Kerch and Yenikale for Russia, a fortress on a non-existent island for the Ottomans
Editorial contextThe memoir lists Russia's peace terms as the Ottomans understood them: the fortresses and places on the Crimean, Taman and Kuban side would be handed to the Tatars, while Yenikale and the port of Kerch, with their districts, would go to Russia. At most, it says with open sarcasm, the Ottomans would be allowed to build a fortress 'on an imaginary island, whose name and body do not exist' between Yenikale and Taman. The Tatar towns of the strait are real fortresses bargained over by two empires.
All the fortresses and places on the side of Crimea, Taman and Kuban … shall be left and handed over to the Tatars; and secondly Yenikale and the port of Kerch, with their districts and territories, shall be made over to Russia; and at most the Sublime State may build a fortress on an imaginary island, whose name and body do not exist, between Yenikale and Taman.
Working translation
Original wording
قريم وطمان وقوبان جانبنده اولان قلاع وبقاع بالجمله … تاتاره ترك وتسليم اولنه وثانيا یکی قلعه وکرش ليمانی الکا وناحيه‌لريله روسيه دولتنه تمليك اولنوب نهايه یکی قلعه ايله طمان بيننده اسم وجسمی معدوم بر اطه موهومه ده دولت عليه بر قلعه بنا ايتمك جايز اوله
About Crimean Tatars, Russians and Ottomans
Keep in mind
A hostile Ottoman summary of Russian demands, perhaps translated from French; the sarcasm about the island is the memoir's own. Russia did gain Kerch and Yenikale by the treaty of 1774.
Transcribed from the manuscript image (corpus OCR of this manuscript is garbled); one unclear word omitted.
Genoese forts razed by Tatars, rebuilt by Turks
Editorial contextZuev credits the Crimean fortresses to three builders: the Genoese fortified the towns, the Tatars razed the walls when they took them, and the Turks later restored the fortifications at Kefa, Kerch and Kozlov and built Arabat and Perekop. At Perekop a broad, deep, stone-lined ditch cut the isthmus from sea to sea behind an earth rampart, while the fortress itself had become heaps of brick, bombs and cannonballs.
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
Original wording
Alle diese Oerter waren, so lange die Genueser sie beherrschten, wohl befestigt, die Tatarn schleiften aber, bey der Einnahme derselben, die Festungswerke. Wie sie nachher den Türken unterwürfig wurden, stellten selbige in Kefa, Kertsch und Koslow die Festungswerke wieder her, und legten die Festung Arabat … wie auch Perekop an
About Crimean Tatars; Ottoman Turks; Genoese
Continue in this sourcePallas's 'New Northern Contributions', a journal of reports from Russia's frontiers1730 to 1799 · 8 passagesKurgans raised by each mourner's handful of earth
Editorial contextAfter watching a kurgan being opened at Kerch, Spencer reflects on the countless mounds of the region. He reports the tradition of 'descendants of the aboriginal inhabitants' in the Crimean mountains: when a great warrior or king died, every admirer carried a portion of earth and threw it on his grave. On the next page he calls this 'the tradition of the Tartars' and compares it to Scottish cairns.
these tumuli were voluntarily erected by the people ; as when any of their great warriors or kings expired, his ashes were placed in the tomb, and every man who admired his virtues carried a portion of earth and threw it over his grave.
About Crimean Tatars and older mountain peoples (as tradition-keepers)
Keep in mind
A local tradition; the Kerch kurgans are mostly Greek and Scythian burials many centuries older than the Tatars. Spencer credits the builders to 'a great and powerful people' of antiquity, not to the Tatars.
The 'Golden Hill' of Kerch
Editorial contextIn the Kerch museum of ancient Greek finds, Jesse reports a Tatar tradition that centuries earlier about forty poods (some 1,440 pounds) of gold had been taken from one of the nearby burial mounds, which they therefore called the Golden Hill. He calls the story 'no doubt fabulous'.
The Tartars have a tradition, that upwards of forty pouds, nearly one thousand four hundred and forty pounds English, of this metal, in ornaments and coin, were, several hundred years ago, taken from one of the tumuli in the neighbourhood; and they call it in consequence the Golden Hill. This is, no doubt, fabulous
About Crimean Tatars (local tradition)
Keep in mind
The mounds were ancient Greek and Bosporan burials, not Tatar; the tradition is about finding treasure, not building.