 Through such intermediaries as Khozi Kokos, they maintained relations with the rulers of Muscovy and other Russian principalities.A descendant of Simeone, Zacharias de Ghisolfi was the prince and ruler of the Taman peninsula from about 1480.Beset by the Ottoman Empire (which was then in the process of reducing the Girai Khanate and the Italian possessions in the Crimea to tributary status) in 1482, Zacharias and his subjects, a mixed population of Jews, Italians, Greeks, Circassians, Tatars and Slavs, were compelled to retire from Matrega and sought refuge on the island of Matrice.