Mongolia

Tatars wanted to be Turks, Turks wanted to be Tatars

Editorial contextHammer notes that the Black Tatars near Baikal and the Water Tatars on the Kerulen appeared at the end of the 12th century under the name Mongols. When Chinggis Khan raised this small people to world rule, Turkic and Tatar peoples claimed the name for themselves, just as earlier, while Turks and Tatars ruled, each had wanted the other's name. Only later, once that power had faded, did Mongols and Kalmyks refuse to be called Tatars and Ottomans refuse to be called Turks; his note cites Rubruck's remark that the Mongols did not want to be called Tartars. On p. 22 he adds that the Turkic peoples of Russia are called Tatars, 'though the name is incorrect'.

When the small people living south-east of Lake Baikal … was raised by Chinggis Khan to be the ruling tribe of world-conquering armies, Turkic and Tatar peoples laid claim to this name, just as, when the Turks and Tatars held power, Turks wanted to be called Tatars and Tatars Turks. Only in more recent times … do the Mongols and Kalmyks no longer want to be called Tatars, nor the Ottomans Turks.

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Als das kleine Volk, welches südöstlich vom Baikalsee … wohnte, durch Tschengis-Chan zum Herrscherstamme welterobernder Heere erhoben ward, nahmen türkische und tatarische Völker diesen Nahmen in Anspruch, wie, als die Türken und Tataren die Herrschaft inne hatten, Türken Tataren und Tataren Türken heissen wollten. Erst in neueren Zeiten … wollen die Mongolen und Kalmücken nicht mehr Tataren, und die Osmanen nicht mehr Türken heissen.

About Mongols, Tatars, Turks, Kalmyks, Ottomans

Natigay, the felt household god with a wife and children

Editorial contextIn the Latin Marco Polo of the Society's first volume, the chapter on Tartar customs describes their god Natigay (here 'Naagay'), lord of the earth who guards children, herds and crops. Every household made him of felt and cloth, with a felt wife and children beside him. At meals they smeared fat on the idols' mouths and threw broth out of the door for them before eating. The same page describes kumiss, called 'chenus'.

Their law is this: they have their god called Naagay, and they say he is an earthly god, or god of the earth, who guards their children, their beasts and their crops … They make this god of felt and cloth, and believe this god of theirs has a wife and children … When they eat, they take fat meat and smear the mouth of their idol with it, and of the idol's wife and children

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Lex autem eorum talis est; quia ipsi habent suum deum qui vocatur Naagay, et dicunt quod ille est deus terrenus vel deus terræ qui custodit eorum filios et eorum bestias et blada … Et faciunt istum deum de feltro et panno, et credunt quod iste deus eorum habeat uxorem et filios … Quando comedunt ipsi accipiunt carnes pingues et ungunt illi suo idolo os, et uxori et filiis idoli

About Tartars (Mongols)

Bone skates, but no monsters

Editorial contextFrom informants at Mongke's court Rubruck learned of northern peoples: the Orengai, who tied polished bones under their feet and sped over snow and ice fast enough to catch birds and beasts. He also asked about the monstrous races described by Isidore and Solinus; his informants said they had never seen any such thing, which, he writes, 'we much wonder whether it is true'.

There are also the Orengai, who tie polished bones under their feet and push themselves over the frozen snow and over the ice so fast that they catch birds and beasts. … I asked about the monsters, or monstrous men, that Isidore and Solinus tell of. They told me they had never seen such things, at which we much wonder whether it is true.

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Sunt etiam ibi Orengai, qui ligant ossa limata sub pedibus suis, et impellunt se super nivem congelatam, et super glaciem cum tanta velocitate ut capiant aves et bestias. … Quesivi de monstris, sive de monstruosis hominibus, de quibus narrat Ysodorus et Solinus. Ipsi dicebant michi quod nunquam viderunt talia, de quo multum miramur si verum sit.

About Orengai (forest peoples of southern Siberia)

Furs, milk and the tall bark headdress

Editorial contextWest of the Kerulun bend the country was crowded with carts and tents, and the people raised cattle, hunted, wore furs and skins and lived on milk and meat. Married women wore a two-foot headdress of tree bark covered in wool or, among the rich, red silk, with a long 'tail' called yu-yu that looked like a goose or duck, and they entered tents backwards with heads bent so as not to knock it (next page). Bretschneider matches it with the tall headdress described by Carpini and by Rubruck, who calls it bocca. On the same page, Mongols who had waited a year for the sage brought him millet and were amazed by the jujubes he gave them, a fruit they had never seen.

They dress in furs and skins, and live upon milk and flesh-meat. The men and unmarried young women plait their hair so that it hangs down over their ears. The married women put on their heads a thing made of the bark of trees, two feet high, which they sometimes cover with woollen cloth, or, as the rich used to do, with red silk stuff.

About Mongols

A Russian husband who built houses for the Tartars

Editorial contextAt the Mongol court Rubruck met Paquette, a woman from Metz captured in Hungary, who had married a young Russian. She told him her husband was expert in building, 'an art much valued and needed among the Tartars', and that a Parisian goldsmith was working at Karakorum. The Mongols' building work, in other words, was often done by captives from conquered lands.

having a young husband from Russia, by whom she had three fine children; and her husband was very skilled at building, which is an art much esteemed and in demand among the Tartars. She also told us that at Karakorum there was a Parisian goldsmith named Guillaume Boucher

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ayant vn ieune mary de Russie, dont elle auoit trois beaux enfans, & son mary s'entendoit fort aux bastimens, qui est vn art bien estimé & requis entre les Tartares. Elle nous donna encor aduis qu'à Caracarum il y auoit vn Orfeure Parisien, nommé Guillaume Boucher

About Tartars (Mongols); Paquette of Metz and her Russian husband

Grand Cham of the Tartars, named after the river Tata

Editorial contextAt Genghis Khan's proclamation, Pétis says, the new emperor praised the 'Soumoguls', called Tartars after the river Tata that ran through their land, and added 'Grand Cham of the Tartars' to his title to honour them. A footnote explains that this is how all the Scythian nations under Genghis came to be called Tartars, and that the Chinese, lacking an r, said 'Tata'.

And having much cause to praise the Soumoguls (who are particularly called Tartars, by reason of the River Tata that waters their Country) he declared in the Mogul Language, that he would add to his Title of Emperor of the Moguls that of Grand Cham of the Tartars, both to do that Nation Honour

About Mongols and the Tatar tribe

One god, many idols, and the sin of a knife in the fire

Editorial contextSanudo's chapter on 'the customs of the Tartars' says they believe in one God, maker of all, but do not pray to him; they worship idols that give them answers. They are 'too superstitious': it is a sin to stick a knife in the fire, touch fire with a knife, take meat from the cauldron with it, or chop with an axe near the fire, 'for they think the head is thus cut off the fire'. Killing and invading other lands, he adds, they do not count as sin.

The Tartars worship one God, maker of all things, giver of good and of punishments in this world; yet they do not worship him with prayers or praises or in any other way, but idols from which they get answers. ... They are too superstitious: for they think it a sin to stick a knife in the fire, or touch it in any way with a knife, or take meat out of the cauldron with it, or chop with an axe beside the fire: for they think that in this way the head is taken off the fire.

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Tartari, vnum Deum colunt, factorem omnium; bonorum, & pœnarum in hoc mundo datorem: eum tamen orationibus vel laudibus aut aliter non colunt; sed idola à quibus habent responsa. … Superstitiosi sunt nimis: peccatū enim putant cultellum in igne figere, vel quomodocunq; cultello tangere, vel cum eo carnes de caldaria extrahere, vel cū securi incidere iuxta ignē: putant enim sic caput igni auferri.

About Mongols

From Yuan emperors back to 'Dada'

Editorial contextThe history of the Mongol domains says the Yuan's ancestors, the Mongols, came from the far northwest, conquered the world and unified it. After 1368 the Yuan heir fled north and kept his dynastic title, but a later usurper, Guilichi, called himself khan, dropped the dynastic name and 'again called [them] Dada', Tatars. The Qing record thus treats Tatar as the name the Mongols fell back on after losing China.

The forebears of the Yuan were called Menggu (Mongols); they lived on the far northwestern frontier, took possession of all under heaven and so unified it. At the start of the Ming, Ayushiridara fled back to the northern desert and resumed his old title... Guolegi (Guilichi) usurped the throne, styled himself khan, abolished the dynastic name and again called [them] Dada (Tatars).

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元之先曰蒙古居西北極邊奄有天下遂成一統明初阿裕實哩達喇遯歸朔漠復其故號…果勒齊篡位稱可汗去國號復稱韃靼

About Mongols (Yuan dynasty and its heirs)

Round houses of wands and felt, doors to the south

Editorial contextPolo describes the classic Mongol dwelling: a round frame of light, tightly bound wands covered with felt, carried from camp to camp, always pitched with the door facing south. Families also had felt-covered wagons, rainproof and drawn by oxen and camels, in which women and children travelled. Yule's note compares the Kirghiz yurts of his own day.

Their houses are circular, and are made of wands covered with felts. These are carried along with them whithersoever they go ; for the wands are so strongly bound together, as well as so well combined, that the frame can be made very light. Whenever they erect these huts the door is always to the south.

About Tartars (Mongols)

The Mongols do not call themselves Tartars

Editorial contextStrahlenberg insists that the Mongols and Kalmyks, whom Europeans call Tartars, do not use the name and dislike it. In his view the name belonged to the 'original Tartars' near China and was stretched to cover the Mongols because they allied with them long ago. He adds that the Chinese used 'Tata' much as the Romans used 'barbarian'.

But to return to the Mungal Nations: We must know, that these are the People whom the Chinese, with Respect to their Situation, call West Tartars, and others West Mungals: But they do not reckon themselves Tartars, neither would they, by any Means, be thought so by others.

About Mongols and Kalmyks (Oirats)

Chen-hai's town of Chinese craftsmen

Editorial contextNorth of the snowy mountains lay T'ien Chen-hai ba-la-ho-sun (balgasun, the diarist explains, means city), a granary town nicknamed 'the head of the magazines', where Chinese artisans and two concubines of the Jin emperor Zhangzong turned out to greet the sage, and Changchun was surprised to see farming in the desert. Bretschneider's note, from the Yuan shi, says Chinggis had founded a military colony and built a city here, settling over 300 families from Western Asia to weave gold brocade and 300 from Kaifeng to make woollen cloth, under Chen-hai, the chancellor Chinqai whom Carpini later met. Before moving on, the sage's followers built a monastery there in under a month, 'the rich with money and the workmen with their labour' (p.61).

a number of Chinamen, artisans and workmen, who lived there … came in procession to see the master. They were all ravished; met him with exclamations of joy, bowed before him, and accompanied him with variegated umbrellas and fragrant flowers. There were also two concubines of the Kin emperor, Chang tsung, and the mother of a Chinese princess, who met the master with exclamations and tears.

About Chinese artisans and captives under Chinqai, Chinggis's official

Named Chinese builders of the memorial

Editorial contextRadloff's translation of the end of the Kul Tegin inscription lists the embassies at the funeral and then names the builders: 'to raise the buildings, make the sculptures and the inscribed stone came Tschankany and Tschang-Sangun', both from the Chinese emperor. Radloff's glossary adds that 'barq' here means the temple built by the grave, and that the old pair 'eb barq' meant 'houses (yurts) and other buildings'.

To raise the buildings, to make the sculptures and the inscribed stone, Chankany and Chang-Sangun came.

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Die Gebäude aufzuführen, die Skulpturarbeiten und den Schriftstein herzustellen, sind Tschänkany und Tschäng-Sängün gekommen.

About Turks and Tang Chinese

'Not so much as a single house' in all Mongolia

Editorial contextStaunton footnotes the embassy's entry into Mongol lands with John Bell's description of the Mongols. Bell says that in all Mongolia there was not a single house: everyone, even the prince and the high priest at Urga, lived in tents and moved with their herds. It is a clear eyewitness statement, from a Scot who crossed the region, that the Mongol heartland had no built settlements in his day.

It is very remarkable that in all the vast dominions of Mongalia, there is not so much as a single house to be seen. All the people, even the prince and high priest, live constantly in tents, and remove all their cattle from place to place as conveniency requires.

About Khalkha Mongols

The Mongols as Gog and Magog

Editorial contextAt Selenginsk, where by his reckoning the Siberian realm ended and the 'Mongol state' began, Spafarii offers a learned identification: the Mongols are the Gog and Magog of the Bible, 'because they call themselves Mogol'. It is an old pun on the name from biblical geography, not something the Mongols told him. He then describes them as a very great people stretching from the Amur to Bukhara and India.

And here the Siberian state ends and the Mongol state begins. The Mongols are those of whom the Bible writes, Gog and Magog, because they call themselves Magol. And that Mongol race is very great

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И здѣ скончается Сибирское государство, и начинается государство Мунгальское. Мунгалы суть, о которыхъ пишетъ въ Библіи - Гогъ и Магогъ, потому что они называютъ себя Маголь. И тотъ родъ Мунгальской зѣло великой

About Mongols (Khalkha)

The Xiongnu town that was never built

Editorial contextThe Chinese annals tell how a Chinese defector at the Xiongnu court, Wei Lü, advised the young shanyu to dig wells, build a town and two-storey granaries, and give the grain to Chinese captives to keep. Hundreds of wells were dug and thousands of logs felled, but others argued that the Xiongnu could not defend towns and the grain would only fall to the Chinese, so the plan was dropped. A vivid example of steppe rulers weighing fixed buildings against mobility.

Wei Lü advised the shanyu to dig wells, build a town and two-storey storehouses to keep grain, and to entrust the keeping of the grain to 'Qin Chinese'. Then, even if Chinese troops came, they could do nothing. Several hundred wells had already been dug and several thousand logs cut, when some pointed out that the Xiongnu cannot defend towns

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Вэй Люй подалъ Шаньюю совѣтъ выкопать колодцы, построить городъ и двухъ-этажные магазины для содержанія хлѣба, а храненіе хлѣба поручить Китайцамъ династіи Цинь. Тогда хотя и придутъ китайскія войска, ничего сдѣлать не могутъ. Уже выкопано было нѣсколько сотъ колодцевъ, срублено нѣсколько тысячъ бревенъ, какъ нѣкоторые представили, что Хунны не могутъ защищать городовъ

About Xiongnu, with Chinese defector Wei Lü

'In their own language they are called Mangoli'

Editorial contextThomas opens his chapter 'On the nature of the Tartars' by saying he will report what he could hear from people who had looked into the matter closely. Their land lies where the East meets the North, and in their own language they are called 'Mangoli', that is, Mongols. He adds that their country is said to border on 'further India' and names their king in a garbled form. So a Dalmatian writer of the 1260s already knew that 'Tartar' was not what these people called themselves.

Now I will tell a few things about the nature and dress of that people, as far as I could hear from those who investigated the matter more carefully. Their region lies in that part of the world where the East joins the North, and those peoples, in the proper usage of their own language, are called Mangoli. They say, however, that their land borders on further India

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Nunc vero de natura, & habitu gentis illius prout ab his audire potui, qui rem curiosius indagarunt, pauca narrabo: Est enim regio illorum in ea parte orbis sita ubi Oriens conjungitur Aquiloni, gentesque illae secundum proprietatem linguae suae Mangoli appellantur. Ferunt tamen quod terra illorum confinis sit ulterioris Indiae

About Mongols

Genghis Khan descended from a grey deer and a white she-wolf

Editorial contextVisdelou compares the Mongol origin stories. A Chinese abridgement says the Mongols' 'secret memoirs' traced Chinggis's family to the mating of a grey deer and a white she-wolf, whose monstrous child was his twenty-fourth ancestor; on the same page is the story of the widow Alan-kouo conceiving by a golden light through the tent's smoke-hole. Visdelou notes the official Chinese genealogy says none of this and calls the wolf tale 'shameful and impossible'.

the secret memoirs of the Mongols testify that the family of Ki-o-uen came from the coupling of a grey deer and a white she-wolf, and that the monstrous child born of it was the twenty-fourth ancestor of Chinggis Khan … it [the official history] nowhere mentions the last story, which is both shameful and impossible.

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les mémoires secrets des Moumgols témoignent que la famille de Ki-o-uen étoit sortie de l'accouplement d'un cerf gris & d'une louve blanche, & que l'enfant monstrueux qui en nâquit fut le vingt-quatrième Ayeul de Tchim-khis-khan … elle ne parle nulle part de la dernière, qui est également honteuse & impossible.

