Subject: uhlan / oghlan royal mounted guard
Culture: Crimean Tatar
Setting: Krim khanate, eastern Europe 1501-1699
Context (Event Photos, Primary Sources, Secondary Sources, Field Notes)
* Brzezinski/McBride 1987 (2) p15-16
"The Tatars, or in early literature 'Tartars' were the direct descendants of ... Mongols and allied Asiatic peoples. By the 17th century there were three major groups of Tatars still in Europe: Crimean, Noghay and Budzhak.
"The most powerful of these was originally part of the Mongol 'Great Horde'. In 1502-3 they had migrated to the Crimean Peninsula, and in the relative security it offered they adopted a semi-settled way of life. They became known, therefore, as the 'Crimean Tatars', although their khan retained his title of 'Khan of the Great Horde'. The old lands of the 'Golden Horde', the north and the east of the Crimea, were then filled by the 'Noghay Tatars'. The Budzhak Tatars, a fierce offshoot of the Noghays, roamed further west in the early 17th century, to the plain between the mouths of the Dniester and the Danube. Each of these groupings was further divided into tribes, the main Crimean tribes being the Shirin, Mansur, and Bahrin. Sometimes, as with the Bialogrod Tatars, sub-divisions were also called after their region of settlement. Most of these Tatars were dependent, to some extent, on the Crimean Khan.
"The Tatars retained the brutal nomadic temperament of the Mongols. They spent most of their time either looking after their cattle, or raiding Slav lands in search of booty and slaves (yassyr) which they then sold in Black Sea ports. These raids had a severe effect on the Russian Steppes and the Ukraine, turning a vast agricultural garrden into a underpopulated, battle-torn desert. The fact that the Tatars were forbidden by their Islamic faith to touch pork led many irritated Slavs to take up pig-farming! Incessant raiding also made the Tatars the chief military opponent of Poland in the 16th and 17th centuries, and this had a deep influence on all aspects of the Polish military system. The Tatars were, after all, the chief reason for the existence of the Poles' permanent 'Quarter' army.
"In recent years it has become clear that the huge numbers quoted for the strength of Eastern armies -- often in their hundreds of thousands -- are not as exaggerated as previously supposed; such figures have usually become distorted by being quoted out of context. A Tatar army under the personal command of the Crimean Khan was often reputed to number 200,000. It could, in reality, easily contain 200,000 horses, but since each Tatar usually had several horses this meant about 80,000 men. Not all of these, however, were actually combatants: in 1594 the Imperial agent, Lassota, learned from a Tatar prisoner called Bellek that of the Crimean Khan's army of 80,000 men moving on Poland 'only about 20,000 were fit for battle'."
* Kent 2016 p36
"[T]he Crimean Tatar cavalry -- approximately 10,000 strong in peacetime but double that when the khan led his men into battle -- was a force to be reckoned with throughout the sixteenth century. By the latter half, it was principally composed of the khan's own men, led by members of the ruling family. These, in turn, were augmented by those of other great families of the Khanate as well as those of the other important Tatar ethnos to the north of Crimea, the Nogai Tatars."
* Nicolle/McBride 1983 p16
"For 300 years these [Crimean] Tartars provided the Ottomans with unarmoured horse-archers fighting in the ancient Central Asian tradition. The Khanate was poor, however, and many of its tribesmen had to fight on foot. Full-time warriors, oglans, formed the ruler's guard while a tribal militia under its own mirza aristocracy provided the bulk of any Tartar army."
* Faroqhi 2009 p113
"Given the weakness of both border economies, raiding for slaves, livestock, food and money formed an important ingredient of both the Cossack and the Tatar way of life. Where the Tatars were concerned, raids were directed at the villages and towns of Muscovy, but also at the territories of Poland-Lithuania. In addition, when the khans participated in Ottoman campaigns against the Habsburgs, their soldiers also raided the villages of Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania. If the prince ruling one or another of these territories happened to sympathize with the Habsburg or Polish side, such attacks were licit according to the Ottoman understanding of just war. But, of course, under wartime and post-war conditions, the dividing line between licit and illicit raiding was not clearly drawn, and very often crossed by soldiers of both sides."
* Aydin 2020 p184
"The cavalry, which was the strongest part of the Crimean forces, were strictly traditional and did not esteem the fired arms. The Ottomans, due to the occasional conflicts that occurred on Kefe, did not want the Crimean Khanate to have artillery corps. Despite that, the Ottoman Artillery corps which was mobilized from Kefe occasionally supported the Crimean army in military operations.
"Crimean soldiers who set out for military expeditions with two horses were the fastest of the cavalry soldiers of their time. As of the 16th century, Crimean cavalry served as the raiders of the Ottoman army."
* Wheatcroft 2008 p51-54
"
Armor (Helmet, Cuirass)
* Gorelik 1995 p37
"The khanate fielded a large cavalry force consisting mostly of light archers. However, the nobility (the murzas and begs) as well as their men-at-arms, the uhlans, were equipped with the finest specimens of defensive armour, usually originating from Turkey."
* Stone 1934 p57
"The Tartar armor was much like the Turkish and Russian. The helmets, however, were almost always pointed, in fact pointed helmets were considered as characteristic of the Tartars. Their arms and armor were largely copied by those with whom they fought, and both the Chinese and the Russians were greatly influenced by them."
Saber
* Gorelik 1995 p37
"Offensive weapons were often imported ..., but the Crimean khanate produced her own weapons too, exquisitely designed Crimean sabres, knives and bows being exported to the Caucasus, Central Asia, Russia, Rzeczpospolita (Poland and Lithuania) and Moldavia. Later times saw the production of fine Crimean handguns which were exported abroad."
* Аствацатурян 2002 p102
"
Crop
* Brzezinski/McBride 1987 (2) p15-16
"Some wore simple mocassin [sic]-like footwear, others leather boots generally without spurs, since Tatars considered them cruel and preferred whips ...."
Shield
*
"
