On the Question of the Sons of Şahin Geray Khan

Abstract

At the time when Şahin Geray Khan, the last khan of the Crimean Khanate was put to death on the island of Rhodes in 1787, his harem and his son Devlet Geray Sultan were in the Ottoman Empire. The contemporary records did not testify to the presence of another son of the late khan. In the following years, Devlet Geray Sultan and his son Mustafa Geray Sultan lived in Istanbul and received the allowances which the Ottoman Empire traditionaly allocated to all members of the Geray dynasty. There are no documents or information about the existence of any male issues of Mustafa Geray Sultan. Nevertheless, in 1840s, a man named İskender Süleyman emerged, claiming that he was the son of Şahin Geray Khan, and made material demands from both the Ottoman and Russian empires. The credentials of İskender Süleyman were dubious and his stories contained obviously absurd and imaginary elements. These notwithstanding, the Porte still granted him and, after his death, to his daughters the traditional Geray allowances for their lives. Though, apparently, the male line of Şahin Geray Khan did not extend to the 20^th century, hundreds of other members of the large Geray pedigree continued to live in the Ottoman Empire and Northern Caucasus.