Crimean Goths
Encyclopedia
Crimean Goths were those Gothic
tribes who remained in the lands around the Black Sea
, especially in Crimea
. They were the least-powerful, least-known, and almost paradoxically, the longest-lasting of the Gothic communities. Their existence is well attested through the ages though the exact period when they ceased to exist as a distinct culture is unknown; as with the Goths in general, they may have been diffused with the surrounding peoples. In the Fourth Turkish letter by Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq
, they are described as "a warlike people, who to this day inhabit many villages" though in the 5th century, Theodoric the Great
failed to rouse Crimean Goths to support his war in Italy
. At the time, it was customary to refer to a wide range of Germanic tribes as "Goths", so the exact ethnic origin of the Germanic peoples in the Crimea is a subject of debate.
Aside from textual reports of the existence of the Goths in Crimea, both first and second hand, from as early as 850, numerous archaeological examples also exist, including the ruins of the former capital city of the Crimean Goths: Doros, or Mangup
as it is now known. On top of this, there are numerous articles of jewelry, weaponry, shields, buttons, pins, and small personal artifacts on display in museums in the Crimea and in the British Museum
which have led to a better understanding of the Gothic Kingdom.
of the Crimean Goths, he claims to not be able to determine whether the Germanic peoples of Crimea were Goths or Saxons, certainly the language cannot be directly linked to well attested Biblical Gothic language
. Though most scholars agree the peoples must have been of Gothic origin Though some others have maintained that the so called "Crimean Goths" were in fact West or even North Germanic tribes who settled in the Crimea, culturally and linguistically influenced by the Ostrogoths
Non Gothic Germanic
remains have been found on the black sea from as early the 5th century. The Ostrogoths only migrated to the Crimea as early as the sixth century, meaning other Germanic groups, possibly Flemish or Saxons had inhabited the area before the Goths.
, following Jordanes
, the Ostrogoths had a huge kingdom north of the Black Sea in the 4th century, which the Huns
overwhelmed in the time of the Gothic king Ermanaric
(or Hermanric; i.e. "king of noblemen") when the Huns migrated to the Russian steppe. The Ostrogoths became vassal
s of the Huns until the death of Attila, when they revolted and regained independence. Like the Huns, the Goths in the Crimea never regained their lost glory.
According to Peter Heather
and Michael Kulikowski
, the Ostrogoths did not even exist until the 5th century, having emerged from other Gothic and non-Gothic groups. Other Gothic groups may have settled in the Crimea. It has also been speculated that the Crimean Goths were in fact Saxons escaping Christian persecution from the west, or North Germanic tribes who migrated southwards. Either way, the existence of Goths in the Crimea is first testified from around the 3rd Century, following that they were well reported.
During the late fifth and early 6th century, the Crimean Goths had to fight off hordes of Huns who were migrating back eastward after losing control of their European empire. In the 5th century, Theodoric the Great
tried to recruit Crimean Goths for his campaigns in Italy
, but few showed interest in joining him.
out of parts of the Byzantine thema of Klimata which were not occupied by the Genoese
. Its population was a mixture of Greeks
, Crimean Goths, Alans
, Bulgars
, Kypchaks and other nations, which confessed Orthodox Christianity
. The principality's official language was Greek
. The territory was initially under the control of Trebizond
, and possibly part of its Crimean possessions, the Perateia
. Theodore II Gabras, a scion
of the noble Gabras
family (also called Chowra in Turkish
) was appointed as the governor.
Many Crimean Goths were Greek speakers and many non-Gothic Byzantine citizens were settled in the region called "Gothia" by the government in Constantinople
. A Gothic principality around the stronghold of Doros
(modern Mangup), the Principality of Theodoro
, continued to exist through various periods of vassalage to the Byzantines
, Khazars
, Kipchaks
, Mongols
, Genoese
and other empires until 1475, when it was finally incorporated by the Khanate of Crimea and the Ottoman Empire
.
