Mounds, statues and brick towers over the dead
Editorial contextCrossing the steppe, Rubruck saw the tombs of the Comans: great mounds (kurgans) topped by a stone statue holding a cup, small pointed 'pyramids', tiled towers and stone houses, though there was no stone nearby. Just before, he notes that the burial places of Mongol nobles of Genghis's family were kept secret and guarded. Rockhill's note quotes Carpini on Mongol nobles buried with a horse and a mare.
raise a great tumulus over the dead, and set up a statue to him, its face to the east, and holding a cup in its hand at the height of the navel. They make also pyramids to the rich, that is to say, little pointed structures, and in some places I saw great tiled covered towers, and in others stone houses, though there were no stones thereabout.
About Comans (Cumans or Kipchaks), subjects of the Tartars
Keep in mind
These tombs are Cuman, not Mongol; the subject 'The Comans' is on the previous page.
Drinking their horses' blood, prizing mare's milk
Editorial contextOn long rides, Herberstein was told, Tartars open a vein in their horse and drink the blood, believing it does the animal good. They steer by the Pole Star, which they call the 'iron nail'. On the same page he describes their love of mare's milk and how chiefs share out the entrails of a slaughtered animal and lick the knife clean.
Moreover, if during a long ride they are troubled with hunger or thirst, it is a practice to lance the veins of the horses on which they sit, and relieve their craving by drawing their blood ; and they think that this is an advantage to the animals. As they nearly all wander on uncertain tracks, they are accustomed to direct their course by the observation of the stars
About Steppe Tartars (Crimean, Nogai)
Keep in mind
Reported from Russian and Lithuanian informants, not seen by Herberstein.
How kumiss is made, and what it tastes like
Editorial contextRubruck explains the Mongols' summer drink, fermented mare's milk. Foals are tethered on a line so the mares let themselves be milked; the milk is churned in a skin with a club until it bubbles like new wine and turns sour. He found it prickled the tongue, left a taste of almonds and could make a weak head drunk; a clear black kind, cara-cosmos, was kept for the great.
they pour it into a skin or other vessel, where they beat and stir it very well … it begins to bubble like new wine, then to turn sour like leaven … it stings the tongue like rough wine when you drink it. When you have finished drinking, it leaves a taste of almonds on the tongue and greatly cheers the heart
Working translation
Original wording
ils le versent dans vn outre, ou autre vaisseau, là où ils le battent & remuent tres-bien … cela commence à boüillir comme du vin nouueau, puis à s'aigrir, comme du leuain … cela pique la langue comme feroit du vin raspé quand on le boit. Lors que l'on a acheué de boire, cela laisse sur la langue vn goust d'amande, & resioüit grandement le cœur
About Tartars (Mongols)
Continue in this sourceBergeron's 1634 French collection of the friars' journeys into Tartaryc. 1245 to 1307 · 17 passagesCuman mounds, stone statues and brick towers
Editorial contextAmong the burial customs he saw on the steppe, Rubruck notes that the Cumans raised a great mound over the dead and set up a statue facing east holding a cup at the navel. For the rich they built small pointed 'pyramids', and in places he saw tall towers of baked brick and even stone houses, though no stone was found there. He also saw a newly dead man with the hides of sixteen horses hung on tall poles around him.
The Cumans raise a great mound over the dead man and set up a statue to him, its face turned to the east, holding a cup in its hand in front of the navel. For the rich they also build pyramids, that is, small pointed houses, and in some places I saw great towers of baked tiles, in others stone houses, although stones are not found there. I saw one man newly dead for whom they had hung the hides of sixteen horses, four towards each quarter of the world, between tall poles
Working translation
Original wording
Comani faciunt magnum tumulum super defunctum, et erigunt ei statuam versa facie ad orientem, tenentem ciphum in manu sua ante umbilicum. Fabricant etiam divitibus piramides, id est domunculas acutas, et alicubi vidi magnas turres de tegulis coctis, alicubi lapideas domos, quamvis lapides non inveniuntur ibi. Vidi quemdam noviter defunctum, cui suspenderant pelles .xvj. equorum, ad quodlibet latus mundi quatuor, inter perticas altas
About Cumans (Kipchaks), subjects of the Mongols
Keep in mind
On the same page Rubruck says the burial places of Mongol nobles were kept secret and guarded.
