Tartary as the first land after the Flood
Editorial contextTouching on the 'Atlantis' debate of his day, de Tott argues that the high plateau of Tartary must have been the first land inhabited in Asia, the source of the swarms that later poured into Europe as Goths, Ostrogoths and Visigoths. He says a Tartar tradition told him by Khan Krim Giray supports this, and on the next page traces the Crimean dynasty back to Genghis Khan.
this country, possessed at present by the Tartars, must have been the first discovered land in Asia, and the earliest inhabited; the source of that population which first sent forth those swarms which, constantly driven back by the wall of China, and the defiles of Thibet and of Caucasus, fell upon the northern parts of Asia, and overflowed our Europe, under the name of Goths, Ostrogoths, and Visigoths.
About Tartars (in general)
Keep in mind
A speculative 18th-century theory based on geography and one conversation, not on evidence; de Tott himself calls it a 'hypothesis'.
'Tartarestan', says Lorenzo: from the river Tartar
Editorial contextHere Katib Celebi reports what the European geographer he calls 'Lorenzo' wrote: the second part of Asia, beyond the Imaus mountains, is Tatarestan (Tartary). Its people are Mongol Tatars who have spread over most of Asia. Their origin is a river named Tatar, from which they took their name, and they were formerly known as Mongols. He is translating a European atlas (Mercator-Hondius), so this is the European 'Tartary' coming back into an Ottoman book.
The second part, which lies beyond the Imaus mountains, is Tatarestan. According to Lorenzo's account, they are Mongol Tatars who spread over most of Asia … These are the original Tatars, who took their name from a river called Tatar, and were known by the name Mongal.
Working translation
Original wording
قسم ثانی که ایماوس طاغلرندن اوته اولان تاتارستاندر لورنسو تحریری اوزره انلر مغول تاتارلری اولوب آسیانك اکثرینه یایلدیلر ... بونلر تاتار اصلیدرکه تاتار نام ارماقدن اسم اخذ ایتدیلر ومونغال دیمکله معروف یرکه
About Mongol Tatars
Keep in mind
Second-hand from European atlases; the 'river Tatar' etymology comes from medieval European writers, not steppe tradition. 'Lorenzo' may be a Latin atlas author as rendered by Katib Celebi's translator.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR of this facsimile is garbled).
Genghis Khan the blacksmith
Editorial contextAt Bukhara Ibn Battuta retells what was said of the Tartars' founder: that Genghis Khan began as a blacksmith in the country of 'Khota', a big, generous man who won followers by feasting them, then conquered Khota, China, Kashgar and Almaliq before turning on Khwarezm. The translator notes that other histories give his origins very differently.
It is said that Jengiz Khan, who came with the Tartars into the countries of Islamism and destroyed them, was in his outset a blacksmith in the country of Khota.
About Mongols ('the Tartars')
Keep in mind
A popular story ('it is said'); the blacksmith tale may have grown from Temujin's name, which resembles the Turkic word for iron. The rest of the story continues on the next page (n115).
'Rightly called Tartars, as if from Tartarus'
Editorial contextUnder the year 1240 Matthew describes the Tartars bursting out of a homeland walled in by mountains 'like demons loosed from Tartarus', and adds that this is why they are rightly called Tartars, as if 'Tartareans'. This pun on Tartarus, the classical underworld, is why Latin writers turned the steppe name Tatar into 'Tartar'. The same paragraph compares them to locusts covering the earth.
in that same year a detestable people of Satan, namely a boundless army of Tartars, burst out from its region walled in by mountains; and, having broken through the solid mass of impassable rocks, they came swarming out like demons loosed from Tartarus (so that they are well called Tartars, as if 'Tartareans'), and like locusts covering the face of the earth
Working translation
Original wording
eodem anno plebs Sathanae detestanda, Tartarorum scilicet exercitus infinitus, a regione sua montibus circumvallata prorupit; et saxorum immeabilium soliditate penetrata, exeuntes ad instar daemonum solutorum a tartaro, ut bene Tartari, quasi tartarei, nuncupentur, scatebant, et quasi locustae terrae superficiem cooperientes
About Mongol armies
Keep in mind
A preacher's wordplay, not an etymology; on p. 78 Matthew also offers a river 'Tartar' as the source of the name.
