In 1385, Timur defeated the Golden Horde, which led to its final disintegration into separate parts, each of which tried to play a dominant role. The nomadic nobility of Crimea took advantage of the situation to create their own state. The long struggle between feudal factions ended in 1443 with the victory of Hadji Giray, who founded the independent Crimean Khanate.
The capital of the Khanate led by the Girey dynasty until the end of the 15th century. the city of Crimea remained, then for a short time it was transferred to Kirk-Er, and in the 14th century. a new residence of the Gireys is being built - Bakhchisarai. The territory of the state included Crimea, the Black Sea steppes and the Taman Peninsula. The situation in Crimea had changed significantly by this time. From the end of the 13th century. All trade relations between Crimea and the East are interrupted. The Genoese merchants tried to improve matters by selling local goods - fish, bread, leather, horses, and slaves. An increasing number of ordinary nomads begin to switch to sedentary life, which causes the emergence of many small villages.
In 1475, the army of the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II captured the Genoese possessions in the Black Sea region. The Crimean Khanate lost much of its sovereignty and became dependent on the Ottomans, which was secured by the elevation to the throne “from the hands” of the Sultan of Hadji-Girey’s son, Mengli-Girey. From the beginning of the 16th century. The sultans kept representatives of the Girey family hostage in Istanbul: in case of disobedience, the khan could easily be replaced by a “reserve” ruler who was always at hand.
The most important duty of the khans was to field troops to participate in the conquest of the Ottomans. Tatar troops regularly fought in Asia Minor and on the Balkan Peninsula. At the beginning of the 16th century. The Crimean army supported the future Sultan Selim I in the struggle for the throne. There is information that Selim’s brother and main rival Ahmed died at the hands of one of the sons of Mengli-Girey. The active participation of the khans in the Ottoman wars with Poland and Moldova turned the Khanate into a conductor of the aggressive policy of the sultans in Eastern Europe.
Connections between the Crimean khans and the Russian state were established even before the subjugation of Crimea to the Ottomans. Until the fall of the Great Horde, the main rival of Crimea, Mengli-Girey maintained friendly relations with Russia. The Russian-Crimean alliance was based on common interests in the fight against the Horde and its ally, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. After the defeat of the Horde in 1502, the alliance quickly faded away. Regular raids by Crimean troops began, often reaching as far as Moscow. In 1571, the Tatars and Nogais took and burned Moscow during one of their raids. The aggressiveness of Crimea created a constant threat to the southern borders of Rus'. Until its annexation to Russia in 1552-1556. The Crimean Khanate of the Kazan and Astrakhan Khanates claimed the role of their patron. At the same time, the khans received help and support from the sultans. The incessant raids of feudal lords for the purpose of robbery on Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Moldavian, Adyghe lands brought not only trophies and livestock, but also numerous captives who were turned into slaves.
The khans and high nobility received certain benefits from “commemoration” (gifts) from the Russian and Lithuanian governments. It was a symbolic form of tribute, a legacy from the Golden Horde times. The Crimean Khanate was not a single state, but split into the possessions of individual powerful
beyev - beyliks. The khans themselves depended on the will of the Tatar nobility. The main role in politics was played by members of several noble families—Shirin, Baryn, Argyn, Sedzheut, Mangit, Yashlau, the heads of which bore the title “Karachi.”
The formation of the Crimean Khanate strengthened the process of formation of the Crimean Tatars as a nationality. In the XIII - XVI centuries. The population of the Tauride Peninsula, which has long been distinguished by its multi-ethnicity, is becoming even more complex and heterogeneous. In addition to the Greeks, Alans, Rus, Bulgarians, Karaites, Eikhs, and Kipchaks who previously lived here, Mongols, Italians, and Armenians appear. In the 15th century and later some of the Turks from Asia Minor moved here along with the Ottoman troops. The local population is also replenished by numerous prisoners of various origins. In such a historically complex and ethnically diverse environment, the formation of the Crimean Tatar nationality took place.
Anthropological studies suggest that the medieval inhabitants of the peninsula lived in compact groups based on ethnicity or religion, but the urban population seemed more heterogeneous than the rural one. There was a mixture between the numerically predominant population of the Caucasian species and carriers of the Mongoloid physical appearance. Soviet scientists (K.F. Sokolova, Yu.D. Benevolenskaya) believe that by the time the Mongols appeared in Crimea, a type of population had already developed, similar in composition to the inhabitants of the Azov region and the Lower Volga. The predominant mass were people of the Caucasian type, who in many ways resembled the Kipchaks. Most likely, it was on their basis that the formation of the northern groups of Crimean Tatars took place in the future. The South Coast Tatars apparently included mainly descendants of a number of Turkic-speaking and other peoples who had previously penetrated the peninsula. Materials from later Muslim burials, examined by the prominent Soviet anthropologist V.P. Alekseev, allow us to think that the process of formation of the dominant type of the Crimean population was completed somewhere in the 16th–17th centuries
centuries, however, some differences, especially between urban and rural residents, persisted for a long time.
Due to the characteristics of their origin, historical destinies, dialect differences, the Crimean Tatars were divided into three main groups; The first of them consisted of the so-called steppe (North Crimean), the second - the middle and the third - the south coast Tatars. There were certain differences between these groups in everyday life, customs and dialects. The Steppe Tatars were quite close to the Turkic-speaking nomadic tribes of the northwestern Kipchak group. The South Coast Tatars and a significant part of the so-called middle Tatars linguistically belonged to the southwestern, or Oghuz, group of Turkic languages. Among the Crimean Tatars, a certain part stands out, which was called “Nogaily”. Obviously, this was associated with the resettlement of Turkic-speaking nomadic Nogais from the Black Sea steppes to Crimea. All this speaks of the diversity of ethnic components and the complexity of the process of formation of the Crimean Tatar nationality in the 13th-16th centuries.
In the history of the Crimean Khanate, the 17th century is marked by increased feudal fragmentation. This was due to land relations and the socio-economic system of the Khanate, where there were several types of feudal property. A significant tract of land belonged to the Turkish sultans, their governors, Crimean khans, beys and murzas. Tatar feudal lords, along with land ownership, had... under their authority and dependent relatives from simple pastoralists. In their economy, especially agriculture, the labor of slaves from prisoners of war was also widely used.
The main branch of the local economy during this period remained extensive nomadic cattle breeding. The slave trade flourished, and only on the southern coast were there pockets of settled agriculture. The work of a farmer was considered the lot of a slave and therefore was not held in special esteem.
Primitive cattle breeding could not
provide the population with the products necessary to support life. The Crimean Tatars themselves said
in the 17th century to the envoys of the Turkish Sultan: “But there are more than a hundred thousand Tatars who have neither agriculture nor trade. If they don’t raid, then how will they live? This is our service to the padishah.” Terrible poverty, heavy oppression and the dominance of feudal lords made the life of a significant number of nomads almost unbearable. Taking advantage of this circumstance, the Tatar Murzas and Beys recruited numerous detachments and carried out predatory raids on their neighbors. In addition, the influx of masses of slaves captured during such raids brought enormous financial benefits and was used to replenish the Janissary army, rowers on sea galleys and for other purposes.
In the first half of the century alone, Tatar feudal lords abducted more than 200 thousand captives from Russian lands (the population of European Russia in 1646 was about 7 million people). Poorly protected Ukrainian lands suffered even more. Only for 1654-1657. More than 50 thousand people were driven into slavery from Ukraine. By the 80s of the 17th century. Right-bank Ukraine was almost completely depopulated. From 1605 to 1644, at least 75 Tatar raids were carried out on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which included Ukraine.
The need for slaves in the primitive economy of Crimea was insignificant, and therefore thousands of polonyaniks were sold at slave markets. In 1656-1657 The Russian government managed to ransom 152 people from Crimea by paying 14,686 rubles. 72 Kop. (approximately 96 rubles 55 kopecks for each captive), which is for the middle of the 17th century. was a fabulously high figure. The capture of prisoners and the slave trade were beneficial to the feudal elite of the Crimean Khanate and Ottoman Empire.
Enormous funds from the plague could not revive the economy of the Khanate or change the stagnant nature of its subsistence economy. A tenth of the looted property and slaves went to the khan, followed by payment to the beys and murzas. Therefore, ordinary nomads who participated in the raids received only a small share. At the same time, one should take into account the incredible high cost of food in Crimea. During the period under review, one osmina (small measure of volume) of rye cost 50-60 kopecks. As a result, ordinary ulus Tatars remained in a semi-beggarly state and, in order to make ends meet, took part in raids. The plight in the Khanate especially worsened after the 16th and 14th centuries. Some of the Nogais migrated here.
Ottoman Empire in the 17th century. was experiencing an acute crisis that gripped all aspects of domestic life and sharply weakened its international position. The crisis was associated with the growth of hereditary land ownership and the strengthening of large feudal lords, which replaced the military-feudal system, which was based on temporary and lifelong ownership of land.
The dependence of the Crimean khans on Istanbul was a burden and often irritated the Tatar nobility. Therefore, the khans had to in the 17th century. either follow the lead of the aristocracy, or fight against it. In both cases, the khans usually quickly lost their throne. That is why on the Crimean throne in the 17th century. 22 khans were replaced. The Gireys, relying on the nobility, often made attempts to conduct independent internal and external
politics. At the beginning of the 17th century. Khan Shagin-Girey, who had long fought for the throne with Janibek Khan, tried to separate himself from Turkey. With the help of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, he sought to overthrow the power of Sultan Islam-Girey (1644-1654), and with the help of Russia and Poland, Khan Adil-Girey (1666-1670). However, attempts to gain independence ended in failure for Crimea.