Women whose headdresses look like helmets and lances
Editorial contextMarried Mongol women wore the bocca (bogtak), a tall bark frame covered with silk and topped with a tuft of quills and peacock feathers. Rubruck says a group of ladies riding in the distance looked like soldiers in helmets with lances raised, and that women rode astride like men. He adds, less kindly, that the fattest women with the smallest noses were thought the most beautiful.
and one sees them from afar, they look like soldiers, helmets on head and lances erect. For this bocca looks like a helmet, and the tuft above it is like a lance. And all the women sit their horses astraddle like men.
About Tartar (Mongol) married women
Continue in this sourceFriar William's journey to the Mongol court, with Carpini and Benedict the Pole1245 to 1255 · 21 passagesNomads who sowed and reaped
Editorial contextBarbaro answers the obvious question of where so many people got their grain. Each February the horde announced where sowing would happen; volunteers went with seed, carts and families, ploughed and sowed, and later returned to harvest while the khan's camp circled nearby. He says the yields were huge.
About the mooneth of Februarie they make proclamacons throughout the Lordo, that he which woll sowe shall prepare his things necessarie against the mooneth of Marche, to sowe in such a place. … And there do they eare, sowe, and tarie, till they haue furnisshed that they came for, which doon they retorne to their Lordo.
About Tatars of the Golden Horde
Continue in this sourceTwo Venetians among the Tatars: Barbaro at Tana and Contarini at Astrakhanc. 1436 to 1479 · 19 passagesA house thirty feet wide, pulled by twenty-two oxen
Editorial contextSome Mongol houses were never taken down but rode on huge carts. Rubruck measured one cart himself and counted the oxen. The axle was as thick as a ship's mast and a driver stood in the doorway of the house. On the next pages he describes felt-covered chests on carts and a rich man's camp of one or two hundred carts.
I myself once measured the width between the wheel-tracks of a cart xx feet, and when the house was on the cart it projected beyond the wheels on either side v feet at least. I have myself counted to one cart xxii oxen drawing one house, eleven abreast across the width of the cart, and the other eleven before them.
About Tartars (Mongols of the Golden Horde)
Keep in mind
Rockhill thinks these carts were exceptionally large ones.
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.
A plain without cities where the sun rises before a chop is cooked
Editorial contextFar to the north-west lies 'K'o-fu-ch'a', which Bretschneider identifies with the Kipchak steppe north of the Caspian. Yelü Chucai heard that it was endless plain, its people had no cities or towns, bred cattle and horses and made a drink from honey, and that summer nights were so short the sun rose again before a mutton chop could be cooked. Bretschneider shows the short-night detail was copied from a Tang-era account of a Siberian people.
To the north-west of Yin-du (Hindustan) is the realm of K'o fu-ch'a… The people there have no cities or towns. They breed much cattle and horses. They make a fermented beverage from honey. In that country the days (in summer) are long and the nights short. In little more than the time necessary to cook a mutton chop, the sun rises again.
About Kipchaks (the steppe later ruled by the Golden Horde)
Keep in mind
Hearsay, partly borrowed from the Tang history; the Mongols did not conquer the Kipchak steppe until 1236.
Cuman grave mounds, statues and brick towers on the steppe
Editorial contextCrossing the steppe, Rubruck describes the tombs of the Cumans, the Turkic people the Mongols had conquered there. They raised a mound over the dead with a statue facing east holding a cup; for the rich they built little pointed houses, and he saw great brick towers and stone houses in a land without stone. The same page notes that nobody knew where Chinggis Khan was buried.
As for the Cumans, they are accustomed to raise a mound over the grave of the dead man and set up a statue for him facing east … For the rich and great they put up pyramids, or little pointed houses, and in some places I saw great towers of brick, and in others houses built of stone, although no stone is found in those parts.
Working translation
Original wording
Pour les Comans, ils ont coustume d'esleuer vne motte ou tertre sur la sepulture du mort, & luy dressent vne statuë la face tournée à l'Orient … Aux riches & Grands ils dressent des pyramides, ou petites maisons pointuës, & ay veu en des endroits de grandes tours de brique, & en d'autres des maisons basties de pierres; encores qu'en ces quartiers là on n'y trouue point de pierres.
