Pre-history s, The first known
Turkic peoples appeared in Crimea in the 6th century, during the conquest of the Crimea by the
Göktürk Empire. In the 11th century,
Cumans (Kipchaks) appeared in Crimea; they later became the ruling and state-forming people of the Golden Horde and the Crimean Khanate. In the middle of the 13th century, the northern steppe lands of the Crimea, inhabited mainly by
Turkic peoples (
Cumans), became the possession of Ulus
Juchi, known as the
Golden Horde or Ulu Ulus. In this era, the role of Turkic peoples increased. Around this time, the local Kipchaks took the name of
Tatars (
tatarlar). In the Horde period, the khans of the Golden Horde were the Supreme rulers of the Crimea, but their governors –
Emirs – exercised direct control. The first formally recognized ruler in the Crimea is considered
Aran-Timur, the nephew of
Batu Khan of the Golden Horde, who received this area from
Mengu-Timur, and the first center of the Crimea was the ancient city
Qırım (Solhat). This name then gradually spread to the entire Peninsula. The second center of Crimea was the valley adjacent to
Qırq Yer and
Bağçasaray. in
Eski Qırım (Solhat), built in the Golden Horde period The multi-ethnic population of Crimea then consisted mainly of those who lived in the steppe and foothills of the Peninsula:
Kipchaks (Cumans),
Crimean Greeks,
Crimean Goths,
Alans, and
Armenians, who lived mainly in cities and mountain villages. The Crimean nobility was mostly of both Kipchak and Horden origin. Horde rule for the peoples who inhabited the Crimean Peninsula was, in general, painful. The rulers of the Golden Horde repeatedly organized punitive campaigns in the Crimea when the local population refused to pay tribute. An example is the well-known campaign of the
Nogai Khan in 1299, which resulted in a number of Crimean cities suffering. As in other regions of the Horde, separatist tendencies soon began to manifest themselves in Crimea. In 1303, in Crimea, the most famous written monument of the Kypchak or Cuman language was created (named in
Kypchak "tatar tili") – "
Codex Cumanicus", which is the oldest memorial in the
Crimean Tatar language and of great importance for the history of Kypchak and Oghuz dialects – as directly related to the Kipchaks of the
Black Sea steppes and
Crimea. During the reign of Canike Hanım, Tokhtamysh's daughter, in Qırq-Or, she supported
Hacı I Giray in the struggle against the descendants of
Tokhtamysh,
Kichi-Muhammada and
Sayid Ahmad, who as well as Hacı Giray claimed full power in the Crimea and probably saw him as her heir to the Crimean throne. In the sources of the 16th–18th centuries, the opinion according to which the separation of the Crimean Tatar state was raised to Tokhtamysh, and Canike was the most important figure in this process, completely prevailed.
Establishment The Crimean Khanate originated in the early 15th century when certain clans of the
Golden Horde Empire ceased their nomadic life in the
Desht-i Kipchak (Kypchak
Steppes of today's
Ukraine and southern Russia) and decided to make Crimea their
yurt (homeland). At that time, the Golden Horde of the
Mongol Empire had governed the Crimean peninsula as an
ulus since 1239, with its capital at Qirim (
Staryi Krym). The local separatists invited a
Genghisid contender for the Golden Horde throne,
Hacı Giray, to become their
khan. Hacı Giray accepted their invitation and travelled from exile in
Lithuania. He warred for independence against the Horde from 1420 to 1441, in the end achieving success. But Hacı Giray then had to fight off internal rivals before he could ascend the throne of the khanate in 1449, after which he moved its capital to
Qırq Yer (today part of
Bahçeseray). The khanate included the
Crimean Peninsula (except the south and southwest coast and ports, controlled by the
Republic of Genoa &
Trebizond Empire) as well as the adjacent steppe.
Ottoman protectorate Khan ("اسلام گيرای خان") enthroned (ruled 1584-88).
