According to some scholars, the Girays were regarded as the second family of the Ottoman Empire after the House of Ottoman: "If Rome and Byzantium represented two of the three international traditions of imperial legitimacy, the blood of Genghis Khan was the third... If ever the Ottomans became extinct, it was understood that the Genghisid Girays would succeed them" (Sebag Montefiore. Prince of Princes: The Life of Potemkin. London, 2000).
Author and historian Simon Sebag Montefiore suspects that a young Joseph Stalin may have been involved in planning the Prince's murder.
'Monsters – History's Most Evil Men and Women' is a non-fiction history book by the British Historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, who also wrote 'Jerusalem: The Biography', 'Young Stalin' and 'Heroes - History's Greatest Men and Women', to which this book is a counter.
Paul Simon | Simon & Schuster | Simon Cowell | Carly Simon | Simon Fraser University | John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation | Simon | Neil Simon | Simón Bolívar | Simon Templar | Simon & Garfunkel | Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester | Simon Furman | Simon Rattle | Simon de Montfort | Simon and Garfunkel | Moses Montefiore | Simon Boccanegra | Simon Schama | Simon Mayr | Simon Winchester | Simon Property Group | Simon Newcomb | Simon Fuller | Joe Simon | William E. Simon | Simon Vouet | Simon Says | Simon Reynolds | Simon Plouffe |
Nevertheless, some historians maintain their original, higher estimates, among them Stalin biographer Simon Sebag Montefiore, Perestroika architect and former head of the Presidential Committee for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev, and the director of Yale's "Annals of Communism" series Jonathan Brent, putting the death toll at about 20 million.
Simon Sebag Montefiore states that the village dates back to this period, when 'pilgrimage to Jerusalem' was "wildly popular" but traveling to the city of Jerusalem was either not a practical proposition or it was too hostile a location.