At the beginning of the 17th century. The Crimean Khanate took an active part in the war of the Ottoman Empire against Poland. In 1614-1621. Tatar feudal lords undertook 17 major campaigns and 6 small raids, devastating Podolia, Bukovina, Bratslav region, Volyn. During these military campaigns they reached Lviv, Kyiv and Krakow,
Although peace was concluded between Poland and Turkey in 1630, this did not stop the raids from Crimea. During this period, the Khanate maintained more peaceful relations with Russia, and the intensity of raids on Russian lands was less than on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
However, the situation changed in 1632, when Russia began a war for Smolensk, which was captured by Poland in 1611. The troops of the Crimean Khan, numbering up to 20-30 thousand people, began to ravage the outskirts of Tula, Serpukhov, Kashira, Moscow and other cities of Russia. Significant detachments of Russian troops had to be withdrawn from near Smolensk and transferred to the southern borders.
Foreign policy of the Crimean Khanate in the 17th century. It was not limited to attacks and robberies of neighboring states. The main principle of this policy was to maintain a “balance of power,” or rather, the weakening of both Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the 16th and 17th centuries. The Crimean khans repeatedly tried, in open and veiled form, to present themselves as heirs of the Golden Horde.
The war for Smolensk showed the unreliability of the defense of the southern borders of Russia, and in 1635-1654. A system of border fortifications was erected - the Belgorod defensive line. A continuous rampart with a palisade began in Akhtyrka (near Kharkov) and through Belgorod, Kozlov and Tambov reached Simbirsk on the Volga, covering Russian lands. Therefore, the intensity of Crimean raids on Russia noticeably decreases, except for short-term attacks in 1645. The reason for the increase in raids was the Turkish-Venetian naval war for Crete in 1645-1669. The war required slave oarsmen for the Ottoman fleet in the Mediterranean.
Liberation war of the Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples 1648-1654. and the Pereyaslav Rada of 1654 dramatically changed the foreign policy goals of the Crimean Khanate, Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. During the years of this war, Islam-Girey hoped, with the support of Khmelnitsky, to free himself from the power of the Ottoman Empire. However, the khan was afraid of weakening Poland excessively and therefore, at critical moments, he repeatedly betrayed Bogdan Khmelnitsky.
After the reunification of Ukraine with Russia in 1654, the Crimean Khanate changed its foreign policy course and entered into an alliance with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against Russia and Ukraine. However, in 1655-1657. Polish and Tatar troops suffered major defeats near Akhmatov, Lvov, at the mouth of the Dnieper and Bug.
In the late 60s - early 70s. HUP c. There was a new aggravation of relations between the Ottoman Empire, Russia and Poland. Russian and Ukrainian regiments in 1677 and 1678 repelled attacks and twice inflicted a major defeat on Turkish and allied Tatar detachments near Chigirin. Hostilities between Turkey and Russia ended in 1681 with a peace agreement concluded in Bakhchisarai. However, in 1686, Russia joined the so-called Holy League, which included Austria, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Venice. The bloc of these states was directed against the Ottoman Empire, which intensified its military attack on Central Europe. Fulfilling its obligations to its allies, the Russian army began military operations against Crimea in 1687. Although the campaigns of 1687-1688 under the command of V.V. Golitsyn ended in failure, they helped for-
hold the forces of the Crimean khans at Perekop.
In 1689-1694. Russia fought against the Crimean Khanate mainly with the forces of the Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks, but their campaigns could not eliminate the danger of an attack by the Crimean and Belgorod Tatars. In an effort to eliminate this threat, as well as make our way to the shores south seas, in 1695 and 1696 Peter I undertakes Azov campaigns. At the same time, Russian and Ukrainian regiments captured some Tatar fortresses at the mouth of the Dnieper. According to the terms of the treaties concluded in 1699 and 1700, the Ottoman Empire renounced its claims to Ukraine, and Azov went to Russia. In the 17th century Crimea tried not only to eliminate its dependence on Turkey, but also to expand its territory at the expense of its neighbors. The joint struggle of Russia, Ukraine and Poland put an end to these aggressive aspirations.
From the collection “Crimea: past and present", Institute of History of the USSR, USSR Academy of Sciences, 1988
Qırım Yurtu, قريم يورتى ). In addition to the steppe and foothills of the Crimea proper, it occupied the lands between the Danube and the Dnieper, the Azov region and most of the modern Krasnodar region of Russia. In 1478, the Crimean Khanate officially became an ally of the Ottoman state and remained in this capacity until the 1774 Peace of Küçük-Kainardzhi. It was annexed by the Russian Empire in 1783. Currently, most of the lands of the Khanate (the territories west of the Don) belong to Ukraine, and the remaining part (the lands east of the Don) belongs to Russia.Capitals of the Khanate
The main city of the Crimean Yurt was the city of Kyrym, also known as Solkhat (modern Old Crimea), which became the capital of Khan Oran-Timur in 1266. According to the most common version, the name Kyrym comes from Chagatai qırım- pit, trench, there is also an opinion that it comes from the Western Kipchak qırım- “my hill” ( qır- hill, hill, -ım- affix of belonging to the first person singular).
When a state independent from the Horde was formed in Crimea, the capital was moved to the fortified mountain fortress of Kyrk-Era, then to Salachik, located in the valley at the foot of Kyrk-Era, and finally, in 1532, to the newly built city of Bakhchisarai.
Story
Background
During the Horde period, the supreme rulers of Crimea were the khans of the Golden Horde, but direct control was exercised by their governors - emirs. The first formally recognized ruler in Crimea is considered to be Aran-Timur, the nephew of Batu, who received this region from Mengu-Timur. This name then gradually spread to the entire peninsula. The second center of Crimea was the valley adjacent to Kyrk-Eru and Bakhchisarai.
The multinational population of Crimea then consisted mainly of the Kipchaks (Cumans) who lived in the steppe and foothills of the peninsula, whose state was defeated by the Mongols, Greeks, Goths, Alans, and Armenians, who lived mainly in cities and mountain villages, as well as Rusyns who lived in some trading cities. The Crimean nobility was mainly of mixed Kipchak-Mongol origin.
Horde rule, although it had positive aspects, was generally burdensome for the Crimean population. In particular, the rulers of the Golden Horde repeatedly organized punitive campaigns in Crimea when the local population refused to pay tribute. Nogai's campaign in 1299 is known, as a result of which a number of Crimean cities suffered. As in other regions of the Horde, separatist tendencies soon began to appear in Crimea.
There are legends, unconfirmed by Crimean sources, that in the 14th century Crimea was allegedly repeatedly ravaged by the army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Grand Duke of Lithuania Olgerd defeated the Tatar army in 1363 near the mouth of the Dnieper, and then allegedly invaded Crimea, devastated Chersonesus and captured all valuable church objects there. A similar legend exists about his successor named Vytautas, who in 1397 allegedly reached Kaffa itself in the Crimean campaign and again destroyed Chersonesos. Vytautas is also known in Crimean history for the fact that during the Horde unrest at the end of the 14th century, he provided refuge in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to a significant number of Tatars and Karaites, whose descendants now live in Lithuania and the Grodno region of Belarus. In 1399, Vitovt, who came to the aid of the Horde Khan Tokhtamysh, was defeated on the banks of the Vorskla by Tokhtamysh’s rival Timur-Kutluk, on whose behalf the Horde was ruled by Emir Edigei, and made peace.
Gaining independence
Vassalage to the Ottoman Empire
Wars with the Russian Kingdom and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the early period
Since the end of the 15th century, the Crimean Khanate made constant raids on the Russian Kingdom and Poland. The Crimean Tatars and Nogais were fluent in raid tactics, choosing a path along watersheds. The main route to Moscow was the Muravsky Way, which ran from Perekop to Tula between the upper reaches of the rivers of two basins, the Dnieper and the Seversky Donets. Having gone 100-200 kilometers into the border region, the Tatars turned back and, spreading wide wings from the main detachment, engaged in robbery and the capture of slaves. The capture of captives - yasyr - and the trade in slaves were an important part of the economy of the Khanate. Captives were sold to Turkey, the Middle East and even European countries. The Crimean city of Kafa was the main slave market. According to some researchers, more than three million people, mostly Ukrainians, Poles and Russians, were sold in the Crimean slave markets over two centuries. Every year, Moscow gathered up to 65 thousand warriors in the spring to carry out border service on the banks of the Oka until late autumn. To protect the country, fortified defensive lines were used, consisting of a chain of forts and cities, ambushes and rubble. In the southeast, the oldest of these lines ran along the Oka from Nizhny Novgorod to Serpukhov, from here it turned south to Tula and continued to Kozelsk. The second line, built under Ivan the Terrible, ran from the city of Alatyr through Shatsk to Orel, continued to Novgorod-Seversky and turned to Putivl. Under Tsar Fedor, a third line arose, passing through the cities of Livny, Yelets, Kursk, Voronezh, Belgorod. The initial population of these cities consisted of Cossacks, Streltsy and other service people. A large number of Cossacks and service people were part of the guard and village services, which monitored the movement of the Crimeans and Nogais in the steppe.
