Khan Palace in Bakhchisaray

Foundation of the Crimean Khanate by Hacı Giray

Establishment of the capital in Qırq Yer (1440s)

A silver coin of Hacı Giray minted in Qırq Yer in 1454. The symbol of tamga (adopted by Hacı Giray as a new state emblem) is placed in the center.

In the second half of the 14th century the Golden Horde was falling into decline being torn by internal strife for power. At the same time the Crimean province of the Golden Horde Empire was entering the epoch of prosperity: the Crimean trading ways were integrated into the world network of a brisk international trade. Economic rise, forming of a specific local Crimean Tatar ethnos, growing isolation from the rest part of the Empire resulted in separatization of Crimea into a self-standing state. In the middle of the 15th century a ruler independent from the Golden Horde achieved power in Crimea. He was Hacı Giray, a descendant of the Horde’s governors of Crimea. He originated from the kin of Jenghiz khan and therefore had the right to claim the title of monarch.

Hacı Giray began his struggle for the throne at the end of the 1420s. He met strong resistance from the side of the Golden Horde khans and other competitors. After many years of rivalry (in 1449) he ascended the throne of the independent Crimean Tatar state. The capital of the new-founded Crimean Khanate was established in Qırq Yer.

So the status of the Çuruk Su Valley was risen up from a local to the national center. The residence of the first Crimean khan was built there. Most propably it was placed in the settlement of Salaçıq, which lied in the valley at the foot of Qırq Yer. In 1466 Hacı Giray died and was buried in Salaçıq.

Menli I Giray - the ruler of the former Golden Horde

Building of the Devlet Saray palace in Salaçıq (1490s-1500s) 

Mausoleum of Hacı Giray built by Meñli I Giray in Salaçıq

Meñli I Giray, a son of Hacı Giray, had got more ambitious plans than his father. He strove for gaining control over the whole Golden Horde Empire. He succeeded in 1502, when he defeated the last khan of the Golden Horde and adopted the title of haqan (the khan over khans; this title previously belonged to the rulers of the Golden Horde). In other words, Meñli I Giray became the successor of the Golden Horde's throne.

The status of the administrative centre in the Çuruk Su Valley was risen once again: from then the capital of Crimea became formally the centre of a great empire, which stretched from Caspian deserts up to taiga forests of the Ural Mountains.There was a number of reasons due to which the Crimean Khanate did not manage to get the real poewr over all the former possessions of the Golden Horde. Still, at least, the khan's capital was set up accordingly with its new high status.

At the boundary of the 15th and 16th centuries Meñli I Giray built a new khan residence in Salaçıq (it was quite possible, that the new palace was constructed on the place of former residence of Hacı Giray). The palace was called Devlet Saray.

A palazzo inside the Zıncırlı Medrese

It was surrounded with constructions adherent for a capital city: a cathedral mosque, a family mausoleum of the ruling dynasty (built on the site where Hacı Giray had been buried) and a religious educational institution called Zıncırlı Medrese. Two stone-carved inscriptions walled into the portals of the palace and mausoleum titled Meñli I Giray with the high title of haqan. In 1515 Meñli I Giray died and was laid to the mausoleum he built in 1501. The Devlet Saray Palace was the main residence for his successors about two decades more.

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