Şahin Giray, Shahin Khan Girai ( crh, شاهين كراى, Şahin Geray, 1745—1787) was the last Khan of

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

on two occasions (1777–1782, 1782–1783).

Life

He was born in 1745 in

Edirne Edirne (, ), formerly known as Adrianople or Hadrianopolis (Greek: Άδριανούπολις), is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, ...

. He studied in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

and

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

. He reputedly spoke the Crimean Tatar language as well as

Ottoman Turkish Ottoman Turkish ( ota, لِسانِ عُثمانى, Lisân-ı Osmânî, ; tr, Osmanlı Türkçesi) was the standardized register of the Turkish language used by the citizens of the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extens ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

and

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

. When he was 20, his uncle Crimean Khan

Qırım Giray Khan Qırım Giray (1717–1769) was one of the most influential rulers of the Crimean Khanate. He was the patron of the Bakhchisaray Fountain and many Mosques throughout Crimea, and is also known to have extended the Bakhchisaray Palace. Reig ...

called him back to the Crimea from his foreign school whereupon he was installed as the Commander of

Nogai Horde The Nogai Horde was a confederation founded by the Nogais that occupied the Pontic–Caspian steppe from about 1500 until they were pushed west by the Kalmyks and south by the Russians in the 17th century. The Mongol tribe called the Manghuds cons ...

. In 1770, the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

won a great battle against the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

and sought an alliance with the

Crimean Khanate The Crimean Khanate ( crh, , or ), officially the Great Horde and Desht-i Kipchak () and in old European historiography and geography known as Little Tartary ( la, Tartaria Minor), was a Crimean Tatars, Crimean Tatar state existing from 1441 to ...

against the Turks. Selim Giray declined the proposal, precipitating a surprise attack by Russia against the Khanate. The Khan sent envoys to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

to sue for peace. During this mission,

Catherine II , en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes , house = , father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp , birth_date = , birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anha ...

met Şahin Giray and wrote of him:

"The Crimean Prince is the most gentle Tatar, I have ever seen. He's very talented, bronze-colored, good-looking, circumcised and writes poetry. He wants to see and learn everything."

In 1776, Şahin Giray succeeded his uncle to become

Khan of Crimea This is a list of khans of the Crimean Khanate, a state which existed in present-day southern Ukraine from 1441 until 1783. Crimean Tatars, although not a part of the Ukrainian ethnos, are deeply interconnected, having ruled a large part of ...

. During his brief reign, he embarked on a program to re-build and modernise the Crimean Khanate. These reforms centred on the economy and government infrastructure, but included opening factories and moving the capital from

Bakhchisaray Bakhchysarai ( crh, Bağçasaray, italic=yes; russian: Бахчисара́й; ua, Бахчисара́й; tr, Bahçesaray) is a town in Crimea, a territory recognized by a majority of countries as part of Ukraine and annexed by Russia as the Re ...

to the important trade city of

Caffa uk, Феодосія, Теодосія crh, Kefe , official_name = () , settlement_type= , image_skyline = THEODOSIA 01.jpg , imagesize = 250px , image_caption = Genoese fortress of Caffa , image_shield = Fe ...

. Eventually, under enormous pressure from Russia and facing the inevitability of defeat, he agreed to a Russian offer to incorporate the Khanate into the Russian Empire. As a result, he was compelled to move to

, where he lived under house arrest. He appealed to be allowed to move to

, where he had spent much of his childhood. In 1787, Russia and the Ottoman Empire agreed to allow him to move to Edirne. This move was not the retirement he was expecting because the Ottoman authorities saw him as a possible challenger to the imperial Ottoman throne. He was moved under arrest to

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

and then

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the So ...

where he was executed later that year. His family lived in

Burgazada Burgazada, or Burgaz Adası (Burgaz for short), is the third largest of the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara, near Istanbul, Turkey. It is officially a neighbourhood of the Adalar district of Istanbul. In the past it was called Antigoni ( ...

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

, after he was executed by

Abdul Hamid I Abdülhamid or Abdul Hamid I ( ota, عبد الحميد اول, ''`Abdü’l-Ḥamīd-i evvel''; tr, Birinci Abdülhamid; 20 March 1725 – 7 April 1789) was the 27th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, reigning over the Ottoman Empire from 1774 to ...

.FERİDUN EMECEN, "ŞÂHİN GİRAY", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/sahin-giray (14.07.2020).

References

LAST CRIMEAN KHAN in TR written by Leonid Bahrevskiy
Translated from Turkish {{DEFAULTSORT:Giray, Sahin Crimean Khans 1745 births 1787 deaths 18th-century rulers in Europe 18th-century executions by the Ottoman Empire

Life

See also

References