Three Tatar nations, one language
Editorial contextIn his closing description of the Caucasus, Güldenstädt sorts the Tatars of the eastern Caucasus into three peoples: Kumyks (settled farmers, rice and cotton growers and fishermen), Terekeme or Turkmen Tatars (whose dialect is almost Ottoman Turkish), and Nogais (tent-dwelling nomads). All speak Tatar, one of the main languages of the Caucasus, in dialects that are mutually intelligible at a pinch. For him ‘Tatar’ is a label for Turkic speakers, and he compares their dialects with Turkish as Italian, Spanish and Portuguese compare with each other.
In the eastern Caucasus one finds three kinds of Tatar peoples: 1. the Kumyk, 2. the Terekeme or Turkmen, and 3. the Nogai Tatars. … The similarity of the Turkish, Terekeme, Kumyk and Nogai-Tatar dialects seems to me comparable to the similarity between the Italian, Spanish and Portuguese languages.
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Original wording
Im ostlichen Kaukasus trift man dreyerley tatarische Völker an, 1 Die Kumükischen. 2. Terekemenischen oder Truchmenischen und 3. Die Nogaischen Tataren. … Mir scheint die Aehnlichkeit des türkischen, des terekemenischen, kumükischen und nogayisch-tatarischen Dialekts mit der Aehnlichkeit zwischen der italienischen, spanischen und portugisischen Sprache vergleichbar.
About Kumyk, Terekeme (Turkmen) and Nogai Tatars
Continue in this sourceGüldenstädt's travels through southern Russia and the Caucasus1768 to 1775 · 13 passages'Mogoli' from 'Magogoli': the Tartars and Gog and Magog
Editorial contextRiccoldo weighs the theory that the Tartars were the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel shut behind the Caspian mountains by Alexander, notes that they hate Alexander's name and that their script looks like Chaldean, then argues against it. He reports that they themselves claim descent from Gog and Magog, which is why they are called Mogoli, as if a corruption of 'Magogoli'. It is a textbook example of how Europeans fitted the Mongols into biblical and Alexander legends.
They themselves say they are descended from Gog and Magog. Hence they are called Mogoli, as if from a corruption of the word Magogoli.
Working translation
Original wording
Ipsi vero dicunt se descendisse de Gog et Magog. Vnde ipsi dicuntur Mogoli, quasi corrupto vocabulo Magogoli.
About Tartars (Mongols)
Keep in mind
A folk etymology. 'Mongol' has nothing to do with Magog; the claim that Mongols themselves said this is Riccoldo's report and is doubtful.
The lost ten tribes, shut in the Caspian mountains by Alexander
Editorial contextMatthew reports the belief that the Tartars were descendants of the ten tribes of Israel who abandoned the Law for golden calves, and whom Alexander the Great tried to wall up in the Caspian mountains with stones cemented with bitumen; when the work proved too great, God made the mountain peaks close together. On the next page he admits a problem: these Tartars do not speak Hebrew or know the Law of Moses, which he explains as divine punishment.
These Tartars, whose memory is detestable, are believed to have come from the ten tribes who went away, abandoning the Law of Moses, after the golden calves; whom Alexander of Macedon first tried to shut up in the steep Caspian mountains with millstones set in bitumen. When he saw that the work was beyond human labour, he called on the help of the God of Israel; and the peaks of the mountains came together
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Original wording
Creduntur isti Tartari, quorum memoria est detestabilis, fuisse de decem tribubus, qui abierunt, relicta lege Mosaica, post vitulos aureos; quos etiam Alexander Macedo primo conatus est includere in praeruptis montibus Caspiorum molaribus bituminatis. Quod opus cum videret humanos labores excedere, invocavit auxilium Dei Israel; et coierunt cacumina montium adinvicem
About Tartars as imagined by Matthew Paris
Keep in mind
A medieval legend (Alexander's gates and the enclosed nations, linked to Gog and Magog), taken from Peter Comestor; Matthew himself notes the difficulty that the Tartars are not Hebrew speakers.
The 'Silver Hill': a buried brick fortress
Editorial contextWhat looked like a hill on the coast turned out to be the sand-covered shell of a huge fired-brick building with a wall about 600 feet long. Muraviev dug for coins and found Muslim-style graves and broken glass. The local Turkmens told him it had been built by the Russians, and a translator's footnote links it to an ancient wall along the Gorgan River.
The Silver Hill is, as above mentioned, only the shell of some huge building or fortress, which has been covered with sand from the eastern side ; nevertheless within those walls I found tombs, and, indeed, got at some human remains, buried after the Mahomedan fashion … The great wall is about 600 feet long and over 12 feet in height. It consists of beautiful burnt bricks
About Yomut Turkmens (living around it); builders unknown
Keep in mind
The site lies at the western end of the brick barrier now called the Great Wall of Gorgan, usually dated to the Sasanian period. The claim that Russians built it is local belief, and the footnote rejects it.
