Two horses each: one to ride, one to eat
Editorial contextTartar soldiers, says Fletcher, bring two horses, one to ride and one to eat, and horseflesh is their main food. He adds something he saw himself: when the Crimean prince Kiriach Murza came to Moscow with 300 Tartars, he was welcomed with two fat horses, ready skinned, for supper.
every man with his two horse at the least, the one to ride on, the other to kill, when it commeth to his turne to have his horse eate. For their chiefe vittaile is horse flesh, which they eate without bread or any other thing with it.
About Crimean Tartars
Keep in mind
The general claim is hearsay; the Moscow banquet for Kiriach Murza is what Fletcher himself witnessed.
Tatar archers who never miss
Editorial contextThe account of the 1382 siege describes Tatar archery: their arrows fell on the walls like rain, some shot standing, others ran back and forth, others galloped and shot to both sides, forward and back, 'without a miss'. The defenders answered with crossbows, stone-throwers, boiling water and even the first cannon mentioned in Moscow.
Their assault on the city was very fierce; some of them shot standing, and others ran swiftly here and there, so well were they trained, and shot without a miss; and others, galloping very fast on horses, shot swiftly to both hands, and again forward and backward, without a miss.
Working translation
Original wording
Бѣ же приступъ ихъ ко граду яръ зѣло и ови отъ нихъ стояще стрѣляху, а друзіи скоро рищуще сѣмо и овамо, тако изучени быша, и стрѣляху безъ погрѣха; а иніи на конѣхъ борзо велми гоняюще, и на обѣ руцѣ и паки напреди и назадъ скорополучно стрѣляху безъ погрѣха.
About Tokhtamysh's Tatars
A note on this quote
The scan is too rough to double-check this quote by machine. Compare it with the page.
Horsey's eyewitness of the great fire
Editorial contextHorsey describes the same disaster: the khan's men fired a church, a storm spread the flames, and the timber city burned in six hours. People drowned in the river with their valuables, and for a year afterwards survivors dredged for jewels. The khan watched from the Simonov monastery.
The enyme fiers St. Johns church high steple : at which instant happened a wounderfull stormye wynd, through which all the churches, howses and palaces, within the cittie and suberbs 30 miells compas, built most of firr and oak tymber, was sett one fier and burnt within six howers space
About Crimean Tartars under Devlet Giray
Keep in mind
Horsey arrived in Russia in 1573, two years after the fire, so despite the vivid detail this is what he was told.
The Tsar feeding the khan's horse from his cap
Editorial contextFletcher says the Crimean khan claimed Moscow itself as his right, and repeats a Russian story that the Russian ruler once had to stand on foot and feed the khan's horse with oats from his own cap as yearly homage. On the next page he says this homage was later turned into a tribute of furs.
that tell of a certeine homage that was done by the Russe emperour every yeare to the Great Chrim or Cham, the Russe emperour standing on foot and feeding the Chrims horse (himselfe sitting on his back) with oates out of his owne cap, in stead of a boule or maunger
About Crimean khan and Russian rulers
Keep in mind
A story Fletcher gives 'by the report of the Russes themselves'. Margin notes break the OCR of this passage and have been removed; check the page image.
How Witsen gathered his Tartary
Editorial contextWitsen answers that the map grew out of a visit almost 28 years earlier to the country of the Tsar, where he talked with local people and 'Tartars of all sorts'. Since then he had kept up letters with Moscow, Astrakhan, Georgia, Isfahan, Poland, Constantinople and Peking, and collected journals and drawings made to his order. He then admits his biggest doubts are about the sea coasts, which he drew in pale colour to show the uncertainty.
I not only Conversed with the Inhabitants of those Countreys, but with Tartars of all sorts … I have maintain'd a constant Correspondence in Mosco, Astracan, Georgia, Ispahan, Polonia, and Constantinople, I have had Letters every year from Peking the chief City of China, I have gathered Volumes of Journals and Registers
About 'Tartars of all sorts' met in Muscovy
Keep in mind
The country Witsen visited is garbled in the scan; his known journey of 1664 to 1665 was to Muscovy.
The Tartar embassy house inside the Kremlin
Editorial contextEven the mighty Ivan III, Herberstein says, had to go out and stand before seated Tartar envoys. The Tartars kept a house inside the Moscow citadel. His Byzantine wife Sophia, claiming a dream, persuaded the Tartar queen to give the plot for a church, and the Tartars were never given a house in the fortress again.
There was within the citadel of Moscow a house in which the Tartars lodged for the purpose of learning what was going on at Moscow, and as this also gave great offence to his wife, she sent messengers with liberal presents to the queen of the Tartars, begging her to give up that house to her
About Envoys of the Golden Horde; Ivan III and Sophia Palaiologina
Keep in mind
A court story told to Herberstein decades after the event.
