The Crimean Khanate, self-defined as the Throne of Crimea and Desht-i Kipchak, and in old European historiography and geography known as Little Tartary, was a Crimean Tatar state established by Hacı I Giray existing from 1441 to 1783.
In the first half of the 16th century, the Crimean Khanate reached the height of its power and extended from Bessarabia in the west to the North Caucasus in the east. In one of his diplomatic letters, Mehmed Giray Khan proclaimed himself: "the great khan of the Great Horde, the Qipchaq Steppe, and all the Mongols, padishah Mehmed Giray Khan" and secured recognition of his authority from the Grand Duchy of Moscow and its ruler, Prince Vasili III. Later, he also succeeded in uniting the Crimean, Kazan, and Astrakhan khanates, bringing a significant part of the western lands of the former Jochid Ulus under his control. In addition to the steppe and foothill regions of Crimea proper, the khanate encompassed the lands between the Danube and the Dnieper, the Azov region, and much of present-day Krasnodar Krai in Russia.Oreshkova S. F. Krymskoe khanstvo v XV — XVI vv. (K voprosu o roli osmanskogo vassala v politicheskom stanovlenii postordynskoi Vostochnoi Evropy) v 2 t. T. 1 / Otv. red. M. S. Meier; — M.: Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2021. — p. 306.
In 1783, violating the 1774 Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca (which had guaranteed non-interference of both Russia and the Ottoman Empire in the affairs of the Crimean Khanate), the Russian Empire annexed the khanate. Among the European powers, only France came out with an open protest against this act, due to the longstanding Franco-Ottoman alliance.
Naming and geography
The Crimean Khans, considering their state as the heir and legal successor of the Golden Horde and Desht-i Kipchak, called themselves khans of "the Great Horde, the Great State and the Throne of the Crimea". The full title of the Crimean khans, used in official documents and correspondence with foreign rulers, varying slightly from document to document during the three centuries of the Khanate's existence, was as follows: "By the Grace and help of the blessed and highest Lord, the great padishah of the Great Horde, and the Great State, and the Throne of the Crimea, and all the Nogai, and the mountain Circassians, and the tats and tavgachs, and The Kipchak steppe and all the Tatars" ().Documents of the Crimean khanate from the collection of Huseyn Feyzkhanov / comp. and the transliteration. R. R. Abdujalilov; scientific. edited by I. Mingaleev. – Simferopol: LLC "Konstanta". - 2017. – 816 p. Sagit Faizov. Letters of khans Islam Giray III and Muhammad Giray IV to Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich and King Jan Kazimir, 1654–1658: Crimean Tatar diplomacy in polit. post-Pereyaslav context. time – Moscow: Humanitarii, 2003. – 166 p.
According to Oleksa Hayvoronsky, the inhabitants of the Crimean Khanate in Crimean Tatar usually referred to their state as "Qırım yurtu, Crimean Yurt", which can be translated into English as "the country of Crimea" or "Crimean country".Gaivoronsky Oleksa. The Country Of Crimea. Essays on the monuments of the history of the Crimean Khanate. Simferopol: FL ablaeva N. F., 2016–336 p. Oleksa Gaivoronsky. Lords of two Continents, volume 1, Kyiv-Bakhchysarai, 2007
English-speaking writers during the 18th and early 19th centuries often called the territory of the Crimean Khanate and of the Lesser Nogai Horde Little Tartary (or subdivided it as Crim Tartary (also Krim Tartary) and Kuban Tartary). Edmund Spencer, Travels in Circassia, Krim-Tartary &c: Including a Steam Voyage Down the Danube from Vienna to Constantinople, and Round the Black Sea, Henry Colburn, 1837. The name "Little Tartary" distinguished the area from (Great) Tartary – those areas of central and northern Asia inhabited by Turkic peoples or Tatars.
The Khanate included the Crimean peninsula and the adjacent steppes, mostly corresponding to parts of South Ukraine between the Dnieper and the Donets rivers (i.e. including most of present-day Zaporizhzhia Oblast, left-Dnipro parts of Kherson Oblast, besides minor parts of southeastern Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and western Donetsk Oblast). The territory controlled by the Crimean Khanate shifted throughout its existence due to the constant incursions by the Cossacks, who had lived along the Don since the disintegration of the Golden Horde in the 15th century. The London-based cartographer Herman Moll in a map of c. 1729 shows the Crimean Khanate as including the Crimean peninsula and the steppe between Dnieper and Mius River as far north as the Dnieper bend and the upper Tor River (a tributary of the Donets).To His Most Serene and August Majesty Peter Alexovitz Absolute Lord of Russia &c. This map of Moscovy, Poland, Little Tartary, and ye Black Sea &c. is most Humbly Dedicated by H. Moll Geographer (raremaps.com). The map shows Little Tartary as reaching the left bank of the Dnipro, and as including the Kalmius but not the Mius, to the north reaching as far as the Tor (Torets) basin, somewhat south of Izium. Other geographers (but not Moll) sometimes included in "Lesser Tartary" the territory of the Lesser Nogai Horde in Kuban, east of the Sea of Azov (in Moll's map labelled separately as Koeban Tartary).
History
Pre-history
The first known Turkic peoples appeared in Crimea in the 6th century, during the conquest of the Crimea by the Göktürk Empire.The Crimea. Great historical guide. Alexander Andreev publishing house Liters 2014 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."the Turkic peoples are becoming not only the ruling but also the state-forming people" – the Golden Horde and the Slavs 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.R. I. Kurteev, K. K. Choghoshvili. The ethnic term "Tatars" and the ethnic group "Crimean Tatars". – Through the ages: the peoples of the Crimea. Issue 1 \ Ed. N. Nikolaenko-Simferopol: Academy of Humanities, 1995 Around this time, the local Kipchaks took the name of Tatars (tatarlar).see Codex Cumanicus
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.
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.
There are legends that, in the 14th century, the Crimea was repeatedly ravaged by the army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Grand Duke of Lithuania Algirdas broke the Tatar army in 1363 near the mouth of the Dnieper, and then invaded the Crimea, devastated Chersonesos and seized valuable church objects there. There is a similar legend about his successor Vytautas, who in 1397 went on a Crimean campaign to Caffa and again destroyed Chersonesos. Vytautas is also known in Crimean history for giving refuge in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to a significant number of Tatars and Karaites, whose descendants now live in Lithuania and Belarus. In 1399, Vytautas, who came to the aid of the Horde Khan Tokhtamysh, was defeated on the banks of the Vorskla River by Tokhtamysh's rival Timur-Kutluk, on whose behalf the Horde was ruled by the Emir Edigei, and made peace.
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).Bakhchisaray history 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
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.