“Currently, among the Crimean Tatars, there is high level religiosity. Crimean Tatars are very actively reviving their native culture, traditional arts, national cuisine. In my opinion, Crimean Tatars are very proud of their self-identity.”
Islam Today: In the halls of the museum of ethnography, the diverse material and spiritual culture of the ethnic groups of Crimea is presented in evolutionary development. It is very pleasant that such gifted and strong ethnic groups have returned to Russia, preserving their historical roots. How is the adaptation to the Russian ethno-cultural environment, entering the museum and scientific-ethnographic communities of Russia going?
At the exhibition of the Crimean Kulibin "Mechanics of Leonardo da Vinci" 27 mechanisms were exhibited, made of wood and metal according to drawings and notes from the diaries of the great genius: bearings, an automatic hammer, a knee shaft, a parachute, a perpetual motion machine, a gearbox, a jack, a lifebuoy, propeller, tank, searchlight…
Elena Lagoda: The Crimean Ethnographic Museum has been very successfully integrated into the Russian museum space. In the last six months alone, the institution's exhibition area has hosted three Russian museums. Interactive exhibition "Hymn of Russia", which came to us from Moscow. At present, an exhibition of the Russian Ethnographic Museum is on display, and from December 26, the Museum of Vologda Lace will show a worthy collection that has no analogues. In the spring of 2014, an agreement on friendship and cooperation was signed with the Russian Museum of Ethnography, and we look forward to serious scientific cooperation with this institution.
Islam Today: The life of the Crimean Tatar ethnic group has been recreated in the interior of the Museum with love and diligence. What period of time do the exhibits reproduce?
E.L.: In general, our museum reflects the era of the late 19th - mid-20th centuries. As for the Crimean Tatar exposition, it shows a fragment of the interior of the southern coast Crimean Tatar house of the early 20th century, as well as the exposition complex "Religion of the Crimean Tatars", which presents a reconstruction of a mehrab and a mullah's costume.
Exposition complex "Crimean Tatars"
Islam Today: What is the level of religiosity of the Crimean Tatars?
E.L.: By religion, Crimean Tatars are Muslims, the overwhelming majority are Sunnis. By the time Crimea was annexed to Russia (1783), there were about 1,530 mosques on the peninsula, dozens of madrasahs and tekkes. After a series of emigration waves from the Crimea to Turkey, the number of mosques decreased to 729 by 1917, and Muslims became a religious minority in Crimea.
IN Soviet time all mosques in Crimea were closed as religious institutions, but some of the oldest churches were restored. For example, the Juma-Jami mosque, founded in 1552 in Gezlev (now Yevpatoria), began its restoration in 1985, and in 1990 it was returned to believers. Or the Great Khan's Mosque, which is part of the architectural complex of the Khan's Palace of the stunningly beautiful Bakhchisarai Historical and Architectural Reserve, was founded in 1532, closed in Soviet times, but reopened to believers in the 1990s.
At present, a high level of religiosity remains among the Crimean Tatars. In many villages where the Crimean Tatar population lives compactly, there is a mosque. Popular among young people are, for example, competitions for reading passages from the Koran from memory. Young boys and girls compete in three categories, demonstrating to the public their knowledge of the rules for reading Holy Book, the beauty of the voice and the quality of memorization. This year Simferopol hosted a themed evening for Islamic girls of the peninsula with a fashion show national clothes. In the new Russian conditions in Crimea, they plan to pay special attention to the revival of traditional Islam, which will help stop the processes of radical Islamization on the peninsula and in Russia as a whole. The revival of the Crimean Islamic traditions is one of the main methods of combating the spread of radical religious movements on the peninsula.
"Religion of the Crimean Tatars"
The exposition "Crimean Tatars" presents a reconstruction of a mehrab (a niche-like place marking the side of Mecca), which was made by the artist of the Crimean Ethnographic Museum E. A. Melnichenko. Paintings - the work of 4th year students of the Crimean Industrial Pedagogical University I. Teslenko and E. Mustafayeva.
Islam Today: Does the Ethnographic Museum carry out research on Islamic culture in Crimea? And the second. In Russia, we know little about the fact that the Crimean Tatars are subdivided into sub-ethnic groups, do all three groups consider themselves to be a single Crimean Tatar people?
E.L.: There is a Crimean Tatar sector in the Crimean Ethnographic Museum, which studies and popularizes the issues of culture and religion of the Crimean Tatars.
Ethnically, Crimean Tatars are divided into three groups:
- Steppe or Nogai, they have the most pronounced Mongoloid facial features, the basis of this sub-ethnos was the Polovtsy, Kipchaks and partly Nogais - a people who now live in the North Caucasus;
- South Coast or Yalyboylu, these are the descendants of the Greeks, Goths, Turks, Circassians and Genoese who assimilated and converted to Islam, outwardly they look like Greeks and Italians, but there are blue-eyed and fair-skinned blonds;
- Mountain Crimean Tatars or Tats are a transitional group, which included the descendants of assimilated tribes and peoples who inhabited Crimea since ancient times: Tauris, Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans, Goths, Greeks, Circassians, Khazars and others. Outwardly, tats are similar to the inhabitants of Eastern Europe.
All three groups have their own dialects with significant differences. The basis of the literary Crimean Tatar language was the language of the Tats - it combines the features of the "northern" and "southern" dialects. At present, the Crimean Tatars themselves consider themselves a monolithic people, despite differences in ethnogenesis.
Islam Today: What types of applied art are most characteristic of contemporary Crimean Tatars? At what level is the attitude of an ethnic group to cultural and historical roots according to your assessment?
E.L.: The modern Crimean Tatar arts and crafts are dominated by ceramics, gold embroidery, jewelry, and the manufacture of copper utensils. Crimean Tatars are actively reviving their native culture, traditional arts, and national cuisine. In schools, Crimean Tatar children have the opportunity to study their native language and literature.
Our museum often hosts joint exhibitions with Crimean Tatar masters, the Sevastopol Fund for the Revival of the Crimean Tatar Culture named after. Professor S. O. Izidinov. In Simferopol, there is the Crimean Tatar Museum of Art, where visitors can get acquainted with works of historical and artistic significance, with ethno-cultural values, the originality and spiritual wealth of the Crimean Tatars that have not been lost.
The museum regularly hosts scientific conferences, seminars, master classes, the purpose of which is to study the origins and traditions. The Crimean Tatar channel "ATR" operates on the Crimean television. In my opinion, the Crimean Tatars are very proud of their self-identity, and even young people sacredly honor the traditions of their ancestors. For example, it is now very popular to celebrate a wedding in national costumes, taking into account long-standing wedding traditions.
Crimea in political history
"In the heart, in the minds of people, Crimea has always been and remains an integral part of Russia. This conviction, based on truth and justice, was unshakable, passed down from generation to generation, and time and circumstances were powerless before it."
Vladimir Putin.
Crimea in the economy
The Russian government has decided to allocate more than 13 billion rubles from the federal budget to support Crimea and Sevastopol in 2014.
Financial assistance to Crimea in the form of subsidies "to equalize budgetary security" will amount to 10.7 billion rubles, and to the budget of Sevastopol - 2.4 billion rubles. Moscow is going to fulfill all the social obligations of Crimea and Sevastopol.
It is planned to create a special economic zone in Crimea. Russian investors are ready to carry out $5 billion projects in Crimea.
