Crimea

Symferapol, called by the Tartars, Ak-Metchet … consists of two parts, that which has been erected by the Russians, since their possession of the Crimea, and that which remains from the ancient Tartar town. This latter part is dull, dirty, and disgusting: every Tartar house and yard being surrounded by a wall, and not having a single window looking into

they placed a flat dish… on the head of the new married woman; they stretched a veil over her head… after this they poured millet on the trencher, which, spreading all around her, formed a cone… her dowry was not complete until the pyramid of millet reached up to the trencher, the veil still allowing her to breath. This custom was not favourable to little persons

The first effects of this phenomenon excited such astonishment, that I had some difficulty in destroying the opinion of magic I saw arising in their minds… The Kam, however, had the air of comprehending me, and was himself desirous of being electrified. I gave him the stroke very moderately, but I handled the courtiers in such a manner as to obtain the Prince's approbation.

(to) stay, and when angry they call down on their children this grievous evil, saying: 'O may you cling forever to one place, like a Christian, and smell your own stink.' … The more provinces they have laid waste, the larger, they say, they have made their realms (for they are used to living in the fields under the open sky).

Working translation

The custom of eating horse-flesh is not in use among the Crim Tatars of the present day, and they indeed deny that it was ever their practice.

And among them even a woman of the first rank, even one close to the khan, going to the palace, is not ashamed to ride shut in her closed cage, gleaming inside with gold and jewels, drawn by one ox, or by two if the cart is heavy. But to yoke even the worst horse to a vehicle is sacrilege and forbidden to every one of them

Working translation

we saw beneath us the singular and romantic Tartar capital of the Crimea. Buckteserai, the Palatium of Strabo, is seated in a narrow valley, through which runs the stream of the Tchuruksu. The flat-roofed and tile-covered houses are built in the bottom of the valley, and up the sides of the hills : in the midst of them is a most interesting object, viz. the Tartar Palace.

Its rulers were Tatars, but its subjects mostly Turks. Towards the end of the fifteenth century this empire broke up into several small ones, of which those of Crimea, Kazan and Astrakhan were the most important. Their princes descended from [Chinggis Khan] and were Mongols or Tatars, but their armies no longer were … Nevertheless these khanates kept the name 'Tatar', because the khans were Tatars.

Working translation

All these Nagays are, as their features evince, the unmixed descendants of the Mongolian tribe, who formed the bulk of the army of Tshingis-Khan, which invaded Russia and the Crimea.

The two oldest, and for whom this ceremony was acting, were to set out, in two days, on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and, should they not return, their monuments, upright stones, surmounted by turbans, would be placed on the spot where the holes were dug.

The town of Bagtché-Serai rejoices in the beneficent solicitude of the luminous Crim-Gheri-Khan: it was he, who with generous hand quenched the thirst of his countrymen … If there exists such another fountain, let it present itself. The towns of Scham and Bagdad have seen many things, but never such a fountain.

About a Mile from the Shoar there is a Habitation of the Tartars, whither I went with some of my Servants to buy Provisions, but I did not see in all that place above Ten or Twelve Houses with a little Mosquee. Only round about it there was a great Number of Tents, Round and Square

This harem is a square building, with verandas, having only three rooms: these are large and lofty … Each room has a double range of small windows, with wooden gratings … The appearance of the exterior of the palace, as seen from the garden, is that of a low building, in some parts only one story. Its roof is white, and the chimnies appear like so many minarets

The houses have no windows, but the entire front wall consists only of wooden flaps, which can be let down or drawn up at pleasure, and which sometimes serve as tables or boards for goods. In one house you may see a baker at work … In the next you may overlook all the manipulations required in the preparation of the Turkish beverage entitled “boussa,”

Near here I had the first opportunity of seeing a Tartar village, “de près;” the houses are very low, the roofs flat and covered with clay, and frequently so curiously placed against the mountain, that a person coming down from above

by the Tartar law the criminal must perish by the hand of the injured person, or by his heirs. It was objected then, but in vain, that a Turk could not be delivered up to the Jews. “I would deliver up my brother to them,” replied the Kam, “if he was guilty; I leave Providence to reward his conversion, if it be sincere; it is my duty to do justice.”

The Tatars believe that the spirits of the bad walk for forty days after death. In this case, they say, it is requisite to uncover the grave, and either shoot the dead body, cut off its head, or take out its heart.

The Houses are but small, and all built of Earth, as are also their Bazars or Market-places, their Publick Structures, Mosquees, and Baths. There is not one Building of Stone in all the City, except eight Churches somewhat gone to decay, formerly built by the Genoeses.

The Tartarians insist upon it that the sea once lay at the foot of them … and ships were fastened to them

The tribes of Crimea, Budjak, Kuban, Yedisan, Jamboyluk and Yedichkul, and all the Tatar peoples without exception, shall be recognised and accepted by the two states as free and entirely independent, subject to no foreign state. Their own khans, elected and installed from the line of Genghis by the common vote and agreement of all the Tatar peoples …

Working translation

passed through some noble remains of battlemented walls of Genoese architecture, flanked with square and round towers. Before us were the remains of a Tartar mosque, a Jewish synagogue, a small church, and the tombs of Moslems, Israelites, and Christians, pointing out the successive occupiers of this strange city, the ruins of whose habitations were very numerous

Our host appeared rather astonished at being remunerated, in the morning, and said that the generality of his visitors were always on duty; adding, “Our conquerors, Sir, have left us very poor.”

on entering it, I found it divided into compartments by railings, and Greeks and Tartars were sitting cross-legged on carpets, and smoking cherry-stick chebouks and drinking coffee. A gray-beard, in a corner, was encouraging a youth to drink koumis or spirits, distilled from mare's milk. A grave-looking pair were engaged at chess ; and in the window-seat were three musicians

According to the Tatar historians, the first conqueror of Crimea settled at the Eski Salachik yurt; Tatars came to Crimea from the cities of Mahan, Ahlat, Kerman and Yesu and from the lands of Kazan, Astrakhan and Sarai, and as they multiplied they no longer fitted into the old yurt, and settled at this Bahcesaray site.

