Language(s): Crimean Tatar language
Ottoman Turkish
Religion: Sunni Islam
Government Monarchy Khan List
History:
- Established 1441
- Subjection by the Ottoman Porte 1478
- Independence of the Ottoman Porte (Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca) July 21, 1774
- Annexed to Russia 1783
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Map of Europe in 1648 at the time of Khmelnytsky Uprising.
Crimean Tatar soldier fighting with the soldier of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Europe's steppe frontier was in a state of semi-permanent warfare until the 18th century.
16 C - Crimean Tatars ( awesome unit )
Crimean Khanate
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.
Early rulers
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.
Political and economic system
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 muftis 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 khanates 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)
Golden Age
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.
Decline
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 RULERS:
1777-1782 Şahin Giray first reign
1782 Bahadır II Giray
1782-1783 Şahin Giray second reign
The reigns of Canibek Giray in 1624 and of Maqsud Giray in 1771-1772 are not listed. Though these khans were formally appointed by Ottoman sultans they did not reach the throne and did not rule Crimea. In the years mentioned, the authority in the Crimean Khanate was exercised by Mehmed III Giray and Sahib II Giray correspondingly.
Note: The nominal khans Şahbaz Giray (1787-1789) and Baht Giray (1789-1792) mentioned in some works are not listed in this table as they did not rule the Crimean Khanate annexed by Russia in 1783.
Vassals of the Ottoman Empire, 1475; conquest of Golden Horde, 1502
Muhammad Giray I Khan 1514-1523 Ghazi Giray I Khan 1523-1524 Sa'adat Giray I Khan 1524-1532 Islam Giray I Khan 1532 Sahib Giray I Khan 1532-1551 Dawlat Giray I Khan 1551-1577 Muhammad Giray II Khan 1577-1584 Islam Giray II Khan 1584-1588 Ghazi Giray II Khan 1588-1596, 1596-1608 Fethi Giray I Khan 1596 Toqtamish Giray Khan 1608 Salamat Giray I Khan 1608-1610 Muhammad Giray III Khan 1610, 1623-1624, 1624-1627 Jani Beg Giray Khan 1610-1623, 1624 1627-1635 Inayat Boztorgai Giray Khan 1635-1637 Bahadur Giray I Khan 1637-1641 Muhammad Giray IV Khan 1641 1644, 1654-1666 Islam Giray III Khan 1644-1654 Adil Giray Khan 1666-1671 Salim Giray I Khan 1671-1678, 1684-1691, 1692-1699, 1702-1704 Murad Giray Khan 1678-1683 Hajji Giray II Khan 1683-1684 Sa'adat Giray II Khan 1691 Safa Giray Khan 1691-1692 Dawlat Giray II Khan 1699-1702, 1708-1713 Ghazi Giray III Khan 1704-1707 Qaplan Giray I Khan 1707-1708, 1713-1716, 1730-1736 Dawlat Giray III Khan 1716-1717 Sa'adat Giray III Khan 1717-1724 Mengli Giray II Khan 1724-1730, 1737-1740 Fethi Giray II Khan 1736-1737 Salamat Giray II Khan 1740-1743 Salim Giray II Khan 1743-1748 Arslan Giray Khan 1748-1756, 1767 Halim Giray Khan 1756-1758 Qirim Giray Khan 1758-1764, 1768-1769 Salim Giray III Khan 1764-1767, 1770-1771 Maqsud Giray Khan 1767-1768, 1771-1772 Dawlat Giray IV Khan 1769, 1775-1777 Qaplan Giray II Khan 1769-1770 Sahib Giray II Khan 1772-1775
1783, Russian annexation by Catharine II the Great
the Crimean Khanate
CAPITAL:Bakhchisaray
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.
Early rulers
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.
Political and economic system
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 is 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 muftis 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 khanates 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)
Golden Age
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.
Decline
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.
List of rulers of Crimean Khanate.
c.1427 or 1441 - 1456Hacı I Giray Khanfirst reign 1456Hayder Khan 1456-1466Hacı I Giray Khansecond reign 1466-1467Nur Devlet Khanfirst reign 1467Meñli I Giray Khanfirst reign 1467-1469Nur Devlet Khansecond reign 1469-1475Meñli I Giray Khansecond reign 1475-1476Nur Devlet Khanthird reign 1476-1478dynastydismissed from power 1478-1515Meñli I Giray Khanthird reign 1515-1523Mehmed I Giray Khan 1523-1524Ğazı I Giray Khan 1524-1532Saadet I Giray Khan 1532İslâm I Giray Khan 1532-1551Sahib I Giray Khan 1551-1577Devlet I Giray Khan 1577-1584Mehmed II Giray Khan 1584Saadet II Giray Khan 1584-1588İslâm II Giray Khan 1588-1596Ğazı II Giray Khanfirst reign 1596Fetih I Giray Khan 1596-1607Ğazı II Giray Khansecond reign 1607-1608Toqtamış Giray Khan 1608-1610Selâmet I Giray Khan 1610-1623Canibek Giray Khanfirst reign 1623-1628Mehmed III Giray Khan 1628-1635Canibek Giray Khansecond reign 1635-1637İnayet Boztorgai Giray Khan 1637-1641Bahadır I Giray Khan 1641-1644Mehmed IV Giray Khanfirst reign 1644-1654İslâm III Giray Khan 1654-1666Mehmed IV Giray Khansecond reign 1666-1671Adil Giray Khan 1671-1678Selim I Giray Khanfirst reign 1678-1683Murad Giray Khan 1683-1684Hacı II Giray Khan 1684-1691Selim I Giray Khansecond reign 1691Saadet III Giray Khan 1691-1692Safa Giray Khan 1692-1699Selim I Giray Khanthird reign 1699-1702Devlet II Giray Khanfirst reign 1702-1704Selim I Giray Khanfourth reign 1704-1707Ğazı III Giray Khan 1707-1708Qaplan I Giray Khanfirst reign 1709-1713Devlet II Giray Khansecond reign 1713-1715Qaplan I Giray Khansecond reign 1716-1717Devlet III Giray Khan 1717-1724Saadet IV Giray Khan 1724-1730Meñli II Giray Khanfirst reign 1730-1736Qaplan I Giray Khanthird reign 1736-1737Fetih II Giray Khan 1737-1740Meñli II Giray Khansecond reign 1740-1743Selamet II Giray Khan 1743-1748Selim II Giray Khan 1748-1756Arslan Giray Khanfirst reign 1756-1758Halim Giray Khan 1758-1764Qırım Giray Khanfirst reign 1765-1767Selim III Giray Khanfirst reign 1767Arslan Giray Khansecond reign 1767-1768Maqsud Giray Khan 1768-1769Qırım Giray Khansecond reign 1769-1770Devlet IV Giray Khanfirst reign 1770Qaplan II Giray Khan 1770-1771Selim III Giray Khansecond reign 1771-1775Sahib II Giray Khan 1775-1777Devlet IV Giray Khansecond reign 1777-1782Şahin Giray Khanfirst reign 1782Bahadır II Giray Khan 1782-1783Şahin Giray Khansecond reign
The reigns of Canibek Giray Khan in 1624 and of Maqsud Giray Khan in 1771-1772 are not listed. Though these Khans were formally appointed by Ottoman sultans they did not reach the throne and did not rule Crimea. In the years mentioned, the authority in the Crimean Khanate was exercised by Mehmed III Giray Khan and Sahib II Giray Khan correspondingly. Note: The nominal KhansŞahbaz Giray Khan (1787-1789) and Baht ( Batu ) Giray Khan (1789-1792) mentioned in some works are not listed in this table as they did not rule the Crimean Khanate annexed by Russia in 1783.
