Administration of the Crimean Khanate. Crimean Khanate: geographical location, rulers, capitals
Bakhchisarai is the ancient residence of the Crimean khans Giray, who ruled the khanate for more than 300 years (1434 - 1783). Translated from Turkic, the name of the city means “palace in the gardens.”
The main attractions of Bakhchisaray are: the former Khan's Palace (now the Bakhchisaray Historical, Cultural and Archaeological Museum-Reserve); the largest Orthodox Assumption Monastery in Crimea and the “cave city” of Chufut-Kale.
Not only the palace reminds of the Crimean Khanate in Bakhchisarai, but also the ancient madrassas and narrow streets, which still preserve the flavor of a medieval eastern city.
The population of Bakhchisarai is about 30 thousand people, together with the municipal area - about 100 thousand people. The city emerged from the valley onto the plain, where its new districts spread out.
Bakhchisarai is covered in poetry, sung by Pushkin in the poem “The Bakhchisarai Fountain”:
Having finally left the north,
Forgetting feasts for a long time
I visited Bakhchisarai
A dormant palace in oblivion.
Among the silent passages
I wandered where the scourge of nations is
The Tatar feasted wildly,
And after the horrors of the raid
I drowned in luxurious laziness.
Foundation of Bakhchisarai
Bakhchisaray is located in the valley of the Churuk-Su River (Turkic “rotten water”), which is a tributary of the river. Kacha.
The creation of Bakhchisarai is associated with an ancient legend about the son of Khan Mengli-Girey, who observed the battle of snakes on the banks of the Churuk-Su. Today the image of two snakes above the entrance to the Khan’s Palace reminds us of this ancient legend.
The city arose at the beginning of the 16th century as the capital of the Crimean Khanate. It was built in a narrow valley. And today it has retained the flavor of a medieval city, as if hidden between steep cliffs. In the last decade, the city has grown, moving beyond the narrow valley onto the plain. Its new districts are located here. The administrative center of Bakhchisarai is Lenin Square.
Development of Bakhchisarai
The development of Bakhchisaray largely depends on the largest enterprise in the city - CJSC Bakhchisaray Plant Stroyindustriya (develops marls).
The history of the creation of the Bakhchisaray cement plant is as follows: at the end of the 1950s, new vineyards were laid out over large areas in Crimea, new buildings and livestock farms were built.
The construction of these structures required large quantities of cement. In order to meet the cement needs of regional farms, in 1959 a decision was made to build an inter-collective farm cement plant. In 1996, the legal status of the plant changed; in 2000, it was privatized and reorganized into CJSC Bakhchisaray Plant Stroyindustriya.
Bakhchisarai during the Crimean Khanate
The oldest street in the city is the street leading to the Bakhchisarai Palace. Let's try to imagine what it looked like 500 years ago.
...The traveler can barely squeeze through the only street that leads to the palace... It is so narrow that two carriages can barely pass each other. Tatar mazhars with coals and firewood pass with an incredible creak. Every resident of the city knows about their departure.
Stalls with colorful goods are climbing on top of each other. Lamb carcasses touch golden fez. The only street in Bakhchisarai is the arsenal of the Crimean Khanate. Under the canopy there are gun shops. The traveler is deafened by the ringing of copper, sharpened iron, the roar of forges, and the cough of camels.
And in the coffee shops there is silence. The Tatars, those who are doing well, sit for hours on mats with their legs crossed, or recline in the ancient custom. In front of them is coffee and smoking pipes. Five times a day the main street is filled with the cry of the muezzin - a Muslim priest calling for prayer - namaz.
There are only men on the street; Women in a Tatar family take care of children and housework exclusively. If for some urgent need a woman had to go outside, she covered her head with a white blanket. All that was visible were the lively black eyes and the tips of his pointed shoes.
Cultural life in Bakhchisarai
Women did not have the right to sit in front of men or talk with strangers. They did not have the right to learn to write, otherwise they would, as they believed, be possessed by genies - evil spirits. They could only learn to read the Koran. They were forbidden to enter the mosque; they could only pray at home.
The cultural revolution in the life of the Crimean Tatar people was carried out by the famous Tatar educator Ismail Gasprinsky at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.
He began publishing a newspaper in the city in Tatar and Russian, achieved the opening of a printing house, opened a school, and was also a talented writer.
In 2001, the house where Gasprinsky lived became a museum. In 2004, a monument to the educator was unveiled. In 1999, on the 200th anniversary of the birth of A.S. Pushkin, in memory of his visit to Bakhchisarai in 1820, a monument was erected.
