Crimean Tatars (sg. Qırımtatar, pl. Qırımtatarlar) or Crimeans (sg. Qırım, Qırımlı, pl. Qırımlar, Qırımlılar) are a Turkic ethnic group originally residing in Crimea. They speak the Crimean Tatar language.
The Crimean Tatars and non-Russian minorities living in Crimea are descendants of a mix of Turkic (Bulgars, Khazars, Petchenegs and Cumans) and non-Turkic (Alans, Slavs, Romanians, Byzantine Greeks, Crimean Goths, Circassians), as well as of other various people (e.g. Venetians and Genoese), who lived, settled (colonised) or were even brought as slaves by the Tatars themselves, in the Crimean penisula and the adjacent areas north of the Black Sea (the Pontic-Caspian steppe). The non-Turkic populations were assimilated into the Turkic ones.
The Crimean Tatars are subdivided into three sub-ethnic groups:
the Tats (Tat Tatars) (not to be confused with the Tat people) who used to inhabit the mountainous Crimea before 1944 (about 55%),
the Yalıboyu Tatars who lived on the southern coast of the peninsula (about 30%),
the Noğay Tatars (not to be confused with the Nogai people) - former inhabitants of the Crimean steppe (about 15%).
The Tats and Yalıboyus have a Caucasian physical appearance, while the Noğays retain Mongoloid characteristics.
In modern times, in addition to living in Crimea, Ukraine, there is a large diaspora of Crimean Tatars in Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Uzbekistan, Western Europe and North America, as well as small communities in Finland, Lithuania, Russia, Belarus and Poland. (See Lipka Tatars and Crimean Tatar diaspora).
The name "Tatar" initially appeared amongst the nomadic Turkic peoples of northeastern Mongolia in the region around Lake Baikal in the beginning of the 5th century. These people may have been related to the Cumans or the Kipchaks. The Chinese term is Dada and is a comparatively specific term for nomads to the north, emerging in the late Tang. Other names include Dadan and Tatan.
As various of these nomadic groups became part of Genghis Khan's army in the early 13th century, a fusion of Mongol and Turkic elements took place, and the invaders of Rus and Hungary became known to Europeans as Tatars (or Tartars). After the break up of the Mongol Empire, the Tatars became especially identified with the western part of the empire, which included most of European Russia and was known as the Golden Horde.
Formerly, it was believed that the name Tatar derived from the name Tartarus, the Greek name for the underworld; this belief led to the frequent spelling and pronunciation of the name with an extra "r", to conform with the classical Greek word. However, this provenance is unlikely since the Tatars use this name for themselves, spelling it without r (Tatar Cyrillic: Татарлар, Latin: Tatarlar).
Historically, the term Tatar (often misspelled Tartar) has been ambiguously used by Europeans to refer to many different peoples of Inner Asia and Northern Asia. For example, the Russians referred to various peoples they came into contact with on the Eurasian steppes as Tatars yet the British and Americans generally referred to the Manchu and related peoples as Tatars when they first arrived in China. The old English language designation is now regarded as archaic, although the meaning is preserved in the name of the Strait of Tartary that separates the island of Sakhalin from mainland Asia. Today, the word is generally confined to meaning one of the following:
Historical meaning of Tatars
Ta-ta Mongols
multi-ethnical population of Mongol Empire
multi-ethnical Muslim population of late Golden Horde (for neighboring peoples, for example, Russians)
Turkic Muslim population (Volga Tatars, Azeris) and some pagan Turkic and Mongolian peoples (such as Khakass) in the Russian Empire
Russian term for some peoples, incorporated into the Muslim nation of Russia in the late 19th century (for example, Volga Tatars, Nogais, Azeri)
Some ethnic groups in the Soviet Union after the policy of Furkinland, such as the Volga Tatars (or simply Tatars), Crimean Tatars, Chulym Tatars, and groups such as the Lipka Tatars (other peoples also switched their Russian names to "Tatar" to promote their desire for self-determination).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_Tatars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_Khanate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Crimean_Wars
The Crimean Khanate or the Khanate of Crimea (Crimean Tatar: Qırım Hanlığı, قريم خانلغى; Russian: Крымское ханство - Krymskoye khanstvo; Ukrainian: Кримське ханство - Kryms'ke khanstvo; Turkish: Kırım Hanlığı; Polish: Chanat Krymski) was a Crimean Tatar state from 1441 to 1783. Its native name was Crimean Yurt (Crimean Tatar: Qırım Yurtu, قريم يورتى). The khanate was by far the longest-lived of the Turkic khanates that succeeded the empire of the Golden Horde.
The Crimean Khanate was founded when certain clans of the Golden Horde Empire ceased their nomadic life in the Desht-i Kipchak (Kypchak Steppes of today's Ukraine and South Russia), decided to make Crimea their yurt (homeland) and invited a Genghisid contender for the Golden Horde throne, Hacı Giray, to be their khan. Hacı Giray accepted this proposal and came from Lithuania, the place he was exiled. He founded his independent state in 1441 after a long-lasting struggle for independence from the Golden Horde. The khanate included the Crimean peninsula (except the south and southwest coast and ports, controlled by the Republic of Genoa) and the steppes of modern southern Ukraine and Russia, also known as Desht-i Kipchak.
