Bakhchisaray

The houses have no windows, but the entire front wall consists only of wooden flaps, which can be let down or drawn up at pleasure, and which sometimes serve as tables or boards for goods. In one house you may see a baker at work … In the next you may overlook all the manipulations required in the preparation of the Turkish beverage entitled “boussa,”

by the Tartar law the criminal must perish by the hand of the injured person, or by his heirs. It was objected then, but in vain, that a Turk could not be delivered up to the Jews. “I would deliver up my brother to them,” replied the Kam, “if he was guilty; I leave Providence to reward his conversion, if it be sincere; it is my duty to do justice.”

The Tartarians insist upon it that the sea once lay at the foot of them … and ships were fastened to them

According to the Tatar historians, the first conqueror of Crimea settled at the Eski Salachik yurt; Tatars came to Crimea from the cities of Mahan, Ahlat, Kerman and Yesu and from the lands of Kazan, Astrakhan and Sarai, and as they multiplied they no longer fitted into the old yurt, and settled at this Bahcesaray site.

Working translation

The most interesting object is the palace of the Khans, which stands in a large area … We entered the court-yard, which brought into our view the palace, the mosque, and the tombs … In the entrance we passed a marble fountain, and ascended a spacious staircase, which brought us to a large room, called the golden chamber, the ceiling of which, divided into compartments, and studded with gilded stars

He has a not undistinguished town, and a principal stone house in which he always lives, called Bakhchisaray. ... A stone Muslim temple and the tombs of the khans have been built near the town out of the ruins of the Christians. ... The palace or house of the khans was sumptuously and magnificently adorned by the early princes of the Tartars with buildings, temples, tombs and baths.

Working translation

Sahib Giray, just as he had a mosque and a bathhouse built beside the khan's palace in Bakhchysarai, also built about a hundred mosques in other quarters, and so succeeded in having his name remembered with blessing in the world.

Working translation

Only figure to yourself, my good friend, in a deep valley, bounded by a huge chain of pendant rocks, an assemblage of Tartar houses of uncouth forms, stuck as it were against the sides of the mountains, and placed in circles one above another, round the palace of their Chan (situated at the bottom of the valley), so as to represent a large amphitheatre, or rather funnel

Through the very middle of the city runs the Salachik stream … and over this Churuk Su, inside the city, one crosses from one side to the other at forty-three places by stone and timber bridges; and to right and left of the city, storey upon storey, lower and upper, all are masonry buildings roofed from end to end with ruby-red tiles.

Working translation

" How," said they, " can any one apply the name of palace to that assemblage of wooden houses, daubed with coarse paintings, and furnished only with divans and carpets?" And these people were right in their way.

I drew the plan, I collected the materials, and superintended the work, without departing from the method of building pursued by the Tartars… I shall take this opportunity of describing the structure of the houses in Crimea; but these details, or the architecture of the Tartars, will be of more service to the lovers of oeconomy, than to disciples of Vitruvius.

In the burial-place of the Khans I found many memorials strikingly at variance with our notions of these barbarians; so many traces of humanity and piety, that I felt more strongly than ever, how imperfect are the records of history.

This town, at present considered as the capital of the Crimea, was formerly nothing but a country house, called the Palace of the Gardens. The sovereigns by living there have drawn together a number of inhabitants; and this town… has successively usurped the pre-eminence over the ancient town of Crimea, which is now no more than a paltry village, where the tombs alone testify its ancient importance.

And in Bakhchysarai the tsar's chambers, kitchens and stables are of stone, and it stands low beneath a hill; and about 2 versts beyond the tsar's court is a church of the Most Pure Mother of God in the salt flats, and Greeks serve in it. And the court on the river Alma has one stone chamber, and wooden houses daubed with clay, and it stands on the bank in a vineyard.

Working translation

Near the handsome mosque in the court of Batcheferai palace, mentioned in my last, we perceived a couple of pretty rotundos, in which repose the ashes of a long line of Chans; but what most attracted our eyes… was a pretty little mausoleum, dedicated “To Conjugal Fidelity and Attachment,” erected by one of the Crimean Chans on losing a beloved christian wife, probably a fair captive

The King has five palaces, and the Sultan two; one in the town where he resides … Each of these palaces is about a mile round and is surrounded by a high wall, but not a strong one; the gates are of iron, and the apartments they enclose are gilded and painted inside in fine colours.

Working translation

The Khan's palace is an irregular building, the greatest part of it is one floor raised upon pillars of wood painted and gilt in a fanciful and lively manner

There are two large octagons, with domes, of about thirty feet diameter, which contain the bodies and monuments of many Khans. In the first are ten or twelve wooden coffins, covered with black cloth, and having at the top the turbans of the deceased.

The principal street, which is about a verst and a half in length, contains, almost the whole way along, two rows of miserable wooden shops. As the empress Catherine gave up this town to the Tartars, it contains no Russian burgesses, but is inhabited entirely by Tartars and Jews… Bachtchisarai contains thirty-one mosques, and seventy-five fountains.

