Post-classical history

135

The Giray Khāns of the Crimea, Descendants of Jochi

853–1208/1449–1792

The Crimea and the southern Ukraine

1. The Khans of the Crimea

early ninth/
fifteenth century	Dawlat Birdi Giray (Kerey) b. Tash Temür and, after 830/1427, Hājjī Giray b. Ghiyāth al-Dīn b. Tash Temür, rulers in the Crimea under the Golden Horde khāns
⊘ 853/1449	Hājjī Giray I b. Ghiyāth al-Dīn b. Tash Temür, independent ruler, first reign
860/1456	Haydar Giray b. Hājji I
860/1456	Hājjī Giray I, second reign
⊘870/1466	Nūr Dawlat Giray b. Hājjī I, first reign
⊘ 871/1467	Mengli Giray b. Hājji I, first reign
879/1474	Nūr Dawlat, second reign
880/1475	Mengli Giray, second reign
881/1476	Nūr Dawlat Giray, third reign
883/1478	Mengli Giray, third reign
⊘920/1514	Muhammad Giray I b. Mengli
931/1523	Ghāzī Giray I b. Muhammad I
⊘ 932/1524	Sa‘ādat Giray I b. Mengli
939/1532	Islām Giray I b. Muhammad I
⊘ 939/1532	Ṣāḥib Giray I b. Mengli
⊘ 958/1551	Dawlat Giray I b. Mubārak b. Mengli
⊘ 985/1577	Muḥammad Giray II b. Dawlat I
⊘ 992/1584	Islām Giray II b. Dawlat I
⊘ 998/1588	Ghāzī Giray II b. Dawlat I, first reign
1005/1596	Fath Giray I b. Dawlat I
1006/1596	Ghāzī Giray II, second reign
1016/1608	Toqtamïsh Giray b. Ghāzī II
⊘ 1017/1608	Salāmat Giray I b. Dawlat I
1019/1610	Muhammad Giray III b. Sa‘ādat b. Muhammad II, first reign
⊘1019/1610	Jānī Beg Giray b. Mubārak b. Dawlat I, first reign
1032/1623	Muḥammad Giray III, second reign
⊘ 1033/1624	Jānī Beg Giray, second reign
1033/1624	Muḥammad Giray III, third reign
⊘ 1036/1627	Jānī Beg Giray, third reign
1044/1635	‘Ināyat Giray b. Ghāzī II
1046/1637	Bahādur Giray I b. Salāmat I
1051/1641	Muḥammad Giray IV b. Salāmat I, Ṣofu, first reign
⊘ 1054/1644	Islām Giray III b. Salāmat I
⊘ 1064/1654	Muḥammad Giray IV, second reign
⊘1076/1666	‘Ādil Giray b. Dawlat b. Fath I
⊘ 1082/1671	Salīm Giray I b. Bahādur, first reign
⊘ 1089/1678	Murād Giray b. Mubārak b. Salāmat I
1094/1683	Ḥājjī Giray II b. Qïrïm b. Salāmat I
⊘ 1095/1684	Salīm Giray I, second reign
1103/1691	Sa‘ādat Giray II b. Qïrïm b. Salāmat I
⊘ 1103/1691	Ṣafā’ Giray b. Ṣafā’ b. Salāmat I
⊘ 1104/1692	Salīm Giray I, third reign
⊘ 1110/1699	Dawlat Giray II b. Salīm I, first reign
1114/1702	Salīm Giray I, fourth reign
⊘1116/1704	Ghāzi Giray III b. Salīm I
⊘ 1119/1707	Qaplan Giray I b. Salīm I, first reign
⊘ 1120/1708	Dawlat Giray II, second reign
⊘ 1125/1713	Qaplan Giray I, second reign
1128/1716	Dawlat Giray III b. ‘Ādil b. Salāmat I
⊘ 1129/1717	Sa‘ādat Giray III b. Salīm I
⊘ 1137/1724	Mengli Giray II b. Salīm I, first reign
⊘ 1143/1730	Qaplan Giray I, third reign
⊘ 1149/1736	Fatḥ Giray II b. Dawlat II
1150/1737	Mengli Giray II, second reign
⊘ 1152/1740	Salāmat Giray II b. Salīm I
⊘ 1156/1743	Salīm Giray II b. Qaplan I
⊘ 1161/1748	Arslan Giray b. Dawlat II, first reign
⊘ 1169/1756	Ḥalīm Giray b. Sa‘ādat III
⊘ 1172/1758	Qïrïm Giray b. Dawlat II, first reign
⊘1178/1764	Salīm Giray III b. Fatḥ II, first reign
1180/1767	Arslan Giray, second reign
⊘ 1181/1767	Maqṣūd Giray b. Salāmat II, first reign
⊘ 1182/1768	Qïrïm Giray, second reign
⊘ 1182/1769	Dawlat Giray IV b. Arslan, first reign
⊘ 1183/1769	Qaplan Giray II b. Salīm II
1184/1770	Salīm Giray III, second reign
1185/1771	Maqṣūd Giray, second reign
⊘ 1186/1772	Ṣāḥib Giray II b. Salīm III
⊘ 1189/1775	Dawlat Giray IV, second reign
⊘ 1191/1777	Shāhīn Giray b. Aḥmad b. Dawlat II, first reign
1196–7/1782/-3	Bahadur II Giray b. Aḥmad b. Dawlat II
1197/1783	Russian annexation of the Crimea
1197–1201/1783–7	Shāhīn Giray, second reign, as a Russian vassal

