The long-haired forest goblin who boiled two children
Editorial contextAmong the Karachay's many tales of mountain demons, Klaproth records the Ssalmasti, a long-haired female spirit of the woods. A villager caught one and enslaved it by hiding its cut hair, until his children revealed the hiding place; the spirit threw them into the boiling pot and fled back to the forest.
A malignant spirit in female shape, and having very long hair, which they call in their language Ssalmasti, is reported to reside in a certain wood. About twenty-five years ago one of the inhabitants of the village caught this goblin, carried it home with him, and cut off its hair, which he carefully hid, and by which means he rendered the spirit subservient to him.
About Karachay Tartars
Keep in mind
A folk tale passed on through an informant.
Were the Tartars the lost tribes shut up by Alexander?
Editorial contextMatthew Paris repeats the belief that the Tartars were the ten lost tribes of Israel, whom Alexander the Great walled up in the Caspian mountains, the peoples who would break out at the end of the world (the Gog and Magog legend). Interestingly, he admits a doubt: these Tartars speak no Hebrew and do not know the law of Moses.
having forsaken the Mosaic law, followed after the golden calves, and whom Alexander the Macedonian endeavoured at first to shut up in the rugged mountains of the Caspians with bitumen-covered rocks. … There arises, however, a doubt whether the Tartars now coming from there be really they, for they do not use the Hebrew tongue
About Tartars (Mongols), imagined as the ten lost tribes
Keep in mind
Legend repeated by a chronicler far from the events; the sentence begins on the previous page ('these Tartars, of cursed memory, are of the ten tribes who').
Queens on the throne, faces uncovered
Editorial contextAfter Friday prayer Uzbek Khan sat in a 'golden alcove' on a gilded, jewelled throne, with his four wives seated on the throne beside him in full view. When each wife came in, the khan rose and led her by the hand to her seat. Ibn Battuta, used to royal women being hidden, was struck by this, and a page earlier he notes that Turkish noblewomen here went unveiled and were highly respected. He was given sheep, a horse and a leather bag of kumiss.
Whenever one of these wives enters, he arises, and taking her by the hand, puts her into her place upon the throne. Thus they are exposed to the sight of all, without so much as a veil.
About Golden Horde royal family
Continue in this sourceIbn Battuta's travels, in Samuel Lee's 1829 abridged translation1325 to 1354 · 17 passagesMountain Tartars who remember a lost capital
Editorial contextKlaproth reports the origin tradition of the Turkic mountain peoples the Georgians called Bassiani: their elders say they once lived on the steppe of the Kuma up to the Don, with a magnificent capital, Ckirck Madshar ('forty stone buildings'), which they identify with the ruins at Madzhar, before being driven into the high mountains.
Their elders report that they were long ago settled in the steppe of the Kuma as far as the Don… Their capital, which is said to have been very magnificent, was named Ckirck Madshar, which in their language signifies the forty stone buildings, or the forty four-wheeled waggons… They assert that the ruins of Madshar, which yet subsist, are the remains of this city.
About Bassian Tartars (Balkars and Karachay)
Keep in mind
An oral tradition; the dates are uncertain even to the tellers.
They always live in tents, not villages or cities
Editorial contextIn a chapter on the Tartars' outward appearance and way of life, the text says plainly that they always live in tents and never in villages or cities, because they are country herdsmen with vast flocks of sheep and goats, herds of cattle, camels and horses. They winter on the plains and follow the good pasture into the mountains in summer. The same chapter describes their bull-like singing of 'Alai alai'.
They always live in tents, and not in villages or cities. For they are country herdsmen of livestock, and abound in flocks of sheep and goats and in herds of cattle, camels and horses. In winter they are accustomed to stay on the plain; in summer they follow the richness of the pastures in the mountains.
Working translation
Original wording
In tentorijs semper habitant, & non in villis, vel vrbibus. Pastores enim pecorum rurales sunt, ac gregibus ouium, & caprarum armentisque boum, & camelorum, & equorum superabundant. In hyeme manere consueuerunt in planicie, in æstate vero pascuarum vbertatem sectantur in montibus.
About Tartars (Mongols of Baiju's army)
Keep in mind
Attributed to Simon's eyewitness report through Vincent's editing.
OCR normalized against the page image; long s normalized.
'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
Working translation
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.
God called Tagri and sacrifices to the prophet Elijah
Editorial contextKlaproth says the ordinary Bassian Tartars had no fixed religion: they called God 'Tagri' rather than Allah, offered lambs, dairy and beer to the prophet Elijah on mountain tops with song and dance, ate pork and kept sacred springs. Like other Tartars they foretold the future from sheep's shoulder-blades cracking in the fire. Only their chiefs had been made Muslim by the Circassians.