What PICTURES of the Crimean Khanate.
Women
Circassian, Nogai Tatars and Kalmyks
Tatars
Crimean Khanate
BTW: Crimean Tatars is Family and Direct Descendant of Kypchaks and Golden Horde.
Now I Post Now What Pictures of Kypchaks and Golden Hordes army:
Cuman
Pecheneg, but basically the same
Kipchak
Cuman Horse Archer
Cuman Warrior
Cuman Warrior
#1 is Cuman Horse Archer (inspiration for the SV unit)
Pecheneg Horse Archer
Kypchak - Archer
Nogai - HORDE
Nogai - Horde
Tatar
- RED ( Merchant ) GREEN ( Princess ) BLUE ( DIPLOMAT )
Face Hair Style
Tatar - Horse Archers
MOSTLY Faction Leaders and Faction Heirs By MONGOLS is that to so ( THE FACE )
KYPCHAK - Axe SOLDIERS
Tatar
FACTION LEADER ( FACE )
TOGAI BEG KHAN ( a GREAT - KYPCHAK - Leader ) - So was the Kypchak Leaders to ( Look the HAIR's )
Kazakh SOLDIERS by RUSSIAN's is the Real SOLDIERS of the CUMAN ( KYPCHAK )..
MOSTLY - TATAR's, KYPCHAK's and MONGOL's - HAIR STYLE and FACE..
Kypchaks
Kypchaks Pictures, From Brother Chaghatai Khan.. I Thank Him. :wink:
Crimean Khanate
TATARS
TATARARMY
Crimean Khanate
The Black Death of the 1340s was a major factor contributing to the Golden Horde's eventual downfall. Following the disastrous rule of Jani Beg and his subsequent assassination, the empire fell into a long civil war, averaging one new Khan per annum for the next few decades (Though Orda's white horde carried on generally free from trouble until the late 1370's). By the 1380s, Khwarezm, Astrakhan, and Muscovy attempted to break free of the Horde's power, while the lower reaches of the Dnieper were annexed by Lithuania and Poland in 1368 (Whilst the eastern principalities were generally annexed with little resistance).
Mamai, a Tatar general who did not formally hold the throne, attempted to reassert Tatar authority over Russia. His army was defeated by Dmitri Donskoi at the Battle of Kulikovo in his second consecutive victory over the Tatars. Mamai soon fell from power, and in 1378, Tokhtamysh, a descendant of Orda Khan and ruler of the White Horde, invaded and annexed the territory of the Blue Horde, briefly reestablishing the Golden Horde as a dominant regional power.
After Mamai's defeat, Tokhtamysh tried to restore the dominance of the Golden Horde over Russia by attacking Russian lands in 1382. He besieged Moscow on August 23, but Muscovites beat off his storm, using firearms for the first time in Russian history. On August 26, two sons of Tokhtamysh's supporter Dmitry of Suzdal, dukes of Suzdal and Nizhny Novgorod Vasily and Semyon, who were present in Tokhtamysh's forces, persuaded Muscovites to open the city gates, promising that forces would not harm the city in this case. This allowed Tokhtamysh's troops to burst in and destroy Moscow, killing 24,000 people.
A fatal blow to the Horde was dealt by Tamerlane, who annihilated Tokhtamysh's army, destroyed his capital, looted the Crimean trade centers, and deported the most skillful craftsmen to his own capital in Samarkand.
In the first decades of the 15th century, power was wielded by Edigu, a vizier who routed Vytautas of Lithuania in the great Battle of the Vorskla River and established the Nogai Horde as his personal demesne.
*** - In the 1440s, the Horde was again wracked by civil war. This time it broke up into separate Khanates: Qasim Khanate, Khanate of Kazan, Khanate of Astrakhan, Kazakh Khanate, Uzbek Khanate, and Khanate of Crimea all seceding from the last remnant of the Golden Horde - the Great or Big Horde. - ***
None of these new Khanates was stronger than Muscovite Russia, which finally broke free of Tatar control by 1480. Each Khanate was eventually annexed by it, starting with Kazan and Astrakhan in the 1550s. By the end of the century the Siberia Khanate was also part of Russia, and descendants of its ruling khans entered Russian service.
The Crimean Khanate became a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire in 1475 and subjugated what remained of the Great Horde by 1502. Crimean Tatars wreaked havoc in southern Russia, Ukraine and even Poland in the course of the 16th and early 17th centuries but they were not able to defeat Russia or take Moscow. Under Ottoman protection, the Khanate of Crimea continued its precarious existence until Catherine the Great annexed it on April 8, 1783. It was by far the longest-lived of the successor states to the Golden Horde.
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16 C - Crimean Tatars ( awesome unit )
Crimean Tatar
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).
Muscovites at the southern border. Painting by Sergey Vasilievich Ivanov.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Crimean Tatars at the court of King John II Casimir of Poland. Detail of a 17th-century portrait of Agha Dedesh with his family.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Crimean Tatar soldier fighting with the soldier of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Europe's steppe frontier was in a state of semi-permanent warfare until the 18th century.
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 muftis 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 khanates 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.
