Genealogy of the Crimean Khans according to “Umdet al-Akhbar” by Abdulgaffar Kyrymi

Abstract

The article considers the genealogy of the Girayids contained in “Umdet al-Akhbar” by Abdulgaffar Kyrymi. Abdulgaffar Kyrymi was a great connoisseur of the Turkic-Tatar history. He wrote his historical work in 1747 according to the Ottoman-Turkish tradition, that is, the author gave detailed information about the history of the prophets since Adam, the history of Islam, Islamic Turkic states, the State of Seljuks and the Ottoman State, Chinggis Khan and his sons. Moreover, he collected most of the information from local sources of that period. But the main part of the work contains the history of Juchi Khan, his children and the history of the Crimea. It is for this reason that Abdulgaffar Kyrymi gives such a detailed genealogy of the Girayids and the sequence of their rules in the Crimean Khanate. Abdulgaffar Kyrymi’s genealogy begins with Chinggis Khan and his daughters (Kuchi Bike, Chechgan Bigim, Tumalyn Bigim, Elyatun Bigim, Turaly Bigim) as well as with his 500 wives. But only five of them were respected: Borte Kuchin Biim, Kulan Bigim, Suyugan Khatun Bigim, Kökchi Bigim, Jeksulu Bigim. List of the Crimean dynasty of the Girayids is offered here to specialists, beginning with Haji Giray to Arslan Giray. Comparison of the list of the Girayid khans contained in “Umdet al-Akhbar” with researches on this topic reveals some differences. In the opinion of the author, to solve these problems, along with genealogical and other narrative sources, it is also necessary to use the numismatics data and a large corpus of letters of the Crimean khans to the rulers of various countries.