In Crimea itself, the Tatars left little yasyr. According to the ancient Crimean custom, slaves were released as freedmen after 5-6 years of captivity - there is a number of evidence from Russian and Ukrainian documents about returnees from Perekop who “worked out”. Some of those released preferred to remain in Crimea. There is a well-known case, described by the Ukrainian historian Dmitry Yavornitsky, when the ataman of the Zaporozhye Cossacks, Ivan Sirko, who attacked Crimea in 1675, captured huge booty, including about seven thousand Christian captives and freedmen. The ataman asked them whether they wanted to go with the Cossacks to their homeland or return to Crimea. Three thousand expressed a desire to stay and Sirko ordered to kill them. Those who changed their faith while in slavery were released immediately, since Sharia law prohibits holding a Muslim in captivity. According to Russian historian Valery Vozgrin, slavery in Crimea itself almost completely disappeared already in the 16th-17th centuries. Most of the prisoners captured during attacks on their northern neighbors (their peak intensity occurred in the 16th century) were sold to Turkey, where slave labor was widely used, mainly in galleys and in construction work.
XVII - early XVIII centuries
On January 6-12, 1711, the Crimean army left Perekop. Mehmed Giray with 40 thousand Crimeans, accompanied by 7-8 thousand Orlik and Cossacks, 3-5 thousand Poles, 400 Janissaries and 700 Swedes of Colonel Zulich, headed to Kiev.
During the first half of February 1711, the Crimeans easily captured Bratslav, Boguslav, Nemirov, the few garrisons of which offered virtually no resistance.
In the summer of 1711, when Peter I with an army of 80 thousand went on the Prut campaign, the Crimean cavalry numbering 70 thousand sabers together with Turkish army surrounded Peter's troops, who found themselves in a hopeless situation. Peter I himself was almost captured and was forced to sign a peace treaty on conditions that were extremely unfavorable for Russia. As a result of the Treaty of Prut, Russia lost access to the Sea of Azov and its fleet in the Azov-Black Sea waters. As a result of the Prut victory of the united Turkish-Crimean wars, Russian expansion in the Black Sea region was stopped for a quarter of a century.
The Russian-Turkish War of 1735-39 and the complete devastation of Crimea
The last khans and the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Empire
After the withdrawal of Russian troops, a widespread uprising occurred in Crimea. Turkish troops landed in Alushta; the Russian resident in Crimea, Veselitsky, was captured by Khan Shahin and handed over to the Turkish commander-in-chief. There were attacks on Russian troops in Alushta, Yalta and other places. The Crimeans elected Devlet IV as khan. At this time, the text of the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi Treaty was received from Constantinople. But the Crimeans even now did not want to accept independence and cede the indicated cities in Crimea to the Russians, and the Porte considered it necessary to enter into new negotiations with Russia. Dolgorukov's successor, Prince Prozorovsky, negotiated with the khan in the most conciliatory tone, but the Murzas and ordinary Crimeans did not hide their sympathies for the Ottoman Empire. Shahin Geray had few supporters. The Russian party in Crimea was small. But in Kuban he was proclaimed khan, and in 1776 he finally became khan of Crimea and entered Bakhchisarai. The people swore allegiance to him.
Shahin Giray became the last Khan of Crimea. He tried to carry out reforms in the state and reorganize governance along European lines, but these measures were extremely late. Soon after his accession, an uprising against the Russian presence began. The Crimeans attacked Russian troops everywhere, killing up to 900 Russians, and plundered the palace. Shahin was embarrassed, made various promises, but was overthrown, and Bahadir II Giray was elected khan. Türkiye was preparing to send a fleet to the shores of Crimea and start a new war. The uprising was decisively suppressed by Russian troops, Shahin Giray mercilessly punished his opponents. A.V. Suvorov was appointed Prozorovsky’s successor as commander of the Russian troops in Crimea, but the khan was very wary of the new Russian adviser, especially after he deported all Crimean Christians (about 30,000 people) to the Azov region in 1778: Greeks - to Mariupol, Armenians - to Nor-Nakhichevan.
Only now Shahin turned to the Sultan as the caliph for a letter of blessing, and the Porte recognized him as khan, subject to the withdrawal of Russian troops from Crimea. Meanwhile, in 1782, a new uprising began in Crimea, and Shahin was forced to flee to Yenikale, and from there to Kuban. Bahadir II Giray, who was not recognized by Russia, was elected khan. In 1783, Russian troops entered Crimea without warning. Soon Shahin Giray abdicated the throne. He was asked to choose a city in Russia for residence and was given a sum for his relocation with a small retinue and maintenance. He lived first in Voronezh, and then in Kaluga, from where, at his request and with the consent of the Porte, he was released to Turkey and settled on the island of Rhodes, where he was deprived of his life.
There were “small” and “large” divans, which played a very serious role in the life of the state.
A council was called a “small divan” if a narrow circle of nobility took part in it, resolving issues that required urgent and specific decisions.
The “Big Divan” is a meeting of “the whole earth”, when all the Murzas and representatives of the “best” black people took part in it. By tradition, the Karaches retained the right to sanction the appointment of khans from the Geray clan as sultan, which was expressed in the ritual of placing them on the throne in Bakhchisarai.
IN state structure Crimea largely used the Golden Horde and Ottoman structures state power. Most often, the highest government positions were occupied by the sons, brothers of the khan or other persons of noble origin.
The first official after the khan was the Kalga Sultan. The khan's younger brother or another relative was appointed to this position. Kalga ruled the eastern part of the peninsula, the left wing of the khan's army and administered the state in the event of the death of the khan until a new one was appointed to the throne. He was also the commander-in-chief if the khan did not personally go to war. The second position - nureddin - was also occupied by a member of the khan's family. He was the governor of the western part of the peninsula, chairman of small and local courts, and commanded smaller corps of the right wing on campaigns.
The mufti is the head of the Muslim clergy of Crimea, an interpreter of laws, who has the right to remove judges - qadis, if they judged incorrectly.
Kaymakans - in the late period (end of the 18th century) governing the regions of the Khanate. Or-bey is the head of the Or-Kapy (Perekop) fortress. Most often, this position was occupied by members of the khan family, or a member of the Shirin family. He guarded the borders and watched over the Nogai hordes outside the Crimea. The positions of qadi, vizier and other ministers are similar to the same positions in the Ottoman state.
In addition to the above, there were two important female positions: ana-beim (analogous to the Ottoman post of valide), which was held by the mother or sister of the khan, and ulu-beim (ulu-sultani), the senior wife of the ruling khan. In terms of importance and role in the state, they had the rank next to nureddin.
An important phenomenon in the state life of Crimea was the very strong independence of noble bey families, which in some way brought Crimea closer to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The beys ruled their possessions (beyliks) as semi-independent states, administered justice themselves and had their own militia. The beys regularly took part in riots and conspiracies, both against the khan and among themselves, and often wrote denunciations against the khans they did not please the Ottoman government in Istanbul.
Public life
The state religion of Crimea was Islam, and in the customs of the Nogai tribes there were some vestiges of shamanism. Along with the Crimean Tatars and Nogais, Islam was also practiced by the Turks and Circassians living in Crimea.
The permanent non-Muslim population of Crimea was represented by Christians of various denominations: Orthodox (Hellenic-speaking and Turkic-speaking Greeks), Gregorians (Armenians), Armenian Catholics, Roman Catholics (descendants of the Genoese), as well as Jews and Karaites.
Notes
- Budagov. Comparative dictionary of Turkish-Tatar dialects, T.2, p.51
- O. Gaivoronsky. Lords of two continents.t.1.Kiev-Bakhchisarai. Oranta.2007
- Thunmann. "Crimean Khanate"
- Sigismund Herberstein, Notes on Muscovy, Moscow 1988, p. 175
- Yavornitsky D.I. History of the Zaporozhye Cossacks. Kyiv, 1990.
- V. E. Syroechkovsky, Muhammad-Gerai and his vassals, “Scientific Notes of Moscow State University,” vol. 61, 1940, p. 16.
Crimean Khanate: history, territory, political structure
The Crimean Khanate arose in 1441. This event was preceded by unrest in the Golden Horde. In fact, a separatist then ascended the throne in Crimea - Hadji Giray, a distant relative of Janike Khanum, the wife of the Golden Horde khan Edigei. Khansha did not want to take the reins of government of the once powerful state into her own hands and went to Kyrk-Or, assisting in the promotion of Hadji Giray. Soon this city became the first capital of the Crimean Khanate, which occupied the territory from the Dnieper to the Danube, the Azov region, and almost the entire modern Krasnodar region.
The further history of the new political entity is a tireless struggle with representatives of other Golden Horde families who tried to conquer the possessions of the Gireys. As a result of a long confrontation, the Crimean Khanate managed to win a final victory, when in 1502 the last Horde ruler, Sheikh Ahmed, passed away. Mengli-Girey then stood at the head of the Crimean yurt. Having removed his political enemy, the khan appropriated his regalia, title and status, but all this did not save him from the constant raids of the steppe people, who continually infiltrated the Crimea. Modern historians are inclined to believe that the Crimean Khanate never intended to seize foreign territories. It is likely that all the actions taken by the Crimean khans were aimed at preserving and consolidating their power, and at fighting the influential Horde clan of the Namagans.
All this can be traced even in individual historical episodes. So, after the death of Khan Akhmat, the Crimean Khanate decided to improve relations with his sons and hospitably sheltered them. But the heirs to the Horde throne decided to leave the khan’s capital, for which Mengli-Girey took one of them prisoner. The second, Sheikh Ahmed, fled. The third son, Seid-Ahmed II, who at that time became the Horde khan, organized a campaign against the Crimea. Having freed Murtaza, Seyid-Ahmed II took Eski-Kyrym, and then went to Kefa.