Nogai Horde ( Khanate of Nogay )
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nogai_Horde
Astrakhan Khanate ( Khanate of Astrakhan )
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Astrakhan Khanate
Banner:
Flag
Coat and Arms
The coat of arms is Azure an imperial crown proper and a scimitar argent hilted or in pale.
The flag of Astrakhan region is a banner of the historical Astrakhan arms azure, a scimitarr under a crown, both proper.
Chapter I. GENERAL PROVISIONS
Clause 1 As symbols of the Astrakhan Region, stated both the authorities, are flag and arms of the Astrakhan Region. Clause 2 The originals of a flag and arms of the Astrakhan Region, and also their description are stored (kept) in the Astrakhan state incorporated architectural museum reserve and are accessible to acquaintance to all interested persons. Chapter II. FLAG of the ASTRAKHAN REGION
Clause 3. The flag of the Astrakhan Region represents a rectangular panel of light-blue colour, in the middle of flag the gold crown consisting of a hoop with three visible leaf-formed and gold mitra, fastened by five visible arches decorated with pearls, with green lining. Mitra coroned by a gold orb with a cross. Under the crown an eastern sword silver with gold hilt turned to the right. Dimensional width of the image of crown and sword ( ) should make 1/4 parts of length of a panel of a flag. The relation of width of flag to its length 2:3.
Chapter III. COAT OF ARMS of the ASTRAKHAN REGION
Clause 11. The arms of the Astrakhan Region represents four-coal, with ovale by the bottom corners pointed in an extremity shield. In a light-blue field of a shield - gold crown consisting of a hoop with three visible leaf-formed and gold mitra, fastened by five visible arches decorated with pearls, with green lining. Mitra crowned by a gold orb with a cross. Under the crown an eastern sword silver with gold hilt turned to the right. Shield crowned by an imperial ring, the called Astrakhan cap.
Clause 19. The present Law inures from the date of his official publication.
Khan's Crown's
MAP:
RULERS of Astrakhan Khanate
The Khâns of Astrakhan
Qâsim 1466-1490 Abd alKarîm 1490-1504 Qasay 1504-1532 Aq Köbek 1532-1534, 1541-1544 Abd alRahmân 1534-1538 Shaykh Haydar 1538-1541 Yaghmurchi 1544-1554
1554, Russian conquest by Ivan IV
Darwîsh Alî Russian vassal, 1554-1557
What PICTURES of the Astrakhan Khanate
Women
the Astrakhan Khanate
The Khanate of Astrakhan (Xacitarxan Khanate) was a Tatar feudal state that appeared after the collapse of the Golden Horde. The Khanate existed in the 15th and 16th centuries in the area adjacent to the mouth of the Volga river, where the contemporary city of Astrakhan is now located.
The Khanate was established in the 1460s by Mäxmüd of Astrakhan. The capital was the city of Xacítarxan, also known Astrakhan in Russian chronicles. Its territory included the Lower Volga valley and the Volga Delta, including most of what is now Astrakhan Oblast and the steppeland on the right bank of Volga in what is now Kalmykia. The North-Western Caspian seaside was a southern boundary and the Crimean Khanate bounded Astrakhan on the west.
Before the Khanate
The area surrounding the lower Volga was populated by various Turkic tribes since at least the 5th century AD. Following the invasion of Mongol tribes from the east and the splintering of their empire, the area came under the rule of the Golden Horde. This empire, too, was wracked by civil war, and the semi-independent Astrakhan Khanate was established by Qasim I around 1466. Its location at the mouth of the Volga, straddling important trade routes, allowed it to accumulate significant wealth, but also attracted the attention of neighbouring states and nomadic tribes, subjecting the khanate to numerous invasions. Meñli I Giray, the khan of the Crimea who had destroyed the Big Horde's capital of Sarai Batu caused significant destruction to the khanate.
Demography and society
Most of the population of the Astrakhan khanate were sedentary Astrakhan Tatars and nomadic Nogays. The Nogays mostly engaged in cattle-breeding, while the Tatars were primarily farmers, tradesmen and craftsmen. Merchants carried on a transit trade between Muscovy, Kazan, Crimea Central Asia, and the Transcaucasus region.
The nobility consisted of feudal ranks, which were, from highest to lowest: the khan, sultans, begs and morzalar. The rest of the population were known as qara xalıq, black people - the standard Turkic designation for commoners. The state religion was Islam.
History
In the 1530s Astrakhan cooperated with the Crimean Khanate and the Nogay Horde in a campaign against Russia. Later, Astrakhan was involved in conflicts against its erstwhile Tatar allies. In 1552 Tsar Ivan IV of Russia, better known as Ivan the Terrible, captured Kazan; shortly thereafter a pro-Muscovite party took power in Astrakhan.
Ivan dispatched soldiers to Astrakhan, establishing Darwish Khan as a vassal ruler of the Astrakhan Khanate in 1554. Pro-muscovite nobles and Nogay tribesmen supported Russian forces occupying Astrakhan. After the threat of Crimean raid against Astrakhan had subsided, Darwish Khan conspired with the Crimean Khanate to drive the Russians out of the region. Ivan IV sent Russian Strelets and Cossack armies, who conquered and annexed the region in 1556. Xacitarxan was besieged, burned; the khanate was adsorbed by Russians and abolished. Darwish Khan escaped to the castle of Azov. After the fall of khanate, Tatars were attacked by Kalmyks, that displaced Nogai nomads.
Many Nogay were transplanted in Kazakhstan and Daghestan. However, approximately 70,000 Astrakhan Tatars still live in Astrakhan Oblast.
The capital of the khanate was Xacitarxan (or Khadjitarkhan), located about 12 km from modern Astrakhan.
Khan Mäxmüd of Astrakhan (pronounced mĉx`myt, makh-MEWT) (?-1470s) was one of Kuchuk Muhammed's sons and a Genghisid who founded the Khanate of Astrakhan in the 1460s.
After years of struggle for the throne of the Big Horde against Akhmat Khan, he escaped to Xacitarxan, establishing the independent Khanate of Astrakhan there. He maintained friendly relations with his powerful neighbours - the Nogay Horde and the Big Horde and coined his own money.
His letter to the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II (as dispatched on April 10, 1466) is a curious example of diplomatic epistles written in the 15th-century Old Tatar language. The content is a necessity of renewal of diplomatic relations between Turkey and Astrakhan, and sending ambassadors to Istanbul.