The Gabras family soon refortified Doros, and named the new citadel St. Theodore , after its patron saint. This became the administrative center of the new principality, from which it took its name. The principality had peaceful relations with the Golden Horde
to its north, paying an annual tribute as vassals, but was in constant strife with the Genoese
colonies to the south over access to the coasts and the trade that went through the Crimean harbours. A narrow strip of the coastal land from Yamboli (Balaklava
) in the west to Aluston (Alushta
) in the east initially part of the principality soon fell under Genoese control. Local Greeks called this region Parathalassia ( - sea shore), while under Genoese rule it was known as Captainship of Gothia. After they had lost harbours on the southern coast Theodorites built a new port called Avlita at the mouth of the Chernaya River
and fortified it with the fortress of Kalamita (modern Inkerman
).
On 6 June 1475, the Ottoman commander Gedik Ahmet Pasha conquered Caffa and at the end of the year, after six months of besieging Mangup, the city fell to the assailants. While much of the rest of Crimea remained part of the Crimean Khanate
, now an Ottoman vassal, the former lands of Theodoro and southern Crimea was administered directly by the Sublime Porte.
Several inscriptions from the early 9th century found in the area use the word "Goth" only as a personal name, not ethnonym. Meanwhile, some legends about a Gothic state in Crimea existed in Europe throughout the Middle Ages
. In the 16th century, Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq
reported having had a conversation with two Goths in Constantinople
. He also left the Gothic-Latin dictionary with about a hundred Germanic words that share some traits in common with ancient Gothic language.
Following the report by Busbecq, numerous European travelers went to visit the Crimea, Torquatus visited the Crimea in the mid- to late 1500s in which he reported the existence of Goths who spoke their own language, but used Greek, Tartar and Hungarian in dealing with outsiders.
In 1690, Kampfer states:
While initially Arian
Christians like other Gothic peoples, the Crimean Goths had fully integrated with the Trinitarian
Roman Church by the 500's. Following the split of the Church, these peoples would remain loyal to Constantinople
as part of the Eastern Orthodox Church
. In the 8th century John of Gothia
, an Orthodox bishop, led an unsuccessful revolt against Khazar overlordship.
Language
The language of the Crimean Goths is poorly attested with only 101 certain independent forms surviving, few of which are phrases, and a three line song, which has never been conclusively translated. Possible loan words are still used in Crimean Tartar
though this to remains highly speculative.
Despite no further records of the languages' existence since the late 18th century, communities of Germanic peoples with distinctly separate customs and physical features have been recorded living in the Crimea, leading some to believe that the Gothic language may have survived as a "haussprache" (home language) until as late as 1945.
According to the Soviet Ethnologist V.E. Vozgrin the Goths interbred with the Crimean Tartars and converted to Islam. In "The Crimean Tatars: the diaspora experience and the forging of a nation" By Brian Glyn Williams they quote Vozgrin as saying; 'In all probability their descendents are the tartars of a series of villages in the Crimea, who are sharply delineated from the inhabitants of neighboring villages by their tall height and other features characteristic of Scandinavians.
It is clear that the Goths had begun to speak Tartar
and Crimean Greek from long before the arrival of Busbeque thus they may well have integrated into the wider population, as later visitors to Mangup were unable to discover "any trace" of Gothic peoples.
that the Crimean Goths had survived long enough to interbreed with later German settlers in Crimea, and that the German communities in Crimea constituted native peoples of that area. He had intended to re-settle German people to Crimea, and rename numerous towns with their previous Crimean Gothic names. During the Nazi occupation of Crimea, Sevastopol was changed to Theoderichshafen There was talk among Nazi official of building a superhighway between Berlin and the Crimea, turning Crimea into the German Gibraltar.
Of the 2 million inhabitants of the now Ukrainian Crimea, around 3,000 are of German ancestry.
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
tribes who remained in the lands around the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
, especially in Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
. They were the least-powerful, least-known, and almost paradoxically, the longest-lasting of the Gothic communities. Their existence is well attested through the ages though the exact period when they ceased to exist as a distinct culture is unknown; as with the Goths in general, they may have been diffused with the surrounding peoples. In the Fourth Turkish letter by Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq
Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq
Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq was a 16th century Flemish writer, herbalist and diplomat in the employ of three generations of Austrian monarchs...
