The Girey dynasty ruled the Crimean Khanate for almost 350 years. She showed the world many famous personalities, some of whom were outstanding statesmen, while others found their calling in the service of science and culture. The famous art critic and ethnographer Sultan Khan Giray belonged to the latter type. The biography of this man, as well as the history of the Girey dynasty as a whole, will be the subject of our discussion.
Biography of Khan Giray
Sultan Khan Giray was born in 1808 on the territory of modern Adygea. He was the third son of the Crimean Tatar aristocrat, descended from the khan's family - Mehmed Khan Giray. In addition, Circassian blood also flowed in the veins of the Sultan. The best qualities of these two peoples are intertwined in him.
After reaching the age of 29, he participated in a number of wars of the Russian Empire, while having an officer rank and commanding a separate unit. But he did not take part in the Caucasian War, which was tearing his homeland apart at that time, although, of course, this tragic conflict resonated in his heart.
Khan-Girey wrote a number of works on ethnography, folklore and art criticism of the Circassian people, which gained worldwide fame. Among them are Notes on Circassia and Circassian Traditions. Also he-author of a number of works of art. But most of his works were published only after his death. Khan Giray is also known as the compiler of the Adyghe alphabet.
Since 1841, he actively campaigned among the highlanders (on behalf of the Russian government) with the aim of reconciling them. However, his attempts ended in vain. Khan Giray died at the age of 34, in 1842, in his small homeland.
This outstanding man left behind a son - Sultan Murat Giray, who was born in the year of his father's death. But the contribution of Sultan Khan Giray to the development of Adyghe culture and literature is priceless.
According to one version, it is in honor of him that the Crimean Tatars want to rename Kherson Khan-Girey.
Let's find out who the ancestors of such an outstanding personality were.
Foundation of a dynasty
The founder of the dynasty of the rulers of the Crimea was Hadji Giray. He came from the Tukatimurid clan - one of the offshoots of the descendants of Genghis Khan. According to another version, the roots of the Girey dynasty came from the Mongol family of Kirey, and they were attributed to the Genghisides later in order to justify their right to power.
Hadji Giray was born around 1397 on the territory of present-day Belarus, which at that time belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (ON).
During that period, the Golden Horde was going through hard times, actually breaking up into several independent states. Power in the Crimea, with the support of the Lithuanian prince, succeeded in capturing Hadji-Gireya in 1441. Thus he becamethe founder of the dynasty that ruled in the Crimea for almost 350 years.
At the source of power
Mengli-Girey is the Khan who laid the foundation for the power of the Crimean Khanate. He was the son of Hadji Giray, after whose death (in 1466) a struggle for power broke out between the children.
Initially, the eldest son of Hadji-Girey, Nur-Devlet, became the khan. But Mengli Giray decided to challenge this right. Several times during this internecine struggle, the ruler of the Crimean Khanate changed. At the same time, if Nur-Devlet relied on the forces of the Golden Horde and the Ottoman Empire in his claims, then Mengli relied on the local Crimean nobility. Later, another brother, Ayder, joined the fight. In 1477, the throne was seized by Janibek, who did not belong to the Girey dynasty at all.
Finally, in 1478, Mengli Giray was able to finally defeat his rivals and establish himself in power. It was he who laid the foundations for the power of the Crimean Khanate. True, in the course of the struggle with other applicants, he had to recognize the vassal dependence of his state on the Ottoman Empire and give the south of Crimea, which was colonized by his allies - the Genoese, to the direct control of the Turks.
Crimean Khan Mengli-Girey made an alliance with the Muscovite state against the Great Horde (heir to the Golden Horde) and Lithuania. In 1482, his troops ravaged Kyiv, which at that time belonged to the GDL. Under him, the Crimean Tatars carried out mass predatory raids on the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as part of the observance of an agreement with Moscow. In 1502 Mengli Girayfinally destroyed the Great Horde.
Mengli Giray died in 1515.
Further strengthening of the Khan's power
The state was further strengthened by Mehmed Giray - Khan, who ruled after the death of Mengli Giray and was his son. Unlike his father, he was preparing to become a ruler from a young age, having received the title - kalga, which corresponded to the title of crown prince. Mehmed-Girey led many campaigns and raids organized by Mengli-Girey.
By the time of his accession to the throne, he already held all the threads of government in his hands, so his brothers' attempts to revolt were doomed to failure.
