The Astrakhan campaign and the Don–Volga canal project

Al-Salabi reports that Sokollu Mehmed Pasha prepared, in 976–977 AH (1568–1569 CE), a campaign to seize Astrakhan and a project to join the Volga and Don rivers by a canal. The campaign failed because of the natural conditions. ²

The governor of Khwarazm complained to the sultan Selim II that the shah of Persia was seizing pilgrims coming from Turkestan, and that Moscow, after taking Astrakhan, had stopped the passage of pilgrims and trade. The governor of Khwarazm, and the governors of Bukhara and Samarqand, asked for Astrakhan to be opened, to restore the pilgrimage road. ²

Sokollu wanted to make Astrakhan an Ottoman base, and to join the two rivers by a canal suitable for the passage of ships, so that the Ottoman fleet could enter the Caspian Sea from the Black Sea. Al-Salabi says the aim was to halt Russian expansion to the south, to expel the Persians from the Caucasus and Azerbaijan, and to revive the old caravan road. ²

The Ottomans began the work, and in Jumada I 977 AH (October 1569 CE) a third of the canal was complete, but the winter season halted the work. Al-Salabi adds that Sokollu nevertheless tightened the sultan's grip on the princes of Moldavia, Wallachia and Poland, and that the state thus briefly checked Russia's expansion. ²