Krymchaks - Tatar and Turkish Rule

Tatar and Turkish Rule

Under the Crimean Khanate the Jews were lived in separate quarters and paid the dhimmi-tax (the Jizya). A limited judicial autonomy was granted according to the Ottoman millet system. Overt, violent persecution was extremely rare.

During the Cossack-Polish wars of the mid-17th century, the Krymchaks were active in ransoming fellow Jews who had been taken captive in Poland and Ukraine by the Tatars.

Anthropologist S.Vaysenberg said: "The Origin of Krymchaks lost in the darkness of the ages. Only one thing can be said that the Turkic blood in them is less than Karaites, although certain kinship with the peoples of both the Khazars can hardly be denied. But Krymchaks during the Middle Ages and modern times is constantly mixed up with their European counterparts. For the Italian-Jewish admixture of blood from the time of the Genoese family said Lombroso, Pyastro and others. Cases of confusion with the Russian Jews in recent times ".

Unfortunately, there is no general works on the ethnography of Krymchaks. The available summary of folklore materials are not complete. Several extensive data anthroponimics, although they reflect the situation in the late XIX - early XX century, without affecting the earlier period, according to which there is archival material. The study of each of these groups of sources can shed light on the ethnogenesis of ethnic minorities Krymchaks.