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 Girey, a distant relative of Janike Khanum, 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 were friendly for a long time. Under Ivan III they had a common enemy - Sarai. The 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. Casimir found a common 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 outbreak of a 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 the Russian Empire.
Development of 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 a new type of horse was formed, 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 dishes, 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 includes 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.
Golden Horde. Genoa
In the 14th century, the Horde experienced a crisis caused by Islamization. The Horde lost a significant part of its offensive power, and its forces were directed towards internal squabbling, which ultimately destroyed the great power.
After another internecine massacre in the sixties of the 14th century, the Golden Horde was divided into two parts - eastern and western (in Rus' this civil strife was called the “great great one”). In the western part - in the Northern Black Sea region and Crimea - power was seized by the Temnik Mamai, who relied on the Polovtsy, who at that time received the name “Tatars”, Yasov and Kasogs. Mamai was married to the daughter of the Golden Horde khan Berdibek and although he was not from the clan of Genghis Khan, he laid claim to the khan’s power. His ally was Genoa, which created colonies along the entire southern coast of the Crimean Peninsula. Transit trade and control over communications turned Mamai into a rich nobleman who could maintain a huge army and place his puppets on the khan’s throne.
During this period, the Genoese Republic acquired great importance in Crimea. Genoa, a trading port city on the shores of the Ligurian Sea in Northern Italy, had become a major maritime power by the beginning of the 12th century. Having defeated its rival Venice, Genoa became the monopoly owner of the maritime trade routes that ran along the Crimea. Byzantium in the second half of the 12th century granted Genoa exclusive rights in the Black Sea. Venice lost its possessions in Crimea. In the middle of the 13th century, the Horde transferred the small coastal village of Feodosia to the Genoese. The Genoese called the city Cafa and turned it into their main stronghold in Crimea. Then the Genoese entered into an agreement with Constantinople, which previously owned the southern part of Crimea. The Byzantines at this time needed help and were constantly inferior to Genoa and Venice, so the Genoese received the district with Kafa in their possession, and the right of monopoly trade in the Black Sea region was confirmed.
At the end of the 13th century, Venice and Genoa again entered into a war for spheres of influence. The Venetian Republic was defeated. In 1299, the Italian city-states signed a “perpetual peace.” Genoa remained the sole owner of trade communications in the Northern Black Sea region and Crimea. The Horde tried several times to survive the impudent “guests,” but they were already well entrenched and resisted. As a result, the Horde had to come to terms with the presence of Genoese lands in Crimea. The Venetians were able to penetrate Crimea in the middle of the 14th century, but did not achieve much influence. During the “rebellion” in the Horde, the Genoese expanded their possessions in the Crimea. They captured Balaklava and Sudak. Subsequently, the entire Crimean coast from Kerch to Balaklava Bay near Sevastopol was in the hands of enterprising Italians. On the southern coast of the peninsula, the Genoese also founded new fortified points, including Vosporo, founded on the site of the former Korchev. In 1380, the Horde Khan Tokhtamysh recognized all the territorial seizures of the Genoese.
Genoa received large profits from intermediary trade. Many overland caravan routes from Europe, Russian principalities, the Urals, Central Asia, Persia, India and China passed through the Crimean peninsula. Sea routes connected Crimea with Byzantium, Italy, and the Middle East region. The Genoese bought and resold captured people, all the goods looted by the nomads, various fabrics, jewelry, furs, leather, honey, wax, salt, grain, fish, caviar, olive oil, wine, etc.
From time to time, the Horde captured and destroyed the strongholds of the Genoese. In 1299, Nogai's troops ravaged Kafa, Sudak, Kerch and Chersonesos. Khan Tokhta destroyed the Italian possessions. In 1395, Iron Lame defeated Kafa and Tana (modern Azov). In 1399, the commander-in-chief of its troops, Emir Edigei, became the ruler of the Golden Horde; in the same year he made a campaign against the Crimea, during which he destroyed and burned many of its cities. Chersonesos, after this pogrom, never recovered and after a few years ceased to exist. However, huge profits from intermediary trade allowed the Genoese to rebuild their strongholds again and again. At the end of the 14th century, Kafa was a large city and numbered about 70 thousand people.
