[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
by Google
CHAPTER XLII.
SEVENTY-FIFTH AND SEVENTV-SIXTH DAYS.
Depjirture from Th«odosia— Esky-Crim— Batou Khan— The Kiplchaks, Pobvtsy, or Comans — Vdcgoa — The Crimean Horde— Title of Ghyrey — The Khan a Prisoner of Turkey — Alliance of the Khan and John III. — Annihilation of the Great Horde — Invasion of Russia by the Khans of the Crimea — Moscow destroyed — Resources of the Crimean Khanate— Russia's Invasions of the Crimea— Annexation of the Peninsula. — Importance o( Solghal— Kyzyl-tash Church
' Soodak — The Mongols — Fortifications of the Genoese.
Th^ fereclodndya and post-horses ordered for four o'clock were at the hdtel door punctually at six, the hour privately fixed upon for starting. After clearing the town an uninteresting steppe is traversed, where large tracts remain uncultivated from a dearth of population; but beyond the first post-station at Kiynytchky, old tombs and ruins are seen cropping out of the ground in every direction, as Esky-Crim is approached through a valley between Balsh<Sy AgarmJ'tch and Miloy Agarm^tch, two hillocks on the west side, and Mount Kira-boiiroun, probably the Taphros of Ptolemy, on the east.
The name of Esky-Crim, ' Old Crim,' was given by the Tatars to the ancient city of Solghat or Solkhat, after its destruction and the removal of their capital to where is now Baghtchasaral. Solghat was the residence from the thirteenth century of the emir of the khan of the Kiptchaks, or Polovtsy as they were called by by Google the Russians, and Comans' by the Byzantines, names given to Turk tribes of the Kirghiz steppe who spread themselves along the shores of the Black Sea about the year 1055, and possessed themselves of Khazaiy, by which name the Crimea was known to them. Their sway was of short duration, for the Mongols, after devastating Georgia and defeating the Alains in the mountain passes of the Caucasus, swept over the territory of the Kiptchaks and drove the inhabitants before them.
After Batou, the grandson of Zenghiz Khan and the chief and most powerful of the Zenghiz princes, had founded a new horde, he assumed the sovereignty of Kiptchak and of all the Tatars of the west, and establi:ihed his head-quarters at Etil on the banks of the Volga, calling his capital Saral;' his dominion at the time extending from the Kirghiz steppe to the Danube, included the Taurida, which fell to it in 1237. The existence of Solghat probably dates from this period, for it is mentioned in the geography of Aboulfeda, 1271-1331, as being one of the chief cities of Al Keiym, 'the Crimea' — a city afterwards so vast, that 'it would have taken fully twelve hours to ride round it mounted on a vigorous horse.'
The horde of Kiptchak, called also 'the Golden Horde,' received the submission of Varoslaf, Michael, and Alexander (Nevsky), to whom in 1249 the Tatars ceded in sovereignty the southern provinces of Russia, including Kief, recf^nising, in 1252, his title of Grand Prince. Russia continued to be ravaged by the Horde of Kiptchak until the defeat of the Khan Mamat by the
' The Comans fought under the standard of Alexis I. at the battle <A LivooniMi in logi, and they were the lint to enter Constant innple upon the reconquext of that cil; bf Alexander.Strategopulo, the general of Michael (Paleol<^s).
' The summer residence was at Balghary, also on the Volga, The site of Sai»i w»i accidentally discovered in 1840.
t, Google brave Dmitri (Donskol) at the battle of KoulikofT in 1381, but tribute was again demanded of Russia as of old, after Mamat had been succeeded by Toktamish, a descendant of the great Zenghiz Khan, who secured to himself the support of Tamarlane. The claim tteing opposed, war ensued, the new khan marching upon Moscow. with his legions, and burning that city *^* treachery worthy only of a barbarian; his success and ambition incited him to turn his arms against Tamerlane himself, who punished him for his ingratitude and temerity by defeating him in two battles in the year 1395. Tamerlane also seized upon Saral the capital, and after having seated himself on the throne, he left the Horde, in his own words, ' to the consuming breeze of destruction.'