In the 13th century, the Turkistan lands occupied by the Mongols featured a Turkic society that was more advanced than the Mongols in both administrative and socio-cultural aspects. The Uyghurs, who had a developed state organization in the region, became integral to the state apparatus of the Mongol Empire. This integration initiated a Turkic influence on the state’s administrative structure, shaping the official correspondence tradition. Thus, the diplomatics of the Mongol Empire incorporated Uyghur-origin diplomatic terms and stylistic characteristics. The Golden Horde, established in the 13th century as the westernmost part of the Mongol Empire, continued to Turkify due to the influence of the Cumans in the region. This ongoing Turkification was also reflected in the state’s written language and its diplomatic tradition. By the 15th century, the Crimean Khanate established its diplomatic tradition as a continuation of the Golden Horde. This tradition underwent significant changes by the 16th century due to Ottoman political influence.

This study aims to catalog all terms related to diplomatics found in the 404 official documents of the Crimean Khanate. It investigates how the Crimean Khanate's diplomatic tradition evolved century by century by focusing on the terminology and stylistic characteristics of the documents. The present study seeks to contribute to developing the official correspondence tradition of the Crimean Khanate through detailed document analysis.

This research examined 404 official correspondences from the Crimean Khanate, covering approximately 300 years from its establishment in the 15th century to its dissolutiondecline in the 18th century. The diplomatic correspondence examined in the study was the Crimean official correspondence found in the studies of Özyetgin (1996), Sıtkı Özkul (2011) and in the Atasoy (2017) publications.

The corpus of sources employed in this study encompassed a diverse array of documents from the Crimean Khanate period. It included yarlıġs (edicts), bitigs/ḫaṭṭs (official letters), taḥiyyet-nāmes (letters of allegiance), tarḫan-nāme-i yarlıġs (edicts declaring tax exemption), mülk-nāme-i yarlıġs (edicts declaring fiefdom lands) and ʿahd-nāmes/şarṭ-nāmes (peace agreements).

Official documents from the Crimean Khanate period are primary sources that determine the basis of the state's official correspondence tradition. These documents are also important in terms of revealing the development of the written language used by the state.

Initially, this research elucidates parts of the Crimean Khanate diplomatics with detailed examples from the texts. It also included an examination of the linguistic and stylistic characteristics of official correspondence. This study systematically cataloged the diplomatic terminology identified within the 404 documents and organizes these terms chronologically by century.

This research identified 108 diplomatic terms within 404 documents examined from the official correspondences of the Crimean Khanate. Analysis reveals that nine terms appeared in documents (spanning 11 documents) from the 15th century, 30 terms were noted in documents (20 documents) from the 16th century, and 61 terms were recorded in documents (368 documents) from the 17th century. Additionally, eight terms were found in documents (5 documents) from the 18th century. The trajectory of the Crimean official correspondence tradition from the 15th to the 18th century demonstrated considerable evolution, notably in terminology and the format of document preparation.

Crimean official documents of the 15th century are a continuation of the Golden Horde diplomatic tradition in terms of terminology and stylistic characteristics. In this century, in Crimean diplomatics, the term yarlıġ was used for the edicts of khans and sultans, and the term bitig was used for letters of dynasty members and dignitaries. The terms mektūb, nāme and ruḳʿa are also present in the correspondence due to the influence of Ottoman diplomatics. The letters declaring political allegiance to the Ottoman Empire during this period are called taḥiyyet-nāme.

Another point that drew attention in the documents was related to “edicts declaring tax exemption” and “edicts declaring fiefdomlands.” These documents have passed from the Golden Horde diplomatics to the Crimean Khanate. In the documents, "edicts declaring tax exemption" are called altun nişānlıġ al tamġalıġ yarlıġ in the official documents of the 15th century, while in the 16th century, kök mührlüg al nişānlıġ tarḫān-nāme-i yarlıġ. “Edicts declaring fiefdomlands” are called yüzük nişānlıġ yarlıġ, al nişānlıġ kök mührlig mülk-nāme-i şer̄if, mülk-nāme-i yarlıġ and kök mührlig al nişānlıġ yarlıġ in the documents of the 16th century. 

The Ottoman diplomatic influence on terminology continued to increase in Crimean official correspondence in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the documents, fermān and noun phrases, such as fermān-ı şer̄if, yarlıġ-ı şer̄if, yarlıġ-ı şer̄if-i ḫāḳān̄i, iʿlām-ı yarlıġ-ı şer̄if-i ḫān̄i, iʿlām-ı yarlıġ-ı muḥabbet-fercām, iʿlām-ı yarlıġ-ı şer̄if-i muḥabbet, iʿlām-ı tevḳ̄i -i ref̄iʿ ḫān̄i, iʿlām-ı yarlıġ-ı bel̄iġ-i muḥabbet-encām, münhā-yı ḫān̄i were also used along with the term yarlıġ (Golden Horde origin). The term bitig (Golden Horde origin) was not used in Crimean diplomatics after the 15th century. Instead, the terms ḫaṭṭ, ḫaṭṭ-ı şer̄if, mektūb, nāme, nāme-i hümāyūn, nāme-i şer̄if, rukʿa and varaḳa were used in the documents due to Ottoman influence.