The internal strife among the Hacı's sons followed after his death. The Ottomans interfered and installed Meñli I Giray, a son of Hacı I Giray to the throne. In 1475 the Ottoman forces, under the command of Gedik Ahmet Pasha conquered the Principality of Theodoro and Genoese colonies in Cembalo, Soldaia, and Caffa. The khanate from then on entered the protection of the Ottoman Empire. While the Crimean coast became an Ottoman Kefe sancak, the khans continued to rule in the rest of the peninsula and the northern steppes. The relationship of the Ottomans and the Crimean Tatars were unique. The sultans treated the khans more as allies than subjects. Though the chosen khan had to receive approval to the Sultan, they were not appointees of Constantinople. (Halil İnalcık) The Ottomans also recognized the legitimacy of the khans in the steppes, as descendants of Genghis Khan.
The khans continued to have a foreign policy independent from the Ottomans in the steppes of Little Tartary. The relations of the khans and the Ottoman Sultan were governed through diplomatic correspondence. 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. (Alexandre Bennigsen)
The alliance of Crimean Tatars and Ottomans was comparable to Polish-Lithuanian in its importance and durability. The Crimean cavalry became indispensable for the Ottomans' campaigns in Europe (Poland, Hungary) and Asia (Persia). This made Crimean Tatars dependent on the booty attained after the successful campaigns, and when the Ottoman military campaigns began to fail, the Crimean Tatar economy also began to decline.
In 1502 Meñli I Giray defeated the last khan of the Great Horde putting the end to the Horde's claims on Crimea. In the 16th century the Crimean khanate pretended to be the successor authority of the former Golden Horde territory, Great Horde and hence over the Tatar khanates of Caspian-Volga region, particularly the Kazan Khanate and Astrakhan Khanate. This resulted in rivalry with Muscovy for dominance in the region. A successful campaign of Devlet I Giray to Moscow in 1571 finished with the burning of the Russian capital and he was called Taht-Algan (seizer of the throne) after this event. However the Crimean Khanate eventually lost the dispute for access to the Volga due to its catastrophic defeat in the Battle at Molodi just one year later.
The capital of the Khanate was placed initially in Salaçıq near the Qırq Yer fortress, then moved to Bakhchisaray founded in 1532 by Sahib I Giray.
Girays traced their origins to Genghis Khan, and this made them prevalent among other noble clans. According to the steppe tradition, the ruler was legitimate only if he was of Genghisid royal descent (i.e. ak süyek). Even the Muscovite Tsar claimed Genghisid descent. Instead of the Ottoman ideology of autocracy, the Crimean Khanate followed the Horde tradition. (Schamiloglu) That is, the Giray dynasty was the symbol of government but the khan actually governed with the participation of Qaraçı Beys, the leaders of the noble clans such as Şirin, Barın, Arğın, Qıpçaq, and in the later period, Mansuroğlu and Sicavut. The Nogays who transferred their allegiance to the Crimean khan when the Astrakhan Khanate collapsed in 1556, were an important element of the Crimean Khanate. Circassians and Cossacks also played role at certain times in Crimean politics, transferring their allegiance between the khan and the beys.
Internally, the khanate territory was divided among the beys and beneath the beys were mirzas from noble families. The relationship of peasants or herdsmen to mirzas were not feudal. They were free, and Islamic law protected them from losing their rights. Apportioned by village, the land was worked in common and the tax was assigned to whole village. The tax was one tenth of agricultural product, one twentieh of the livestock and a variable unpaid labour. During the reforms by the last khan Şahin Giray the internal structure was changed following the Turkish pattern: land-ownings of nobility were proclaimed the domain of the khan and reorganized into "qadılıqs" (provinces governed by representatives of the khan).
Crimean law was based on Tatar law, Islamic law and on limited matters the Ottoman law. The leader of the Muslim establishment was the mufti, who was selected among the local Muslim clergy. His major duty was neither judicial nor theological, it was financial. The mufti’s administration controlled all of the vakif lands and their enomous revenues. Another Muslim official, appointed not by the clergy but the Ottoman sultan was the kadıasker. He oversaw the khanate’s judicial districts, each under jurisdiction of a kadi. Kadis theoretically depended on kadiasker but in practice to the clan leaders and the khan. The kadis determined the day to day legal behaviour of the Muslims in the khanate.
