ABSTRACT
Murat Giray (ref. Chap. I, p. 103, n. I) Murat Giray (Kireyev) was a son of Mehmet 11 Giray, Khan of the Crimea, 1577-88, to whom he was nur-ai-din (second heir apparent). He married a daughter of the Shevkal (see above, text, p. 1)6). Together with his brothers, Saadet and Safa, Murat fled from the Crimea after their defeat at the hands of their uncle Islam who had killed Mehmet and usurped the throne. Murat entered the Tsar's service and was allowed to settle in Astrakhan. In negotiations with the Austrian envoys, the Russians stated that Murat had helped to secure the allegiance of the N ogay and Tartar hordes between the Don and the V olga and beyond the V olga. It was claimed that he was preparing to march on the Crimea at the head of 200,000 Tartars and 30,000 Russians to expel the Sultan's man Islam and to become Khan with the Tsar's blessing. In fact Murat failed the Russians while his pretensions and his way of living irritated them. In I) 9 I he died at Astrakhan - of poison administered on the orders of either the Tsar or Islam Khan. (For Crimean affairs see the article 'Giray' by Barthold in El, 1st ed.; and fuller treatment by Halil Inalcik in lA; also idem, 'The origin of the Ottoman-Russian rivalry' in BTTK, Sayi 46. The long article 'Kirim' by Mirza Bala in lA should also be consulted; and Howorth, HM, Vol. II, pp. 2, )1), )21, 525, 527.)
See also von Hammer-Purgstall, GCK, pp. 58 ff. for the creation by Mehmet Giray, Murat's father, of the title nur-aldin, as 'zweiten Nachfolger' to the Iealga or heir to the throne.