, they are described as "a warlike people, who to this day inhabit many villages" though in the 5th century, Theodoric the Great
Theodoric the Great
Theodoric the Great was king of the Ostrogoths , ruler of Italy , regent of the Visigoths , and a viceroy of the Eastern Roman Empire...
failed to rouse Crimean Goths to support his war in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. At the time, it was customary to refer to a wide range of Germanic tribes as "Goths", so the exact ethnic origin of the Germanic peoples in the Crimea is a subject of debate.
Aside from textual reports of the existence of the Goths in Crimea, both first and second hand, from as early as 850, numerous archaeological examples also exist, including the ruins of the former capital city of the Crimean Goths: Doros, or Mangup
Mangup
Mangup also known as Mangup Kale is a historic fortress in Crimea, located on a plateau about 9 miles due east of Sevastopol . In medieval times it was known as Doros, later it was given the Kipchak name Mangup .- History :The settlement dates back to the 3rd century CE and was fortified by...
as it is now known. On top of this, there are numerous articles of jewelry, weaponry, shields, buttons, pins, and small personal artifacts on display in museums in the Crimea and in the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
which have led to a better understanding of the Gothic Kingdom.
Definition
In the report made by Ogier Ghiselin de BusbecqOgier Ghiselin de Busbecq
Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq was a 16th century Flemish writer, herbalist and diplomat in the employ of three generations of Austrian monarchs...
of the Crimean Goths, he claims to not be able to determine whether the Germanic peoples of Crimea were Goths or Saxons, certainly the language cannot be directly linked to well attested Biblical Gothic language
Gothic language
Gothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...
. Though most scholars agree the peoples must have been of Gothic origin Though some others have maintained that the so called "Crimean Goths" were in fact West or even North Germanic tribes who settled in the Crimea, culturally and linguistically influenced by the Ostrogoths
Non Gothic Germanic
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
remains have been found on the black sea from as early the 5th century. The Ostrogoths only migrated to the Crimea as early as the sixth century, meaning other Germanic groups, possibly Flemish or Saxons had inhabited the area before the Goths.
Early
According to Herwig WolframHerwig Wolfram
Herwig Wolfram is an Austrian historian. Professor emeritus at the University of Vienna, from 1983 until 2002 he was Director of the Austrian Institute for Historical Research ....
, following Jordanes
Jordanes
Jordanes, also written Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th century Roman bureaucrat, who turned his hand to history later in life....
, the Ostrogoths had a huge kingdom north of the Black Sea in the 4th century, which the Huns
Huns
The Huns were a group of nomadic people who, appearing from east of the Volga River, migrated into Europe c. AD 370 and established the vast Hunnic Empire there. Since de Guignes linked them with the Xiongnu, who had been northern neighbours of China 300 years prior to the emergence of the Huns,...
overwhelmed in the time of the Gothic king Ermanaric
Ermanaric
Ermanaric was a Greuthungian Gothic King who before the Hunnic invasion evidently ruled an enormous area north of the Black Sea. Contemporary historian Ammianus Marcellinus recounts him as a "most warlike man" who "ruled over extensively wide and fertile regions"...
(or Hermanric; i.e. "king of noblemen") when the Huns migrated to the Russian steppe. The Ostrogoths became vassal
Vassal
A vassal or feudatory is a person who has entered into a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. The obligations often included military support and mutual protection, in exchange for certain privileges, usually including the grant of land held...
s of the Huns until the death of Attila, when they revolted and regained independence. Like the Huns, the Goths in the Crimea never regained their lost glory.
According to Peter Heather
Peter Heather
Peter Heather is a historian of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, currently Professor of Medieval History at King's College London. He has held appointments at University College London and Yale University and was Fellow and Tutor in Medieval History at Worcester College, Oxford until...
and Michael Kulikowski
Michael Kulikowski
Michael Kulikowski is an American historian, tenured at the University of Tennessee, who is a specialist in the history of the western Mediterranean world of Late Antiquity...