At that time, Turkish heavy artillery was already stationed in the Cafe, which forced the Horde to flee without looking back. This is how the friendly gesture of the Crimean Khan served as a pretext for the next devastation of the peninsula, and the Turks showed that they could defend the territories that were under their influence. Then Mengli-Girey caught up with the offenders and took away the property and captives looted from the Khanate.
The relations between the Khanate and the Ottoman Empire occupy a special place in the history of Crimea. In the second half of the 15th century, Turkish troops occupied the Genoese possessions of the peninsula and the territory of the Principality of Theodoro. The Crimean Khanate also found itself in Turkish dependence, but from 1478 the khan became a vassal of the padishah and continued to rule the internal regions of the peninsula. At first, the Sultan did not interfere in issues of succession to the throne in the Crimean Khanate, but a century later everything changed: Crimean rulers were appointed directly in Istanbul.
It is interesting that a political regime specific to that time operated in the yurt. Something like democracy. On the peninsula there were elections for the khan, during which the votes of the local nobility were taken into account. However, there was one limitation - the future ruler of the Khanate could only belong to the Girey family. The second political figure after the khan was the kalga. Kalga, most often, was appointed as the brother of the ruler of the khanate. Representative power in the Khanate belonged to the Greater and Lesser Divans. The first included the Murzas and respected people of the area, the second included officials close to the khan. Legislative power was in the hands of the mufti, who ensured that all the laws of the khanate were in accordance with Sharia. The role of modern ministers in the Crimean Khanate was played by viziers; they were appointed by the khan.
Few people know that the Crimean Khanate contributed to the liberation of Rus' from the Golden Horde yoke. This happened under Sheikh-Ahmed's father. Then the Horde Khan Akhmat withdrew his troops without engaging in battle with the Russians, because he did not wait for Polish-Lithuanian reinforcements, which were held back by the Crimean Tatar warriors. Contrary to popular belief, relations between the Khan's Crimea and Moscow for a long time were of a friendly nature. Under Ivan III they had a common enemy - Sarai. Crimean Khan helped Moscow get rid of the Horde yoke, and then began to call the tsar “his brother,” thereby recognizing him as an equal, instead of imposing tribute on the kingdom.
The rapprochement with Moscow shook the friendly relations of the Crimean Khanate with the Lithuanian-Polish principality. Kazimir found mutual language with the Horde khans, having quarreled with Crimea for a long time. Over time, Moscow began to move away from the Crimean Khanate: the struggle for the lands of the Caspian and Volga regions led to the fact that the king sought support among those very Namagans with whom the Gireys could not share power for a long time. Under Ivan IV the Terrible, Devlet I Giray wanted to restore the independence of Kazan and the Caspian Sea, the Turks volunteered to help the khan, but he did not allow him to interfere in the sphere of influence of the Crimean Khanate. At the end of the spring of 1571, the Tatars burned Moscow, after which the Moscow sovereigns until the end of the 17th century. were forced to pay the Crimean Khan regular “wake” payments.
After the formation of the Ukrainian Hetman State, the Crimean Khanate collaborated with the rulers of the Cossack state. It is known that Khan Islam III Giray helped Bogdan Khmelnitsky during the liberation war with Poland, and after the battle of Poltava, Crimean troops went to Kiev along with the people of Pylyp Orlik, Mazepa’s successor. In 1711, Peter I lost the battle with the Turkish-Tatar troops, after which the Russian Empire was forced to forget about the Black Sea region for several decades.
Between 1736 and 1738 The Crimean Khanate was swallowed up by the Russian-Turkish war. As a result of the fighting, many people died, some of whom were killed by a cholera epidemic. The Crimean Khanate sought revenge, and therefore contributed to the fire new war between Russia and Turkey, which began in 1768 and lasted until 1774. However, Russian troops again won and forced the Crimeans to submit, electing Sahib II Giray as khan. Soon, uprisings began on the peninsula; the local population did not want to come to terms with the new authorities. The last khan on the peninsula was Shahin Giray, but after he abdicated the throne, in 1783 Catherine II finally annexed the lands of the Crimean Khanate to Russian Empire.
Development Agriculture, crafts, trade in the Crimean Khanate
The Crimean Tatars, like their ancestors, greatly valued animal husbandry, which was a way of earning money and obtaining food. Among their domestic animals, horses were in first place. Some sources claim that the Tatars have preserved two different breeds that have long lived in the Northern Black Sea region, preventing their mixing. Others say that it was in the Crimean Khanate that the the new kind horses, which was distinguished by unprecedented endurance at that time. Horses, as a rule, grazed in the steppe, but they were always looked after by a herdmaster, who was also a veterinarian and breeder. A professional approach was also evident in the breeding of sheep, which were a source of dairy products and rare Crimean smushkas. In addition to horses and sheep, the Crimean Tatars raised cattle, goats and camels.
The Crimean Tatars did not know settled agriculture even in the first half of the 16th century. For a long time, the inhabitants of the Crimean Khanate plowed the land in the steppe in order to leave there in the spring and return only in the fall, when it was time to harvest. In the process of transition to a sedentary lifestyle, a class of Crimean Tatar feudal lords emerged. Over time, territories began to be distributed for military merit. At the same time, the khan was the owner of all the lands of the Crimean Khanate.
The crafts of the Crimean Khanate were initially of a domestic nature, but closer to the beginning of the 18th century, the cities of the peninsula began to acquire the status of large craft centers. Among such settlements were Bakhchisaray, Karasubazar, Gezlev. In the last century of the Khanate's existence, craft workshops began to appear there. The specialists working in them united into 32 corporations, which were headed by the Usta-Bashi and his assistants. The latter monitored production and regulated prices.
Crimean artisans of that time made shoes and clothes, jewelry, copper utensils, felt, kilims (carpets) and much more. Among the craftsmen there were those who knew how to process wood. Thanks to their work, ships, beautiful houses, inlaid chests that can be called works of art, cradles, tables and other household items appeared in the Crimean Khanate. Among other things, the Crimean Tatars knew a lot about stone cutting. This is evidenced by the Durbe tombs and mosques that have partially survived to this day.
The basis of the economy of the Crimean Khanate was trading activity. It is difficult to imagine this Muslim state without Kafa. The Kafin port received merchants from almost all over the world. People from Asia, Persia, Constantinople and other cities and powers regularly visited there. Traders came to Kef to buy slaves, bread, fish, caviar, wool, handicrafts and much more. They were attracted to Crimea, first of all, by cheap goods. It is known that wholesale markets were located in Eski-Kyrym and in the city of Karasubazar. The Khanate's internal trade also flourished. In Bakhchisarai alone there was a grain, vegetable and salt market. In the capital of the Crimean Khanate there were entire blocks reserved for trading shops.
Life, culture and religion of the Crimean Khanate
The Crimean Khanate is a state with a well-developed culture, represented mainly by examples of architecture and traditions. The largest city of the Crimean Khanate was Kafa. About 80,000 people lived there. Bakhchisarai was the capital and second largest settlement of the Khanate, where only 6,000 people lived. The capital differed from other cities in the presence of the Khan's palace, however, all Crimean Tatar settlements were built with soul. The architecture of the Crimean Khanate consists of amazing mosques, fountains, tombs... The houses of ordinary citizens, as a rule, were two-story, built of wood, clay and rubble.
Crimean Tatars wore clothes made of wool, leather, homespun and purchased overseas materials. The girls braided their hair, decorated their heads with a velvet cap with rich embroidery and coins, and put a marama (white scarf) on top of it. An equally common headdress was a scarf, which could be woolen, thin, or colored patterned. As for clothing, the Crimean Tatars had long dresses, shirts below the knees, trousers and warm kaftans. Women of the Crimean Khanate were very fond of jewelry, especially rings and bracelets. The men wore black lambskin hats, fez or skullcaps on their heads. They tucked their shirts into trousers, wore sleeveless vest-like vests, jackets and caftans.
The main religion of the Crimean Khanate was Islam. Important government positions in Crimea belonged to Sunnis. However, Shiites and even Christians lived quite peacefully on the peninsula. Among the population of the Khanate there were people who were brought to the peninsula as Christian slaves and then converted to Islam. After a certain period of time - 5-6 years - they became free citizens, after which they could go to their native territories. But not everyone left the beautiful peninsula: often former slaves remained to live in Crimea. Boys kidnapped in Russian lands also became Muslims. Such youths were brought up in a special military school and within a few years they joined the ranks of the Khan's guard. Muslims prayed in mosques, near which there were cemeteries and mausoleums.
So, the Crimean Khanate was formed as a result of the split of the Golden Horde. This happened around the 40th year of the 15th century, possibly in 1441. Its first khan was Hadji Giray, he became the founder of the ruling dynasty. The end of the existence of the Crimean Khanate is associated with the annexation of Crimea to the Russian Empire in 1783.
The Khanate included lands that previously belonged to the Mongol-Tatars, including the principality of Kyrk-Or, conquered in the second half of the 14th century. Kyrk-Or was the first capital of the Gireys; later the khans lived in Bakhchisarai. Relations between the Crimean Khanate and the Genoese territories of the peninsula (then Turkish) can be described as friendly.
The khan either allied or fought with Moscow. The Russian-Crimean confrontation escalated after the arrival of the Ottomans. Since 1475, the Crimean Khan became a vassal of the Turkish Sultan. Since then, Istanbul has decided who will sit on the Crimean throne. According to the terms of the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi Treaty of 1774, all Turkish possessions in Crimea, except for Kerch and Yeni-Kale, became part of the Crimean Khanate. The main religion of political education is Islam.
