Kerch and Yenikale for Russia, a fortress on a non-existent island for the Ottomans
Editorial contextThe memoir lists Russia's peace terms as the Ottomans understood them: the fortresses and places on the Crimean, Taman and Kuban side would be handed to the Tatars, while Yenikale and the port of Kerch, with their districts, would go to Russia. At most, it says with open sarcasm, the Ottomans would be allowed to build a fortress 'on an imaginary island, whose name and body do not exist' between Yenikale and Taman. The Tatar towns of the strait are real fortresses bargained over by two empires.
All the fortresses and places on the side of Crimea, Taman and Kuban … shall be left and handed over to the Tatars; and secondly Yenikale and the port of Kerch, with their districts and territories, shall be made over to Russia; and at most the Sublime State may build a fortress on an imaginary island, whose name and body do not exist, between Yenikale and Taman.
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قريم وطمان وقوبان جانبنده اولان قلاع وبقاع بالجمله … تاتاره ترك وتسليم اولنه وثانيا یکی قلعه وکرش ليمانی الکا وناحيه‌لريله روسيه دولتنه تمليك اولنوب نهايه یکی قلعه ايله طمان بيننده اسم وجسمی معدوم بر اطه موهومه ده دولت عليه بر قلعه بنا ايتمك جايز اوله
About Crimean Tatars, Russians and Ottomans
Keep in mind
A hostile Ottoman summary of Russian demands, perhaps translated from French; the sarcasm about the island is the memoir's own. Russia did gain Kerch and Yenikale by the treaty of 1774.
Transcribed from the manuscript image (corpus OCR of this manuscript is garbled); one unclear word omitted.
Bukhara: eleven gates and 360 mosques
Editorial contextWolff gives a thumbnail sketch of Bukhara: a walled city of fifteen miles' circuit with eleven gates, hundreds of mosques, caravanserais, baths and about a hundred colleges, and the old citadel (the Ark), which he says was built a thousand years earlier by Arslan Khan.
It has eleven gates, and a circumference of fifteen English miles; three hundred and sixty mosques, twenty-two caravanserays, many baths and bazaars, and the old palace called Ark, built by Arslan Khan one thousand years ago, and has about one hundred splendid colleges. The houses have neither roofs nor windows.
About Uzbek emirate of Bukhara
Keep in mind
The number 360 is a traditional round figure, and the date and builder of the Ark are local tradition. 'Neither roofs nor windows' probably means flat roofs and no outward-facing windows.
Gushri Khan's Tartars take Shigatse fortress
Editorial contextDas summarises Sumpa's account of how the Khoshut Mongol ruler Gushri Khan invaded Tibet, besieged the fortress of Samdruptse (Shigatse), took thirteen district forts and captured the king of Tsang, who was thrown into the Tsangpo river. Gushri was then proclaimed king of all Tibet and handed religious authority to the Dalai Lama's church. The 'Tartars' here are Oirat Mongols from Kokonor.
The seige of Sam-dub-tse (now fort Shi-ga-tse) by the Tartars and the capture of thirteen Jong by them under the lead of Gucri Khan … The king of Tsang surrendered himself. He was thrown into the river Tsang-po
About Khoshut Mongols ('Tartars') under Gushri Khan
Keep in mind
Das adds that the king was packed into something before being drowned, but that word is garbled in the OCR.
Karakorum: worse than Saint-Denis, with two quarters and many temples
Editorial contextRubruck's famous verdict on the Mongol capital: apart from the Khan's palace, it is not as good as the French town of Saint-Denis, whose abbey is worth ten Mongol palaces. It has a Saracen quarter with markets and a Cathayan (Chinese) quarter of craftsmen, twelve idol temples, two mosques and a church. On the next page (n221) he adds earthen walls with four gates, each with its own market for grain, sheep, oxen and carts, or horses.
except for the Khan's palace, it is not as good as the town of Saint-Denis in France, whose monastery is worth ten times more than the whole palace of Möngke itself. There are two main streets, one called the Saracens', where the markets and fair are held … There are twelve temples of idolaters of various nations, and two mosques of the Saracens
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excepté le Palais du Cham, elle n'est pas si bonne que la ville de S. Denis en France, dont le Monastere vaut dix fois mieux que tout le Palais mesme de Mangu. Il y a deux grandes ruës, l'vne dite des Sarrasins, où se tiennent les marchez & la foire … Là sont douze temples d'Idolatres de diuerses nations; & deux mosquées de Sarrasins
About Mongols; Muslim ('Saracen') merchants; Chinese ('Cathayan') artisans
Continue in this sourceBergeron's 1634 French collection of the friars' journeys into Tartaryc. 1245 to 1307 · 17 passagesWho built the lost cities of Mongolia
Editorial contextReflecting on the Old Town, Huc says such ruined cities are common in Mongolia and that their story is unknown locally. His best guess, from Chinese annals, is that the Mongols built many large cities in 'Northern Tartary' while they ruled China, and that after their expulsion the Ming emperor Yongle burned their towns in three campaigns deep into the desert.
the probabilities are, that they date no earlier back than the 13th century, the period when the Mongols rendered themselves masters of the Chinese empire … During their domination, say the Chinese annals, they erected in Northern Tartary many large and powerful cities. … the Emperor Young-Lo, who desired to exterminate the Tartars, invaded their country, and burned their towns
About Mongols (Yuan dynasty); Ming Chinese
Keep in mind
Huc's explanation is an educated guess from Chinese histories, not local tradition.