About Cumans (Qipchaqs), under Mongol rule
Keep in mind
These are Cuman (Qipchaq) monuments, not Mongol ones; Rubruck does not say who built the brick towers.
Nine animals for one stolen
Editorial contextCrossing the Kipchak steppe by hired cart (araba), Ibn Battuta noticed huge herds grazing with no herdsmen. He explains it by the harsh law on theft: a thief had to return the animal with nine more, and if he could not, his children were taken, or he himself killed. He also notes that the treeless steppe folk burned dung for fuel.
he is compelled to return it with nine others of equal value. But, if this is not in his power, his children are taken. If, however, he have no children, he is himself slaughtered just like a sheep.
About Golden Horde (Kipchak steppe)
Keep in mind
The sentence begins on the previous page (n102): a man 'convicted of having stolen a beast'. The law is what he was told, not a case he saw.
First taste of kumiss, and a moving city of carts
Editorial contextRubruck says that in two months between Soldaia and Sartaq's camp they never slept under a roof and saw no village, nor any trace of a building, except great numbers of Cuman tombs. One evening his guide gave him kumiss; he broke into a sweat from horror and novelty, but found it very tasty. Next morning the carts of the commander Scatatai, loaded with houses, looked to him like a great city coming towards him.
That evening the lad who was guiding us gave us kumiss to drink, and at the first draught I sweated all over from horror and novelty, for I had never drunk it before. Yet it seemed to me very tasty, as indeed it is. In the morning we met Scatatai's carts loaded with houses, and it seemed to me that a great city was coming to meet me.
Working translation
Original wording
Illo sero dedit nobis garcio, qui ducebat nos, bibere cosmos, ad cujus haustum totus sudavi propter horrorem et novitatem, quia nunquam biberam de eo. Valde tamen sapidum videbatur michi, sicut vere est. Mane ergo obviavimus bigis Scatatay honustis domibus, et videbatur michi quod obviaret michi civitas magna.
About Tartars (Mongols of the Golden Horde)
Continue in this sourceCarpini and Rubruck in the original Latinc. 1245 to 1329 · 19 passagesFelt houses thirty feet wide, pulled by 22 oxen
Editorial contextRubruck describes the Mongol felt houses built on a frame of rods and carried whole on carts. He measured one cart's wheel track at 20 feet, with the house overhanging by at least 5 feet each side, and counted 22 oxen pulling one house, in two rows of eleven, with an axle as big as a ship's mast and a driver standing in the doorway.
And they make these houses so large that they are sometimes thirty feet across. I once measured the width between the wheel tracks of one cart at 20 feet, and when the house was on the cart it overhung the wheels on each side by at least 5 feet. I counted 22 oxen drawing one house on one cart, eleven in a row across the width of the cart and another eleven in front of them.
Working translation
Original wording
Et faciunt tales domus ita magnas quod habent aliquando triginta pedes in latitudine. Ego enim mensuravi semel latitudinem inter vestigia rotarum unius bige .xx. pedum, et quando domus erat super bigam excedebat extra rotas in utroque latere .v. pedibus ad minus. Ego numeravi in una biga .xxij. boves trahentes unam domum, undecim in uno ordine secundum latitudinem bige, et alios .xj. ante illos.
About Tartars (Mongols of the Golden Horde)
Continue in this sourceCarpini and Rubruck in the original Latinc. 1245 to 1329 · 19 passagesTwenty-two oxen to pull one house
Editorial contextRubruck took a tape to a Mongol wagon-house. He measured one at twenty feet between the wheels, with the house overhanging them, and counted twenty-two oxen, eleven abreast on each side, hauling it, with an axle as thick as a ship's mast. On the same page he says the felt roof was painted and the door-felt embroidered with vines, trees, birds and beasts.
They have some of these houses so large that they are a good thirty feet long: for I once took the trouble to measure one that was a good twenty feet from one wheel to the other, and when the house was set on it, it overhung the wheels. … And I counted up to twenty-two oxen drawing one of these houses, eleven on one side and eleven on the other.