About Mongols (the family of Chinggis Khan)

Ruins of a Mongol city on the Kerulen: 'the City of the Tyger'

Editorial contextIn Khalkha country Grosier places 'Karakum', seat of Chinggis Khan's empire, and describes ruins on the north bank of the Kerulen: a square city about two leagues round, built by the Mongol successors of Kublai Khan, with foundations, bits of wall and two half-ruined 'pyramids' (probably stupas or towers) still standing. The locals called it Para-hotun. Ruined cities here are credited to the Yuan emperors.

On the northern side of it are seen the ruins of a large city, built by the Mogul successors of the famous Coblai-kan ; this city was square, and about two leagues in circumference; its foundations, some pieces of the walls, and two pyramids

About Khalkha Mongols; ruins left by the Yuan (Kublai's successors)

White furs for the New Year

Editorial contextAt each year's end the whole camp moved its tents to a fresh site to celebrate the New Year. There was a great feast in front of the tents at which everyone from the prince down wore pure white furs, and three days later they went to the great tent to offer New Year greetings. White was the lucky colour of the Mongol New Year (the White Month).

On the last day of the year they always move the tents to a new site, as the place for celebrating the New Year. That day there is a great banquet for all his people in front of the tents, and everyone from the prince down wears pure white furs. Only after three days do they go to the great ordo-tent to offer their New Year greetings.

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比歳除日輙迁帳易地以為賀正之所日大晏所部於帳前自王以下皆衣純白裘三日後方詣大牙帳致賀礼也

About Mongols of the prince's camp

'The Dada are the Mongols'

Editorial contextThe chapter on the Tatars opens with a flat definition: the Dada are the Mongols, the descendants of the former Yuan dynasty. It then tells how the last Yuan emperor fled Beijing beyond the passes in 1368. For Ming and Qing officials, 'Tatar' was simply the name for the Mongols of the steppe.

The Dada (Tatars) are the Mongols, the descendants of the former Yuan. In the first year of Hongwu (1368), under Taizu, the grand general Xu Da led an army to take the Yuan; the Yuan ruler fled from Beiping (Beijing) out beyond the frontier and stayed at Kaiping (Shangdu).

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韃靼即䝉古故元後也太祖洪武元年大將軍徐逹率師取元元主自北平遁出塞居開平

About Eastern Mongols (Dada, 'Tatars')

The Tartars were one of seven Mongol nations

Editorial contextHayton says the Tartars first lived beyond the great mountain of Belgian, 'like beasts' without faith or law, serving other nations, until several tribes 'called Mogols' banded together. He then lists seven nations, and the first is named Tartars. So for Hayton 'Tartar' is both the name of one tribe and the name for the whole confederation, a distinction that matters for anyone asking where the word came from.

The first of these seven nations is named Tartars, the second Tangot, the third Eurach, the fourth Jalair, the fifth Sonit, the sixth Mengli, the seventh Tebet.

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La primiere de [ces] VII nacions est nomée Tartars, la secunde Tangot, la tierce Eurach, la quarte Jalair, la quinte Sonit, la sime Mengli, la setime Tebet.

About Tartars and the other Mongol tribes

Natigay, the felt god of the household

Editorial contextPolo says the Tartars worship a high god of heaven and an earth god, Natigay, who guards children, cattle and crops. Every household had felt figures of him, his wife and children, and at meals they greased the idols' mouths with fat and sprinkled broth outside the door. Yule links Natigay to the Mongol 'ongon' spirit figures that Pallas later saw among the Buryats.

They show him great worship and honour, and every man hath a figure of him in his house, made of felt and cloth ; and they also make in the same manner images of his wife and children. … And when they eat, they take the fat of the meat and grease the god's mouth withal, as well as the mouths of his wife and children.

About Tartars (Mongols)

How the map of Tartary was put together

Editorial contextThe atlas foreword, summarising du Halde, says the Jesuits' manuscript maps passed through d'Anville's hands before engraving. For the general map of Tartary he used the travel memoirs of Father Gerbillon checked against the sheet maps, and for the lands between Tibet, Tartary and the Caspian, where the missionaries had only imperfect information, he combined their notes with whatever else he could learn.

they passed through the hands of Mr d'Anville … who then made the general maps from them. For that of Tartary he used the memoirs of Father Gerbillon, comparing them with the particular maps … as the missionaries had some knowledge, though imperfect, of the countries lying between Tibet, Tartary and the Caspian Sea, Mr d'Anville made use of it

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elles ont passé par celles de Mr. d'Anville … qui en a formé ensuite les Cartes générales. Il s'est servi pour celle de la Tartarie des Mémoires du Pere Gerbillon, en les comparant avec les Cartes particulières … comme les Missionaires avaient eu quelques connoissances, quoi qu'imparfaites des Pays situez entre le Thibet, la Tartarie & la Mer Caspienne, Mr. d'Anville en a fait usage

A city made of tents around a living Buddha

Editorial contextThe Khalkha Mongols revered a lama called the Hutuktu, a 'living Fo' (Buddha), brother of one of their khans, who had built a costly temple of yellow glazed bricks on the Tula with workmen from Beijing; the Oirat ruler Galdan destroyed it in 1688. Now the Hutuktu lived in tents, and his camp drew Russian traders, monks from India, Pegu, Tibet and China, and lamas of every rank: 'a large City made of Tents'.

One may call it a large City made of Tents, the Hurry being much greater there than any where else in this Part of Tartary. The Russians of Selinghinskoy, which is not far distant, trade thither; there you meet also with Bonzas from Indostan, Pegu, Tibet, and China

About Khalkha Mongols and their Hutuktu (Jebtsundamba Khutuktu)

Killing a man is no sin, but leaving the bridle on is

Editorial contextIn his chapter on Tartar customs Hayton says they name God simply and immortal but honour him with no prayers, fasts or penances. A Tartar would not think it a sin to kill a man, yet would think he had sinned mortally if he left the bit in his horse's mouth while it grazed. When they cross lands short of food they drive cows and mares with them, living on the milk and eating horse meat, which they think good.

A Tartar would not reckon it a sin to kill a man; but if he left the bridle in his horse's mouth when it should graze, he would think he had sinned mortally. … and they live on the milk, and eat the flesh of horses, and it seems good meat to them.

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Le Tartar ne reputaroit avoir fait pechié d'oucivre I home; e se il laissoit le frein en la bouche de son cheval, quant il deüst paistre, il quideroit pechier mortelment. … e vivent du lait, e la char des chevaus mangent, e lur pert bone char.

About Tartars (Mongols)

A poor old blacksmith and the white knight

Editorial contextHayton's origin legend of Genghis Khan: a poor old blacksmith named Canguis saw in a dream a white knight on a white horse, who told him that God willed him to rule the seven Tartar nations called Mogols and free them from servitude. The chiefs laughed at him until they saw the same knight the next night. A second vision later sends him west over the mountain.

an old man, a poor smith, named Canguis, saw a vision in a dream: he saw an armed knight on a white horse who called him by his name and said: 'Canguis, the will of the immortal God is that you should be governor and lord over the seven nations of the Tartars, which are called Mogols'

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un veillart, povre home fevre, qui avoit non Canguis, vit en songe un avision; car il vit un chevalier armez sur un cheval blanc qui l'apela par son non, et luy dit: « Canguis, la volenté de l'inmortel Deu est tel que tu doies estre governeor e seignor sur les VII nacions des Tartars qui sunt dites Mogols

About Genghis Khan and the Mongols

New towns in eastern Tartary, none in the west

Editorial contextIn a report on the China missions presented in Rome, François Noël says Eastern Tartary (Manchuria) is filling up: the emperor is building towns there and villages are well peopled. Western Tartary has neither towns nor villages except toward the Uzbeks and the Caspian; its peoples, recently subjected to the emperor, own nothing but herds, and move on every three months or so when the grass is eaten.

Eastern Tartary is filling with people every day. The Emperor is having towns built there, and very populous villages can be seen. As for Western Tartary, there are neither towns nor villages except toward the Uzbeks and the Caspian Sea … All the wealth of these peoples consists only of numerous herds, with which they wander here and there.

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La Tartarie orientale se peuple tous les jours. L'Empereur y fait bâtir des villes, & l'on y voit des villages fort peuplés. Pour la Tartarie occidentale, il n'y a ni villes ni villages que du côté des Yousbecks, & de la mer Caspienne … Toutes les richesses de ces Peuples ne consistent qu'en de nombreux troupeaux, avec lesquels ils errent de côté & d'autre.

About Manchus (Eastern Tartary); Mongol and other nomads (Western Tartary)

The lama's stone temple 'like a city', built by Chinese masters

Editorial contextSpafarii copies the report of the party of Ivan Porshennikov, who rode from Selenginsk across Mongolia to China and back in 1675. On the Tola (Tuul) river lived the Khutukhta lama, head of all the priests 'like our metropolitan', who had built for his idols a great stone temple 'like a city', with craftsmen brought from China. A little further down the Tola stood an empty stone city, very strong, whose walls needed only a little repair.

and in that place he built for his idols a great stone temple, like a city, and the craftsmen who made that temple were brought from China. And on the same Tola river, a little below the Khutukhta, there is an empty stone city, and around its wall little repair is needed, and the city is very strong.

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и въ томъ мѣстѣ построилъ капище своимъ идоломъ великое каменное, будто городъ, а мастеры, которые дѣлали то капище, приведены были изъ Китаи. Да и по той же рѣкѣ Толѣ пониже немного Кутухты есть городъ каменной пустой, и около стѣны его починки немного надобно, а городъ самой крѣпкой.

About Khalkha Mongols and their chief lama, the Khutukhta; Chinese craftsmen

Ruined cities in Mongolia credited to Kublai's successors

Editorial contextThe map-making Jesuits found ruins of a large city on the Kherlen and of cities 'in above 20 different places'. They argue these were not ancient: the Mongols preferred tents to the most convenient houses, but after Kublai conquered China they began to build cities in Tartary so as not to look inferior to the Chinese, and all were destroyed or abandoned within a century. They compare this to the Manchu emperor Kangxi building towns and summer palaces in their own day.

Rubraquis speaks of Kara koram as a Village; but it is the Genius of that Nation to prefer Tents to the most convenient Houses: However, when they took to the Chinese Customs … they begun to build Cities in Tartary, the Ruins of which are still to be seen in above 20 different Places.

About Mongols of the Yuan dynasty

A Chinese portrait of the Tatars: wool tents, hot stones, tree burials

Editorial contextRémusat translates a Chinese geography, the Kouang-iu-ki, on the Tha-tche (Tatars): they follow rivers and pastures with their herds, dress in hides, make tents of coarse wool, cure illness by burning the sick part with a heated stone, sing and dance at funerals, and some place the corpse in a tree and burn the bones three years later. Rémusat judges such Chinese portraits 'not lacking in accuracy and fidelity'.

The Tha-tche follow the rivers and the places rich in pasture … They make their tents of coarse woollen cloth. … When they are ill, they heat a stone and burn themselves (on the sick part). At funerals they accompany the dead singing and dancing. Some place the corpse in a tree, and three years later they gather the bones and burn them.

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Les Tha-tche suivent les rivières et les lieux fertiles en pâturages … Ils font leurs tentes avec de grosses étoffes de laine. … Lorsqu'ils sont malades, ils font chauffer une pierre, et se brûlent eux-mêmes (la partie malade). Aux funérailles, ils accompagnent le mort en chantant et en dansant. Quelques-uns placent le cadavre sur un arbre, et, trois ans après, ils recueillent les os et les brûlent.

About Tha-tche (Tatars, as Chinese writers used the name)

A Mongol official's belief about Genghis Khan's houses

Editorial contextA Mongol officer (the zakiroktchi) told the Russians he was sure several European kings descended from Genghis Khan, since Genghis had reigned in Russia, and that ruins of Genghis Khan's houses still stood in Mongolia and probably in Russia too. Timkovsky dismisses the royal descent as absurd but records the belief. It is an early example of a local legend crediting ruins to Genghis Khan.

The zakiroktchi was persuaded that several sovereigns of Europe must be descendants of Gingis Khan, … because he had reigned in Russia, and other foreign countries; a conjecture of which it seems unnecessary to shew the absurdity. He informed us that there still existed in Mongolia ruins of houses that belonged to Gingis Khan, and he supposed there must be some in Russia.

About Khalkha Mongols

The 'Thirty Tatars' mourn the first Turk khans

Editorial contextThe Kul Tegin stone opens with the Turks' own origin story and then says that when the first khans, Bumin and Istemi, died, peoples came 'weeping and lamenting' from the east: the Chinese, the Tibetans, the Kirghiz, the Three Qurıqan, the Thirty Tatars, the Kitay (Khitan) and the Tatabi. This is one of the oldest written uses of the name Tatar anywhere, carved in stone by the Turks themselves, and here the Tatars are one steppe people among many.

Weeping and lamenting there came from the front, from the side of the rising sun, the mighty peoples of the desert (that is, foreign peoples?): the Chinese, the Tibetans, the Apar and Apurim, the Kirghiz, the Three Qurıqan, the Thirty Tatars, the Kitay, the Tatabi … all these peoples came to lament and weep, so valiant had these khagans been.

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Pleurant et se lamentant arrivèrent de l'avant, du côté du soleil levant, les puissants peuples du désert (c'est-à-dire étrangers?), les Chinois, les Thibétains, les Apar et Apourim, les Kirghiz, les Trois-Kourikans, les Trente-Tatars, les Kitaï, les Tatabi, … tous ces peuples vinrent se lamenter et pleurer: si vaillants avaient été ces kagans.

About Otuz Tatar (the Thirty Tatars), a Mongolic people east of the Turks

Mongolia: land of the race of Gog and Magog

Editorial contextSketching the borders of the Mongol lands from Lake Khövsgöl to the Argun, Ides says that this is what 'hath been formerly said' to be the realm of the race of Gog and Magog, the wild nations of the Bible and the Alexander legends. He then gives an accurate current picture: three ruling brothers, the chief being the Khutughtu, the Buddhist high priest, who had placed themselves under the Chinese emperor after suffering from the Kalmyk (Dzungar) ruler in 1688 and 1689.

is the circumference and boundary of the whole Mongalian Territories, or as hath been formerly said of the Jurisdiction of the Race of Gog and Magog, which is governed by three Regents, the chief of which is the Kuttugt, who is also the High Priest of the Nation.

About Khalkha Mongols

Thomsen: the Tatars of the stones were Mongols, not Turks

Editorial contextIn his notes Thomsen comments on 'Otuz Tatar' (Thirty Tatars) and 'Toquz Tatar' (Nine Tatars): the name meets us here 'for the first time in history', appears in Chinese books only in the ninth century, and belongs to the Mongols or one of their tribes, not to a Turkic people. He places them between the Oghuz (Uighurs) to the west and the Khitan to the east, near the Kerulen river. So the original Tatars were a real Mongolic group on the edge of the Turk empire.

a well-known name that we meet here for the first time in history. In Chinese literature, Ta-ta appears at the beginning of the ninth century. This name belongs to the Mongols, or rather to one of their tribes, and not to any people of Turkic race.

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nom bien connu que nous rencontrons ici pour la première fois dans l'histoire Dans la littérature chinoise, Ta-ta se présente au commencement du IXe siècle. C'est aux Mongols ou plutôt à une de leurs tribus que revient cette dénomination, et non à aucun peuple de race turque

About Otuz Tatar and Toquz Tatar

A bird cries 'Chinggis!' and a jade seal appears

Editorial contextThe chronicle explains Chinggis Khan's title with a marvel: for three mornings a never-before-seen bird with rainbow feathers sat on a stone in front of his palace and called 'chinggis, chinggis', so his officials gave him the name. Then the stone split open by itself, revealing the old imperial jade seal. The author adds that the name is mispronounced in Tibetan as 'Jingir'.

...[the bird] called for a long time in a lovely voice 'chinggis, chinggis'. The officials took this as a wonderful sign and a lucky omen, and therefore gave the king the name Bogda Chinggis.

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rief lange mit lieblicher Stimme ‘c'ihgis, chhgis’. Die Beamten fassten dies als ein wunderbares Zeichen und glückliches Omen auf und gaben daher dem Könige den Namen Pogta C'ingis

About Mongols (Chinggis Khan)

A being of light enters through the tent's roof opening

Editorial contextThe widowed princess Alancu refused to remarry. One morning, she said, a shining orange-coloured man came down through the opening at the top of her chamber (in a felt tent, the smoke-hole), lay with her and vanished. In Mongol tradition the sons born after this were the ancestors of Chinggis Khan. The English margin calls it a 'Fable of an Incubus'.

having slept all Night long, she saw something as she awak'd in the Morning, as bright as the Sun, fall into her Chamber thro' the Opening a-top, and approach her in the Form of a Man, of an Orange Colour, with Eyes of a singular Beauty

About Alancu (Alan Qo'a), ancestress of Chinggis Khan

A people made famous by those who destroyed it

Editorial contextDrawing on the historian D'Ohsson, the authors explain that 'Tatar' was first the name of a real Mongolian tribe, whom Genghis Khan wiped out. Yet the name spread from nation to nation and stuck to Genghis's own armies. By a strange accident, they say, a destroyed people became famous through the conquests of its destroyers.

