Kul Sharif

Kul Sharif or Qol Şärif (Volga Türki and Persian: قل شریف; Tatar: Кол Шәриф; Russian: Кул-Шариф; died 1552) was an Old Tatar language-poet, statesman, university professor and imam of the Khanate of Kazan.

[citation needed] He participated in some diplomatic missions on behalf of Kazan khans to the Tsardom of Russia and there carried out negotiations for the khanate's independence.

[citation needed] In 1550 he concluded a deal with Moscow for mutual assistance and understand with each side sending an ambassador, a treaty which was soon after broken.

After the Siege of Kazan started, he organized a group of students and defended the Khan Palace.

Qolşärif's literary legacy was published in "İ küñel, bu dönyadır (O soil, may be this world...)", a collection of verses (Kazan, 1997).