It is a most grotesque pile : the walls are gaudily painted, and above the roofs rise minarets and numerous tall sharp-pointed chimnies. The buildings of the palace inclose an oblong court, in which is a marble fountain, erected to the memory of the Christian wife of a khan ; on the left of the gateway is a mosque

The Palace he inhabits, formerly built entirely in the Chinese, but repaired in the Turkish fashion, still retains some of the beauties of its former stile of construction. It is placed at one of the extremities of the town, and is surrounded by very high rocks, from whence flows an abundance of streams, which are conveyed into the kiosks and gardens in a most delightful manner.

Baktshiserai has been declared their exclusive possession, and, with the exception of official personages, no other than a Tartar is allowed to reside in it. The government has also had the good taste to bestow much pains on the preservation of the palace of the ancient Khans, once the dreaded enemies of Muscovy.

There are five thousand Tartar inhabitants here; I do not believe there was a man left in his house, the streets being lined with Tartarian men on each side; their countenances were very singular, most of them kept their eyes fixed on the ground, as we passed

without a roof, because “he considered the Heavens so beautiful and sublime, that even from his grave he would wish to look towards the firmament, the abode of God.” Another had had his tomb entirely walled up, because, as the inscription ran, “he did not feel himself worthy to be shone on by the least ray of God's sun.”

First: because this heart-delighting palace has gardens like Iram on all four sides, it is a garden palace (bagche saray). On all four sides it is a most private palace with walls of masonry cut stone, square like a fortress, like the palace of Shaddad; but around this palace there are no battlements or ramparts … It has strong, solid iron gates in four places in all.

Working translation

The residence of the Crimean khans was formerly at Bakhchysarai, in which town they had their seat for over 200 years. It was moved there from Eski-Krim (Old Crimea), the capital of the Genoese, soon after Mengli Giray Khan had conquered all the sea ports and driven the Genoese out of their possessions.

Working translation

The apartments and galleries above-stairs, are decorated totally after the Turkish manner, with carpets and divans, or low sofas, oriental landscapes, clumsy paintings on the walls, artificial flowers, chimney-pieces, and stained glass windows. The alterations we noticed in some of these apartments, were made for the reception of the Empress in 1787,

Bachtcheserai is said to have contained, in 1803, thirty-one mosques, and seventy-five fountains: except Dr. Clarke, no late travellers have noticed the fine fountains which are still preserved here, though those of almost every other town have been destroyed.

There are thirty-one metshets in this town, most of which are well built of free-stone, and surrounded with lofty towers of elegant workmanship; … twenty-three, in which large and small Tartar knives, of great celebrity on account of their superior temper, together with other cutlery, are manufactured in great perfection;

This is one of the few towns in the Crimea inhabited solely by Tartars, who still cling with affection and reverence to the ancient capital of their race … a few employ themselves in the manufacture of leather cushions, slippers, whips, saddles, &c., fur caps of the black lamb-skin, and cloaks called bourkas.

Russians are defeated before Anapa, and you'll see that we will be masters of the Crimea again. I have cast an eye at the Karaémee's house and garden; his tribe, as well as the Muscovites, will ere long not possess a foot of the country." On this the Tartar was taken up, and he confessed that there was a plot on foot to rise against the Russians

I saw from the windows a kind of dome which raised my curiosity, and I am told it is a monument built to the memory of a Christian wife, which the Khan loved so tenderly that he was inconsolable for her loss

The word “Baktsha,” signifies in the Tartar language “garden” and the name of Baktshiserai would, therefore, signify “seraglio of gardens.” This city was for centuries the capital of the remarkable state which formed the last fragment of the great Mongolian empire in Europe

the concert was in honour of a Tartar bride, whose equipage, drawn by two ponies, was surrounded by curtains and torch-bearers, lighting her to the hymeneal couch, in a manner truly classical … The mausoleum of the Khans is a wretched edifice after that of the Sultans at Constantinople

a person called him cream of Tartar … which I fearing he should be told of, turned into the cream of the Tartars

The history of Bakhchysarai begins in the year 1501. Before the Tatars entered Crimea, there were Greeks (Rum) there. In the war with the Russians in (1786), about a quarter of Bakhchysarai burned. The first palace of the Crimean khans is at Salacik.

Working translation

The most remarkable of them is in the high, solitary hill of Tepe-Kermen, five versts from Bakhchysarai. … In the caves various human bones are found, from which some writers have claimed that they served only for burial; but the openings for the entrance, for letting in light, and the various water channels there prove that they were really inhabited.

Working translation

They first snorted with great fury, then bellowed as furiously; the bellow consisting of three notes, like that of a calf, or a bull. Each time they bent forward with a violent motion. The rite altogether is absolutely terrific, and must be most fatiguing.

The palace, which, as said before, rises in the middle of this curious Tauric city, to add greatly to the singularity and romantic appearance of the scene, is a curious species of painted Chinese structure, well suited to such a group of oddities.

a burial ground attached, contained the remains of a long line of khans : on entering the former it was rather startling to see black sarcophagi on the floor, with white turbans at the head. In the open air the tombs were adorned with carved and turbaned headstones of marble, which, with the accompanying cypress, give such effect to Moslem cemeteries.

Bagtche Serai has completely retained its national character in consequence of an ukase of Catherine II., empowering the Tatars to retain exclusive possession of their own capital. You would fancy yourself in the heart of the East, in walking through the narrow streets of the town, the mosques, shops, and cemeteries of which so much resemble those of the old quarters of Constantinople.