Crimean Tatars' ethnogenesis (part 2)

Goths.

In the second half of the third century B.C., the Scythian-Sarmatian state ceased to exist under the onslaught of the Goths, who crossed the Vistula and appeared in Eastern Europe.

There is an interesting opinion about the origin of the Goths: a historian Jordanes writes that the Goths themselves came from the island of Skandza. It may seem that he is referring to the Scandinavian Peninsula, but his testimony makes it quite clear that he is talking about the island. According to Yurii Drozdov, the Goths came from the island of Saaremaa (Estonian name), which is located in the Eastern Baltic.

On the territory of Scythia, the Goths were divided into eastern and western. The Eastern Goths (or Ostrogoths) conquered the Scythians and Sarmatians closer to the middle of the 3rd century, fought the Bosporan Kingdom and won. The Hellenes were wary of these strangers from the north who had impressive military power. They called the Goths barbarians and pirates who, in their opinion, were engaged in robbery. Over time, the Ostrogoths settled along the southern coast of Crimea, pushing the local population into the mountains. The Goths also came very close to Chersonese but did not take the city itself.

The Goths were first-class warriors, and it was them who drove the Roman legionaries out of the Crimea. However, they were not only engaged in warfare. They were good farmers, craftsmen and traders, and were famous for their hospitality. The Goths successfully coexisted with the local population, mastered the Turkic language, and were the first known Christians in Crimea.

At the end of the 5th century, they founded their own principality with the capital Mangup. All the ulus-beys and khans of Crimea respected the Mangup princes. It was this tribal union that gave special features to the Crimean Tatars from Ozenbash and Kokkoz to Uskut.

Huns.

The Huns are a tribal union that has long been described as savage and unruly. But how could a people that conquered half the world be like that?

The Huns were masters of strategy, they influenced the diplomatic relations of the world at the time, and led Europe out of antiquity and into the Middle Ages. There is an incredible similarity between the Scythians and the Huns in their manner of warfare.

The Huns were a Turkic-speaking people who came from the north of the Huang He River Valley and lived on the territory of the modern Mongolia. After the death of the Hun leader Attila, his empire lasted for about twenty years. Around 469, some Hun tribes returned to the Northern Black Sea region and invaded Crimea. The Huns brought the belief in the god Tengri to the peninsula. Since then, Tengriism has spread in Crimea alongside Christianity.

According to some sources, the Huns did not settle in cities, but instead roamed freely in the steppe Crimea and the Northern Black Sea region. The Huns made a minor contribution to the culture of the local population, but their contribution to the formation of the anthropological type of Crimean Tatars was more significant. This was especially evident on the territory of the then Hun settlements – in the steppe and even on the southern coast near Alushta.

Khazars.

The Khazars came from Mongolia, Siberia and Altai together with the Huns in the 5th century. It is believed that in 552, the Khazars were actively involved in the creation of the Turkic Khaganate, which was ruled by the descendants of Attila. However, in the 7th century, the state split into two parts, one of which was the Khazar Khaganate, located at the intersection of two huge trade routes. It was a large state that occupied the entire Northern Black Sea region, the forest steppes up to the Dnipro River, most of the Crimea, the North Caucasus, the Lower and Middle Volga region, and northwestern Kazakhstan.

The khans had many diplomatic ties with Byzantium (marriages of the khan’s relatives with Byzantine emperors were supported). One such example is the marriage of Ibuzir Khan’s sister (or possibly daughter) Glyavana Chechek to the then emperor in exile Justinian II. Chechek accepted her husband’s faith and received a new name, Theodora. Later, after the death of her husband, Feodora returned to the Crimea, where the Khagan allowed her to rule in Crimean Khazaria until her son came of age (perhaps that’sw why the principality had the second name, Feodoro).