Crimea in literature
The freshness of mountain waters and mountain peaks, not yet completely free of snow, perhaps even the freshness of the sea, which you can smell behind the mountains, breathes in the steppe air; the grass is brighter, more colorful, thicker. Between the hills wind valleys, that is, gardens without end. These gardens of the Crimean valleys have nothing like them in Russia. Their beauty is difficult even to exchange for the rocks and the sea, which are newer for us. Beautiful Italian poplar, slender, transparent, now gracefully grouped, now running away in rows - this is the main charm of the valley. Without a poplar, Crimea is not Crimea, the south is not the south. I saw these poplars here in Russia too, but I never imagined such a wealth of charm in them. At the first thought of the Crimean landscape, poplar rises in my head. It starts with it, it ends with it. It is impossible to explain this impression; but I am sure that every Crimean traveler, not devoid of a living sense of nature, was immediately fascinated by the Crimean poplar.
Evgeny Markov, "Essays on Crimea (Pictures of Crimean life, nature and history)", 1902
Crimea through the eyes of Prince Yusupov
Crimea is a wonderful land. It resembles the French Cote d'Azur, but its landscapes are more severe. Around - high rocky mountains; on the slopes - pines, all the way to the shore; the sea is changeable: peaceful and radiant in the sun and terrible in a storm. The climate is mild, there are flowers everywhere, a lot of roses.
The population was - the Tatars, the people are picturesque, cheerful and hospitable. Women wore bloomers, bright fitted jackets and embroidered skullcaps with a veil, but only married women covered their faces. Young people have forty braids. Everyone painted their nails and hair with henna. The men wore astrakhan hats, brightly colored shirts, and boots with narrow tops. Tatars are Muslims.
The minarets of mosques rose above the flat roofs of the Tatar houses, whitewashed with lime, and in the morning and in the evening from above the voice of the muezzin called to prayer.
Prince Felix Yusupov. "Memoirs"
Svetlana Mamiy, Moscow
In the Crimea, which was subordinate to the Ottoman Empire, the composition of the population was quite diverse. The bulk of the population were Crimean Tatars. The subjects of the Khan belonged to different nations and professed various religions. They were divided into national-religious communities - millets, as was customary in the empire.
Only Muslims, who constituted the largest community of the peninsula, enjoyed full rights. Only the faithful carried military service, and for this they enjoyed tax and other benefits.
In addition to the Muslim, there were three more millets: Orthodox, or Greek, Jewish and Armenian. Members of different communities lived, as a rule, in their villages and quarters of cities. Here were their temples and prayer houses.
The communities were ruled by the most respected people who combined spiritual and judicial power. They defended the interests of their people, enjoyed the right to raise funds for community needs and other privileges.
The number of Crimean Tatars
The history of the Crimean Tatars is quite interesting. In the regions of the Crimea, directly subordinate to the Sultan, the Turkish population grew. It increased especially rapidly in the Cafe, which was called Kuchuk-Istanbul, "little Istanbul". However, the main part of the Muslim community of Crimea were Tatars. Now they lived not only in the steppes and foothills, but also in mountain valleys, on the southern coast.
Borrowed the skills of running a settled economy and forms public life those who have lived here for centuries. And the local population, in turn, adopted from the Tatars not only the Turkic language, but sometimes the Muslim faith. The captives from the Moscow and Ukrainian lands also accepted Islam: in this way it was possible to avoid slavery, “be fooled”, as the Russians used to say, or “become a poturnak”, in the words of the Ukrainians.
Thousands of captives poured into Tatar families as wives and servants. Their children were brought up in a Tatar environment as devout Muslims. This was common among ordinary Tatars, and among the nobility, up to the Khan's palace.
So, on the basis of Islam and the Turkic language, a new people was formed from various national groups - the Crimean Tatars. It was heterogeneous and broke up according to its habitat into several groups that differed appearance, language features, clothing and activities, and other features.
Settlement and occupation of the Crimean Tatars
The Crimean Tatars of the southern coast of Crimea were under significant Turkish influence (along the southern coast lay the lands of the sanjak of the Turkish sultan). This was reflected in their customs and language. They were tall, with European features. Their flat-roofed dwellings, located on the mountain slopes near the seashore, were built of unhewn stone.
The South Coast Crimean Tatars were famous as gardeners. They were engaged in fishing and animal husbandry. Cultivation of grapes was a real passion. The number of its varieties reached, according to the estimates of foreign travelers, several dozen, and many were unknown outside the Crimea.
Another group of the Tatar population formed in the Crimean Mountains. Along with the Turks and Greeks, the Goths made a significant contribution to its formation, due to which people with red and blond hair were often found among the mountain Tatars.
The local language was formed on the basis of Kipchak with an admixture of Turkish and Greek elements. The main occupations of the highlanders were animal husbandry, tobacco growing, gardening, and horticulture. They grew, as on the South Coast, garlic, onions, and eventually tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, greens. Tatars knew how to harvest fruits and vegetables for the future: they made jam, dried, salted them.
Mountain Crimean Tatars, like the South Coast, also built with flat roofs.
Houses with two floors were quite common. In this case, the first floor was made of stone, and the second, with a gable roof, was made of wood.
The second floor was larger than the first, which saved land. The protruding part of the tereme (second floor) was supported by bent wooden supports, which rested with their lower ends against the wall of the first floor.
Finally, the third group formed in the steppe Crimea, mainly from the Kipchaks, Nogays, Tatar-Mongols. The language of this group was Kipchak, which also included individual Mongolian words. WITH The warm Crimean Tatars maintained their adherence to a nomadic way of life for the longest time.
In order to bring them to a settled way of life, Khan Sahib-Girey (1532-1551) ordered to cut the wheels and break the wagons of those who wanted to leave the Crimea for nomadism. The steppe Tatars erected dwellings from unbaked bricks and shell stone. The roofs of houses were made two- or single-pitched. Like many hundreds of years ago, the breeding of sheep and horses remained one of the main occupations. Over time, they began to sow wheat, barley, oats, and millet. High yields made it possible to provide the population of Crimea with grain.
Article from www.nr2.ru
Is it permissible to use the term "indigenous people" in relation to the TATARS in the CRIMEA in the context of the International Labor Organization Convention 169 "On Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries" (adopted by the ILO General Conference on June 26, 1989)
Historical sources brought us the exact date of the arrival of the Tatars in Taurica. On January 27, 1223 (before the battle on the Kalka River), a note was made in the margins of a Greek manuscript book of religious content - a synaxarion - in Sudak: "On this day the Tatars first came, in 6731" (6731 years from the Creation of the World \u003d 1223 years from R .X.). The details of this raid are given by the Arab author Ibn-al-Athir: "Coming to Sudak, the Tatars took possession of it, and the inhabitants dispersed, some of them with their families and their property climbed the mountains, and some went to the sea."
Having plundered the cities, the Tatars "left (the land of the Kipchaks) [that is, the Polovtsian Komans, who had occupied the steppes of the peninsula since the middle of the 11th century] and returned to their land." During a campaign in South-Eastern Europe in 1236, they began to settle in the steppe Taurica. In 1239, Sudak was taken a second time, then new raids followed. The Polovtsians were completely exterminated. About the desertedness of the steppes of Crimea (from the 2nd half of the 13th century this name was used in relation to the city, now called Old Crimea, much later, not earlier than a century later, it becomes the designation of the entire peninsula) and the Northern Black Sea region is reported by Guillaume de Rubruk, who was passing through these regions in 1253: "And when the Tatars came, the Komans [i.e. Polovtsy], who all fled to the seashore, entered this land [i.e. the Crimean coast] in such a huge number that they devoured each friend mutually, living dead, as a certain merchant who saw this told me; the living devoured and tore with their teeth the raw meat of the dead, like dogs - corpses. "Leaving Sudak, Rubruk moved along the deserted steppe, observing only the numerous graves of the Polovtsy, and only on the third day of the journey he met the Tatars.
