The khanate covered contemporary Tatarstan, Mari El, Chuvashia, Mordovia, and parts of Udmurtia and Bashkortostan; its capital was the city of Kazan.

The territory of the Khanate comprised the Muslim Bulgar-populated lands of the Bolğar, Cükätäw, Kazan, and Qaşan duchies and other regions that originally belonged to Volga Bulgaria.

According to the Ginghizide tradition, the local Turkic tribes were also called Tatars by the steppe nobility and, later, by the Russian elite.

Peoples subject to the khan included the Chuvash, Mari, Mordvins, Mishar Tatars, Udmurt, and Bashkir.

The main population of the steppes were the nomadic Manghites, also known as Nogais, who sometimes recognized the rule of the Kazan khan, but more often raided agricultural Tatars and Chuvash, as they had done in the Golden Horde period.

More recently, this area was settled by Tatars, Chuvash and Russians, who erected defensive walls to guard the southern border.

Whatever the status of this proto-state, the founder of the khanate was Ulugh Muhammad, who assumed the title of khan and usurped the throne of Kazan with some help from local nobility in 1437 or 1438.

[1] During the reign of Ulugh Muhammad and his son Maxmud, Kazan forces raided Muscovy and its subject lands several times.

Vasily II of Moscow engaged in the Muscovite War of Succession against his cousins, was defeated in a battle near Suzdal, and was forced to pay ransom to the Kazan khan.

After that, the Kazan Khanate became a protectorate of Moscow, and Russian merchants were allowed to trade freely throughout its territory.

Supporters of a union between the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate tried to exploit the population's grievances to provoke revolts (in 1496, 1500, and 1505), but with negligible results.

The reinforcement of Crimea displeased the pro-Moscow elements of the Kazan Khanate, and some of these noblemen provoked a revolt in 1545.

A group of disgruntled noblemen at the beginning of 1551 invited a supporter of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, Şahğäli, for the second time.

Anti-Moscow elements in the Kazan government exiled Şahğäli and invited the Astrakhan prince Yadegar Mokhammad, along with the Nogays, to aid them.

In August 1552, forces of Ivan the Terrible, operating from the Russian castle of Sviyazhsk, laid siege to Kazan.

Rebel governments were formed in Chalem and Mishatamaq, but as the Nogays under Ğäli Äkräm often raided the agricultural population, the coalition went to ruin.

The administration, known as the Kazan Palace's Office undertook the forced Russification and Christianization of the Tatars and other peoples.

The Khanate's urban population produced clay ware, wood and metal handiworks, leather, armor, ploughs and jewels.

[citation needed] The major cities included Qazan, Arça, Cükätaw, Qaşan, Çallı, Alat and Cöri.

In the 16th century, Russia became the main trading partner of Kazan, and the khanate shared the economic system of Moscow.

[citation needed] The major markets were the Taşayaq Bazaar in Kazan and the Markiz Isle fair on the Volga River.

The military of the khanate consisted of armament and men from the darughas and subject lands, khan guards, and the troops of the nobility.

The city of Bolghar retained its position as a sacred place, but had this function only, due to the emergence of Kazan as a major economic and political center in the 1430s.