Whirlwinds of fire: three hours that ended a city
Editorial contextA second account, printed by the chronicler John Stow and apparently drawn from a letter of the English survivor Thomas Glover, describes the fire as a storm of 'whirl wynds' that died down after three hours, leaving streets full of dead men and horses. Twenty-five people died in the English Company's house. The 'Tartar dog', the Crimean khan, retreated across the Oka that same night.
This crewell and sodayne destructyon cam vpon ye moscow in great and wonderfull whirl wynds, and at ye ende of thre owrs very calme agayne, and fayre wether, that men myght walke and se ye dede bodyes of men & horses to no small nomber … ye same daye that the tartar dogge had done this myscheffe, the nyght following he, with all his power, fled ouer the ryuar oca
About Crimean Tatars and their khan
Keep in mind
The editors' note (p. 340) explains the chain of letters behind this text.
Moscow burned by the Crimean khan, 1571
Editorial contextFletcher tells how the Crimean khan reached Moscow unopposed in 1571 and fired the suburbs. Because the city was built of wood, the blaze consumed most of it in about four hours, and crowds crushed each other at the gates. He gives the rumoured death toll of 800,000, which is far too high.
(which is all of wood, without any stone, brick, or lime, save certein out roomes) … consumed the greatest part of the citie almost within the space of foure houres, being of thirty miles or more of compasse. Then might you have seene a lamentable spectacle
About Crimean Tartars under Devlet Giray
Keep in mind
The sentence begins on p.85 ('The citie he tooke not, but fired the suburbs'); only the p.86 part is quoted here, and the OCR of that page is broken by margin notes. The 800,000 dead is hearsay and far too high.
The khan's statue in Moscow
Editorial contextOlearius retells the great Crimean raid of 1521: the khan besieged Moscow and forced the Grand Duke to sign himself a tributary. To prove it, the story goes, the khan set up a statue of himself in Moscow before which the Grand Duke had to bow to the ground each time he paid tribute; when the charter was later recovered, the Muscovites smashed the statue.
Mendligeri, to make it appear he was Sovereign Lord of Moscou, caused a Statue of his to be erected in the heart of the City, and would needs oblige the Great Duke, to express his subjection, to smite the ground with his head, before that Statue, as often as he paid Tribute
About Crimean Tatars
Keep in mind
History retold from older books a century after the event; the khan's name is garbled and the statue detail is not confirmed.
The cathedral for Kazan and the blinded architect
Editorial contextSt Basil's Cathedral on Red Square was built to celebrate Ivan the Terrible's capture of Kazan, the Tatar capital, in 1552. Haxthausen compares it to a rainbow-coloured dragon and repeats the tale that Ivan had the architect blinded so he could never build anything finer. He clearly marks it as hearsay ('is said to').
Ivan Vasilievitch ordered it to be erected in 1554 by an Italian, to commemorate the conquest of Kazan. After it was completed, he is said to have asked the architect whether he would undertake to make a plan for a still more singular building ; and when the latter in his vanity answered in the affirmative, he ordered his eyes to be put out
About Ivan IV; the conquered Kazan Tatars
Keep in mind
Russian tradition names the builders as the Russian masters Barma and Postnik, not an Italian, and the blinding story is a legend with no contemporary evidence.
Moscow's mosque, rebuilt by a Tatar merchant
Editorial contextKohl visited Moscow's small mosque in the Tatar quarter. Its predecessor burned in the fire of 1812, and the poor congregation of about 120 Tatars could not rebuild until a wealthy Tatar paid for new walls. When Kohl saw it, it still had only a temporary roof and bare walls, and Russians had stolen one of its prized carpets.
The little building erected here to the honour of Allah … had a predecessor which in 1812 met with the same fate from the French fire, in which so many Russian churches shared. The flock were long unable to get together the necessary funds for a new temple, till about twelve years ago, when a wealthy Tartar erected the walls that are now standing.
About Tatars of Moscow (Sunni Muslims)
Continue in this sourceJ. G. Kohl's Russia, from St Petersburg to the Crimean Tatar villagesc. 1830 to 1849 · 14 passagesMoscow 'singed' by the Tartars twelve times
Editorial contextKohl says no European city except Constantinople had burned so often as Moscow, and that the Tartars alone had set it alight more than twelve times. He adds that about two-thirds of its 12,000 houses were still wooden, the rest built of soft local limestone and brick.