The common people have, strictly speaking, no established religion, but worship God, whom they call Tagri and not Allah, as the giver of all good, and the prophet Elijah… who, according to them, frequently appears on the summits of the highest mountains, and to whom they offer sacrifices of lambs, milk, butter, cheese, and beer (ssra), accompanied with singing and dancing.
About Bassian Tartars (Balkars)
Keep in mind
Based on informants' reports rather than long residence.
Ibn Battuta at Özbeg Khan's court: unveiled, honoured wives
Editorial contextHammer retells Ibn Battuta's visit. Every Friday Özbeg sat under a golden vault called the golden alcove, on a silver-plated, jewelled throne, with his sons on either side and his daughter before him. Whenever one of his wives came in he rose, took her by the hand and led her to her seat; all were unveiled. Each wife had her own house and household, and Ibn Battuta marvelled at the freedom and standing of women among the Tatars, so unlike Arab and Persian harem seclusion.
Whenever one of his wives came in, he stood up, took her by the hand and led her to her place; they were all unveiled. … Özbeg's wives were highly honoured. Each had her own house and her own household; in general Ibn Battuta wonders at the freedom and esteem which women enjoyed among the Tatars (quite unlike the compulsion of the Arab and Persian harem).
Working translation
Original wording
So oft eine seiner Gemahlinnen hereinkam, stand er auf, nahm sie bey der Hand, und führte sie auf ihren Platz; sie waren alle unverschleyert. … Die Frauen Usbeg's waren hochgeehrt. Jede hatte besonderes Haus und besonderen Hofstaat; überhaupt verwundert sich Ibn Batuta über die Freyheit und das Ansehen, welches die Frauen (ganz im Gegensatze arabischen und persischen Haremszwanges) bey den Tataren genossen.
About Golden Horde court of Özbeg (Uzbek) Khan
Keep in mind
Hammer paraphrases; Ibn Battuta's own words are in his Rihla.
Circassian houses of earth and boughs, and no walled towns
Editorial contextAt Terki the Tsar kept garrisons in all the towns, leaving the Circassians only open towns and villages under their own lords. Their houses were poor ones of earth and branches, plastered inside with clay. Olearius adds that they spoke the common Tartar language and were Muslims in name, though without Koran or priests.
he hath put Garrisons into all the Cities, leaving the Circassian Tartars, for their habitations, but only open Towns and Villages … Their houses are but poor ones, built, for the most part, of earth and boughs of trees, and within, plaister'd over with Clay.
About 'Circassian Tartars' (Kabardians of the Terek) under Russian rule
Continue in this sourceOlearius's embassy down the Volga to Persia1633 to 1639 · 13 passagesA princess with an ox-bladder at her neck
Editorial contextThe ambassadors visited Princess Bike, mother of the Tartar prince Mussal, in a hall with earthen walls lined with vaulted niches full of silk bedding and Persian carpets, weapons hung on the pillars. She and another lady wore a blown-up ox-bladder wrapped in an embroidered scarf behind the neck: the badge of widowhood. Her servants still bore the scratches of mourning on their faces.
She wore, at her neck behind, an Ox-bladder, blown to the utmost, which was wound about towards her hair, with a rich Scarf embroider'd with Gold and Silk … Behind the Chair stood a Lady, who had also a Bladder at her neck, and we were told afterwards that it was the Badge of Widdowhood.
About Circassian Tartar nobility (Kabardians)
Continue in this sourceOlearius's embassy down the Volga to Persia1633 to 1639 · 13 passagesRuined walls from mountain to mountain: 'Alexander's barriers'
Editorial contextA day beyond Derbent Rubruck crossed a valley where the foundations of walls ran from one mountain to the next. He identifies them with the barriers of Alexander meant to hold back 'wild peoples', and explains these rationally as the shepherds of the wilderness kept out of the farmland and cities. He adds that he could learn nothing certain about the other barriers where Jews were said to be enclosed.
The next day we crossed a valley in which the foundations of walls could be seen running from one mountain to another, and over the mountain tops there was no road. These used to be the barriers of Alexander, holding back the wild peoples, that is, the shepherds of the wilderness, so that they could not come into the cultivated lands and the cities.
Working translation
Original wording
In crastino transivimus per vallem quamdam, in qua apparebant fundamenta murorum de uno monte ad alium, et per summitates montium nulla erat via. Ista solebant esse claustra Alexandri, feras gentes chohibentia, hoc est, pastores de solitudine, ut non possent ingredi super terras cultas et civitates.
About unknown ancient builders; steppe nomads
Keep in mind
The walls were real, probably part of the Sasanian (6th-century) defences around Derbent; crediting them to Alexander is legend, which Rubruck repeats.
