Of the spread of Islam among the Tatars of Siberia, we have a few particulars. It was not until the latter half of the sixteenth century that it gained a footing in this country, but even before this period Muhammadan missionaries had from time to time made their way into Siberia with the hope of winning the heathen population over to the acceptance of their faith, but the majority of them met with a martyr’s death. When Siberia came under Muhammadan rule, in the reign of Kūchum Khān, the graves of seven of these missionaries were discovered by an aged Shaykh who came from Bukhārā to search them out, being anxious that some memorial should be kept of the devotion of these martyrs to the faith: he was able to give the names of this number, and up to the last century their memory was still revered by the Tatars of Siberia. [819] When Kūchum Khān (who was descended from Jūjī Khān, the eldest son of Chingīz Khān) became Khān of Siberia (about the year 1570), either by right of conquest or (according to another account) at the invitation of the people whose Khān had died without issue, [820] he made every effort for the conversion of his subjects, and sent to Bukhārā asking for missionaries to assist him in this pious undertaking. One of the missionaries who was sent from Bukhārā has left us an account of how he set out with a companion to the capital of Kūchum Khān, on the bank of the Irtish. Here, after two years, his companion died, and, for some reasons that the writer does not mention, he went back again; but soon afterwards returned to the scene of his labours, bringing with him another coadjutor, when Kūchum Khān had appealed for help once more to Bukhārā. [821] Missionaries also came to Siberia from Kazan. But the advancing tide of Russian conquest soon brought the proselytising efforts of Kūchum Khān to an end before much had been accomplished, especially as many of the tribes under his rule offered a strong opposition to all attempts made to convert them. But though interrupted by the Russian conquest, the progress of Islam was by no means stopped. Mullās from Bukhārā and other cities of Central Asia and merchants from Kazan were continually active as missionaries of Islam in Siberia. In 1745 an entrance was first effected among the Baraba Tatars (between the Irtish and the Ob), and though at the beginning of the nineteenth century many were still heathen, they have now all become Musalmans. [822] The conversion of the Kirghiz has already been spoken of above: the history of most of the other Muslim tribes of Siberia is very obscure, but their conversion is probably of a recent date. Among the instruments of Muhammadan propaganda at the present time, it is interesting to note the large place taken by the folk-songs of the Kirghiz, in which, interwoven with tale and legend, the main truths of Islam make their way into the hearts of the common people. [823] CHAPTER IX. THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN INDIA.