Crimean Khanate Crimean Khanate , or Khanate of Crimea ( or " Qırım Yurtu " , قريم يورتى ; - " Krymskoye khanstvo " ; - " Kryms ' ke khanstvo " ; ; Turkish : " Kırım Yurdu " or " Kırım Hanlığı " ) , was a state ruled by Crimean Tatars from 1441 to 1783 . Its khans were the patrilineal descendants of Toqa Temür , the thirteenth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan . This khanate was by far the longest - lived of the Turkic khanate s that succeeded the empire of the Golden Horde . History . Establishment . 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 southern Russia ) and decided to make Crimea their " yurt " ( homeland ) , which at that time had been an ulus of the Golden Horde since 1239 , with its capital at Qirim ( Staryi Krym ) . The local separatists invited a Genghisid contender for the Golden Horde throne , Hacı Giray , to be their khan . Hacı Giray accepted their invitation and traveled from exile in Lithuania . He warred for independence against the Horde from 1420 to 1441 , in the end achieving success . But Hacı Giray then had to fight off internal rivals before he could ascend the throne of the khanate in 1449 , after which he moved its capital to " Qırq Yer " ( today part of Bahçeseray ) . 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 . Becoming an Ottoman protectorate . Hacı I Giray ' s sons contended against each other to succeed him . The Ottomans intervened and installed one of them , Meñli I Giray , on the throne . In 1475 the Ottoman forces , under the command of Gedik Ahmet Pasha , conquered the Greek Principality of Theodoro and the Genoese colonies at Cembalo , Soldaia , and Caffa ( " Kefe " in Turkic languages ) . Thenceforth the khanate was a protectorate of the Ottoman Empire . The Ottoman sultan enjoyed veto power over the selection of new Crimean khans . The Empire annexed the Crimean coast , but recognized the legitimacy of the khanate rule of the steppes , as the khans were descendants of Genghis Khan . Menli I Giray , took the imperial title " Sovereign of Two Continents and Khan of Khans of Two Seas . " Ottoman - Crimean relationship . In 1475 , the Ottomans imprisoned Meñli I Giray for three years for having resisted the invasion . After returning from captivity in Constantinople , he accepted the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire . Nevertheless , Ottoman sultans treated the khans more as allies than subjects . The khans continued to have a foreign policy independent from the Ottomans in the steppes of Little Tartary . 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 . Later on , Crimea lost power in this relationship as the result of a crisis which took place in 1523 , during the reign of Meñli ' s successor , Mehmed I Giray . He died that year and beginning with his successor , from 1524 on , Crimean khans were appointed by the Sultan . The alliance of the Crimean Tatars and the Ottomans was comparable to Polish - Lithuania in its importance and durability . The Crimean cavalry became indispensable from the Ottomans ' campaigns in Europe ( Poland , Hungary ) and Asia ( Persia ) . Victory over the Golden Horde . In 1502 Meñli I Giray defeated the last khan of the Great Horde , which put an end to the Horde ' s claims on Crimea . The Khanate initially chose as its capital Salaçıq near the Qırq Yer fortress . Later , the capital was moved a short distance to Bahçeseray , founded in 1532 by Sahib I Giray . Both Salaçıq and the Qırq Yer fortress today are part of the expanded city of Bahçeseray . Slave trade . The Crimeans frequently mounted raids into the Danubian principalities , Poland - Lithuania , and Muscovy to enslave people whom they could capture ; for each captive , the khan received a fixed share ( savğa ) of 10 % or 20 % . These campaigns by Crimean forces were either " sefers " , officially declared military operations led by the khans themselves , or " çapuls " , raids undertaken by groups of noblemen , sometimes illegally because they contravened treaties concluded by the khans with neighbouring 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 . Caffa was one of the best known and significant trading ports and slave markets . Author and historian Brian Glyn Williams writes : Early modern sources are full of descriptions of sufferings of Christian slaves captured by the Crimean Tatars in the course of their raids : Alliances . The Crimean Khanate also made alliances with the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth , the Zaporizhian Sich and Muscovy . The assistance of İslâm III Giray during the Khmelnytsky Uprising 1648 contributed greatly to the initial momentum of military successes for Cossacks . While relationship with the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth was also exclusive as the home dynasty of Girays used to seek sanctuary in Lithuania in 15th century before establishing on Crimean peninsula . The northern hinterlands of the khanate were coveted by Muscovy for their agricultural productivity , having longer growing seasons than Muscovy itself . Within Muscovy , the permanent warfare at the borderland and the burgeoning in size of the armies of the nobles ( boyars ) fomented intense exploitation of the peasantry . Struggle over Astrakhan . In the middle of the 16th century the Crimean khanate asserted a claim to be the successor to the Golden Horde , which entailed asserting the right of rule over the Tatar khanates of the Caspian - Volga region , particularly the Kazan Khanate and Astrakhan Khanate . This claim pitted it against Muscovy for dominance in the region . A successful campaign of Devlet