Was Hadji Giray the Khan of Kazan? Attempts to explain the “Dastan about Hadji Giray” in the “Compendium of Chronicles” by Kadyr Ali-bek

Abstract

The article’s author reaches the conclusion that Hadji Giray was strongly connected with the Kazan «yurt» by family ties. His father, Giyas ad-Din, ruled the Volga’s left bank for some time, and his uncle may have been the same Kazan “Libey” whose murder served as the starting point for the emergence of an independent Kazan (after 1445). The dastan about Hadji Giray in the “Compendium of Chronicles” is a monument that reflects the desire of representatives of the Volga’s left-bank lands to invite not just a Chingisid to the Kazan throne, but one of his lawful rightholders. This enthronement, most likely, did not take place, and Hadji Giray went down in history as the founder of the independent Crimean Khanate and the new Giray dynasty. However, for a long time afterwards, Kazan and its neighboring yurts remembered Girays’ rights to the Kazan throne. Research objectives: This article is an endeavor to analyze the text of the “Dastan about Hadji Giray” in the “Compendium of Chronicles” by Kadyr Ali-bek from the point of view of the plausibility of its historical information about the reign of Khan Hadji Giray in Kazan. Research materials: Published texts and manuscripts of the “Compendium of Chronicles” by Kadyr Ali-bek, “Seven Planets” by Muhammad Riza, and “A Brief History” of Crimea.