The Genoese supported Mamai in his campaign against Rus', sending out mercenary infantry. However, in the Battle of Kulikovo, Mamai’s army suffered a crushing defeat. After this, Mamai was defeated by the troops of Tokhtamysh. He fled to Kafa to his allies. However, they betrayed him. Mamai was killed.
At the beginning of the 15th century there was a struggle between Tokhtamysh and Edigei. After the death of Tokhtamysh, the fight was continued by his son Jalal ad-Din. Crimea has more than once become the scene of fierce battles. Various contenders for the Horde throne considered Crimea, due to its isolated position, the most reliable refuge in the event of defeat. They willingly distributed lands on the peninsula to their supporters and associates. The remnants of defeated troops, detachments of various khans, pretenders to the throne, and military leaders flocked here. Therefore, the Turkic element gradually took a dominant position in Crimea and mastered not only the steppe part of the peninsula, but also penetrated further to the mountainous coast.
Genoese fortress Kafa
Crimean Khanate
In the first half of the 15th century, the Golden Horde ceased to exist as a single power. Several state entities with their own dynasties appeared. The largest fragment was the Great Horde, which occupied the steppes between the Volga and Dnieper. The Siberian Khanate was formed between the Irtysh and Tobol rivers. The Kazan kingdom arose in the middle Volga, occupying the lands of the former Volga Bulgaria. The Nogai, who roamed along the shores of the Azov and Black Seas, fell away from the Great Horde. The Crimean ulus also became independent.
The founder of the Crimean dynasty was Hadji I Giray (Gerai). Hadji Giray was from the clan of Chingis and lived in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia. In 1428, Hadji Giray, with the support of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas, captured the Crimean ulus. It was beneficial for Lithuania to support part of the Horde elite, sowing confusion in the Horde and taking control of its regions in the former Southern Rus'. In addition, Crimea was of great economic importance. However, Ulu-Muhammad's troops drove him out. In 1431, at the head of a new army gathered in the Principality of Lithuania, Hadji Giray undertook a new campaign in the Crimea and occupied the city of Solkhat (Kyrym, Old Crimea).
In 1433, the khan entered into an alliance with the principality of Theodoro against the Genoese. The Gothic prince Alexei captured the Genoese fortress Chembalo (Balaklava). Genoa struck back. The Genoese recaptured Cembalo, then stormed and destroyed the Theodorian fortress of Kalamita (Inkerman), which guarded the only port of the Christian principality. The Genoese continued their offensive, but the Tatars defeated them near Solkhat. Hadji Giray besieged Kafa. The Genoese recognized him as the Crimean Khan and paid tribute.
In 1434, Khan of the Golden Horde Ulu-Muhammad again defeated Hadji Giray, who fled to Lithuania. Meanwhile, strife between the khans continued in the Black Sea steppes. Tatar troops devastated the peninsula several times. Around 1440, the Crimean Tatar nobility, led by the noble clans Shirin and Baryn, asked Grand Duke Casimir to release Hadji Giray to Crimea. Hadji Giray was placed on the throne by the Lithuanian Marshal Radziwill. Since 1441, Hadji Giray ruled in Crimea. After several years of struggle with the khan of the Great Horde, Seid-Ahmed, the Crimean Khanate finally became independent. Hadji Giray concluded an alliance with Theodoro, directed against the Genoese Kafa, and helped recapture Calamita. In addition, the Crimean Khanate was allied with Lithuania in opposition to the Great Horde. Haji Giray inflicted a number of heavy defeats on the khans of the Great Horde Seyid-Ahmed and Mahmud; a large number of warriors fled to him, which seriously increased the military power of the new khanate. The actions of Hadji Giray contributed to the final collapse of the Horde.
The capital of the Khanate was the city of Crimea-Solkhat. Not far from Chufut-Kale, on the banks of the Churuksu River, Hadji Giray founded the “Palace in the Gardens” - the city of Bakhchisarai, which became the new capital of the khanate under his son Mengli Giray. The majority of the Khanate's population were Crimean Tatars. The first mention of this ethnonym - “Crimean Tatars” - was noted at the beginning of the 16th century in the works of S. Herberstein and M. Bronevsky. Before this, the nomadic population of Crimea was called “Tatars”. The Crimean Tatars formed as a people in Crimea in the 15th-17th centuries, that is, they are a very young people.