Circassian, Nogai Tatars and Kalmyks in Astrakhan Khanate army
Tatars in Astrakhan Khanate army
Qasim Khanate ( Kasim Khanate )
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qasim_Khanate
Kazakh Khanate
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazakh_Khanate
Uzbek Khanate
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Uzbek Hordes Khanate
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Great Khanate of Golden Horde BANNER of UZBEK KHAN
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Khiva Khanate
Khiva Khanate
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RULERS of Uzbek ( Hordes ) Khanate
If the Timurids had been more Turkish than Mongol, they were succeeded by rulers who were at least of Mongol patrimony, the Shibanid Khans of the Özbegs or Uzbeks -- Turkish tribes, but perhaps named after the Khan of the Blue Horde, ( Golden Horde ), Muhammad Özbeg Khan (1313-1341). Moving first south into the lands of the old White Horde, they then displaced the Timurids in Transoxania and northern Afghanistan, in part under the pressure of the Kazakhs. Although often fragemented, the Khanate and its successors, with the Kazakhs, dominate Central Asia until the arrival of the Russian Empire. Uzbekistan, of course, is one of the successor Republics to the Soviet Union.
The Khans of Uzbek ( Hordes ) Khanate
Khan of the Blue Horde, ( Golden Horde )
Muhammad Özbeg Khan1313-1341
The origin of the name Uzbek remains disputed. One view holds that it is eponymously named after Uzbeg Khan, although the nomadic Uzbeks were never entirely subject to him. An etymological argument states that the name means independent or the lord itself, from O'z (self) and Bek (a noble title of leadership).
Sultan Mohammed Öz-Beg, better known as Uzbeg or Ozbeg (12821341, reign 13131341), was the longest-reigning khan of the Golden Horde, under whose rule the state reached its zenith. He was succeeded by his son Jani Beg.
He was the son of Toghrilcha and grandson of Mengu-Timur, who had been khan of the Golden Horde from 1267-1280.
Öz-Beg assumed the throne upon the death of his uncle Toqta in January 1313. His adoption of Islam as a state religion led to a conspiracy of shamanist princes, which was severely subdued. In the long run, Islam enabled the khan to eliminate interfactional struggles in the Horde and to stabilize state institutions.
Öz-Beg maintained one of the largest armies in the world, which exceeded 300,000 warriors. He employed his military clout to conduct campaigns against the Ilkhanids in Arran in 1319 and 1335. After he found an ally against the Ilkhanids in the shape of Mamluk Egypt, one of Cairo squares was named after him.
As regards Russian politics, Öz-Beg supported the earliest princes of Muscovy - his brother-in-law Yury of Moscow and Yury's successor Ivan Kalita - against the westward-leaning Princes of Tver. Three of these - Mikhail of Tver, his son Alexander and grandson Theodor - were killed in Sarai at Öz-Beg's behest. Tver's uprising against the Horde was bloodily suppressed by Muscovite and Tatar forces in 1327.
Sultan Muhammad Uzbeg Khan
Shibanid Özbegs/Uzbeks
Abu'l-Khayr Khan 1438-1468
killed by Kazakhs, disintegration, 1468-1500
Muhammad Shibani Shah Beg Özbeg Khan 1500-1512 Köchkunju Muhammad Khan 1512-1531 Abü Sa'id Muzaffar ad-Din Khan 1531-1534 Ubaydallah Abü'l-Ghazi Khan 1534-1539 Abdallah I Khan 1539-1540 Abd al-Latif Khan 1540-1552 Nawruz Ahmad Baraq Khan 1552-1556 Pir Muhammad I Khan 1556-1561 Iskandar Khan 1561-1583 Abdallah II Khan 1583-1598 Abd al-Mu'min Khan 1598 Pir Muhammad II Khan 1598-1599
succession of Toqay Temürids
The Toqay Temürids or Janids (from Jani Muhammad) were actually from the house of Astrakhan and so, again, were more Mongol than Turkish. They simply displace the Uzbek Shibanids. The domain, again, is sometimes fragmented, especially with a "lesser" Khan in Balkh (in Afghanistan). In the end, Janids were figureheads for the Mangits.
Toqay Temürids, Janids
Jani Muhammad Khan 1599-1603 Baqi Muhammad Khan 1603-1605 Wali Muhammad Khan 1605-1611 Imam Quli Khan 1611-1641 Nadhr Muhammad Khan 1641-1645
Abd al-Mu'min Khan 1747-c.1750 Ubaydallah Khan 1751-1752 Abu'l-Ghazi Khan c.1758-1789
The Mangits were from an Uzbek tribe who became chief ministers, Ataliqs, to the Janids. Like many other such arrangements, the power of the ministers overwhelmed and then overthrew that of their masters. The domain became the Khanate of Bukhara (Bokhara). The arrival of the Russians reduced the power and the domain of the Khans, but their rule, or misrule, actually continued. Nothing fundamentally changed until the Russian Revolution. A "People's Republic of Bukhara" overthrew the Khan, who went into exile in Afghanistan. Rather than tolerating local self-determination, of course, the Bolsheviks forcibly reconstituted as much of the Russian Empire as possible. Today, however, Bukhara finds itself in an independent Uzbekistan (whose capital is Tashkent). Two other Uzbek Khantes, Khiva and Khoqand (around Tashkent), shared space with Bokhara, until similarly attached to Russia. Khoqand was abolished in 1876, while Khiva survived, like Bukhara, until 1920.