The ancient people who 'taught us everything except their name'
Editorial contextHumboldt says the high plains of Tartary are no longer seen as the cradle of human civilisation and of the arts and sciences. He borrows d'Alembert's joke about the vanished ancient people imagined by Bailly: they taught us everything except their name and the fact that they existed. Solid research, he adds, has shown that learning reached the lands between the Pamirs, China and the Altai late.
These high plains of Tartary are no longer regarded as the cradle of human civilisation, the original home of the sciences and arts. It has vanished, that ancient people which, in d'Alembert's happy phrase, 'taught us everything except its name and its existence.'
Working translation
Original wording
Ces plaines élevées de la Tartarie ne sont plus regardées comme le berceau de la civilisation humaine, le site primitif des sciences et des arts. Il a disparu, ce peuple ancien qui, selon une expression heureuse de d'Alembert, « Nous a tout appris, excepté son nom et son existence. »
About an imagined lost people of Tartary
Continue in this sourceHumboldt's Central Asia1829 · 10 passagesPrester John's son cut to pieces, his daughter wed to Chinggis
Editorial contextSanudo tells how the Tartars, once tributaries of 'David, son of Prester John, king of India', rose against him under Chinggis. Their best weapons were clubs with bows and arrows; most fought on foot, some rode oxen, a few rode asses and colts. David was cut limb from limb with all his family except one daughter, whom Chinggis took as wife. A blend of the Prester John legend with the real defeat of the Kereit ruler Toghrul.
Their best weapons were clubs, with bows and arrows: for the most part they were on foot; a smaller part sat on oxen; the smallest on asses and beasts of burden and colts. So King David, hearing of their coming ... was cut limb from limb with his whole family except his only daughter: which daughter Chinggis Khan took as his wife.
Working translation
Original wording
Potiora eorum arma, fuere claua cum arcubus, & sagittis: pedites in maxima parte erant; pars minor in bobus sedebat; minima asinis & iumentis & pullis equorum. Rex itaque Dauid eorum aduentum audiens … & cum tota familia, exceptâ vnicâ eius filiâ, membratim truncatur: quam quidem filiam, Cyngis Chaam vxorem accepit.
About Mongols under Chinggis Khan; 'David, son of Prester John'
Keep in mind
A legend repeated from older crusade-era books; the Mongols were famously mounted archers, not ox-riding foot soldiers.
Transcribed from the page image; long s normalized.
Kazakh horde, Great and Lesser Nogais: the peoples on the old map
Editorial contextThe preface lists what the old Great Map showed in the south and east: the 'nomad Kazakh horde', the camps of the Great Nogais, the towns of Bukhara and Urgench, the Volga to Astrakhan and the Don to Azov, and the fields between Azov and Astrakhan 'where the Lesser Nogais roam'. The steppe is named by its nomad peoples, not by a single 'Tartary'.
and the nomad Kazakh horde, and the nomad camps of the Great Nogais, and the Bukharan and Urgench towns, and the river Volga to Astrakhan, and the river Don to Azov, and between Azov and Astrakhan to the Khvalyn [Caspian] and to the Azov and Black Seas, the fields and rivers where the Lesser Nogais roam.
Working translation
Original wording
и кочевую Казацкую орду, и большихъ Нагаевъ кочевье, и Бухарскіе и Юргенскіе города, и рѣку Волгу до Астарахани, и рѣку Донъ до Азова, и межъ Азова и Астарахани до Хвалинскаго, и до Азовскаго, и до Чернаго моря, поля и рѣки, что кочують малые Нагаи.
About Kazakhs ('Kazatskaia orda'), Great Nogai, Lesser Nogai; Bukhara and Urgench
A note on this quote
The scan is too rough to double-check this quote by machine. Compare it with the page.
The khan's daughter who wrestled her suitors for horses
Editorial contextKaidu Khan's daughter Aijaruc ('Bright Moon') refused to marry anyone who could not beat her. Each challenger staked horses, and she won more than 10,000. When a handsome prince staked 1,000 horses and her parents begged her to lose, she threw him on the palace floor anyway. She then rode to war with her father, snatching enemies from their ranks 'as deftly as a hawk'.
When both had taken post in the middle of the hall they grappled each other by the arms and wrestled this way and that, but for a long time neither could get the better of the other. At last, however, it so befel that the damsel threw him right valiantly on the palace pavement.
About Aijaruc (Khutulun), daughter of Kaidu Khan
Keep in mind
Polo was not present; Persian sources confirm a warrior daughter of Kaidu named Khutulun.
