House of  Yusupov (Юсупов) refers to members of one of Imperial Russia’s oldest and wealthiest noble families, whose origins trace back to the Turkic-Mongol Nogai aristocracy. The family descended from Yusuf, a Nogai beylik (lord) of Turkic-Mongol origin, belonging to the Manghud tribe of the Golden Horde.  In the 16th century, Yusuf’s descendants converted from Islam to Russian Orthodoxy, were baptized under the name Dmitry, and were granted the hereditary title of Prince (Knyaz) by Tsar Fyodor I.This conversion integrated them into the Muscovite aristocracy, and they became one of the few noble families of non-Slavic, Muslim origin to achieve prominence in the Russian Empire. The family gained immense political influence, military rank, and cultural prestige during the reigns of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great. Prince Grigory Dmitrievich Yusupov (1676–1730) was a military commander and close associate of Peter the Great.His descendant Prince Nikolai Borisovich Yusupov (1750–1831) became one of Russia’s greatest art collectors and patrons, managing the Imperial Hermitage collections and fostering artistic exchange between Russia and Europe.  Prince Nikolai amassed thousands of artworks, sculptures, books, and decorative objects, forming a collection comparable to the Hermitage Museum. He commissioned works from Canova, Batoni, David, Hackert, and others, and brought European decorative-arts techniques to Russia.

By the 19th–early 20th centuries, the Yusupovs were the richest family in Russia, owning multiple palaces (including the famous Yusupov Palace in St. Petersburg. The most famous descendant, Prince Felix Yusupov (1887–1967), was one of the conspirators in the assassination of Grigori Rasputin in 1916. After the 1917 Revolution, the family’s vast collection was nationalized; many treasures now belong to the Hermitage, Pushkin Museum, and Arkhangelskoye Museum-Estate.