It is a fact established by the statements of many writers, and by D'Ohson himself, that Genghis Khan annihilated the white Tatars, and thus it has come to pass by a most curious freak of accident, that this extinguished people became celebrated all over the East by the conquests of its very destroyers.

About the Tatar tribe and the Mongols of Genghis Khan

How the name Tatar lived on and spread to the Turkic peoples

Editorial contextIn a note on a feud in the chronicle, Schmidt argues that the Taichiud and the Tatar formed one people with the other Mongol tribes. After Chinggis Khan's time the name Taichiud vanishes from history, but the name Tatar lived on, grew better known and wider in meaning, passing to the Turkic peoples the Mongols conquered in western Asia. A compact statement of how 'Tatar' became a catch-all label.

It is settled, moreover, that the Taichiud and Tatar formed only one main people with the other Mongol tribes; further, that the name Taichiud is no longer found in history after Chinggis Khan's time, but the name Tatar lived on, and even became better known and acquired a wider meaning, since it passed also to the Turkic peoples subjugated in the west of Asia.

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Ausgemacht ist es übrigens, dass die Taidschigod und Tatar mit den andern mongolischen Stämmen nur ein Hauptvolk bildeten, dass ferner der Name Taidschigod nach Tschinggis Chaghan's Zeit in der Geschichte nicht mehr gefunden wird, der Name Tatar aber fortdauerte, und sogar bekannter wurde und eine ausgedehntere Bedeutung erhielt, indem derselbe auch auf die, im Westen Asiens unterjochten, türkischen Völkerschaften überging.

About Tatar and Taichiud tribes; Turkic peoples later called Tatars

The khan sent to China for sculptors

Editorial contextBilge Qaghan says he brought sculptors from the Chinese emperor, who sent his own palace craftsmen. Through them he had a separate building (a temple or hall) put up, had sculptures carved inside and outside, and had the 'eternal stone' cut and inscribed. The Turk ruler plainly credits Chinese craftsmen with the stonework and the temple beside his brother's grave; his cousin Yollugh Tegin wrote the text.

From the khagan of the Chinese I brought sculptors and had them carve. My invitation was not refused: they sent the khagan's inner (household) sculptors. I had them put up a separate building (the temple, the hall), carve sculptures inside and outside, and cut the stone.

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De chez le kagan des Chinois j'ai fait venir des sculpteurs et je (leur) ai (fait) sculpter. On n'a pas rejeté mon invitation, mais on a envoyé les sculpteurs intérieurs (c.-à-d. attachés à la maison) du kagan. Je leur ai fait ériger à part l'édifice (le temple, la salle), et tailler à part les sculptures à l'intérieur et à l'extérieur, et je leur ai fait tailler la pierre.

About Turks (Kok Turk) and Tang Chinese craftsmen

The Tatars: a separate nation that Chinggis crushed in 1202

Editorial contextD'Ohsson, following Rashid al-Din and the Chinese annals, treats the Tatars as a distinct people: seventy thousand households around Lake Buir by the Jurchen frontier, split into six feuding tribes and bitter enemies of the Mongols. In spring 1202 Temüjin attacked and defeated them.

This nation, which lived in the country around Lake Buir, near the frontier of the Jurchen, then numbered seventy thousand huts, or families, and was divided into six tribes … There was great hostility between them and the Mongols.

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Cette nation, qui habitait le pays environnant le lac Bouyour, près de la frontière des Tchourtchés, comptait alors soixante-dix mille huttes, ou familles, et se divisait en six tribus … Il régnait une grande animosité entre eux et les Mongols.

About the Tatar tribe; Mongols under Temüjin

Seven Tartar nations, and the 'water Mongols' named after a river

Editorial contextSanudo lists seven Tartar nations 'of greater excellence': Tartar, Tangoth, Eurath, Ialayr, Sonit, Mengli and Theboth (roughly Tatar, Tangut, Oirat, Jalayir, Sunit, and others). Then, from another source, he says the land of Mongal had four peoples, the second being the Su Mongol or 'water Mongols', who 'call themselves Tartars, from a river of theirs called Tartar'. Chinggis rose from the first people and conquered the rest.

of which the first is called Tartar, the second Tangoth, the third Eurath, the fourth Ialayr, the fifth Sonit, the sixth Mengli, the seventh Theboth. The said land of Mongal also once had four peoples: the first of which was called Iechamongla, that is, great Mongols; the second, Summongal, that is, water Mongols: these call themselves Tartars, from a certain river of theirs which is called Tartar

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quarum prima vocatur Tartar, secunda, Tangoth, tertia Eurath, quarta Ialayr, quinta Sonit, sexta Mengli, septima Theboth. Præfata quoque terra Mongal, quatuor olim habebat populos: quorum primus Iechamongla, id est, magni Mongali vocabatur: Secundus, Summongal, id est, aquatici Mongali: hii se ipsos Tartaros appellant, à quodam suo fluuio qui Tartar dicitur

About Mongols and Tatars

The Xiongnu: no cities, no fields, no writing

Editorial contextSima Qian's classic description of the Xiongnu, north of China: herders of horses, cattle and sheep who move with the grass and water, with no cities, no settled life and no farming, though each had his own allotted land. No writing: laws are proclaimed orally. Boys ride sheep and shoot birds; all fighting men are mounted archers. It is the oldest template for Chinese and later European pictures of the steppe nomad.

They move from place to place according to the abundance of grass and water. They have neither cities, nor settled dwelling, nor farming; but each has his allotted piece of land. There is no writing, and laws are proclaimed orally. A boy, as soon as he can sit astride a sheep, shoots little birds and small animals with a bow

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Перекочевываютъ съ мѣста на мѣсто, смотря по приволью въ травѣ и водѣ. Не имѣютъ ни городовъ, ни осѣдлости, ни земледѣлія; но у каждаго есть отдѣленный участокъ земли. Письма нѣтъ, а законы словесно объявляются. Мальчикъ, какъ скоро можетъ верхомъ сидѣть на баранѣ, стрѣляетъ изъ лука пташекъ и звѣрковъ

About Xiongnu (Huns), in Bichurin's view ancestors of the Mongols

Chinese-style roof tiles in a marmot burrow

Editorial contextHeikel describes the mound beside the Kul Tegin monument. Marmots had dug into it, and from one of their holes he pulled a quantity of half-round roof tiles 'such as are still used in China to cover the roofs of houses', with more scattered on the hill. He concluded the mound was a fallen building, a temple put up when the monument was erected. It is a first-hand archaeological observation that fits the inscription's statement about Chinese builders.

From one of the holes made by these animals I pulled out a quantity of half-round tiles, such as are still generally used in China to cover the roofs of houses. There were several others like them scattered over the hill and round about.

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Je retirai d'un des trous faits par ces animaux une quantité de tuiles demi-rondes, telles qu'on les emploie encore généralement en Chine pour couvrir les toits des maisons. Il y en avait plusieurs autres semblables éparpillées sur la colline et aux alentours.

About Turks (Kok Turk), with Chinese builders

White, wild and black Tatars

Editorial contextKlaproth summarises a Song Chinese general's account of the northern tribes before Chinggis Khan's rise. The 'White Tatars' cut their cheeks and were probably Turks, the 'Wild Tatars' were slaves to them, and the 'Black Tatars' were the tribe into which Temujin, the future Chinggis Khan, was born.

White Tatars: these had nothing repulsive in their appearance; yet they made cuts in their cheeks (tattooed themselves, as the Tungus still do today). … The second tribe mentioned by Meng Hong is that of the Wild Tatars. These were stupid and served as slaves to the first. The third was that of the Black Tatars, among whom Chinggis Khan was born

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Tatars blancs, ceux-ci n'avaient rien de rebutant dans leur extérieur; cependant ils se faisaient des incisions dans les joues (se tatouaient, comme cela se pratique encore aujourd'hui parmi les Toungouses). … La seconde tribu mentionnée par Meng koung est celle des Tatars sauvages. Ceux-ci étaient stupides et servaient d'esclaves aux premiers. La troisième était celle des Tatars noirs, parmi laquelle Tchinghiz khan naquit

About Tatar tribes of the early 13th century (Mongols and Onggut)

'The Mongols are the true Tatars'

Editorial contextKlaproth opens his essay on the Tatars by calling it a common error to mix up Tatars and Turks. In the age of Mongol power, he says, only the Mongols bore the name; only in the last few centuries has it spread to all the eastern Turks and even to unrelated peoples. He asks scholars to drop the habit.

It is a generally accepted error to confuse the Tatars with the Turks … for in the time of the power of the Mongols, who are the true Tatars, that name was given to them alone. … I wish to try to clear up this confusion, and I invite all scholars to abolish an abuse that will always cause mistakes in ethnographic research.

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C'est une erreur généralement adoptée que de confondre les Tatars et les Turcs … car dans le tems de la puissance des Mongols, qui sont les véritables Tatars, ce nom ne fut donné qu'à eux. … Je veux tâcher d'éclaircir cette confusion, et j'invite tous les savans à abolir un abus qui occasionera toujours des méprises dans les recherches ethnographiques.

About Mongols; Turkic peoples wrongly called Tatars

Nomads who fear that houses will fall on them

Editorial contextSoopoon Choomboo told Turner that the wandering people beyond the desert disliked entering houses. Turner passes on the explanation he heard (fear that houses would fall, perhaps from earthquakes) and adds his own guess: that the ability to flee smallpox made a mobile life attractive. Either way, he says, large hordes still live in tents with their herds.

This prejudice is said to have its foundation in a dread of their falling; an apprehension which may perhaps have originated, in remote times, from the calamitous effects of earthquakes … Thus large hordes of Tartars are still found to dwell in tents, tending upon cattle, and placing their chief dependance upon their herds

About Mongol nomads ('northern Tartars')

The Tatars: one of the oldest Turkic tribes

Editorial contextIn his chapter on the tribes, Abu'l Ghazi describes the Tatars as a specific tribe, once 70,000 families under one powerful khan, that split into branches and declined. The main branch lived on the frontier of 'Kitay' (northern China) and was subject to its emperor, rebelling often. This is the historical Tatar confederation that Chinggis Khan later crushed, not the later Volga or Crimean Tatars.

The Tribe of the Tatars is one of the most antient and famous of the Turkish Nations; it was heretofore above 70000 Families strong, and had only one Chan who was very potent: But being afterwards divided into several Branches, its Power by degrees began to decline.

About Tatar tribe (a Turkic people in Abu'l Ghazi's scheme)

Measured against the linchpin of a cart

Editorial contextAfter defeating the Tatar tribes at Dalan Nemurges, Chinggis and his kinsmen met in a single tent and decided the fate of the prisoners. Every Tatar male taller than the linchpin of a cart was to be killed and the rest enslaved and shared out, as revenge for Tatar killings of Chinggis's forefathers (including, in the chronicle's story, the poisoning of his father Yesugei). The chronicle goes on to say the plan leaked, the Tatars barricaded themselves in and fought with knives hidden in their sleeves.

From olden days the Tatar people Have destroyed our fathers and forefathers; To avenge our fathers and forefathers, And requite the wrong, for them We shall measure the Tatars against the linchpin of a cart, And kill them to the last one, We shall utterly slay them. The rest we shall enslave: Some here, some there, dividing them among ourselves!

About Tatars (the Tatar tribe) and Mongols

'No fixed dwelling': why the Turks refused a walled capital

Editorial contextHeikel retells the Chinese annals: Bilge Qaghan wanted to build a wall round his residence and temples to Buddha and Laozi, but his old adviser Tonyukuk warned him off. The Turks, he said, were not a hundredth of China's population and survived only because they follow grass and water, hunt, have no fixed homes and practise war; Chinese armies live in towns and are captured when beaten, and Buddhism makes men weak. Heikel concludes the khan's camp probably stayed unfortified.

'The Turk people do not amount to a hundredth part of the population of China, and if, despite their small numbers, they have been able to resist that empire, it is because the Turks, seeking only grass and water, have no interest but hunting and have no fixed dwelling, but practise only the trade of war.'

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»Le peuple doulgase (c. a. d. les Toukioux) n'atteint pas en nombre la centième partie de la population de la Chine, et si, malgré son infériorité numérique, il a pu résister à cet empire, la raison en est que les Doulgases, ne recherchant que de l'herbe et de l'eau, n'ont d'autre intérêt que la chasse, et n'ont pas de demeure fixe, mais ne s'exercent qu'au métier de la guerre.

About Tujue (Kok Turks), called Doulgases

A nation born of a princess and a wolf

Editorial contextRetelling a Chinese legend of the Uighurs, Deguignes says a Hun ruler shut his two beautiful daughters in a tower in the north so that heaven might marry them. An old wolf howled round the tower and made its den at the foot, and the younger sister, taking it for the god, went down to it. He adds that the Uighurs were said to imitate wolf howls in their songs, and that their tents stood on unusually high wheels, so the Chinese called them Kao-tche, 'high carts'.

An old wolf prowled night and day around the prison of the Tartar princesses; he watched the tower, howling frightfully, and finally made his den at its foot. The younger one, persuaded that this wolf, which had been watching the tower for so long, could only be the god to whom her father had dedicated her, urged her sister to go down with her.

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Un vieux loup rodoit nuit & jour autour de la prison des Princesses Tartares, il observoit cette tour en faisant des heurlemens épouvantables; enfin il établit sa tanière au pied. La plus jeune persuadée que ce loup, qui examinoit depuis si long-tems la tour, ne pouvoit être que la divinité à laquelle son père l'avoit consacrée, encouragea sa sœur à descendre avec elle.

About Uighurs (Hoei-ke), called Tartars

A prince's camp of thousands of carts

Editorial contextThe party reached the camp of the prince Otchigin, Chinggis's youngest brother, who governed Mongolia while the Khan was at war in the west. A wedding was under way and Mongol chiefs had come bringing mare's milk, and the diarist counted the prince's town of carts and felt tents in the thousands, set out in long rows. The prince's first question to the sage, like his brother's a year later, was how to prolong life.

At that time the ice was only beginning to melt, and the first green was seen on the ground. There was a wedding being celebrated, and many Mongol chiefs had arrived with mare's milk. We saw several thousands of black carts and felt tents standing in long rows. On the 7th (April 29) the master was presented to the prince, who asked him about the means of prolonging life.

About Mongols of Temuge Otchigin, Chinggis Khan's youngest brother

Rebels against Prester John's son

Editorial contextThis origin story says that in 1202, 'according to some', the Tartars, living in Tartary 'which borders on India', rose against their lord King David, son of Prester John, emperor of India, killed him by treachery and went out to destroy peoples. The chapter goes on to have Chinggis Khan organise them by tens, hundreds and thousands. It is a crusader-era legend; the real event behind it is Chinggis Khan's overthrow of the Kereit ruler Ong Khan in 1203.

In the year of the Lord 1202, according to some, the Tartars, after the killing of their lord, went out to destroy peoples. For while they were still living in their own land, namely Tartary, which borders on India, they conspired against King David their lord, son of Prester John, formerly ruler and emperor of India, and killed him by treacherous scheming.

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Anno Domini 1202. secundum quosdam, Tartari post occisionem Domini sui exierunt in populorum destructionem. Hi etenim post adhuc in terra sua videlicet Tartaria quæ affinis est Indiæ, residentes contra Regem Dauid Dominum suum videlicet presbyteri Ioannis quondam dominatoris & Imperatoris Indiæ filium conspirauerunt, eumque dolose machinando, interfecerunt.

About Tartars under Chinggis Khan ('Cingischam')

The Russians named the Mongols 'Tatars', and Europe copied them

Editorial contextBichurin says the invaders of 1237 to 1240 were Mongols of the 'Tatan' confederation, among whom the Tatar tribe near the Argun was only one conquered clan. In his view the Russians made the first mistake by calling the whole army 'Tatars', Carpini copied it through poor interpreters, and geographers without further inquiry called the whole belt from the Caspian to the Pacific 'Great Tartary'.

And so, in my opinion, the Russians, calling the Tatans 'Tatars' at their first invasion, were the first to err and passed this error on to the western peoples. … and geographers, without further investigation, called the whole belt from the Caspian Sea to the Eastern Sea Great Tartary.