Tatar and Mongol, the two sons of one khan
Editorial contextCommenting on the new French edition of Abulghazi's 'Genealogical History of the Tatars' (Leiden 1726), Strahlenberg retells its origin story: a khan (Alenzie or Alinja Khan) had two sons, Tatar and Mungel, both of Turkish descent, whose followers split into two branches named after them. It is a Central Asian Muslim tradition, passed on through the Swedish prisoners' translation.
since Alenzie Khan had two sons, one Tater, the other Mungel, both indeed of Turkish descent, as the author rightly shows, these nevertheless divided at once into these two branches, the former going east with his Turkish people, who afterwards took their name from him, while Mungel stayed in the west with his own people
Working translation
Original wording
weil der Alenzie-Chan zwey Söhne gehabt, einen Tater den andern Mungel, so zwar beyde Türckischer descendence, wie der Autor recht zeiget, so haben sich solche doch von Stund an in diese beyde branches getheilet, indem jener mit seinem Türckischen Volck gegen Osten gegangen, welche hernach von ihm den Nahmen angenommen, der Mungel aber in Westen mit den Seinigen geblieben
About Tatars and Mongols (Abulghazi's origin story)
Keep in mind
The OCR of this copy is badly garbled Fraktur; the quote has been restored letter by letter from the damaged text, so check the scan. The legend is Abulghazi's (17th century), as read by Strahlenberg.
The scan is too rough to double-check this quote by machine. Compare it with the page.
Prester John: 'ten times more than the truth'
Editorial contextRubruck traces the legend of Prester John to a Nestorian shepherd-lord of the Naimans who made himself king after the death of the Kara-Khitai ruler. The Nestorians called him King John and said ten times more about him than was true, as they make great rumours out of nothing. Rubruck crossed his pastures and found that nobody knew anything of him except a few Nestorians.
When Con Khan died, that Nestorian raised himself up as king, and the Nestorians called him King John and said ten times more about him than the truth. For that is what Nestorians coming from those parts do: they make great rumours out of nothing … So the great fame of this King John went out; and when I crossed his pastures, nobody knew anything about him except a few Nestorians.
Working translation
Original wording
Mortuo Con cham, elevavit se ille nestorinus in regem et vocabant eum nestorini regem Johannem, et plus dicebant de ipso in decuplo quam veritas esset. Ita enim faciunt nestorini venientes de partibus illis: de nichilo enim faciunt magnos rumores … Sic ergo exivit magna fama de illo rege Johanne; et ego transivi per pascua ejus, nullus aliquid sciebat de eo nisi Nestoriani pauci.
About Naimans and Nestorian Christians
Continue in this sourceCarpini and Rubruck in the original Latinc. 1245 to 1329 · 19 passagesFive Tartaries on the map
Editorial contextHere 'Tartary' is a geographer's label for most of northern Asia, carved into five parts: Crim Tartary, the hordes under the Tsar (including Kazan and Astrakhan), Zagatay or the Uzbek country where Tamerlane reigned, Cathay or Great Tartary, and an unknown far north-east. It shows how loosely the name was spread over many peoples.
Tartary is devided into five parts, the first is the lesser Tartary, or Tartary of Precop, called also Crim Tartary. The second is Sarmatia Asiatica, which containeth many Hordes of the Tartars subject to the Great Duke of Moscovia, as the Czeremisses, the Nagais, Zauolhans, and those of Cazan and Astracan.
About Crimean Tatars, Volga Tatars, Nogais, Uzbeks and the peoples of 'Great Tartary'
Keep in mind
A textbook geographic scheme, not observation. The list continues on p.35 with Zagatay (where Tamerlane reigned), Cathay or Great Tartary, and an unknown north-east.
How Tatars and Mongols merged
Editorial contextMeyendorff offers his theory of the name: Genghis Khan's Mongols conquered the Tatars, who were more numerous, and took up their Turkic language. From that mixture, he says, came all the peoples called 'Mongol Tartars', and he sees no real difference in looks between a Kazakh, an Uzbek, a Turkmen and a Tatar of Kazan or Crimea.
The Asiatic people to whom the Russians give the name of Tartars, have the nose slightly flattened, the cheek bones prominent, little beard on the chin, and small eyes … Gengis Khan, at the head of the Mongols, subjugated the Tartars, who became incorporated with his army, and those of his successors. As they were the most numerous, the conquerors adopted the Turkish language, barbarous as it was
About Tatars and Mongols; Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Turkmens, Kazan and Crimean Tatars
Keep in mind
Meyendorff's own theory, mixed with racial typing of the period.
