During the late 13th century, the town was known as either Solkhat (Solkhad, Solghad, Ṣulġātصلغات) or as Qrım (al-Qirim/Kirimالقرم).[citation needed] Neither name is attested prior to the 13th century, but on the authority of al-Qalqashandi, Solkhat is the older of the two, dating to the period prior to the Mongol conquest in mid-1238.[citation needed] Both names coexisted during the 14th century, but the name Qırım came to displace Solkhat by the early 15th. The origin of either name is uncertain.[2] Some consider Solkhat to be related to the Greek Colchis.[citation needed]
Before the Mongol period, mention is made in Greek hagiography of the residence of the Khazar governor of the eastern part of the peninsula, as a fortress named Phoulla or Phoullai (Φοῦλλαι, although other sources identify this place with Chufut-Kale)[3] along with Sugdaia (Sudak); it is likely that the site of this fortress corresponds to the site of Solghat.[4]
The name Qirim may continue the old name Cimmerium (after the Cimmerians). The Strait of Kerch was known as Bosporus Cimmerius in the Roman era (as reported by Ptolemy, Polybius, and Strabo), after the city of Cimmerium which stood nearby. The promontory or peninsula on which it stood was known as Promontorium Cimmerium (Κιμμέριον ἄκρον). The 13th-century toponym Qrim is likely explained as a corruption of the name Cimmerium.[5][6] There are however alternative suggestions, such as derivation from the Greek Cremnoi (Κρημνοί, in post-classical Koiné Greek pronunciation, Crimni, i.e., "the Cliffs", referenced by Herodotus 4.20.1 and 4.110.2) or from a Mongolian appellation.[7]
The name "Crimea" (for the Crimean Khanate, and later also for the peninsula itself[citation needed]) is derived from the name of the city[citation needed]). It became adopted as an alternative term for what used to be known as Tauris or Tauric Peninsula in western languages from the 17th century.[8]
Since the annexation of Crimea by Catherine II of Russia in 1783, the town has been known by the Russian name Staryi Krym (Russian staryi meaning "old", rendered in Crimean Tatar as eski; also transliterated as Staroi Krim and variants).[9] Although officially the town was renamed Levkopol after the ancient Greek name of Leukopolis (White City), this never gained popularity,[4] perhaps because the town already styled a name from antiquity.
The town was probably the site of an earlier Khazar fortress before the Mongol conquest of the Crimea in mid-1238. The Mongols under Batu Khan fortified the town and thereafter it became a capital of the Crimean Yurt (Crimean province of the Golden Horde) and a home for the Emir of Crimea.
Before the 1270s, Qrim had been a village surrounding a fort at best, but by the early 14th century it had grown into a prosperous city. Kaykaus II was given Qrim as a fief in c. 1265. Tatar coins were struck in Qrim from 1287/8 (AH 686) and in the same year, an Egyptian architect was sent there to build a mosque to be named after the Egyptian sultan.[4]
From that period remain the Ozbek Han Mosque, built in 1314 by Uzbeg Khan, and the ruins of a madrassa built in 1332.[10] The town prospered during the 14th century, but it was completely destroyed during the civil unrest under Mengli Girai in the later 15th century. Qrim seems to have retained its position as capital of the newly established Crimean Khanate for some years, as coins struck here are dated to as late as 1517 (AH 923), after which point in 1532 the capital of the Ottoman vassal state was moved to Bağçasaray, and the city declined into relative obscurity. After the Russian conquest of the Crimean Khanate in the 1770s, the city of Staryi Krym was given the Greek name of Leukopolis (Lewkopol),[11] but this name never entered common usage.[4] In 1863, the town had a population of 1,085, of which 43.4% were Armenian Christian, 42.8% were Eastern Orthodox, 13.1% were Muslim, and 0.7% were Protestant.[11] In the late 19th century, the inhabitants were mostly employed in gardening, tobacco cultivation and farming.[11]
In 1812, shortly before Napoleon's invasion, the Countess Jeanne de Gachet, wife of a French emigrant and victim of the revolution, had been living in Saint Petersburg for some time. She said she was aware of many events at the court of Louis XVI. TsarAlexander I then wanted to meet her in person and, once met at her palace, she confessed to him that she was actually the Countess Jeanne de La Motte-Valois, the sad heroine of the necklace affair. Naturalized Russian for some secret services rendered to Russian diplomacy, Alexander was the only person she confided in. Having admit her past guilt, as a Vendean she had long followed the heroic bands that had resisted the republican armies. In 1824, by order of the emperor who did not grant the extradition of the state criminal requested by the French ambassador, she was exiled to the Crimea with a group of pietists, settling permanently in a modest peasant house in the small village of Staryi Krym. Two years later, in the spring, sensing that she was close to death, after having destroyed all the papers and burned the compromising documents in her possession, she asked the Armenians of the church that her body be buried with the clothes she was wearing at the moment, without being stripped. Falling from a horse, she died on April 23, 1826. However, according to local custom, her body had to be washed before burial, so her recommendations were not heeded. It was then that, while cleaning the body, she noticed her branding on her right shoulder and chest, proving her real identity. As a result, by express order of the new Emperor Nicholas I, her belongings were shipped to the Russian capital.[12][13]
As of the Ukrainian national census in 2001, the town had a population of 9,960 people. The population mostly consists of ethnic Russians and Crimean Tatars. The share of ethnic Ukrainians living in the town barely exceeds 10%, which is the lowest percentage recorded in any major settlement on the whole Crimean peninsula. The exact ethnic composition was as follows:[15]
2001 Ukrainian census
percent
Russians
53.79%
Crimean Tatars
29.17%
Ukrainians
10.22%
Tatars
2.80%
Belarusians
0.64%
Armenians
0.23%
Azerbaijanis
0.14%
Poles
0.11%
Ecclesiastical history
As Phulli, it was one of the bishoprics in the Roman client-state, later province, of the Bosporan Kingdom, where no imperial metropolis was established, and it faded under heathen rule.
