By Brian Glyn Williams - The Jamestown Foundation

THE WESTERN FRONT
Historian V. J. Parry has stated that:
The raids made by the Tatars during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries against their
northern neighbors in Poland, the Grand Principality of Lithuania and Muscovy are of
greater significance than their participation in conditions to which they were not suited in the
Ottoman wars on the Danube. 106
This summary is not completely accurate for the Tatars did have several advantages on this front that
made up for the unfavorable conditions of this region. The Western Front, which for the purposes of this
essay will include the buffer states of Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania and the Habsburg lands,
was comprised of several distinct zones. The easternmost territories of the Budjak and Dobruca (coastal
Bulgaria and Romania) were made up of flatlands that represented a continuation of the Eurasian
steppe and thus facilitated the Tatars’ movements.
Moving westward however the conditions deteriorated as the grasslands of the steppe were replaced by the
oak and beech forests of the Carpathian mountains. It was in these valleys, writes William McNeill, that:
a pastoral farming population survived; for in such a landscape Tartar horsemen and their
bows were severely handicapped. Threatened communities could disperse into the woods
and hide until raiders came by; and in case of large scale attack, local clan groupings
among the Moldavians could gather together the fighting manpower of the principality and
with the help of forest stockades and similar primitive but effective fortification could
sometimes withstand cavalry attack quite successfully. 107
Once past this difficult zone, the Tatars could move with greater freedom on the plains of the Great and
Little Alfold of Hungary. This freedom of movement was hindered by the forests and Alpine valleys that
confronted the Tatars when they passed Vienna. The conditions in and beyond the Wienerwald (Vienna
Forest) were hardly suitable for the Khan's cavalry and many areas were thus rendered inaccessible to the
Crimean raiders. The Tatars, as can be imagined, were more at ease making raids off the steppe into
Wallachia and Moldavia than involving themselves in missions deep into the heart of the Christian West.
In the early stages of the Ottoman-Tatar alliance, the Khan's forces were not actually required to
participate in campaigns in the far west against the Hungarians. The Tatars were, however, used against the
Principalities of Moldavia. Wallachia and Transylvania at an early date. The Tatars could be found operating in
Moldavia as early as the year 1474 when Mengli Giray led a Crimean force against Stephen the Great to assist
Mehemed II in his wars in this region. It was in fact Mengli Giray's predecessor's (Nurdevlet) earlier refusal
to assist the Ottomans in this war that led to his removal as Khan. 108
Mengli Giray proved himself to be worthy of the Sultan's support by continuing his assistance against the
Moldavians. In 1484, he aided the Sultan Bayezid II in his conquest of the strategic Moldavian cities of
Akkerman and Kilia. This important victory gave the Ottomans control of the Danube and Dniester basins
and the Sultan was especially grateful for the Tatars' support. As a reward for his assistance, the Khan was
given the permission to extend his territories across the steppe from Perekop right to Akkerman. The
Khan was also given the right to collect tribute from Moldavia and Wallachia, a gift that went a long
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