Trial by goat and sieve among the pagan Tatars
Editorial contextHammer's first appendix translates the Ottoman geography Menazir ul-awalim, which here copies al-Qazwini's Athar al-bilad (1275). The Tatars are described as a hard, bloodthirsty Turkic people who worship the sun; their coming is counted among the Prophet's foretold wonders, with a saying about broad-faced, small-eyed 'Turks' who will tie their horses to the pillars of the mosques. A woman once held captive tells how, when her captor fell ill, his kin suspected her of poisoning him, set her on a goat and had a sorceress swing a sieve over her while they stood round with drawn swords; when the goat bleated she was freed. The Ottoman author adds that these pagan Tatars differ from the Crimean and Nogai Tatars, long since Muslims.
I was for a time a captive among the Tatars, when the man who had taken me prisoner fell ill. … One day they held a great assembly, brought a goat and set me on it. A sorceress came with a sieve in her hand, swung it and spoke some words … While this was happening, the goat bleated under me. They said: it is not as we believed, and let me go.
Working translation
Original wording
Ich war eine Zeitlang unter den Tataren gefangen, als der, so mich gefangen genommen, krank ward. … Eines Tages stellten sie eine grosse Versammlung an, brachten eine Ziege, und setzten mich darauf. Eine Zauberinn kam, mit einem Siebe in der Hand, schwang dasselbe und sprach einige Worte … Während diess geschah, meckerte die Ziege unter mir. Sie sagten, es ist nicht, wie wir geglaubet haben, und liessen mich los.
About Pagan Tatars before the Mongol conquests, as seen by Muslim writers
Keep in mind
A single anecdote passed through two compilers, framed by hostile religious prophecy; not a description of Golden Horde practice.
The other two Tartar empires
Editorial contextBesides the Great Tartar of Cathay and the Tartar emperor of Persia, Jordanus has heard of two more Tartar empires: one 'now of Osbet' called Gatzaria, and one of 'Dua and Cayda', now of 'Elchigaday'. Yule's note identifies Osbet as Uzbek, khan of the Golden Horde (1313 to 1340), and Elchigaday as the Chagatai khanate, and explains that Chinggis Khan's conquests had split among his heirs. An early sketch of the divided Mongol world.
But other two empires of the Tartars, as I have heard, to wit, that which was formerly of Cathay, but now is of Osbet, which is called Gatzaria, and the empire of Dua and Cayda, formerly of Capac and now of Elchigaday, extend over more than CC days' journey.
About Golden Horde (Uzbek Khan) and Chagatai khanate
Keep in mind
Hearsay; several names are garbled, and the identifications are Yule's.
Scythians, then Turks, then Tatars
Editorial contextIn his introduction Reinaud explains that the same northern peoples went by different names in different eras: Scythians for ancient writers, Turks for early Arabic writers, and Tartars, or rather Tatars as Arabs, Persians and Turks pronounce it, for later writers. It is a short, clear account of how 'Tartar' became a catch-all label.
For ancient writers, the peoples of northern Asia and Europe were Scythians; for the early Arabic writers they are Turks; for later writers they are Tartars, or rather, as the Arabs, Persians and Turks pronounce it, Tatars.
Working translation
Original wording
Chez les écrivains de l'antiquité, les peuples du nord de l'Asie et de l'Europe étaient des Scythes; chez les anciens écrivains arabes, ce sont des Turks; chez les écrivains postérieurs, ce sont des Tartares ou plutôt, comme prononcent les Arabes, les Persans et les Turks, des Tatars.
About Peoples of northern Asia generally
Keep in mind
A nineteenth-century scholar's summary, not a medieval statement.
Why the Mongols are still called Tatars
Editorial contextNey Elias's introduction quotes the Persian historian Rashid al-Din (writing about 1300 to 1310). The Tatars were once so powerful that other Turkic peoples called themselves Tatars for the prestige, just as in Rashid's own day everyone wanted to be a 'Mongol'. That, he says, is why the Mongols are still called Tatars in China, India, the Kipchak steppe, Arabia, Syria and Egypt.
Previous to this period it was the same with the Tatars, on account of their power, and this is the reason why the Mongols are still called Tatars in China and in India, by the Kirghiz, the Bashgirds, in the Kapchak country, in the north of Asia, in Arabia, in Syria, in Egypt, and in Africa.