Mangits of Bukhara
Muhammad Rahim Ataliq Khan 1747-1758 Daniyal Biy Ataliq Khan 1758-1785 Shah Murad Amir-i-Ma'süm Khan 1785-1800 Sayyid Haydar Tora Khan 1800-1826 Sayyid Husayn Khan 1826-1827 Umar Khan 1827 Nasr Allah Khan 1827-1860 Muzaffar ad-Din Khan 1860-1886
Russian conquest, 1868
Abd al-Ahad Khan 1886-1910 Sayyid Alim Khan 1910-1920
overthown by Bosheviks, 1920
Dzungar Khanate ( Maybe in Faction List )
Non Khanate Factions:
Ottoman Empire ( Osmanli Imparatorlugu )
Timurids Empire ( Timur Imparatorlugu )
Russian Principalities
Riazan ( non-Playable )
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
White Sheep ( Aq Koyunlu )
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Ak-Koyunlu ( Aq-Qoyunlu, White Sheep Turkomans )
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PURPLE COLOUR is the Ak-Koyunlu
RULERS of Ak-Koyunlu
The Aq Qoyunlu, or White Sheep Turks
Qutlugh Fakhr ad-Dîn c.1360-1389 Ahmad 1389-1403 Qara Yoluq Uthmân Fakhr ad-Dîn 1403-1435 Alî Jalâl ad-Dîn 1435-1438 Hamza Nûr ad-Dîn 1438-1444 Jahângîr Mu'izz ad-Dîn 1444-1457 Uzun Hasan 1457-1478 Sultân Khalîl 1478 Yaqûb 1478-1490 Baysonqur 1490-1493 Rustam 1493-1497 Ahmad Gövde 1497 Alwand - Diyâr Bakr & Azerbaijan, 1497-1502, d.1504 Muhammad - Iraq & Persia, 1497-1500 Sultân Murâd - Persia, 1500-1508, d.1514 Zayn al-Âbidîn - Diyâr Bakr, 1504-1508
Safavid conquest, 1508
What Unit's
Kyzylbash Infantry
Ak-Koyunlu ( Aq-Qoyunlu, White Sheep Turkomans )
Aq-Qoyunlu Turkoman
When the great traveller Ibn Battuta (d.1368/69) visited the Ilkhânate in 1326-1327, its power seemed well founded and unassailable. When he returned from China, between 1346 and 1349, the Khânate had already collapsed! This abrupt and astonishing revolution left a number of successor states. The Jalâyirid Sultâns held Tabrîz, western Irân and lower Mesopotamia. The Black Sheep (Qara Qoyunlu) Turks lay just to the west, in Armenia and upper Mesopotamia. In between their domain and Trebizond were the White Sheep (Aq Qoyunlu) Turks. All were swept over, but not eliminated, by Tamerlane. As the Timurid hegemony receded, the Black Sheep Turks overthrew the Jalâyirids. It wasn't much longer, however, before the White Sheep Turks became the ultimate winner, assembling a state that stretched even into eastern Irân, the most successful of the Ilkhân successors. When they fell, it would be to an altogether new force, the Safavids, who, although Turks themselves, ushered in an Irânian, and a Shiite, revival.
Black Sheep ( Qara Koyunlu )
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Kara-Koyunlu ( Qara-Qoyunlu, Black Sheep Turkomans )
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RULERS of Kara-Koyunlu
The Qara Qoyunlu, or Black Sheep Turks
Bayram Khôja Vassal of Jalayirids, 1351-1380 Qara Muhammad 1380-1389 Independent, 1382 Qara Yûsuf c.1390-1400, 1406-1420
Occupation by Tîmûr, 1400-1406
Iskandar 1420-1438 Jahân Shâh 1439-1467
Timurid Vassal until 1449
Hasan Alî 1467-1469 Abû Yûsuf 1469
Conquest by Aq Qoyunlu, 1469
What Unit's
Kyzylbash Infantry
Safavid Emirate
Georgian States
Mamluk Sultanate
Moldavia ( non-Playable )
Wallachia
Hungary
Kingdom of Poland
Holy Roman Empire
France
Kingdom of Spain
Portugal
England
Denmark
Sweden
Norway
Naples
Venice
I Think that I make rest of Factions as Rebels.
MAP:
Last edited by Boztorgai_Khan; September 29, 2008 at 11:51 AM.
Reason: Add Info About Factions - 29-09-2008
GOLDEN HORDE - 1226/27-1499 ( 1440 became Little KHANATE's )
the MONGOLS ( SYMBOL ) TUG
a GREAT VIDEO -
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Here is another one Great Video
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sorry for the Golden Horde'sGOLD Colour.
GOLDEN HORDE KHANATE
The Golden Horde (Mongolian: Алтан Ордын улс Altan Ordyn Uls; Turkish: Altın Orda; Tatar: Altın Urda; Russian: Золотая Орда, Zolotaya Orda) is a Russian designation for the Mongol later Turkicized khanate established in the western part of the Mongol Empire upon its breakup in the 1240s: present-day Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and the Caucasus. At its peak the Golden Horde's territory included most of Eastern Europe from the Urals to the right banks of the Dniper River, extending east deep into Siberia. On the south the Horde's lands bordered on the Black Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, and the territories of the Mongol dynasty known as the Il-Khans.
Name
The name Golden is believed to have come from the steppe colour system for the cardinal directions: black north, blue east, red south, white west, and yellow (or gold) center.
According to another version, the name was derived from the Russian designation Zolotaya Orda, a magnificent golden tent camp along the Volga River that Batu Khan established to mark a place of his future capital on the Volga. In Mongolian, Golden Horde (Altan Orda) means Golden Camp, or palace.
There are no written records dated prior to 17th century (well after the destruction) that refer to the state asGolden Horde. Earlier documents allude to this polity as Ulus of Jochi.
Some scholars prefer to use an alternative name, KipchakKhanate (Russian designation for the UlusJuchi), because various derivatives of Kipchak were also applied to this state in medieval documents.
Mongol origins
At his death, Genghis Khan divided the Mongol Empire amongst his four sons. Jochi was the eldest, but he was already dead and his paternity was in doubt, so the westernmost lands trodden by the Mongol hoof, then southern Russia, were divided among his sons, Batu leader of the Blue Horde (Eastern), and Orda, leader of the White Horde (Western).
Batu then succeeded in establishing control over Orda's territorial endowment and subjugated the northern littoral of the Black Sea, incorporating the indigenous Turkic peoples into his army. In the late 1230s and early 1240s, he conducted his brilliant campaigns against the Volga Bulgaria and against the successor states to Kievan Rus, bringing their ancient prosperity to an end.
Batu's Blue Horde continued west, raiding Poland and Hungary after the Battles of Legnica and Muhi. In 1241, however, the Great Khan Ogedei died in Mongolia, and Batu turned back from his siege of Vienna to take part in disputing the succession. The Mongol armies would never again travel so far west.
In 1242, Batu established his capital at Sarai, commanding the lower stretch of the Volga River. Shortly before that, the Blue Horde split when Batu's younger brother Shiban left Batu's army to set up his own horde east of the Ural Mountains along the Ob and Irtysh Rivers.
Golden Age
The people of the Golden Horde were a mixture of Turks and Mongols. The Horde was gradually Turkified and lost its Mongol identity, while the descendants of Batu's original Mongol warriors constituted the upper class of the society. Most of the Horde's population were Kipchaks, Bulgar, Tatars, Kyrgyz, Khwarezmians, and other Turkic peoples.