Having established themselves at first in the steppe spaces of the Crimea, the Tatars eventually occupy a significant part of its territory, with the exception of the eastern and southern coasts, the mountainous part (the Principality of Theodoro). The Crimean ulus (province) of the Golden Horde is being formed.
In the first half of the 15th century, as a result of centrifugal processes that took place in the metropolis, it was created (not without active participation Polish-Lithuanian diplomacy) The Crimean Khanate, headed by the Girey dynasty, who consider themselves descendants of Genghis Khan. In 1475, the Turkish army invaded the peninsula, seizing the possessions of the Italian Genoese and the Orthodox Principality of Theodoro, with its capital on Mount Mangup. Since 1478, the Crimean Khanate became a vassal of the Turkish Empire, the lands seized by the Turks entered the domain of the Turkish Sultan and the khans never obeyed.
Medieval European travelers and diplomats quite rightly consider the Tatars living in the Crimea to be newcomers from the depths of Asia. The Turk Evliya Chelebi, who visited the Crimea in the 17th century, and other Turkish historians and travelers, as well as Russian chroniclers, agree with this. Andrey Lyzlov in his "Scythian History" (1692) writes that, having left Tataria, the Tatars conquered many lands, and after the battle on Kalka "... they ruined both the towns and the Polovtsian villages to the ground. And all the countries near the Don , and the Meotian [i.e. Azov] and Taurica Kherson [Crimea] seas, every day from the digging of the intermarium we call Perekop, and around Pontus Euxinus [i.e. the Black Sea] the Tatars possessed and grayed." And the Tatars themselves living in the Crimea, until recently, did not deny their Asian origin.
During the ascent national movement in 1917, the Tatar press emphasized the need to take into account and use "the state wisdom of the Mongol-Tatars, which runs like a red thread through their entire history", with honor to hold the "emblem of the Tatars - the blue banner of Genghis" (the so-called "kok-bayrak", from that to this day, the national flag of the Tatars living in the Crimea), to convene a national congress - kurultai, because for the Mongol-Tatars "it was unthinkable for a state without Kurultai and Kurultai without a state [...] Chingis himself, before ascending the great Khan throne, convened Kurultai and asked his consent" (newspaper "Voice of the Tatars", October 11, 1917).
During the years of the occupation of Crimea during the Great Patriotic War in the newspaper published with the consent of the fascist administration in the Tatar language "Azat Krym" ("Liberated Crimea") on March 20, 1942, they recalled Tatar troops Sabodai-bogatyr, who conquered the Crimea, and in the issue of April 21, 1942 it was said: "our [Tatars] ancestors came from the East, and we were waiting for liberation from there, today we are witnessing that liberation comes to us from the West."
Only in last years Using the pseudo-scientific arguments of the St. Petersburg historian and Scandinavian scholar V. Vozgrin, the leaders of the illegal unregistered organization "Mejlis" are trying to approve the opinion about the autochthonous nature of the Tatars in the Crimea.
However, even today, speaking on July 28, 1993, at the “kurultai” in Simferopol, the eminent descendant of the Girey khans, Jezar-Girey, who arrived from London, declared: “Our former statehood was based on three fundamental unchanging pillars that define us.
The first and most important was our hereditary succession of Genghisides. Communist propaganda tried to separate the Tatars from the Great Father, Lord Genghis Khan, through his grandson Batu and eldest son Juche. The same propaganda tried to hide the fact that we are the sons of the Golden Horde. Thus, the Crimean Tatars, as communist propaganda tells us, never defeated the Golden Horde in our history, because we were and really are Golden Horde. I am proud to announce that a prominent academician of the University of London, who spent his whole life researching the roots of the origin of the Crimean Tatars, has briefly published the results of his research, which again revives our rightful rich heritage.
The second great pillar of our statehood was the Ottoman Empire, which we can now proudly relate to our Turkic succession. We are all part of this large Turkic nation, with which we are connected by strong and deep ties in the field of Language, history and culture.
The third pillar was Islam. This is our faith. [...]
The examples of our past greatness and our contribution to human civilization are innumerable. The Crimean Tatar people were once (and not so long ago) a superpower in the region."
Among the Tatars living in Crimea, the following main ethnographic groups can be distinguished:
Mongoloid "legs" are the descendants of nomadic tribes that were part of the Golden Horde. With the formation of the Crimean Khanate, part of the Nogais passed into the citizenship of the Crimean khans. The Nogai hordes roamed the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region from Moldavia (Budzhak) to North Caucasus. In the middle - the end of the 17th century, the Crimean khans resettled (often by force) the Nogays in the steppe Crimea.
The so-called "South Coast Tatars" - basically immigrants from Asia Minor, speak a medieval Turkish-Anatolian dialect. They were formed on the basis of several migration waves from the regions of Central Anatolia Sivas, Kayseri, Tokat from the end of the 16th to the 18th centuries.
Only in 1778, after the majority of the Christian population (Greeks, Armenians, Georgians, Moldavians) were resettled from the territory of the Khanate, the Muslim population became predominant in the Eastern and Southwestern Crimea.
The self-name of this ethnic group in the Middle Ages was "Tatars". From the first half of the 16th century in the writings of Europeans, the term "Crimean (Perekop, Tauride) Tatars" is recorded (S. Herberstein, M. Bronevsky). It is also used by Evliya Celebi. The word "Crimeans" is characteristic of Russian chronicles. As you can see, foreigners, calling this people that way, emphasized the geographical principle.
In addition to the Tatars, the Crimean Khanate, which, in addition to the territory of Taurica, occupied significant steppe spaces of the Northern Black Sea region, was inhabited by Greeks, Armenians, Jews, Turks, and Circassians. All non-Muslims in the Khanate were required to pay a special tax.
Initially, the Tatars were nomads and pastoralists. During the 16th - 18th centuries, nomadic pastoralism was gradually replaced by agriculture. But for the steppes, cattle breeding remained the main occupation for a long time, and the farming technique was primitive even in the 18th century. The low level of economic development stimulated military raids on neighbors, the capture of booty and prisoners, most of which were sold to Turkey. The slave trade was the main source of income for the Crimean Khanate from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Raids were often carried out at the direction of the Turkish Sultan.
From 1450 to 1586, 84 raids were carried out only on Ukrainian lands, and from 1600 to 1647 - over 70. From the beginning of the 15th century to the middle of the 17th century, about 2 million captives from the territory that is part of modern Ukraine were driven into slavery.
The prisoners left in the Crimea were used in the economy. According to the Polish diplomat M. Bronevsky, who visited the Crimea in 1578, the noble Tatars "have their fields cultivated by captured Hungarians, Russians, Wallachians or Moldavians, whom they have a lot of and whom they treat like cattle. [...] Greek Christians [locals] living in some villages work and cultivate the fields like slaves." Bronevsky’s remark about the development of crafts and trade in the khanate is curious: “In the cities, not many are engaged in trade; even more rarely needlework or crafts; and almost all merchants or artisans who are there, or Christian slaves, or Turks, Armenians, Circassians, Pyatigorsk, (who also Christians), Philistines, or Gypsies, the most insignificant and poor people.
The attitude towards the prisoners struck not only enlightened Europeans, but also the Muslim Evliya Chelebi, who had seen a lot, who had great sympathy for the Tatars living in the Crimea. Here is how he described the slave market in Karasubazar (Belogorsk):
"This unfortunate bazaar is amazing. The words are applicable to it: "Whoever sells a person, cuts a tree or destroys a dam, he is cursed by God in this and the next world [...] This concerns the sellers of yasyr [i.e. captives], for these people are unmerciful beyond measure. Whoever has not seen this bazaar has not seen anything in the world. A mother is torn off there from a son and daughter, a son from a father and brother, and they are sold amid moaning, cries for help, sobbing and crying. In another place, he says: "The Tatar people are a ruthless people."
