Out hawking: Seydyak, a Kazakh tsarevich and Karacha
Editorial contextA year after the Russians founded Tobolsk on the hill opposite the Tobol mouth, the Tatar prince Seydyak, a Kazakh tsarevich named Saltan and Kuchum's counsellor Karacha rode out from the old Tatar capital Sibir 'for bird sport' (falconry) with five hundred Tatars. The voevoda invited them to a feast as if for peace talks; when the guests choked on the wine he had offered, he took it as a sign of treachery, had their men cut down and sent the princes to Moscow.
In the second year after the building of the town of Tobolsk, from the town of Sibir, from Chuvash, there came out for bird sport the Tatars Prince Sedyak and the tsarevich of the Kazakh horde Saltan and Tsar Kuchum's counsellor, the Tatar Karacha, and with them five hundred Tatars.
Working translation
Original wording
По поставленіи града Тоболска во второе лето, из града Сибири, от Чувашъ вышли для птичной потехи Татара князь Седякъ да царевичь Казачьей орды Салтанъ да царя Кучума думной Татаринъ Карача, с нимъ Татаръ пятьсотъ человекъ.
About Prince Seydyak, Tsarevich Saltan of the 'Kazakh horde', Karacha (Kuchum's counsellor); voevoda Danila Chulkov
Keep in mind
Told from the Russian side, which presents the massacre as a justified precaution.
A Tartar prince's widow commands the frontier
Editorial contextAt Gartok on the western frontier Desideri found a permanent force of Tartar and Tibetan soldiers guarding the fortress of Tashigang and watching everyone who entered Tibet. Its commander, a Tartar prince, had died, and his widow had taken over the command until a new governor arrived. Desideri and his companion travelled to Lhasa under her protection; later in the book he says this 'Tartar princess' retired to a nunnery near Shigatse.
in a large plain called Cartoà a strong, permanent force of Tartar and Tibetan soldiers was stationed not only for the defence of the frontier-fortress of Treéscy-Khang and the surrounding settlements, but more especially to watch all those who from that side entered the country. The commander, a Tartar prince, had died and his widow had taken over the command
About Tartar (Mongol) garrison of Tibet
Keep in mind
Wessels's paraphrase rather than Desideri's exact words; the Tartars here are the Mongol garrison serving the Mongol-descended ruler of Lhasa.
Women in helmets: how Timur beat the Emperor of Tartary
Editorial contextClavijo tells how Tokhtamysh, 'emperor of Tartary', raided Tabriz and was chased home by Timur. Finding the ford guarded, Timur marched upstream for three days, then had the camp women put on helmets to look like soldiers while the men doubled back, crossed at night and routed the Tartar camp. The next page tells how Tokhtamysh's servant Edigu then became the new lord of Tartary with a horde of 200,000 horsemen.
on the third night Timour Beg ordered the women to put helmets on their heads, that they might look like men ; and all the men rode on, with two horses a piece, leaving the royal encampment, the women who looked like men, the servants, and the prisoners.
About Tokhtamysh and the Tartars of the Golden Horde
Keep in mind
A campaign story told at Timur's court, not witnessed by Clavijo.
A Kazakh feast: mutton, broth and thumbs for napkins
Editorial contextAt a Kazakh host's tent, the guests ate boiled mutton with no bread or vegetables, the men first and the women afterwards. Abbott is squeamish and scornful, but he records exactly how the meal was served and cleaned up.
It consisted of boiled mutton, soused in its own soup. Bread and vegetables are things quite unknown in these parts. Kuzzauks are exclusively carnivorous. … The bowls were handed to the women, who scraped them clean with their thumbs … The thumb and tongue are the only napkins in Khaurism … The Tartars are right not to eat with their women.
About Kazakhs (Kuzzauks), called Tartars by Abbott
Keep in mind
Abbott's sneering tone is his own; the facts of the meal are what he saw.
Everyone who enters churns the kumiss
Editorial contextIn a corner of the Yakut house hung a leather bag of mare's milk. Everyone who came in, above all the women, stirred it with a plunger for a few minutes before doing anything else, which produced the sour but pleasant drink Lesseps calls koumouiss. Left to ferment longer, it became strongly intoxicating.
In a corner of the yurt a leather bag is kept permanently; every day mare's milk is poured into it and stirred with a stick like the one used to churn butter. Everyone who comes in, the women above all, never fails to churn this milk for a few minutes before turning to other work; from this comes the sourish yet pleasant drink called kumiss.
Working translation
Original wording
Dans un coin de la yourte est à demeure un paquet de cuir; chaque jour on y verse du lait de jument qu'on agite avec un bâton pareil à celui qui sert à battre le beurre. Tous ceux qui entrent, les femmes sur-tout, ne manquent jamais, avant de vaquer à d'autres travaux, de battre ce lait pendant quelques minutes; de-là provient cette boisson aigrelette & cependant agréable, qu'on nomme koumouiss.