Crowning a khagan by half-strangling him
Editorial contextWhen a new Khazar khagan was made, a silk cord was tied tight around his throat and he was asked how many years he would reign. If he outlived the number he named, he was put to death. The author also says the khagan had a golden throne and pavilion, and that nobles would kill themselves on his order.
they bring him forth, and tie a piece of silk about his throat, so tight that he can scarcely draw his breath. At that moment they ask him, how long he will hold the sovereignty ? He answers, " so many years." … when that space is fulfilled, they put him to death.
About Khazars
Keep in mind
Reported by hearsay; similar sacred-kingship customs are described by other Arabic writers.
The translator: Irgana-kon is borrowed from Gog and Magog
Editorial contextThe English translator is openly sceptical: he calls the origin of the Tatars 'fabulous', Oghuz Khan 'a mere Legend', and the bellows story 'a whimsical Invention'. In a footnote he suggests the enclosed-valley tale grew out of Arabic legends of Gog and Magog (Yajuj and Majuj) shut up behind the mountains of the far north.
Their melting their way out of the Mountains with seventy Bellows, is a whimsical Invention. … In all likelihood this Fiction of the Moguls being inclosed in the Mountain of Irgana Kon, took its Rise from one of the like kind, which we find in Arabik Authors relating to the People of Yajuj and Majuj, or Gog and Magog
About Mongols; Gog and Magog
Keep in mind
The Gog and Magog link is the translator's guess.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR for this volume is unreadable); long s normalized.
A moving city with mosques and kitchens
Editorial contextIbn Battuta reached Uzbek Khan's camp (the urdu, or horde) at the Five Mountains at the start of Ramadan. He describes it as a city on the move, with streets, mosques and cook-houses whose smoke rose as they travelled, all of which became stationary when the camp halted. He ranks Uzbek among the seven great kings of the world.
at this place, which is termed the urdu, or camp, we arrived on the first of the month Ramadan. Here we witnessed a moving city, with its streets, mosques, and cooking-houses, the smoke of which ascended as they moved along. When, however, they halted, all these became stationary.
About Golden Horde (Turks and Mongols under Uzbek Khan)
Continue in this sourceIbn Battuta's travels, in Samuel Lee's 1829 abridged translation1325 to 1354 · 17 passagesWhy no empire can conquer people who move every month
Editorial contextExplaining why the Ottomans do not try to rule the Caucasus and the steppe directly, Chardin argues that settled people in towns can be conquered and held, but people who move all their lives cannot. It is his own reflection, but it neatly explains why steppe peoples were so hard for empires to pin down.
For if the People that inhabit those parts, were united into Cities and strong Places, there might be a way found to reduce 'em, and keep 'em in Subjection. But which way is it possible to subdue a People that change their Habitations every Month, and all their Life-time wander up and down the Country?
About Nomads of 'Tartary and Scythia'
Keep in mind
Chardin's own opinion, not a report of what he saw.
Turkic peoples who are called Tartars
Editorial contextStrahlenberg lists the Turkic-speaking peoples who 'are call'd Tartars': the Budjak, Crimean, Kuban, Kazan and Kasimov Tatars, the Nogais, the Astrakhan and Bashkir Tatars, the Tatars of Tyumen, Tobolsk and Tomsk, the Uzbeks, Turkmens, Kazakhs and others. On the same page he adds that, according to learned Bukharans, they took the name from the original Tartars without being descended from them.
Secondly, we find, in Europe, the Budziack, and Crimm-Kubann … Casan- and Cassinowan Tartars, and, in little Nagai, Nagaian Tartars: And in Asia and Great Nagai, the Astracan, Ovinian and Baskirian Tartars. … All these are Mahometans: … However, they, like the former, have, as it were, one Dialect with the Turks. All the Nations mention'd in this Paragraph are call'd Tartars.
About Turkic-speaking 'Tartars' (Crimean, Kazan, Nogai, Siberian, Uzbek and others)
Continue in this sourceStrahlenberg's description of Russia, Siberia and 'Great Tartary'1709 to 1729 · 18 passagesThe Kuban Tartars, raiders subject to the Turks
Editorial contextDescribing the Torghut country between the Volga and the Yaik, Tulishen places to the west the Ho-pang, which Staunton identifies as the Cuban Tartars, also called Mang-vu-te (Mangyt, a Nogai clan name). He says they were subjects of the Turkish sultan and constantly raided both Russians and Torghuts. It shows a Chinese writer mapping the Nogai Tatars by their own clan name.
lies the country of the Ho-pang (Cuban Tartars) otherwise called Mang-vu-te, a nation subject to Kung-ke-eur Khan, king of the Tu-li-ye-se-ko, (Turks). This people are constantly in the practice of coming across the boundary, in order to attack and plunder their Russian and Tourgouth neighbours.