Constantinople excepted, there is, perhaps, no city in Europe that has been so often burnt to the ground. By the Tartars alone it was well singed more than twelve times.
About Mongol-Tatars and Crimean Tatars (historical raiders)
Keep in mind
A round, popular-history figure.
'Kremlin' as a Tartar word for fortress
Editorial contextIn his alphabetical glossary Strahlenberg claims that 'Kremlin' is a Tartar word meaning fortress, and that the Tatars call the Crimea 'Crimm' because of the ancient rampart and ditch at Perekop. He adds that western Tartars and Uzbeks call the Great Wall of China the 'white fortress'. This is his own word-guessing, but it shows how 'Tartar' origins were read into Russian names early on.
Cremmelin, or Crimmelin; the Name of the Czar's Palace, in the City of Muscow. This is a Tartarian Word, and signifies a Fortress, But not a Flint, as Kremm does in the Sclavonian Language. Thus the Precopensian Tartary is call'd, by the Tartars, Crimm or Cremm, on Account of a Rampart and a Mote, which was there in ancient Times,
About Tatars (his etymology)
Keep in mind
An etymology offered without evidence; it should not be taken as established.
800,000 captives and old men given to boys
Editorial contextAfter the 1521 raid the Crimean khan is said to have driven off more than 800,000 prisoners, selling many to the Turks at Kaffa. Herberstein repeats the lurid claim that old captives, worth little at market, were handed to Tartar youths for practice in killing. He flags the numbers himself ('scarcely be considered credible', 'they say').
But he took with him from Moscow so great a multitude of prisoners as would scarcely be considered credible ; they say that the number exceeded eight hundred thousand, part of whom he sold in Kaffa to the Turks, and part he slew.
About Crimean Tartars
Keep in mind
The figure is a rumour and far larger than is plausible; the slave trade through Kaffa itself is well documented.
A Tatar khan's statue in Moscow before which the Tsar must bow
Editorial contextStruys retells the Tatar raid that took Moscow and made the Grand Prince pay tribute. The elder of two Tatar brothers, 'Mendliguerits', had a statue of himself set up in Moscow before which the Tsar would have to prostrate himself whenever he sent the tribute. The story, told from older books, is about the 1521 raid of the Crimean khan Mehmed Giray and his brother Sahib Giray of Kazan.
Of the two Tartar chiefs, who were brothers, the elder, named Mendliguerits, before leaving Moscow, had a statue of himself set up there, before which the Emperor would be obliged to prostrate himself
Working translation
Original wording
Des deux Chefs Tartares qui étoient frères, l'aîné nommé Mendliguerits, avant que de quitter Moskou, s'y fit dresser une statuë devant laquelle l'Empereur seroit obligé de se prosterner
About Kazan and Crimean Tatars (the khan Mehmed Giray)
Keep in mind
Book history, not observation; the details, including the statue, come from older written accounts and cannot be checked here.
Walls rebuilt after the Tartar fire, a Kremlin by Italians
Editorial contextPossevino classifies Muscovite fortresses: some of stone and brick, some of earth banks woven with wicker and rammed hard, some of squared timbers filled with earth. Moscow's outer wall of the wattle and earth kind was put up after 'the Tartar fire', while the two stone citadels of Moscow were built for Ivan's father Vasily by a Milanese architect with Italian workmen. Here the Tartars burn, and Italians build.
Some are of stones and bricks, like the two that adjoin the city of Moscow ... Others are of earth banks woven with wicker and pressed hard: such is Smolensk, and the circuit of the walls of Moscow itself, raised after the Tartar fire. ... The two citadels of Moscow were ordered built by this prince's father Vasily, with a Milanese architect and Italian workmen.
Working translation
Original wording
Aliæ ex saxis, et lateribus, quales duæ sunt, quæ ciuitati Moscuæ hærent … Aliæ aggeribus vimine contextis, & ad duritiem pressis: quale Smolencium est, ipsiusq; Moscuæ mœnium ambitus, post Tartaricum incendium excitatus. … Arces autem Moscuæ duas Principis huius parens Basilius ædificari iussit, Mediolanense architecto, Italis operarijs.
About Muscovites (the Tartars appear as destroyers)
Keep in mind
The attribution of the Kremlin works to Italian masters is broadly right, though Possevino compresses the history (much was done under Ivan III as well as Vasily III).
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR garbled); long s normalized.
Nogai horses for sale below Simonov
Editorial contextNogai envoys arrived with letters from their mirzas asking for friendship. The grand prince lodged them at the 'Nogai Court' in Moscow and let them sell their horses on the meadow below the Simonov monastery. That year the horses were cheap: early snow had left no grazing, and many barely arrived alive or died. Steppe horse herds for Moscow's cavalry were the Nogais' great export.