Working translation

The Nagays, as well as their kinsmen near the Lines of Caucasus, and the Akhtouba, live in small huts constructed of felt, the largest of which are from about four to five and a half arshines in diameter, and, like those of the Kundure Tartars, cannot be taken to pieces, but are placed by two men upon a carriage, and thus removed from one place to another.

The most interesting object is the palace of the Khans, which stands in a large area … We entered the court-yard, which brought into our view the palace, the mosque, and the tombs … In the entrance we passed a marble fountain, and ascended a spacious staircase, which brought us to a large room, called the golden chamber, the ceiling of which, divided into compartments, and studded with gilded stars

He has a not undistinguished town, and a principal stone house in which he always lives, called Bakhchisaray. ... A stone Muslim temple and the tombs of the khans have been built near the town out of the ruins of the Christians. ... The palace or house of the khans was sumptuously and magnificently adorned by the early princes of the Tartars with buildings, temples, tombs and baths.

Working translation

some papers written by the Mulla were disposed about it; one being placed on the breast, expressive of the character of the deceased; another in the hand, intended likewise as a sort of passport at the gates of Heaven; and a third above the head, which is said to be an intimation to the Evil One to refrain from disturbing the bones of a true believer.

Sahib Giray, just as he had a mosque and a bathhouse built beside the khan's palace in Bakhchysarai, also built about a hundred mosques in other quarters, and so succeeded in having his name remembered with blessing in the world.

Working translation

The Tatars advanced as far as the town of Sudak, which belongs to the Qipchaqs and from which they draw their grain; it lies on the Khazar Sea and ships put in there. Cloth is found there, which the Qipchaqs come to buy, giving in exchange slaves of both sexes and fox skins … The Tatars took Sudak, whose inhabitants fled

Working translation

The Towns of this Peninsula are first Przecop, called Or by the Tartars, where there are about four hundred Houses … Crim, another Town of the Cham … inhabited by few but by the Tartars. Baciasary where the Cham ordinarily keepeth his Court … about two thousand Houses.

Only figure to yourself, my good friend, in a deep valley, bounded by a huge chain of pendant rocks, an assemblage of Tartar houses of uncouth forms, stuck as it were against the sides of the mountains, and placed in circles one above another, round the palace of their Chan (situated at the bottom of the valley), so as to represent a large amphitheatre, or rather funnel

But since the Tatar nation is of the religion of Islam … the Russian state consents that the Tatars accept and acknowledge that supreme spiritual authority is vested in the noble person of His Majesty the compassionate and mighty Padishah of the House of Osman, as caliph and head of all Muslim rulers and protector of the Two Holy Cities.

Working translation

After the Mongol torrent had subsided, Europeans persisted in giving the appellation of Tatars to all those Mussulman nations originally of Turkish origin, that to this day occupy the territory of Kasan and Astrakhan, the Crimea and the region called Turcomania

Tatar: 'a Turk', 'Turkish'; tatar til: 'honest (plain) speech', page 229.

Working translation

The dwellings lie thickly scattered about among the trees, and leaning on one side against the mountain, so that one may ride over their flat roofs. These are large, as they supply the place of a courtyard covered with earth and small stones, laid smooth with a sort of roller, and supported on thin trunks of trees. Glass windows there are not, but in their place wooden flaps

The last of the khans from Lithuania, Aczkirei, was born near Trakai and sent from here by the late Vytautas to that throne; ruling there in Taurica he fathered a son, Mengli Giray. … This, then, is the stock of the Girays, planted there by the strong right hand of Your Majesty's ancestors

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Their buildings are not worth much; the best are usually made of stone and mortar; many are of wood and roofed with planks, others of stakes driven into the ground

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For very many ancient Muslim temples or shrines, with Chaldaic characters cut into rather large stones, are seen not only in the city itself but beyond it. Quite a few Turkish or Tartar inhabitants, though fewer Greeks, report that their forefathers constantly remembered that the city was once inhabited by a people of Persians, and was once an outstanding and almost the chief workshop of the mechanical arts. ... From this place the Tartars are now commonly called Crimean.

Working translation

Through the very middle of the city runs the Salachik stream … and over this Churuk Su, inside the city, one crosses from one side to the other at forty-three places by stone and timber bridges; and to right and left of the city, storey upon storey, lower and upper, all are masonry buildings roofed from end to end with ruby-red tiles.

Working translation

A divan, covered with coarse cotton, ran round the apartment, and the fire-place, in the centre of the side near the door, was large enough to admit six or eight persons within the chimney. Of course, there were no tables or chairs; a low wooden stool or plateau on three legs, as in Turkey, being used for meals

" How," said they, " can any one apply the name of palace to that assemblage of wooden houses, daubed with coarse paintings, and furnished only with divans and carpets?" And these people were right in their way.