I Giray upon the Russian capital , Moscow in 1571 culminated in the burning of Moscow , and he thereby gained the sobriquet , That - Algan ( seizer of the throne ) . Just the next year , however , the Crimean Khanate eventually lost access to the Volga once and for all due to its catastrophic defeat in the Battle at Molodi . Decline . The Turkish traveler , Evliya Çelebi clearly mentioned the impact of Cossack raids from Azak upon the territories of the Crimean Khanate , these terrible raids ruined trade routes and severely depopulated many important regions . By the time Evliya Çelebi had arrived almost all the towns he visited were affected by the Cossack raids . In fact , the only place Evliya Çelebi considered safe from the Cossacks was the Ottoman fortress at Arabat . The decline of the Crimean Khanate was a consequence of the weakening of the Ottoman empire and a change in the balance of power in Eastern Europe that favoured its neighbours . Crimean Tatars often returned from Ottoman campaigns without booty and Ottoman subsidies were less likely for unsuccessful campaigns . Tatar cavalry without sufficient guns suffered great loss against European and Russian armies with modern equipment . By the late 17th century , Muscovite Russia became too strong a power for Crimea to pillage and the Treaty of Karlowitz ( 1699 ) outlawed further raids . The era of great slave raids in Russia and Ukraine was over , although brigands and Nogay raiders continued their attacks and Russian hatred of the Khanate did not decrease . These polito - economic losses led in turn to erosion of the khan ' s support among noble clans , and internal conflicts 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 taking an oath to protect its southeastern borders , the 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 the command of Field - Marshal Münnich , finally managed to penetrate the Crimean Peninsula itself , burning and destroying everything on their way . 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 khan administration towards internal opposition . On 8 April 1783 , in violation of the treaty ( some parts of which had been already violated by Crimeans and Ottomans ) , Catherine II intervened in the civil war , de facto annexing the whole peninsula as the Taurida Governorate . In 1787 , Şahin Giray took refuge in the Ottoman empire and was eventually executed , on Rhodes , by the Ottoman authorities for betrayal . The royal Giray family survives to this day . Through the 1792 Treaty of Jassy ( Iaşi ) the Russian frontier was extended to the Dniester River and the takeover of Yedisan was complete . The 1812 Treaty of Bucharest transferred Bessarabia to Russian control . Government . All Khans were from the Giray clan which traced its origins to Genghis Khan and asserted its right to rule on this basis . According to the tradition of the steppes , the ruler was legitimate only if he was of Genghisid royal descent ( i . e . " ak süyek " ) . Even the Muscovite Tsar claimed Genghisid descent . Although the Giray dynasty was the symbol of government , the khan actually governed with the participation of Qaraçı Bey s , the leaders of the noble clans such as Şirin , Barın , Arğın , Qıpçaq , and in the later period , Mansuroğlu and Sicavut . After the collapse of the Astrakhan Khanate in 1556 , an important element of the Crimean Khanate were the Nogays , who most of them transferred their allegiance from Astrakhan to Crimea . Circassians ( Atteghei ) and Cossacks also occasionally played roles in Crimean politics , alternating their allegiance between the khan and the beys . The Nogay pastoral nomads north of the Black Sea were nominally subject to the Crimean Khan . They were divided into the following groups : Budjak ( from the Danube to the Dniester ) , Yedisan ( from the Dniester to the Bug ) , Jamboyluk ( Bug to Crimea ) , Yedickul ( north of Crimea ) and Kuban . Internal affairs . Internally , the khanate territory was divided among the beys , and beneath the beys were mirza s from noble families . The relationship of peasants or herdsmen to their mirzas was not feudal . They were free and the Islamic law protected them from losing their rights . Apportioned by village , the land was worked in common and taxes were assigned to the whole village . The tax was one tenth of an agricultural product , one twentieth of a herd animal , and a variable amount of unpaid labor . During the reforms by the last khan Şahin Giray , the internal structure was changed following the Turkish pattern : the nobles ' landholdings were proclaimed the domain of the khan and reorganized into " qadılıqs " ( provinces governed by representatives of the khan ) . Crimean law . Crimean law was based on Tatar law , Islamic law , and , in limited matters , Ottoman law . The leader of the Muslim establishment was the mufti , who was selected from among the local Muslim clergy . His major duty was neither judicial nor theological , but financial . The mufti ’ s administration controlled all of the vakif lands and their enormous revenues . Another Muslim official , appointed not by the clergy but the Ottoman sultan , was the kadıasker , the overseer of the khanate ’ s judicial districts , each under jurisdiction of a kadi . In theory , kadis answered to the kadiaskers , but in practice they answered to the clan leaders and the khan . The kadis determined the day to day legal behavior of Muslims in the khanate . Non - Muslim minorities . Substantial non - Muslim minorities , Greeks , Armenians , Crimean Goths , Adyghe ( Circassians ) , Venetians , Genoese , Crimean Karaites and Qırımçaq