The Crimean Khanate under the reign of Gazi Giray II

Abstract

The Crimean Khanate was originaly a successor state of the Golden Horde. For one century it competed with the other successor of the Golden Horde, the Kazan Khanate, for the inheritance of the Golden Horde. After one century none of the competing powers but a third power, Muscovy, succeded to recover the former territory of the Golden Horde. The Crimean Khanate had to survive within a far more hostile after the Russian annexation of Kazan (1552) and Astrakhan (1556). It was now under the attack of the Eastern Slavs. The Cossacks replaced the Turkic nomads of the K1pchak steppes. The Crimean Khans turned their faces to their overlords, Ottoman Empire, in order to stop Russian offense. Meanwhile, the Ottoman Empire was engaged in a deadly struggle with the Habsburgs in the West and the Safavids in the East. The Ottoman Empire could not focus their attention in the region except the brief Astrakhan campaign in 1569 and focused in the Eastern and Western fronts. Gazi Giray II. reigned during this period of transformation, when the influence of the Ottoman Empire began to increase in the Crimean Khanate. The Ottoman Empire requested the continious presence of the Crimean forces in the front in order to fill the gap that the long and costly wars created in the military might of the Empire. Gazi Giray II. managed to survive in this environment. He fullfilled the requests of the Ottomans but followed an independent policy whenever it was possible. He succeded to expend the influence of the Crimean Khanate to the Danubian Principalities and Transylvania. This ambitious policy costed to his throne but thanks to his political skills he managed to reassume his seat. Despite the fact that his relations with the Ottoman Porte did not normalise after his dismissal, he managed to remain in the throne because he was strong in the Crimea. He obtained the support of the Crimean people with his reforms and his successes in the wars. According to Crimean Chroniclers, his reign was one of the golden era of the Khanate.