All these places were well fortified as long as the Genoese ruled them, but the Tatars razed the fortifications when they took them. When they later became subject to the Turks, these restored the fortifications at Kefa, Kerch and Kozlov and built the fortress of Arabat … as well as Perekop

Working translation

So on the third day after we left Soldaia we came upon the Tartars, and when I went in among them it truly seemed to me that I was entering another world. I will describe their life and customs to you as best I can. Nowhere do they have an abiding city, and of the city to come they know nothing.

Working translation

I drew the plan, I collected the materials, and superintended the work, without departing from the method of building pursued by the Tartars… I shall take this opportunity of describing the structure of the houses in Crimea; but these details, or the architecture of the Tartars, will be of more service to the lovers of oeconomy, than to disciples of Vitruvius.

In the burial-place of the Khans I found many memorials strikingly at variance with our notions of these barbarians; so many traces of humanity and piety, that I felt more strongly than ever, how imperfect are the records of history.

When she reaches the door of her new prison, sherbet is brought her to drink, and some kind of sweetmeat is given with it. She is next presented with a lamb, which is actually put into the carriage with her … wrapped in a sheet, she is carried by her brother into the house.

The town that the Tartars today call Eski-Krim is certainly the ancient Cimmerium of Ptolemy … its name Krim, which is also that of the peninsula of Crimea, is plainly the word Cimmerium … disfigured by the Tartars. This town, now no more than a wretched market town, appears once to have been large and flourishing. There are still several monuments of remote ages, of the Middle Ages and of the Genoese period.

Working translation

This town, at present considered as the capital of the Crimea, was formerly nothing but a country house, called the Palace of the Gardens. The sovereigns by living there have drawn together a number of inhabitants; and this town… has successively usurped the pre-eminence over the ancient town of Crimea, which is now no more than a paltry village, where the tombs alone testify its ancient importance.

And in Bakhchysarai the tsar's chambers, kitchens and stables are of stone, and it stands low beneath a hill; and about 2 versts beyond the tsar's court is a church of the Most Pure Mother of God in the salt flats, and Greeks serve in it. And the court on the river Alma has one stone chamber, and wooden houses daubed with clay, and it stands on the bank in a vineyard.

Working translation

Tartar huts, which the barbarians commonly call 'vlnsi' (evidently ulus, a misprint), made like villages of very thin wood, plastered with mud or muck and the dung of cattle or animals, and roofed with reed ... But in summer and autumn the Tartars do not live in these huts, for in April, with wives, children, household and slaves, they are carried with their houses, which are round, covered with penulae (felt coverings), and scarcely roomy enough for four or five people to live in, on carts resting on two wheels ...

Working translation

Alushta is built on a sort of terrace, so that the flat roof of one house serves as a promenade to the people of the upper one. There are seven or eight rows of these houses, none having more than one flat, and that very low, with a portico in front … The mosque is embowered among old and immense walnut trees. It is a rude structure of wood and clay

Too much praise, however, cannot be given to the Tartars for their care in conducting the water by canals, sometimes from a very considerable distance, and the purposes to which they apply it; either by making public springs, or conveying it into their houses… Unfortunately, these fountains have been in a great degree destroyed by the Russians, and those which remain, decay daily for want of necessary repairs.

On the khan's death, or if the Tatar peoples by common agreement wish to depose him, since it is among impossible things for anyone other than the line of Genghis to attain this rank of khan, when they elect and install another khan from the descendants of Genghis

Working translation

One day I was surprised to see an English gig drive into their court, with a mounted servant behind. A dark good-looking gentleman then alighted, and I recognised an old fellow-student at the University of Edinburgh, the Sultan Katty Gherry Crim Gherry. He was born in the Caucasus, of a branch of the Tartar Khans of the Crimea, was brought to Britain

Near the handsome mosque in the court of Batcheferai palace, mentioned in my last, we perceived a couple of pretty rotundos, in which repose the ashes of a long line of Chans; but what most attracted our eyes… was a pretty little mausoleum, dedicated “To Conjugal Fidelity and Attachment,” erected by one of the Crimean Chans on losing a beloved christian wife, probably a fair captive

The King has five palaces, and the Sultan two; one in the town where he resides … Each of these palaces is about a mile round and is surrounded by a high wall, but not a strong one; the gates are of iron, and the apartments they enclose are gilded and painted inside in fine colours.

Working translation

She made me a sign to sit down; and my gloves seeming to excite much uneasiness in her I took them off … upon which she drew near, smiled, took one of my hands between her's, and winked and nodded as a sign of approbation

The Khan's palace is an irregular building, the greatest part of it is one floor raised upon pillars of wood painted and gilt in a fanciful and lively manner

On arriving at a station, the Bashi, or head man, was not always in the way; when found, he immediately ascended the wooden minaret in the centre of the village, and commenced calling a roster of those whose horses were next for duty, a reply was soon elicited from one corner or another

There are two large octagons, with domes, of about thirty feet diameter, which contain the bodies and monuments of many Khans. In the first are ten or twelve wooden coffins, covered with black cloth, and having at the top the turbans of the deceased.

They have no enclosures and no houses, only portable tents of wicker and reeds joined together, covered with felts and mats and made fast with rush matting, which, filled with wives and children, they carry with them on carts.