For Europeans, the Tatars living in the Crimea are vicious, treacherous, wild barbarians. Only, perhaps, the German Tunmann, by the way, who had never been to the Crimea, wrote in 1777: "At present, they are no longer such a rude, dirty, robbery people, which they once described with such disgusting colors."
In the Crimean Khanate, there were forms of state government characteristic of feudal formations that had developed on the ruins of the empire of Genghis Khan. However, there were features determined by vassal dependence on the Turkish sultans. Crimean khans were appointed and removed by the will of the sultans. Their fate was also influenced by the opinion of the largest feudal lords - beys. (The most influential beys - heads of clans, owning semi-independent beyliks (destinies) were Shirins, Mansurs, Baryns, Sijiuts, Argins, Yashlau. Often they themselves organized raids on their neighbors without the knowledge of the khans).
In 1774, according to the Kuchuk-Kaipardji agreement between Russia and Turkey, the Crimean Khanate was declared independent. Russian troops were stationed on its territory. On April 19, 1783, the Crimean Khanate was liquidated by the Manifesto of Catherine the Great, and the Crimea joined Russia. On January 9, 1792, according to the Treaty of Yassy between Russia and Turkey, the annexation of Crimea to Russia was recognized.
At present, contrary to historical sources, there are attempts to declare "kurultai" and "mejlis" as traditional self-governing bodies of the Tatars living in Crimea, to give the "kurultai" the status of a "national assembly".
However, neither the "kurultai" nor the "mejlis" are traditional self-governing bodies of the Tatars living in Crimea, and, moreover, they are not a national assembly.
Fundamental works on the history of the Golden Horde state:
"The specific conditions in which the formation and development of the Golden Horde as a state took place gradually gave rise to new forms of social and state life, pushing aside the traditional nomadic customs of the Mongols. In this regard, the question arises about the existence of kuriltai in the Golden Horde. Sources very often mention these peculiar congresses of the ruling family (hereinafter, it is emphasized by us. - Ed.), which took place under Genghis Khan and for a long time after his death.But with the final division of the Mongol empire into independent states in all respects, information about the Kuriltai is found less and less and finally completely disappears from the sources. The need for this institution, which was largely of a state military-democratic nature, disappears with the advent of a hereditary monarchy.In Mongolia, where there were stronger nomadic traditions, kuriltai gathered until the accession of Khubilai, who officially founded the Yuan dynasty and approved new system succession to the throne - without a preliminary discussion of the candidacy of the heir at the general congress of the ruling family. The available sources do not contain specific information that kuriltai were held in the Golden Horde. True, when describing the abdication of the throne, Tudamengu is reported that "wives, brothers, uncles, relatives and close associates" agreed with this. Obviously, to discuss this extraordinary case, a special meeting was convened, which can be considered kuriltai. Another source reports on the proposal of Nogay Tokte to assemble kuriltai to resolve a dispute that arose between them. However, Nogai's proposal was not accepted. In this case, he acts as the bearer of obsolete traditions that do not find support from the khan of the new, younger generation. After this incident, the sources on the history of the Golden Horde no longer mention the Kuriltai, since the changes that took place in the administrative and state structure, nullified the role of the traditional nomadic institution. There was no need to convene well-born representatives of the aristocracy from scattered camps, most of whom now occupied the highest government posts. Having a government in the stationary capital, consisting of representatives of the reigning family and the largest feudal lords, the khan no longer needed kuriltai. He could discuss the most important state issues, gathering, as needed, the highest administrative and military officials of the state. As for such an important prerogative as the approval of the heir, now it has become the exclusive competence of the khan. However, a much greater role, especially from the second half of the 14th century, was played in the shifts on the throne by palace conspiracies and all-powerful temporary workers. history of the USSR Managing editor Dr. historical sciences Professor V.I. Bugapov. - Moscow, "Nauka", 1985).
Kurultai (as a congress of representatives of the people) cannot be called the traditional form of self-government of the Tatars living in Crimea. Sources do not confirm the existence of such meetings in the Crimean Khanate. In this state of the Tatars, under the Khan, there was a Divan - a collection of nobility organized according to the Persian model (the term itself is of Persian origin).
After the February Revolution in Russia (1917), at the general meeting of Crimean Muslims on March 25 / April 7, 1917, the Musispolkom (Temporary Muslim Executive Committee) was formed, which eventually took control of all issues of social life of the Tatars living in Crimea (from cultural and religious to military-political). Local municipal executive committees were created on the ground.
At the end of August 1917, in connection with receiving an invitation from the Central Rada to send a representative of the Tatars to the Congress of Peoples convened in Kiev, the Musispolkom raised the issue of convening the Kurultai (as a Sejm, the Parliament of the Tatars) - the highest self-government body. At the same time, it was emphasized in the Tatar press of Crimea that such a body was typical for the Mongol-Tatars, who decided on it the most important questions that it was on it that Genghis Khan was elected (1206).
78 Kurultai delegates were elected with the participation of more than 70 percent of the Tatar population of Crimea. November 26/December 9, 1917 in the city of Bakhchisarai opened the meeting of this assembly, which declared itself a "national parliament". Kurultai elected from among its members the Directory (the national government - following the example of Ukraine). It was dissolved by the Bolsheviks on January 17/30, 1918 and resumed its work during the period German occupation since May 10, 1918. In October 1918, Kurultai dissolved itself due to internal disagreements.
In 1919, the "national parliament" of the Tatars living in the Crimea was called the Turkish term "Mejlis-mebusan" and consisted of 45 deputies. He sat for a little over a week, after hearing the report of the Chairman of the Directory and the draft reform of the clergy.
On August 26, 1919, the Directory was dissolved by order of Lieutenant General of the White Army N.I. Schilling.
The current "kurultai-mejlis" is an illegal political organization that acts like a political party: the decisions of its bodies are binding only on its political supporters and are sharply criticized by political opponents from among the Tatars. "Kurultai-Mejlis" was created on the basis of an illegal organization - OKND ("Organization of the Crimean Tatar National Movement").
The activities of these organizations are recognized as illegal by the decisions of the Supreme Council of Crimea. In addition to them, the pro-Mejlis illegal party "Adalet" was created.
OKND and "Kurultay-Mejlis" are opposed by the legal association of Tatars - NDKT ("National Movement of Crimean Tatars"). political struggle these two Tatar parties largely determined the fate of the national movement.
Recently, there has been a split in the "kurultai-mejlis": some of its activists created their own party "Millet" (also illegal).
The procedure for the formation and work of the "kurultai", "mejlis" has the character not of people's self-government, but of the congress of a political party and its elected executive body. Elections are staggered. In our opinion, it is possible to legalize the "kurultai-mejlis" only as a political party or public organization(in accordance with the laws of Ukraine).
In accordance with ILO Convention 169 "On Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries" (adopted by the General Conference of the International Labor Organization on June 26, 1989), Tatars living in Crimea (Crimean Tatars) cannot be considered a group defined in the legal sense as "indigenous" in the given territory (Republic of Crimea), because:
1. They are not the first settlers in this territory (Crimean Peninsula). Historical and archaeological sources clearly record their first appearance here in 1223 as conquerors who almost completely destroyed the ethnic group that inhabited the steppe part of Crimea before them - the Polovtsians (Comans).
Until the first half of the 14th century, they were part of a larger community spread over a significant area of Eastern Europe outside the Crimean Peninsula - the state of the Golden Horde Tatars.