In the Khaganate, three religious movements coexisted peacefully: Islam, Judaism and Christianity. However, due to the need to choose a state religion, the choice fell on Judaism, because at that time the Khaganate was at war with the Arab Caliphate and the local non-Christian population of Crimea was in religious conflict with Byzantium. Thus, the Khazaria opened the doors for Byzantine Jews, as they were oppressed in every way. The Khagan and his cronies embraced Karaimism, but the aristocracy relied on the Christian and Muslim populations of the Khaganate, which led to religious and political strife. Over time, this weakened the state. First, the Pecheneg raid, which was repelled, and then the devastating campaigns of Princes Sviatoslav and Volodymyr ended the existence of the Khaganate.

Pechenegs.

At the end of the 9th century, this tribe first conquered the entire Northern Black Sea region, and then Crimea. The Pechenegs made a great contribution to the material and spiritual culture of the inhabitants of the peninsula. They belonged to the part of the Oghuz tribes that inhabited the steppe between the Irtysh and the Aral Sea.

Over time, the Pechenegs began to annex new tribes, which led to a shortage of land. At the end of the 9th century, the Pechenegs appeared in the Eastern European steppe, weakening the Khazar Khaganate. It was the drought in their native lands that contributed to their rapid movement to the west. Already in the Black Sea steppes, the Pechenegs were divided into 8 tribes consisting of 40 clans. The Pechenegs, in fact, caused the disappearance of the Khazar Khaganate having occupied territories that brought income to the Khazars.

In the middle of the 10th century, the Pechenegs occupied Crimea. They were famous for their commercial and trading skills and became Chersonese’s trade intermediaries. They were also a kind of Byzantine barrier against the Kyivan princes, but in 970, in accordance with their interests, the Pechenegs supported Prince Sviatoslav and took part in the battle of Arkadiopol on the side of Rus. Subsequently, a series of conflicts erupted between the Pechenegs and the Kyivan princes, which became one of the reasons for the decline of this people. The Pechenegs professed faith in the god Tengri, but later converted to Islam. But it is in Crimea that they are remembered not only as one of the first Muslims and active participants in the ethnic history of the Crimean Tatars, but also as having preserved their Pecheneg words in their language: özen – river, küçük – little, köpek – dog.

Kipchaks (Polovtsians).

According to some sources, the ancestors of the Kipchaks were the Kymaks, the autochthons of the Altai mountains. The first mention of this people dates back to the 7th century. As for the relations between Russia and the Kipchaks, after the defeat of Prince Sviatopolk II Iziaslavych near the village of Khalepa, a peace was signed between the two princes, one of the points of which was compulsory inter-dynastic marriages.

The Kipchaks first entered the territory of Crimea in the late 11th century. In 1096, they took Chersonese forcing the Byzantines to take them seriously. The city of Sugdeia (modern Sudak) became the capital of the Kipchaks. They also lived in large Crimean cities, one of which was Solkhat, a centre of international trade and the end point of the Great Silk Road. The future sultans of Egypt, Baybars and Qalawun, were born in Solkhat.

In the 13th century, the entire population of the peninsula, regardless of their ethnicity, spoke exclusively the Kipchak language. Since Crimea was actually the crossroads of all trade routes, traders from all over the world visited it and needed to understand the locals. This is how the Codex Cumanicus emerged.

Due to the Mongol invasion of the plains north of the Caucasus, where the Kipchaks lived, they had to leave these lands and move west. In 1238, half of the Kipchaks moved to the Volga River, while the other half crossed the Kerch Strait and settled in Crimea. By that time, a lot of Kipchaks had moved to the peninsula.

Objects of material heritage are still preserved on the territory of Ukraine: in the northwestern part of Crimea, 1320 unique monuments of Kipchak art that reflect the spiritual culture and way of life of this people have been found. For many centuries, the inhabitants of the steppe and foothill parts of Crimea continued to call themselves Kipchaks. Until the 1930s, the inhabitants of Kezlev (modern Yevpatoria) referred to themselves exclusively by the ethnonym “Kipchak”.

Italians.

In the late 12th and early 13th centuries, the peninsula had all the prerequisites for the emergence of a new nation, the Crimean Tatars, in a few centuries. However, in the 13th century, the interests of the Horde, Italians and Seljuks clashed. Thus, they left a deep mark on the ethnic and political history of the peninsula.