What does the average person in the former Russian Empire know about the Crimean Khanate? That in Crimea there was a certain state of the Crimean Tatars, ruled by khans and completely dependent on the Ottoman Empire. That in Feodosia (then Cafe) under the Crimean Khanate there was the largest market with slaves from Ukraine and Muscovy captured by the Crimeans. That the Crimean Khanate fought for many centuries with the Moscow state, and later with Russia, and was eventually conquered by Moscow. It's all true.
But it turns out that the Crimean Khanate not only fought and traded Slavic slaves. There were times when Muscovy and the Crimean Khanate were in a friendly strategic alliance, their rulers called each other “brothers,” and the Crimean Khan even played a very significant role in the liberation of Rus' from the Tatar-Mongol yoke, although he was part of the Horde. But little is known about this in Russia.
So, in our review, little-known facts regarding the history of the Crimean Khanate, through the pages of a new fundamental publication published in Ukraine.
Crimean khans
- successors of Genghis Khan
Founder of the Crimean Khanate Hadji Giray (Reigned 1441-1466).
This portrait in black and white illustrates Oleksa Gaivoronsky’s study “Lords of Two Continents”; this book will be discussed below.
The actual portrait image of the khan is surrounded by some symbols. Here's what Gayvoronskiy writes about these symbols on his blog haiworonski.blogspot.com (where this color illustration was published):
"Oak. Symbolizes the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, where the founder of the Khan dynasty of Crimea was born and lived for a long time. (His family was there in exile - Website note)
Owl. One of the symbols of the Geray family. European heraldic directories of the 17th-18th centuries. more than once they indicate a black owl on a yellow background as the coat of arms of the rulers of the Crimea, dating back to Genghis Khan.”
The illustrations here and below show some portraits of the Crimean khans for the multi-volume “Lords of Two Continents” by Oleksa Gaivoronsky.
Gaivoronsky pointed out, speaking about this series, made for his multi-volume work by the Kyiv artist Yuri Nikitin:
“Four of the nine portraits (Mengli Giray, Devlet Giray, Mehmed II Giray and Gazi II Giray) are based on Ottoman miniatures and European engravings of the 16th century depicting the listed rulers.
The remaining five images are a reconstruction created by the artist taking into account the author’s recommendations, which took into account rare descriptions of the appearance of this or that khan in written sources, and the appearance of his closest relatives captured in medieval graphics, and sometimes indirect data about the Mangyt (Nogai) or Circassian his mother's origins. The portraits do not claim to be documentary authenticity. The purpose of the portrait series is different: to become a decoration of the book and turn the list of khan’s names into a constellation of bright individual images.”
In 2009, the Kiev-Bakhchisarai publishing house "Oranta" published the second volume of Oleksa Gaivoronsky's multi-volume historical study "Lords of Two Continents." (The first volume was published there in 2007 and preparations are underway for the publication of the third volume. In total, according to the Ukrainian mass media, five volumes are planned).
Oleksa Gaivoronsky’s book is a rather unique publication. It is impossible to remember more similar studies in Russian, which would describe in such detail the history of the Crimean Khanate and its ruling dynasty. Moreover, this was done without the usual view of events from the “Moscow side”, which is usual for Russian-language books that describe the history of the Crimean Khanate.
The book was written, one might say, from the “Crimean side”. Oleksa Gaivoronsky is the deputy director for scientific affairs of the Bakhchisarai Khan's Palace Museum in Crimea. As he himself says in the preface to his book: “This book is about Crimea and for Crimea, but it may also be interesting on the other side of Perekop.” Written with sympathy towards the Crimean Khanate state and its dynasty of Gerays (who actually created the Crimean Khanate and ruled it until it was subjugated to Russia), the book, despite some of its bias noted above, is nevertheless an outstanding scientific work. And what is also important: the essay is distinguished by good, easy language.
Why the name: “Lords of Two Continents”? And here we finally move on to the exciting topic of the history of the Crimean Khanate based on the materials of Gaivoronsky’s multi-volume work.
We will present several short excerpts from this publication, which is still in print, in this review.
“Lords of two continents” is part of the title of the Crimean khans, which completely sounds like “Khakan of two seas and Sultan of two continents.”
But one should not think that the Crimean khans, when they chose such a title for themselves, were possessed by delusions of grandeur. Despite the fact that at times the Crimean Khanate included not only Crimea, but even extended to Tula, and taking into account dependent territories, extended to Lvov, and at some points in history included Kazan, it certainly could not be called a state of two continents . But this is not just a matter of vanity. Crimean khans, and in modern Russia this is a little-known fact, they were the successors to the power of Genghis Khan. This is how Oleksa Gaivoronsky writes about this in her book (The spelling of proper names and titles is given in the author’s version):
“The layer of Mongols - conquerors, as contemporaries wrote, within a few decades completely disappeared among the conquered Turkic peoples. It is not surprising that the empire of Genghis Khan almost immediately after the death of its founder split into several separate states, which, in turn, continued to fragment further. One of these fragments turned out to be the Great Horde (Great Ulus, Ulus of Batu Khan), which owned Crimea.
Despite the fact that the Mongols very quickly disappeared from the main stage of history, they left their system of government as a legacy to the conquered peoples for a long time.
Similar principles of statehood existed among the ancient Turks centuries before Genghis Khan adopted these customs and united the entire Kipchak Steppe under his rule. (Kypchaks (also called Cumans) are a Turkic-speaking nomadic people who, at their dawn, occupied vast territories from Hungary to Siberia. Ancient Rus' She either conflicted with them or entered into an alliance - Approx. website).
The cornerstone of this power (Genghisid) system was the sacred status of the ruling dynasty and the indisputable authority of the supreme ruler - the kagan (khakan, great khan). This largely explains why in those states that arose from the ruins of the empire, the dynasties of the descendants of Genghis, the last guardians of the Mongolian political traditions among foreign subjects (Turks, Iranians, Indians, etc.), were firmly entrenched in power for a long time. There is nothing strange in this: after all, the situation when the ruling dynasty differs in origin from the people under its control and cultivates the ideals of its distant ancestors is common in world history.
Mongolian state customs did not have much in common with the traditions of the Crimean Tatar people, who, thanks to the geographical isolation of the peninsula and as Islam spread among its inhabitants, was formed in the Crimea from new settlers Kipchaks, old-timers Kipchaks and inhabitants of the mountainous regions - descendants of the Scythian-Sarmatian, Gothic-Alan and the Seljuk population. (Sarmatians and Scythians are related pastoral Iranian-speaking tribes, Goth-Alans are tribes of Germanic origin, Seljuk Turkic people. Note site).
Nevertheless, it was on (these Mongolian state) customs that the power rights of the Gerays were based and their foreign policy- after all, the laws of Genghis were the highest authority for their opponents in the struggle for the independence of Crimea: the last khans Great Horde, whose capital stood on the Lower Volga (The famous Horde city of Sarai-Batu. Approx. website). No matter how different Crimea and the Horde Volga region were from each other, their rulers spoke the language of the same symbols and ideas.
The main rival of the house of Geray was the house of Namagan - another Genghisid branch that occupied the Horde throne in the last decades of the existence of the united Ulus Batu. The dispute between two dynasties over Crimea culminated in the victory of the Gerays: in the summer of 1502, the last Horde ruler, Sheikh Ahmed, was overthrown from the throne by Mengli Geray.
The winner did not limit himself to the military defeat of his opponent and, in accordance with custom, also appropriated to himself all the regalia of power of the defeated enemy, proclaiming himself the Khan of not only the Crimea, but also the entire Great Horde. Thus, the Crimean Khan formally inherited the rights to all the former Horde possessions - the same “two seas” and “two continents” that were imprinted in his new title.” End of quote.
A little about what the Horde was like at that time, the ruler of which was the Crimean Khan. First of all, we note that by the time the Crimean Khan achieved the status of ruler of the entire Great Horde, the Horde had long been split into sovereign uluses. But, despite the fragmentation of the Horde, Sheikh-Ahmed, defeated by Mengli Geray, was the last Horde ruler, on whom the Russian state de jure recognized political dependence.
Sheikh-Ahmed's father Khan Akhmat (also spelled Akhmad, Akhmed, or Akhmet) became famous for leading the last campaign of the Golden Horde against Rus' in history. During this campaign in 1480, the so-called “standing on the Ugra River”, when the Golden Horde ruler did not dare to start a battle with the Russian troops advancing towards him, he broke camp and went to the Horde - and it was then that, according to Russian historiography, the Golden Horde yoke over Russia ended. However, already under Sheikh Ahmed in 1501-1502, Tsar Ivan III, busy with the war with Lithuania, expressed his readiness to admit his dependence and resumed paying tribute to the Horde. Sources note that this step was a diplomatic game, since at the same time Moscow was inclined to attack the Crimea Horde. But formally, Sheikh Ahmed is the last Horde khan whose dominance was recognized by Rus'.
Sheikh-Amed ruled the Horde state, but not the great Golden Horde, which was once headed by Batu, Tokhtamysh and other powerful khans, but only its fragment - the so-called. Great Horde. The Golden Horde became the “Big” Horde, because By that time, new Turkic states had broken away from the Horde rule - the former appanages of the Golden Horde: the Tatar Siberian Khanate and the Nogai Horde (from a people close to modern Kazakhs), as well as Crimea.
