Devlet I. Giray

Devlet Giray I (* 1512, † 1577) was from 1551 the Crimean Khan. Under the rule Devlets I. Khanate of Crimea reached the peak of his political power.

Life

During the reign of his predecessor, Sahib Giray I, Devlet lived in Constantinople Opel, where he won the favor of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman. He was chosen as his successor by the support of the Ottomans after the death of Khan Sahib I. 1551. Thanks to far-sighted policy, he was able to maintain the degree of independence of the Khanate against the Ottoman Empire, both internally and externally; so he prevented, for example, in 1569 the Ottoman plan to build a canal between the Volga and the Don, which would have increased the influence of the Ottoman government on the policy of the Khanate. Nevertheless, the Crimean Khanate was the Ottoman Empire political ( the Ottomans were allies and protecting power of the Crimean Tatars, since 1475, the Khanate was formally a vassal principality of the Sublime Porte ) and religiously connected.

With a strong army Devlet Giray I always made ​​war upon his neighbors, especially the tsarist Russia, had for his raids of 1555 and 1571 a devastating impact. In 1571 he was even able to put the Russian capital Moscow on fire. In the battle of Molodi 1572, he suffered a crushing defeat, however, then.

The main objective of his military campaigns, which he did not reach, however, lay in the reconquest of the Tatar khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan, conquered in 1552 and 1556 by the Russian tsar and his kingdom had been incorporated.

Devlet Giray I. died in 1577. In the Office of the Crimean Khan Mehmed II Giray followed after him.