He and his brothers, as members of the House of Giray, were direct patrilineal descendants of Tuqa-timur, son of Jochi Khan, the founder of the Golden Horde.

He lost most of his men, including the Shirin and Mansur begs, was wounded in the arm, and fled.

Devlet was removed from power for treating the exiled Swedish king as a prisoner, and Qaplan was restored.

He appointed as kalga and nureddin his brothers Meñli II Giray and Safa.

His first task was to send Meñli to deal with the Kuban Nogais who had revolted under Bakhti Giray, the eldest son of his brother Devlet II.

The beys resisted, there were delays and when he, or perhaps his brother Selyamet, arrived too late, the Turks removed him.

Many people exiled by Meñli returned and there were shifts in power within the Crimean ruling class.

Before leaving Istanbul in 1730 Qaplan recommended caution since any campaign in the north Caucasus might provoke the Russians, who were now within striking distance of Crimea.

The army went down the west shore of the Caspian as far as the Samur River, where it was recalled by Turkey for unexplained reasons.

In 1735 Qaplan personally led 80,000 men across the north Caucasus and stopped in Chechnya, where the Chechens inflicted a crushing defeat on his army, killing 10,000 Crimean soldiers.

With Crimean troops away from the peninsula and the Turks tied down with Persia, Russia had an opportunity for a surprise attack.

By mid-July he was back on the Dnieper bend, having lost half of his army, 2000 of them to fighting and the rest from disease.