About Tatars and Mongols
Keep in mind
Editorial introduction quoting a fourteenth-century source at second hand.
'Turk' means a man from the highlands of Tartary
Editorial contextChardin insists that the true 'Turkey' is the vast highland of Tartary, homeland of both the Turkmen herders and the Ottomans' ancestors. In the East, he says, 'Turk' simply means someone from those highlands, and Ottoman subjects find the name barbarous. He also scolds European travellers who write about countries without knowing the language.
For that among them Turk signifies one that comes from those High-lands of Tartary, let it be from what part it will.
About Turkmens and Turks, as seen from Persia
Continue in this sourceChardin's journey through Crimea and the Caucasus to Persia1660 to 1679 · 13 passagesA map of a land that 'lay in the dark'
Editorial contextThe Royal Society's president greets Witsen's map as a Columbus-like discovery of a new world, and wonders aloud how anyone could chart deserts, bogs and mountains that seemed made for 'everlasting Solitude'. It is a vivid picture of how unknown 'Tartary' was to western Europe in the 1680s.
I Have lately had a great Effect of your Bounty in the Maps of Tartary. this is Columbus like, the Discovery of a New World; at least Tydings of those Parts, which from the beginning have layn in the Dark.
About Peoples of 'Great Tartary'
Continue in this sourceNicolaas Witsen explains his new map of Great Tartary to the Royal Society1666 to 1699 · 2 passagesAmazons beyond Samarkand, subject to Timur
Editorial contextClavijo repeats what he heard at Samarkand: fifteen days toward China lived a land of women who met men once a year, kept their daughters and sent their sons to the fathers. He adds that they were Greek Christians, once subjects of the emperor of Cathay, now of Timur, and descended from the Amazons of Troy. A classic legend attached to a real direction on the map.
These women are subject to Timour Beg ; they used to be under the emperor of Cathay, and they are Christians of the Greek Church. They are of the lineage of the Amazons who were at Troy, when it was destroyed by the Greeks.
About A women's nation said to live toward China
Keep in mind
Hearsay of a classical legend; no one in the party went there.
The Tartar invasions, from Attila to the Uzbeks
Editorial contextBurnes opens a chapter 'On the Inroads of the Tartars' by lumping together Attila, Alaric, Genghis, Timur and the Uzbeks as expressions of 'the ever-wandering spirit of the Tartar people'. He places their homeland beyond the Jaxartes (Syr Darya) rather than in northern China. It shows the romantic, racial idea of 'the Tartar' that educated Britons held in the 1830s.
Attila and Alaric spread devastation in the empire of the Caesars. Jengis and Timour have succeeded them in more modern but equally destructive inroads. Through these great revolutions we trace the ever-wandering spirit of the Tartar people
About Tartars as a catch-all for steppe conquerors
Keep in mind
Burnes's own generalisation; Alaric was a Goth, not a steppe nomad.
Gog and Magog beyond the mountains, fires in the night
Editorial contextThis page is not by Nieuhof but from Athanasius Kircher's China Illustrata, bound into Ogilby's English volume. Kircher quotes an Arabic geographer on the cities of Gog and Magog beyond an unclimbable snowy mountain: people who climb it rarely return, and those who do report many fires at night. Kircher then fits this to the Great Cham's empire and Prester John.
On the other side of the Mountain are many Cities of Jagog and Magog. And it often happened, that the Inhabitants of this Region, out of a certain curiosity, ascend some part of it … but many never return … some that have return'd safe, relate, that in the Region on the other side of the Mountain in the night season, are many fires
About Gog and Magog, identified with the Great Cham's realm
Keep in mind
Not part of Nieuhof's text; a learned legend passed through several books.
A seal, not a signature
Editorial contextIn a footnote to a pass issued by the Tibetan Panchen Lama that he found among the Kalmyks, stamped with a red seal, Pallas explains that the Mongol and Tatar peoples of Asia confirm letters and documents not by signing their names but by printing the mark of their seal or signet ring (tamga) in colour beneath them; without it, even a signed name is not considered valid.
The Mongol as well as the Tatar peoples of Asia are accustomed to confirm their letters and manuscripts not by signing their name, but by the mark of their signet or seal ring (tamga) printed underneath in colour, without which even a signature is not considered valid.
