When he was 20, his uncle Crimean Khan Qırım Giray called him back to the Crimea from his foreign school whereupon he was installed as the Commander of Nogai Horde.

These reforms centred on the economy and government infrastructure, but included opening factories and moving the capital from Bakhchisaray to the important trade city of Caffa.

He attempted to equalize taxes, however Christian taxation was much heavier than non-Christian people, ultimately leading to tensions between the clergy and Russia.

[4] Militarily, Şahin Giray attempted to implement a new, more tolerant policy towards the Jewish and Christian minorities and integrating the two into the Muslim-majority military.

However, his reforms were not well-received by the Nogai Tatar nobility or local aristocracy who both saw them as threatening their privileges and anti-Muslim, and by the common people who also saw this cross-religious integration as contradicting the laws of Islam.

[7] Eventually, under enormous pressure from Russia and facing the inevitability of defeat, he agreed to annexation of the Khanate into the Russian Empire.