The feigned flight, which they call a dance
Editorial contextHerberstein explains the classic steppe tactic: attack from a distance, pretend to flee, shoot backwards at the pursuers, then wheel round and charge. The Tartars fight in a wheeling circle rather than a battle line and, he says, call this manoeuvre 'a dance'. Without shield, lance or helmet they avoid close combat in narrow places.
they do not, however, continue this mode of warfare long, but pretending flight, take an opportunity while their enemies are pursuing them to discharge their arrows backwards, and then, when the ranks of the enemy are broken, turn their horses suddenly round and attack them.
About Tartar cavalry
Continue in this sourceHerberstein's Notes upon Russia (Muscovy and its Tartar neighbours)1517 to 1526 · 15 passagesForty brothers, one father: polygamy and a Tatar village
Editorial contextMichalo argues that polygamy is why the Perekop Tatars, so often slaughtered by the Lithuanians, keep springing back. He cites a troop of forty full brothers in the army of Sultan Islam Giray, all sons of one Omeldesz by wives and concubines within little more than a year, and a Tatar village on the Vaka river in Lithuania still called 'Forty Tartars', that is, forty brothers. He adds that both Tatars and Muscovites keep their women without freedom.
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
Working translation
Original wording
haec multitudo uxorum facit ut vicini nostri Tartari Precopenses toties a nobis ad internecionem caesi, rursum repullulascant. nec ita pridem in copijs Oslam Soltani fuerunt 40. fratres collectanei eius, cuiusdam Omeldesz 40. filij simul
About Crimean Tatars; Lithuanian Tatars
Continue in this sourceMichalo the Lithuanian on the customs of the Tartars, Lithuanians and Muscovites1530 to 1549 · 12 passagesDining with the last khan of the Great Horde
Editorial contextHerberstein says the Crimean khans came from the old 'Savolha' royal line and fought its last king, Sheikh Ahmed. Defeated, the khan fled to Lithuania, was held in the island castle of Trakai, and there Herberstein met him at dinner. He writes that this ended the line of the Great Horde kings, heirs of the Golden Horde.
was apprehended in the attempt and taken back to the castle of Troky, four miles from Vilna, where I saw him and dined with him. This was the termination of the reign of the kings of Savolha, and together with them ended the race of the kings of Astrachan, who derived their origin from the same royal line.
About Sheikh Ahmed (Scheachmet), khan of the Great Horde (Savolha)
Keep in mind
His claim that the Astrakhan line ended here is contradicted a few pages later, where a king of Astrakhan regains his throne.
Muslim Tatars in the streets of Vilnius
Editorial contextIn a polemical letter to King Stephen Bathory, Possevino points to Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, where the king could see on one side 'faithless Tartars' and schismatic Ruthenians and heretics of many kinds, and on the other many Catholics. The Tartars are 'faithless' because they follow Muhammad. It is a glimpse of the settled Muslim Tatar community of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
You came not long ago to this city, the capital of Lithuania. Here you see on one side faithless Tartars and schismatic Ruthenians, and various kinds of heretics, and on the other side very many Catholics. And the Tartars indeed because they follow Muhammad, the Ruthenians because with their schism they have drunk in many errors
Working translation
Original wording
Venisti non ita pridem ad hanc ciuitatem Lituaniæ caput. Hic vides ex altera parte perfidos Tartaros & schismaticos Ruthenos, ac varia hæreticorum genera, ipsos autem ex altera parte Catholicos plurimos. Et Tartari quidem, quoniam Mahometem sectantur, Rutheni autem quoniam cum schismate multos errores hauserunt
About Lithuanian Tatars
Keep in mind
Religious polemic; it tells us Tatars were a visible Muslim group in Vilnius, not how they lived.
Transcribed from the page image; long s normalized.