Working translation
Original wording
Die Mongolischen sowohl, als tatarischen Völker Asiens pflegen ihre Briefe und Handschriften nicht mit Unterschrift des Namens, sondern durch das mit Farbe darunter abgedrukte Zeichen ihres Signets oder Petschierrings (Tamga) zu bekräftigen, ohne welches selbst die Namensunterschrift nicht für gültig gehalten wird.
About Mongol and Tatar peoples of Asia
Continue in this sourcePallas's historical collections on the Mongol peoples1769 to 1773 · 6 passagesA hundred cities, none with a Chinese name
Editorial contextHeading west past the Tangut frontier, the envoy says he passed more than a hundred cities with no Chinese names and was told of many tribes living there. The list runs on over the page (Mo-li-hi, Mo-k'o-ti, Ho-li-ki-sz, Nai-man, Hang-li, Gui-gu, T'u-ma, Ho-lu), ending 'all are barbarian tribes'. Bretschneider identifies them as the Merkits, perhaps the Mekrins, the Kirghiz, Naimans, Kankali, Uighurs, Tumats and Karluks, peoples Chinggis had just brought under his rule. None of them is called Mongol or Tatar.
I passed through more than a hundred cities: not one of them had a Chinese name. Inquiring about the country, I was told that many tribes were living there, namely, the Mo-li-hi
About Steppe tribes: Merkits, Kirghiz, Naimans, Kankali, Uighurs, Tumats, Karluks
Keep in mind
Bretschneider warns that the envoy's route and distances are too vague and exaggerated to trace, and that his line about rivers flowing east and west is copied from the Han history.
Some Tartars in houses, others in tents
Editorial contextPerry sorts the Tartars into those who live in houses and stay put all year (the 'Bogdoi', Uzbek and Bukharan Tartars towards China) and those who live in tents and migrate north and south with the seasons (the Kalmyks and western hordes). He compares the nomads' life to the patriarchs in Moses: they neither plough nor sow.
The Bogdoi, Yousbeck, and Bucharsky Tartars, more towards China, live in Houses, and continue Winter and Summer in the same place; but the Cullmick, and several Hordes of Western Tartars, who border more towards the C'zar's Dominions, live in Tents, and move Northward and Southward, according to the Seasons of the Year,
About Manchus ('Bogdoi'), Uzbeks and Bukharans versus Kalmyks and western hordes
Keep in mind
He saw the Kalmyks himself; what he says of the Uzbeks and 'Bogdoi' is from report.
A mountain chain that crosses 'the land of the Tatars'
Editorial contextTracing the great mountain chain that ends in Syria, al-Umari starts it in China at the encircling ocean and says it cuts across 'the land of the Tatars' along its mines before reaching Fergana. Here 'land of the Tatars' is simply the Mamluk name for Mongol-ruled inner Asia, much as Europeans used 'Tartary'.
Its beginning is in the east, in China, at the Encircling Ocean. It cuts across the land of the Tatars, along its mines, until it reaches Farghana.
Working translation
Original wording
فإن أوله بالمشرق من الصين من البحر المحيط . فيقطع بلاد التتر على معادنها إلى أن يأتى فرغانة
About Tatars (Mongol-ruled inner Asia)
A note on this quote
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR is partly garbled); vowel marks omitted.
Sledges from post to post, and Kyrgyz dog teams
Editorial contextWest of Bolad, Chang De found that coins were of gold, silver and copper with inscriptions but no square hole, and that in the land he calls Ma'a horses pulled sledges from one post station to the next, carrying heavy loads at speed. He adds, as a report, that the Kyrgyz used dogs in place of horses. Bretschneider doubted there were sledges on this route but noted that Marco Polo also mentions dog sledges in Siberia.
On coming into Ma'a, they use horses to pull sledges from post station to post station, carrying heavy loads and going fast. Some say that the Qiliqisi (Kyrgyz) use dogs in place of horses.
Working translation
Original wording
至麻阿中以馬撁拖床逓鋪負重而行疾或曰乞里乞四易馬以犬
About Peoples of the Chagatai realm; Kyrgyz (Qirqis)
Keep in mind
The dog-sledge detail is introduced with 'some say'.
