Leatherworking in the Kazan Khanate

In the Kazan Khanate, as well as in earlier Turkic-Tatar states, the leather industry is the least-studied area of manufacture. Large-scale excavations in the Kazan Kremlin revealed many leather items and leatherworking and shoemaking tools. The largest amount of archeological leather—over 10,000 fragments—came from dig 13 in the eastern part of the Kremlin hill. We have processed about 2,000 finds, which allowed study of the tanning and shoemaking industry in Kazan in the mid-fifteenth-first half of the sixteenth centuries. The article summarizes the available data on raw materials, means of manufacturing leather items, tailoring techniques, detail construction, and decorating. Types of leather goods have been identified, such as shoes, military items, and household items. The author concludes that the leather industry in Kazan, which absorbed the traditions of Bulgar nomads, was at a high level of development at that time and influenced the evolution of the craft in neighboring regions.