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И такъ, по моему мнѣнію, Россіяне при первомъ нашествіи Татаньцевъ, назвавъ ихъ Татарами, первые погрѣшили и сообщили сію погрѣшность западнымъ народамъ. … а Географы, безъ дальняго изслѣдованія, всю полосу отъ Каспійскаго моря до Восточнаго назвали Великою Татаріею.

About Mongols of the 13th century

A land with no towns except 'Cracurim'

Editorial contextSanudo's chapter headed 'the sordid origin of the Tartars' describes the land 'called Mongal or Tartaria' where the East meets the North: mountainous in parts, mostly gravel and sand, short of water, so that there are no villages or cities 'except one called Cracurim', said to be fairly good, though the land is excellent for raising herds. Cracurim is Karakorum.

The land called Mongal or Tartaria is described as lying in that part where the East joins the North ... and it lacks plenty of water: hence there are no villages or cities there, except one which is called Cracurim, and is said to be fairly good. For raising herds, however, the land is excellent.

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Terra quæ Mongal siue Tartaria dicitur, in ea parte describitur, vbi Oriens Aquiloni coniungitur … & aquarum copiâ caret: vndè nec villæ ibi sunt aut ciuitates, exceptâ vnâ quæ Cracurim vocatur, & satis bona esse dicitur. In alendis tamen pecoribus terra optima est.

About Mongols ('Mongal or Tartaria')

A great man buried sitting in his tent, with a mare and foal

Editorial contextCarpini describes the secret burial of a Mongol noble: he is buried out on the steppe with his tent, seated before a table with a bowl of meat and a cup of mare's milk, with a mare and foal and a saddled horse. Another horse is eaten and its skin, stuffed with straw, is raised on four poles, so the dead will have a home, milk and horses in the next world. His name may not be spoken for three generations.

they bury him secretly in the open country, with his tent, and he is seated in the middle of it, with a table in front of him and a bowl full of meat and a cup of mare's milk; they also bury with him a mare and her foal, and a horse saddled and bridled; and they eat another horse, whose skin they stuff with straw

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on l'enterre secrettement en la campagne, auec sa loge, & est assis au milieu d'icelle, auec vne table deuant luy, & vn bassin plein de chair, & vne tasse de lait de iument; On enterre aussi auec luy vne iument, & son poulain; & vn cheual sellé & bridé: & mangent vn autre cheual, dont ils remplissent la peau de paille

About Tartars (Mongols)

Carpini: no towns except Karakorum, which he never saw

Editorial contextDescribing the Mongol homeland, Carpini says there is little wood, so everyone from the emperor down cooks on fires of cattle and horse dung, and hardly a hundredth of the land is fertile. With few streams and very rare rivers there are no villages and no towns, except one said to be fairly good, called Karakorum. The friars did not see it, though they were half a day's journey away at the Sira Ordo, the imperial camp.

But waters and streams there are few, and rivers very rare: so there are no villages there, nor any cities, except one which is said to be quite good, called Karakorum; we did not see it, but we were about half a day's journey from it when we were at the Sira Ordo

Working translation

Original wording

Sed aquæ et rivi ibidem sunt pauci, flumina verò rarissima: undè ibidem villæ non sunt, nec aliquæ civitates, exceptà unà quæ dicitur satis bona, quæ Caracaron nominatur; nos autem non vidimus illam, sed fuimus propè ad dimidiam dietam cùm apud Syram ordam essemus

About Tartars (Mongols)

Scholars who moved Atlantis to Spitsbergen

Editorial contextPallas rejects the theory, pushed by the Augustinian friar Georgi, that Tibetan and Mongol Buddhism grew out of Nestorian Christianity or Manichaeism, calling it a heap of rubble glued together in a polemical spirit. He lumps it with other learned fantasies: the Chinese and Indians as an Egyptian colony, the Lapps as Israelites, pagan gods as biblical patriarchs, and the recent placing of Atlantis and the first seat of all learning as far north as Spitsbergen.

With such learned bombast the Chinese and Indians have before now been made into an Egyptian colony, the Lapps into Israelites, the idols of heathendom into patriarchs of the Bible, and only recently the Atlanteans, and with them the first seat of all learning, have been moved as far as Spitsbergen

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Mit dergleichen gelehrtem Schwall sind wohl eher die Chineser und Indianer zu einer ägyptischen Colonie, die Lappländer zu Israeliten, die Götzen des Heydenthums zu Patriarchen der Bibel gemacht, und noch neulich die Atlanten und mit ihnen, der erste Sitz aller Wissenschaften bis nach Spitzbergen verlegt worden

About Mongol and Tibetan Buddhists; European theorists

Melting a mountain of iron with seventy bellows

Editorial contextAfter a crushing defeat by the Tatars, the last two Mongol princes fled with their wives and herds into a valley ringed by mountains, Irgana-kon, reached only by a goat track. Four hundred years later their crowded descendants wanted out. A blacksmith noticed the mountain was thin and made of iron ore, so they piled wood and charcoal against it and melted a road through with seventy leather bellows.

a Farrier, who thought he had observ'd that the Mountain was not over thick in a certain Place, and also that it entirely consisted of Iron-Mine, propos'd to apply Bellows to it … they so effectually blew up by the help of 70 Leathern Bellows, that the Mountain at last coming to melt in this Place, left a Road large enough for the Passage of a loaded Camel

About Mongols (descendants of Kajan and Nagos)

A new khan lifted on white felt

Editorial contextAt Güyük's enthronement the princes and nobles set him on a golden seat, then moved him down onto a felt on the ground and told him to look up to God in heaven and down to the felt on earth: rule justly and the earth would obey him; rule badly and not even the felt he sat on would be his. Then they raised him and his wife together on the felt and proclaimed them khan and great lady. Caps flew, belts were thrown over shoulders, the crowd knelt nine times, and for seven days meat, salt and mare's milk were handed out from the khan's tent; the women's seats in the golden throne tent were of white felt.

they moved him from the golden seat onto a felt rug on the ground and said: Look up to God in heaven and down at the felt on the earth; if you rule well, if you are just and generous and honour the princes and lords, the earth will be subject to you at your will; otherwise you will be poor, despised and wretched, and not even the felt you sit on will be yours.

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setzten ihn vom goldenen Stuhle auf eine Filzdecke auf die Erde und sagten: Schaue auf zu Gott im Himmel und nieder auf den Filz zur Erde; wenn du gut regierst, wenn du gerecht, freigebig, die Prinzen und Freiherren ehrst, wird dir die Erde unterthan sein nach deinem Willen; im Gegentheil wirst du arm, verachtet und elend sein und nicht einmal der Filz wird dein gehören, auf dem du sitzest.

About Mongol princes and nobles; Güyük Khan and his wife Oghul Qaimish

'Sweet words and soft silks': a khan's warning about China

Editorial contextBilge Qaghan tells his people that the forest of Otuken is the true centre of their realm. The Chinese give gold, silver and silk without trouble, but their words are sweet and their riches soft; with them they lure distant peoples close and many Turks who settled near China died. If the Turks stay in Otuken and send caravans, they will keep an eternal empire. It is the steppe ruler's own argument for staying nomads rather than moving into Chinese-style towns.

Living in this land I entered into relations with the Chinese people. The call of the Chinese people, who give us so much gold, silver, isigti and silk(?) without trouble, was sweet, and their riches were soft. Worming their way in with their sweet call and soft riches, they (the Chinese) drew distant peoples close to them.

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Habitant ce pays j'entrai en relations avec le peuple chinois. L'appel du peuple chinois, qui nous donne sans peine tant d'or, d'argent, d'isigti, de soie(?), était doux, ses richesses étaient molles. En s'insinuant par leur doux appel et leurs richesses molles, ils (les Chinois) firent approcher d'eux le peuple lointain.

About Turks (Kok Turk)

The Empress's moving palace

Editorial contextBeyond the Khangai forests the party reached the ordo of one of Chinggis Khan's principal wives, where more than a thousand carts and tents stood along a river and the captive Jin and Tangut princesses sent gifts of millet and silver. Flour was dear because 'Western barbarians' brought it by camel from beyond the Tian Shan, and the diarist notes that the Mongol word (wu-li-do, ordo) is rendered in Chinese as hing kung, which Bretschneider translates 'movable palace'. He found the carts and tents grander than anything the ancient Xiongnu rulers (shan yu) had possessed.

On the southern bank of the river there were more than a thousand carts and tents. … At this place eighty kin of flour cost fifty liang; for the flour is brought from beyond the Yin shan, a distance of more than 2000 li, on camels, by the Western barbarians. … Carts and tents had all a magnificent appearance, such as was unknown to the ancient Shan yü.

About Mongol court of one of Chinggis Khan's chief wives, with captive Jin and Tangut princesses

A bird that cried 'Chinggis'

Editorial contextA learned Mongol lama gave Müller a story from Tibetan and Mongol books about the rise of Chinggis Khan. A khan's son and nine nobles fled rather than become monks; the peoples they met joined them and chose the son as khan. As the nine debated his new name, a small bird landed nearby and cried 'Chinggis, Chinggis', and so he was named. Müller calls the story very fabulous but prints it because nothing like it had been published.

At that same time a little bird came flying up, settled near the council, and cried out in a clear voice, 'Chinggis, Chinggis'. At once they unanimously decided to give the khan this name that the bird had sung.

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Zu derselben Zeit sey ein kleiner Vogel angeflogen gekommen, welcher in der Nähe der Rathsversammlung sich niedergesetzet, und mit vernehmlicher Stimme Tschingis, Tschingis, geschrieen. Alsobald habe man einmüthig beschlossen, diesen von dem Vogel angestimmten Nahmen dem Chane beyzulegen.

About Mongols (their own tradition of Chinggis Khan)

No writing, notched sticks and a kept word

Editorial contextThe diarist was struck that the Mongols he met used no writing: they settled business by word of mouth and recorded contracts by cutting marks on wood. He praises them as never disobeying orders and never breaking their word, people who had 'preserved the customs of the early ages'. The first sentence finishes his description of the married women's tall headdress.

Therefore, when entering a tent, they are accustomed to go backward, inclining their heads. These people (the Mongols) have no writing. They settle their matters by verbal convention, and when they enter into contracts they cut certain marks on wood. They are never disobedient to orders, and never break their word. They have preserved the customs of the early ages.

About Mongols

Türk funerals: slashed faces and a stone for every man killed

Editorial contextFrom the Chinese histories Visdelou describes the Tou-kiue (Göktürks): a gold wolf's head on their standard because they believed they sprang from a she-wolf, tallies notched on wood because they had no writing, and funerals where the body lay in a tent, relatives sacrificed sheep and horses and cut their faces so blood mixed with tears, and stones were piled on the grave, one for each man the dead had killed.

At their funerals the dead man's body was laid under a tent. … Then they slashed their faces with knives, and in this way their blood mingled with their tears … They heaped stones on the burial place and set markers there. They put as many stones there as the dead man had killed men during his life.

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Dans leurs funérailles, on plaçoit le corps du mort sous une tente. … Alors ils se déchiquetoient le visage avec des couteaux, & de cette façon leur sang se mêloit avec leurs larmes … Ils amassoient des pierres sur le lieu de la sépulture & y plaçoient des marques. On y mettoit autant de pierres que le mort avoit tué d'hommes durant sa vie.

About Tou-kiue (the ancient Turks), counted among the Tartars

Karakorum: an old Uighur town, walled by Ögedei

Editorial contextThe Chinese commentary says that Khorin (Karakorum) had been the town of a Uighur khan in Tang times. The Mongols first used it as their assembly place and in 1235 surrounded it with a wall about five li (Bichurin: about 3.5 versts) round. In the same year, the annal adds, Ögedei built the Wan'an palace there.

In the second month the Mongols surrounded Khorin with a wall. Khorin was formerly the town of the Uighur (Khoikhor) Pijia khan, who lived under the Tang dynasty. The Mongols earlier made it their place of assembly, and now surrounded it with a wall about five li in circuit.

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Во вторый мѣсяцъ Монголы обвели стѣною Хоринь. Хоринь былъ прежній городъ Хойхорскаго Пиця-Хана, жившаго при династіи Тханъ. Монголы прежде назначили его сборнымъ мѣстомъ, а нынѣ обвели стѣною, имѣвшею около пяти ли окружности.

About Mongols; earlier Uighurs (Khoikhor)

Holy relics sold among the Tatar tribes

Editorial contextWarren Hastings's briefing memorandum for Bogle passes on what he had been told about Tibetan Buddhism: each Tatar tribe had its own living Buddha (Kutuktu), all of whom deferred to the Dalai Lama, 'so that his excrements are sold as charms at a great price among all the Tatar tribes of this religion'. It is a startling piece of hearsay from a governor who had never been there.

Among the different Tatar tribes which are of this religion, there are persons called Ku-tchuck-tus, who are likewise esteemed living Fos. … it is even pretended that the Ku-tchuck-tus admit a superiority in the Dalai Lama, so that his excrements are sold as charms at a great price among all the Tatar tribes of this religion.

About Mongol ("Tatar") Buddhist tribes

Felt-walled tents and wooden doors

Editorial contextWhen Chinggis made his adopted brother Sigi Qutuqu chief judge, he told him to divide the whole population into those living in felt-walled tents and those living in dwellings with wooden doors, that is nomads and settled folk. Sigi Qutuqu then asked as his reward for people from the towns with walls of pounded earth. The Mongols thus sorted their world by house type, and counted walled-town people as a separate prize.

Splitting up those that live in felt-walled tents, Separating those that live in dwellings with wooden doors. … let him decide in favour of granting me the people from the towns that have walls of pounded earth.

About Mongols and the peoples under them

One northern nation, parent of Huns, Turks, Mongols and Tartars

Editorial contextDeguignes opens his history of the ancient Huns with his big claim: a famous nation north of China's frontier provinces gave rise to the peoples later known as Huns, Turks, Mongols, Hungarians and Tartars. He lists the names the Chinese gave it over the dynasties, ending with Hiong-nou, which he thinks produced the name Hun.

North of the northern frontiers of the provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi and Beizhili there once lived a famous nation, which gave birth to those we have since known under the names of Huns, Turks, Mongols, Hungarians and Tartars

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Au Nord des frontières Septentrionales des Provinces de Chensi, de Chansi & de Petcheli, habitoit autrefois une Nation célèbre, qui a donné naissance à celles que nous avons connues depuis sous le nom de Huns, de Turcs, de Mogols, de Hongrois & de Tartares

About Xiongnu (Hiong-nou), in Deguignes' view the ancestors of the Huns and later Tartars

The Tatars had no writing, so they learned it from the Uighurs

Editorial contextExplaining Chinggis Khan's laws, Juvaini says that since the Tatars had no script, Mongol children were taught to write by the Uighurs. The laws were then written on rolls called the Great Book of the Yasa, kept in the treasuries of the leading princes. This is also a clear case of Juvaini using 'Tatar' for the Mongols.

And since the Tatars had no script, he ordered that the children of the Mongols should learn writing from the Uighurs; and those yasas and ordinances were written down on rolls, which they call the Great Book of Yasas, and it is kept in the treasury of the chief princes.

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و چون … تاتاررا خطی نبوده است بفرمود تا از ایغوران کودکان مغولان خط درآموختند و آن یاساها و احکام بر طوامیر ثبت کردند و آنرا یاسا نامه بزرگ خوانند و در خزانه معتبران پادشاه زادگان باشد

About Mongols (called Tatars here) and Uighurs

The Mongols would like to erase the Tartar name

Editorial contextRubruck, told at the Mongol court, explains that the Tartars were a separate poor people living next to the Moal (Mongols). Chingis (Genghis) united both and sent the Tartars ahead in every war, so Europeans heard only 'The Tartars are coming!'. By Rubruck's time the Tartars had mostly been killed off and the Mongols disliked the name. Rockhill's note quotes Rashid al-Din saying the same.

Now this Chingis used to despatch the Tartars in every direction, and so their name spread abroad, for everywhere was heard the cry : "The Tartars are coming !" But through the many wars they have been nearly all killed off, and now these Moal would like to extinguish even the name and raise their own in its stead.

About Moal (Mongols) and the Tatar tribe

Rocks that look like ruined buildings

Editorial contextA day before seeing the real ruins, Timkovsky camped by a granite ridge that from far off looked like a forest and close up looked like altars, a sarcophagus, a tower and 'the ruins of a house with a stone floor'. He calls it a 'lusus naturae', a freak of nature, and explains it as decomposed granite lying in slabs. On the following page his Mongol hosts add that the rock is full of loadstone that pulls at any gun brought near it.