Chinggis Khan hires the Alans to punish the world
Editorial contextIn his world history after Noah, Marignolli derives the Alans from Elam, son of Shem, calls them the noblest nation on earth, and says the Tartars won the Empire of the East only with their help. Chinggis Khan, 'first king of the Tartars', hired 72 of their princes when he set out, by God's command, to chastise the world. The Tartars are fitted into Bible history as God's scourge.
from whom [Elam] the noble race of the Alans in the East is said to have sprung; and it is today the greatest and noblest nation in the world, the handsomest and strongest men, with whose help the Tartars won the Empire of the East, and without whom they never won a glorious victory. For Chinggis Khan, first king of the Tartars, hired seventy-two of their princes when he wished, at God's command, to chastise the world.
Working translation
Original wording
a quo nobilis generacio Alanorum in oriente dicitur exorta, & est hodie maior & nobilior nacio mundi, & homines pulcriores, & forciores, quorum auxilio Tartari optinuerunt Imperium orientis, & sine quibus nunquam habuerunt victoriam gloriosam. Conduxit enim Cingwis Caam primus Thartarorum Rex de eis LXXII. principes, quando voluit precepto Dei castigare mundum.
About Tartars (Mongols) under Chinggis Khan, and the Alans
Keep in mind
Biblical genealogy plus praise of the Alans, who were in fact conquered by the Mongols in the 1220s and 1230s rather than hired by Chinggis.
Gog and Magog from a khan's name?
Editorial contextStrahlenberg criticises the French editor of Abulghazi for suggesting that the biblical names Gog and Magog came from a khan called Budenür-Mogack, an idea also found in Pétis de la Croix. He insists that the Tatar original text, under an Arabic name, shows something quite different. It shows how European scholars tried to fit the peoples of Tartary into biblical prophecy.
likewise on p. 148 he presumes that the name Gog and Magog comes from a king or khan called Budenür-Mogack (which, if I am right, La Croix also cites in his remarks), whereas the Tatar original text, under an Arabic name, proves it quite otherwise.
Working translation
Original wording
item pag. 148 praesumiret, der Nahme Gog & Magog entstehe von einem Könige oder Chan, der Budenür-Mogack geheissen, (welches, wo mir recht ist, La Croix in seinen Remarquen auch anführet) da doch der Tatarsche Grund-Text unter einem Arabischen Nahmen solches ganz anders beweiset.
About Tatars (in Abulghazi's history)
Keep in mind
The OCR of this copy is badly garbled Fraktur; the quote has been restored letter by letter from the damaged text, so check the scan.
The scan is too rough to double-check this quote by machine. Compare it with the page.
Scythians 'called at the present day Tartars'
Editorial contextThe humanist Poggio Bracciolini, writing up travellers' reports in Rome, describes an envoy from 'upper India' who crossed the lands of the northern Scythians on his way west. Poggio adds that these Scythians are now called Tartars, a typical Renaissance habit of mapping the new name onto the classical one.
Travelling through the country of the northern Scythians, who are called at the present day Tartars, and of the Parthians, for the space of several months, he arrived at length at the Euphrates ; then, having embarked at Tripoli, he proceeded to Venice, and afterwards to Florence.
About Northern Scythians (Tartars)
Keep in mind
Poggio relays an envoy's report through an interpreter; the Scythian identification is a learned label, not observation.
Mogores, named after Magog
Editorial contextCruz says these peoples trade as far as Hormuz, border the Caspian and have the Tartars at their side. The Greeks called them Scythians, but across Asia they are called Mogores, a name he believes they kept from their ancestor Magog. It is a learned folk etymology linking the Mughals (from 'Mongol') to the biblical Magog.
Many of them come with goods to Hormuz; they border on the Caspian Sea, and at their side are the Tartars. And although the Greeks call these people Scythians, throughout Asia the greater and the lesser they are called Mogores, keeping the first name they took from their father Magog, from whom they descend and take their name.
Working translation
Original wording
Vem muitos delles cõ fazendas a Ormuz, confinẽ cõ ho mar Caspio, e ao lado com os Tartaros: e inda q̃ os gregos a estes chamẽ Scythas: por toda Asia mayor e menor sam chamados Mogores perseuerãdo nelles ha primeira denominaçam q̃ tomaram do pay Magog dõde decẽdem e se denominarã.
About Mogores (Mughals and related Central Asian peoples) living beside the Tartars
Keep in mind
The Magog derivation is Cruz's own guess; 'Mogor' actually comes from 'Mongol'.
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.
'Yusbek': a hundred lords, or 'he is the lord'?