The non-Muslim minorities (Greeks, Armenians, Crimean Goths, Adyghe (Circassians), Venetians, Genoese, Crimean Karaites and Qırımçaq Jews) lived in the cities and villages, sometimes having different quarters. They had their own religious and judicial institutions according to the millet system. They controlled the financial occupations and trade, and paid tax in return for which they did not serve in the military. There is no evidence that they faced any discrimination, they lived like Crimean Tatars, and spoke dialects of Crimean Tatar. (Alan Fisher, 1978)
The nomadic part of the Crimean Tatars and all the Nogays were cattle-breeders. Crimea had important trading ports where the goods carried through Silk Road were exported to the Ottoman Empire and Europe. Crimean Khanate had many sizeable, beautiful and lively cities such as Bakhchisaray - the capital, Kezlev, Karasubazar and Aqmescit having numerous caravansarais, hans and merchant quarters, leather-manufactures, mills. The settled Crimean Tatars were engaged in trade, agriculture, and artisanry. Crimea was a center of wine and tobacco production, and fruit farming. The Bakhchisaray kilims (oriental rugs) were exported to Poland, and knives made by Crimean Tatar artisans were thought to be best among the Caucasian tribes. Crimean Tatars were famous Silkworm cultivation, and honey production. One of the major sources of incomes of Crimean Tatar and Nogay nobility was booty attained from campaigns to the neighbouring countries and slave trade. (Brian G. Williams)
The Crimean Khanate was undoubtedly one of the strongest powers in Eastern Europe until the 18th century. Crimean Tatars played an invaluable role in defending the borders of Islam, especially against the Muscovites and Poles. In order to prevent the Slavic settlement in the steppes, Crimean Tatar raiding parties (chambuls), in cooperation with the Nogais, engaged in raids on the Danubian principalities, Poland-Lithuania, and Muscovy.
In a process called "harvesting of the steppe" they enslaved many Slavic peasants, and acquired booty, from which the khan received a fixed share (savğa) of 10 or 20%. The campaigns by Crimean forces could be divided into "sefers" - officially declared military operations led by the khans themselves - and "çapuls" - raids undertaken by separate groups of noblemen (sometimes illegal and banned because they contravened the treaties concluded by the khans with the neighbor 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. Kefe was one of the best known and significant trading ports and slave markets.
The Crimean Khanate also made several alliances with Polish-Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian Cossacks against growing Muscovy, which made competing claims to Golden Horde territories. The region in dispute was highly valued by Muscovy since it would allow the settlement of Russians to fertile areas where the growing season is longer than the more northerly areas which Muscovy depended on. It is speculated that with this soil, agriculture in Russia would have been rich enough to allow for a quicker decline of serfdom in the 17th century. In any case the permanent warfare in the borderland and the fast increase of the Russian nobles' armies contributed to increased exploitation of the Russian peasants.
Some researchers estimate that altogether more than 3 million people, predominantly Ukrainians but also Circassians, Russians, Belarusians and Poles, were captured and enslaved during the time of the Crimean Khanate. One of their most famous victims was Roxelana (Khurem Sultan), who later became the wife of Suleyman the Magnificent and achieved great power in the Ottoman court. A constant threat from Crimean Tatars supported the appearance of Cossackdom.
Perfecting their raiding tactics, Crimean Tatars chose routes along watersheds. The main way to Moscow was Muravski shliach, going from Crimean Perekop up to Tula between the rivers Dnieper and Seversky Donets. Having gone deep into the populated area for 100-200 kilometers, the Tatars turned back and looted and captured slaves. Annually Moscow mobilized in the spring up to 65,000 soldiers for border service, which was a heavy burden for the state. The defensive Russian lines consisted of the circuit of earthen shafts, fallen trees, trenches and fortresses such as Belev, Odoev, and Tula. The coast of the river Oka near to Moscow served as last line of defense. Cossacks and young noblemen were organized into sentry and patrol services that observed Crimean Tatars on the steppe. (Source: Vasily Klyuchevsky, "The course of Russian History".) About 30 major Tatar raids were recorded into Muscovite territories between 1558-1596.
The decline of the Crimean Khanate was tied to the weakening of the Ottoman empire and a change in the balance of power in Eastern Europe that favoured the Christian kingdoms. Crimean Tatars returned from the Ottoman campaigns empty-handed, while the Tatar cavalry without sufficient guns suffered great loss against European and Russian modern armies. By the late 17th century, Muscovite Russia became too strong a power for Crimea to pillage it. From then on, Crimean Tatars were not able to conducts raids for attaining slaves or booty to Ukraine and Russia and this cut one of the economic sources of the khanate. The support of the khan by noble clans also began to erode as a result of these external failures, and internal conflict 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 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 part of Russia and keeping their oath to protect its southeastern borders, Kalmyk Khanate took an active part in all Russian war campaigns in 17th and 18th centuries, providing up to 40 000 fully equipped horsemen.
The united Russian and Ukrainian forces attacked the Khanate during the Chigirin Campaigns and the Crimean Campaigns. It was during the Russo-Turkish War, 1735-1739 that the Russians under command of Field-Marshal Munnich finally managed to penetrate the Crimean Peninsula itself.
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 side of the khan administration towards internal opposition. On 8 April 1783, in violation of the treaty, Catherine II interfered into the civil war, de facto annexing the whole peninsula into the Russian Empire. In 1787, Şahin Giray took refuge in the Ottoman empire and was eventually executed by the Ottoman authorities for betrayal in Rhodes, although the royal Giray family survives to this day.
Crimean Khanate
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Originally Posted by King Louise Assurbanipal