Stone towers, idols and Tibetan scrolls by the Caspian
Editorial contextIn the same list the author repeats a report that General Bekovich, on his disastrous march to Khiva, found remains near the Caspian made up of four stone towers, stairs, idols and rolled-up 'Tangut' (Tibetan-script) writings. The same page also lists a ruined stone mosque on the Or and a tomb said to have been built by Khan Janibek. The Caspian report is second-hand, but it shows that ruins with idols and Tibetan writings in the steppe were already being reported in the 18th century.
General Bekovich, on his unfortunate march to Khiva, came upon remains near the Caspian Sea which consisted of 4 stone towers, stairs, idols and also rolled-up Tangut writings.
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Original wording
Der General Bäkewitsch traf auf seinem unglücklichen Zuge nach Chiwa, nahe an der Kaspischen See Ueberbleibsel an, die in 4 steinernen Thürmen, Treppen, Götzenbildern, auch aufgerolleten tangutischen Schriften bestanden.
About Unknown former inhabitants; report from Bekovich's Khiva expedition
Keep in mind
Hearsay about an expedition of 1717 that ended in massacre; no location or witness is given.
OCR normalized (checked against the page image; the OCR text is badly garbled).
A Russian hut on the old Oxus nobody dares touch
Editorial contextThe Turkmens told Muraviev that at the mouth of the dry river bed stood a hut built in the Russian style that no one would pull down out of superstitious fear, and whose builder nobody knew. Muraviev guessed it dated from Prince Bekovich's expedition sent by Peter the Great a century earlier.
Kiat informed me that the mouth of this old river bed, although choked with sand, is still distinguishable on the Caspian, and that by it there stands a hut (isba) constructed on the Russian plan. No one knows who the builder of this was, but the neighbouring Turcomans are restrained from demolishing it by superstitious dread.
About Turkmens of the Balkhan region
Keep in mind
Muraviev did not see the hut; the link to Bekovich is his guess.
Scythians who will march for the Antichrist
Editorial contextRight after the Magog passage, Cruz cites a treatise on the Antichrist by one Pedraza, who says these Scythians live beyond the Caspian, are a huge multitude, and will come to help the Antichrist at the end of time. Cruz offers it as support for his own view. It is the old Gog and Magog end-of-the-world legend, repeated from a book.
Of these Pedraza says, in the treatise he made on the Antichrist, that they are Scythians and live beyond the Caspian Sea, and that they are a great multitude, which is to come to the aid of the Antichrist; I mention this to show that it agrees with what I have said.
Working translation
Original wording
Destes diz Pedraza no tractado q̃ fez do Antichristo q̃ sam Scythas e viuẽ alem do mar Caspio, e q̃ he muita gente, ha qual ha de vir em ajuda do Antichristo, ho que refiro pera mostrar que cõforma com ho que tenho dito.
About Scythians beyond the Caspian (the same peoples as the Mogores)
Keep in mind
Apocalyptic legend quoted from another author; not a report about real people.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR of this blackletter print is garbled); long s normalized, the Tironian sign for 'and' given as 'e', a few contractions (de, per, pro, terra) expanded, other abbreviation marks kept as printed.
Turkmen tents like those of the Georgian Tartars
Editorial contextOn the Caspian coast Muraviev compared Turkmen dwellings to those of the 'Tartars in Georgia' (Turkic-speaking Muslims of the Caucasus): reed mats on long poles covered with felt. He also notes that Turkmen women did not hide from strangers and wore very tall headdresses edged with gold or silver.
The dwelling-places of the Turcomans are constructed like those of the Tartars in Georgia, that is to say, they consist of rush mats stretched on long poles, the whole being covered with felt. Their women are not kept in privacy
About Yomut Turkmens
Continue in this sourceMuraviev's embassy to the Khan of Khiva1819 to 1820 · 16 passagesCould anyone know the name 'Tatar' in the 6th century?
Editorial contextIn a note, Frähn discusses a 16th-century Ottoman writer who claimed the Persian king Anushirvan (6th century) built the Caspian Gates for fear of 'Turks and Tatars'. Frähn replies that although Arab writers mention the Tatars earlier than some scholars thought, the name can hardly have been known that early in western Asia. It is a scholarly warning against reading 'Tatar' back into ancient history.
for although Arab writers mention the Tatars earlier than is noted in the excellent Mémoires sur l'Arménie (vol. II, p. 263), one can hardly assume that their name was known so early in western Asia.
Working translation
Original wording
denn erwähnen gleich Arabische Schriftsteller der Tataren früher, als in den trefflichen Mémoires sur l'Arménie T. II. p. 263 angemerkt ist; so früh kann man wohl kaum Bekanntschaft mit ihrem Namen im westl. Asien annehmen.
About Tatars (as a name)
Keep in mind
Editorial, not Ibn Fadlan.