Working translation
Original wording
Ils ont de ces maisons-là de telle grandeur, qu'elles ont bien trente pieds de long : car i'ay pris la peine quelquefois d'en mesurer vne qui auoit bien vingt pieds d'vne rouë à l'autre : & quand ceste maison estoit posée dessus, elle passoit au delà des rouës. … & ay conté iusqu'à vingt-deux bœufs pour traisner vne de ces maisons, vnze d'vn costé, & vnze de l'autre.
About Tartars (Mongols of the Golden Horde)
Continue in this sourceBergeron's 1634 French collection of the friars' journeys into Tartaryc. 1245 to 1307 · 17 passages'May you stay in one place like a Christian'
Editorial contextHerberstein reports that the roving Tartars thought staying put was a misfortune, and that their worst curse on a child was to wish it a fixed home like a Christian's. He is careful to add that Tartars who live in towns and cities live differently, so he is describing the herders, not all Tartars.
They never stay for any length of time in one spot, for they consider it a great calamity to be obliged to remain long in the same place ; hence, when they are angry with their children, and wish to utter a heavy imprecation against them, they are accustomed to say, " may you abide in one place continually like a Christian, and inhale your own stink !"
About Nomadic Tartars (contrasted with town dwellers)
Keep in mind
A saying reported secondhand; the next lines note that Tartars in towns and cities live otherwise.
No towns, only houses on wheels
Editorial contextFletcher says the Tartars build no towns or standing buildings. They live in wheeled 'walking houses' which they park in rows to form streets and the shape of a town, and even the khan's capital is a moving 'town of wood'. They reportedly think fixed buildings unhealthy.
Townes they plant none, nor other standing buildings, but have walking houses, which the Latines call veii, built upon wheeles like a shepheards cottage. … And when they come to their stage or standing place, they plant their cart houses very orderly in a ranke ; and so make the forme of streetes and of a large towne.
About Crimean and Nogai Tartars (Fletcher's general 'Tartar')
Keep in mind
This echoes medieval accounts of the 13th-century Mongols; the Crimean khans of Fletcher's day actually ruled from the town of Bakhchysarai, which Fletcher never visited.
A rich Tartar's camp looks like a big town
Editorial contextThe Mongol camp could look like a settlement. Each wife of a great lord had her own large house with a train of smaller wagon-houses (Rubruck says Batu's wives each had more than 200), and the wives' courts were pitched in a row from west to east, a stone's throw apart. The result, he says, resembles a large town, though few men live in it.
the first wife has her little court set up to the west, then all the others do the same, each in her rank, so that the last is at the east, and the space between them is about a stone's throw: so that the court of one of these rich Tartars looks like a big town, although there will be very few men in it.
Working translation
Original wording
la premiere des femmes fait poser sa petite court vers l'Occident, puis toutes les autres en font de mesme chacune en son rang: si bien que la derniere se trouue à l'Orient, & l'espace d'entr'elles est enuiron vn iet de pierre: de sorte que la court d'vn de ces riches Tartares semble vn gros bourg, où il y aura toutesfois bien peu d'hommes.
About Tartars (Mongols; Batu's household)
Continue in this sourceBergeron's 1634 French collection of the friars' journeys into Tartaryc. 1245 to 1307 · 17 passagesA round frame of sticks covered with white felt
Editorial contextRubruck describes the Mongol dwelling (the yurt or ger): a circular frame of interlaced sticks meeting in a hoop at the top with a chimney collar, covered in felt. The felt is whitened with chalk, clay or bone powder and embroidered with vines, trees, birds and beasts. Rockhill's note adds Carpini's description of the same round felt tents.
converging into a little round hoop on the top, from which projects above a collar as a chimney, and this (framework) they cover over with white felt. Frequently they coat the felt with chalk, or white clay, or powdered bone, to make it appear whiter, and sometimes also (they make the felt) black.
About Tartars (Mongols of the Golden Horde)
Continue in this sourceFriar William's journey to the Mongol court, with Carpini and Benedict the Pole1245 to 1255 · 21 passagesThe road to Cathay is safe, day and night
Editorial contextAccording to merchants who had used it, the road from Tana to Cathay was perfectly safe by day and by night. The one risk was death: if a merchant died on the way, the lord of the land took everything he carried, unless a brother or close companion was there to claim it. On the same page Pegolotti advises hiring an interpreter and two servants who speak Cuman, the Turkic language of the steppe, and taking flour and salt fish for the journey, since meat is plentiful everywhere.