Internal organization
The Horde's supreme ruler was the khan, chosen by the kurultai among Batu Khan's descendants. The prime minister, also ethnically Mongol, was known as "prince of princes", or beqlare-beq. The ministers were called viziers. Local governors, or baskaks, were responsible for levying tribute and extinguishing popular discontent. Civil and military administration, as a rule, was not separated.
The Horde developed as a settled rather than nomadicculture, with Sarai evolving into a populous and prosperous metropolis. In the early 14th century, the capital was moved considerably upstream to Sarai Berqe, which became one of the largest cities of the medieval world, with 600,000 inhabitants.
Despite Russian efforts at proselytizing in Sarai, the Mongols clung to their traditional animist or shamanist beliefs until Uzbeg Khan (1312-41) adopted Islam as a state religion. Several Russian rulers - Mikhail of Chernigov and Mikhail of Tver among them - were reportedly assassinated in Sarai for their refusal to worship pagan idols, but the khans were generally tolerant and even freed the Russian Orthodox Church of taxes.
Vassals and allies
The Horde exacted tribute from its subject peoples - Russians, Armenians, Georgians, Circassians, Alans, Crimean Greeks, Crimean Goths, and others. The territories of Christian subjects were regarded as peripheral areas of little interest as long as they continued to pay tribute. These vassal states were never incorporated into the Horde, and Russian rulers early obtained the privilege of collecting the Tatar tribute themselves. To maintain control over Russia, Tatar warlords carried out regular punitive raids to Russian principalities (most dangerous in 1252, 1293, 1382).
There is a point of view, much propagated by Lev Gumilev, that the Horde and Russian polities concluded a defensive alliance against the fanatical Teutonic knights and pagan Lithuanians. Enthusiasts point to the fact that the Mongol court was frequented by Russian princes, notably Yaroslavl's Feodor the Black, who boasted his own ulus near Sarai, and Novgorod's Alexander Nevsky, the swornbrother of Batu's successor Sartaq Khan. Although Novgorod never acknowledged the Horde's ascendancy, a Mongol contingent supported Novgorodians in the Battle of the Ice.
Sarai carried on a brisk trade with the Genoese trade emporiums on the Black Sea littoral - Soldaia, Caffa, and Azak. Mamluk Egypt was the khans' long-standing trade partner and ally in the Mediterranean.
Political evolution
After Batu's death in 1255, the prosperity of his empire lasted for a full century, until the assassination of Jani Beg in 1357. The White Horde and the Blue Horde were effectively consolidated into a single state by Batu's brother Berke. In the 1280s, the power was usurped by Nogai, a kingmaker who pursued a policy of Christian alliances. The Horde's military clout peaked during the reign of Uzbeg (1312-41), whose army exceeded 300,000 warriors.
Their Russian policy was one of constantly switching alliances in an attempt to keep Russia weak and divided. In the 14th century the rise of Lithuania in NorthEast Europe posed a challenge to Tatar control over Russia. Thus Uzbeg Khan began backing Moscow as the leading Russian state. Ivan I Kalita was granted the title of grand prince and given the right to collect taxes from other Russian potentates.
The Black Death of the 1340s was a major factor contributing to the Golden Horde's eventual downfall. Following Jani Beg's assassination, the empire fell into a long civil war, averaging one new Khan per annum for the next few decades. By the 1380s, Khwarezm, Astrakhan, and Muscovy attempted to break free of the Horde's power, while the lower reaches of the Dnieper were annexed by Lithuania and Poland.
Mamai, a Tatar general who did not formally hold the throne, attempted to reassert Tatar authority over Russia. His army was defeated by Dmitri Donskoi at the Battle of Kulikovo in his second consecutive victory over the Tatars. Mamai soon fell from power, and in 1378, Tokhtamysh, a descendant of Orda Khan and ruler of the White Horde, invaded and annexed the territory of the Blue Horde, briefly reestablishing the Golden Horde as a dominant regional power.
After Mamai's defeat, Tokhtamysh tried to restore the dominance of the Golden Horde over Russia by attacking Russian lands in 1382. He besieged Moscow on August 23, but Muscovites beat off his storm, using firearms for the first time in Russian history. On August 26, two sons of Tokhtamysh's supporter Dmitry of Suzdal, dukes of Suzdal and Nizhny Novgorod Vasily and Semyon, who were present in Tokhtamysh's forces, persuaded Muscovites to open the city gates, promising that forces would not harm the city in this case. This allowed Tokhtamysh's troops to burst in and destroy Moscow, killing 24,000 people.
Disintegration and fall
A fatal blow to the Horde was dealt by Tamerlane, who annihilated Tokhtamysh's army, destroyed his capital, looted the Crimean trade centers, and deported the most skillful craftsmen to his own capital in Samarkand.
In the first decades of the 15th century, power was wielded by Edigu, a vizier who routed Vytautas of Lithuania in the great Battle of the Vorskla River and established the Nogai Horde as his personal demesne.
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In the 1440s, the Horde was again wracked by civil war. This time it broke up into eight separate Khanates: Siberia Khanate, Qasim Khanate, Khanate of Kazan, Khanate of Astrakhan, Kazakh Khanate, Uzbek Khanate, and Khanate of Crimea all seceding from the last remnant of the Golden Horde - the Great or Big Horde.
None of these new Khanates was stronger than Muscovite Russia, which finally broke free of Tatar control by 1480. Each Khanate was eventually annexed by it, starting with Kazan and Astrakhan in the 1550s. By the end of the century the Siberia Khanate was also part of Russia, and descendants of its ruling khans entered Russian service.
The Crimean Khanate became a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire in 1475 and subjugated what remained of the GreatHorde by 1502. Crimean Tatars wreaked havoc in southern Russia in the course of the 16th and early 17th centuries but they were not able to defeat Russia or take Moscow. Under Ottoman protection, the Khanate of Crimea continued its precarious existence until Catherine the Great annexed it on April 8, 1783. It was by far the longest-lived of the successor states to the Golden Horde.
Reference and notes
^ G. Vernadsky, M. Karpovich: "The Mongols and Russia", Yale University Press, 1953 ^ Empire Of The Golden Horde, The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2001-05, (LINK) ^ a b c Golden Horde, in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2006, (LINK) ^ T. May, "Khanate of the Golden Horde", North Georgia College and State University, (LINK) ^ The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-05. ^ http://www.accd.edu/sac/history/keller/Mongols/states3.html ^ Edward L. Keenan, Encyclopedia Americana article ^ B.D. Grekov and A.Y. Yakubovski "The Golden Horde and its Downfall" ^ Encyclopĉdia Britannica ^ Encyclopĉdia Britannica ^ (Russian) Dmitri Donskoi Epoch ^ (Russian) History of Moscow settlements - Suchevo ^ Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd edition, entry on "Московское восстание 1382", available online here
Further reading
Boris Grekov and Alexander Yakubovski, "The Golden Horde and its Downfall". George Vernadsky, "The Mongols and Russia".