2. Tatars, as an ethnic group, never occupied the entire territory of the Crimean peninsula and never made up the majority of the population in all its regions. On the coast from Kafa (Feodosia) to Chembalo (Balaklava), on former territory Principality of Theodoro, in the mountainous and foothill parts of the Crimea, the population has always been multi-ethnic. According to the censuses conducted by Turkey at the end of the XVI century. among the inhabitants of the Kafsky vilayet (province of Turkey in the Crimea), Muslims made up only 3 to 5 percent of the population. The Greeks (up to 80%), Armenians and others predominated.
From the end of the 16th to the 18th centuries, there has been an intensive process of settlement of these territories by Turkish colonists (mainly from central Anatolia) and the displacement of the Greek and Armenian population. After the annexation of Crimea to Russia, the multi-ethnic character of Crimea intensified to an even greater extent.
3. In the ethnogenesis of the Tatars living in Crimea, the main role was played by communities that developed outside the Northern Black Sea region and Crimea and came here as conquerors or colonists and were not indigenous in this region. These are the Tatars themselves, who arrived in the region from the depths of Asia in the first half of the 13th century, the Nogai - an Asian ethnic group that appeared here in the late Middle Ages and forcibly resettled in the Crimea at the end of the 17th century, Turkish colonists from Anatolia of the 16th - 18th centuries, who were also not in this region is indigenous. With the adoption of Islam in the reign of Khan Uzbek in 1412/13 as state religion The Golden Horde Tatars were attached to the Muslim world, which very noticeably determined the development of their spiritual culture and ethnic identity.
4. Does not apply to Tatars living in Crimea main feature which distinguishes the "indigenous" (in the legal sense) people or group - the preservation of traditional life support systems, primarily - special forms of economic activity (land, sea hunting, fishing, gathering, reindeer herding).
Nomadic pastoralism, characteristic of the Tatars of the Middle Ages, does not fall into this list. Moreover, to late XVIII - early XIX century it has almost disappeared. The process of urbanization of the ethnic group was actively going on. TO late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century, the Tatars switched to modern forms of management. According to the 1989 census, 70% of Tatars are city dwellers.
Tatars are a national group with full social structure. Among them there are intellectuals, workers of various branches of industry, Agriculture. Tatars are actively involved in trade, entrepreneurship and have completely lost their traditional forms of management.
5.Tatars, the stages have long passed traditional form social organization- tribal (classless) structure of society - and live according to the traditions and laws of modern society. Moreover, the Tatars emphasize that in the past they had their own feudal state (the Crimean Khanate as part of the Ottoman Empire), which was the "superpower of the region", carried out aggressive campaigns against their neighbors and collected tribute from them.
These facts completely refute the need to classify the Tatars as "indigenous peoples" with traditional forms of social organization of society (for example, the Saami, Chukchi, Papuans of New Guinea, Aborigines of Australia, Indians of Canada, etc.), the protection of which is provided for by ILO Convention 169.
6. Tatars living in the Crimea, being part of the Golden Horde, the Crimean Khanate, the Ottoman Empire, Russian Empire, Soviet Union, did not have their own traditional self-government bodies ("kurultai", "mejlis", etc.), which would make decisions on issues that are most important for all Tatars living in Crimea. They are not fixed historical documents, there was no real tradition of such forms of self-government. For the Tatars, unlike the peoples Northern Europe, America, Australia, were characterized by the power structure of the feudal states, and then - the administrative control of the Russian Empire, the USSR. The authorities with these names were designed by the political leaders of the Tatars in 1918 and existed for less than a year. The model for them was not their own historical tradition, but rather the political experience of neighboring states that emerged on the site of the Ottoman Empire, in particular Turkey, which was oriented to the political elite of the Tatars.
It should be specially emphasized that the unjustified definition of "kurultai" and "mejlis" by the current political leaders Tatars living in the Crimea, as a traditional form of self-government of the indigenous people, is in conflict with their own statement about the originality of the Tatars living in the Crimea on the land of Taurida. As all researchers unanimously assert and sources testify, kurultai is a form of self-government, characteristic only for the peoples of Central Asia, in particular for Mongolia. In the states created on the ruins of the empire of Genghis Khan, it was replaced by feudal forms of government (as evidenced by the example of the Golden Horde, the Crimean Khanate). Moreover, it cannot be characteristic and traditional for Taurida, since there is no historical sources confirming the holding of at least one kurultai here, not to mention the tradition. The statements of the leaders of the Tatars about the traditional nature of kurultai for their people once again confirm that the Tatars appeared in Eastern Europe as conquerors, newcomers, bringing here and introducing by force the culture and traditions of Central Asia. The Tatars living in the Crimea are the descendants of the Golden Horde conquering Tatars and cannot be considered the first settlers here, the original inhabitants, the indigenous people.
7. Tatars do not profess ancient forms of religion (shamanism, etc.). Believing Tatars are Sunni Muslims. Many of them are atheists.
8. Tatars in 1944 were subjected to Soviet power forced relocation. Today, a large (overwhelming) part of the Tatars returned to the Crimea. The process of their integration into the Crimean society is carried out quite intensively. The difficulties accompanying this process are not caused by the peculiarities of the Tatars, as a people "leading a traditional way of life", but by social and economic problems. modern people who change their place of residence under conditions economic crisis. They are not faced with the problem of maintaining pastures for deer, traditional places of hunting, gathering, etc., which would provide a traditional way of life.
Tatars want to work in accordance with their education and profession: engineers, teachers, lawyers, doctors, university professors. They want to do business, trade, etc., as they did in the Central Asian republics. They do not build dwellings characteristic of "indigenous peoples" leading a traditional way of life, but receive or build 2-3-storey cottages on allocated plots. Therefore, the provision of assistance to them should not involve measures provided for by ILO Convention No. 169.
9. There are neither historical nor legal grounds for introducing additions to the current legislation of Ukraine and the Republic of Crimea with the aim of legislatively assigning the status of "indigenous ethnic community of Ukraine" to the Tatars of Crimea, since they are not one.
10. The demand for guaranteed representation of Tatars living in Crimea in the Supreme Council, bodies local government and the executive power of Crimea on a national basis (national quotas), since they are not an indigenous national group leading a traditional way of life and, therefore, requiring special protection by law.
As practice shows, an ethnic group living in Crimea numbering 244 thousand 637 people (according to the Main Department of Internal Affairs in Crimea of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine as of February 1, 1997), constituting about 10% of the total population, on the basis of general democratic election norms, may well send its representatives to all levels of government. Tatars in a short time created their own powerful political structures, political elite. Significantly strengthened their positions in the economy. They have the means mass media on a much larger scale than other political forces in Crimea. They actively influence political processes in Crimea and Ukraine.
Allegedly for better integration of the Tatars into the Crimean society, they were given seats in the Crimean parliament of the first convocation (1994) on the basis of national quotas for "deported peoples", for one term of election. Practice has shown that this measure is not justified.
The provided quotas were significantly overestimated and did not correspond to the share of the Tatar electorate in the Crimean electoral corps. Seats in parliament were used by their holders for political intrigues, and by some for self-enrichment, but not to protect the interests of the so-called "indigenous citizens."
According to the researchers, in the position of the leaders of the national movement of the Tatars living in the Crimea, since 1993, conflicting trends have emerged on the issue of the political rights of the Tatars.
Based on the program "Ways of self-determination of the Crimean Tatar people", developed by the Moscow Center for Ethno-Political and Regional Studies, headed by Presidential Adviser Russian Federation E. Pain, the leadership of the Tatar national movement in 1993 put forward the idea of recognizing the Tatars of Crimea as an "indigenous people" and applying to them the principles arising from special international documents and, above all, ILO Convention No. 169 (1989) "On Indigenous peoples and peoples leading a tribal way of life in independent countries".
