Taibuga, the first khan of the Khanate of Sibir, came to power in the 13th century as a result of the power vacuum caused by the breakup of the Mongol Empire. Some legendary accounts identify him as a noble from Bukhara and associate him with the conversion of Sibir to Islam.[1]
The facts of his reign remain relatively unclear, but it appears he was a shamanist.[2] Taibuga drove the forces of Novgorod from his land.[3] He was claimed as the founding ancestor by the Taibuga clan of Sibir.[4]
In the historical legends of the Siberian Tatars the two Muslim dynasties that pre-dated the Russian conquest are linked explicitly to Bukhara. [...] Several accounts in West Siberian Turkic manuscripts relate an account of the history of the dynasty that Kuchum displaced, the Taybughids. These legends [...] state that the founder of the Taybughid dynasty, Taybugha Biy, came from Bukhara, and was the son of a ruler there. Taybugha Biy brought a number of religious scholars with him, and they were responsible for the Islamization of Siberia.