The basis of the “Crimean Tatars” was made up of assimilated descendants of the Aryans who lived here since ancient times - Cimmerians, Taurians, Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans, Goths, Slavs, as well as fragments of the Khazars, Pechenegs, and Polovtsians who fled to the peninsula. Waves of Turkic migration from Asia Minor also played a role. The Horde “Tatars” united everyone politically, and Islam united everyone ideologically. As a result, Turkization and Islamization led to the emergence of the Crimean Tatar people.
Recent genetic studies confirm this. Based on Y-chromosome inheritance, most Crimean Tatars belong to haplogroup R1a1 (an Aryan haplogroup formed in Southern Russia). Then, a significant proportion among the Crimean Tatars are carriers of haplogroups J1 (Middle Eastern group, characteristic of Jews) and G (Western Caucasian). Haplogroup J2 (the Middle Eastern group) also has a significant percentage; haplogroup C, characteristic of Central Asia, is inferior to it. Thus, the ethnographic basis of the Crimean Tatars is Aryan. However, there is a large percentage of "Khazars", "Circassians" and Turks. Turkization and Islamization over the course of several centuries turned everyone into “Crimean Tatars.” This shouldn't be surprising. All processes are controlled. Literally before our eyes, a separate ethnic group - “Ukrainians” - is being successfully created from a part of the Russian people. They also design “Pomors”, “Cossacks” and “Siberians”.
In the southern part of Crimea, assimilation proceeded more slowly. Here the countryside was dominated by Christians. Therefore, Greeks, Armenians, Goths, Italians, Slavs, people from the Caucasus, etc. also lived there for quite a long time. However, by the time the Crimean Peninsula was annexed to the Russian Empire, almost everyone was assimilated, only the communities of Greeks and Armenians survived, but they were doomed if not part of Russia. So the last Goths disappeared in the 18th century.
On the territory of the Crimean Khanate, several forms of land distribution arose: khan land ownership, the possessions of the nobility (beyliks) and Murzin lands, lands of the Ottoman Sultan, waqf lands belonging to the clergy and communal lands. The Crimean nobility - the families of Shirin, Baryn, Argyn, Sedzheut, Mangit and others - owned quite large land holdings. Their owners, the beks, were rich and had the opportunity to maintain large detachments. They stood at the head of the leading clans that united the tribes. The beks owned the land, which ensured their power over the cattle breeders, the so-called. “black people”, they had the right of court, established the amount of taxes and corvee. The military nobles also depended on the beks. It was the beks who determined the policy of the Khanate and often decided the fate of the Crimean khans. In addition, the Crimean elite included oglans - Chingizid princes, military nobles (Murzas), Muslim clergy (mullahs) and ulema theologians.
Officially, all power belonged to the khan and the khan's council (divan), which included the khan himself, the kalga-sultan - the second most important person in the khanate (the heir, he was appointed by the khan from among his brothers, sons or nephews), the eldest wife or mother of the khan, the mufti - head of the Muslim clergy, chief beks and oglans. The third most important person after the khan and kalga in the hierarchy of the Crimean Khanate, the second heir to the throne was called Nurradin Sultan (nureddin).
The territory of the Khanate in its heyday included not only the Crimean Peninsula, but also the Azov and Northern Black Sea steppes, right up to the Danube and the North Caucasus. The main centers of Crimean trade were Perekop, Kafa and Gezlev. Leathers, furs, fabrics, iron, weapons, grain and other food were brought to Crimea. In Crimea, they produced morocco (processed goat skin), morocco shoes, and smushki (skins taken from newborn lambs). Silk, wine brought from other countries, and salt were also brought from Crimea. A special export item was camels, which were bought in Poland and Russia. But historically, Crimea became famous as the largest center of the slave trade. He inherited the sad glory of Khazaria.
It should be noted that Genoese merchants and descendants of the Khazars initially played a leading role in the establishment of the slave trade on the peninsula. For many centuries, Crimean ports turned into leading suppliers of living goods - Russian, Polish, Circassian (Caucasian), Tatar (in the steppe there was constant strife) girls and children. Men were sold much less: healthy men resisted to the last, cost less, and were a source of rebellion and all kinds of disobedience. Women and children were much easier to “train.” Live goods generally did not remain in Crimea, but were exported to the Ottoman Empire, Southern Europe, Persia and Africa.