, the Ostrogoths did not even exist until the 5th century, having emerged from other Gothic and non-Gothic groups. Other Gothic groups may have settled in the Crimea. It has also been speculated that the Crimean Goths were in fact Saxons escaping Christian persecution from the west, or North Germanic tribes who migrated southwards. Either way, the existence of Goths in the Crimea is first testified from around the 3rd Century, following that they were well reported.
During the late fifth and early 6th century, the Crimean Goths had to fight off hordes of Huns who were migrating back eastward after losing control of their European empire. In the 5th century, Theodoric the Great
Theodoric the Great
Theodoric the Great was king of the Ostrogoths , ruler of Italy , regent of the Visigoths , and a viceroy of the Eastern Roman Empire...
tried to recruit Crimean Goths for his campaigns in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, but few showed interest in joining him.
Byzantium
The Principality of Gothia or Theodoro formed after the Fourth CrusadeFourth Crusade
The Fourth Crusade was originally intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, in April 1204, the Crusaders of Western Europe invaded and conquered the Christian city of Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire...
out of parts of the Byzantine thema of Klimata which were not occupied by the Genoese
Republic of Genoa
The Most Serene Republic of Genoa |Ligurian]]: Repúbrica de Zêna) was an independent state from 1005 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast, as well as Corsica from 1347 to 1768, and numerous other territories throughout the Mediterranean....
. Its population was a mixture of Greeks
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
, Crimean Goths, Alans
Alans
The Alans, or the Alani, occasionally termed Alauni or Halani, were a group of Sarmatian tribes, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.-Name:The various forms of Alan —...
, Bulgars
Bulgars
The Bulgars were a semi-nomadic who flourished in the Pontic Steppe and the Volga basin in the 7th century.The Bulgars emerge after the collapse of the Hunnic Empire in the 5th century....
, Kypchaks and other nations, which confessed Orthodox Christianity
Orthodox Christianity
The term Orthodox Christianity may refer to:* the Eastern Orthodox Church and its various geographical subdivisions...
. The principality's official language was Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
. The territory was initially under the control of Trebizond
Empire of Trebizond
The Empire of Trebizond, founded in April 1204, was one of three Byzantine successor states of the Byzantine Empire. However, the creation of the Empire of Trebizond was not directly related to the capture of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade, rather it had broken away from the Byzantine Empire...
, and possibly part of its Crimean possessions, the Perateia
Perateia
Perateia was the overseas territory of the Empire of Trebizond, comprising the Crimean cities of Cherson, Kerch and their hinterlands. The territory was probably administered during Byzantine rule from Trebizond before the Comneni established a separate empire a few weeks before the Crusader sack...
. Theodore II Gabras, a scion
Kinship
Kinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through either biological, cultural, or historical descent. And descent groups, lineages, etc. are treated in their own subsections....
of the noble Gabras
Gabras
Gabras , feminine form Gabraina , is the surname of an important Byzantine aristocratic family, which became especially prominent in the late 11th and early 12th centuries as the semi-independent and quasi-hereditary rulers of Chaldia....
family (also called Chowra in Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
) was appointed as the governor.
Many Crimean Goths were Greek speakers and many non-Gothic Byzantine citizens were settled in the region called "Gothia" by the government in Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
. A Gothic principality around the stronghold of Doros
Doros
Doros can refer to*Doros, Cyprus, a village in Limassol District*Doros, the medieval name for Mangup, Ukraine*Doros , a genus of the fly in family hoverfly...
(modern Mangup), the Principality of Theodoro
Principality of Theodoro
The Principality of Theodoro , also known as Gothia , was a small principality in the south-west of Crimea from the 13th through 15th centuries. Its capital was Doros, which was also sometimes called Theodoro and is now known as Mangup...
, continued to exist through various periods of vassalage to the Byzantines
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
, Khazars
Khazars
The Khazars were semi-nomadic Turkic people who established one of the largest polities of medieval Eurasia, with the capital of Atil and territory comprising much of modern-day European Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the northern Caucasus , parts of...