Working translation

The Tartar houses are of one story, constructed of stone, cemented together by a calcareous clay, and covered with tiles. Toward the street they have no windows; polygamy, and its natural consequence, jealousy, having turned the facade of Tauric dwellings to the inner court, where the women may breathe the fresh air through muslin blinds.

They reck'n about 4000 Houses to be in Caffa; of which 3200 are inhabited by Mahumetans, Turks and Tartars, and 800 by Christians, Greeks and Armenians

Although the Tartars are held by us to be barbarous and poor, they nevertheless glory in the restraint of their life and in the antiquity of their Scythian race, asserting that it is a seed … that has never served anyone … and that it is now divided into various Hordes, that is, nations.

Working translation

Our father who art in heaven. Blessed be thy kingdom (khanate). Thy will be done, as in heaven so on earth. Give us today our daily bread.

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The principal street, which is about a verst and a half in length, contains, almost the whole way along, two rows of miserable wooden shops. As the empress Catherine gave up this town to the Tartars, it contains no Russian burgesses, but is inhabited entirely by Tartars and Jews… Bachtchisarai contains thirty-one mosques, and seventy-five fountains.

Further, it is clear that they advanced gradually into the plains between the very famous, deep and great northern rivers Tanais or Don and Borysthenes, and reached Taurica or the peninsula a hundred and sixty years ago or a little more. ... The line of the khans or princes of those Tartars was anciently called the Cyngissons, from which came a certain khan Lochtonus, from whom all the khans take their origin.

Working translation

These things go on in the other towns of that peninsula too, but above all in Kaffa, and there it happens that crowds of those wretches, once bought, are driven straight from the market to the ships. … by its site that insatiable … city, but a whirlpool of our blood.

Working translation

I divine: (Persian) ram mikunam / (Cuman) kamlik etermen, (also) ranzilik etermen … enchantress: she is a kam khatun person (a shaman woman).

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The cottages of the Tatar peasants, for cheapness of construction, rapidity of building, and simplicity of materials, are perhaps unrivalled … They are constructed of oaken stakes, whose ends are driven perpendicularly into the ground … into these, liggers are entwined, and the whole are well plastered within and without, and white-washed when dry.

At the head of the great bridge, in a wide square below the wall of Shirin Bey's khan, there is a huge slave market; this too is an ill-omened market, a lesson to behold, for of them it is said: 'The seller of men, the cutter of trees and the breaker of stone, God curse him in this world and the next' … They are slave-dealing peoples, for this people is exceedingly merciless.

Working translation

city: (Persian) shahr / (Cuman) shahr or kent; castle: (Persian) qal'a / (Cuman) qal'a; village: (Persian) deh / (Cuman) qala; palace: saray / saray; house: (Persian) khana / (Cuman) ev.

Working translation

It is a most grotesque pile : the walls are gaudily painted, and above the roofs rise minarets and numerous tall sharp-pointed chimnies. The buildings of the palace inclose an oblong court, in which is a marble fountain, erected to the memory of the Christian wife of a khan ; on the left of the gateway is a mosque

The Palace he inhabits, formerly built entirely in the Chinese, but repaired in the Turkish fashion, still retains some of the beauties of its former stile of construction. It is placed at one of the extremities of the town, and is surrounded by very high rocks, from whence flows an abundance of streams, which are conveyed into the kiosks and gardens in a most delightful manner.

They still retain the practice of killing a horse, to make a feast on the arrival of a guest of distinction. On my arrival at the house of the brother of Atai Myrza, this prince said to me, “You are very welcome. As soon as I hear that you had come, I ordered a young mare to be killed, to give you a feast.”

Baktshiserai has been declared their exclusive possession, and, with the exception of official personages, no other than a Tartar is allowed to reside in it. The government has also had the good taste to bestow much pains on the preservation of the palace of the ancient Khans, once the dreaded enemies of Muscovy.

And in Perekop there is a stone town, and Crimean Tatars and Turks live in it, and there is artillery in the town. And Perekop runs from sea to sea for 6 versts, and across Perekop [the ditch] is some two slanting sazhens, and three sazhens deep, and along the ditch stand stone towers too

Working translation

There are five thousand Tartar inhabitants here; I do not believe there was a man left in his house, the streets being lined with Tartarian men on each side; their countenances were very singular, most of them kept their eyes fixed on the ground, as we passed

They build wooden buildings and houses very much in the Turkish manner ... but they very rarely practise the mechanical arts, and whatever merchants or artisans are found there are either Christian slaves, or Turks, Armenians, Jews, Circassians, Piatigorians who are Christians, 'Philistines' or Gypsies, men of obscure and the lowest condition.

Working translation

The Modern Geographers call it Crim Tartary and Precopensian Tartary. As much as to say Tartary full of Towns; to distinguish the Tartars of this Peninsula that live for the most part in Cities, especially all the Winter long, from those other European Tartars, which inhabit without the Peninsula, call'd Nogays … Hordes or Hordou, a word which signifies an Assembly

very deep wells, of wonderful depth and difficulty, cut and made long ago by the ancient Greeks or by those very ancient and great peoples who inhabited the peninsula before the time of the Greeks ... very ancient and very large Greek ruins of castles, cities, churches and monasteries are found very frequently; having lacked inhabitants for many ages, they have lost their names through the antiquity of the times.