About Yakuts (Sakha)
Continue in this sourceLesseps's journey across Siberia1787 to 1788 · 8 passagesTen minutes, a pipe and a spoonful of coffee
Editorial contextAt a khan in Pharsalus Clarke watched 'Tartar' couriers change horses. Each squatted against the wall for about ten minutes, smoked hard, gulped a spoonful of muddy coffee, said 'God be praised' and rode on, travelling night and day. Clarke says no couriers in the world could match their endurance, and that Europeans travelling alone in Turkey disguised themselves in their dress.
the Tartar squats (for it cannot be called sitting) with his back against the wall, supporting himself upon the soles of his feet, and inhaling rapidly the fumes of his pipe upon his lungs; sending it back in curling volumes through his nostrils. Then, if he can procure about as much muddy coffee as would fill the bowl of a table-spoon, he utters his Alhandilla! (God be praised !)
About Ottoman couriers ('Tartars')
Continue in this sourceClarke's travels: the Greek and Balkan volume1800 to 1801 · 7 passagesNo true Muslims until they settle in towns
Editorial contextAt the start of Yunus Khan's reign, the Moghuls still lived in the old way, shunning towns and farmland, and were Muslims in name only; neighbours even sold them as slaves like unbelievers. Yunus decided that they would never be good Muslims until they settled, and led them to Tashkent, though some rebelled and stayed on the steppe. Elsewhere (p. 58) Mirza Haidar records that an earlier khan had a horseshoe nail driven into the head of any Moghul who refused to wear a turban.
At the beginning of the reign of Yunus Khan, all the Moghuls dwelt, according to their old custom, in Moghulistan ; they avoided all towns and cultivated countries [and regarded them] with great repugnance. They were Musulmans in nothing but the name
About Moghuls under Yunus Khan
Continue in this sourceThe Tarikh-i-Rashidi: a Moghul prince's history of Central Asia1466 to 1566 · 12 passagesTea with salt and butter
Editorial contextThe Kalmyk princess offered Cook a dish of tea. The tea was good, he says, but the Kalmyks put salt and butter into it; he drank it out of politeness and then hurried off to get rid of it, while the Russian major laughed at him. It is an early Western description of Mongolian salted milk tea.
Accordingly a cup of tea was brought, but such as I never had tasted before this time. The tea, I dare say, was good, but the Kalmucks put salt and butter into it ; nevertheless I drank it, though extremely disagreeable
About Kalmyks (Oirat Mongols)
Continue in this sourceJohn Cook's travels as a doctor on Russia's Tartar frontier1730 to 1749 · 11 passagesShop songs about Khans and the fall of Kazan
Editorial contextHearing singing from a grocer's shop in Yalta, Kohl went in and sat on an apple chest until late at night while two Tatars, an Armenian and a Circassian sang and explained their songs. Besides love songs, some were historical: about Khan Krym Giray, Khan Devlet Giray, the Russian conquest of Crimea and the taking of Kazan. Tatar history lived on in popular song.
Love formed, as usual, the principal theme, but some, to my surprise, were on historical subjects. One treated of Krim-Gerei, the last distinguished Khan of the Crimea, the friend of the well known French ambassador, Baron de Tott, another of Khan Devlet-Gerei, a third of the conquest of the Crimea by the Russians, a fourth of the taking of Kasan
About Crimean Tatars
Keep in mind
Kohl relied on the singers' own explanations of the words.
OCR normalized; a dash in the original replaced by a comma.
Mare's milk for the gods at the great tent
Editorial contextThe prince's summer camp stood on the sunny side of a ridge beyond the Tamir. Twice a year, on the ninth day of the ninth month and of the fourth month, his followers gathered at the great ordo-tent and sprinkled the milk of white mares as a seasonal sacrifice, using plain birchwood vessels rather than gold and silver.
On its sunny side stands the tent-palace; this is the summer retreat... On the Double Ninth the prince's following assembles at the great ordo-tent and sprinkles white mares' milk, performing the seasonal sacrifice. The vessels used are all of birch, not decorated with gold or silver: they value plainness.
Working translation
Original wording
其陽帳殿在焉乃避夏之所也…至重九日王師麾下㑹于大矛帳灑白馬湩脩時祀也其什噐皆用禾樺不以金銀為飾尚質也
About Mongols of the prince's (Khubilai's) camp
Keep in mind
大矛帳 is a copyist's slip for 大牙帳 ('great tooth-banner tent', the ordo), as the Siku copy reads.
