Friars look for Alexander's enclosed nations and find nothing
Editorial contextScholastic histories said Alexander the Great had the Jews (in other versions Gog and Magog) shut up between the Caspian mountains, to break out at the end of the world. Vincent reports that Dominicans who lived seven years in Tiflis asked Georgians, Persians and Jews about it, and all said they knew nothing of it. The margin says the story 'appears to be a fable', and the next page adds that only Alexander's gates exist, one of which the Tartars broke.
For whereas our scholastic histories say that Alexander the Great, king of the Macedonians, obtained from the Lord by prayer the shutting up of the Jews between the Caspian mountains, and predict that they will come out near the end of the world, our brothers [of the Order of Preachers, in the Georgian city of Tiflis near the Caspian mountains] stayed seven years, and diligently asked the Georgians and Persians, and even the Jews, about that enclosure; and all, even the Jews, say that they know nothing at all of it
Working translation
Original wording
Cum enim dicant historiæ nostræ scolasticæ, quod Alexander magnus Rex Macedonum oratione impetrauit à Domino reclusionem Iudæorum inter montes Caspios, ipsosque circa finem mundi prædicent exituros, Fratres nostri … per 7. annos commorati sunt, diligenter à Georgianis & à Persis, & etiam à Iudæis de inclusione illa inquisierunt, & dicunt omnes etiam Iudæi, quod nihil penitus inde sciunt
About Dominican friars in Georgia; the legendary peoples shut behind the Caspian mountains
Keep in mind
The friars tested a legend and found no support; the passage does not itself call the Tartars the enclosed nations.
OCR normalized against the page image; long s normalized.
Amazons near the Kalmyks, and an Amazon's dress in the palace
Editorial contextIn Georgia Chardin asked about the Amazons of classical legend. He met no one who had been to their country, but many told stories, and in the prince's palace he was shown a large woman's garment of coarse wool said to have belonged to an Amazon killed near Kakheti. The Georgian prince's son told him a numerous unknown people lived five days north, always at war with 'the Tartars, which they call Calmac'.
I confess, I never saw any Person in Georgia who had been in the Country of the Amazons; but I have heard many of 'em tell Stories of those People. And they shew'd me in the Prince's Palace, a large Female habit of a course Woollen Stuff
About Kalmyks (as the Georgians called them) and a legendary people beyond
Keep in mind
Chardin reports the stories but, on the next page, rejects the classical details as Greek fables.
Winter villages, summer yurts
Editorial contextIn the Georgian province of Somkhiti most inhabitants were Terekeme or Turkmen Tatars, Muslims speaking a Turkish dialect of Tatar. They lived mainly by herding: most stayed in their villages only in winter, and in summer lived out in yurts or earth huts that they moved a couple of times a year, though they also kept orchards and small rice fields. Güldenstädt thought this half-nomadic life, with their religion and language, made them unreliable subjects of the Georgian tsar.
By far the greatest part of its inhabitants consists of Terekeme or Turkmen Tatars, who speak the Tatar language in a Turkish dialect and are Mohammedans … the Tatars mostly apply themselves only to cattle-raising, and most of them live in their villages only in winter, but in summer they usually camp in the open in yurts or earth huts
Working translation
Original wording
Der bey weiten größeste Theil ihrer Einwohner besteht aus terekemenischen oder türkmenischen Tataren, die die tatarische Sprache in türkischer Mundart sprechen und Muhamedaner sind … die Tataren legen sich meistens blos auf die Viehzucht und die mehresten wohnen nur des Winters in ihren Dörfern, des Sommers aber stehen sie gewöhnlich im freyen in Jurten oder Erdhütten
About Terekeme (Turkmen) Tatars
Continue in this sourceGüldenstädt's travels through southern Russia and the Caucasus1768 to 1775 · 13 passages