The Early Khans of Crimea: the Chronology of the Turmoil in the Ac-counts of the Genoese Treasury of Caffa, 1420s

Four account books of the Genoese colony in Caffa kept in 1420–1426 by its treasurers (massarii) are still unpublished as a whole. Almost four hundreds records in these manuscripts deal with the Tartar-Genoese relations and the political situation in Crimea. Combined with the numismatic data and evidences from chronicles and state correspondence they let the author to ascertain up to weeks and days the chronology of khans’ reign. After the death of the first Crimean khan Bek Sufi in 1421 his brother Dawlat Berdi (the kinship became evident from these records) struggled for power with his cousin Ulugh Muhammed, khan of the Golden Horde, for six years and climbed to the Solhat throne four times. The newly obtained information proves that neither Bek Sufi nor Dawlat Berdi, cannot be treated as the khans of the Golden Horde. They were two of the first members of the Tukatimurid dynasty which came to power in Crimea. The separatism and the might of the Crimean tribal beks were a real reason and basis for forming this independent khanate. The same beks reestablished the dynasty in 1441 having invited to the throne Haji Giray, nephew of both khans, who gave his name to the dynasty of the state, established in 1419. It was necessary to use original Latin texts to understand the history that accompaied the research

Ibrahim, Son of Mahmoudek: Accession to Power and Purses (1) »

The death of the Crimean khan Haji Giray on 25 August 1466 was followed by two months of the political turmoil. Sons of the late ruler, Mengli Giray and Nur Dawlat, were two pretenders well-known to the historians. But numismatic material and newly found archival documents prove that there was one more claimant khan. He was the protege of the Shirin bek Mamak and the copper puls of Caffa with the forked tamga testify that the Genoeses were inclined to accept his supremacy. The said heraldic symbol didn’t belong to Giray khans and it was never more used for the coins of Caffa or the khanate after 1441, when Tartar beks elected Haji Giray to be their lord. These puls were the fractional currency that became necessary after there had happened the monetary reform in the khanate and those old silver dangs started to circulate side by side with a new silver denomination – aqcha. The author has discovered that these puls have die links with aqche coins of Nur Dawlat and moreover he has found that the third «Emperor» had been mentioned in the unpublished accounts of the Genoese treasury, composed in September and October 1466. The shape of his tamga as well the steady political predilections of the Shirin beks demonstrate his kinship with Ulugh Muhammad. The name of this previously unbeknown Crimean khan, who became next year the khan of the Kazan khanate, was Ibrahim. The name of this khan is written on those coins which were earlier attributed to the Siberian khan Ibrahim (Ibak) without real, only on far-fetched and untutored grounds