The state of the Great Horde was founded by Sheikh-Ahmed’s brother Seyid Akhmed, who became the Horde khan after the murder of the unlucky “Ugrin stalent” Khan Akhmat. Returning from the Ugra after a campaign, the “Ugrin stander” Khan Akhmat was captured in his tent and killed by a detachment led by the Siberian Khan Ivak and the Nogai Bey Yamgurchi.
A the Crimean khans, after defeating Sheikh Amed, gained high status and title.
A similar title of rulers of “two seas and continents” was also borne, as Gaivoronsky writes, by “Byzantine emperors and Ottoman sultans, who meant by “two continents” and “two seas” Europe and Asia, the Black and Mediterranean seas.
In the title of the Crimean Khan, the continents remained the same, but the list of seas changed: these are the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, along the shores of which the possessions of Ulus Batu Khan once stretched. And in 1515, 13 years after the defeat of Sheikh-Amed, the Crimean Khan Mehmed I Giray, son of Mengli Giray, even took for himself the title “padishah of all the Moguls (Mongols)”, focusing not on the greatness of the Golden Horde khans Batu and Tokhtamysh, but on himself Genghis Khan. After all, the Golden Horde was once identified as the ulus of Jochi, the eldest son of Genghis Khan.
Crimean Khanate
- the state of the Horde, which was against the Horde
In the illustration from Oleksa Gaivoronsky’s blog: portrait of the Crimean Khan Mengli I Giray (Reigned 1466, 1468-1475, 1478-1515).
Gaivoronsky explains the symbolism of the portrait this way: “Hand on a sword. The victory of Mengli Geray in 1502 over the last Horde khans put an end to the existence of the Volga Horde. The Crimean Yurt formally became the legal successor of the Golden Horde Empire;
The design of the painting includes larks on nests as elements. Larks making nests (as a sign of spring) are mentioned in a letter from Mengli Giray, which the khan wrote on the eve of his speech against his Horde rivals in 1502.”
Despite the fact that the Crimean khans achieved t Itul, which gave them the right to be considered the ruler of the steppes, they were not delighted with the remnants of the Horde hordes.
As Oleksa Gaivoronsky notes in her book, the Crimean Khanate saw the main threat to its security from the steppes - residents of the former Golden Horde Ulus A:
“The foreign policy activities of the Crimean Khanate convincingly show that the Gerais did not set themselves the task of seizing and retaining foreign territories. Crimea was famous as a serious force, capable of inflicting destructive military blows - however, deliberately seeking to weaken the neighboring powers that were currently the most powerful, the Crimean khans showed no interest in conquering lands and expanding their own borders. The motives of their struggle for the Horde inheritance were different.
If you look at Crimea from the outside, especially from the “Slavic coast”, then in the 15th-16th centuries it looked like a formidable, inaccessible fortress, from the attacks of the garrison of which it was possible to defend only with varying degrees of success. However, the picture seen from such a perspective is incomplete, because when looking from Perekop from their side (the Perekop Isthmus connects Crimea with the mainland. The main border fortress of the Crimean khans, Or-Kapy (“gate to the moat”) was located there. Note site) the Crimean khans were well aware of the vulnerability of their state - another thing is that the threat to it at that time came not from the Slavic North (which only much later could pose a danger to the Crimea), but from the Horde East.
Truly right (ancient Arab historian) al-Omari noted that “the earth prevails over natural features”: The Gerai, whose distant ancestors, the Genghisids, came to rule the Crimean country as conquerors, repeated the experience of all the previous rulers of Taurica and themselves began to fear the nomads of the Great Steppe , just as the Bosporan kings feared the Huns... Nomads of the Volga and Caspian regions invaded the Crimea almost every decade in 1470-1520; the Crimean khans barely managed to hold back this onslaught in 1530-1540, and were still forced to stand ready to repel it in the mid-1550s.
After all, it was there, in the steppe nomads of the Horde, that for decades there was a fierce struggle for power, exhausting the Crimea with leapfrogs of rulers and a constant change of waves of armed strangers hiding on the peninsula after being expelled from the Horde capital or preparing to rush to the Volga; the house of Namagan ruled there, challenging the Gerays' supremacy over the Crimea; From there, devastating raids were carried out on the peninsula, whose small territory a thousand-strong detachment of nomads could devastate in a matter of days. Examples of such raids were not limited to the era of Timur-Lenk and the Horde turmoil: nomads of the Volga and Caspian regions invaded Crimea almost every decade in the 1470-1520s; the Crimean khans barely managed to hold back this onslaught in the 1530s and 1540s, and were still forced to stand ready to repel it in the mid-1550s.
The view of the Crimean Khanate as a victim of steppe raids is an unusual perspective, but it is fully confirmed in sources known to any specialist at. Moreover, the foreign policy activities of the Crimean rulers of that era were largely devoted to the defense of Crimea from the threat from the Steppe.
Direct armed struggle with the rulers of the steppe powers could not fully ensure the security of Crimea, because to establish direct military control over gigantic spaces former empire the Crimean khans simply did not have sufficient human resources - even despite the fact that they deliberately resettled a considerable part of the Horde uluses they had conquered to the mainland possessions of the Khanate. The rulers of Crimea had to choose a different path and call for help that ancient political tradition, the power of which was recognized by all the former subjects of the Horde: the inviolability of the power of the Supreme Khan-Genghisid over the entire multitude of individual hordes, tribes and uluses. Only another Genghisid could challenge the throne of the Great Khan, and for the rest of the population, including the noble class, it was considered unthinkable not to recognize this power.
In this light, the main task of the Crimean khans was to remove the rival Genghisid family from the Horde throne and take its place themselves. It was possible to finally defeat the Horde only by becoming its ruler; and only this measure, and not military actions, would guarantee the inviolability of the Gerais' possessions.
Such formal supremacy over all the peoples of the former Horde Empire no longer meant either “colonial” rule, or even economic exploitation in the form, for example, of collecting tribute. It only provided for the recognition by subjects of dynastic seniority and the nominal patronage of the supreme ruler, and this, in turn, ensured peace between the overlord and his vassals - the very peace that the Gerai so desperately needed, who sought to secure their land from raids and protect their power dynasty from the encroachments of other Chingizind families.
This struggle between the Crimean and Horde lines of the Genghisids lasted for many decades.
It did not end with the defeat of Sheikh-Ahmed and continued in the rivalry of two families for influence in those states of the Volga region that arose after the Ulus of Vagu: in Khadzhi-Tarkhan (in Russian transcription Astrakhan - Note.. At times achieving significant success in this struggle, the Gerai a year after year they were approaching their goal. But soon a third force intervened in the dispute between the two Genghisid clans and resolved it in its favor,” writes Gaivoronsky.
From the Crimean Khanate with love for Russia,
as well as other interesting features of the foreign and domestic policy of Crimea at that time
In an illustration from Oleksa Gaivoronsky’s blog: Devlet I Giray (Reign 1551-1577).
Gaivoronsky about the motives of the ornament of this portrait - sad motives directly related to Muscovy:
"Bent cypresses. The motif was taken from the tombstones of the Khan cemetery. Symbolizes the loss of two Volga khanates: Kazan and Khadzhi-Tarkhan (Astrakhan), conquered by Moscow during the reign of this khan.
Scroll in hand. Ineffective negotiations with Ivan the Terrible about the return of the Volga khanates.
Talking about the series of khan portraits for the book “Lords of Two Continents” and the exhibition “Chingizids of Ukraine” organized on July 1-9, 2009 in Kiev with the display of these paintings, Oleksa Gaivoronsky quotes in her blog an excerpt from an article by Ute Kilter in the Ukrainian newspaper “Den” ( No. 119 of July 14, 2009) with responses to the exhibition. And there again the theme of the Crimean Khanate and Muscovy sounds.
The newspaper writes:
“So Dmitry Gorbachev, art critic, consultant at Sotheby’s and Christie’s auctions, emphasizes:
“We can apply to the exhibition a term that we find in the Russian writer Andrei Platonov - “national egoism.” A very necessary, productive thing. For Russians this is Russian-centrism, for Ukrainians it should have their own angle of view. The project “Chingizids of Ukraine” demonstrates a Crimea-centric view. Sometimes he, too, goes “over the edge,” for example, when Tugaibey is proclaimed a hero of the Ukrainian people (Tugaibey is a Crimean dignitary who, on behalf of the Crimean Khan, helped the Zaporozhye Cossacks of Khmelnitsky with his military unit in the fight against the Poles. Note site). But Ukrainians really appreciated and resorted to the help of the Crimean Tatars, who were first-class warriors. They had an unrivaled 300,000-strong cavalry that moved with lightning speed. The Ukrainian Cossacks also learned this style from the Tatars.
Moscow has a completely different attitude towards this story: they don’t like to remember that back in 1700 Moscow was legally a vassal of the Crimean Khanate. Crimean Tatars are an enlightened nation. I felt this when I saw a letter from medieval Bakhchisarai, written to Sweden in Latin. The culture of the Crimean Khanate was high and influential. It is extremely important that both the exhibition and Oleksa Gaivoronsky’s books reveal this to Ukrainian society. They make us realize the kinship of our peoples and history. What is important here is the skill with which (artist) Yuri Nikitin uses the styles of Turkic and Persian miniatures, creating character portraits. The images of the Gerais here are interesting both in form and content. The double portrait of Mehmed III and Hetman Mikhail Doroshenko, who died during the liberation of this khan from captivity, opens our eyes to the twinning of not only rulers, but also our peoples.”
