By Brian Glyn Williams - The Jamestown Foundation

AFTERWORD
It was on these four battlefronts that the Crimean Tatars saw the most service but they were not restricted to
these frontiers. Crimean Tatars could be found serving in military capacities throughout the Ottoman
Empire. Tatars from the Crimea served in almost every corner of the Empire as messengers, the
Ottomans actually used the word “Tatar” as synonymous with courier.
Crimean Tatar armies frequently fought in the Empire's internal struggles as well. Selim I made the most
use of the Tatars in this fashion during his struggles to overthrow his father Sultan Bayezid II in the early
sixteenth century. One source mentions Crimean Tatar participation in Selim's victory over the
Mamelukes in Syria during the battle of Aleppo. 158 Selim may have in fact earned his reputation as "one of
the most ruthless men of the renascence age" from his upbringing in his father-in-law, Mengli Giray's
court. 159
Selim, who had himself been a great gazi before becoming Sultan, definitely recognized the value of the Khanate's
forces as can be seen by his comments on the Tatars:
I fear the Tatars most of all. They are as fast as the wind upon their enemies, for when
they march they cover five or six days' road in one day, and when they run away they
disappear as quickly. Especially important is the fact that their horses do not require
shoes, nails or fodder. When they come to a river they do not wait for a boat like our troops.
Their food, like their bodies, is nothing much; their strength is shown by the fact that they
do not care for comfort. 160
According to Kortepeter, the Khan's forces even served in Anatolia to help put down the Jelali
rebellion. 161 Perhaps the best example of the Tatars serving in an atypical capacity was the Sultan's request to
the Crimean Khan to send him 20,000 Tatar rowers for his fleet in 1612. 162
It should also be mentioned that the Crimean Tatars' military assistance did not come to an end with the
Russian annexation of the Khanate in 1783. Turkish sources claim that as many as 595,000 Muslims fled the
Crimean region in the decades following the Khanates' conquest. 163 Most of these were settled in Dobruca
where they were organized into provisional military units by the Ottoman authorities. According to Cooke it
was these forces, "bands of bashi-bazouks (irregulars) consisting of Tatars from the Crimea," who
harshly put down the famous Bulgarian uprising of 1876. 164
Members of the Giray family also continued to serve the Ottomans as Khans of the Budjak. As late as 1789
they could be found leading the Tatars of this steppe region into battle against their traditional foes the
Russians. 165 It should also be noted that at least some of the Tatar population that remained in the Crimea
during the nineteenth century gave their support to the Ottomans and their allies in the Crimean War. 166 As
fascinating as the continued service of Crimean Tatars was, it was never as extensive as it had been during the
earlier days of the Ottoman Empire and is mentioned here merely as a curiosity.
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