Secaatname (1586) The sons of Hacı I Giray contended against each other to succeed him. The
Ottomans intervened and installed one of the sons,
Meñli I Giray, on the throne. Menli I Giray, took the imperial title "Sovereign of Two Continents and Khan of Khans of Two Seas." In 1475 the Ottoman forces, under the command of
Gedik Ahmet Pasha, conquered the Greek
Principality of Theodoro and the Genoese colonies at
Cembalo,
Soldaia, and
Caffa (modern Feodosiya). Thenceforth the khanate was a protectorate of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman sultan enjoyed veto power over the selection of new Crimean khans. The Empire annexed the Crimean coast but recognized the legitimacy of the khanate rule of the steppes, as the khans were descendants of
Genghis Khan. In 1475, the Ottomans imprisoned Meñli I Giray for three years for resisting the invasion. After returning from captivity in
Constantinople, he accepted the
suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, Ottoman sultans treated the khans more as allies than subjects. The khans continued to have a foreign policy independent from the Ottomans in the steppes of Little Tartary. The khans continued to mint coins and use their names in Friday prayers, two important signs of sovereignty. They did not pay tribute to the Ottoman Empire; instead the Ottomans paid them in return for their services of providing skilled outriders and frontline cavalry in their campaigns. Later on, Crimea lost power in this relationship as the result of a crisis in 1523, during the reign of Meñli's successor,
Mehmed I Giray. He died that year and beginning with his successor, from 1524 on, Crimean khans were appointed by the Sultan. The alliance of the Crimean Tatars and the Ottomans was comparable to the
Polish–Lithuanian union in its importance and durability. The Crimean cavalry became indispensable for the Ottomans' campaigns against
Poland,
Hungary, and
Persia.
Victory over the Golden Horde In 1502,
Meñli I Giray defeated the last khan of the
Great Horde, which put an end to the Horde's claims on Crimea. The Khanate initially chose as its capital Salaçıq near the Qırq Yer fortress. Later, the capital was moved a short distance to
Bahçeseray, founded in 1532 by
Sahib I Giray. Both Salaçıq and the Qırq Yer fortress today are part of the expanded city of Bahçeseray.
Slave trade The slave trade was the backbone of the economy of the Crimean Khanate. The Crimeans frequently mounted raids into the
Danubian principalities,
Poland–Lithuania, and
Muscovy to enslave people whom they could capture; for each captive, the khan received a fixed share (savğa) of 10% or 20%. These campaigns by Crimean forces were either ("sojourns"), officially declared military operations led by the khans themselves, or
çapuls ("despoiling"), raids undertaken by groups of noblemen, sometimes illegally because they contravened treaties concluded by the khans with neighbouring rulers. For a long time, until the early 18th century, the khanate maintained a massive
slave trade with the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East, exporting about 2 million slaves from Russia and Poland–Lithuania over the period 1500–1700, mainly into the Ottoman Empire.
Caffa, an Ottoman city on the Crimean peninsula (and thus not part of the khanate), was one of the best known significant trading ports and slave markets. In 1769, a last major Tatar raid resulted in the capture of 20,000 Russian and Ruthenian slaves. The relationship with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was also exclusive, as it was the home dynasty of the Girays, who sought sanctuary in Lithuania in the 15th century before establishing themselves on the Crimean peninsula.
Struggle with Muscovy In the middle of the 16th century, the Crimean Khanate asserted a claim to be the successor to the Golden Horde, which entailed asserting the right of rule over the Tatar khanates of the Caspian-Volga region, particularly the
Kazan Khanate and
Astrakhan Khanate. This claim pitted it against
Muscovy for dominance in the region. A successful campaign by
Devlet I Giray upon the Russian capital in 1571 culminated in the
burning of Moscow, and he thereby gained the sobriquet, That Alğan (seizer of the throne). The following year, however, the Crimean Khanate lost access to the Volga once and for all due to its catastrophic defeat in the
Battle of Molodi.
Don Cossacks reached lower Don,
Donets and
Azov by the 1580s and thus became the north-eastern neighbours of the khanate. They attracted peasants, serfs and gentry fleeing internal conflicts, over-population and intensifying exploitation. Just as Zaporozhians protected the southern borders of the Commonwealth, Don Cossacks protected Muscovy and themselves attacked the khanate and Ottoman fortresses.