About Kuban (Nogai) Tatars
Keep in mind
The identification 'Cuban Tartars' is Staunton's gloss in brackets.
A leather bag of kumiss from the khan
Editorial contextThe khan's welcome gift was practical steppe hospitality: sheep, a horse and a skin of kimiz (kumiss), fermented mare's milk, which Ibn Battuta notes was highly valued as a drink. He also explains that each of the khan's wives had her own household, and that a visitor was expected to call on every one of them.
Upon this day I was presented to the Sultan, who received me very graciously, and afterwards sent me some sheep and a horse, with a leathern bag of kimiz, which is the milk of a mare ; and very much valued among them as a beverage.
About Golden Horde
Continue in this sourceIbn Battuta's travels, in Samuel Lee's 1829 abridged translation1325 to 1354 · 17 passagesKarachay marriage and the 'price of blood'
Editorial contextKlaproth describes the Karachay as usually monogamous and unusually kind to their wives. As among other Tartars, the bride's parents receive a kalym (bride price), here called 'the price of blood'; a rich groom sends the bride a full outfit and she is brought to him at night, followed by three days of feasting and dancing.
In general they take only one wife… so that here, as among the Europeans, the wife is the companion, and not the menial servant, of the husband… Among them, as among the other Tartars, the parents, on the marriage of a daughter, receive a kalim, which is here termed the price of blood.
About Karachay Tartars
Keep in mind
Klaproth's Karachay material came mainly from one Armenian informant.
An octagonal stone tomb with a Tatar inscription
Editorial contextNear the rivulet Jaman-Kul, Klaproth describes the oldest monument of Little Kabarda: an octagon of hewn stone about twelve feet high with an arched door, windows and a collapsed vault, ringed by about a hundred earth mounds. Its Tatar inscription names 'Ckoban-Chan son of Berdi-beg' and the Islamic year 860 (1455).
It is an edifice of hewn stone, and round it are about a hundred hillocks of earth called Bugri… The building is an octagon, each of its sides measuring six feet… On the stone inserted over the door is engraved a Tartar inscription in three lines, of which only these words ‘Ckoban-Chan son of Berdi-beg, in the year 860’ (A. D. 1455) are legible.
About Tatars of the Kipchak khanate
Continue in this sourceJulius Klaproth's travels in the Caucasus and Georgia1807 to 1808 · 14 passagesCircassian 'fault-fines' paid in goods and slaves
Editorial contextDuring the khan's war with the Kabardians, the main text says the Circassians in the khan's own army secretly told the Kabardians to attack the Tatars by night and promised to change sides. A footnote explains a custom of the khanate's relations with the Circassians: when they committed an offence, they paid the khan a fine called 'ayiplik' in goods, slave girls and slaves. It shows tribute, law and the slave trade in the khanate's frontier politics.
When the Circassians committed an offence, they used to present to the khans, under the name 'ayiplik' (fault-fine), goods, slave girls and slaves according to their offence.
Working translation
Original wording
چرکسلر بر قباحت ایشله دکلری زمان ( عیبلق ) نامیله خانلره قباحتلرینه کوره اموال ، جواری و کوله لر تقدیم ایدرلردی .
About Crimean Tatars and Circassians
Keep in mind
An explanatory footnote in the 1911 print; the custom is described in general terms without a date.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR of this print is garbled).
Crimean and Nogai refugees in the Caucasus
Editorial contextExplaining why his book includes a Tatar vocabulary, Spencer says many Circassians knew the language and that Crimean and Nogai Tatars who had fled Russian rule were settled throughout the Circassian provinces. He adds that the word lists should disprove the common idea that Circassians and Tatars shared an origin.
many of the Circassians are not only acquainted with it, but we every where find, throughout the whole of these provinces, Krim and Nogay Tartars domiciliated, who, on the subjection of their country to the rule of Russia, fled into the Caucasus.
About Crimean and Nogai Tatars
Continue in this sourceEdmund Spencer's 1836 voyage round the Black Sea, volume one1830s · 6 passagesA Tartar town with whitewashed clay walls
Editorial contextThe Russian embassy of 1746 passed a Tartar town under Russian protection, ruled by a prince called Alt Sheff, on a high river bank on the road north of Derbent. It had about 300 houses with clay walls whitened with lime. The diarist grumbles that its people were the most skilful thieves in the world.
…arrived at a tartar town under the Russian protection; though otherwise a kind of independent state. The prince of it was called Alt Sheff: it stands on a high bank on the north side of the river …, and contains about 300 houses; the walls of which are of clay whitened with lime. The inhabitants are the most acute thieves in the world,
About Tartars of northern Dagestan (probably Kumyks)
Continue in this sourceJonas Hanway's history of British trade over the Caspian1743 to 1745 · 17 passages