Bakhchysarai first appears in historical documents in 1502. In 1532 Sahib I Giray, the Khan of Crimea from 1532 to 1551, established his residence there. From that time it served as the capital of the Crimean Khanate and the center of political and cultural life of the Crimean Tatar people. After several wars with Russia from 1737 (when General Burkhard Christoph von Münnich burnt down the capital of the Khanate) and following the annexation of the Crimean Khanate by the Russian Empire in 1783, Bakhchysarai became an ordinary town, having lost administrative significance. However, it remained the cultural center of the Crimean Tatars for several decades afterward, fostered by Ismail Gaspirali (1851-1914) who founded the local newspaper "Tercüman" in 1883.