimgi-Tura[1] or Chingi-Tura[2] (Цыңқыс-тора, Russian: Чинги-Тура) was a medieval city in the 12th to 16th centuries located in Western Siberia. After the Russian conquest, it was refounded as Tyumen.[2] [3]
The word "tura" (тора) in Siberian Tatar means "city". According to Utemish Haji, the word "Tura" was used in both Western Siberia and Bashkortostan.[4]
According to Russian historian Hadi Atlasi, Taibugha founded the settlement which was then named Chinkidin in honor of Genghis Khan. The settlement later evolved into Chimgi-Tura.[5]
It was a capital of the Khanate of Sibir until the early 16th century, when its ruler Khan Muhammad decided not to remain at Chimgi-Tura, and chose a new capital named Qashliq located on the Irtysh.[6]
After the Cossack ataman Yermak Timofeyevich conquered the Siberian Khanate in the 1580s, the city of Chimgi-Tura was abandoned or burned. In 1586, the Russian fort Tyumen was built nearby. Modern Tyumen, one of the centres of the Russian oil industry, covers the site where Chimgi-Tura used to stand.[7]