2. The Khāns of the Tatars of Bujaq or Bessarabia, as Ottoman nominees

1201/1787	Shāhbāz Giray b. Arslan
1203–6/1789–92	Bakht Giray

Among the descendants of Jochi’s son Toqa Temür, one branch established itself in the Crimea during the course of the internecine strife which convulsed the Golden Horde after 760/1359. At first they were vassals of Toqtamïsh, but then in the early fifteenth century they gradually became independent under the progeny of Tash Temür, with Ḥājjī Giray formally declaring himself ruler of Qïrïm in 853/1449. The family name Giray derives possibly from that of the Kerey, a component clan of the Golden Horde which had supported Ḥājjī Giray. The Crimean khanate now became one of the most enduring states to arise under the descendants of Chingiz Khān, and by the end of the fifteenth century it also controlled the lands of the Noghays on the northern Black Sea coast as far west as Bujaq or Bessarabia.

The Ottomans were the natural allies of the Girays, at first against the Golden Horde, whose khans continued to regard the Crimea as one of their own dependencies, and then, from the sixteenth century onwards, against the Russians. The Girays claimed to be heirs of the Golden Horde after they had defeated its leader and incorporated the greater part of its fighting manpower into their own forces (see above, no. 134), and did for part of the sixteenth century rule at Kazan (see below, no. 137). Their increased military strength after 907/1502, and the fact that the pasture grounds of the Girays were nearer to Moscow than the Golden Horde’s more usual centre on the lower Volga, now meant increased military pressure on Muscovy, with attacks and raids continuing until the eighteenth century. From the later sixteenth century, the khans ruled from their capital at Baghche Saray (Simferopol) over much of the southern part of the Ukraine and the lower Don-Kuban region, acting as a buffer-state between the Ottomans and the Christian powers of Eastern Europe; in fact, during the early seventeenth century they were at times allied with Poland-Lithuania against the Russian Tsars. The Ottomans regarded the Crimean Tatars as their dependents, requiring the presence of a hostage Giray prince at their court, although rarely intermarrying with the Girays; there was a vague feeling that, should the Ottoman dynasty die out (as seemed not impossible at one point in the seventeenth century), the Girays would have a claim on the succession in Turkey.

Russian expansionism southwards brought about Peter the Great’s capture of Azov in 1699, which cut the lands of the Crimean Tatars in two. In the eighteenth century, Russian pressure increased, with the enfeebled Ottoman empire unable to help, and by 1197/1783 Catherine the Great’s troops had occupied and annexed the Crimea. Two of the Girays were, however, appointed by the Porte to head the Tatars in Bessarabia for a few years.

Lane-Poole, 235–7 and table at p. 240; Zambaur, 247–8 and Table S; Album, 44–5.

İA ‘Giray’ (Halil İnalcik), with a genealogical table; EI‘Giray’ (idem), ‘Ḳirim’ (B. Spuler), with a list of rulers.

Alan W. Fisher, The Crimean Tatars, Stanford CA 1978, 1–69.

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