Working translation

The houses in these valleys are much better built than those on the coast, and though very low, have frequently two stories, with a gallery running round them on the outside; the roofs also are raised and tiled, and the ceilings sometimes ornamented with carving in wood.

without a roof, because “he considered the Heavens so beautiful and sublime, that even from his grave he would wish to look towards the firmament, the abode of God.” Another had had his tomb entirely walled up, because, as the inscription ran, “he did not feel himself worthy to be shone on by the least ray of God's sun.”

the Mongols have passed on this same corrupted taste to the Crimean Tatars, whose miserable screeching is far surpassed by the Nogai songs, whereas the Kazan and Bashkir, and also the unmixed Siberian Tatars, have quite tolerable melodies, which very much resemble the songs of the Scottish Highlanders.

Working translation

And even now some cities there, though ruined, show by the size of their circuits and of their ruins that they were once splendid, above all the one we call Solkhat, the Muscovites Krym, and the Greeks once called Theodosia, and the ancient metropolis of Korsun, which first gave baptism to the Ruthenian people

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First: because this heart-delighting palace has gardens like Iram on all four sides, it is a garden palace (bagche saray). On all four sides it is a most private palace with walls of masonry cut stone, square like a fortress, like the palace of Shaddad; but around this palace there are no battlements or ramparts … It has strong, solid iron gates in four places in all.

Working translation

The posts were sometimes in a deserted Tartarian village, and sometimes the only habitation for the stable-keeper was a hut made under ground, a common habitation in this country, where the sun is so extremely hot, and there is no shade of any sort.

Their Horses and Cattel are their Riches, with the Booty and Slaves of both Sexes, which they take in their incursions and sell to the Merchants of Caffa … especially the Women and Maids of Poland, who are carried away sometimes as far as Persia and India, to furnish the Serraglios of those Countreys

This is the first Tatar town, and is much more singular than pleasing: narrow and irregular streets, presenting a most extraordinary number of shops, occupied by Tatars, Jews, Armenians, Russians, and Greeks. For the sale of fruit alone, there are said to be two hundred shops

many do not till fields or sow, but abound in horses, camels, oxen, cows, cattle and sheep, and live from them. The nobles, however, have bread, meat, food, burnt wine and mead to drink; the rustics lack bread, but use pounded millet diluted with milk and water, which they commonly call cassa, for food, and mare's milk and cheese for drink.

Working translation

A Tartar house is a very slight building of one story only … no chair, table, or piece of furniture in wood to be seen … large cushions are ranged round the room, on which we sat or reclined

The houses of the Stepp Tatars are often dug in the ground, to such a depth as to require only roofing to complete them. These being impervious to the air, are warmer in winter, and cooler in summer, than the usual huts, which are built of wood and plastered.

To any given quantity of warm Mares' Milk, the Crim Tartars add a sixth part warm water of the same temperature, with a little old Koumis, sour cows' milk, or a piece of sour leaven of their rye-bread, as a ferment; and mix all together in a species of churn… The koumis has a sourish sweet taste by no means unpleasant to my palate

The residence of the Crimean khans was formerly at Bakhchysarai, in which town they had their seat for over 200 years. It was moved there from Eski-Krim (Old Crimea), the capital of the Genoese, soon after Mengli Giray Khan had conquered all the sea ports and driven the Genoese out of their possessions.

Working translation

The apartments and galleries above-stairs, are decorated totally after the Turkish manner, with carpets and divans, or low sofas, oriental landscapes, clumsy paintings on the walls, artificial flowers, chimney-pieces, and stained glass windows. The alterations we noticed in some of these apartments, were made for the reception of the Empress in 1787,

Conformably to the usage of all Asiatic nations, a Kalim or marriage portion, which, with the opulent, consists of forty mares, two horses completely caparisoned, a suit of armour, a gun, and a sabre is, on the celebration of the nuptials, delivered to the father of the bride. Their food, like that of the ancient Mongoles, consists principally of horse-flesh and mares' milk;

In 1833, the ignorance of a civil governor, Kasnatcheief, completed this afflicting work of destruction, which extended at the same time to the great baths that still remained untouched. A fortnight's work with the pickaxe and gunpowder razed to the ground the two admirable monuments with which the Genoese and the Turks had adorned the town.

Caravans used to leave Khwarazm and travel by cart, safe, without doubt or fear … The caravan carried no provisions and no fodder, and took no companion along, because of the multitude of the peoples and the abundance of security, food and drink among the retinues; they set out only from a tribe and halted only with someone who honoured his guest.

Working translation

a clean old Tartar woman invited me to eat some bread and bekmis with her : her head was enveloped in a white handkerchief … her hair, in six long plaits ; her coloured petticoat was covered with a blue surcoat reaching below the knees, and confined round her waist with a figured belt ; her trousers were of silk, drawn in at the ancles

and, as the Tartars carried on a great trade in the town of Krim, the peninsula took the name of Krim, by which only it is known to the Orientals at this hour

Certainly among the Tartars, whoever has merely tasted wine is struck eighty blows with the cudgel and fined as many coins.

Working translation

A shopkeeper caught in the act of cheating with false or short weights was nailed by the ear to his own shop-door, that the whole market might know the knave, and watch him in future… Lesser offences were instantly punished with the bastinado, and greater with the bow-string, if a true believer; for a halter was the portion of an infidel

Though the general language of the Tartars is only a Turkish dialect, yet it is intermixed with such a number of Mogol and Arabic words, that a Turk has a difficulty to understand it. The Nogays in particular render themselves scarcely intelligible, by the quickness with which they speak, and the guttural pronunciation.

