In 1556, the Astrakhan Khanate was conquered by Ivan the Terrible, who had a new fortress built on a steep hill overlooking the Volga.

Martin Janet explains the outbreak of the war by saying that the Russians interfered in the trading affairs of the Ottomans and prevented the pilgrimage to Mecca.

[13] The Ottoman Empire sent a large force under Mustafa Pasha of 20,000 Turks and 50,000 Tatars to lay siege to Astrakhan.

However, a sortie from the garrison under Knyaz (prince) Serebrianyi-Obolenskiy, the military governor of Astrakhan, drove back the besiegers.

The Ottoman Empire, though militarily defeated, achieved safe passage for Muslim pilgrims and traders from Central Asia, and two years later, as a result of the Crimean raids, the Russians were forced to destroy of the fort on the Terek River.