List of Khans of the Golden Horde
This is an incomplete list of Khans of the White Horde, Blue Horde, Golden Horde and of the Great Horde (after 1359 not all rulers are accountable). Khans of the Blue Horde are listed as the main constituent part of the Golden Horde, although the Khan's of the Golden Horde were actually descended from Khans of the White Horde.
Batu (1242-55) Sartaq (1255-56) Ulaghchi (1257) Berke (1257-66) Mengu-Timur (1266-82) Tuda-Mengu (1282-87), actual ruler was Nogai Khan Talabuga (1287-91), actual ruler was Nogai Khan Tokhta (1291-1312), actual ruler was Nogai Khan until 1299 Öz Beg (1312-1341) Tini Beg (1341-1342) Jani Beg (1342-1357)
Some 25 khans succeeded each other in between 1357 and 1379, and multiple Khans ruled all over the Horde from 1362.
Berdi Beg (1357-1359) Qulpa (1359-1360) Nawruz Beg (1360-1361) Khidr (1361-1362) Timur Khwaja (1362) Abdallah (1362-1370), actual ruler was Mamai Khan Murad (1362-1367), actual ruler was Mamai Khan Aziz (1367-1369), actual ruler was Mamai Khan Jani Beg II (1369-1370), actual ruler was Mamai Khan Muhammad Bolak (1370-1379), actual ruler was Mamai Khan Tulun Beg Khanum (1370-1373), actual ruler was Mamai Khan Aig Beg (1373-1376), actual ruler was Mamai Khan Arab Shaykh (1376-1379), actual ruler was Mamai Khan Kagan Beg (1375-1376), actual ruler was Mamai Khan Ilbani (1373-1376), actual ruler was Mamai Khan Hajji Cherkes (1375-1376), actual ruler was Mamai Khan Mamai Khan (1379) Urus (1376-1378), Urus was also Khan of the White Horde and grandfather of Toqtamish, allowing the Hordes to unite.
Golden Horde
After Toqtamish had united the White and Blue Hordes in 1379, the number of concurrent rival khans was reduced but their regimes remained unstable:
Toqtamish (1379-1395) Temür Qutlugh (1396-1401), actual ruler was Edigu Shadi Beg (1401-1407), actual ruler was Edigu Pulad Khan (1407-1410), actual ruler was Edigu Temür (1410-1412) Jalal ad-Din (1412) Karim Berdi (1412-1414) Kebek (1414-1417) Jabbar Berdi (1417-1419) Ulugh Muhammad (1419-1421, 1428-1433) Dawlat Berdi (1419-1421) Baraq (1422-1427) Sayid Ahmad I (1433-1435)
Great Horde
Küchük Muhammad (1435-1465) Ahmad (1465-1481) Shaykh Ahmad (1481-1498, 1499-1502) Sayid Ahmad II (1481-?) Murtada (1481-1499)
References
C.E. Bosworth, The New Islamic Dynasties, New York, 1996.
GOLDEN HORDE - ( KAZAKHSTAN, RUSSIA and UKRAINE )
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By MONGOLS - islam:
GOLDEN HORDE - MUSLIM in 1257 AD
Berke converted to Islam and became a devout Muslim. This resulted in the Blue Horde becoming primarily Islamic, and its subjects professing Muslim faith. Berke had a deadly determination to deal with Hulagu Khan, who had murdered the Caliph Al-Musta'sim, and whose territorial ambitions in Syria and Egypt threatened Berke's fellow Muslims.
Batu Khan was a shamanist, like most Mongols at this time, which meant that he acknowledged the existence of one God, but he also viewed the sun, moon, earth, and water as higher beings. Islam would not influence the Golden Horde's rulers until after Batu's death in 1255. After the brief reigns of two of Batu's sons, the Khanate passed to his brother, Berke, who took power in 1258. Berke was the first Muslim ruler of the Golden Horde, and although he was unable to establish Islam as the Khanate's official religion, his faith caused a serious rift to develop between him and his cousin, Hulegu Khan, the Mongol ruler of the Il-Khanate in Persia. As we will see later in this chapter, Hulegu's army was responsible for the collapse of the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad, and the murder of the caliph himself. For Hulegu Khan, who was a shamanist with Buddhist sympathies, the sacking of Baghdad was just another military conquest, but the Muslim Berke, watching from Sarai, was appalled. The resulting animosity between the two leaders led to several wars, the first to pit Mongol armies against each other.
Berke Khan died in 1267, only a year after Hulegu Khan, and the feud between the Golden Horde and the Il-Khans died down. Berke Khan's immediate successors were not Muslim, and thus they were not as hostile to Hulegu Khan's successors, who also were not Muslim. Still, the Golden Horde retained its isolation from the other Mongol Khanates, and the cultural, linguistic, and religious influence of its mostly Muslim Turkish population increasingly affected the Golden Horde's Mongol leaders. By the end of the 13th century, Turkish had virtually replaced Mongol as the language of administration, and in 1313, with the ascension of a Muslim, Ozbeg Khan, to the Khanate, Islam became the official religion of the Golden Horde.
and in 1313, with the ascension of a Muslim, Ozbeg Khan, to the Khanate, Islam became the official religion of the Golden Horde.
the MONGOLS EMPIRE:
MORE INFO'S OF THE MONGOLS - ISLAM BY MONGOLS
The rise of the Mongols as a formidable empire is one of the most significant events in history in the 12th and 13th centuries. The name, Genghis Khan, is a particularly recognisable one in history. As the Mongol ruler who united the nomads of the Asian steppe and founded one of the greatest world empires in history, he is one of the best known of the world conquerors. More information on the life and conquests of Genghis Khan can be found in the Old World Contacts Tutorial.