It was beneficial for Constantinople to encourage the aggression of the Crimean Khanate against the Russian state and Poland. The attacks of the Crimean Tatars mainly fell on the southern and western Russian lands that were part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, although it happened that the invaders broke through the Polish lands themselves. The Crimean Khanate was supposed to help the Sublime Porte in its heyday to move further to the east. In addition, the slave trade brought great profits to Ottoman merchants. Later, when the Ottoman Empire lost most of its offensive potential, the Crimean Khanate made it possible to maintain control over the Northern Black Sea region. On the other hand, military garrisons, shock troops of the Janissaries, and Ottoman artillery strengthened the military power of the Crimean Khanate, which allowed it to hold back the pressure of the Russian state for a long time.
Agricultural work in Crimea was carried out mainly by the dependent population, which was subjected to assimilation, Islamization and gradually turned into “Tatars”. The Crimean Tatars themselves preferred the occupation of “noble people” - robbery raids with the aim of capturing the population, which was a very profitable business. It is clear that almost all the profits went into the pockets of the nobility; the “black people” barely made ends meet. In the steppe regions of Crimea, livestock farming was developed, primarily the breeding of sheep and horses, but this was done by poor shepherds. The basis of the economy of the Khanate for a long period of time was trade in living goods. From the end of the 15th century, Crimean troops began to carry out regular raids and large-scale campaigns against their neighbors - the Caucasus, the Russian state, and lands subject to Poland. People were also driven away during conflicts with other steppe inhabitants.
The envoy of the King of Poland, Martin Bronevsky, who lived in Crimea for several months in 1578, noted: “This people is predatory and hungry, does not value any oaths, alliances, or friendships, but only has in mind its own benefits and lives by robberies and constant treasonous war.” .
The Crimean Khanate did not have a regular army. During large campaigns and raids, the Crimean khans and Murzas recruited volunteers, people dependent on them. From 20 to 100 thousand horsemen could participate in the campaign. Almost the entire free Tatar population of the peninsula could participate in a major campaign. From several hundred to several thousand warriors took part in the raid. They did not take the convoy with them; during the raids they ate flatbreads made from barley or millet flour and horse meat, and fed on loot. Artillery was rarely taken, only in very large campaigns when the Ottomans took part. We moved quickly, replacing tired horses with fresh ones. They were armed with sabers, knives, bows, and later firearms appeared. Armor was mainly worn only by the nobility.
Raids were usually carried out in the summer, when the bulk of people (peasants) participated in field work and could not quickly hide in cities or forests. Reconnaissance was sent ahead, and if the path was clear, the main forces of the horde or raiding party would come out. Usually the horde did not go on a campaign to conduct military operations. If the enemy found out about the enemy and managed to bring significant forces to the border, the Tatars usually did not accept the battle and left, or tried to outwit the enemy, bypass him, break through to the rear, quickly rob villages, capture prisoners and avoid a retaliatory strike. Lightly armed horsemen usually successfully avoided attacks from heavy squads and regiments.
Having broken into Russian lands, the horsemen organized a driven hunt (round-up). Cities and fortresses were bypassed. Villages were taken on the move or set on fire, and then they chopped down those who resisted, robbed and took people captive. Adult prisoners and young people were driven like cattle, placed in rows of several people, their hands were tied back with rawhide belts, wooden poles were passed through these belts, and ropes were thrown around their necks. Then, holding the ends of the ropes, they surrounded all the unfortunates with a chain of horsemen and drove them across the steppe, whipping them with whips. This painful path “weeded out” the weak and sick. They were killed. The most valuable “goods” (children, young girls) were transported. Having reached relatively safe lands, where they no longer waited for pursuit, they sorted and divided the “goods”. The sick and elderly were immediately killed or given to young people to “train” their predatory skills.
He was in the Polish-Tatar army during the campaign of King John Casimir to Left Bank Ukraine in 1663-1664. Duke Antoine de Gramont left a description of this process. The robbers killed all the old people who were not capable of hard work, leaving healthy men for the Turkish galleys (they used slaves as oarsmen). Young boys were left for "pleasure", girls and women - for violence and sale. The division of prisoners took place by lot.
The English envoy to the Russian state, D. Fletcher, wrote: “The main booty that the Tatars covet in all their wars is a large number of prisoners, especially boys and girls, whom they sell to the Turks and other neighbors.” To transport children, the Crimean Tatars took large baskets; prisoners who became weak or sick on the road were mercilessly killed so as not to linger.
