A people who seem to hate every city and building
Editorial contextRiccoldo's first sight of the Tartars, inside 'Turchia' (Seljuk Anatolia under Mongol rule). He describes broad faces, narrow eyes and thin beards, and then claims they 'seem to hate every city and every dwelling building', destroying nearly all the towns, castles and houses they meet. For a source on who built what in 'Tartary', this is a blunt statement from a man who lived among them that the Tartars were destroyers, not builders.
but they seem to hate every city and every dwelling building. For they destroy almost all cities and castles and dwellings and buildings, and they harm most the one who humbles himself most before them
Working translation
Original wording
sed videntur odire omnem ciuitatem et omne edificium habitacionis. Nam quasi omnes ciuitates et castra et habitaciones et edificia destruunt, et illum magis ledunt, qui se magis illis humiliat
About Tartars (Mongols of the Ilkhanate)
Keep in mind
A hostile missionary generalisation; he says they 'seem' to hate cities, and his own later chapters show Tartars ruling from Tabriz and Baghdad.
Hire a 'Tartar' to handle your journey
Editorial contextIn practical advice for travellers, Jaubert says that in Turkey one can make a deal with a 'Tartar' who will supply everything needed on the road, but warns never to pay him the whole sum in advance; in Persia the custom was unknown. In the Ottoman Empire a 'Tatar' was a government courier, and Jaubert himself travelled with one, Omar, who renamed himself Aly in Persia.
In the first of these countries one can strike a bargain with a Tartar who undertakes to supply you with everything necessary; but take care not to pay him the whole in advance. In Persia this custom is unknown.
Working translation
Original wording
Dans le premier de ces pays, on peut faire marché avec un Tartare qui se charge de vous fournir tout ce qui est nécessaire; mais il faut se garder de le payer d'avance en totalité. En Perse, cet usage est inconnu.
About Ottoman 'Tatars' (official couriers and guides)
Keep in mind
Here 'Tartar' is an Ottoman job title, not an ethnic label.
'Where would the rabble Tatars learn the sword?'
Editorial contextIbn Arabshah gives the Ottoman sultan Bayezid a furious reply to Timur's letter. Bayezid scorns the idea that he is like 'the Tatars of the Dasht' and says Toqtamish's army was mostly treacherous: the rabble Tatars, he says, have no skill with the sharp sword and nothing but volleys of arrows, unlike the lions of Rum.
As for Toqtamish Khan, most of his army betrayed him; and where would the rabble Tatars get striking with the keen, cutting sword? They have nothing but the showering of arrows, unlike the lions of Rum.
Working translation
Original wording
واما توقتاميش خان فان غالب عسكره خان ومن اين للتتار الطغام الضرب بالبتار الحسام وما لهم سوى رشق السهام بخلاف ضراغم الاروام
About Tatars of the Golden Horde (Toqtamish's army), as seen by the Ottomans
Keep in mind
A speech composed by Ibn Arabshah for Bayezid, not a record of real words; useful for how the name Tatar was used as an insult.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR of this print is garbled); vowel marks and the asterisk dividers of the rhymed prose omitted.
Dressed 'a la Tatare' for a winter ride
Editorial contextCrossing eastern Turkey in deep winter, with the thermometer at 15 degrees below zero, Vigne kept warm by dressing in Tatar style: five pairs of stockings under big travelling boots. In the Ottoman lands 'Tatar' dress meant the outfit of the government couriers, which European travellers often copied (see Clarke, W032).
On the plain of Erzeroum, the thermometer, on a morning in the middle of February, fell to 15° below zero ; but I was clothed a la Tatare, with five pairs of stockings and large travelling boots drawn over them, so that I felt perfectly warm
About Ottoman 'Tatar' (courier) dress
Keep in mind
Vigne does not describe the costume further; the link to the courier dress is an explanation, not his words.