Prester John between Gog and Magog on the old sea charts
Editorial contextRamusio notes that Marco Polo called the northern lord Uncan 'Prester John' and put his seat in two regions, Og and Magog. He adds that on all the sea charts made 200 and 300 years earlier, Prester John is placed in the north above India, between the Ganges and the Indus, with no mention of an Ethiopian Prester John; on the next page he calls these 'the provinces of Gog and Magog, that is, of the Tartars'.
where Messer Marco Polo says that in the north there was a great lord called Uncan, whose name some take to mean Prester John in our language, and that his principal seat was in two regions, Og and Magog: it should be known that on all those sea charts one sees today, made 200 and 300 years ago, this Prester John is placed in the north and above India
Working translation
Original wording
oue dice Messer Marco Polo che sotto la Tramontana v'era vn gran signore detto VmCan che vogliono alcuni questo nome dire Preti Ianni, nella nostra lingua: & che la sua principale sedia era in due regioni, Og & Magog, è da sapere, che in tutte quelle carte da nauigare che si vegghono hoggidi fatte già 200 & 300. anni, v'è posto questo Prete Ianni sotto la Tramontana & sopra l'India
About Tartars identified with Gog and Magog; 'Uncan' as Prester John
Keep in mind
Ramusio is reporting legend and old maps, not asserting the facts himself; useful for the maps team.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR partly garbled); long s and ligatures normalized.
Gog and Magog in Tartar speech
Editorial contextStrahlenberg says the Tobolsk Tartars told him they call peoples on this side of the mountains 'Ma-Tschudi' and those beyond 'Ja-gougi and Ma-gougi', and he concludes that these words are the same as the biblical Gog and Magog. Elsewhere he suggests that Gog was the Tartars' legendary ancestor Oghuz Khan. It is a learned attempt to find the Bible's northern nations among the Tartars.
The same Tartars have also told me, that they use, in the like Manner, the Name Ma-Tschudi, … And when they, at the same Time, would denote the Heathen roving Scythian Nations, who inhabited the other Side of that Mountain, they call them Gaed-Tschudi, Ma-schudi or Ja-gougi and Ma-gougi; And these Words then signify the very same as Gog and Magog,
About Tartars of Tobolsk (his informants)
Keep in mind
The informants' words are filtered through his own etymologies, which are speculative.
'We are no other than a Colony of Tatars'
Editorial contextThe anonymous English translator argues that Europeans should despise the Tatars less because Europeans descend from them: the Cimbrians, Celts, Gauls, Goths, Huns, Vandals and Franks were all 'swarms from the same hive' out of Tatary. On the next page he even toys with the idea that the Saxons were akin to the Uzbeks. This is 18th-century speculation about 'Scythian' origins, using 'Tatar' for any northern Asian people.
Our Contempt for the Tatars would still lessen perhaps, did we consider how nearly we stand related to them: that our Ancestors came originally from the North of Asia, and that our Customs, Laws, and way of Living were formerly the same with theirs: In short, that we are no other than a Colony of Tatars.
About Europeans and 'Tatars' in the translator's broad sense
Keep in mind
The translator's own theory, offered without evidence; nothing in Abu'l Ghazi's text says this.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR for this volume is unreadable); long s normalized.
Tartar towns of wood and sun-dried brick
Editorial contextExplaining why old place names in Marco Polo and Rubruck cannot be found on the ground, Strahlenberg says that most Tartar peoples roamed, their khans never stayed long in one place, and their towns were built of wood or sun-dried brick. Centuries of wars, he says, destroyed them so thoroughly that not even ruins remain. This is his general judgement, not a report of a particular site.
…because most of the Tartarian Nations roving about, and the Residences of their Chams being never fix'd long in one Place, their Cities and Towns being also compos'd of Houses or Huts, built either of Wood or Bricks, slightly dry'd in the Sun, it is, therefore, no Wonder that … their Cities and Towns have been so destroy'd, that even the Ruins of them are no more to be seen.
About nomadic 'Tartarian nations' in general
Continue in this sourceStrahlenberg's description of Russia, Siberia and 'Great Tartary'1709 to 1729 · 18 passages
