Qirim Giray

Qirim Giray (1717 – March 1769) was Khan of the Crimean Khanate in two reigns, 1758–1764 and 1768–1769, and one of the most influential rulers of the khanate's last century ¹. He was a son of Devlet II Giray ², born at Bakhchisarai ^{1 2}.

In his first reign (1758–1764) he gathered a large army at Căușeni and prepared to invade Poland after Tatar merchants were robbed; his forces raided and pillaged several important Polish strongholds, and Poland agreed to pay an indemnity, ending the conflict ¹. He then intended war against Stanisław August Poniatowski, the king Catherine II had placed on the Polish throne, but the Ottoman Empire halted him and he was deposed by his nephew Selim III Giray ¹.

Restored after the reign of Maqsud Giray, he reigned again in 1768–1769 ¹. With the Russo-Turkish war opening, he once again gathered an army at Căușeni — Tatars, Ottomans and Polish allies — and invaded the Russian-held territories of modern Ukraine ¹; the Turkish article records his successful raids into southern Russia in February 1769 ³. He died in March 1769, after which Russian armies entered Crimea ^{1 3}. He was buried in the Khan Palace cemetery at Bakhchisarai ³.

Qirim Giray is best remembered as a builder. He extended the Bakhchisaray Palace and patronised mosques throughout Crimea, and in 1764 he commissioned the fountain master Omer the Persian to construct the Bakhchisaray Fountain, the Fountain of Tears ¹. Tradition holds that the fountain embodies his grief for a young Polish wife of his harem, Maria Potoçka, whose early death made the battle-hardened khan weep; he commissioned the marble fountain so that the rock would weep, like him, forever ^{1 2}. Above the fountain a verse of Surah 76 of the Quran is inscribed in gold, naming the spring called Salsabil among the rewards of the righteous ¹.

No source read names a legal school or an order for Qirim Giray himself. He ruled a Muslim Tatar state under Ottoman suzerainty whose establishment was Hanafi; he patronised mosques across Crimea, and the fountain he commissioned carries a Quranic verse in gold ¹. The English and Turkish infoboxes file his religion as Islam ^{1 3}, and Wikidata carries a single structured value of Sunni Islam ². Documented Muslim patronage and an Islamic establishment are practice and context, not a naming of the man's school, so the museum records his faith as unknown.

Only his birth year, 1717, is attested, and the English article's own category files even that as unknown ¹; Wikidata gives it at year precision ². His death is given at month precision — March 1769 — by the English infobox and Wikidata, while the Turkish article gives the year alone ³. No article read names his place of death; Wikidata files the place only at the level of Crimea ². The romanisation of his name varies between Qırım Giray, Qirim Girai and Kırım Giray; the record's slug follows the English article's title.