At a distance it looks like a forest; but when seen near at hand, it presents an extraordinary lusus nature. These rocks resemble, now an immense altar, now a sarcophagus; here a tower, there the ruins of a house with a stone floor. The rock, a decomposed granite, lies in large masses from three to nine inches thick

About Khalkha Mongols

The owl that saved Genghis Khan

Editorial contextUnhorsed and alone after a lost skirmish, Genghis hid in a bush. As his enemies came to search it, an owl (the 'duc', eagle owl) landed on the bush, and they left, reasoning that no bird would sit where a man was hiding. Hayton says this is why every Tartar who can get an owl feather wears it on his head. Compare Riccoldo (W228), who tells a quite different owl story to explain the same feathers.

and at that a bird called the duc (eagle owl) came and sat on the bush … The Tartars gave thanks to God, and from then on held that bird, called the duc, in such reverence that everyone who can get a feather of it wears it on his head.

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et sur ce un oisel, qui avoit non duc, vint e s'asist sur ce boisson … Les Tartars rendirent graces à Deu, e dès adonques orent en tante reverence cel oisel, qui est apellez duc, que chascun qui poet avoir de la plume de cel oisel la porte sur sa teste.

About Genghis Khan and the Tartars

Before Chinggis: clothes of dog and mouse skins

Editorial contextJuvaini describes the Mongols' homeland as a barren land bordered by Khitai (north China), the Uighurs, the Kirghiz and Tangut. Before Chinggis Khan, he says, they had no ruler, fought and stole from each other, and paid tribute to the Khan of Khitai. The page also says (in badly garbled OCR) that a chief was marked out only by stirrups of iron. Then comes the twist: now they wear silk and brocade and jewels pour into their tents.

Their clothing was of the skins of dogs and mice, their food the flesh of those animals and of other dead things, their wine the milk of beasts, and their dessert the fruit of a tree shaped like the pine, which they call qusuq.

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و پوشش از جلود کلاب و فارات و خورش از لحوم آن و میتهای دیگر و شراب از البان بهایم و نقل از بار درختی بشکل ناژ که فسوق گویند

About Mongols before Chinggis Khan

The dead in the yurt, faces cut, stones for the slain

Editorial contextHeikel quotes the Chinese account of Turk funerals: the body is laid in the yurt, relatives sacrifice horses and sheep, ride six times round the tent and gash their faces so that their tears run with blood. The body is burned with the dead man's horse and belongings, and the ashes are buried in autumn or spring. A statue of the dead is placed in a small building by the grave, with a painted record of his battles, and stones are set up for every enemy he killed, 'sometimes up to 100 and even 1000'.

'The body of the dead man is placed in the yurt, in front of which his children and other relatives of both sexes lay out as offerings horses and sheep that have been killed. They ride six times round the tent on horseback, gashing their faces with a knife, so that their tears are dyed with blood.'

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»Le corps du défunt est placé dans la yourte, devant laquelle les enfants et autres parents du défunt des deux sexes déposent en offrandes des chevaux et des moutons qu'on a tués. Ils font à cheval six fois le tour de la tente, en se tailladant le visage avec un couteau, de telle façon que leurs larmes se teignent de sang.

About Tujue (Kok Turks)

Marco Polo: all who meet a khan's funeral are killed

Editorial contextDiscussing where Marco Polo's 'Altai' was, Humboldt quotes Polo's story that Chinggis Khan and all his descendants were carried back to be buried in the Altai, however far away they died, and that everyone met on the road was killed to serve the dead khan in the next life. In a note he compares this to Herodotus' account of Scythian royal funerals some 1,700 years earlier.

'Chinggis himself and all his descendants,' says Marco Polo, 'are buried in the Altai. They are carried there even if they died forty days' journey away. All those who happen to be on the road as the body of the great khans passes are mercilessly put to death, to serve their sovereign and master in the other life.'

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« Tchinghiz lui-même et tous ses descendants, dit Marco-Polo, ont leur sépulture dans l'Altai. On les porte vers ce lieu, et fussent-ils morts à quarante journées de distance. Tous ceux qui se trouvent sur la route au passage du corps des grands-khans, sont impitoyablement mis à mort pour servir leur souverain et maître dans l'autre vie. »

About Mongol grand khans (the house of Chinggis)

Eastern Tartars and Western Tartars

Editorial contextHuc sets out how he uses the word: following the Tartars and Chinese themselves, he divides 'the Tartar people' into Eastern Tartars (Toung-Ta-Dze), the Manchus, and Western Tartars (Si-Ta-Dze), the Mongols. He dismisses European map labels such as 'Kalmoukia' and 'Great and Little Bukharia' as 'purely imaginary'.

we will divide the Tartar people into Eastern Tartars (Toung-Ta-Dze), or Mantchous, and Western Tartars (Si-Ta-Dze), or Mongols. … Great and Little Boukaria, Kalmoukia, Great and Little Thibet … all these denominations seem to us purely imaginary.

About Manchus and Mongols

'The stinking Tartars': what the Chinese called them

Editorial contextIn his 'Observation' on d'Herbelot's article Tatar, Visdelou traces the Chinese names: first Tha-tche, then Tha-tha, commonly Tha-tçe, and in contempt Sao-tha-tçe, 'the stinking Tartars'. He says the Chinese added a character meaning raw hide to show how low they ranked these peoples, and that the Jurchen and Mongols, once they had conquered China, dropped the insulting character. The volume's index adds an older name, Kiuen, 'dog'.

The Chinese first called them Thatche, then Tha-tha, and commonly Tha-tçe; finally, in contempt, Sao-tha-tçe, that is, the stinking Tartars. … So the Jurchen and the Mongols, after conquering China, removed this insulting character

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Les Chinois les ont nommé au commencement Thatche, ensuite Tha-tha, & vulgairement Tha-tçe; enfin par mépris Sao-tha-tçe, c'est-à-dire les puants Tartares. … Aussi les Niou-tchin & les Moumgols, après avoir conquis la Chine, ont retranché cette lettre injurieuse

About Tatars / Tartars as named in Chinese sources; later Jurchen and Mongol rulers

A land without a single house

Editorial contextWaiting at Selenginsk on the Mongolian border, Bell sums up Mongol life: in all of Mongolia there is not one house, and even the prince and the high lama live in tents that move with the herds. He adds that they do not plough at all, and admits that he finds this simple life pleasant in so dry a climate. The prince's camp at Urga, he explains a few pages later, is a moving city of several thousand tents.

…of Mongalia, there is not so much as a single house to be seen. All the people, even the prince and high priest, live constantly in tents; and remove, with their cattle, from place to place, as conveniency requires. These people do not trouble themselves with ploughing, or digging the ground in any fashion;

About Mongols (Khalkha), whom Bell calls 'hardy Tartars'

Black carts and white tents

Editorial contextA few days beyond the fishing lake of Yu-rh-li, the travellers entered true nomad country, where every dwelling was a black cart or a white tent and the people moved with the water and grass. Bretschneider's note takes the carts to be the felt-covered 'tents on wheels' described by Marco Polo and Rubruck, a practice he says had died out in Mongolia by his own day. Farther on, beside the Kerulun, the diarist adds that the Mongols used the tall riverside willows 'for making their tents' (p.51).

All around we saw habitations, consisting of black carts and white tents. The people here are nomades, and change their abode according to the prevalence of water and pasture. No tree could be seen, and we met only yellow clouds (of dust) and decayed grass.

About Mongol herders

Ruined brick temples of a Mongol prince

Editorial contextInvited by their Mongol guide Idam, members of the mission rode out to a hillside covered with ruins of stone buildings about two versts long. Idam said a Mongol prince called Sain Koung had lived there about 300 years earlier and that the buildings were temples. Timkovsky records the materials exactly: granite foundations, walls of sun-dried brick, and clay mixed with gravel instead of mortar. On the next page he adds stone cornices, vaulted niches, a stone-paved court and broken green tiles, and says the Mongols now rarely visit these 'monuments of their former splendour'.

we reached a mountain, the declivity of which was covered with ruins of stone-buildings, about two wersts in extent. … The buildings, of which the ruins lay before us, were temples. … The foundations were of granite, like that of the neighbouring mountain; the walls are of bricks, dried in the sun.

About Khalkha Mongols

A Tibetan prophecy: the Mongol whose house is 'a wooden net'

Editorial contextThe chronicle tells how the Tibetan lama Dagba Gyaltsan foretold to his nephew, the Sakya Pandita, that the ruler of 'the people called Monghol' would send an envoy named Dorda to summon him. The envoy's hat would look as if a sparrowhawk sat on it, his boots would be shaped like a pig's snout, and his house would look like a wooden net. The image fits the collapsible wooden lattice of the Mongol felt tent. The Sakya Pandita set out in 1244 and reached Godan Khan in 1247.

From now on, after some time, the ruler of the people called Monghol … will send you an envoy named Dorda from the northern region. His headgear will look as if a sparrowhawk were sitting on it, his boots will have the shape of a pig's snout, and his house will look like a wooden net

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Von nun an nach einiger Zeit wird der Beherrscher des Monghol genannten Volkes … aus der nördlichen Gegend einen Gesandten, Namens Dorda, an dich senden. Die Kopfbekleidung desselben wird aussehen, als sässe ein Sperber darauf, seine Stiefeln werden die Gestalt eines Schweinsrüssels haben, und sein Haus wird wie ein hölzernes Netz aussehen

About Mongols, as foreseen by a Tibetan lama

The Toghuzghuz khan's city of twelve iron gates

Editorial contextIn his own route list, Ibn Khurradadhbih says the Toghuzghuz khan's capital lay three months' march beyond Upper Nushajan, through pasture land with large villages. The king lived in a great city with twelve iron gates and had a golden tent on top of his palace, visible five parasangs away, while the Kimek king camped among pastures in tents. Steppe Turks here have both cities and tents.

From Upper Nushajan to the capital of the khaqan of the Toghuzghuz is three months' march, through pasture country covered with large villages … Their king lives in a great city closed by twelve iron gates … The king of the Toghuzghuz owns a golden tent set on the top of his palace; it can shelter a hundred people

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De Nouschadjan la supérieure à la capitale du khakân des Toghozghor, il y a trois mois de marche, à travers un pays de pâturage couvert de vastes bourgades … Leur roi réside dans une grande ville fermée par douze portes de fer … Le roi des Toghozghor possède une tente d'or placée au faîte de son palais; elle peut abriter cent personnes

About Toghuzghuz (Uyghur) Turks and Kimek

Once a land with no towns at all

Editorial contextPolo begins his history of the Tartars by saying they originally lived on wide plains near 'Chorcha' (Manchuria) with no towns or villages, only rich pastures, and paid tribute to 'Unc Can', whom Europeans called Prester John. Yule's note identifies Chorcha as the Jurchen country and Unc Can as Toghrul, Wang Khan of the Keraits.

Originally the Tartars dwelt in the north on the borders of Chorcha. Their country was one of great plains ; and there were no towns or villages in it, but excellent pasture-lands, with great rivers and many sheets of water ; in fact it was a very fine and extensive region.

About Tartars (early Mongols)

Old walls of 'the former dynasty' and earth-roofed huts on the Kerulen

Editorial contextZhang passed the ruined base of a long wall stretching out of sight, which he credits to 'the former dynasty', meaning the Jurchen Jin, as their outer rampart. On the Kerulen he found a mixed population of 'barbarians' and Chinese living in a few houses roofed with earth and growing a little hemp and wheat.

After four stages there is the ruined base of a long wall, stretching on endlessly as far as one can see; this too is an outer rampart built by the former dynasty... The people along the river are a mix of fan (steppe peoples) and Han Chinese. There are a few houses, all roofed with earth, and they also do some farming, of hemp and wheat, and that is all.

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四驛有長城䫋址望之綿延不盡亦前朝所築之外堡也…瀕河之民雜以蕃漢稍有屋室皆以土冐之亦頗有種藝麻麥而巳

About Mongols and Chinese living together

The emperor's corpse relayed so no one finds the grave

Editorial contextWhen the emperor dies, Jordanus heard, men carry the body with great treasure to a certain spot, drop it and run 'as if the devil were after them'; others then snatch it up and do the same, relay after relay, so that the burial place can never be found and the treasure never stolen. His death is kept secret until a successor is quietly enthroned. Secret Mongol royal burials are real; the relay detail is hearsay.

When the emperor dies he is carried with a very great treasure by certain men to a certain place, where they set down the body and flee as fast as they can, as if the devil were chasing them; and others are ready who at once snatch up the body and do the same as far as another place; … and they do this so that the place cannot be found

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Original wording

Cùm imperator moritur, portatur cum maximo thesauro, à quibusdam hominibus, usque ad certum locum, ubi deponunt corpus, et fugiunt quàm possunt, sicut si diabolus insequeretur eos; et sunt alii parati qui immediatè corpus rapiunt, et simili modo faciunt usque ad alium locum; … et hoc faciunt ne locus possit inveniri

About The Great Tartar (Mongol emperors)

Conquerors who would rather live in tents and carts than towns

Editorial contextHayton's summary of the Tartar character includes a line that answers the question of Tartar towns directly: they know how to conquer foreign lands but not how to keep them, because they prefer to live in tents and wagons rather than in towns. The Latin version says the same, that they 'do not know how to live in castles and cities'.

The Tartars know well how to conquer foreign lands, but they do not know how to keep them, for they would rather be in tents and in carts than live in towns.

Working translation

Original wording

Les Tartars scevent bien conquerre les estranges terres, mès il ne les sevent garder, car miaus volent estre en tentes e en chars que habiter en villes.

About Tartars (Mongols)

How a Mongol yurt is built

Editorial contextBichurin describes the yurt, 'which we call a kibitka': folding lattice walls tied with rawhide instead of pegs, which can be widened or heightened, a domed roof of poles set like rays into two half-rings, covered with one layer of felt in summer and two or three in winter and bound with woollen bands. A smoke hole at the top, a felt or wooden door always facing south-east. He gives the sizes too: 12 to 20 feet across.

The Mongols live nomadically in round yurts, which among us are otherwise called kibitkas. … They consist of folding lattice walls fastened with rawhide instead of pegs; by narrowing them one can make them higher, by widening them lower. The half-round canopy that forms the roof consists of two half-rings to which poles are fixed like rays, resting on the lattice walls. This frame they cover with felts in one layer, and in winter in two and three

Working translation

Original wording

Монголы кочуютъ въ круглыхъ юртахъ, которыя у насъ иначе называютъ кибитками. … Состоятъ изъ рѣшетчатыхъ складныхъ стѣнокъ, скрѣпленныхъ вмѣсто спеньковъ сырымъ ремнемъ; съуживая можно повышать ихъ, разширяя понижать. Полукруглый наметъ, составляющій кровлю, состоитъ изъ двухъ полукружій, къ которымъ лучеобразно прикрѣплены палки, упираемыя въ рѣшетчатыя стѣнки. Сей остовъ оболокаютъ войлоками въ одинъ, а зимою въ два и три ряда

About Mongols (Khalkha and Inner Mongols)

A name the conquerors themselves rejected

Editorial contextIn his introduction Erskine explains that 'Tartar' was first used by thirteenth-century European travellers and that Genghis Khan's family disliked it. He cites Rubruck, who was warned at the court of Sartaq (actually Batu's son, not Genghis's grandson) to call him Moal, a Mongol, because the Tatars were a different, conquered tribe. The European name for the whole empire was thus the name of one of its subject peoples.

This name of Tartar, however, by which we are accustomed to designate Chengiz Khan and his successors as well as their empire, these princes themselves rejected with disdain. Rubriquis, who visited the court of Sartakh, Chengiz Khan's grandson, about the year 1254, was cautioned, therefore, to call him Moal (that is Moghul), and not Tartar

About Mongols and the Tatar tribe

Prester John unmasked as a steppe king, and his letter as a forgery

Editorial contextPétis identifies the famous Prester John of Asia with Ong Khan, king of the Keraits and Genghis Khan's early patron, and summarises the boastful letter in Prester John's name, which claimed seventy vassal kings and rule over Gog and Magog. He then declares the letter a forgery spread by Nestorian Christians. Elsewhere (n126) he notes that the Great Wall of China was called by Arabs the Bank of Gog and Magog.

But 'tis not difficult to discover that this Letter is a Counterfeit, and that it was not writ by Ounghcan. The Nestorians who in that Country were very numerous, having established themselves there in the Year 757. by the means of the Missionaries of Moussoul and Basra, were the Authors of this Letter

About Keraits (Ong Khan) and Nestorian Christians

Temujin named after a captured Tatar chief

Editorial contextThe annals of Chinggis Khan say that his father Yesugei had just captured the Tatar chief Temujin when his wife gave birth to a son clutching a clot of blood like a red stone. Yesugei named the boy after the captive to mark his victory. Here Tatar is the name of one rival tribe, not of the Mongols.