Bachtcheserai is said to have contained, in 1803, thirty-one mosques, and seventy-five fountains: except Dr. Clarke, no late travellers have noticed the fine fountains which are still preserved here, though those of almost every other town have been destroyed.

On entering, we were much surprised at the perfect cleanliness of the house. The room was doubly carpeted, and along the wall was a row of cushions, of sufficient breadth to admit of a traveller's stretching himself with perfect comfort. The fire was on the ground, in a large open chimney.

There are thirty-one metshets in this town, most of which are well built of free-stone, and surrounded with lofty towers of elegant workmanship; … twenty-three, in which large and small Tartar knives, of great celebrity on account of their superior temper, together with other cutlery, are manufactured in great perfection;

This is one of the few towns in the Crimea inhabited solely by Tartars, who still cling with affection and reverence to the ancient capital of their race … a few employ themselves in the manufacture of leather cushions, slippers, whips, saddles, &c., fur caps of the black lamb-skin, and cloaks called bourkas.

Russians are defeated before Anapa, and you'll see that we will be masters of the Crimea again. I have cast an eye at the Karaémee's house and garden; his tribe, as well as the Muscovites, will ere long not possess a foot of the country." On this the Tartar was taken up, and he confessed that there was a plot on foot to rise against the Russians

This band, forty men strong, for a long time lived by plundering the lands around them; at last it stole wives for itself and multiplied. Forty is expressed in Turkic by the word kyrk, and so this crowd was called Kyrk-Kazak, that is, forty Kazakhs, or riders. Their descendants kept the name of their ancestors.

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we heard some Tartars under an arch singing in a most melancholy strain, and seemingly mourning over the decay of this once flourishing city: the dilapidated walls of a citadel were on the sea-shore, and near them was the stranded wreck of a Greek mystico. The houses of Caffa were built partly in the Tartar and partly in the Genoese style of architecture.

I saw from the windows a kind of dome which raised my curiosity, and I am told it is a monument built to the memory of a Christian wife, which the Khan loved so tenderly that he was inconsolable for her loss

This aera, which recommenced in 1792, and will terminate with the year 1803, serves chiefly for predicting the nature and fertility of future years; but, in such conjectures, the Tartars are generally mistaken, as far as I could judge during my residence among them.

Those Tartars are Muslims; they have priests and Muslim temples, and use Chaldaic or Arabic letters, somewhat more corrupt or rougher than the Turks', although before they came into Taurica or the peninsula that wild steppe people seems to have had much ruder manners ... for it then wholly lacked those Muslim laws, rights, letters and customs.

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…though it was also called by the Tartars Kutshuk-Stambul, or Little Constantinople. Being erected in an excellent situation very favourable to commerce, it was the principal place in the Crimea, possessed by the Genoese. Even under the Tartar government, it was a populous town, flourishing by its trade,

it was one of the most trading Towns of the Levant … yet there are still remaining about five or six thousand Houses; the Inhabitants are Greeks, Italians, the remainder of the Genoeses, Armenians, Jews, Turks and Tartars, but the most part of them are Christians

The champaigne of this He of Capha is vnder the Tartariens domynion … they haue twoo places walled, but not stronge, thone whereof is called Sorgathi, which they also called Incremin, that signifieth a forteresse ; and thother Cherchiarde, which signifieth xl placs.

It professes one simple God, and believes Christ to be a holy Prophet and the last judge of the world, born of a pure Virgin, but not to have suffered. It observes circumcision.

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the terrace tops of their houses, where they regularly carry on their work, and which are formed of stout carpentry covered with a thick bed of clay. Nothing can be more picturesque than the appearance, at evening, of all these terraces rising in gradations one above the other.

She besought Allah to hide her from the world, and to bury her alive in the centre of the Keesil-tash. This prayer was granted, and she was snatched away by an invisible hand. She is said to inhabit the rock, but at every full moon, at midnight, the rock, as it is declared, opens, and the lady walks forth in her

Turkish and Tatar ladies use it in the bath for washing the face. It is shipped very often from Balaklava to Constantinople … The Tatars call it kil and not keffekil, the name under which it is otherwise known among mineralogists.

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These ruins are very extensive, and we know that at the first conquest of the country by the Russians, it was a flourishing town, though not to be compared to what it was when held by the Genoese.

The Tartars store up their Corn and their Forrage, as do all the Country-People in the East, in deep Pits under Ground which they call Amber, or Magazines. Which they cover so exactly, that you cannot discern where they have remov'd the Earth

A city called Kaffa, which lies by the Black Sea, and is surrounded by two walls. Within one wall are six thousand houses, in which are Italians, Greeks, and Armenians; it is a chief city on the Black Sea

Cremmelin, or Crimmelin; the Name of the Czar's Palace, in the City of Muscow. This is a Tartarian Word, and signifies a Fortress, But not a Flint, as Kremm does in the Sclavonian Language. Thus the Precopensian Tartary is call'd, by the Tartars, Crimm or Cremm, on Account of a Rampart and a Mote, which was there in ancient Times,

So there is no need among them for anyone to worry anxiously about guarding his goods, or to load himself with weapons at home for his private defence. For it is outrageous and unlawful for anyone travelling within their land to carry a weapon.