A lesser-known story than that of Genghis Khan is that of the Mongol impact on the Islamic world after his death, and, in turn, the impact of the Islamic faith on the Mongols. This chapter will discuss four empires, or Khanates, that the Mongols established in Islamic lands: the Chagatai Khanate in Central Asia, the Golden Horde in southern Russia, the Il-Khanate in Persia and Iraq, and the Timurid Empire, which, under the leadership of Timur (known in English as Tamerlane), eclipsed all three of the preceding Mongol empires.
the Golden Horde Khanate:
As a much more powerful and influential Khanate than the Chagatai, the Golden Horde is one of the better known of the Mongol empires, particularly because of its effect on modern Russian history. For the purposes of this tutorial, however, the Golden Horde is significant not because of its ties to Russia, but to the Islamic world. This empire, like the Chagatai, was a product of the division of power that followed the death of Genghis Khan in 1227, when several of his relatives inherited their own regions to rule. Great KhanOgodei, Genghis Khan's son, ordered the invasion of Russia in 1236, which was led by Ogodei's nephew, Batu. Russia at this time was not a unified state, but rather a collection of principalities known as Rus.
Between 1236 and 1240, Batu led the invading Mongols through a series of attacks on Russian cities, including Moscow and Kiev. By 1241 the Mongols had reached Poland and Hungary, and they were planning an attack on Croatia when Batu received word that Great Khan Ogodei had died back in Mongolia. Batu immediately withdrew his army from Europe and retreated to the steppe region north of the Black Sea, the home of the Islamic Volga Bulgars. Batu supported his cousin, Mongke, in the struggle for the position of Great Khan against several challengers, and after ten years, Mongke finally prevailed in 1251. Batu was rewarded by the Great Khan for his support during the succession struggle, and his empire enjoyed Mongke's patronage for the duration of his reign. Batu built a capital, Sarai, on the Volga River, and he named his empire the Golden Horde. The word "horde" is derived from the Turkic-Mongol word, ordu, meaning "encampment." The Golden Horde became one of the most powerful of Genghis Khan's successor states.
Batu Khan was a shamanist, like most Mongols at this time, which meant that he acknowledged the existence of one God, but he also viewed the sun, moon, earth, and water as higher beings. Islam would not influence the Golden Horde's rulers until after Batu's death in 1255. After the brief reigns of two of Batu's sons, the Khanate passed to his brother, Berke, who took power in 1258. Berke was the first Muslim ruler of the Golden Horde, and although he was unable to establish Islam as the Khanate's official religion, his faith caused a serious rift to develop between him and his cousin, Hulegu Khan, the Mongol ruler of the Il-Khanate in Persia. As we will see later in this chapter, Hulegu's army was responsible for the collapse of the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad, and the murder of the caliph himself. For Hulegu Khan, who was a shamanist with Buddhist sympathies, the sacking of Baghdad was just another military conquest, but the Muslim Berke, watching from Sarai, was appalled. The resulting animosity between the two leaders led to several wars, the first to pit Mongol armies against each other.
In addition to their religious differences, Berke and Hulegu fought over control of the Caucasus Mountains, over which both leaders claimed jurisdiction. So intense was the rivalry that Berke reportedly ordered the troops he had loaned to Hulegu's army years earlier to defect to the Egyptian Mamluk army following the sack of Baghdad. The Mamluks then won a decisive victory over Hulegu in 1260. Additionally, Berke concluded a peace treaty with the Mamluks in 1261, in order for the two groups to ally themselves against Hulegu. It was the first alliance between a Mongol and non-Mongol state in which both parties were equal.
Also around 1260, Berke removed the Great Khan Kublai's name from the Golden Horde's coins. Kublai, Mongke's brother, had succeeded as Great Khan that year, after a lengthy struggle with another brother, Arik-Boke. Hulegu had supported Kublai's claim, while Berke supported Arik-Boke. Kublai's victory pushed Berke and his Islamic faith further into isolation from his Mongol brethren. Removing Kublai's name from the Golden Horde's coins was the ultimate repudiation of allegiance to the Great Khan.
Berke Khan died in 1267, only a year after Hulegu Khan, and the feud between the Golden Horde and the Il-Khans died down. Berke Khan's immediate successors were not Muslim, and thus they were not as hostile to Hulegu Khan's successors, who also were not Muslim. Still, the Golden Horde retained its isolation from the other Mongol Khanates, and the cultural, linguistic, and religious influence of its mostly Muslim Turkish population increasingly affected the Golden Horde's Mongol leaders. By the end of the 13th century, Turkish had virtually replaced Mongol as the language of administration, and in 1313, with the ascension of a Muslim, Ozbeg Khan, to the Khanate, Islam became the official religion of the Golden Horde.
By assimilating into the Islamic Turkish culture of the south, rather than the Christian Russian culture of the north, the Golden Horde set itself up for its eventual collapse at the hands of the increasingly powerful Russian principalities. While the Golden Horde lasted longer than many other Khanates, by the mid-14th century it began to fall apart. The increasingly powerful territories of Moscow and Lithuania began absorbing pieces of the disintegrating Golden Horde, while the invasion of Timur's army in the late 14th century added to the destruction. By the mid-15th century, separate Khanates were established in Kazan, Astrakhan, and the Crimea. The Russian tsar, Ivan the Terrible, annexed Kazan and Astrakhan in 1552 and 1554, while Crimea survived under the protection of the Ottoman Empire until 1783, when Catherine the Great annexed it to the Russian Empire. The Islamic Tatars of the Golden Horde, as Europeans have historically called the Mongols, survive today in small population groups, primarily in southern Russia.
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artist representations of Mongol army:
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TheMONGOL EMPIRE
The Kidan headquarters XIth c.
Battle between Mongols and eastern Tatars (1198). 'A' repreents Temujin, future Genghiz khan.
Mongol army leaves Karakorum. 13th c.
Archers attacking mid 13th-early 14th c.
Turco-Mongol heavy cavalry mid 13th - mid 14th c.
Kypchak khans and their retainers mid 13th-early 14th c.
Turco-Mongols in Caucasus 14th c.
Transoxnian khan. Age of Tamerlane.
Kypchak and Bulgar helmets and shields 13th - 14th c.
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A battle between Kyrgyz and Kara-Kidans 1129
A battle between Turkic cavalry and Chinese infantry - the wolf head standard
A Noble Kyrgyz IX-Xth c.
Kyrgyz light cavalry VI-IXth c.
Kyrgyz prince and Djuchi
Kyrgyz VI-VIIIth c.
Kyrgyz warrior arming for battle IX-Xc - His face is painted black, a distinguishing feature of batyrs.
Empire Total War :: KHANATE'S MOD
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Originally Posted by SpartansAvenged
also you may find good map here
