Meñli I Giray

Meñli I
Khan of Crimea
Reign	1468 – 1475 1478 – 1515
Predecessor	Nur Devlet
Successor	Mehmed I
Born	1445
Died	17 April 1515
Burial	Bakhchisaray
Spouse	Nur Sultan Khatun Zayan Sultan Khatun Makhdum Sultan Khatun
Issue	Mehmed I Giray Saadet I Giray Sahib I Giray Mubarek Giray Ahmed Giray Mahmud Giray Fetih Giray Burnash Giray Ayesha Begum Nazjan Begum Makhdum Shah Begum Ayşe Hafsa Sultan
Full name Meñli Giray
House	Giray
Father	Hacı I Giray

Meñli I Giray (Crimean Tatar: I Meñli Geray, ۱منكلى كراى‎) (1445–1515), also spelled as Mengli I Giray, was a khan of the Crimean Khanate (1466, 1469–1475, 1478–1515) and the sixth son of Hacı I Giray.^[1]

Biography

Meñli ascended the throne in 1466 for some months, but was then deposed by his brother Nur Devlet. He was restored to the throne in January 1469, but lost power again in March 1475 as a result of a rebellion of the rival brothers and nobility.^[2]

In 1475, he was captured by the Ottomans in Feodosiya and delivered to Constantinople. After being forced to recognize Ottoman suzerainty over the Crimean Khanate, he was returned to the throne of Crimea in 1478. He made a great contribution to the development of Crimean Tatar statehood. He founded the fortress of Özü.^[3]

In 1502, Meñli defeated the last khan of the Golden Horde and took control over its capital Saray. He proclaimed himself Khagan (Emperor), claiming legitimacy as the successor of the Golden Horde's authority over the Tatar khaganates in the Caspian-Volga region.

Meñli was buried in the Dürbe (or türbe) of Salaçıq in Bakhchysarai. In that city, he commissioned Zıncırlı Medrese (medrese with chains) in Salaçıq (1500), Dürbe in Salaçıq (1501), and "Demir Qapı" (Iron Gate) portal in the Bakhchisaray Palace (by Aloisio the New) (1503).

Family

Meñli was a father of Mehmed I Giray and Sahib I Giray.^[4]

Meñli I Giray was the maternal grandfather of Suleiman the Magnificent through his daughter Ayşe Hafsa Sultan; thereafter, the House of Osman could also claim descent from Genghis Khan through his son Jochi.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]}

Meñli's wives were:

• Zayan (Shayan) Sultan Khatun, daughter of Prince Yadigar, bey of the Sedjeuts;
• Makhdum Sultan Khatun, daughter of King Inarmaz Mirza, King of Circassia;
• Nur Sultan Khatun, daughter of Prince Timur ibn Mansur, bey of the Manghits.

References

1. The Crimea: Its Ancient and Modern History: the Khans, the Sultans, and the czars by Thomas Milner.
2. Chantal Lemercier-Quelquejay et Alexandre Bennigsen, Le khanat de Crimée au début du XVIe siècle: De la tradition mongole à la suzeraineté ottomane, vol. 13, n° 3, p. 321-337.
3. René Grousset, L’Empire des steppes, Attila, Gengis-Khan, Tamerlan, Payot, Paris
4. Anthony Stokvis, Manuel d'histoire, de généalogie et de chronologie de tous les États du globe, depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à nos jours
5. Wander Stories (30 Dec 2013). Istanbul Tour Guide Top 10: a travel guide and tour as with the best local guide. WanderStories. ISBN 978-9-949-51624-7. Hafsa Sultan was most likely the daughter of Mengli Giray
6. Reşat Kasaba (1 Dec 2009). A moveable empire: Ottoman nomads, migrants, and refugees. University of Washington Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-295-80149-0. Hafsa Sultan, the daughter of the Crimean ruler Mengli Giray Khan.
7. Peter G. Bietenholz, Thomas Brian Deutscher (2003). Contemporaries of Erasmus: A Biographical Register of the Renaissance and Reformation, Volumes 1-3. University of Toronto Press. p. 298. ISBN 978-0-802-08577-1. Suleiman i (Solymannus), known in the West as Suleiman the Magnificent, was the son of *Selim i and Hafsa Sultan, the daughter of Mengli Giray
8. Brian Glyn Williams (1 Jan 2001). The Crimean Tatars: The Diaspora Experience and the Forging of a Nation. BRILL. p. 56. ISBN 978-9-004-12122-5. Selim I (who married Mengli Giray Khan's daughter, Hafsa Hatum)
9. Janusz Duzinkiewicz (2004). Derzhavi, Suspilʹstva, Kulʹtury: Skhid i Zakhid : Zbirnik Na Poshanu I︠A︡roslava Pelensʹkogo. Ross Pub. ISBN 978-0-883-54181-4.
10. Halil İnalcık, Cemal Kafadar (1993). Süleymân The Second [i.e. the First] and his time. Isis Press. she was a Tatar, a daughter of the Crimean Khan Mengli Giray
11. André Clot, Matthew Reisz (2005). Suleiman the Magnificent. Saqi. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-863-56510-6. His mother, Hafsa Hatun, is believed to have been the daughter of Mengli Giray, the khan of the Crimean Tartars.
12. John Freely (1 Jul 2001). Inside the Seraglio: private lives of the sultans in Istanbul. Penguin. Suleyman's mother, Hafsa Hatun, who was seventeen at the time of his birth, may have been a daughter of Mengli Giray, khan of the Crimean Tartars.
13. Carolus Bovillus (2002). Lettres et poèmes de Charles de Bovelles: édition critique, introduction et commentaire du ms. 1134 de la Bibliothèque de l'Université de Paris. Champion. ISBN 978-2-745-30658-6.
14. Henk Boom (2010). De Grote Turk: in het voetspoor van Süleyman de Prachtlievende (1494-1566). Athenaeum-Polak & Van Gennep. ISBN 978-9-025-36764-0.

External links

• The Palace of the Crimean Khans