Crimean

The Crimeans, or Crimean Tatars, are the Turkic people of the Crimean peninsula, forged from the Tauri, Goths, Greeks and Khazars and the Cumans and other Kipchak nomads.

In 1337 Crimea was the Crimean Ulus of the Golden Horde; in the fourteenth century its people largely adopted Islam and Kipchak speech dominated. As the Horde fragmented, clans invited Hacı Giray to the throne in 1441, founding the Crimean Khanate; after the Ottoman conquest of 1475 the khans ruled as vassals. The khanate grew rich on the slave trade through Kefe, while Bakhchisaray became a centre of learning.

Three ways of life shaped them: steppe herdsmen, mountain villagers and Oghuz-speaking coastal dwellers. Defeat in the Russo-Turkish War of 1768 to 1774 ended Ottoman protection; in 1783 Russia annexed the khanate, and by 1800 between one and three hundred thousand Crimeans had fled or been driven into Ottoman exile.