, Kipchaks
Kipchaks
Kipchaks were a Turkic tribal confederation...
, Mongols
Mongols
Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...
, Genoese
Republic of Genoa
The Most Serene Republic of Genoa |Ligurian]]: Repúbrica de Zêna) was an independent state from 1005 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast, as well as Corsica from 1347 to 1768, and numerous other territories throughout the Mediterranean....
and other empires until 1475, when it was finally incorporated by the Khanate of Crimea and the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
.
The Gabras family soon refortified Doros, and named the new citadel St. Theodore , after its patron saint. This became the administrative center of the new principality, from which it took its name. The principality had peaceful relations with the Golden Horde
Golden Horde
The Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that formed the north-western sector of the Mongol Empire...
to its north, paying an annual tribute as vassals, but was in constant strife with the Genoese
Republic of Genoa
The Most Serene Republic of Genoa |Ligurian]]: Repúbrica de Zêna) was an independent state from 1005 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast, as well as Corsica from 1347 to 1768, and numerous other territories throughout the Mediterranean....
colonies to the south over access to the coasts and the trade that went through the Crimean harbours. A narrow strip of the coastal land from Yamboli (Balaklava
Balaklava
Balaklava is a former city on the Crimean peninsula and part of the city of Sevastopol which carries a special administrative status in Ukraine. It was a city in its own right until 1957 when it was formally incorporated into the municipal borders of Sevastopol by the Soviet government...
) in the west to Aluston (Alushta
Alushta
Alushta is a resort town in Crimea, Ukraine, founded in the 6th century by Emperor Justinian. It is situated on the Black Sea on the road from Gurzuf to Sudak, as well as on the Crimean Trolleybus line....
) in the east initially part of the principality soon fell under Genoese control. Local Greeks called this region Parathalassia ( - sea shore), while under Genoese rule it was known as Captainship of Gothia. After they had lost harbours on the southern coast Theodorites built a new port called Avlita at the mouth of the Chernaya River
Chernaya River (Ukraine)
The Chorna, Chornaya or Chorhun River , which translates from the Ukrainian and Russian as "Black River", is a small river in Crimea, Ukraine. Its length is 34,5 km....
and fortified it with the fortress of Kalamita (modern Inkerman
Inkerman
Inkerman is a town in Crimea, Ukraine. It is situated 5 kilometres east of Sevastopol, at the mouth of the Chernaya River that flows into Sevastopol Inlet . Administratively, Inkerman is subordinate to the municipality of Sevastopol which does not constitute part of the Autonomous Republic of...
).
On 6 June 1475, the Ottoman commander Gedik Ahmet Pasha conquered Caffa and at the end of the year, after six months of besieging Mangup, the city fell to the assailants. While much of the rest of Crimea remained part of the Crimean Khanate
Crimean Khanate
Crimean Khanate, or Khanate of Crimea , was a state ruled by Crimean Tatars from 1441 to 1783. Its native name was . Its khans were the patrilineal descendants of Toqa Temür, the thirteenth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan...
, now an Ottoman vassal, the former lands of Theodoro and southern Crimea was administered directly by the Sublime Porte.
16th–19th century
By the 16th century, the existence of Goths in the Crimea had become well known to European Scholars. Many travelers visited the Crimea and wrote about the Goths. One romantic report appears in Joachimus Cureus' Gentis Silesiae Annales in which he claims that during a voyage in the Black Sea, his ship was forced ashore by storms. There, to his surprise, he found a man singing a song in which he used "German words" When he asked him where he was from, he answered "that his home was nearby and that his people were goths".Several inscriptions from the early 9th century found in the area use the word "Goth" only as a personal name, not ethnonym. Meanwhile, some legends about a Gothic state in Crimea existed in Europe throughout the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. In the 16th century, Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq
Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq
Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq was a 16th century Flemish writer, herbalist and diplomat in the employ of three generations of Austrian monarchs...
reported having had a conversation with two Goths in Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
. He also left the Gothic-Latin dictionary with about a hundred Germanic words that share some traits in common with ancient Gothic language.