This led to a rather interesting situation, in which today the national movement is guided by two virtually mutually exclusive approaches to the problem of realizing the political nature of the Tatars.
One of them is based on considering the entire ethnos as a titular one and contains a demand for the restoration of its "national statehood" (at the same time, a new wording introduced at the 3rd "kurultai", according to which the national movement intends to seek "self-determination on the national-territorial principle", fundamentally does not change anything, because, just like the requirement of "national statehood", it implies the establishment of the political priority of the Tatars over other ethnic groups). The second proceeds from the actual recognition of the status of an ethnic minority for the Tatars, one of the varieties of which are "indigenous peoples."
The leaders and ideologists of the "Mejlis" do not seem to notice that the recognition of the Tatars as an "indigenous people" in the international legal sense automatically excludes the recognition of their right to "statehood."
The latter seems to indicate that softening the position of the movement is a tactical move for a more successful implementation of the goals outlined in the "Declaration on the National Sovereignty of the Crimean Tatars." The fact that the new wording of the demand for statehood is nothing more than a clarification of the previous position, and not its significant change, is not hidden by the leaders of the movement themselves: "The clarification of the program goals of the movement was very successful," said the first deputy chairman of the "Mejlis" in the summer of 1996. R. Chubarov: - I think that with the adoption of such a clarification, there can no longer be any speculations on the Crimean Tatar theme. Unfortunately, the field for speculation has not diminished at all, since the documents of the 3rd "kurultai" in no way revise the key points of the "Declaration on the National Sovereignty of the Crimean Tatars", which continues to be the main defining document of the movement.
This circumstance significantly complicates the search for acceptable approaches to taking into account the political nature of the Tatars living in the Crimea in the process of modern state building in Ukraine. The existing concepts put forward by the leaders of the national movement, firstly, largely do not take into account political, ethnic and legal realities and, secondly, contradict each other.
Thus, considering the above, the use of the term "indigenous people" in relation to the Tatars living in Crimea is unacceptable.
Crimean Tatars are a nationality that originated on the Crimean peninsula and in southern Ukraine. Experts say that this people came to the peninsula in 1223, and settled in 1236. The interpretation of the history and culture of this ethnic group is vague and multifaceted, which causes additional interest.
Description of the nation
Crimeans, Krymchaks, Murzaks are the names of this people. They live in the Republic of Crimea, Ukraine, Turkey, Romania, etc. Despite the assumption about the difference between the Kazan and Crimean Tatars, experts argue about the unity of the origins of these two directions. Differences arose in connection with the specifics of assimilation.
The Islamization of the ethnic group occurred at the end of the 13th century. It has symbols of statehood: flag, coat of arms, anthem. The blue flag depicts a tamga, the symbol of the steppe nomads.
As of 2010, about 260 thousand are registered in Crimea, and in Turkey there are 4-6 million representatives of this nationality who consider themselves Turks of Crimean origin. 67% live in non-urban areas of the peninsula: Simferopol, Bakhchisaray and Dzhankoy.
Fluent in three Russian and Ukrainian. Most speak Turkish and Azerbaijani. The native language is Crimean Tatar.
The history of the emergence of the Crimean Khanate
Crimea is a peninsula inhabited by Greeks already by the 5th-4th centuries BC. e. Chersonese and Theodosia are large Greek settlements of this period.
According to historians, the Slavs settled on the peninsula after repeated, not always successful, invasions of the peninsula in the 6th century AD. e., merging with the local population - the Scythians, Huns and Goths.
The Tatars began to raid Taurida (Crimea) from the 13th century. This led to the creation of a Tatar administration in the city of Solkhat, later renamed Kyrym. With so began to call the peninsula.
The first khan was recognized as Khadzhi Giray, a descendant of the Khan of the Golden Horde Tash-Timur - the grandson of Genghis Khan. The Gireys, calling themselves Genghisides, laid claim to the khanate after the division of the Golden Horde. In 1449 he was recognized as the Crimean Khan. The capital was the city of the Palace in the gardens - Bakhchisaray.
The collapse of the Golden Horde led to the migration of tens of thousands of Crimean Tatars to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Prince Vitovt used them in military operations and to impose discipline among the Lithuanian feudal lords. In return, the Tatars received land, built mosques. Gradually they assimilated with the locals, switching to Russian or Polish. Muslim Tatars were not persecuted by the church, as they did not prevent the spread of Catholicism.
Turkish-Tatar Union
In 1454, the Crimean Khan signed an agreement with Turkey to fight the Genoese. As a result of the Turkish-Tatar alliance in 1456, the colonies pledged to pay tribute to the Turks and Crimean Tatars. In 1475 Turkish troops with the assistance of the Tatars, they occupied the Genoese city of Kafu (Kefe in Turkish), after that - the Taman Peninsula, putting an end to the presence of the Genoese.
In 1484, the Turkish-Tatar troops took possession of the Black Sea coast. The state of the Budzhitskaya Horde was founded on this square.
The opinions of historians regarding the Turkish-Tatar alliance are divided: some are sure that the Crimean Khanate has become a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, others consider them equal allies, since the interests of both states coincided.
In reality, the Khanate depended on Turkey:
- the sultan is the leader of the Crimean Muslims;
- the Khan's family lived in Turkey;
- Türkiye bought up slaves and loot;
- Türkiye supported the attacks of the Crimean Tatars;
- Türkiye helped with weapons and troops.
The long military operations of the khanate with the Moscow state and the Commonwealth suspended the Russian troops in 1572 at the Battle of Molodi. After the battle, the Nogai hordes, formally subordinate to the Crimean Khanate, continued to raid, but their number was greatly reduced. Guard functions were taken over by the formed Cossacks.
Life of the Crimean Tatars
The peculiarity of the people was the non-recognition of a settled way of life until the 17th century. Agriculture developed poorly, it was mostly nomadic: the land was cultivated in the spring, the harvest was harvested in the fall, after returning. The result was a small harvest. It was impossible to feed people due to such agriculture.
Raids and robberies remained a source of life for the Crimean Tatars. The Khan's army was not regular, it consisted of volunteers. 1/3 of the men of the khanate participated in major campaigns. In especially large - all men. Only tens of thousands of slaves and women with children remained in the khanate.
Life on a hike
The Tatars did not use carts in campaigns. The carts at home were harnessed not by horses, but by oxen and camels. These animals are not suitable for hiking. Horses themselves found their own food in the steppes even in winter, breaking snow with their hooves. Each warrior took 3-5 horses with him on a campaign to increase speed when replacing tired animals. In addition, horses are additional food for a warrior.
The main weapon of the Tatars is bows. They hit the target from a hundred paces. In the campaign they had sabers, bows, whips and wooden poles, which served as supports for tents. A knife, a flint, an awl, 12 meters of leather rope for prisoners and a tool for orienteering in the steppe were kept on the belt. For ten people, one bowler hat and a drum were taken. Each had a flute for notification and a tub for water. They ate on the campaign oatmeal - a mixture of flour from barley and millet. This was used to make a pexinet drink, to which salt was added. In addition, each had fried meat and crackers. The source of nutrition is weak and injured horses. Boiled blood with flour, thin layers of meat from under the saddle of a horse after a two-hour race, boiled pieces of meat, etc. were prepared from horse meat.
Caring for horses is the most important thing for a Crimean Tatar. The horses were poorly fed, believing that they recuperate on their own after long journeys. Lightweight saddles were used for horses, parts of which were used by the rider: the lower part of the saddle was a carpet, the base was for the head, a cloak stretched over poles was a tent.
Tatar horses - bakemans - were not shod. They are small and clumsy, but at the same time hardy and fast. Rich people used beautiful cow horns for them.