In 1519, the Crimean Khanate was greatly strengthened, as part of the Nogai Horde moved to its territory. This was due to the fact that the Nogais were defeated by the Kazakhs, and they had to seek asylum from Mehmed Giray.
Under Mehmed, there was a change in the foreign policy of the Crimean Khanate. After the Great Horde was defeated by his father, the need for an alliance with the Moscow principality disappeared, so Mehmed Giray Khan made an alliance with Lithuania against Russia. It was under him that the first major campaign of the Crimean Tatars against the Moscow Principality was organized in 1521.
Mehmed-Girey managed to place his brother Sahib-Girey on the throne of the Kazan Khanate, thereby extending his influence to the Middle Volga region. In 1522 he captured the Astrakhan Khanate. Thus, Mehmed Giray actually managed to subjugate a significant part of the former Golden Horde.
But while in Astrakhan, the khan was so intoxicated with hispower that disbanded the army, which was used by ill-wishers who organized a conspiracy against Mehmed Giray and killed him in 1523.
The pinnacle of power
From 1523 to 1551, the brothers and sons of Mehmed-Giray alternately ruled. This time was full of acute struggle within the Crimean Khanate. But in 1551, Devlet-Girey, the son of Mubarek, came to power, who, in turn, was the offspring of Mengli-Girey. It was during his reign that the Crimean Khanate reached its peak of power.
Devlet-Girey is a Crimean khan, who became especially famous for raids on the Russian state. His campaign of 1571 even culminated in the burning of Moscow.
Devlet Giray was in power for 26 years and died in 1577.
Weakening of the Khanate
If the son of Devlet Giray Mehmed II still managed to maintain the prestige of the Crimean Khanate, then under his successors the importance of the Tatar state in the international arena has fallen significantly. Mehmed II himself was overthrown by the Turkish sultan in 1584, and his brother Islyam-Girey was imprisoned instead. The following Crimean khans were unremarkable rulers, and in the state itself, unrest became quite common.
In 1648, Islyam-Girey III tried to enter the arena of big politics, making an alliance with the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks in the liberation war against the Commonwe alth. But this union soon fell apart, and the hetmanate became a subject of the Russian tsar.
The Last Ruler
The last ruler of the CrimeanKhanate turned out to be Khan Shahin Giray. Even during the reign of his predecessor Devlet Giray IV, in 1774, the Crimean Khanate gained independence from the Ottoman Empire and recognized the protectorate of Russia. This was one of the conditions for the Kyuchuk-Kaynarji peace, which ended the next Russian-Turkish war.
Crimean Khan Shagin Giray came to power in 1777 as a protege of Russia. He was enthroned instead of the pro-Turkish Devlet Giray IV. However, even supported by Russian weapons, he did not sit firmly on the throne. This is evidenced by the fact that in 1782 he was removed from the throne by his brother Bahadir Giray, who came to power on the wave of a popular uprising. With the help of Russian troops, Shagin-Giray managed to regain the throne, but his further reign became a fiction, since he no longer had real power.
In 1783 this fiction was eliminated. Shagin Giray signed the abdication, and the Crimean Khanate was annexed to the Russian Empire. Thus ended the period of Girey's rule in the Crimea. Only the coins of Khan Girey, the image of which can be seen above, can now serve as evidence of Shagin's reign.
Shagin-Girey, after abdication, first lived in Russia, but then moved to Turkey, where in 1787 he was executed by order of the Sultan.
Girei after losing power
Sultan Khan-Girey is not the only representative of the family who became widely known after the loss of power of the dynasty over the Crimea. His brothers were famous - Sultan Adil-Girey and Sultan Sagat-Girey, who became famous in the militaryfield for the benefit of the Russian Empire.
Khan-Girey's cousin Sultan Davlet-Girey became the founder of the Adyghe theater. The brother of the latter, Sutan Krym-Giray, was the chairman of the committee of the cavalry division. Both were killed in 1918 by the Bolsheviks.
Currently, Jezzar Pamir Giray, who lives in London, nominally claims the title of Crimean Khan.
The significance of the Girey family in world history
Rod Gireev left a noticeable mark in the history of the Crimea, and world history as a whole. The existence of the Crimean Khanate, a state that once played one of the leading roles in Eastern Europe, is almost inextricably linked with the name of this dynasty.
Gireev also remembers the current generation of Crimean Tatars, associating this family with glorious times in the history of the people. It is not for nothing that they have come up with the initiative to rename Kherson to Khan-Girey.
