In 1547, the warlike Crimean Khan Sahib-Girey took Astrakhan and, “having defeated the Astrakhan Khan Yamgurji, scattered his subjects, and the men and women who had escaped death, with all their property and wealth, moved to the Crimea”.
Chaos and anarchy reigned in the lower reaches of the Volga for several years, which caused serious concern primarily among the Nogai, who considered Astrakhan as a sphere of their influence. They regarded the capture and devastation of Astrakhan and the Astrakhan ulus as another attempt of the Crimeans to strengthen themselves in this region, which the Nogai strongly disagreed with.
At the end of the same year 1547 a messenger went from the Nogai Horde to the Crimea, who took a letter to Sahib-Girey, which contained reproaches to the khan, who took and ruined Astrakhan, but they, the Nogais, having occupied the city before, did not devastate it and took the Astrakhans into their captivity.
Apparently, the answer, received from Crimea, was such that Nogai biys Sheikh-Mamai and his entourage could not tolerate it. In addition, Sheikh-Mamai received news that Sahib-Girey intends to send cannons and squibs to Astrakhan.
Mikhail Viktorovich Gorelik. Warriors of the Nogay Horde XVI-XVII cc.
On the order of the bey his nephew Ali b. Yusuf with his army (according to the murza, he had 10 thousand horsemen, the court chronicler of Sahib-Girey Remal-hoja, who accompanied the khan in this campaign, indicated a smaller figure — 7 thousand) went to raid the Crimea at the end of 1548. However, he was in for an unpleasant surprise — Sahib-Girey had time to mobilize his army and came out to meet the Nogai, meeting them in battle on the near approaches to Perekop.
Bearing in mind that the Nogai enjoyed the fame of the best warriors among all Tatars, because they were more savage and ferocious than others, Sahib-Giray relied on his numerical (according to Ali, the Khan had 40 thousand soldiers) and technical (40 small-caliber cannons-zarbuzans and several hundred tufengchi arquebusiers) superiority.
Refusing a counter battle, the khan preferred to meet the enemy at a defensive position taken in advance. However, even then Sahib-Girey almost lost the decisive battle. The Nogai confirmed their reputation as excellent warriors by swiftly attacking the Crimean army and overturning the Khan’s cavalry.
It seemed that everything was lost, but Sahib-Girey at the critical moment put on the table his trump ace — cannons and arquebusiers. The barrage of 40 guns mounted on wagons (“zarbuzan arabalary”) and the fugitive fire of tufengchi, sheltered behind the wagons of the wagenburg, stunned and mixed the ranks of the Nogay horsemen, who were heated up by the victory, and their pressure was stopped. At this moment fresh Crimean detachments counterattacked and overturned the Nogai in a brutal saber fight. Fleeing were pursued, chopped and taken prisoner, and only a few Nogai managed to break away from the chase and go to their native steppes.
And now about the gloomy. Having won a more than convincing victory, Sahib-Girey made a ruthless massacre over the prisoners even by the standards of those far from merciful times.
Shocked by the cruelty of the khan, Ivan the Terrible wrote in a letter to the Nogai biu Yusuf (who replaced Sheikh-Mamai, who died soon after this failure), the father of the hapless murza, that “the Crimean tsar” over the “pereimaned” Nogai “instituted” “various executions, as in no other people anywhere, some were put on a stake, and others were hanged by their feet, and others had their heads cut off by bashta …”, emphasizing at the same time that “the Crimean tsar” over the “pereimaned” Nogai “instituted” “various executions, as in no other people anywhere else, some were put on a stake, and others were hanged by their feet, and others had their heads cut off by bashta …”. ”, emphasizing at the same time that “for nowhere is there any such thing as to execute those people who fall into the hands of the army”.
That is why Ivan suggested to Biu Yusuf that he and his men to the Crimean khan Sahib-Girey in retaliation for “Nogai kyrgyny” (“Nogai massacre”) caused “unfriendliness” and “tightness” together with “many people” sent from him, Ivan.
A Nogai light cavalryman of the 16th-17th centuries. Reconstruction drawing by Mikhail Gorelik.
Why did Sahib-Girey so mercilessly and cruelly massacred the captives? Maybe the answer to this question should be sought in the past, in those relations that were formed between the Nogai and the Crimea before? And, it seems, the answer lies here.
There was blood between the Nogai and the Crimeans since long ago — since 1504, when the danger from the Great Horde disappeared, which caused the rapprochement of the Nogai and the Crimea, their relations began to deteriorate and soon there followed a mutual exchange of raids, the advantage in which was at first on the side of the Crimeans. As the Crimean “tsar” Muhammed-Girey wrote to Vasily III, “thank God, I took the (Nogai) horde, three times nagai imal”, referring to his successful campaigns to the east in 1507, 1509 and 1510.
However, in 1523 the Nogai murzy took revenge — Muhammed-Girey, who had taken Astrakhan, was killed by the Nogai together with his son and heir Bahadir-Girey, after which the Nogai defeated the Crimean army and made a campaign to the Crimea, subjecting it to merciless ruin and devastation.
It was long remembered both in Crimea and in the Nogai Horde, and the memory of these events fueled the discord between the Crimeans and the Nogai. It seems that Sahib-Giray made a bloody trizny for his brother Mohammed-Giray.