Editorial contextChardin gives two etymologies for the Uzbeks. Persians derived it from 'yuz' (a hundred) and 'bek' (lord), mocking a land split among a hundred petty princes; the Uzbeks rejected that and said it meant 'he is the lord'. He adds that Tartar and Turkish are one language, Turkish being a dialect of it.
They are called Yusbecks, at least if the Persian Etymology be true, by reason of the great number of Sovereign Princes by which the Tartars are Govern'd; for Yus, as well in the Language of the Tartars as Turks, which is but a Dialect of it, signifies a hundred, and Bek, Lords
About Uzbeks, whom Chardin calls the Tartars of Lesser Tartary
Continue in this sourceChardin's journey through Crimea and the Caucasus to Persia1660 to 1679 · 13 passagesThe Karakhitai: steppe exiles who swapped carts for camels
Editorial contextThe envoy tells how Ta-shi (Yelu Dashi), a Khitan of the fallen Liao house, fled north-west with the frontier tribes, moving from pasture to pasture for years. Blocked by rocks and snow, they abandoned their carts, loaded their goods on camels, conquered the Muslim lands and founded an empire. After a regent princess was executed for killing her husband and a weak ruler took over, the realm decayed, and the few Khitan left had adopted Muslim customs and dress. It is a compact picture of a nomad people turning into a settled empire and then dissolving into its subjects.
They were obliged to leave their carts behind, and to carry their baggage on camels. Thus they arrived in the country of the Hui-ho (Mohammedans), took possession of the land and founded an empire. … the empire fell into decay, and was finally destroyed by the Hui-ho. At the present day there are few of these people left, and they have adopted the customs and the dress of the Hui-ho.
About Karakhitai (Western Liao), Khitan exiles
Keep in mind
Told from the Jin side; Bretschneider points to the fuller Liao history account in his Part II. The Changchun diary (W113, p.73) blames the fall on the Naiman prince Guchluk and the Sultan of Khwarazm rather than simply 'the Hui-ho'.
'Like wind and water': Katib Celebi on the Tatar character
Editorial contextContinuing from the European source, Katib Celebi describes the Tatars as steel-natured among mankind, restless as wind and water, with the strength of Ahriman and the might of demons. They roam the deserts like the wind; they neither eat bread nor build houses, their horses need neither shoes nor nails, and they cross rivers by swimming. It is the classic European literary picture of the steppe nomad, translated into Ottoman.
Qualities of the Tatars: this people are of steel nature among mankind, and like water and wind their nature is used to motion; they have the strength of Ahriman and the power of demons … they run like the wind; neither do they tire nor do their horses; the horses they ride need neither shoe nor nail.
Working translation
Original wording
واوصاف تاتار بوقوم بنی نوع انسان میانه‌ده پولاد نهادلر وآب وباد کبی طبیعتلری حرکته معتاد اهرمن قوت ودیو زورلو ... ایل کبی یلرلر نه کندولر یورولور نه اتلری درلر بندکلری آته نه نعل حاجت نه میخ
About Tatars (generic)
Keep in mind
A stereotype copied from European books, not observation; a few words at the line breaks are uncertain in the print.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR of this facsimile is garbled).
Lost books blamed on 'Tatar lust for war'
Editorial contextVambery laments that Uighur manuscripts on history and religion, such as those Rashid al-Din used for his great history, are lost for ever, destroyed by time and 'the even more devastating fire of Tatar lust for war'. Here 'Tatar' means the Mongol conquerors. It is a nineteenth-century scholar's explanation for missing sources, not evidence of a hidden civilisation.
Much has been destroyed by the iron tooth of time and the even more devastating fire of Tatar lust for war. Precious, irreplaceable jewels of the history of those distant parts of Asia, such as those Rashid al-Din still used when compiling his Taj al-Tawarikh, are lost to us for ever.
Working translation
Original wording
Vieles hat der eiserne Zahn der Zeit und das noch mehr verheerende Feuer tatarischer Kriegslust zu Grunde gerichtet. Kostbare, unersetzliche Kleinodien der Geschichte jener fernen Gegenden Asiens, wie jene, deren Raschid-ed-Din noch bei Zusammenstellung seines Tag-et-tevarich's sich bediente, sind für uns auf ewig verschwunden
About Mongols (Tatars)
Keep in mind
Vambery's opinion; he gives no specific case of Mongols destroying Uighur books.
Checked against the page image (the corpus OCR reads 'Kasehid').