On closer examination, the foreign policy of the Crimean Khanate also turns out to be far from the stereotypical views that exist about this state formation in Russia. Sometimes Crimean politics even amazes with its nobility. Let's give a few examples from Gaivoronsky's book.
Here is the development of the already mentioned plot with “standing on the Ugra River”. The historical fact is that Russian troops won a bloodless victory at Ugra, which led to the end 300 year old Mongol-Tatar yoke over Russia, including due to the fact that the Polish-Lithuanian king Casimir, blocked by the troops of the Crimean Khanate, did not come to the aid of the Golden Horde Khan Akhmat. So The Crimean Khanate turned out to be a participant in the liberation of Rus' from the Horde yoke. Without Casimir's troops, Akhmat did not risk entering the battle, which he could have won. Although after the death of Akhmet at the hands of the Siberian Khan and the Nogai Bey, the Crimean Khanate also acted as a “Good Samaritan” for his sons, but it received black ingratitude in response in the form of a Golden Horde raid on Crimea.
Oleksa Gaivoronsky mentions all this in the fragment we provide below (we left the spelling of proper names unchanged):
“The sons of the deceased khan - Seyid-Ahmed, Murtaza and Sheikh-Ahmed - found themselves in dire straits. Now that their troops had fled, they had to be wary of any gang of robbers, of which there were quite a few roaming the steppes at that time. The main Horde bey, Temir from the Mangyt clan, led the princes to Crimea to ask for help from (Crimean Khan) Mengli Geray.
The bey’s calculations turned out to be correct: the Crimean ruler hospitably greeted the wanderers and, at his own expense, provided them with horses, clothes and everything they needed. Khan hoped that he could make yesterday’s enemies his allies and even accept them into his service - but that was not the case: having regained their strength in the Crimea, the refugees left Mengli Giray and, with all the donated goods, went to the steppes. Khan started to chase after the ungrateful guests, but managed to detain only one Murtaza, who now turned from a guest into a hostage.
In place of the deceased Ahmed (Akhmat), his son, Seid-Akhmed II, became the Horde khan. Under the pretext of releasing Murtaza from Crimean captivity, he began to gather troops for a campaign against Mengli Giray. True, Seyid-Ahmed was very afraid that the Ottomans would come to the aid of Mengli Giray, and therefore he tried to find out in advance how many Turkish troops were now stationed in Crimea. Apparently, intelligence reported that the Ottoman garrison in Kef was small and there was nothing to fear. In addition, just recently, in 1481, Mehmed II died, and instead of a ferocious conqueror who terrified neighboring countries, the Ottoman Empire was ruled by his son Bayezid II, a kind-hearted and peace-loving man. Having received this encouraging information, Seyid-Ahmed and Temir moved into battle.”
Here we will interrupt the quote from Oleks Gaivoronsky. To make a few more clarifications. Turkish troops invaded Crimea and brought it under their influence a decade earlier. At the same time, the Crimean Khan continued to rule the internal regions of Crimea, and the coast, including Kafa (in another transcription - Kefe) (present-day Feodosia), was directly controlled by the Turks.
Initially, the Turkish sultans did not interfere in the internal politics of the Crimean Khanate and issues of succession to the throne, but later, when the Crimean Tatar nobility began to appeal to them when choosing new khans, the rulers in Istanbul became more and more involved in the internal affairs of the Crimea. This ended a century later with the almost direct appointment of the Crimean khans from Istanbul.
But why do we, when talking about issues of succession to the throne, talk about elections? The point is that in TO The Roman Khanate had a kind of democracy. What then had an analogue from neighboring powers, perhaps, only in Poland - both the Ottoman Empire and Muscovy could not boast of democracy. The nobility of the Crimean Khanate had the right to vote in the election of the khan. The only restriction is that you can only choose from the Gerai dynasty. Over the 300 years of the state’s existence, 48 khans replaced the Crimean throne, most of whom ruled for 3-5 years. Some khans were called upon to rule again by the nobility. Of course, the opinion of Istanbul was of great importance, but without the approval of his policies by the local nobility, the khan could not rule for long - he was overthrown. To ascend the throne, the khan required the sanction of a large divan (a Council of representatives of the nobility who were not appointed by the khan, but were members of the divan by birthright. During the election of the khan, elected representatives from the common people also sat in the divan). WITH The khan shared his power with the so-called. Kalga - the highest official of the state and a kind of junior khan, who had his own separate capital in the city of Ak-Mosque ("White Mosque" - present-day Simferopol).
So the Crimean Khanate was distinguished by a fairly democratic structure. At the same time, the khan’s government was accustomed to coexistence on the peninsula with other state entities. Before the arrival of the Turks, part of the peninsula was occupied by the Orthodox state of Theodoro, and Feodosia and the adjacent coast were ruled by Genoa.
Now let’s return to Gaivoronsky’s book and, using the same historical plot as an example, let’s see how the Crimean Khanate fought the Horde and helped Moscow. We stopped at how the son of the last khan of the Golden Horde attacks Crimea:
“The attack of the Horde troops on the Crimea was so strong that Mengli Giray could not hold his position and, wounded, fled to the Kyrk-Er fortress.
Murtaza was released and joined his brother. The goal of the campaign was achieved, but Seid-Ahmed did not want to stop there and decided to conquer Crimea. Apparently, the Horde was unable to take Kyrk-Er, and Seid-Akhmed, plundering the villages oncoming, headed towards Es-ki-Kyrym. He besieged the city, but the old capital firmly held the offensive, and it was possible to take it only by cunning: Seyid-Ahmed promised that he would not cause any harm to the residents if they stopped resisting and let him in. The townspeople believed him and opened the gates to him. As soon as the khan achieved his goal, he renounced the oath he had taken - and the Horde army plundered the city, exterminating many of its inhabitants.
Intoxicated by success, Seyid-Ahmed decided to follow this with a lesson to the Turks, demonstrating to the new Sultan who was the true owner of the Black Sea lands. A huge Horde army approached Kefa. Confident of his superiority, Seyid-Ahmed sent a messenger to the Ottoman governor Kasym Pasha with a demand to lay down his arms and surrender Kefa to the Horde...
But the Horde warriors, standing on the seashore under the walls of Kefe, had not previously encountered heavy artillery, and the sight of the thundering (Turkish) cannons made a very strong impression on them. The retreat turned into a hasty flight...
Mengli Giray with his beys rushed in pursuit of the retreating enemy. The Horde army, frightened by the Ottomans, now became an easy target for the Crimeans, who managed to recapture from Seyid-Akhmed all the booty and prisoners he had captured in the Crimea.
The danger passed, and the Ottomans showed that they could provide Crimea with invaluable assistance in defense against Horde raids. And yet, the very fact of the invasion, albeit successfully repelled, could not help but instill anxiety in the khan for the future of the country: it was obvious that the new generation of rulers, the Namagans, had entered into a fierce struggle with the Gerays for the Crimea and would not so easily give up their intentions. It was difficult for Mengli Geray to fight them alone, and he began looking for allies.
Having lost its own outskirts, the Horde also lost its former Slavic vassals. The loss of Ukraine and its transition to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was recognized by Tokhtamysh. As for the Grand Duchy of Moscow, it too was successfully moving towards liberation from Horde rule, as evidenced by the recent failure of Ahmed. The fight against a common enemy, Sarai, made Crimea and Moscow allies, and Mengli Giray, who had long been trying to establish contacts (with the Moscow ruler) Ivan III, continued the negotiations interrupted (several years earlier) by the Turkish invasion. Soon the khan and the grand duke pledged to each other to jointly fight against Ahmed and then his sons.
From the point of view of Crimea, this union meant that Moscow recognized the Crimean Khan as the ruler of the entire Great Horde and became a formal citizen of him, shedding dependence on Sarai. Having inherited the traditional Horde supremacy over the Moscow Grand Duke, Mengli Giray renounced the privileges that humiliated his ally: he freed Ivan from paying tribute and began to call him “his brother” in letters. The sensitive issue of the title was very important for Ivan III, because the khan, as a representative of the ruling dynasty, would have the right to call the Horde vassal a “serf,” but instead recognized the Moscow ruler as his equal, which greatly strengthened Ivan’s authority among his neighbors.
In the illustration from the book by Oleksa Gaivoronsky: The Crimean Khanate surrounded by neighboring states and territories at the beginning of the 16th century.
In the illustration from the book by Oleksa Gaivoronsky: The Crimean Khanate surrounded by neighboring states and territories at the beginning of the 16th century. Our comment on this map.
First, a little about the Crimean names, and then, based on this map, we will characterize some of the states and territories indicated here.
The self-name of the Crimean Khanate is “Crimean Yurt” (from the Crimean Tatar Qırım Yurtu), which means “Crimean rural encampment”.
According to research, the name “Crimea” comes from the Turkic “kyrym”, which means “fortress”, or from the Mongolian “herem” - “wall”, “rampart”, “embankment”, “my hill”.
After the Mongol conquest of the peninsula, which previously bore the name “Tavria” (in Greek, “country of the Tauri” in honor of the semi-mythical people), the word “Crimea”, before becoming the name for the entire peninsula, was assigned to the settlement of Eski-Kyrym (“Old Kyrym” ), or simply Kyrym, who served as one of the Mongol-Tatar headquarters.
In passing, we note that, as Oleksa Gaivoronsky notes, the Mongols occupied only a small percentage in the ranks of the Mongol-Tatar conquerors. They mainly represented the command staff. The basis of the army was made up of Turkic tribes.