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the whole space between the towering cliffs and the sea, forming a splendid panorama, presented one mass of the richest foliage ; terraced vineyards adorned the hills, mingling their lighter green with the dark cold pine of the mountain; while the miniature valleys beneath glowed with the clustering cots of the Tartars, and their pretty little mosques and slender minarets.

The sheep-skin pelisses and lamb's-wool caps, which are assumed by the Tatars in winter, increase not a little their savage looks … The use of fire-arms is not allowed them, and few remain possessed of the bows and arrows which were the national weapons of their forefathers. Maksout Murza has a bow which is formed entirely of bone.

for an inhabitant of the Taurida never sees his bride till the nuptial torch is lighted up; so that if it were not for the friendly ministry of a grave matron, or go between (the Pronuba of the Antients), who has the privilege of taking a peep at the bride, a man might marry the grandmother instead of the daughter.

On the summit of the headland one still sees the remains of former columns and ruined masonry, which ruins are called by the Tatars Choban-kale, or the Shepherds' Fortress, because they serve as a refuge for the herds grazing there.

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The word “Baktsha,” signifies in the Tartar language “garden” and the name of Baktshiserai would, therefore, signify “seraglio of gardens.” This city was for centuries the capital of the remarkable state which formed the last fragment of the great Mongolian empire in Europe

Among the Tartars on the other side, a directly contrary usage prevails, and the sovereign only has a right to the distinction of khan, which he places before his proper names, either it is because the word is originally Tartar, and is to be found, indeed, in the Calmuc dialects, Monghol, Mantchou, &c.; while sultan is Arabian

The Russians exclaim against the laziness of the Tartars: but wherefore should they work? They are the happiest peasantry possible without it … not understanding their language, we may mistake the appearance of happiness for its reality.

On the top of one stands the handsome new mosque, built by Count W. for his Tartars. One of our party had the temerity to lift the corner of the veil of a Tartar woman who was passing, to get a peep at her face … for the lady took up a great stone and hurled it at him

… one sees everywhere very few traces of effort and labour applied. For that very reason they look as though they had been laid out by nature alone. Despite the almost complete lack of care, most fruits turn out exceptionally well. The Tatars seldom graft their trees, or take the trouble, as is usual elsewhere, to prune them, and yet they get the best fruit from them.

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The town was once in the hands of the Greeks, it became afterwards a Genoese fortress, and was subsequently the residence of the Karaite Jews … The inscription informed us that it was erected as an act of charity by some benevolent Tartar.

this multitude of wives is why our neighbours the Perekop Tartars, so often cut down by us to the last man, spring up again. Not long ago in the forces of Sultan Islam there were forty brothers, his comrades, forty sons at once of a certain Omeldesz

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They reckon in Carasubasar, twenty-three mosques, and three Greek or Armenian churches. The khans, or houses of depôt for commerce, resemble old Gothic palaces… Eski-krym, anciently Krim, which, under the Tatars, gave its name to the whole peninsula, is situated, with its extensive ruins, in a fertile plain at the foot of the mountain

the concert was in honour of a Tartar bride, whose equipage, drawn by two ponies, was surrounded by curtains and torch-bearers, lighting her to the hymeneal couch, in a manner truly classical … The mausoleum of the Khans is a wretched edifice after that of the Sultans at Constantinople

As to their Morals, there are very few Nations to be found less vitious, for besides their continence, they are extremely sincere, and faithful, they have no Thieves or false witnesses amongst them, little injustice or violence, and live in Union and great tranquility

But he took with him from Moscow so great a multitude of prisoners as would scarcely be considered credible ; they say that the number exceeded eight hundred thousand, part of whom he sold in Kaffa to the Turks, and part he slew.

Their houses, or huts, are partly formed under ground; being generally constructed against the steep precipices of mountains, one half excavated from the earth, or rock, and only the front raised with rough stones; having at the same time flat roofs covered with earth.

Now the chief town or fortress of these Precopites, set on this canal to guard the country, is Precop or Perekop; the royal seat of the Khans is at Bacasaray or Almasaray; and they have several other towns in their share, such as Crim, from which they are called Crimenses or Krimski

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…being tempted by a great Sum of Ducats of Gold, which they brought to him in Barrels (amongst which, as 'tis said, there were many Counters) he concluded Conditions of Peace in the Field, and withdrew his Army.

a person called him cream of Tartar … which I fearing he should be told of, turned into the cream of the Tartars

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.

dwelling (Latin) / manzel (Persian) / yurt (Cuman) … A word widespread in the domain of the languages of Turkic origin. Compare Mongolian ger, 'house', 'dwelling'.

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We inquired of him how many wives he had, and his answer was, “Of course only one! No Tartar has more than one wife, except such as are rascals;” so that it appears Mahomet's indulgent permission to have four is made but little use of.

The houses, as well as their inhabitants, were now totally different from what we had hitherto seen : the roofs were supported on three sides by low stone walls, and the fourth rested against the side of the declivity (after the manner of Swiss chalets) … but their features were Grecian, and both men and women were extremely handsome.

It is a very common custom in the Crimea, with the Tatars as well as the Bulgarian settlers, to stick up a horse's skull near their houses, in order to preserve them from witchcraft.