The Dasht of Berke: 'a land of the Tatars alone'
Editorial contextDescribing the steppe that Timur coveted, Ibn Arabshah calls it the Dasht of Berke (after the Golden Horde khan) and says it was a country belonging to the Tatars alone, teeming with herds and Turkish tribes, well guarded, well peopled and healthy in water and air. He had lived there himself in the 1410s and 1420s.
the Dasht of Berke. It was a country belonging to the Tatars alone, and teeming with every kind of livestock and with the tribes of the Turks; its borders guarded, its sides well peopled, its reaches wide, its water and air wholesome.
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دشت بركه وكانت بلادا بالتتار خاصه وبانواع المواشي وقبائل الترك غاصه محفوظة الاطراف معمورة الاكناف فسيحة الارجاء صحيحة الماء والهواء
About Tatars of the Golden Horde (Dasht-i Qipchaq)
Keep in mind
Rhymed, flattering prose. One word (al-mawashi, livestock) is blurred in the print.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR of this print is garbled); vowel marks and the asterisk dividers of the rhymed prose omitted.
Riazan: through the forest in winter
Editorial contextThe Tatars came 'through the forest' in winter, ravaged the Riazan land as far as Pronsk, burned Riazan and killed its prince. The chronicler describes what they did to captives: some were impaled or stretched, others shot with arrows, others tied with their hands behind their backs. Then the army moved on to Kolomna.
the godless Tatars came from the eastern lands onto the Riazan land, through the forest, and began to make war on the Riazan land, and captured as far as Pronsk; having captured all Riazan they burned it, and killed their prince; of those they seized, some they stretched out, others they shot through with arrows, and others they bound with their hands behind them
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придоша отъ всточныя страны на Рязаньскую землю, лѣсомъ, безбожніи Татари, и почаша воевати Рязаньскую землю, и плѣноваху и до Проньска; поплѣнивше Рязань весь и пожгоша, и князя ихъ убиша, ихже емше овы растинахуть, другыя же стрѣлами растрѣляху въ ня, а ини опакы руцѣ связывахуть
About Tatars (Mongols under Batu)
Continue in this sourceThe Laurentian Chronicle: the Mongol storm over Suzdal Rusc. 852 to 1305 · 14 passagesMoscow shrunk after the Tartar fire of 1571
Editorial contextPossevino, who saw Moscow himself, says it had been larger and more crowded under the same tsar until the Tartars burned it 'in the seventieth year of this century', killing most of the inhabitants. Traces of the old, larger circuit were still visible, and the city now filled barely five miles round. He means the Crimean Tatar sack of Moscow in 1571.
And Moscow was indeed grander and more populous under this same prince, but in the seventieth year of the present century it was burned down by the Tartars, most of its inhabitants consumed by the fire, and everything was reduced to narrower bounds. Traces of a larger circuit remain, so that what was perhaps eight or nine miles round now scarcely fills five thousand paces.
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Et erat sanè eodem hoc Principe augustior, ac numerosior Moscua, sed anno præsentis seculi septuagesimo à Tartaris cõcremata, incolis plerisq; incendio absumptis, res omnis in angustiores terminos adducta est. Extant vestigia maioris circuitus; vt qui octo, vel nouem fortasse fuisset, iam vix quinq; millia passuum impleat
About Crimean Tatars (the raid of Khan Devlet Giray)
Keep in mind
He gives the year as 1570; the raid was in May 1571. The damage and population figures are his estimates.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR garbled); long s normalized.
Bukhara: 'They came, they dug, they burned, they killed, they plundered, they left'
Editorial contextAfter telling how Bukhara's citadel was stormed and its walls levelled, Juvaini says a man who escaped reached Khorasan and was asked what had happened. His answer was six verbs. The clever men who heard it agreed that nothing more concise could be said in Persian, and Juvaini says his whole chapter is only a commentary on those few words.
He said: 'They came, they dug, they burned, they killed, they plundered, and they left.' The shrewd people who heard this account agreed that nothing could be said more concisely in Persian.
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گفت آمدند و کندند و سوختند و کشتند و بردند و رفتند جماعت زیرکان که این تقریر شنیدند اتفاق کردند که در پارسی موجزتر ازین سخن نتواند بود
About Mongols (Tatars) under Chinggis Khan
Keep in mind
Juvaini reports what a survivor said; he was not at Bukhara in 1220. One stray OCR token has been dropped.
Moscow boasts of its stone walls and iron gates
Editorial contextWhen Tokhtamysh marched on Moscow, the townspeople burned their own suburbs so no timber or fence was left for the attackers. Some broke into the boyars' cellars, got drunk on mead and jeered from the walls that the Tatars could not stay long before 'a stone city with iron gates'. The Kremlin walls of white stone had been built in 1367. Four days later the Tatars took the city by a false peace.
And they carried the lords' mead out of the cellars and drank themselves drunk, and reeling about drunk they said: 'We shall not fear the Tatar invasion, for we have a strong stone city and iron gates; and the Tatars will not bear to stand long under our city
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И изношаху ис погребовъ меды господскія и упивахуся до пьяна, и шатающеся пьяни, глаголюще: «не устрашимся нахоженіа Татарьскаго, имѣемъ бо градъ каменъ твердъ и врата желѣзна; и не терпятъ Татарове стояти подъ градомъ нашимъ долго
About Tokhtamysh's Tatars; the besieged people of Moscow
Continue in this sourceThe Nikon Chronicle: Moscow's grand history of the Horde and the khanates852 to 1558 · 11 passages