He was the father of Selim I Giray and, through him, the ancestor of all khans who reigned after 1700 except for Devlet III.
In June 1637 the Turks deposed İnayet Giray and placed Bahadir on the throne.
They used it mainly to collect customs, control trade and to prevent the Don Cossacks from raiding into the Black Sea.
In the spring of 1637, when İnayet Giray was away fighting the Budjaks, the Don Cossacks besieged Azov.
Like all such people, he travelled along the Don, where the Cossacks were expected to provide supplies and guards.
The tsar sent ambassadors to Crimea and Istanbul claiming that the Don Cossacks acted on their own, which was basically true, although Russia informally provided them with gunpower and other supplies.
Sultan Murad, who was tied up with the siege of Bagdad, ordered the Crimeans to retake Azov.
The khan accompanied him to Azov where he cut off supplies from Russia but could do nothing with the fort without artillery.
Late in the year Murad ordered the khan to raid Poland and bring back at least 8000 slaves for the Turkish galleys.
As autumn approached Bahadir announced that he was going home because the Crimeans could not winter on the steppe.
If Crimeans could not endure a steppe winter then neither could janissaries, so Deli Hussein lifted the siege.
Deli Hussein spent the winter in Kaffa, returned to Istanbul, and was not punished for his failure.
Bahadir sent kalga Islyam Giray and Gulum Bey of the Mansurs to Akkerman to bring them back.
Fearing punishment for the murders and lacking Turkish support, the horde offered to submit to Poland, its traditional enemy and victim.
In 1635 the Poles began building the Kodak Fortress near the head of the Dnieper rapids to control the Cossacks and block Crimean raids.
The Mansur clan held the northwestern steppe-like part of Crimea and had connections with the steppe peoples.
Salman Shah and the last son of Khan Temir fled to the Volga nomads, but were sent back and killed.
This coup was authorized by a fatwa from the Kaffa mufti, which implies Bahadir had good evidence of a plot.