The road from Tana to Cathay is perfectly safe, by day and by night, according to what the merchants say who have used it; except that if a merchant, going or coming, should die on the road, everything would belong to the lord of the country where he died, and the lord's officials would take it all
Working translation
Original wording
Il cammino d'andare dalla Tana al Gattajo è sicurissimo e di dì, e di notte secondo che si conta per gli mercatanti, che l'hanno usato: salvo se il mercatante, che va, o che viene, morisse in cammino, ogni cosa sarebbe del Signore del paese, ove morisse il mercatante, e tutto prenderebbono gli uficiali del Signore
About Merchants on the Mongol roads; officials of the Tartar lords
Keep in mind
Reported from merchants' experience; Pegolotti himself is not known to have made the journey.
The scan is too rough to double-check this quote by machine. Compare it with the page.
Why 'Golden Horde': the khan's gilded tent
Editorial contextOn Abu'l-Fida's remark that the horde of the Tartar prince of Berke's country comes as far as Ukek, Reinaud explains that horde (Turkish ordu) means tent: the Chinggisid khans moved with the seasons and wherever they pitched their tents was called the horde. He suggests the Russians called the dynasty the Golden Horde because the khan's tent stood on wooden posts plated with gold, citing Ibn Battuta.
The word horde, in Arabic ordu, belongs to the Turkish language and means tent. The Tartar princes of the race of Chinggis Khan who ruled the Qipchaq steppe used to change their residence with the seasons, and the place where they pitched their tents was called the horde … probably because the tent the khan occupied rested on wooden posts covered with plates of gold
Working translation
Original wording
Le mot horde, en arabe ordou, appartient à la langue turke et signifie tente. Les princes tartares de la race de Gengiskhan, qui régnèrent sur le Capichac, étaient dans l'usage de changer de demeure, suivant la saison, et le lieu où ils dressaient leurs tentes portait le nom de horde … probablement parce que la tente qu'occupait le khan était appuyée sur des pieux de bois recouverts de lames d'or
About Mongol khans of the Qipchaq steppe (Golden Horde)
Keep in mind
An editor's explanation drawing on Rubruck, Ibn Battuta and Hammer-Purgstall, not Abu'l-Fida's own words.
The 'valiant fool'
Editorial contextThe bravest Tatar warriors, Barbaro says, earned the title 'Tulubagator', which he translates 'valiant fool', an honour like 'the wise' or 'the handsome' in Italy. The editor explains it as tulu bahadur; bahadur is the root of the Russian bogatyr, hero. He follows it with the story of a Tatar merchant who chased forty Circassians alone.
The hablemen are verie valiaunt and hardie, in such wise that some of them for their excellencie are called Tulubagator, which signifieth a valiaunt foole : being a name of no lesse reputacon amongst them than the sernames of wisedome or beaultie with vs
About Tatars of the Golden Horde
Keep in mind
'Fool' is Barbaro's own gloss; the etymological note is the 1873 editor's.
The Tartars of the West and their kings
Editorial contextPolo calls the Golden Horde the 'Tartars of the Ponent' (of the West). Their first king, 'Sain', conquered Russia, the Cumans, Alans, Circassians, Goths of Crimea and Khazaria. He lists the later khans down to Toqta, who reigned in Polo's time. Yule's note points out that 'Sain' (the Good) was really Batu's own surname, so Polo turned one khan into two.
The first lord of the Tartars of the Ponent was Sain, a very great and puissant king, who conquered Rosia and Comania, Alania, Lac, Menjar, Zic, Gothia, and Gazaria ; all these provinces were conquered by King Sain.
About 'Tartars of the Ponent' (the Golden Horde)
Continue in this sourceThe Book of Ser Marco Polo (Yule's edition)c. 1271 to 1295 · 14 passagesJustice on the spot
Editorial contextIn the camp, Barbaro says, quarrels were settled without violence or paperwork: the parties walked off together and asked the first respectable man they met to judge, and his verdict was accepted, with bystanders as witnesses. He also describes petitioners kneeling repeatedly as they approached the lord's pavilion.