On the peninsula it was sold in slave markets. There were large markets in Cafe, Karasubazar, Bakhchisarai and Gözlev. Merchants-resellers - Turks, Jews, Arabs, Greeks, etc., bought people at the minimum price. Some people were left in Crimea. Men were used in hard and dirty work: extracting salt, digging wells, collecting manure, etc. Women became servants, including sexual slaves. Most of the cargo was transported to other countries and regions - to Porto, its numerous provinces - from the Balkans and Asia Minor to North Africa, Persia. Slavic slaves ended up in Central Asia and India. During transportation by sea, no ceremony was taken with the “goods”; more or less normal conditions were created only for the most precious “goods”. A large number of slaves and an “inexhaustible” source of “goods,” as in the trade of blacks from Africa, covered all expenses. Therefore, the mortality rate was terrible.
After transportation, the men were sent to the galleys, where poor food, disease, exhausting labor and beatings quickly killed them. Some were sent to agricultural and other hard work. Some were turned into eunuchs, servants. Girls and children were bought as servants and for carnal pleasures. A small number of beauties had a chance to become a legal wife. So, many people still hear the name Roksolana. Anastasia-Roksolana became a concubine and then the wife of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, the mother of Sultan Selim II. She had a great influence on her husband's politics. However, this was a rare exception to the rule. There were so many Slavic slaves in the Ottoman Empire that many Turks became their children and grandchildren, including prominent military and government officials.
In March 2014, Ukraine lost control over the territory of the Crimean Peninsula, and after a referendum, the unilaterally proclaimed Republic of Crimea became part of the Russian Federation. The next stage in the most complex history of state formations on the territory of the peninsula has ended. Interest in the past has increased again, fueled by both supporters of the annexation of Crimea to Russia and opponents of it.
One of the variants of government structure is called the Crimean Khanate, which existed until the end of the 18th century for three centuries.
Remnant of a great empire
But a long time will pass, the military campaigns of 1735-39 and the Russian-Turkish war of 1768-74 will be carried out. Military successes of troops under the command of Kh.A. Minikha, P.P. Lassi, P.A. Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky, A. Orlov made it possible to conclude the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi Peace Treaty in 1774, which removed the Crimean Khanate from Turkish rule and secured Russia’s right to free navigation in the Black Sea.
The last Crimean Khan
Shahin Giray was the name of the last legitimate ruler of the Crimean Khanate. The history of the Girey dynasty ended in the 90s of the 18th century. It ended with internecine wars between the heirs of the dynasty - Bahadir, Arslan and Shahin Giray. With the support of Russian troops, Shahin suppressed an armed uprising against his government, but he was unable to gain popular support. With the complete financial bankruptcy of the state and growing hatred of his person, in 1783 Shahin Giray abdicated the throne and was subsequently executed in Turkey.
Annexation of Crimea
On April 8, 1783, Empress Catherine II issued a manifesto according to which Kuban, the Taman Peninsula and Crimea were part of the Russian lands. The power of the empire was such that in 1791 in Iasi the Ottoman state did not even think of protesting against the recognition of Crimea as Russian possession.
The difficult fate of an entire people
The history of the Crimean Khanate left its mark on the fate of an entire people. The fate of the Crimean Tatar ethnic group is full of difficult turns and difficult periods both in the distant past and in modern history. After the annexation of Crimea, the Russian state tried to assimilate the Tatars into Russian society. The Crimean Tatar battalion was formed as a personal guard for the kings, and the government helped populate the desert lands of Taurida.
But at the same time, at the beginning of the Crimean War, unfounded doubts arose about the loyalty of the Tatars, which led to the eviction of the Crimeans inland and the subsequent increase in emigration of the Crimean Tatars to Turkey. A similar story, in a more severe version, was repeated in the 20th century, under Stalin. In those events we see the roots of today’s difficult situation with the population who consider themselves indigenous to the Crimean peninsula.
Crimean issue
Today the word “Crimea” is again heard in different languages, and again Russia is resolving the Crimean issue. Among the participants in the events there is no such state as the Crimean Khanate, but the history of its rise and fall may be relevant for those who make current world politics.
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. The Crimean khans, and in modern Russia this is a little-known fact, were the legal 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, during their dawn, occupied vast territories from Hungary to Siberia. Ancient Rus' either conflicted with them or entered into an alliance - Note site).
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 was largely built - after all, the laws of Genghis were the highest authority for their opponents in the struggle for the independence of Crimea: the last khans of the Great Horde, whose capital stood on Lower Volga (The famous Horde city of Sarai-Batu. Note 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 at 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 the gigantic spaces of the 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 conquered. 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 rather 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 ruling house, led by Kasim, who had defected to Moscow. 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 of 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.
