«Крымский поход» Тимура в 1395 г.: историографический конфуз, или археология против историографической традиции
Timur’s Crimean Campaign in 1395: a Historiographic Confusion, or Archaeology against Historiographic Tradition

Author(s): Victor L. Mytz
Subject(s): History, Archaeology, Military history, Political history, Middle Ages, 13th to 14th Centuries
Published by: Издательский дом Stratum, Университет «Высшая антропологическая школа»
Keywords: Crimea; 1395; Timur; Edigu; Tokhtamysh; ‘Crimean Campaign’; Chersonese; Mangup; Solghat; Caff a; historiography
Summary/Abstract: The author analyzes a historiographic tradition related to the so called Timur’s “Crimean campaign” (or of his protégé Edigu) in 1395, during the war with Tokhtamysh. According to this tradition, this campaign led to devastation of a significant part of the Crimea, including its most important urban centers — Chersonese, Mangup, Solghat, Caffa. A detailed comparison of written accounts and archaeological materials, however, does not prove this view. Information about Timur’s campaign in Crimea originates from a biased Egyptian source. Most of the other contemporary accounts — Greek, Latin and Armenian — “ignore” this catastrophe. The archaeological research does not yield any reliable data to prove that any of the Crimean towns were ruined in late 14 th c. Overall, it can be substantially inferred that Timur’s western campaign in 1395 did not affect the Crimean territory.

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