At first Liezu (Yesugei) campaigned against the Tatar tribe and captured its chief Temujin. Just then the empress Xuanyi, Ogelen (Hoelun), gave birth to the emperor, who held in his hand clotted blood like a red stone. Liezu thought it a marvel and named him after the captured Temujin, to record his military success.

Working translation

Original wording

初烈祖征塔塔爾部獲其部長特穆津宣懿太后諤楞適生帝手握凝血如赤石烈祖異之因以所獲特穆津名之志武功也

About Mongols; Tatars (the Tatar tribe)

A ruined Khitan city with lettered tiles

Editorial contextAfter crossing a river into a grassy plain ringed by mountains, the travellers found the ruins of an old city on both sides, where the line of the streets could still be traced, and were told it had been built (the sentence runs over from p.53) by the Khitan. They picked up a tile inscribed in Khitan script, and the diarist guessed the town was founded by Khitan warriors who had moved north rather than submit to the Jin. In the Mongol heartland, then, the ruin was credited to an earlier, known people, not to the Mongols. Bretschneider quotes Palladius that Khitan forts and towns lay in ruins on the Tuul, the Kerulun and in Manchuria.

by the K'i-tan. We found, indeed, on the soil a tile with letters of the K'i-tan. This was probably a city founded by those K'i-tan warriors who emigrated, unwilling to submit to the new dynasty.

About Khitan (Liao dynasty) builders, in Mongol-ruled land

Felt temples on the Volga, stone temples in Mongolia

Editorial contextOpening his chapter on Buddhist temples, Pallas contrasts the Volga Kalmyks, who because of their wandering life still kept their images in portable sacred felt tents, which he compares to the Tabernacle of the Israelites in the desert, with the Mongols under Chinese rule, who had long had permanent temples, some of stone. He adds that under the Mongol khans who ruled China, buildings for Lamaist worship were raised in the eastern Mongol steppes, but after the empire broke up the Mongols returned to a moving life.

but the Volga Kalmyks, because of their unsettled way of life, still keep their idol worship, as the Mongols also formerly did, in movable sacred felt huts (Burchanin-Orgö), which could be compared to the Tabernacle of the Israelites still living as nomads in the wilderness … The Mongols who are under China have long had permanent temples in various places of their land, some of them built of stone

Working translation

Original wording

die wolgischen Kalmücken aber halten, wegen ihrer unstäten Lebensart, ihren Götzendienst noch izt, so wie sonst auch die Mongolen thaten, in beweglichen heiligen Filzhütten, (Burchanin-Orgö) welche der Stiftshütte, bey denen in der Wüste, noch nomadisch lebenden Israeliten verglichen werden könten … Die Mongolen, welche unter China stehn, haben vorlängst an verschiednen Orten ihres Landes beständige und zum Theil von Stein erbaute Tempel gehabt

About Volga Kalmyks; Khalkha and Inner Mongols

Tengri, sun and moon, and felt idols called ongon

Editorial contextIn his opening survey d'Ohsson sums up the old steppe religion: a supreme being called Tangri, like the sky; worship of sun, moon, mountains, rivers and elements, with bows to the south and drink sprinkled to the heavens; and little wooden or felt figures, ongon, hung on the walls of their huts, bowed to and fed by smearing meat or milk on their mouths. The page before describes burial with a mare, a foal and a saddled horse.

They acknowledged a Supreme Being, whom they called, like the sky, by the name Tangri. … Their divinities were represented by small figures of wood or felt, called Ongon, which they hung on the walls of their huts; they bowed before these idols and offered them the first portions of their meals, rubbing their mouths with meat or milk.

Working translation

Original wording

Ils reconnaissaient un Etre Suprême, qu'ils désignaient ainsi que le ciel, par le nom de Tangri. … Leurs divinités étaient représentées par de petites figures de bois ou de feutre, nommées Ongon, qu'ils suspendaient aux parois de leurs huttes; ils s'inclinaient devant ces idoles, et leur offraient les prémices de leurs repas, en leur frottant la bouche avec de la viande ou du lait.

About the 'Tatar' peoples of the steppe (Mongols and neighbours)

A total eclipse on the Kerulun

Editorial contextAt noon on 23 May 1221, on the south bank of the Kerulun, the sun went dark enough for the stars to show. Bretschneider notes that the astronomer Alexander Wylie calculated a solar eclipse on exactly that day and that Chinese astronomical annals record it on the same date, 'a stamp of authenticity to the whole narrative'. In Samarkand that winter a local astronomer told Changchun it had reached six-tenths there, and the sage concluded that the same eclipse looks different from place to place (p.79).

On the 1st of the fifth month (May 23), at noon, an eclipse of the sun happened, while we were on the southern bank of the river. It was so dark that the stars could be seen, but soon it brightened up again.

About Changchun's party among the Mongols

The Wuhuan: round yurts facing east, meat and kumiss

Editorial contextThe Chinese histories describe the Wuhuan as skilled mounted archers and hunters who move with their herds, with no permanent home, living in round yurts with the door facing east, eating meat, drinking kumiss and wearing coloured woollen cloth. Bichurin's summary treats them as a branch of the 'house of the Tatar khan', the Donghu.

The Wuhuan are skilled at shooting the bow from horseback; they hunt beasts and birds, move with their livestock from place to place according to the supply of grass and water, and know no permanent dwelling. They live in round yurts whose entrance faces east. They eat meat and drink kumiss, and make their clothing of many-coloured woollen fabrics

Working translation

Original wording

Ухуаньцы искусны въ конной стрѣльбѣ изъ лука; занимаются ловлею звѣрей и птицъ, Переходятъ со скотомъ съ мѣста на мѣсто, смотря по достатку въ травѣ и водѣ; постояннаго прибыванія не знаютъ. Живутъ въ круглыхъ юртахъ, изъ коихъ выходъ обращенъ къ востоку. Питаются мясомъ, пьютъ кумысъ; одежду дѣлаютъ изъ разноцвѣтныхъ шерстяныхъ тканей

About Wuhuan (ancient eastern steppe people)

Shooting arrows at the thunder

Editorial contextFrom Chinese annals Klaproth lists the customs of the High Carts people: bride-price paid in oxen and horses, weddings feasted on curdled mare's milk and roast meat, and a terror of lightning. When a bolt struck they shrieked, shot arrows at the sky and moved camp, then came back the next year to burn a ram in a pit while their sorceresses performed.

When lightning struck, the Kao-tche let out terrible cries, shot arrows against the sky, left their camp and moved it further off. The next year, when their horses were well fattened, they came back in great numbers and dug a pit in which they burned a ram; the sorceresses then performed their magic.

Working translation

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Quand la foudre tombait, les Kao tchhe poussaient des cris affreux, tiraient des flèches contre le ciel, quittaient leur camp et le transportaient plus loin. L'année suivante, quand leurs chevaux étaient bien gras, il y revenaient en grand nombre, faisaient une fosse dans laquelle ils brûlaient un bélier : les sorcières exécutaient alors leurs prestiges.

About Gaoche (Kao-tche), Turkic nomads

Gog and Magog on the Onon River

Editorial contextAn anonymous description of the Mongols printed next in Weber sets out their lands, from Lake Khövsgöl east to the sand desert, to the Argun, and north-west to the rivers Onon and Sikoi, a country which, it says, has been said since ancient times to be inhabited by Gog and Magog. The same description goes on to the lamas, the Dalai Lama and whether he could be Prester John.

further to the land of Argun, and from there again north-west to the rivers Onon and Sikoi, which, as has been said from ancient times, is inhabited by Gog and Magog.

Working translation

Original wording

ferner biß an das Land Argun, und von dort wiederum Nord-west biß an den Fluß Onon und Sikoi, welches wie man von Alters hersaget, von Gog und Magog bewohnet wird.

About Mongols

The Tartar princes and their fiefs

Editorial contextAfter the birthday festivities the tributary Tartar princes went home. Staunton describes them as chiefs of large clans who owed troops in wartime under the 'grand banners of Tartary', held hereditary fiefs that needed the emperor's investiture, and usually married women of the imperial family.

They were the chiefs of numerous clans dependent on them, and could bring large bodies of troops into the field. They were often called upon in time of war, and had their respective stations, rank, and duty, assigned to them under the grand banners of Tartary. Their lands, or fiefs, were properly hereditary by primogeniture

About Mongol tributary princes ('Tartar princes')

'Nine Tatars' join the Oghuz against the khan

Editorial contextIn the Bilge Qaghan inscription the khan says he campaigned against the Oghuz and 'devastated their houses and their buildings', and that the Oghuz then allied with the Nine Tatars and came against him. He fought two great battles at Agu, destroyed their army and enslaved their people. The Tatars appear here as a real political ally of the Oghuz, and the Oghuz are said to have houses and buildings.

I went on campaign and devastated their houses and their buildings. The [Oghuz] people allied with the Nine Tatars, and they came. Near Agu I fought two great battles; I destroyed their army and there I enslaved their people.

Working translation

Original wording

j'entrai en campagne et dévastai leurs maisons et leurs bâtiments. Le peuple [ogouz] s'allia avec les Neuf-Tatars, et ils vinrent. Près d'Agou, je livrai deux grandes batailles; je dévastai leur armée et j'asservis là leur peuple.

About Toquz Tatar (Nine Tatars) and Oghuz

How the Mongols split into Mongol and Manchu 'Tartars'

Editorial contextGrosier explains 'Chinese Tartary' with an origin story: all its tribes were once called Mongol Tartars, and when the Mongols were driven out of China in 1368, some fled east toward the Amur and kept Chinese customs, becoming the Manchus or 'Eastern Tartars', while the rest went back west and stayed Mongols. The Manchus did not in fact descend from the Yuan refugees; the story shows how Europeans tried to make one 'Tartar' family out of different peoples.

Those of the east retain their ancient name of Moungal or Mogul Tartars: the rest are known by the name of Mantchew or Eastern Tartars. Chinese Tartary is therefore divided into two parts, the eastern and western.

About Mongol Tartars and Manchu ('Mantchew') Tartars

A Mongol monastery town where Russians trade furs

Editorial contextThe Regent told Turner that Russia had courted the Taranaut Lama (the head lama of the Khalkha Mongols) with embassies and presents, including an illustrated Russian Bible Turner saw. As a result Russian traders visited the lama's seat at 'Kharka', where hides from 'Calmuc Tartary' and the furs of the Russia-China trade changed hands. The same page describes a Kalmyk pilgrimage bringing 200 to 300 horses to the Panchen Lama.

the Russian traders have since resorted occasionally to Kharka, the place of Taranaut Lama's residence, where they still carry on by their agents a considerable traffic. This principally consists in the sale of bulgar hides, which are prepared in the adjacent districts, and brought also from Calmuc Tartary to the same mart

About Khalkha and Kalmyk Mongols; Russian traders

The Golden Orda: a tent on gold-plated pillars

Editorial contextCarpini attended the enthronement of Guyuk near Karakorum. After a first great tent called the Sira Orda, the court moved to the Golden Orda, a tent whose pillars were plated in gold with gold nails and whose roof and sides were hung with precious cloth. Guyuk was then seated on the throne and everyone drank until evening.

where another tent was set up, and it is called by them the Golden Orda … This tent rested on pillars covered with gold plates, fastened with gold nails and other woods, and the top and sides of it were covered with baldakins; the outside, however, being of other kinds of stuff.

About Mongols at the enthronement of Guyuk Khan

A steppe where hardly anyone is sober in summer

Editorial contextLange (as abridged by Pallas) notes that the Mongols live mainly on brick tea boiled with milk and butter, bought from the Chinese, and in the milking season distil milk brandy and drink it warm, so that apart from girls and children one rarely meets a sober person in their camps. They also make small cheeses and air-dry strips of meat for the hungry winter.

From spring until autumn, as long as the cattle give plenty of milk, they distil a great deal of milk brandy and drink it straight away while warm, so that at that time, apart from girls and children, one seldom meets a sober person in the Mongol camps.

Working translation

Original wording

Vom Frühling bis in den Herbst, so lange das Vieh häufige Milch giebt, ziehen sie häufigen Milchbranntewein ab, und trinken ihn gleich warm auf, daher man in selbiger Zeit, ausser Mädchen und Kindern, selten einen nüchternen Menschen in den mongolischen Lägern antrifft.

About Khalkha Mongols

Goblins of the Altai

Editorial contextAs the party headed for the Altai, one of Chen-hai's servants said these mountains were notorious for goblins and that one had pulled him by the hair, and Chen-hai added that a Naiman khan passing through had been bewitched and forced to offer the goblin a sacrifice. Changchun said nothing. Crossing the desert beyond, the escort rubbed blood on their horses' heads against goblins, and the sage smiled that goblins flee from a good man (p.64); earlier the diarist had seen traces of sacrifices to mountain spirits on a peak, and many grave mounds below (p.58).

One of the servants of Chen-hai reported that these mountains had a bad fame for their goblins, and that once a goblin pulled him by the hair. Chen-hai narrated further, that once it occurred also to the Khan of the Naiman … to be charmed by a goblin, and that he was obliged to offer a sacrifice to him. The master did not make any remark on these tales.

About Chen-hai's men; the Naiman khan

The 'water Mongols' who called themselves Tartars

Editorial contextIn his commentary d'Avezac summarises Carpini's account of the four peoples who once lived in Mongolia: the Yeka Mongal ('great Mongols'), the Su-Mongal ('water Mongols') who called themselves Tartars after a river named Tatar in their land, the Merkit and the Mecrit. He confirms that Yeka and Su do mean 'great' and 'water'.

In that country there were formerly four peoples, namely: the Yeka Mongal or great Mongols; the Su-Mongal or water Mongols, who gave themselves the name Tartars after a river called Tatar that flowed through their country; the Merkit; and lastly the Mecrit.

Working translation

Original wording

En ce pays étaient autrefois quatre peuples, savoir: les Yeka Mongal ou grands Mongals; les Su-Mongals ou Mongals aquatiques, lesquels se donnaient à eux-mêmes le nom Tartares, d'après un fleuve appelé Tatar qui coulait en leur pays; les Merkit; et enfin les Mécrit.

About Mongol tribes before Chinggis Khan

Mongols in tents of coarse felt; a timber stockade around Manchuria

Editorial contextDrawing on Gerbillon's 1688 journey, Davis says the Mongols and Kalkas are devoted to their Lamas, live in tents of coarse felt, eat half-raw meat and value livestock over money; Timkowski adds that brick tea is their currency. Two pages earlier he describes the Manchu homeland of Mukden, where the emperors are buried, fenced not by a wall but by a timber stockade about eight feet high, wrongly drawn on some European maps as part of the Great Wall.

Entirely devoted to their Lamas, whom even the Emperor of China honours, on account of their influence over the various tribes, the Mongols live in tents of coarse felt, eat nothing but flesh half raw, and exchange their sheep and cattle for a few of the necessaries of life, having no value for money.

About Mongol and Kalka Tartars; Manchu homeland

'Since our shan yu': the Mongols and the Xiongnu past

Editorial contextIn the same letter Chinggis lists the peoples who have acknowledged him (the Song, the Hui-ho, the Tangut Xia and 'the barbarians in the west') and says no empire so vast has been seen 'since the remote time of our shan yu'. Bretschneider explains that shan yu was the title of the khans of the ancient Xiongnu of Mongolia from the second century BC, so the letter sets the Mongols in a line of steppe rulers reaching back to Han times. The diarist makes the same comparison at the Empress's ordo, whose carts and tents outshone anything the ancient shan yu had (p.58).

The Sung to the south, the Hui-ho to the north, the Hia … to the east, and the barbarians in the west, all together have acknowledged my supremacy. It seems to me that since the remote time of our shan yü such a vast empire has not been seen.