Whan a difference groweth betwene partie and partie, and wordes multiplied (not aftre the maner of our quarters, for these do vse no violence), thei both or moo (if they be moo) arise and go what waie they thinke good : and to the first man of any estimacon that they meete they saie : Master, do vs right, for we here are in controversie
About Tatars of the Golden Horde
Continue in this sourceTwo Venetians among the Tatars: Barbaro at Tana and Contarini at Astrakhanc. 1436 to 1479 · 19 passagesKhan Uzbek turns Muslim, with an army counted in tens
Editorial contextSanudo warns the Pope that the Sultan of Egypt, with gifts and treaties, had drawn 'the Emperor of the Tartars named Husbecho, who rules in Gazaria and other northern parts' to accept Islam. Trustworthy people told him Uzbek's cavalry was so vast that, his army being organised in tens, he could take just three of every ten and still field an almost unbelievable host.
the said Sultan so changed and drew the Emperor of the Tartars, named Uzbek, who rules in Gazaria and other northern parts, that he received the law of the faithless Muhammad ... For it is asserted by some trustworthy people that the said Uzbek has so numerous a multitude of horsemen that, taking three out of ten, since he has his army ordered by tens, from the threes alone he puts so large a force in the field that it seems almost incredible.
Working translation
Original wording
prædictus Soldanus Imperatorem Tartarorum, nomine Husbecho, qui in Gazaria, & aliis Septentrionis partibus dominatur, immutauit taliter & attraxit, vt legem receperit perfidi Mahumeti … Nam à nonnullis dignis fide asseritur quod dictus Husbecho, habet equitum multitudinem adeò numerosam, vt subtrahendo tres de decem, cum per decuriones habeat exercitum ordinatum, ex solis ternariis in campo ponit ita militiam copiosam, quod quasi incredibile videatur.
About Golden Horde under Uzbek Khan ('Husbecho')
Keep in mind
Uzbek's conversion was his own and not simply the Sultan's doing; the army figure is hearsay.
Transcribed from the page image; long s normalized.
Felt idols on the doors of their wagons
Editorial contextFletcher says that, unlike Turks, Tartars keep silk or cloth human figures fastened to the doors of their 'walking houses' as house guardians, made by religious women, and bow to a huge image of their khan when the army marches. He also calls them much given to witchcraft and omens.
Herein they differ from the Turkish religion, for that they have certeine idole puppets, made of silke or like stuffe, of the fashion of a man, which they fasten to the doore of their walking houses, to be as Janusses or keepers of their house. And these idols are made not by all, but by certeine religious women
About Crimean Tartars (as described by Fletcher)
Keep in mind
This closely follows 13th-century friars' descriptions of pagan Mongols; the Muslim Crimean Tatars of 1590 are unlikely to have kept such idols.
Batu's campaign west and his capital, Coc-orda
Editorial contextAbu'l Ghazi tells how Ögedei gave Batu an army to conquer the Russians ('Uresses'), Circassians and Bulgars. After a forty-day feast Batu set out, 'filled all the West' with his exploits, returned to the Kipchak steppe and died in his capital, which Abu'l Ghazi calls Coc-orda (probably Kök Orda, the 'Blue Horde'). The name shows the royal camp, the orda, serving as the capital.
gave him a numerous Army to go and subdue the Uresses, the Zerkass, the Bulgars, and other neighbouring Nations … Batu-sagin Chan after he had filled all the West with the Glory of the great Exploits which he atchieved upon that Occasion, at length return'd happily into his own Country of Dasht Kipzak, where he died some time after in the Capital of the Country called Coc-orda.
About Batu Khan and the Mongols of the Golden Horde
Keep in mind
Written four centuries after Batu; he does not describe the capital or mention Sarai here.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR for this volume is unreadable); long s normalized.
Islam arrives, idols linger
Editorial contextBarbaro says Islam had taken hold among the Tartars only about a hundred years before he wrote, in the time of the warlord Edigu. Before that, some were Muslims but each believed what he liked, and some worshipped idols of wood and rags carried on their carts. On another page a Tatar tells him there are still plenty of secret idolaters.
