|
Establishment of the Golden Horde
administration in Crimea (1239)
 |
|
The Eastern Gate of Qýrq Yer |
In the first half of the 13th century an important event occurred which in many respects determined the further history of Crimea.
In 1223 the army of Cuçi, a son of Jenghiz Khan, took the field against the Cumanian khanates of Eastern Europe. It was the first campaign of the Mongols to Crimea. The next one took place in 1239. This time the Cumanians were finally defeated, and Crimea passed under the control of a new administration. Mongolian commanders (who were not numerous) drove to the peninsula thousands of people of Turkic origin, previously subjected by the Mongols. These people were close related to the Crimean Cumanians in their language and culture. Many Cumanians fled to mountain regions and increased the number of the highlanders, while another part stayed in the plains and assimilated with the newcomers. Thus the old process of forming of local Turkic ethnos (the Crimean Tatars) proceeded.
Soon the peninsula became an ulus (a province) of the Golden Horde Empire. The capital of the
ulus was established in the town of Solqat or Qýrým (present Staryj Krym) in the eastern part of the Crimean peninsula, where the residence of the governor-generals of the Crimean
province was built.
The epoch of the Golden Horde (which is often referred as “a dark age” in the history of Eastern Europe) was a time of prosperity for Crimea. The vast spaces of Eurasian plains, “neutral” and dangerous up to that time, got under a strict control of the Golden Horde, which guaranteed safety of trade
exchanges through these lands. New international trading ways connecting West and East crossed Crimea bringing a lot of advantage to its ports and local market centers. After the khans of the Golden Horde had accepted Muslim faith influence of a rich civilization of Islam resulted a fast cultural rise in the country.
The Valley of the Çuruk Su
river under the Golden Horde
The Qýrq Yer fortress
 |
|
Mausoleum of Canike Haným, a daughter of
Toqtamýþ (the Khan of the Golden Horde) in Qýrq Yer |
There are no evidences to any military campaigns of the Mongols to South West Crimea, however the Cumanian domination over the Alanian fortress was replaced with the authority of the Golden Horde administration in the same way as it happened in other parts of Crimea. The Country of the Minor Alanians became a part of the Yaþlav
beyliq (the patrimonial possession of Yaþlav noble clan).
It is not clear what was the exact status of the Qýrq Yer fortress in the first decades of the Horde’s epoch. With sure, it didn’t become the capital of the new-established
beyliq as the residence of the Yaþlav princes was located in forests not so close to Qýrq Yer.
Gradually former residence of the Alanian princes got typical features of a Golden Horde settlement. In the 13th century (i.e. even before Islam was introduced as the state religion of the Horde) the first mosque was erected in the valley at the foot of Qýrq Yer. From the middle of the 14th century a mosque with a Muslim quarter existed inside the fortress. Obviously, the residence of the governor of Qýrq Yer should be also built there, but no remnants of it have been found yet (it is worthy of attention that local legends persisted that a certain palace, built by Cuçi himself, was placed somewhere in this area). It was the only governor of Qýrq Yer whose name was registered in historical sources: he was Hacý Bek, who fought together with Qutlu Buða (the governor of Qýrým) and Demetrios (the governor of Mangup) against the Lithuanian grand duke Olgierd who liberated Ukrainian lands from the Golden Horde domination in 1363.
Time to time Qýrq Yer became an arena for turbulent events of political life. So, in 1299 it was burnt by emir Noðay who was fighting against objectionable khans; sometimes unsuccessful rivals for the Horde’s throne sought shelter there.
The population of Qýrq Yer was much heterogeneous in religious respect: Qarays (or Karaites, descendants of pre-Horde Turkic peoples of Crimea), and Christians of Greek (this category included hellenized descendants of Alanians) and Armenian rites lived there alongside with Muslims.
Settlement of Eski Yurt
 |
|
A fountain of Eski Yurt
The mausoleum of Mehmed II Giray is seen on
the right side
a picture from the beginning of the 20th
century. |
In the lands of the Yaþlav beyliq, in a broad valley between mountain ridges, a settlement grew in the epoch of the Golden Horde. It was placed at an ancient trading way, which led from seaports of the Calamita Gulf (Chersonesos, Calamita, Cembalo) to the plains of the Crimean peninsula. This town had many similarities with the Crimean capital Qýrým which also laid on an old trading road in the foothills. Later, in the days of the Crimean Khanate, this town was called Eski Yurt (the old settlement). As researchers assumed, originally its name was Qýrq – following the name of an ancient Turkic clan. Thus the fortress Qýrq Yer was supposed to be the fortified citadel of the town of Qýrq which played the role of the local administrative center.
There are too few information concerning the economical life of Qýrq, but this settlement may be undoubtedly recognized one of the most important spiritual and cultural centers of Crimea. There was one of the oldest and largest Muslim cemeteries in Crimea called Qýrq Azizler. Crimean Muslims believed that Melik Aþter (an associate of the Prophet Muhammad) was buried there. The oldest monuments on the cemetery date from the 14th century. Three Crimean khans of the 16th and 17th centuries (Mehmed II Giray, his son Saadet II Giray and grandson Mehmed III Giray) were buried there along with other representatives of the Giray dynasty and many noble and common people.
 |
|
View on Eski Yurt, 1793
|
Eski Yurt was keeping its significance of an important religious center during many centuries. After the Crimean Khanate had been established the town become deserted as its inhabitants moved to the new-built khans’ capital Bakhchisaray. Nevertheless, up to the beginning of the 20th century Eski Yurt was considered as a sacred place. A big complex of religious buildings existed there. It included a mosque with a Sufi
tekiye (a chapel of members of theological mystical societies), four mausoleums (all of which remained till now) and some
azizes (burials of holy people).
MORE>>
|
