Toğay bey

Tugay Bey, part of "Bohdan Chmielnicki with Toğay bey at Lwów", oil on canvas by Jan Matejko, 1885, National Museum in Warsaw (see full picture [here]).

Toğay bey (, Polish: , Ukrainian: Тугай-бей, Russian: ) sometimes also spelled as Tugay bey or Tugai Bey (d. June, 1651) was a notable military leader and politician of the Crimean Tatars. Toğay descended from the Arğıns - one of noble Crimean families, and his full name is Arğın Doğan Toğay bey. "Bey" is actually a title, which he received on becoming the chief of Or Qapı (Perekop) sanjak, an important position in the Crimean Khanate, since the Isthmus of Perekop is the neck to Crimean Peninsula and was crucial to its defense.

In 1648 he brought an army (estimated 6,000-20,000) to help Bohdan Khmelnytsky during the Cossack's Chmielnicki Uprising against Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. There he took part in several important battles and was eventually killed during the Battle of Beresteczko.

He was portrayed in the Polish novel and film With Fire and Sword. In the film he was played by Daniel Olbrychski.

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.