The diocese was nominally restored in 1929, as a Latin Catholic titular archbishopric (Curiate Italian name Fulli).
It has been vacant for decades, having had the following incumbents of the intermediary (archiepiscopal) rank:
↑ Perhaps a Turkified form of the Italian name Solcati (Italian: solcata – furrow, ditch).[citation needed] An alternative proposal derives it from the name of an Armenian monastic complex in Staryi Krym, built in 1338 and known in Armenian as "Surb Khach," Armenian: Սուրբ Խաչ or Holy Cross.[unreliable source?] Maksoudian, Krikor (1997). "Armenian Communities in Eastern Europe" in The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times, Volume II: Foreign Dominion to Statehood: The Fifteenth Century to the Twentieth Century. Richard Hovannisian (ed.) New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 57. ISBN1-4039-6422-X.
↑ Vasilev A. A., "The Goths in the Crimea," Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1936, p. 98
1 2 3 4 E. J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913-1936, Volume 4, pp. 1084f.
↑ Adrian Room, Placenames of the World, 2003, p. 96. .
↑ Edward Gibbon, The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 10 (1788), p. 211: "The modern reader must not confound this old Cherson of the Tauric or Crimean peninsula with a new city of the same name".
↑ "North-west of Kaffa and east of Karasu bazar is Eski or Staroi Krim (i.e., Old Krim), the Cimmerium of the Greeks, which gave its name to the peninsula." Henry H. Howorth, History of the Mongols, from the 9th to the 19th century, part 2: The so-called Tartars of Russia and Central Asia (1880) p. 625
1 2 3 4 Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Tom XI (in Polish). Warszawa. 1890. p.271.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
The Tatars, formerly also spelled Tartars, is an umbrella term for different Turkic ethnic groups bearing the name "Tatar" across Eastern Europe and Asia.
Crimea is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukraine. To the east, the Crimean Bridge, constructed in 2018, spans the Strait of Kerch, linking the peninsula with Krasnodar Krai in Russia. The Arabat Spit, located to the northeast, is a narrow strip of land that separates the Syvash lagoons from the Sea of Azov. Across the Black Sea to the west lies Romania and to the south is Turkey. The population is 2.4 million, and the largest city is Sevastopol. The region has been under Russian occupation since 2014.
Crimean Tatars or Crimeans are a Turkic ethnic group and nation indigenous to Crimea. The formation and ethnogenesis of Crimean Tatars occurred during the 13th–17th centuries, uniting Cumans with other peoples who had inhabited Crimea since ancient times and gradually underwent Tatarization, including Ukrainian Greeks, Italians, Ottoman Turks, Goths, Sarmatians, and many others.
Bakhchysarai is a city in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Bakhchysarai Raion (district), as well as the former capital of the Crimean Khanate. Its main landmark is Hansaray, the only extant palace of the Crimean Khans, currently open to tourists as a museum. Population: 27,448 .
The Crimean Khanate, self-defined as the Throne of Crimea and Desht-i Kipchak, and in old European historiography and geography known as Little Tartary, was a Crimean Tatar state existing from 1441–1783, the longest-lived of the Turkic khanates that succeeded the empire of the Golden Horde. Established by Hacı I Giray in 1441, it was regarded as the direct heir to the Golden Horde and to Desht-i-Kipchak.
Sudak is a city, multiple former Eastern Orthodox bishopric and double Latin Catholic titular see. It is of regional significance in Crimea, a territory recognized by most countries as part of Ukraine but annexed by Russia as the Republic of Crimea. Sudak serves as the administrative center of Sudak Municipality, one of the regions Crimea is divided into. It is situated 57 km (35 mi) to the west of Feodosia and 104 km (65 mi) to the east of Simferopol, the republic's capital. Population: 16,492 .
