The Crimean Khanate was often treated as a semi-nomadic, watered-down version of the Golden Horde, or yet another vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. This book revises these views by exploring the Khanate’s political and legal systems, which combined well organized and well developed institutions, which were rooted in different traditions (Golden Horde, Islamic and Ottoman). Drawing on a wide range of sources, including the Crimean court registers from the reign of Murad Giray (1678-1683), the book examines the role of the khan, members of his council and other officials in the Crimean political and judicial systems as well as the practice of the Crimean sharia court during the reign of Murad Giray.
Natalia Królikowska-Jedlińska, Ph.D. (2010), University of Warsaw, is Assistant Professor at that university. She has published articles on the Crimean Khanate and the Northern Caucasus in the Early Modern Period.
Preface The Chronological Scope of the Research
Outline of the Book
Acknowledgments List of Illustrations List of Abbreviations Note on Place Names, Proper Names, and Transliteration Concordance of Frequently Mentioned Place Names Glossary
Introduction Historiography of the Crimean Khanate
Sources
1
Murad Giray and His Times 1 The Context of the Crimean Khanate Ruled by Murad Giray
2 Murad Giray as Viewed by Crimean Chroniclers
2
The Household, Deputies, and the Council of the Khan 1 The Khan’s Household
2 The
Kalga 3 The
Nuraddin and His Officials
4 The Khan’s Council
3
The Khan and the Nobles 1 The Crimean Nobles to 1532
2 The Crimean Nobles in the Years from 1532 to 1774
4
Provincial Kadıs and Their Courts 1 The
Kadı and Court Personnel
2 The Limitations of the Judicial Power of the
Kadı and His Subordinates
5
Law and Its Practice in the Khanate’s Sharia Courts 1 The Law Applied in the Crimean Courts
2 Litigants of the Sharia Courts: A Basic Statistical Analysis
Conclusion: A Fragile Balance
Appendices
Appendix I: Transliteration, Translation, and Facsimile of the Order Issued by Khan Canibeg Giray Appendix II: Transliteration, Translation, and Facsimile of a Case Brought to the Council of Murad Giray Appendix III: Summaries of the Cases Judged at the Khan’s Council (1678–82) Appendix IV: List of the Officials Recorded in the Crimean Sicils during the Reign of Murad Giray Selected Bibliography Index
All interested in the history of the Black Sea Region and the Ottoman Empire as well as researchers on Islamic Law and the Early Modern Eastern Europe.