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3 months ago
2
2023
This article, by focusing on Crimean slavery, aims to enhance our understanding of the social and economic nature of slavery that underwent a remarkable change between the conquest of Caffa (1475) and the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699), both of which marked a turning point in the history of slavery in Crimea. With the conquest of Caffa by the Ottoman Empire, the Crimean Peninsula turned into a ‘slaving hub’ in Pontic-Danube steppe land for nearly 200 years. In this period, slaves became a basic commodity employed by a wide range of people in Crimea from different backgrounds from urbanites to peasants and from those who were wealthy to those who were penniless. By contrast in the aftermath of Caffa, however, the Treaty of Karlowitz caused a rapid depletion of slaves and consequently a sharp decline in revenues that Crimean Tatars derived from slavery which was accompanied by high inflation in slave prices and therefore a huge labour shortage. Using a micro-global perspective, this article examines these two political occurrences, which are described as a ‘turning point’ and ‘beginning of the transformation’ in Crimean society and explores the nexus between the political contexts and the changes in economic and social life.
Th e article examines the history of the trade in Polish slaves and captives in the Tatar and Ottoman Crimea in the seventeenth century on the basis of hitherto unknown archival evidence and rare printed sources. Aft er the capture an average Polish slave of simple origin was transported to the Crimea, where he had been sold on the local slave markets. Unless he had some special qualifi cations, a slave usually had to fulfi l agricultural duties and do heavy manual work. Th e slaves usually had some limited free time and could attend Catholic services in the churches of the Crimea's large urban centres. Rich Polish captives were treated in accordance with their high social status and were ransomed for a considerable redemption fee. Important role in ransoming such rich captives was played by Jewish, Tatar and Armenian merchants.
Slavery and Slave Prices in the Crimean Khanate (According to Religious Court Records)
2019
Before the Crimean Khanate was established, the world-famous slave markets of the Latin Kingdoms, the Byzantine Empire and the Russians had long been on the Black Sea coast and north of the Black Sea. In other words, when the Crimean Khanate became an important state in the mentioned geography, it found the slave markets and the economic benefits that they created. The high return of the slave trade has become increasingly attractive. In particular, the hardship of the Ottoman Empire in the procurement of slaves by the end of the raiding activities encouraged the Crimean Tatars. In the following period, they became one of the important actors of the slave market. It is seen that in the tereke records in the Crimean Khanate Sharia Records and some records of huccet are frequently mentioned from slaves and concubines. The need and use of slave labor, the commercial relations created by the exchange as a commercial commodity, and the record of the disputes and the ways and methods of e...
Review: Felicia Roșu (ed.), Slavery in the Black Sea Region
Revue des études sud-est européennes, 2022
In Chapters 12 and 13, "The Principality of Antioch" (p. 84-86) and "Interregnum (1187-1250)" (p. 87-93), the reader learns how the Byzantines failed to recover Antioch from the Crusaders by negotiating. The Crusaders accepted that the Patriarch of Antioch would be an Orthodox, provided that he would accept the union with Rome later, as it had happened in the Kingdom of Armenia-Cilicia. While in Jerusalem the Orthodox recovered their churches after the expulsion of the Crusaders by the Ayyubids, the Patriarchate of Jerusalem did not. In chapters 14, 15 and 16, "Mongols and Mamluks" (p. 94-100), "The Century of Persecution" (p. 101-111), and "The Second Crisis of the Christian East" (p. 112-117), the author discusses how Christians were divided in the Mongol-Mamluk war: the Melkites preferred the Mongols, to get rid of the Mamluks and the Crusaders in the East, while the Western Christians preferred the Mamluks, to maintain their trade with Egypt. At the end of this war, the Mamluks were victorious and they took revenge on the local population for their cooperation with the Mongols, and in particular on Christians, who were becoming a minority in their country. Chapter 17, "Middle Eastern Monasticism of the Mamluk Period" (p. 118-123), describes the situation of the monasteries that withstood all the difficult circumstances, especially with the help of the special relations between the Georgian kings and the Mamluks. In chapter 18, "The Melkites and Byzantium" (p. 124-137), Panchenko focuses on the Byzantine-rite Christians of the Middle East, the Melkites, who were not only Greeks, but also Greekspeaking Arabs, and were mediators in the relations between the Mamluks and the Orthodox Christians of the Byzantine Empire and Bulgaria. In chapter 19, "The Shadow of the West" (p. 138-142), the author argues that, seeing an opportunity in the difficult circumstances experienced by the Eastern Christians, Western clerics and politicians offered them financial and political support, to attract them to a union with Rome. The choices made by various patriarchs, and their outcomes, are discussed here. The "Epilogue" (p. 143-147) recalls some of the salient features of the period, while the closing "Timeline" helps the readers to encompass the chronology of the events considered in this book. Constantin Panchenko has given an account of some of the contradictions and changes that occurred among the Orthodox of the Middle East over a period of nine centuries, 7 th-15 th , and highlighted the most important events that took place during that period and their impact on the Byzantine-rite Christians. The author reviewed a wealth of manuscripts and documents to explain the events in the life of the Middle-Eastern Orthodox communities during the Ottoman rule. The reader owes him a great debt for being thus allowed to know numerous Russian sources which become accessible to an English-speaking audience. The English translation achieved by Brittany Pfeiffer Noble and Samuel Noble is enjoyable and allows a wide Western audience to get acquainted with the major features of the Arab Christians' life under Ottoman rule.
Golden Horde Review, 2019
Objective: Maritime issues tied to the Mongol Empire cover not only Southeast Asia, but also the Black Sea region and the Byzantine Empire's borders, reaching as far as the Mediterranean Sea. The Black Sea commercial activity attracted the Mongols especially as it relates to a slave trade that subsequently changed the political balance in the Middle and Near East. Materials: In this paper, I aimed to address the relevant region and the slave trade that involved many regional political powers. The primary sources and archival documents of various types reveal that the multiparty relations between the Mongols of the Golden Horde, Byzantium, and Egypt involved the captives that were taken from the Black Sea region and enslaved in the Mediterranean. Results and novelty of research: Unlike the slaves of the late medieval period, the teenage boys sold to Cairo in the 13 th-14 th century became military experts who achieved a high level of political power in the Near East. This action characterizes not only the dynamism of the region, but also drove the phenomenon that led to the formation of a new statehood in then hands of the slaves known as the Mamluks. In fact, the replacement of a Mongol nomad element by a Qipchaq nomad element in the Middle and Near East was a phenomenon that brought about not only a shift in the hegemony, but also demographic and economic growth in the region.