The faith of Macomett beganne to take place amonge the Tartariens about an C yeres past. In dede some of them were Macomettanes before, but everie man was at his libertie to believe what hym best liked ; so that some worshipped ymags of woode, and of ragges
About Tatars of the Golden Horde
Keep in mind
Historians usually date the Golden Horde's official conversion to Khan Uzbek (1313); Barbaro's timeline reflects what he was told.
A Chinese picture of the far north-west: white nights and blue-eyed horsemen
Editorial contextThe Chinese annal describing the Mongol attack on the 'tribes of the state of Kincha' (Kipchak) says the land lay 30,000 li from China, that its summer nights were so short the sun barely set before rising, that it bred fine horses, and that its people were brave, with blue eyes and reddish hair. Bichurin notes on the facing page that this is the Mongol invasion of Russia in 1237.
In summer the nights are extremely short. The sun barely sets and at once rises again. This country produces excellent horses … They are courageous and brave … Their eyes are blue, their hair reddish.
Working translation
Original wording
Лѣтомъ ночи бываютъ чрезвычайно коротки. Солнце едва закатится, и тотчасъ всходитъ. Сія страна производитъ отмѣнныхъ лошадей … Мужественны и храбры … Глаза имѣютъ синіе (голубые), волосы рыжеватые.
About Kipchaks (Polovtsy) and neighbours, as described in Chinese annals
Keep in mind
Second-hand Chinese geography of a land its compilers never saw; parts of the OCR on this page are illegible and were left out.
The scan is too rough to double-check this quote by machine. Compare it with the page.
Kipchak: the boy born in a hollow tree
Editorial contextThe legendary conqueror Oghuz Khan's officer died in battle, and his pregnant widow gave birth inside a hollow tree. The khan raised the boy and named him Kipchak, said to mean 'hollow tree' in old Turkish. The Kipchaks gave their name to the Dasht-i Kipchak, the steppe that later became Batu's Golden Horde.
she could find no other Place to retire to when her Time was come but an old Hollow-Tree; into which having crept when her Labour came on, she there brought forth a Son. … and gave him the Name of Kipzak, which signifies in the antient Turkish, an Hollow-Tree.
About Kipchaks (ancestors of the Golden Horde's Turkic subjects)
Keep in mind
A folk etymology from the Oghuz legend.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR for this volume is unreadable); long s normalized.
The Qipchaq steppe: pasture, nomads and few towns
Editorial contextMustawfi's short entry on the Dasht-i Qipchaq, the Golden Horde's steppe, says it has rich pasture but few houses, towns or villages, and that most people are nomads. He then lists its towns, including 'Saray Batu', the Horde capital on the Volga. Le Strange's footnote places the ruins of Saray above Astrakhan.
Dasht-i-Qipchaq. This is of the Sixth Clime, its plains bear excellent pasturage, stretching to the north of the Caspian Sea, but there are here few houses or towns or villages. Most of the inhabitants are nomads of the plain. Its most celebrated town is Khazar … then there is Burtas, also Suvar, Muhtal, Saray Batu and Sarir
About Nomads of the Qipchaq steppe (Golden Horde lands)
Keep in mind
Compiled at second hand: several of the 'towns' (Khazar, Burtas, Suvar) are names from much older Arabic geographies.
Berke, first Muslim khan of the Golden Horde
Editorial contextBatu's brother and successor Berke ('Burga'), Abu'l Ghazi says, met merchants from Bukhara on the road, was won over by their explanations of Islam, adopted it on the spot, and on his return ordered his subjects to follow. It is an early step in the Horde's move to Islam, the religion of the later Volga and Crimean Tatars.
he met upon the Road with several Merchants of Great Bucharia and falling into discourse with some of them, particularly upon the Articles of the Mahometan Faith, he was so pierced with the Explanations which these Men gave him of it, that he resolv'd off-hand to embrace that Religion
About Burga (Berke) Khan and his subjects
Keep in mind
A simplified story told four centuries later. The page ends 'but he died before...', so check the next page for how far the conversion got.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR for this volume is unreadable); long s normalized.