The Tartars who live abroad, are habited in Sheep-skins with a Cap of the same Stuffe; their Arms are ordinarily a Cimeter, a Bow and a Quiver, with about twenty Arrows … of which also they make their Whips so neatly, by a particular Art which they have, that our Sadlers in France and Germany have not yet been able to imitate them

The history of Bakhchysarai begins in the year 1501. Before the Tatars entered Crimea, there were Greeks (Rum) there. In the war with the Russians in (1786), about a quarter of Bakhchysarai burned. The first palace of the Crimean khans is at Salacik.

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The most remarkable of them is in the high, solitary hill of Tepe-Kermen, five versts from Bakhchysarai. … In the caves various human bones are found, from which some writers have claimed that they served only for burial; but the openings for the entrance, for letting in light, and the various water channels there prove that they were really inhabited.

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…and who were strangers to the Tartar race, but especially to that of the Mongoles: hence the original natives of Crim-Tartary consider them as aliens, and point them out by the contemptible name of Tat.

I went to a Mosque, where several pious Mussulmen were going round in a circle in the midst of the building, groaning and flinging their heads almost to the ground and them up again, a constant motion which with the moving round one way soon put them into a kind of torture

I am told he has conciliated the Tartars to their change of sovereign very much by his gentleness and firmness … To their honour, I find none would stay who could not bear the idea, of taking the oaths of allegiance

The public buildings of Akmetshet, besides three Tartar mosques, are a very handsome cathedral, the halls of justice, residences of the civil officers, &c. The houses are built of stone, and roofed in the ancient Greek style with tiles: in the Tartar quarter courts surround the houses and high walls

But a more solemn form of swearing, termed Dallak, is at present, on important occasions, adopted even in Turkey, by which the person taking such oath binds himself, in case of perjury, to renounce his wife; so that a Tartar, who has any conjugal affection, will not easily forswear himself,

And travelling from Perekop, on the right, on the seashore, is the stone town of Kozlov. … And from the Alma to Bakhchysarai and to Kozlov, on both sides of the road, are Tatar villages, and the water is from dug wells, and there are no rivers.

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They first snorted with great fury, then bellowed as furiously; the bellow consisting of three notes, like that of a calf, or a bull. Each time they bent forward with a violent motion. The rite altogether is absolutely terrific, and must be most fatiguing.

For Tartars of the lowest condition, or foreigners, set out their wrongs quite freely by themselves before the judges and the khan himself, by whom they are always heard and quickly dispatched ... I stayed there more than nine months, and never heard that any criminal or civil action had taken place among them, nor any settlement made on account of feuds.

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The palace, which, as said before, rises in the middle of this curious Tauric city, to add greatly to the singularity and romantic appearance of the scene, is a curious species of painted Chinese structure, well suited to such a group of oddities.

so charmed the honest Tartars with the graces of her person, and conversation in the Turkish language, that they, ignorant of her rank and quality, conceived an idea of her being a fair daughter of Mahomet, held in Christian bondage by the right of war, and secretly opened a subscription among themselves to purchase her liberty

the day after the army arrived, several hundred roasted oxen and two to three thousand sheep on spits were set out in several rows on the open field, with great heaps of bread thrown up between them; as soon as all was ready, the signal was given by a cannon shot, whereupon the Tatars fell upon the food and devoured it so quickly that within a quarter of an hour nothing was left.

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a burial ground attached, contained the remains of a long line of khans : on entering the former it was rather startling to see black sarcophagi on the floor, with white turbans at the head. In the open air the tombs were adorned with carved and turbaned headstones of marble, which, with the accompanying cypress, give such effect to Moslem cemeteries.

Bagtche Serai has completely retained its national character in consequence of an ukase of Catherine II., empowering the Tatars to retain exclusive possession of their own capital. You would fancy yourself in the heart of the East, in walking through the narrow streets of the town, the mosques, shops, and cemeteries of which so much resemble those of the old quarters of Constantinople.

You will never be like Tsar Batu: Tsar Batu had four hundred thousand armoured men, and he made war on the whole Russian land from east to west … And you came to the Russian land, Tsar Mamai, with great forces, with nine hordes and seventy princes, and now, pagan, you flee with eight companions to the sea-shore.

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Hawking and hunting the hare, form the greatest delight of the noble Tartars. In the towns their amusements are reduced to meeting in the coffee-houses… Sometimes a singer recites a story or chaunts verses, accompanying himself with a bad instrument, in the shape of a guitar; the assembly listens with the greatest attention, and expresses the pleasure it receives by slight motions of the head.

A domestic of Atai Myrza having fallen from his horse, and had two of his ribs broken, his master made him drink water gruel till his belly was prodigiously inflated; and when he refused to take more, he was threatened with the bastinado and drenched with the gruel… his master assuring me that the ribs would get into their places spontaneously.

When the sovereignty of the peninsula passed to Menguely Guerai, there were not many Tartars amongst its inhabitants; but the wars which he carried on with them on the banks of the Volga, afforded him an opportunity to bring with him into the Crimea, several thousand Nogays, who were obliged to establish themselves in that country.

The Tatars prepare them in various ways as food and eat them often. Mostly they stuff them with meat and make from them the dish called dolma.

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From a distance its summit has the shape of a tent, and for that very reason the Tatars call it Chatyr-Dag or Chatyr-Dagi, which in German means as much as 'Tent Mountain'.

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How different from the character borne by the Karaite Jews of the Crimea! whose virtues have rendered even the opprobrious name, derived from their Turkish brethren, an honourable title ; for their place of residence is called Tchufut-kaleh, the "Castle of Miscreants."