In the Middle Ages on the territory of the Crimean peninsula and the adjacent steppe lands to the north there was a powerful and highly developed culture state, which was considered by the whole Eastern Europe. It had a greater weight in European politics than Russia, competed simultaneously with the latter and with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (unification of Poland and Lithuania) for influence in Ukraine, and its formidable, well-organized army captured Moscow, besieged Vienna, the capital of Austria, together with the Ottoman troops.
In the Crimea, with its fertile land, fertile climate, free access to the Black Sea, various peoples have been settled since ancient times. Ancient Greeks mentioned the Taurians living on the peninsula. Then Crimea was settled by Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans. They partly mixed with each other, and partly just settled in different areas of the peninsula.
In the Middle Ages, the Crimean steppe plains were favored by Turkic-speaking nomads — Kipchaks, as the Crimean Khanate was created, which Russian chronicles call Polovtsi. And in the XIII century Crimea was seized by the Mongol-Tatars, and it became part of the vast state of Ulus Dzhuchi (Golden Horde) created by them. The main population of the Ulus were Turkic peoples. As today many peoples of Russia prefer Russian, the business language, to their native language, so the descendants of the ancient inhabitants of Crimea began to speak more and more Turkic, and then gradually forgot their original languages. Subsequently, as it often happened in the East, the inhabitants of Crimea, who had completely different origins, realized themselves as a single people, which is now called the Crimean Tatars.
In the XIV century the Crimeans, as well as the whole Ulus Dzhuchi, adopted Islam. But gradually Crimea, which had its own rich lands and the opportunity to easily trade with the Genoese who settled the southern coast of the peninsula, began to grow weary of dependence on the Ulus. In 1443, the Khan of Crimea Haji-Gerai (Girei) proclaimed the independence of his province, making the city of Bakhchisarai his capital. From this time begins the history of an independent Crimean Khanate. However, very soon it voluntarily accepted the vassal allegiance of the Ottoman Caliphate, whose troops captured the Genoese cities-colonies on the southern coast of the peninsula, but this did little to limit the independence of the Crimean state. Formally, the khans were appointed to the throne by the Ottoman sultan, but only those who were initially supported by the great divan — the council of murzes (clan aristocracy) and respected people’s representatives of Crimea. All the khans were descendants of Hadji Gherai. Basically, the vassalage of Crimea consisted in the fact that its troops participated on the side of the Sultan in the wars waged by the Caliphate, and the Ottomans, in turn, provided military assistance to the Crimean khans in their campaigns.
Crimean khans girey in historyKhan was the supreme ruler of the state and the supreme owner of lands. He had a deputy, a kind of «vice-khan» — kalga-sultan, who was usually appointed by the khan’s brother. There were representative bodies — Big and Small Divans, with them the ruler solved important state affairs. Laws were issued and court was carried out in strict accordance with the Shariah, which was monitored by the mufti. Executive power was in the hands of vizirs (ministers) appointed by the khan, usually from among his relatives.
For two hundred years the Crimean Khanate competed with Russia for influence over the steppe lands on the Don and Volga, Ukraine, and then the Caucasus. In 1571 Khan Devlet-Gerai captured and burned Moscow and almost took Tsar Ivan the Terrible captive. Naturally, in Russian chronicles and old time literature, the Crimean Khanate could only be a model of «savagery, cruelty, bloodthirstiness». But the reality of the past suggests that in reality the Crimean khans were no more bloody than other monarchs of the time. And it was with the allied help of the Crimea that Russia was able to get rid of the Horde yoke and then strengthened as a state under its military cover — for expensive gifts to the khans, of course. But when, under Ivan IV, the Moscow state began to conquer the Volga region, which was also claimed by the Gerasenes, Russia’s relations with Crimea quickly soured.
The Khanate was characterized by high religious tolerance. Although all government posts in it were occupied by Sunni Muslims, many Christians and Shiites lived in Crimea. Often captured during wars Russian captives did not want to leave the fertile land of the peninsula and founded whole villages on it. Captured boys and young men were usually brought up in Muslim military schools, they were used to form the personal guard of the khan — kapi-kulu.
The struggle between Crimea and Russia with variable success lasted for two centuries. In 1783, after the occupation of the peninsula by Russian troops, Khan Shahin-Gerai abdicated in favor of the Russian tsar. Muslims began to migrate en masse to the Ottoman Caliphate and soon Crimea was populated mainly by natives of Russia and Ukraine.