A Seditious and Sinister Tribe: The Crimean Tatars and Their Khanate

(Hardback)

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The Crimean Tatars Turkic-speaking native peoples of Crimea established a powerful Khanate in the 1440s, which remained in power until 1783.

In this, the first history in English for over 100 years, eminent scholar Donald Rayfield gives a historical portrait, showing that this misunderstood and much-feared nation was in fact a flourishing state with a vibrant literary culture, religious tolerance, a sophisticated constitution and a prosperous economy. Rayfield's book describes the establishment of the Khanate, its reign and eventual fall, concluding with a vivid portrayal of the Tatars' ruthless suppression first by Russia and then the Soviet Union and the final, effectively genocidal, invasion under Vladimir Putin. This vibrant and ultimately tragic chronicle is essential reading for anyone interested in the background to the current war in Ukraine.

Reviews

"A remarkable and revelatory work of phenomenal historical scholarship, written with great verve and aplomb. A classic of its kind."--William Boyd
"Rayfield has written a magisterial history of the Crimean Tatars, who in centuries past had a deep and unduly overlooked impact on war and peace in Poland, Austria, and Russia. Rayfield's book takes us right through to the Putin era, giving a vivid picture of a people who once terrified their neighbors and are now again threatened with extinction in their homeland."--Robert Service, emeritus professor of Russian history, St Antony's College, University of Oxford
"While many observers see the war in Ukraine as being between Russians and Ukrainians, there is a third nation involved in this conflict: the Muslim Crimean Tatars. Rayfield tells their story in an epic account of Europe's last Mongol khanate and its long wars with Russia that ultimately led to tsarist conquest and a Soviet-era genocide. The story of this small ethnic group's struggle to survive continues up to this very day as the Crimean Tatars seek to rebuild their shattered nation in a beloved Crimean homeland that has once again been invaded by their historic Russian foes."--Brian Glyn Williams, author of "The Crimean Tatars: From Soviet Genocide to Putin's Conquest" and "Inferno in Chechnya"

Author Bio

Donald Rayfield is Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary University of London. His books include Anton Chekhov: A Life (1997, 2021), and Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia (Reaktion Books, 2012), which was translated into Russian and Georgian.