Hacı I Giray (1397–1466) was the founder of the Crimean Khanate and the Giray dynasty of Crimea ruling from c. 1441 until his death in 1466. As the Golden Horde was breaking up, he established himself in Crimea and spent most of his life fighting off other warlords. He was usually allied with the Lithuanians. His name has many spellings, such as Haji-Girei and Melek Haji Girai.
Yevpatoria is a city in Western Crimea, north of Kalamita Bay. Yevpatoria serves as the administrative center of Yevpatoria Municipality, one of the districts (raions) into which Crimea is divided. It had a population of 105,719 .
Islam in Ukraine is a minority religious affiliation with Muslims representing around 5% of the total population as of 2016. The religion has a long history in Ukraine dating back to Berke Khan of the Ulug Ulus in the 13th century and the establishment of the Crimean Khanate in the 15th century.
The recorded history of the Crimean Peninsula, historically known as Tauris, Taurica, and the Tauric Chersonese, begins around the 5th century BCE when several Greek colonies were established along its coast, the most important of which was Chersonesos near modern day Sevastopol, with Scythians and Tauri in the hinterland to the north. The southern coast gradually consolidated into the Bosporan Kingdom which was annexed by Pontus and then became a client kingdom of Rome. The south coast remained Greek in culture for almost two thousand years including under Roman successor states, the Byzantine Empire (341–1204), the Empire of Trebizond (1204–1461), and the independent Principality of Theodoro. In the 13th century, some Crimean port cities were controlled by the Venetians and by the Genovese, but the interior was much less stable, enduring a long series of conquests and invasions. In the medieval period, it was partially conquered by Kievan Rus' whose prince Vladimir the Great was baptised at Sevastopol, which marked the beginning of the Christianization of Kievan Rus'. During the Mongol invasion of Europe, the north and centre of Crimea fell to the Mongol Golden Horde, and in the 1440s the Crimean Khanate formed out of the collapse of the horde but quite rapidly itself became subject to the Ottoman Empire, which also conquered the coastal areas which had kept independent of the Khanate. A major source of prosperity in these times was frequent raids into Russia for slaves for the Crimean slave trade.
Armenians in Ukraine are ethnic Armenians who live in Ukraine. They number 99,894 according to the 2001 Ukrainian census. However, the country is also host to a number of Armenian guest workers which has yet to be ascertained. The Armenian population in Ukraine has nearly doubled since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1989, largely due to instability in the Caucasus. Ukraine was home to the fifth largest Armenian community in the world before the invasion by Russia displaced millions of people.
As of January 2021, the estimated total population of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol was at 2,416,856. This is up from the 2001 Ukrainian Census figure, which was 2,376,000, and the local census conducted by Russia in December 2014, which found 2,248,400 people.
Surp Khach Monastery is a medieval Armenian monastery located on the Crimean peninsula near Staryi Krym and founded in 1358. Before the USSR nationalized it, this monastery owned 4,000 acres of land, while during the Soviet period it served various functions from Pioneer Camp to tuberculosis clinic. It has been an Armenian spiritual center and a place of pilgrimage for centuries.
Eski Yurt is a historical settlement in South West Crimea, presently a historical quarter in the western part of Bakhchysarai. Its name derives from the Crimean Tatar language terms for "old settlement" or "old headquarter" and "felt tent".
The Ozbek Han Mosque is a mosque in Stary Krym, Crimea. The Ozbek Han Mosque is the oldest mosque in Crimea, built during the reign of Özbeg Khan in 1314.
Kirovske or Isliam-Terek is an urban-type settlement in the Crimea, a territory recognized by a majority of countries as part of Ukraine and occupied by Russia as the Republic of Crimea. Population: 6,883 .
Crimea, or the Crimean Peninsula, historically also known as the Tauric Chersonese, is a major peninsula in the north of the Black Sea.
The majority of the Crimean population adheres to the Russian Orthodox Church, with the Crimean Tatars forming a Sunni Muslim minority, besides smaller Roman Catholic, Ukrainian Greek Catholic, Armenian Apostolic and Jewish minorities.
The Genoese–Mongol Wars were a series of conflicts fought between the Republic of Genoa, the Mongol Empire and its successor states, most notedly the Golden Horde and Crimean Khanate. The wars were fought over control of trade and political influence in the Black Sea and Crimean peninsula during the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries.
The Crimean Bulgarians are a historical ethnic Bulgarian minority in Crimea, a peninsula in Ukraine on the northern coast of the Black Sea. As of 2014, there are officially 1,868 Bulgarians in Crimea, although the leader of the Bulgarian community estimates up to 2,500 families, including mixed marriages. Crimean Bulgarians are a small subgroup of the much larger Bulgarian minority in Ukraine.
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Ukraine (occupied by Russia)