Crimeans in campaigns
The Tatars have a special tactic of conducting a campaign: on their territory, the speed of transition is low, with the concealment of traces of movement. Outside of it, the speed was reduced to a minimum. During the raids, the Crimean Tatars hid in ravines and hollows from enemies, did not make fires at night, did not let the horses neigh, caught tongues to obtain intelligence, before going to bed fastened themselves with lassoes to the horses for a quick escape from the enemy.
As part of the Russian Empire
Since 1783, the “Black Century” for the nationality begins: joining Russia. In the decree of 1784 "On the organization of the Tauride region", the administration on the peninsula is implemented according to the Russian model.
The noble nobles of the Crimea and the supreme clergy were equal in rights with the Russian aristocracy. Massive land acquisition led to emigration in the 1790s and 1860s, during Crimean War, to the Ottoman Empire. Three-quarters of the Crimean Tatars left the peninsula in the first decade of the Russian Empire. The descendants of these migrants created the Turkish, Romanian and Bulgarian diasporas. These processes led to the devastation and desolation of agriculture on the peninsula.
Life in the USSR
After February Revolution in the Crimea, an attempt was made to create autonomy. For this, a Crimean Tatar kurultai of 2,000 delegates was convened. The event elected the Provisional Crimean Muslim Executive Committee (VKMIK). The Bolsheviks did not take into account the decisions of the committee, and in 1921 the Crimean ASSR was formed.
Crimea during the Great Patriotic War
During the occupation, since 1941, Muslim committees were created, which were renamed Crimean, Simferopol. Since 1943, the organization was renamed the Simferopol Tatar Committee. Regardless of the name, its functions included:
- opposition to partisans - resistance to the liberation of Crimea;
- the formation of voluntary detachments - the creation of Einsatzgruppe D, in which there were about 9,000 people;
- the creation of an auxiliary police - by 1943 there were 10 battalions;
- propaganda of Nazi ideology, etc.
The committee acted in the interests of forming a separate state of the Crimean Tatars under the auspices of Germany. However, this was not part of the plans of the Nazis, who envisaged the annexation of the peninsula to the Reich.
But there was also an opposite attitude towards the Nazis: by 1942, a sixth of the partisan formations were Crimean Tatars, who made up the Sudak partisan detachment. Since 1943, underground work has been carried out on the territory of the peninsula. About 25 thousand representatives of the nationality fought in the Red Army.
Cooperation with the Nazis led to mass deportations to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, the Urals and other territories in 1944. During the two days of the operation, 47,000 families were deported.
It was allowed to take clothes, personal belongings, utensils and food in an amount not exceeding 500 kg per family. In the summer months, the settlers were provided with food on account of the abandoned property. Only 1.5 thousand representatives of the nationality remained on the peninsula.
The return to the Crimea became possible only in 1989.
Holidays and traditions of the Crimean Tatars
The customs and rituals include Muslim, Christian and pagan traditions. Holidays are based on the agricultural work calendar.
The animal calendar, introduced by the Mongols, displays the influence of a particular animal in each year of the twelve-year cycle. Spring is the beginning of the year, so Navruz ( New Year) is celebrated on the vernal equinox. This is due to the beginning of field work. On the holiday it is supposed to boil eggs as symbols of new life, bake pies, burn old things at the stake. Jumping over the fire, masked trips to houses were organized for young people, while the girls were guessing. To this day, the graves of relatives are traditionally visited on this holiday.
May 6 - Hyderlez - the day of the two saints Hydir and Ilyas. Christians celebrate Saint George's Day. On this day, work began in the field, the cattle were driven out to pastures, the barn was sprinkled with fresh milk to protect it from evil forces.
The autumn equinox coincided with the holiday of Derviz - the harvest. Shepherds returned from mountain pastures, weddings were held in the settlements. At the beginning of the celebration, according to tradition, prayer and ritual sacrifice were held. Then the inhabitants of the settlement went to the fair and dances.
The holiday of the beginning of winter - Yil Gedzhesi - fell on the winter solstice. On this day, it is customary to bake pies with chicken and rice, make halvah, go home dressed up for sweets.
Crimean Tatars also recognize Muslim holidays: Uraza Bayram, Kurban Bayram, Ashir-Kunya, etc.
Crimean Tatar wedding
The wedding of the Crimean Tatars (photo below) lasts two days: first for the groom, then for the bride. The bride's parents are not present at the celebrations on the first day, and vice versa. Invite from 150 to 500 people from each side. Traditionally, the beginning of the wedding is marked by the ransom of the bride. This is a quiet stage. The bride's father ties a red scarf around her waist. This symbolizes the strength of the bride, who becomes a woman and devotes herself to order in the family. On the second day, the groom's father will remove this scarf.
After the ransom, the bride and groom perform the marriage ceremony in the mosque. Parents do not participate in the ceremony. After reading the prayer by the mullah and issuing a marriage certificate, the bride and groom are considered husband and wife. The bride makes a wish while praying. The groom is obliged to fulfill it within the time limits set by the mullah. The desire can be anything: from decorating to building a house.
After the mosque, the newlyweds go to the registry office for the official registration of marriage. The ceremony is no different from the Christian, except for the absence of a kiss in front of other people.
Before the banquet, the parents of the bride and groom are required to redeem the Koran for any money without bargaining from the smallest child at the wedding. Congratulations are accepted not by the newlyweds, but by the bride's parents. There are no competitions at the wedding, only performances by artists.
The wedding ends with two dances:
- the national dance of the bride and groom - haitarma;
- Horan - guests, holding hands, dance in a circle, and the newlyweds in the center dance a slow dance.
Crimean Tatars are a nation with multicultural traditions that go far back in history. Despite assimilation, they retain their own identity and national flavor.
The question of where the Tatars came from in the Crimea, until recently, caused a lot of controversy. Some believed that the Crimean Tatars were the heirs of the Golden Horde nomads, others called them the original inhabitants of Taurida.
Invasion
On the margins of a Greek manuscript book of religious content (synaxarion) found in Sudak, the following note was made: “On this day (January 27) the Tatars first came, in 6731” (6731 from the Creation of the World corresponds to 1223 AD). Details of the Tatar raid can be read from the Arab writer Ibn al-Athir: “Having come to Sudak, the Tatars took possession of it, and the inhabitants dispersed, some of them with their families and their property climbed the mountains, and some went to the sea.”
The Flemish Franciscan monk Guillaume de Rubruck, who visited southern Taurica in 1253, left us eerie details of this invasion: they devoured each other mutually, the living dead, as a certain merchant who saw this told me; the living devoured and tore with their teeth the raw meat of the dead, like dogs - corpses.
The devastating invasion of the Golden Horde nomads, no doubt, radically updated ethnic composition the population of the peninsula. However, it is premature to assert that the Turks became the main ancestors of the modern Crimean Tatar ethnic group. Since ancient times, Taurica has been inhabited by dozens of tribes and peoples, who, thanks to the isolation of the peninsula, actively mixing, weaved a motley multinational pattern. It is not for nothing that Crimea is called the “concentrated Mediterranean”.
Crimean natives
The Crimean peninsula has never been empty. During wars, invasions, epidemics or great exoduses, its population did not completely disappear. Until the Tatar invasion, the lands of Crimea were inhabited by Greeks, Romans, Armenians, Goths, Sarmatians, Khazars, Pechenegs, Polovtsy, Genoese. One wave of migrants succeeded another, to varying degrees passing on a multi-ethnic code, which ultimately found expression in the genotype of modern "Crimeans".