About Mongols (Chinggis Khan's empire)

A shaman's night séance and a demon on the roof

Editorial contextRubruck describes how Mongol diviners answered the Khan's questions: meat is laid in the middle of the house at night, the shaman mutters charms, beats a drum on the ground, raves and is tied up, and the 'devil' comes in the dark to eat and give answers. He then repeats a story from the goldsmith Guillaume about a hidden Hungarian who heard the demon shrieking on the roof, unable to enter because a Christian was present.

the one who performs the invocation begins to mutter his charms and, holding a drum in his hand, beats it hard against the ground, and throws himself about so that he becomes as if beside himself and begins to rave; then he has himself bound tight; then the devil comes in the darkness of the night and gives him some of the meat to eat

Working translation

Original wording

celuy qui fait l'inuocation commence à murmurer ses charmes, & tenant vn tabourin en la main, le frappe fort contre terre, & se demene & agite en sorte qu'il deuient comme hors de soy, & commence à resver, puis il se fait lier bien serré; lors le diable vient durant l'obscurité de la nuict, & luy donne à manger de ces chairs

About Tartars (Mongol shamans)

A steppe king lost in the snow, saved by a saint

Editorial contextIn his note on the legend of Prester John, Ritter traces its roots to a real report: a letter to the Nestorian patriarch in Baghdad saying that the king of the Kerait, lost while hunting in snowy mountains, was rescued by a saint who demanded he believe in Christ. The king then asked visiting Christian merchants about baptism, and asked how to keep the fasts when his people ate only meat and milk; the patriarch allowed milk. Ritter thinks this tale, found in Syriac and Arabic authors (via Bar Hebraeus and Assemani), was one seed of the later fantasy of a Christian priest-king in Asia.

the king of the people of the Cherit (that is, Kerait), who lived in the interior of the Turk lands toward the north-east, had lost his way so badly while hunting in the wild snow mountains that only a saint could lead him back and save him. The saint appeared to him with the words: 'If you will believe in Jesus Christ, I will help you out of your distress.'

Working translation

Original wording

der König des Volks der Cherit (i.e. Kerait) der im Innern der Turkländer gegen Nord-Osten wohne, habe sich auf der Jagd im wilden Schnee-Gebirge so verirrt gehabt, daß nur ein Sanctus seinen Weg ihn habe zurückführen und retten können. Dieser sey ihm erschienen mit den Worten: „Willst du an Jesum Christum glauben, so helfe ich dir aus der Noth.“

About Kerait (a steppe people Ritter counts among the eastern Turks and 'Tartari')

Obo: stone cairns for the spirits of the land

Editorial contextBichurin explains the obo cairns he saw on hilltops: small round mounds of stones heaped on every notable height by a main road. Once a year Mongols gather there to honour the guardian spirits of the district with wrestling, horse racing and archery. Every rider passing an obo dismounts, kneels on the south side, bows three times and leaves something: a khadag scarf, an arrow, a scrap of cloth, horsehair or a pebble.

These are sacred places, where the Mongols gather once a year to worship the guardian spirits of the country. Here their festivals take place, accompanied by wrestling, horse racing and archery. At other times every Mongol riding past an obo gets off his horse, kneels on one knee before it on the south side and, raising his folded palms to his forehead, bows three times.

Working translation

Original wording

Это суть священныя мѣста, при которыхъ Монголы собираются однажды въ годъ для поклоненія духамъ покровителямъ страны. Здѣсь-то происходятъ ихъ празднества, сопровождаемыя борьбою, конскимъ ристаніемъ и стрѣляніемъ изъ луковъ. Въ прочее время каждый Монголъ, проѣзжающій мимо Обо, сходитъ съ лошади, становится предъ онымъ съ южной стороны на одно колѣно, и, поднося сложенныя ладони ко лбу, дѣлаетъ троекратное поклоненіе.

About Mongols

Four Mongol peoples, one of them called Tartars after a river

Editorial contextAfter the Astrakhan Tatars, the text turns to the history of the Mongols, retelling medieval reports: the khan's seal read 'One God in heaven and one Khan on earth', and Batu's army counted 160,000 Tartars and 440,000 Christians and others. It then lists four Mongol peoples, including the 'Saniongals' or water Mongols (the Su-Mongals of Carpini), who were also called Tartars after the river Tartar.

This Mongol land lies to the east and is inhabited by four different peoples, namely the … the Saniongals or water Mongols, who are also called Tartars after the [river] Tartar; the Merkits … These four peoples were fairly similar in language and way of life, but each had its own chief.

Working translation

Original wording

Dieses Mongalen Land lieget nach Osten und ist … vier unterschiedene Völcker bewohnet; nemlich die … die Saniongals oder See-Mongalen, welche auch nach den … Tartar, Tartern genennet werden; die Merkates … Diese vier Völcker waren in der Sprache und Lebens-Art … ziemlich ähnlich, hatten aber jede ihr eigen Ober-Haupt.

About Mongols; the 'water Mongols' called Tartars

A market at the Mongol camp

Editorial contextBesides the official caravans to Beijing, Russian merchants traded privately at the headquarters of the Mongols, a moving camp usually pitched where the Orkhon and Tuul rivers meet. An annual fair grew up there, which on the next page becomes a scene of drunken Russian 'riot and confusion' that angered the Kangxi emperor.

private merchants continued as before to carry on a separate trade with the Chinese, not only at Pekin, but also at the head quarters of the Mongols. The camp of these roving Tartars was generally to be found near the conflux of the Orchon and Tola, between the Southern frontiers of Siberia and the Mongol desert. A kind of annual fair

About Mongols ('roving Tartars')

Prester John was a mishearing

Editorial contextLike Strahlenberg before him, Fischer explains the legend of Prester John as a European mistake: the first Europeans in Tibet and Mongolia misheard a title, their fancy shaped it into 'Prêtre Jean' or 'Juan', and so it spread through the world. They forgot that Tibetans and Mongols spoke neither French, Italian nor Portuguese, and were pleased to find what they hoped for; later came strange etymologies and fables of an Indian 'Johannes Presbyter'.

the name Prêtre Jean or Juan was wrongly heard by the first Europeans who came there, then badly shaped by their fancy, and so sent out into the world. It did not occur to these good people that the Tibetans and Mongols among whom they found themselves understood neither French, nor Italian, nor Portuguese

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der name Pretre Jean oder Juan, ist von den erstern Europäern, die dorthin gekommen, unrecht gehöret, hernach von ihrer fantasei übel gebildet, und so weiter in die welt geschikket worden. Diesen guten leuten fiele nicht ein, daß die Tibetaner und Mogolen, unter denen sie sich befanden, weder französisch, noch italiänisch noch portugiesisch verstunden

About Tibetans and Mongols; medieval European travellers

The Xiongnu: no walled cities, felt and furs

Editorial contextSima Qian opens his chapter on the Xiongnu with their way of life: they move their herds of horses, cattle and sheep in search of water and grass, have no walled cities, fixed homes or farming, though each group has its own pasture land, and they keep no written records. Later in the passage he adds that from the ruler down they eat meat and wear hides, felt and furs. It is the oldest Chinese model of the 'people without cities' that later writers used for the Tartars.

They move about following water and grass, and have no walled cities, fixed dwellings or work of tilling fields; yet each has its own allotted land. They have no writing, and make agreements by word of mouth.

Working translation

Original wording

逐水草遷徙，毋城郭常處耕田之業，然亦各有分地。毋文書，以言語為約束。

About Xiongnu (northern steppe nomads of the Han era)

Ta-ta: the name in Chinese records

Editorial contextKlaproth says the Chinese first met the Tatars at the start of the ninth century and called them Ta-ta, later Ta-t'a-öl, a garbled form of 'Tatar' because Chinese has no R. He quotes the Chinese encyclopedia San-tsai t'u-hui of 1604, which places the Ta-ta in the Gobi as descendants of the 'barbarian Yuan' (the Mongols) and counts the Wa-la (Oirats) among them, and concludes that the Tatars were the present Mongols and Oirats (the Kalmyks of Central Asia).

The Chinese, who came to know the Tatars at the beginning of the ninth century, then called them Ta-ta, and in later times Ta-t'a-öl, which is the corrupted pronunciation of the word Tatar, since the Chinese have no R … One sees clearly from this passage that the [Tatars] were the present Mongols and Oelöts (that is, the Kalmyks of Central Asia).

Working translation

Original wording

Die Chinesen, welche die Tatar zu Anfange des neunten Jahrhunderts kennen lernten, nannten sie damals … Ta-ta, und in späteren Zeiten … Ta-t'a-öl, welches die verdorbene Aussprache des Wortes Tatar ist, indem die Chinesen kein R haben … Man sieht aus dieser Stelle deutlich, dass die … jetzigen Mongolen und Ölöten (d. i. Mittelasiatische Kalmücken) waren.

About The Ta-ta (Tatars) of Chinese sources, whom Klaproth identifies with the Mongols and Oirats

Felt yurts that no wind can overturn

Editorial contextCrossing northern Mongolia with the Russian caravan, Lange describes how the Mongols live from their herds: hides for boots and harness, dung for fuel on the treeless steppe, sheepskins for coats, and sheep's wool for the felts that cover their yurts and beds. He finds the felt huts better than European tents: warm in winter, cool in summer with the side walls removed, proof against wind and rain.

From the sheep's wool they make the felts or voiloks with which their yurts or huts are covered and their beds made. These felt huts protect them against the cold, and in summer, when the side walls are taken off, are much shadier and cooler than our tents. The wind can never blow them over, and no rain comes through.

Working translation

Original wording

Aus der Schafswolle machen sie die Filze oder Woilokken, womit ihre Jurten oder Hütten überzogen, und ihr Lager gemacht ist. Diese Filzhütten dienen ihnen wider die Kälte, und sind im Sommer, wenn man die Seitenwände abnimmt, viel schattiger und kühler als unsere Gezelte. Der Wind kann sie nie umwerfen, und kein Regen schlägt durch.

About Khalkha Mongols

The ordu: a ring of tents that became a court

Editorial contextSchott explains the word ordu, the source of European 'horde': in Mongolian and Turkish it first meant an army camp and then, above all, the khan's court camp, and in a footnote he adds that the Mongols also used it for a palace. He derives it from a root meaning a circle, so that an ordu is literally a ring of tents. At the foot of the page he starts on another root, kor, 'to build', which gives kurghan (kurgan), and on the next page he says the word meant a building in general and then a grave monument.

The first-named word [ordu] means in Mongolian and Turkish an army camp, then in particular a court camp. Just as the Mongolian kür-dü, a circular thing, a wheel, comes from kür (which has also produced kürijen and küren [see above]), so or-du is a circle of tents, from the stronger root or, which lacks the initial consonant.

Working translation

Original wording

Erstgenanntes Wort bedeutet im Mongolischen und Türkischen Heerlager, dann insonderheit Hoflager. Wie nun das mongolische kür-dü kreisförmiges Ding, Rad, von kür (das auch kürijen und küren [s. oben] erzeugt hat), so or-du ein Zeltenkreis, von der stärkeren, aber des consonantischen Anlauts entbehrenden Wurzel or.

About Mongols and Turks

Chinggis Khan's self-portrait: one coat, one food

Editorial contextBretschneider prints the Khan's letter inviting Changchun, dated 15 May 1219 and preserved in the fourteenth-century Chinese miscellany Cho keng lu. In it Chinggis sets himself against luxurious China: he lives in the 'northern wilderness', eats what his herdsmen eat and wears the same rags. Bretschneider stresses that the Khan could not write, so the polished classical Chinese was put down by a secretary, very likely Yelu Chucai.

Heaven has abandoned China owing to its haughtiness and extravagant luxury. But I, living in the northern wilderness, have not inordinate passions. I hate luxury and exercise moderation. I have only one coat and one food. I eat the same food and am dressed in the same tatters as my humble herdsmen.

About Chinggis Khan

Jumping through fire after childbirth

Editorial contextA Mongol or Kalmyk mother, Strahlenberg says, is purified after childbirth by jumping three times through a fire before the lama and her relatives. He adds that they wear or keep a small three-headed idol, made of clay or metal, brought from Tibet and the Dalai Lama. He collects these customs to show a sacred number three.

It is a Custom, to this Day, with the Mungals and Kalmucks, that when a Woman bears a Child, and is afterwards re-admitted into the Community of the People, she must, in the Presence of their Lama, or Priest, and her nearest Relations, jump Three Times thro' a Fire; Which they call the Purification.

About Mongols and Kalmyks

Water-Mongols who took their name from the river Tatar

Editorial contextIn a footnote Rockhill quotes Carpini's account of the four nations of Mongolia before Genghis Khan. One, the Su-Mongal or 'Water-Mongols', called themselves Tartars after a river named Tatar. Rockhill's longer note on the next page traces the name Tatar back to a Turkic inscription of AD 732 and to Chinese annals.

That country had once four nations : one called Yeka Mongal, or the Great Mongals, the second called Su-Mongal, or Aquatic-Mongals, though they called themselves Tartars from a certain river which flows through their country and which is called Tatar (or Tartar)

About Su-Mongal, who called themselves Tartars

The 'High Carts' people and their felt tents on wheels

Editorial contextRetelling Chinese histories, Klaproth explains that one nomadic branch of the Uighurs was called Kao-tche, 'High Carts', probably because the wheels of the carts carrying their felt tents were taller than those of other Turkic tribes. Their main camp lay between the Tula, Orkhon and Selenga rivers.

In the 3rd century of our era it bore the name Kao-tche, or High Carts, probably because the wheels of the carts that carried its felt tents were higher than those of the other Turkic tribes.

Working translation

Original wording

Elle porta, dans le IIIe siècle de notre ère, le nom de Kao tchhe ou de Chariots élevés, vraisemblablement parceque les roues des chariots, qui portaient ses tentes de feutre, étaient plus hautes que celles des autres peuplades turques.

About Gaoche (Kao-tche), a Turkic people Klaproth counts as a branch of the Uighurs

Headless statues and skull cups

Editorial contextHeikel found that all the carved stone figures at the first two monuments had lost their heads. He explains this by old Mongolian customs: enemies' heads were carried off as trophies, chiefs' skulls were made into drinking cups (the Irkutsk museum held one), and stones set round a grave stood for enemies killed. So attackers would naturally knock the heads off figures that stood for Turks. His explanation is a guess drawn from old accounts, not something he saw happen.

These, like all the other statues found near the first and second monuments, have no heads, which is not surprising to those who know the ancient customs of the peoples of Mongolia, among whom it was the practice to carry enemies' heads long distances as trophies. The skulls of chiefs killed in war were even made into cups.

Working translation

Original wording

Celles-là comme toutes les autres statues trouvées auprès de ce 1er monument et du 2e, n'ont pas de tête, ce qui n'a rien d'étonnant pour ceux qui connaissent les anciennes moeurs des peuples de la Mongolie, chez lesquels on avait coutume d'emporter à de longues distances les têtes des ennemis en guise de trophées. On façonnait même en coupes les crânes des chefs tués à la guerre.

About Turks and later steppe peoples

No towns or villages: Mongols in felt yurts

Editorial contextIn the same passage Spafarii sketches how the Mongols lived: under many princes (taishas), with the Saïn khan as overlord and the Khutukhta lama as their high priest. They roamed near Selenginsk, he says, because they had no towns or villages, and so wandered over the steppes in felt yurts to feed their great herds.

and they roam not far from the Selenginsk fort, because they have no towns or villages; and for that reason they wander over the steppes in felt yurts, to feed their many herds.

Working translation

Original wording

и тѣ неподалеку кочуютъ отъ Селенгинского острогу, потому что у нихъ городовъ и селъ нѣтъ; и для того кочуютъ по степямъ въ юртахъ войлочныхъ для прокормленія многаго скота ихъ.

About Khalkha Mongols

A hundred cities, none with a Chinese name

Editorial contextHeading west past the Tangut frontier, the envoy says he passed more than a hundred cities with no Chinese names and was told of many tribes living there. The list runs on over the page (Mo-li-hi, Mo-k'o-ti, Ho-li-ki-sz, Nai-man, Hang-li, Gui-gu, T'u-ma, Ho-lu), ending 'all are barbarian tribes'. Bretschneider identifies them as the Merkits, perhaps the Mekrins, the Kirghiz, Naimans, Kankali, Uighurs, Tumats and Karluks, peoples Chinggis had just brought under his rule. None of them is called Mongol or Tatar.

I passed through more than a hundred cities: not one of them had a Chinese name. Inquiring about the country, I was told that many tribes were living there, namely, the Mo-li-hi

About Steppe tribes: Merkits, Kirghiz, Naimans, Kankali, Uighurs, Tumats, Karluks

Chinese annals: felt tents, grazing, and stones for enemies killed

Editorial contextThomsen quotes Chinese annals (through Stanislas Julien's translations) on the customs of the Turks, the 'Tou-kioue': they wear their hair loose, fold their robes to the left, and live in felt tents, moving wherever they find water and grass. At burials they set up stones beside the grave, one for each enemy the dead man had killed, sometimes a hundred or a thousand. Thomsen says these notices describe a time somewhat earlier than the inscriptions.

'The Tujue let their hair hang loose, fold the flap of their garment to the left, and live in felt tents. They move from one place to another according to where they find water and grass. Their main occupation is raising herds and hunting.'