The first stay of Italian merchants (Venetians) in Crimea dates back to the eleventh century. The entire stay of the Italians in Crimea was reduced to trade wars between the Republic of Venice and Genoa. Each of these Italian state entities sought to achieve a monopoly on trade in the Black Sea as they understood how unique the Crimean Peninsula was.

To understand the processes of ethnogenesis, it is necessary to keep in mind the fact that the Venetians occupied Sugdea (Sudak), and the Genoese made Kafa (Feodosia) their main port. The Genoese won trade wars, thereby securing a monopoly on trade in eastern Crimea and trade relations with the Mangup principality. Subsequently, the Italians had to pay taxes to the Golden Horde, but their profits exceeded the amount of tax on imports and exports. The Genoese factories experienced their heyday during the Crimean Khanate era but were destroyed in 1475 when the Ottomans invaded the peninsula.

Not all Genoese left Crimea after that. Over time, they mixed with the local Crimean Tatar population, adopting their language and even supporting the khan in his campaigns.

The Horde.

The battle on the Kalka River became decisive for the history of Crimea in the early 13th century. In 1223, Crimea formally became part of the ulus of Jochi (Genghis Khan’s son) but was officially assigned to Jochi Khan’s son Tuqa-Timur in 1242.

From the 1260s, the yurt was ruled by Tuqa-Timur’s son Urung-Timur. He established contacts with the Kipchak leaders, thereby securing the support of the population and the rule in Crimea. He also officially agreed to establish Italian factories on the peninsula. However, all trade transactions were to take place in the city of Solkhat, not Sugdei or Kafa. For some time, the nomads did not settle in Crimea – they visited Crimea during the winter time. At the same time, each family – there were seven of them – had a specific area set aside for this purpose. This is how the seven Bey clans were formed, which significantly influenced the policy of the Crimean Khanate in the future.

In 1300, Khan Tokhta returned power to the Urung-Timur family, passing it from father to son. In 1359, the Golden Horde began to experience infighting and a struggle for the throne, and the Urung-Timur family was again deprived of power. Tash-Timur, the hereditary khan of Crimea, did not want to accept the situation, so he united with his relative Khan Tokhtamysh. In 1380, the latter took the throne; this year is considered the end of the turmoil in the Horde. In 1390, an embassy from Lithuanian Prince Vytautas arrived in Solkhat, asking Tash-Timur for military assistance against his enemies, and the khan, in turn, sent several thousand of his soldiers to help.

Later, Tokhtamysh and Tash-Timur opposed the Samarkand emir Timur. Tokhtamysh and Tash-Timur lost this battle, the former hiding in the city of Bulgari, and Tash-Timur returned to the Crimea and proclaimed his ulus independent. Subsequently, Tokhtamysh also returned to the peninsula, and a series of vicissitudes began between the relatives, which forced the two khans to leave it.

Prince Vytautas gave Tash-Timur the city of Trakai in Lithuania, where the latter could accommodate all the people who followed the khan. The status quo of his father was restored by Khan Devlet-Berdi, and later his nephew, Haji, would become the sole and independent ruler of the Crimean Khanate.

Thus, over the centuries, many different ethnic groups, which were carriers of both Western and Eastern cultures, formed this unique nation, which is the embodiment of a synthesis of Asian and European worldviews. During the times of the Crimean Khanate, three sub-ethnic groups of Crimean Tatars were clearly formed: yalı boylu (the coast inhabitants), tatlar (the mountains inhabitants) and noğaylar (the steppe inhabitants). Until 1944, they practically did not mix with each other. After the deportation, representatives of different sub-ethnic groups primarily sought to preserve themselves as a nation, and thus, intermarriage between them became much more frequent.

Sources:

1. Гульнара Абдулаєва «Кримські татари: від етногенезу до державності».

2. Курс лекцій Надіра Бекірова DERS (увага! відео російською мовою).

Article by Esma Ametova, Daria Piskun, Olena Sudak