Relationship with Nogais At the beginning of the 17th century, the ancestors of the
Kalmyks, the
Oirat Mongols, migrated from the steppes of Central Asia to the Lower Volga region. They reached the Volga about 1630. That land, however, was not uncontested pasture, but rather the homeland of the
Nogai Horde. Large groups of Nogais fled southeast to the northern Caucasian plain and west to the Black Sea steppe, lands claimed by the Crimean Khanate. The
Nogais north of the Black Sea were nominally subject to the Crimean Khanate. They were divided into the following groups:
Budjak (from the
Danube to the
Dniester),
Yedisan (from the Dniester to the
Bug), Jamboyluk (Bug to
Crimea), Yedickul (north of Crimea) and
Kuban.
Relationship with Circassians Under the influence of the
Crimean Tatars and of the
Ottoman Empire, large numbers of
Circassians converted to
Islam. Circassian mercenaries and recruits played an important role in the khan's armies, khans often married Circassian women and it was a custom for young Crimean princes to spend time in Circassia training in the art of warfare. Several conflicts occurred between Circassians and Crimean Tatars in the 18th century, with the former defeating an army of Khan
Kaplan Giray and Ottoman auxiliaries in the
battle of Kanzhal.
Decline The
Turkish traveler writer
Evliya Çelebi mentions the impact of
Cossack raids from
Azak upon the territories of the Crimean Khanate. These raids ruined trade routes and severely depopulated many important regions. By the time Evliya Çelebi had arrived almost all the towns he visited were affected by the Cossack raids. In fact, the only place Evliya Çelebi considered safe from the Cossacks was the
Ottoman fortress at
Arabat. in the 17th century The decline of the Crimean Khanate was a consequence of the weakening of the Ottoman Empire and a change in Eastern Europe's balance of power favouring its neighbours. Crimean Tatars often returned from Ottoman campaigns without loot, and Ottoman subsidies were less likely for unsuccessful campaigns. Without sufficient guns, the Tatar cavalry suffered a significant loss against European and Russian armies with modern equipment. By the late 17th century,
Russia became too strong for Crimean Khan to pillage and the
Treaty of Karlowitz (1699) outlawed further raids. The era of great slave raids in Russia and Ukraine was over, although brigands and Nogay raiders continued their attacks, and consequently Russian hatred of the Crimean Khanate did not decrease. These politico-economic losses led in turn to erosion of the khan's support among noble clans, and internal conflicts for power ensued. The Nogays, who provided a significant portion of the Crimean military forces, also took back their support from the khans towards the end of the empire. In the first half of the 17th century,
Kalmyks formed the
Kalmyk Khanate in the Lower Volga and under
Ayuka Khan conducted many military expeditions against the Crimean Khanate and
Nogays. By becoming an important ally and later part of the Russian Empire and taking an oath to protect its southeastern borders, the Kalmyk Khanate took an active part in all Russian war campaigns in the 17th and 18th centuries, providing up to 40,000 fully equipped horsemen. The united Russian and Ukrainian forces attacked the Crimean Khanate during the
Chigirin Campaigns and the
Crimean Campaigns. It was during the
Russo-Turkish War (1735–1739) that the Russians, under the command of
Field-Marshal Münnich, penetrated the Crimean Peninsula itself, burning and destroying everything in it. More warfare ensued during the reign of
Catherine II. The
Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774) resulted in the
Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji, which made the Crimean Khanate independent from the Ottoman Empire and aligned it with the
Russian Empire. The rule of the last Crimean khan
Şahin Giray was marked with increasing Russian influence and outbursts of violence from the khan administration towards internal opposition. On 8 April 1783, in violation of the treaty (after some parts of treaty had been already violated by Crimeans and Ottomans), Catherine II intervened in the civil war, de facto annexing the whole peninsula as the
Taurida Oblast. In 1787, Şahin Giray took refuge in the Ottoman Empire and was eventually executed, on
Rhodes, by the Ottoman authorities for betrayal. The royal
Giray family survives to this day. Through the 1792
Treaty of Jassy (Iaşi), the Russian frontier was extended to the
Dniester River and the takeover of Yedisan was complete. The 1812
Treaty of Bucharest transferred
Bessarabia to
Russian control. ==Government==