Following the report by Busbecq, numerous European travelers went to visit the Crimea, Torquatus visited the Crimea in the mid- to late 1500s in which he reported the existence of Goths who spoke their own language, but used Greek, Tartar and Hungarian in dealing with outsiders.
In 1690, Kampfer states:
The language spoke in the Peninsula Crimea, or Taurica Chersonesus, in Asia, still retains many German words, brought thither, as is suppos'd by a colony of Goths, who went to settle there about 850 years after the Deluge. The late Mr.Busbeq, who had been Imperial Ambassador at the Ottoman Port, collected and publish'd a great number of these words in his fourth letter; and in my own travels through that Country I took notice of many more
Religion
The first report of the Crimean Goths appears in the Vita of Saint Cyril, Apostle to the Slavs (Constantine the Philosopher) who went to Crimea to preach the gospel to the Khazars [c. 850]. He lists "Goths" as people who read and praised the Christian God "in their own language". In 1606 Joseph-Juste Scaliger claimed that the Goths of Crimea read both the Old and New Testaments "in the letters of Wulfia's alphabet". These are the only two reports which refer to the existence of a written form of Crimean Gothic, but also confirm their Christian faith.While initially Arian
Arianism
Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...
Christians like other Gothic peoples, the Crimean Goths had fully integrated with the Trinitarian
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
Roman Church by the 500's. Following the split of the Church, these peoples would remain loyal to Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
as part of the Eastern Orthodox Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
. In the 8th century John of Gothia
John of Gothia
John of Gothia was Greek Orthodox Bishop of Gothia and Metropolitan of Doros, a stronghold of the Crimean Goths, in the mid to late 700s CE.In 787 John led a revolt against Khazar domination of Gothia. The Khazar garrison and tudun were expelled from Doros, but returned and retook the city in less...
, an Orthodox bishop, led an unsuccessful revolt against Khazar overlordship.
Language
For more information see Crimean GothicCrimean Gothic
Crimean Gothic was a Gothic dialect spoken by the Crimean Goths in some isolated locations in Crimea until the late 18th century....
Language
The language of the Crimean Goths is poorly attested with only 101 certain independent forms surviving, few of which are phrases, and a three line song, which has never been conclusively translated. Possible loan words are still used in Crimean Tartar
Crimean Tatar language
The Crimean Tatar language is the language of the Crimean Tatars. It is a Turkic language spoken in Crimea, Central Asia , and the Crimean Tatar diasporas in Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria...
though this to remains highly speculative.
| Meaning | Crimean Gothic | Bible Gothic | German German language German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union.... |
Dutch Dutch language Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second... |
Icelandic Icelandic language Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the... |
Swedish Swedish language Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish... |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple | Apel | (unattested) | Apfel | Appel | Epli | (vild-)apel, Äpple |
| Hand | Handa | Handus (f.) | Hand | Hand | Hönd | Hand |
| Sister | Schuuester | Swistar (f.) | Schwester | Zus(ter) | Systir | Syster |
| House | Hus | -hūs (n.) | Haus | Huis | Hús | Hus |
| Rain | Reghen | Rign (n.) | Regen | Regen | Regn | Regn |
| Sing | Singhen | Siggwan (vb.) | Singen | Zingen | Syngja | Sjunga |
| Go | Geen | Gaggan (vb.) | Gehen | Gaan | Ganga | Gå |
| Meaning | Crimean Gothic | Bible Gothic | German German language German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union.... |
Dutch Dutch language Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second... |
Icelandic Icelandic language Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the... |
Swedish Swedish language Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish... |
Disappearance
There are numerous other sources referring to the existence of Goths in the Crimea following Busbeques report, though none providing details of their language or customs. The last known record of the Goths in Crimea comes from the Archbishop of Mohilev; Stanislas Sestrencewicz de bohusz circa 1780, who visited Crimea at the end of the 18th Century, and noted the existence of people whose language and customs differed greatly from their neighbors and who he concluded must be "Goths".Despite no further records of the languages' existence since the late 18th century, communities of Germanic peoples with distinctly separate customs and physical features have been recorded living in the Crimea, leading some to believe that the Gothic language may have survived as a "haussprache" (home language) until as late as 1945.