In Crimea, the Mongol-Tatars met, along with other peoples, a Genoese trading post-colony in Feodosia, which survived the Mongol conquest.
Europeans and Mongol-Tatars lived peacefully together in the city of Eski-Kyrym. It was divided into Christian and Muslim parts. The Genoese called their part Solkhat (from Italian “furrow, ditch”), and the Muslim part of the city was called Kyrym proper. Later, Eski-Kyrym became the capital of the Crimean yurt, which was still dependent on the Mongols. Kyrym (which still exists today as the small sleepy town of Old Crimea, where, with the exception of an old mosque, almost nothing else remains from the period of the Mongol conquest) is located on a flat plain, part of the steppe Crimea, several tens of kilometers from the sea.
It was the openness of the city of Kyrym from all sides that forced the Crimean khans to move the capital to the village of Salachik - to a mountain valley at the foot of the ancient mountain fortress of Kyrk-Er. Later, another new khan's capital, Bakhchisarai, was built there, which was the main city of the Crimean Khanate before the annexation of Crimea to Russia.
In Bakhchisaray (translated as “garden palace”), the Khan’s palace built in the Ottoman style is still preserved (an earlier version of the palace of the Crimean khans, but in the Mongolian style, was burned by the Russians during one of the campaigns of the tsarist army in Crimea).
As for the ancient fortress of Kyrk-Er, you can read more about it and the mysterious Karaite people (the so-called modern Khazars) who inhabited it in another material - “Modern Khazars - the Crimean Karaites” on our website. By the way, the status of the Karaites in this fortress was one of the specific features of the Crimean Khanate.
Also on the map we see that part of the Crimean Peninsula is painted in the same color as the territory of the Ottoman Empire. In 1475, the Ottomans occupied the coast of Crimea, defeating the Genoese state formation in Feodosia (under the Ottomans, called Kafa (Kefe), as well as destroying the Orthodox principality of Theodoro (Gothia), which had existed since Byzantine times. These two states recognized the supremacy of the Crimean Khan, but within their own the territories were independent.
Inset: Southern Crimea before 1475: Shown here are the territories of the Genoese Colony (in red) with the cities of Feodosia and Soldaya (present-day Sudak), as well as the territory of the Principality of Theodore (in brown) and the disputed territory between them, passing from hand to hand (in red). brown stripes).
On the large map we see the Kazan yurt, the Nogai Horde, as well as the Khadzhi-Tarkhan yurt (i.e. the Astrakhan Khanate, where the old Horde capital Sarai was located) - independent fragments of the Golden Horde, which periodically recognized the power of the Crimean Khan.
The territories colored in stripes on the map are lands without a specific status, previously part of the Golden Horde, which were disputed by neighboring countries during the period under review. Of these, Moscow at that time was able to finally secure the territory around Chernigov, Bryansk and Kozelsk.
An interesting state formation indicated on the map was the Kasimov Yurt, a microscopic state artificially created by Muscovy for representatives of the Kazan people who had defected to Moscow. ruling house led by Qasim. This yurt, which existed from 1446 to 1581, was an entity completely dependent on the Moscow rulers with a Russian population and a Muslim dynasty of local princes.
On the map we also see a thick light brown line - it marks the western border of the Horde territory during the existence of the Golden Horde. Wallachia and Moldova, indicated on the map, were colonies of the Ottoman Empire for the period under review.
True, the agreement with Ivan cost the khan his ancient, hereditary friendship with Casimir, because Muscovy, which had long encroached on the lands Lithuanian Rus', was an implacable enemy of Lithuania. Trying to find justice for Ivan, the king started negotiations on an anti-Moscow alliance with the Horde khans.
This new policy was a big mistake for the Polish-Lithuanian ruler: the weakening Horde did nothing to help him in the fight against Moscow’s claims, but the rapprochement with Sarai for a long time put the king at odds with a much more valuable ally - Crimea.
Preparing his fateful campaign of 1480, which was mentioned above. Ahmed asked Casimir for help, and he promised to send him Lithuanian forces for a joint attack on the enemy.
Casimir's troops were already preparing to come to the aid of the Horde - but Mengli Giray threw Crimean troops towards them, and instead of marching on Moscow, the Lithuanians had to defend their possessions. This was the reason for the defeat of Ahmed, who, without waiting for the allies to arrive, did not dare to fight the Russians alone and retreated back to meet his death.
Assessing the success of this Crimean campaign, Ivan III steadily insisted that the khan not give up the fight against Lithuania and strike his next blow at the very center of Lithuanian Rus' - Podolia or Kyiv. Mengli Giray agreed that Casimir should be warned against friendship with Saray, and ordered his troops to prepare for a campaign along the Dnieper.
Mengli Giray approached Kyiv on September 10, 1482. The khan did not approach the fortress, much less storm it: in this case, it would not have been difficult for the Kyiv governor to fire at the advancing army from cannons and repel the attack. Therefore, keeping the main forces at a distance from the fortifications, the Crimean warriors set fire to the wooden residential areas surrounding the fortress on both sides and, retreating slightly, began to wait for the fire to do its job. The flames quickly engulfed the dilapidated buildings, spread inside the fortified citadel - and Kyiv fell without any battle.
Crimean troops entered the defeated city and collected rich booty there, and then the khan led his people home.
Mengli Geray immediately reported the victory to his Moscow ally and sent him as a gift two precious trophies from the famous Cathedral of St. Sophia of Kyiv: a golden sacrament cup and a golden tray for worship. Having dealt Kazimir a crushing blow with someone else's hands, Ivan sincerely thanked Mengli Geray for his loyalty to his word.
The king could not repay the khan with a retaliatory blow and preferred to settle the matter peacefully. However, he did not miss the opportunity to sharply offend his Crimean neighbor, asking him through ambassadors: they say, there are rumors that he is fighting with Lithuania on the orders of Moscow? The lunge hit the target. Mengli Geray was indignant: does the Moscow prince, his subject, have the right to command the khan?! The dispute was limited to this, and Casimir took up the task of restoring the destroyed city.”
In general, this is how the Moscow state and the Crimean Khanate were friends. But when Crimea became excessively powerful, Moscow, as Gaivoronsky writes, became more friendly with the Nogai, setting them against Crimea. Relations between Moscow and the Crimean Khanate finally deteriorated due to the issue of Kazan. The Crimean khans seated their candidates on the khan’s throne there, Moscow put its own... Gaivoronsky notes:
“The Grand Duchy of Moscow, which itself had been a Horde vassal for a long time, also entered the struggle for the lands of the Volga region. Its strategy was very different from that of Crimea, because Moscow’s goal was classic territorial expansion. Not being Genghisids, the Moscow rulers, naturally, could not claim dynastic seniority among the local rulers, and therefore, unlike the Gerais, they did not strive for the formal subordination of the Volga khanates, but for their complete liquidation and the annexation of their territories to their state. At first, the Moscow rulers chose the tactic of supporting the weakening house of Namagan in its resistance to the Gerays, and then decided on a direct armed seizure of the khanates of the Volga and Caspian regions.”
And in conclusion of this review of the book by Oleksa Gaivoronsky another interesting fact. It was the founder of the dynasty of the Crimean khans, Hadji Giray, who returned the territory of the former Kievan Rus as a gift to the Christian world.
This was done around 1450, when neighboring Muscovy was still under the Horde yoke. The Crimean Khan, nominally claiming power over the entire Golden Horde, in gratitude to the Polish-Lithuanian state for support when he was an exile in Lithuanian lands, signed a decree at the request of the Lithuanian ambassadors, presenting the whole of Ukraine to the Lithuanian Grand Duke and the Polish King Casimir: “Kiev with all income, lands, waters and property”, “Podolia with waters, lands from this property”, then listing a long list of cities of the Kiev region, Chernigov region, Smolensk region, Bryansk region and many other edges up to Novgorod itself, which Hadji Giray on behalf of the conquered by him The horde was inferior to its friendly neighbor.
Let us only note that Khan Tokhtamysh had previously promised to transfer Ukraine to Lithuania.
Gaivoronsky writes: “Of course, the Horde had no influence in these lands for a long time, and the act of Hadji Geray was symbolic. Nevertheless, such symbols were of great importance at that time. It was not in vain that Casimir turned to Hadji Geray for such a document: after all, Lithuania had a dispute with Muscovy over some of these lands, and since Moscow was still formally subordinate to the Horde throne, the khan’s label could become a full-fledged argument in favor of Casimir in this dispute.
So the khan, who, for the sake of the security of his own state, defended neighboring Ukraine year after year from the attacks of another contender for the Horde throne: finally confirmed the liberation of this land from the long-term rule of the Horde. It remains to be recognized that Hadji Giray fully deserved the fame of “guardian of the peace of Ukrainian lands” that was assigned to him in history.” It is worth noting that during the period under review, there were several khans in the Golden Horde claiming the throne, and Hadji Giray was only one of them.
But Oleksa Gaivoronsky notes: “Having defeated the Horde Khan (his rival), Hadji Giray did not take the dangerous path that his predecessors usually followed: he did not go to the Volga to fight for Sarai. Without a doubt, Hadji Geray remembered well how many (appanage) khans of past years, having set their sights on the Volga capital, got bogged down in an endless struggle and died ingloriously in its whirlpool. Satisfied with what he already had, Hadji Giray abandoned the dangerous pursuit of illusory glory and returned from the Dnieper to his Crimea.” Let us add on our own behalf, he returned to Crimea and became the founder of the ruling dynasty of the Crimean Khanate - a state that lived for more than 300 years.