And the grand prince favoured them, and wishes to keep his friendship with them, and ordered them lodged at the Nogai Court, and to trade their horses on the meadow below Simonov. And the horses were cheap, they barely arrived alive, and many others died, because snow fell early, for lack of fodder.
Working translation
Original wording
И князь великій пожаловалъ ихъ, дружбу свою хочетъ къ нимъ дръжати, и велѣлъ ихъ поставити на Нагайскомъ дворѣ, а съ коньми торговати подъ Симановымъ на лугу. И быша лошади дешевы, едва и живы пришли, а иныхъ много помроша, понеже снѣгъ палъ рано, безъкорміа ради.
About Nogai envoys and horse traders of Koshum-mirza
Continue in this sourceThe Nikon Chronicle: Moscow's grand history of the Horde and the khanates852 to 1558 · 11 passagesCrimeans, Nogais and 'the whole nation of the Tartarians'
Editorial contextAn English visitor to Ivan IV's court lists the Tsar's usual enemies: Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Livonia, and three kinds of Tatars. He separates the Crimeans and the Nogais from 'the whole nation of the Tartarians' and praises them all as tough fighters.
His enemies, with whom he hath warres for the most, are these : Litto, Poland, Sweden, Denmarke, Liefland, the Crimmes, Nagaians, and the whole nation of the Tartarians, which are a stoute and a hardie people as any vnder the Sunne.
About Crimean Tatars, Nogais and other Tatars
Keep in mind
Authorship attribution to Robert Best is the editors' (following Hamel).
Three hundred Tartars drowned in a forced baptism
Editorial contextFletcher reports that Russians offered captured Tartars their lives if they accepted baptism, but few agreed. The year after the 1571 fire, a captured Tartar noble and 300 of his men refused, and were 'baptized' by being knocked on the head and thrust into the river.
The yere after Mosko was fired by the Chrim Tartar, there was taken a Dwoymorsey, one of the chiefe in that exploit, with 300 Tartars more : who had all their lives offered them, if they would be baptized after the Russe manner. Which they refused all to doo … they were all baptized after a violent manner, being thrust downe with a knock on the head into the water.
About Crimean Tartar prisoners
Continue in this sourceFletcher's Russe Common Wealth and Horsey's Travels1566 to 1599 · 13 passagesMoscow in panic as the Crimean khan approaches
Editorial contextIn 1521 the Crimean khan Mehmed Giray and his brother, the khan of Kazan, raided up to Moscow. Herberstein, drawing on witnesses including German gunners, describes the Grand Duke fleeing (reportedly hiding under a haystack) and crowds crushing each other at the fortress gates. The city bought off the khan with gifts, above all mead, and a written promise of tribute.
On the 29th of July the Tartars made a farther advance, and devastated the country with fire in all directions ; and such was the terror which they inspired amongst the people of Moscow, that they had little confidence in their security even in the city and the fortress.
About Crimean Tartars under Mehmed Giray; Kazan Tartars
Continue in this sourceHerberstein's Notes upon Russia (Muscovy and its Tartar neighbours)1517 to 1526 · 15 passagesMoscow as a 'Tartar Rome'
Editorial contextKohl opens his chapter on Moscow's churches with Madame de Staël's famous exclamation on first seeing the city: 'Voilà Rome Tatare'. It shows how Western Europeans used 'Tartar' as shorthand for Moscow's un-European look.
'Voilà Rome Tatare' means 'There is a Tartar Rome'.
Working translation
Original wording
Madame de Staël, when she beheld Moscow … turned to her companions and exclaimed, “Voilà Rome Tatare.” The Russians themselves like to compare their city to that world subduer
About Tartars as a byword for the Asiatic side of Russia
Keep in mind
An anecdote repeated from De Staël's memoir, not Kohl's observation.
Where the Chuvash smear fat on the shrine
Editorial contextCaptain Woodroofe's journal calls the Chuvash 'the poorest and most wretched of all mortals', tributary to Russia and heavily taxed. He could not learn their beliefs, but saw that they stick part of their food over doors and windows, and that when they kill an animal the priest eats some of the fat, greases himself and smears their place of worship with it. He adds that the neighbouring Tartars eat horse meat.
We could not discover what notions the chuvashins have of religion, but observed when they dress victuals, they stick part of it over their doors and windows; and when they kill an animal, … their priest takes out the fat, and after eating some of it and greasing himself, he smears over their place of worship,
About Chuvash ('Chuvashin Tartars')
Continue in this sourceJonas Hanway's history of British trade over the Caspian1743 to 1745 · 17 passages