Şahin Geray Han’ın oğulları meselesine dair

Abstract

At the time when & Scedil;ahin Geray Khan, the last khan of the Crimean Khanate was put to death on the island of Rhodes in 1787, his harem and his son Devlet Geray Sultan were in the Ottoman Empire. The contemporary records did not testify to the presence of another son of the late khan. In the following years, Devlet Geray Sultan and his son Mustafa Geray Sultan lived in Istanbul and received the allowances which the Ottoman Empire traditionaly allocated to all members of the Geray dynasty. There are no documents or information about the existence of any male issues of Mustafa Geray Sultan. Nevertheless, in 1840s, a man named & Idot;skender S & uuml;leyman emerged, claiming that he was the son of & Scedil;ahin Geray Khan, and made material demands from both the Ottoman and Russian empires. The credentials of & Idot;skender S & uuml;leyman were dubious and his stories contained obviously absurd and imaginary elements. These notwithstanding, the Porte still granted him and, after his death, to his daughters the traditional Geray allowances for their lives. Though, apparently, the male line of & Scedil;ahin Geray Khan did not extend to the 20th century, hundreds of other members of the large Geray pedigree continued to live in the Ottoman Empire and Northern Caucasus