Jews , lived principally in the cities , mostly in separate districts or suburbs . Under the " millet " system , they had their own religious and judicial institutions . They were subject to extra taxes in exchange for exemption from military service , living like Crimean Tatars and speaking dialects of Crimean Tatar . Mikhail Kizilov writes : " According to Marcin Broniewski ( 1578 ) , the Tatars seldom cultivated the soil themselves , with most of their land tilled by the Hungarian , Ruthenian , Russian , and Walachian ( Moldavian ) slaves . " The Jewish population was concentrated in Çufut Kale ( ' Jewish Fortress ' ) , a separate town near Bahçeseray that was the Khan ' s original capital . As other minorities , they spoke a Turkic language . Crimean law granted them special financial and political rights as a reward , according to local folklore , for historic services rendered to an " uluhane " ( first wife of a Khan ) . The capitation tax on Jews in Crimea was levied by the office of the uluhane in Bahçeseray . The Jews in Crimea were actively involved in the slave trade . " Economy . The nomadic part of the Crimean Tatars and all the Nogays were cattle breeders . Crimea had important trading ports where the goods arrived via the Silk Road were exported to the Ottoman Empire and Europe . Crimean Khanate had many large , beautiful , and lively cities such as the capital Bahçeseray , Gözleve ( Yevpatoria ) , Karasu Bazaar ( Karasu - market ) and Aqmescit ( White - mosque ) having numerous " hans " ( caravansarai s and merchant quarters ) , tanners , and mills . Many monuments constructed under the Crimean Khanate were destroyed or left in ruins after the Russian invasion . Mosques , in particular were demolished or remade into Orthodox churches . The settled Crimean Tatars were engaged in trade , agriculture , and artisanry . Crimea was a center of wine , tobacco , and fruit cultivation . Bahçeseray kilim s ( oriental rug s ) were exported to Poland , and knives made by Crimean Tatar artisans were deemed the best by the Caucasian tribes . Crimea was also renowned for manufacture of silk and honey . The slave trade ( 15th - 17th century ) in captured Ukrainians and Russians was one of the major sources of income of Crimean Tatar and Nogay nobility . In this process , known as " harvesting the steppe " , raiding parties would go out and capture , and then enslave the local Christian peasants living in the countryside . In spite of the dangers , Polish and Russian serfs were attracted to the freedom offered by the empty steppes of Ukraine . The slave raids entered Russian and Cossack folklore and many " dumy " were written elegising the victims ' fates . This contributed to a hatred for the Khanate that transcended political or military concerns . But in fact , there were always small raids committed by both Tatars and Cossacks , in both directions . The last recorded major Crimean raid , before those in the Russo - Turkish War ( 1768 – 1774 ) took place during the reign of Peter I ( 1682 – 1725 ) . Crimean art and architecture . Selim II Giray fountain . The Selim II Giray fountain , built in 1747 , is considered one of the masterpieces of Crimean Khanate ' s hydraulic engineering designs and is still marveled in modern times . It consists of small ceramic pipes , boxed in an underground stone tunnel , stretching back to the spring source more than 200 meters away . It was one of the finest sources of water in Bakhchisaray . Bakhchisaray Fountain . One of the notable constructors of Crimean art and architecture was , Qırım Giray , who in 1764 commissioned the fountain master Omer the Persian to construct the Bakhchisaray Fountain . The Bakhchisaray Fountain or " Fountain of Tears " is a real case of life imitating art . The fountain is known as the embodiment of love of one of the last Crimean Khans , Khan Qırım Giray for his young wife , and his grief after her early death . The Khan was said to have fallen in love with a Polish girl in his harem . Despite his battle - hardened harshness , he was grievous and wept when she died , astonishing all those who knew him . He commissioned a marble fountain to be made , so that the rock would weep , like him , forever . Regions and administration . The peninsula itself was divided by the khan ' s family and several " beys " . The estates controlled by beys were called " beylik " . Beys in the khanate were as important as the Polish " Magnat s " . Directly to the khan belonged Cufut - Qale , Bakhchisaray , and Staryi Krym ( Eski Qirim ) . The khan also possessed all the salt lakes and the villages around them , as well as the woods around the rivers Alma , Kacha , and Salgir . Part of his own estate included the wastelands with their newly created settlements . Part of the main khan ' s estates were the lands of the " Kalha - sultan " ( Qalğa ) who was next in the line of succession of the khan ' s family . He usually administered the eastern portion of the peninsula . Kalha also was Chief Commander of the Crimean Army in the absence of the Khan . The next hereditary administrative position , called " Nureddin , " was also assigned to the khan ' s family . He administrated the western region of the peninsula . There also was a specifically assigned position for the khan ' s mother or sister — " Ana - beim " — which was similar to the Ottomans ' Valide Sultan . The senior wife of the Khan carried a rank of " Ulu - beim " and was next in importance to the Nureddin . By the end of the khanate regional offices of the " kaimakans " , who administered smaller regions of the Crimean Khanate , were created .