According to the Soviet Ethnologist V.E. Vozgrin the Goths interbred with the Crimean Tartars and converted to Islam. In "The Crimean Tatars: the diaspora experience and the forging of a nation" By Brian Glyn Williams they quote Vozgrin as saying; 'In all probability their descendents are the tartars of a series of villages in the Crimea, who are sharply delineated from the inhabitants of neighboring villages by their tall height and other features characteristic of Scandinavians.
It is clear that the Goths had begun to speak Tartar
Tartar
Tartar may refer to: *An alternative spelling of the name Tatars, an ethnic group in present-day Russia.* Tartars, the name of the athletic teams from 1927–1999 at Wayne State University in Detroit.*Tartar sauce*Tartar on teeth, hardened dental plaque...
and Crimean Greek from long before the arrival of Busbeque thus they may well have integrated into the wider population, as later visitors to Mangup were unable to discover "any trace" of Gothic peoples.
Legacy
Almost no signs of the Crimean Goths exist today. It was claimed by the Third Reich and by Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
that the Crimean Goths had survived long enough to interbreed with later German settlers in Crimea, and that the German communities in Crimea constituted native peoples of that area. He had intended to re-settle German people to Crimea, and rename numerous towns with their previous Crimean Gothic names. During the Nazi occupation of Crimea, Sevastopol was changed to Theoderichshafen There was talk among Nazi official of building a superhighway between Berlin and the Crimea, turning Crimea into the German Gibraltar.
Of the 2 million inhabitants of the now Ukrainian Crimea, around 3,000 are of German ancestry.
See also
- Crimean GothicCrimean GothicCrimean Gothic was a Gothic dialect spoken by the Crimean Goths in some isolated locations in Crimea until the late 18th century....
- List of Germanic tribes
- GothiscandzaGothiscandzaAccording to a tale related by Jordanes, Gothiscandza was the first settlement of the Goths after their migration from Scandinavia during the first half of the 1st century CE....
- GutasagaGutasagaGutasaga is a saga treating the history of Gotland before its Christianization. It was recorded in the 13th century and survives in only a single manuscript, the Codex Holm. B 64, dating to ca. 1350, kept at the Swedish Royal Library in Stockholm together with the Gutalag, the legal code of...
- OstrogothOstrogothThe Ostrogoths were a branch of the Goths , a Germanic tribe who developed a vast empire north of the Black Sea in the 3rd century AD and, in the late 5th century, under Theodoric the Great, established a Kingdom in Italy....
s - ScandzaScandzaScandza was the name given to Scandinavia by the Roman historian Jordanes in his work Getica, written while in Constantinople around AD 551. He described the area to set the stage for his treatment of the Goths' migration from southern Sweden to Gothiscandza...
- VisigothVisigothThe Visigoths were one of two main branches of the Goths, the Ostrogoths being the other. These tribes were among the Germans who spread through the late Roman Empire during the Migration Period...
s - Wielbark culture
- Chernyakhov cultureChernyakhov cultureThe Sântana de Mureș–Chernyakhiv culture is the name given to an archaeological culture which flourished between the 2nd and 5th centuries in a wide area of Eastern Europe, specifically in what today constitutes Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, and parts of Belarus...
- OiumOiumOium or Aujum was a name for an area in Scythia, where the Goths under their king Filimer settled after leaving Gothiscandza, according to the Getica by Jordanes, written around 551...
Sources
- Heather, Peter. The Goths. Blackwell, 1998.
- Heather, Peter and John Matthews. Goths in the Fourth Century. Liverpool Univ. Press, 1991.
- Kulikowski, Michael, Rome's Gothic Wars: From the Third Century to Alaric. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2006.
- Vasiliev, Aleksandr A. The Goths in the Crimea. Cambridge, MA: The Mediaeval Academy of America, 1936.
- Wolfram, Herwig (Thomas J. Dunlap, tr). History of the Goths. Univ. of California Press, 1988.