Working translation

Original wording

«Les Tou-kioue laissent flotter leurs cheveux, jettent à gauche le pan de leur vêtement, et habitent sous des tentes de feutre. Ils se transportent d'un lieu à un autre, suivant qu'ils y trouvent de l'eau et des herbes. Leur principale occupation est l'élève des troupeaux et la chasse.

About Tujue (Kok Turks)

Shooting backwards while they flee

Editorial contextHayton, who fought beside Mongol armies, describes their tactics: when they flee they do so in ordered squadrons, and pursuing them is dangerous because they shoot backwards as they ride, wounding men and horses, then wheel round on careless pursuers. Their army looks smaller than it is because they ride packed close, so a thousand Tartars look like five hundred.

When the Tatars turn to flight, they all flee together in ordered squadrons and lines; and it is very dangerous to follow them, because as they flee they shoot arrows backwards and wound and kill horses and men. … The Tatar army does not look large, because they all ride packed together, so that a line of a thousand Tatars does not look like five hundred.

Working translation

Original wording

Quando Tatari vertunt in fugam, fugiunt omnes simul per turmas et acies ordinatas; et valde periculosum est sequi eos, quoniam retrograde sagictas jaciunt fugiendo, et equos et homines vulnerant et occidunt. … Exercitus Tatarorum non est magne apparencie, quia omnes simul congregatim incedunt, ita quod acies mille Tatarorum quingentorum apparenciam non habet.

About Tartars (Mongols)

Milk, dried cheese and milk brandy

Editorial contextA tall lama told the travellers about a cattle plague that had left the steppe people short of food. Timkovsky records their diet: meat when herds were large, otherwise milk, dried cheese (kourout) and millet, with a milk brandy drunk in summer. On the facing page he adds that they made coarse felt from sheep's wool, twisted horsehair into ropes, and had 'neither handicrafts nor manufactures'.

When they possess many cows and sheep, they subsist upon their flesh, otherwise they content themselves with milk and dried cheese (bissalak and kourout), they likewise make use of a kind of millet (shara bonda). To exhilarate their spirits they drink, though only in summer, a kind of brandy, which they extract from milk.

About Khalkha Mongols

An emperor buried in his tent with a mare and foal

Editorial contextWhen a Tartar emperor dies he is seated in his tent with a table of meat and a cup of mare's milk, a mare with her foal and a saddled horse, then buried in a great pit, tent and all, so he will have a house, horses and milk in the next world. Mandeville adds that graves were sometimes hidden under replaced turf. The details match Carpini's report, which Mandeville used.

And when the emperor dieth, men set him in a chair in midst the place of his tent. And men set a table before him clean, covered with a cloth, and thereupon flesh and diverse viands and a cup full of mare's milk. And men put a mare beside him with her foal, and an horse saddled and bridled.

About Tartars (Mongols)

Maimachin: a wooden frontier town guarded by Mongols

Editorial contextFollowing Pallas, Coxe describes the Chinese trading town of Maimachin facing Russian Kiakhta, with frontier posts inscribed in Russian and Manchu. Its only defence was a wooden wall and a small ditch dug in 1756 during the Qing wars with the Kalmyks (Dzungars), and its gates were watched by a garrison of Mongols in tattered clothes armed with clubs.

Maimatschin has no other fortification than a wooden wall, and a small ditch of about three feet broad; the latter was dug in the year 1756, during the war between the Chinese and the Calmucs … over each of these gates there is a wooden guard-house for the Chinese garrison, which consists of Mongols in tattered clothes, and armed with clubs.

About Chinese merchants; Mongol garrison of the Qing

Round felt tents, some carried whole on carts

Editorial contextCarpini gives his own short description of Mongol dwellings: round, tent-shaped, built of slender rods, with a round window at the top for light and smoke, a central fire, and felt walls, roof and door. Some can be taken apart and loaded on pack animals; others travel whole on carts pulled by one ox or by several.

Their dwellings are round, shaped like tents, and made with very slender rods and sticks; and on top, right in the middle, there is a round window through which the light comes in and the smoke goes out, for they always make their fire in the middle; the walls and roofs of these dwellings are covered with felts … Some are very easy to take down and put up again

Working translation

Original wording

Leurs logemens sont ronds, en forme de tentes, & faits auec des verges & bastons fort deliez; & au dessus, droit au milieu, y a vne fenestre ronde, par où la lumiere entre, & la fumée sort; car ils font tousiours leur feu au milieu: les parois & toits de ces logis sont couuerts de feutres … Quelques-vnes sont fort aisées à deffaire & refaire

About Tartars (Mongols)

No locks on their wagons, and living on mare's milk

Editorial contextIn the same chapter Sanudo, following Carpini, praises Tartar honesty and endurance: there are no robbers or thieves of anything valuable among them, so the tents and carts where they keep their treasure are never locked; they welcome anyone who comes while they eat, can go a day or two without food and still sing and play, and when heading for lands short of food they take mares and cows along and live on the milk.

Robbers or thieves of valuable things are not found among them: so their dwellings and carts, where they keep their treasures, they do not secure with locks or bars. They honour one another and are friendly among themselves; everyone who approaches while they are eating they receive at the meal ... and when they go to a land where they think there is a shortage of food, they take mares, cows and other animals with them, and live on the milk.

Working translation

Original wording

Prædones vel fures notabilium rerum, inter eos non sunt: ideoq; stationes & currus eorum, vbi thesauros conseruant, seris aut vectibus non firmant. Honorant se mutuò, & sunt ad inuicem familiares; omnem accedentem, dum comedunt, ad conuiuiū recipiunt … & quando ad terram pergunt, vbi putant adesse victualiū inopiam, equas, vaccas & alia animalia secū portant; & de lacte viuunt.

About Mongols

The Sira Ordu: a Chinese pavilion with latticed wooden walls

Editorial contextIn summer Ögedei went up into the mountains, where his people set up a great pavilion brought from Khitai (north China), its walls made of latticed wood, with rich cloth above. It was called the Sira Ordu (Yellow Horde or Yellow Palace). The khan's summer 'palace' was a portable structure, not a stone building.

and they would raise a pavilion from Khitai whose walls were made of latticed wood … and it is called Sir[a] Ordu.

Working translation

Original wording

و از ختای بارگاهی که دیوارهای آن از چوب مشبك ساخته بودند … بر افراشتندی و آنرا سیر اردو نام است

About Ögedei Khan's court

Kamchatka's people pushed out by the 'East Tartar kingdoms'

Editorial contextSteller argues that the Itelmens once lived outside China in the Mongol steppe along the Amur and gradually withdrew north and east along the Sea of Okhotsk as the 'East Tartar kingdoms' rose. In a footnote on the same page he links the ending -men in their own name, Itelmen, to the Turkic and Tatar word men ('I'). It is a scholar's hypothesis based on language, looks and customs, not a tradition of the people themselves.

As for the positive arguments that these peoples formerly lived outside China in the Mongol steppe below the Amur, and, when the East Tartar kingdoms were set up, withdrew little by little ever further along the Penzhina Sea [Sea of Okhotsk]

Working translation

Original wording

Was die argumenta affirmativa anbelanget, daß diese Völker ehedem ausserhalb China in der mungalischen Steppe unter dem Amur gewohnet, und sich bey Aufrichtung derer ostlich-tartarischen Reiche nach und nach immer weiter an der penschinischen See retiriret

About Itelmens (Kamchadals), Mongols

A living Buddha whose face follows the moon

Editorial contextTimkovsky reports what the Khalkhas believed about their koutouktou (Jebtsundamba Khutughtu), the reincarnating high lama of Urga: that he had already lived through sixteen generations and that his face aged and grew young again with the moon. He presents it as their belief, not his.

The Kalkas affirm, that their koutouktou has already seen sixteen generations, and that his physiognomy changes with the phases of the moon. At new moon, he has the appearance of a youth; at the full, of a man in the prime of life; and appears quite old in the last quarter.

About Khalkha Mongols

The Su-Mongols, 'also called Tartars after the river Tartar'

Editorial contextBack in Astrakhan in 1707, de Bruyn adds a note from older books: in 1246 the Tartars chose 'Kuine' (Güyük) as their ruler, calling themselves Moals or Mongals. Their land, Mongol, held four nations, among them the water Mongols, also called Tartars after a river Tartar that runs through their country. This is the explanation given by the friar John of Plano Carpini in the 1240s, repeated second-hand.

In the year 1246 they chose as head of Tartary a certain Kuine, whom they surnamed Gog Cham, that is, King or Emperor, calling themselves Moals or Mongals … the Saniongals, or sea Mongols, who are also called Tartars, after the river Tartar, which crosses their country

Working translation

Original wording

En l'an 1246, ils choisirent pour chef de la Tartarie un certain Kuine, qu'ils surnommérent Gog Cham, c'est-à-dire, Roi ou Empereur, se nommant eux-mêmes Moales ou Mongales … les Saniongals, ou Mongales marins, qu'on nomme aussi Tartares, d'après la riviere de Tartar, qui traverse leur pais

About Mongols (medieval)

Before they ruled, the Turks were ironsmiths

Editorial contextIn his addenda Schott explains a note from the Chinese encyclopedias Hoan-jü-ki and Ma Tuan-lin: the chief Tu-lun of the S'en-sen took the title K'o-han (khagan, 'khan') in the time of T'ai-wu-ti (reigned 424 to 451), emperor of the Wei dynasty under which the 'Tatar people Topa' ruled northern China, and the Tu-kiu later followed his example. He adds that the S'en-sen were overthrown by the Tu-kiu, who had first served them as ironsmiths. Schott's point is that the title and these peoples are documented in Chinese records centuries before Chinggis Khan.

Heu-Uei (or Juan-Uei) was the Chinese name under which the Tatar people Topa (Tö-pö) ruled the northern China it had conquered. … The S'en-sen, who according to Chinese history were a tribe of the Hiung-nu, were for a time powerful in eastern Turkistan, and fell to the Tu-kiu, who had at first done forced labour for them (as ironsmiths).

Working translation

Original wording

Heu-Uei (oder Juan-Uei) war der chinesische Name, unter welchem das tatarische Volk Topa (Tö-pö) über das von ihm eroberte nördliche China herrschte. … Die S'en-sen, von denen die chinesische Geschichte sagt, dass sie ein Stamm der Hiung-nu gewesen, waren eine Zeitlang im östlichen Turkistan mächtig, und unterlagen den Tu-kiu, die ihnen anfänglich Frohndienste (als Eisenschmiede) geleistet hatten.

About Topa (Tuoba) of northern China, the S'en-sen (Rouran) and the Tu-kiu (early Turks)

Gher, ourto and ordo: words for Mongol dwellings

Editorial contextIn a footnote Timkovsky explains the vocabulary: the felt tent the Russians call a jourta or kibitka is a gher in Mongol; a cluster of tents forming a village or station is an ourto; oulous means empire or people; and ordo (the root of 'horde') means a chateau or imperial palace. It is a neat reminder that the famous Tartar 'horde' was originally the ruler's camp-palace.

Such a tent (made of felt,) … is in Mongol called gher; several tents together, forming a kind of village or station, are called ourto. Oulous, or olos, signifies in Mongol, empire, people; ordo, a chateau, or imperial palace.

About Mongols

The 'Water Mongols', named Tartars after the river Tartar

Editorial contextIn Ramusio's Italian 'Two journeys to Tartary', drawn from the papal envoys of 1245 to 1247, the land called 'Mongal, or Tartaria' once held four peoples: the Yeka Mongol ('great Mongols'), the Su Mongol ('water Mongols'), who were the Tartars proper, named after a river Tartar that watered their land, and the Merkit and the Mecrit. Chinggis came from the first and conquered the rest.

It anciently had four peoples (as is said): the first people in their language was called Yekamongal, that is, great Mongols. The second, Summongal, that is, water Mongols, who were the Tartars themselves, so named from a river Tartar which waters their country. The third, Merkath. The fourth, Metrith.

Working translation

Original wording

Hebbe anticamente quattro Popoli (come si dice) il primo Popolo in lingua loro diceuasi Iekamongal, cioè, grandi Mongali. Il secondo, Summongal, cioè, Aquatici Mongali, che erano essi Tartari da un fiume Tartar cosi nominati, ilquale bagna il suo paese. Il terzo Merkath. Il quarto, Metrith.

About Mongols and Tatars (Carpini's four peoples of 'Mongal')

Sog-po and Hor: the Tibetan words for 'Tartar'

Editorial contextDas's index to the Tibetan history glosses the Tibetan word Sog po as 'Tartary or a Tartar', and Sog yul (Sog land) as 'Mongolia, Hor, Tartary'. The English word Tartar in this edition is therefore a translation of Tibetan words for the Mongols, not a name the Tibetan author used.

Sog-po, the Tibetan for Tartary or a Tartar … Sog-yul Mongolia, Hor, Tartary

About Mongols (Sog po, Hor)

Women made the tents

Editorial contextIn his sketch of Mongol character and customs Hammer notes that the women, whose greatest beauty was the smallest nose, prepared the kumiss and the dried sour milk called kurut, and made all household goods: clothes, tents, harness, shields, shoes, socks and beds. So the felt dwellings of the steppe were women's work. The same page repeats, from hostile medieval writers, that Mongols ate mice, dogs, cats and even roasted human flesh.

The women, whose greatest beauty was the smallest nose, as among the Chinese the smallest foot, prepared the kumiss and the dried sour milk called kurut; they made all kinds of household goods, clothes, tents, riding gear, shields, shoes, socks, beds

Working translation

Original wording

Die Weiber, deren grösste Schönheit die kleinste Nase, wie bei den Chinesen der kleinste Fuss, bereiteten den Kumis und die getrocknete sauere Milch, welche Kurut hiess; sie verfertigten alle Arten der Hausgeräthe, Kleider, Zelte, Reitzeug, Schilde, Schuhe, Socken, Betten

About Mongol women

'Come and eat!': the Tatars poison Chinggis Khan's father

Editorial contextRiding home after betrothing his young son Temüjin, Yesügei passed a Tatar camp holding a feast. The Tatars called out that food was ready and invited him to eat; remembering an old grudge, they mixed poison into his food, and he died soon after reaching friends. The story turns on the steppe duty of hospitality, and it explains the lasting feud between Chinggis Khan's family and the Tatar tribe. Schmidt notes that he knew of no other source for the poisoning; the Secret History of the Mongols, published only later, tells the same story.

On the way he came near a camp of the Tatar, where a feast was being held. They called out to him: 'There is food ready: come and eat!' Yesügei accepted the invitation, turned towards them and dismounted. The Tatar, remembering the old grudge, mixed poison into the food handed to Yesügei

Working translation

Original wording

Unterwegs kam er in die Nähe eines Lagers der Tatar, woselbst ein Fest gefeiert wurde. Diese riefen ihm zu: «Es sind fertige Speisen da: komm und iss!» Jessugei folgte der Einladung, lenkte zu ihnen hin und stieg ab. Die Tatar, des alten Grolls gedenkend, mischten Gift unter die dem Jessugei dargereichte Speise

About Tatar tribe; Yesügei Baghatur, father of Temüjin (Chinggis Khan)

'Tartar nations': Kalmyks, Mongols and Buryats

Editorial contextIn a note Coxe praises Pallas's new work on the 'Tartars' living between Siberia and the Great Wall, whom Pallas divides into Kalmyks, Mongols and Buryats, split in religion between shamanism and the Dalai Lama's Buddhism. It shows 'Tartar' used in 1780 as an umbrella term for Mongolic peoples.

No writer has placed the religion and history of the Tartar nations in a more explicit point of view than Mr. Pallas … concerning the Tartars, who inhabit parts of Siberia, and the territory which lies between that country and the Chinese wall … as they are divided into Calmucs, Mongols, and Burats.

About Kalmyks, Mongols and Buryats

Iron for the Mongols, copper knives for the Tatars

Editorial contextSteller reasons that the Itelmens must have left the mainland very long ago because they knew no metals at all, whereas the Mongols had used iron for weapons and household goods, and the Tatars copper for knives and daggers, for more than 2000 years. The statement shows how he pictured the steppe peoples as ancient metal-workers.

the use and substance of iron is unknown [to the Itelmens], as are other metals, although the use of iron for weapons and household goods has been known to the Mongols, and the use of copper for knives and daggers to the Tatars, for more than 2000 years

Working translation

Original wording

der Gebrauch und die Materie des Eisens unbekannt ist, wie auch der übrigen Metalle, ohnerachtet denen Mungalen der Gebrauch des Eisens zu Gewähr und Haußgeräthen, so wie denen Tataren der Gebrauch des Kupfers zu Messern und Dolchen, schon mehr als vor 2000 Jahren bekannt ist

About Mongols and Tatars (as Steller imagines their ancient past)