From the VI century BC. e. to the 1st century AD e. Tauris were full owners of the southeastern coast of the Crimean peninsula. The Christian apologist Clement of Alexandria noted: "The Taurians live by robbery and war." Even earlier, the ancient Greek historian Herodotus described the custom of the Taurians, in which they "sacrifice the Virgin of shipwrecked sailors and all Hellenes who are captured on the high seas." How can one not remember that after many centuries, robbery and war will become constant companions of the “Crimeans” (as the Crimean Tatars were called in the Russian Empire), and pagan sacrifices, according to the spirit of the times, will turn into slave trade.
In the 19th century, the researcher of the Crimea, Peter Keppen, suggested that “in the veins of all the inhabitants of the territories rich in dolmen finds” the blood of Taurians flows. His hypothesis was that “the Taurians, being strongly overpopulated by Tatars in the Middle Ages, remained to live in the old places, but under a different name and gradually switching to Tatar language by adopting the Muslim faith. At the same time, Koeppen drew attention to the fact that the Tatars of the South Bank are of the Greek type, while the mountain Tatars are close to the Indo-European type.
At the beginning of our era, the Taurians were assimilated by the Iranian-speaking tribes of the Scythians who subjugated almost the entire peninsula. Although the latter soon left the historical scene, they could well have left their genetic trace in the later Crimean ethnos. An unnamed author of the 16th century, who knew well the population of the Crimea of his time, reports: “Although we consider the Tatars to be barbarians and poor, they are proud of the abstinence of their life and the antiquity of their Scythian origin.”
Modern scientists admit the idea that the Taurians and Scythians were not completely destroyed by the Huns who invaded the Crimean Peninsula, but concentrated in the mountains, they had a noticeable influence on the later settlers.
Of the subsequent inhabitants of the Crimea, a special place is given to the Goths, who in the 3rd century, having passed a crushing rampart through the northwestern Crimea, remained there for many centuries. The Russian scientist Stanislav Sestrenevich-Bogush noted that at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries, the Goths living near Mangup still retained their genotype, and their Tatar language was similar to South German. The scientist added that "they are all Muslims and Tatarized."
Linguists note a number of Gothic words included in the fund of the Crimean Tatar language. They also confidently declare about the Gothic contribution, albeit relatively small, to the Crimean Tatar gene pool. “Gothia died out, but its inhabitants completely disappeared into the mass of the emerging Tatar nation,” noted Russian ethnographer Alexei Kharuzin.
Aliens from Asia
In 1233, the Golden Horde established their governorship in Sudak, liberated from the Seljuks. This year has become a universally recognized starting point in the ethnic history of the Crimean Tatars. In the second half of the 13th century, the Tatars became the masters of the Genoese trading post of Solkhata-Solkata (now Stary Krym) and in a short time subjugated almost the entire peninsula. However, this did not prevent the Horde from intermarrying with the local, primarily the Italian-Greek population, and even adopting their language and culture.
The question of how modern Crimean Tatars can be considered the heirs of the Horde conquerors, and to what extent have autochthonous or other origin, is still relevant. Thus, the St. Petersburg historian Valery Vozgrin, as well as some representatives of the "Mejlis" (the parliament of the Crimean Tatars) are trying to approve the opinion that the Tatars are predominantly autochthonous in the Crimea, but most scientists do not agree with this.
Even in the Middle Ages, travelers and diplomats considered the Tatars "aliens from the depths of Asia." In particular, the Russian stolnik Andrey Lyzlov in his Scythian History (1692) wrote that the Tatars, who are “all countries near the Don, and the Meotian (Azov) Sea, and Taurica of Kherson (Crimea) around Pontus Euxinus (Black Sea) possessed and gray-haired "were newcomers.
During the rise of the national liberation movement in 1917, the Tatar press called for relying on “the state wisdom of the Mongol-Tatars, which runs like a red thread through their entire history”, and also to hold with honor “the emblem of the Tatars - the blue banner of Genghis” (“kok- bayrak" - the national flag of the Tatars living in the Crimea).
Speaking in 1993 in Simferopol at the “kurultai”, the eminent descendant of the Girey khans Jezar-Girey, who arrived from London, declared that “we are the sons of the Golden Horde”, emphasizing in every possible way the succession of the Tatars “from the Great Father, Lord Genghis Khan, through his grandson Batu and eldest son Juche.
However, such statements do not quite fit into the ethnic picture of Crimea, which was observed before the annexation of the peninsula to the Russian Empire in 1782. At that time, two subethnoi were quite clearly distinguished among the "Crimeans": narrow-eyed Tatars - a pronounced Mongoloid type of inhabitants of the steppe villages and mountain Tatars - characteristic of the Caucasoid body structure and facial features: tall, often fair-haired and blue-eyed people who spoke other than the steppe, language.
What does ethnography say
Before the deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944, ethnographers noticed that this people, albeit to varying degrees, bears the stamp of many genotypes that have ever lived on the territory of the Crimean peninsula. Scientists have identified three main ethnographic groups.
“Stepnyaks” (“Nogai”, “Nogai”) are the descendants of nomadic tribes that were part of the Golden Horde. Also in XVII century The Nogais plowed the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region from Moldova to the North Caucasus, but later, mostly forcibly, were resettled by the Crimean khans in the steppe regions of the peninsula. A significant role in the ethnogenesis of the Nogai was played by the Western Kipchaks (Polovtsy). Race Nogaev Caucasoid with an admixture of Mongoloid.
The “South Coast Tatars” (“yalyboilu”), mostly from Asia Minor, were formed on the basis of several migration waves from Central Anatolia. The ethnogenesis of this group was largely provided by the Greeks, Goths, Asia Minor Turks and Circassians; in the inhabitants of the eastern part of the South Bank, Italian (Genoese) blood was traced. Although most of the Yalyboylu are Muslims, some of them have retained elements of Christian rites for a long time.
"Highlanders" ("Tats") - lived in the mountains and foothills of the middle zone of Crimea (between the steppes and the South Coast). The ethnogenesis of the Tats is complex and not fully understood. According to the assumption of scientists, the majority of the peoples inhabiting the Crimea took part in the formation of this sub-ethnos.
All three Crimean Tatar sub-ethnic groups differed in their culture, economy, dialects, anthropology, but, nevertheless, they always felt themselves to be part of a single people.
Word to geneticists
More recently, scientists decided to clarify a difficult question: Where to look for the genetic roots of the Crimean Tatar people? The study of the gene pool of the Crimean Tatars was carried out under the auspices of the largest international project "Genographic".
One of the tasks of geneticists was to find evidence of the existence of an "extraterritorial" population group that could determine the common origin of the Crimean, Volga and Siberian Tatars. The research tool was the Y-chromosome, which is convenient in that it is transmitted only along one line - from father to son, and does not "mix" with genetic variants that came from other ancestors.
The genetic portraits of the three groups were not similar to each other, in other words, the search for common ancestors for all Tatars was not successful. Thus, the Volga Tatars are dominated by haplogroups common in Eastern Europe and the Urals, Siberian Tatars are characterized by "pan-Eurasian" haplogroups.
Analysis of the DNA of the Crimean Tatars shows a high proportion of the southern - "Mediterranean" haplogroups and only a small admixture (about 10%) of the "Mediterranean" lines. This means that the gene pool of the Crimean Tatars was primarily replenished by people from Asia Minor and the Balkans, and to a much lesser extent by nomads from the steppe zone of Eurasia.
At the same time, an uneven distribution of the main markers in the gene pools of different sub-ethnic groups of the Crimean Tatars was revealed: the maximum contribution of the "eastern" component was noted in the northernmost steppe group, and the "southern" genetic component dominates in the other two (mountainous and southern coastal ones). Curiously, scientists have not found any similarities between the gene pool of the peoples of the Crimea and their geographical neighbors - Russians and Ukrainians.
