How kumiss is made
Editorial contextRubruck gives a step-by-step account of kumiss, fermented mare's milk: foals tied to a rope, mares milked, the milk churned in a skin with a club until it bubbles like new wine and turns pungent. He found it tasted of almond milk and 'intoxicates weak heads'. On the next page he says Batu received the milk of three thousand mares every day.
When they have got together a great quantity of milk, which is as sweet as cow's as long as it is fresh, they pour it into a big skin or bottle, and they set to churning it with a stick prepared for that purpose
About Tartars (Mongols of the Golden Horde)
Continue in this sourceFriar William's journey to the Mongol court, with Carpini and Benedict the Pole1245 to 1255 · 21 passagesHouses built on wheels and covered in white felt
Editorial contextRubruck opens his description of the Tartars with their homes. The sleeping-houses sit on wheels, are made of interlaced wooden laths that rise to a smoke-hole like a chimney, and are covered with white felt smeared with lime, white earth or powdered bone so that they gleam. He stresses that the Tartars have no fixed dwelling and divide the steppe from the Danube eastward into seasonal pastures.
The houses in which they sleep are set on wheels … [made of] interlaced pieces of wood, and they come together at the top in an opening like a chimney, and they cover this with white felt, which they coat with lime or earth
Working translation
Original wording
Les maisons où ils habitent pour dormir sont fondées sur des rouës … des pieces de bois entrelassées, & abboutissent en haut en vne ouuerture comme vne cheminée, & couurent cela de feutre blanc, qu'ils enduisent de chaulx ou terre
About Tartars (Mongols of the Golden Horde)
Keep in mind
A margin note has run into the line after 'rouës'; the omitted words are garbled.
Mounds, statues and brick towers over the dead
Editorial contextCrossing the steppe, Rubruck saw the tombs of the Comans: great mounds (kurgans) topped by a stone statue holding a cup, small pointed 'pyramids', tiled towers and stone houses, though there was no stone nearby. Just before, he notes that the burial places of Mongol nobles of Genghis's family were kept secret and guarded. Rockhill's note quotes Carpini on Mongol nobles buried with a horse and a mare.
raise a great tumulus over the dead, and set up a statue to him, its face to the east, and holding a cup in its hand at the height of the navel. They make also pyramids to the rich, that is to say, little pointed structures, and in some places I saw great tiled covered towers, and in others stone houses, though there were no stones thereabout.
About Comans (Cumans or Kipchaks), subjects of the Tartars
Keep in mind
These tombs are Cuman, not Mongol; the subject 'The Comans' is on the previous page.
Drinking their horses' blood, prizing mare's milk
Editorial contextOn long rides, Herberstein was told, Tartars open a vein in their horse and drink the blood, believing it does the animal good. They steer by the Pole Star, which they call the 'iron nail'. On the same page he describes their love of mare's milk and how chiefs share out the entrails of a slaughtered animal and lick the knife clean.
Moreover, if during a long ride they are troubled with hunger or thirst, it is a practice to lance the veins of the horses on which they sit, and relieve their craving by drawing their blood ; and they think that this is an advantage to the animals. As they nearly all wander on uncertain tracks, they are accustomed to direct their course by the observation of the stars
About Steppe Tartars (Crimean, Nogai)
Keep in mind
Reported from Russian and Lithuanian informants, not seen by Herberstein.
How kumiss is made, and what it tastes like
Editorial contextRubruck explains the Mongols' summer drink, fermented mare's milk. Foals are tethered on a line so the mares let themselves be milked; the milk is churned in a skin with a club until it bubbles like new wine and turns sour. He found it prickled the tongue, left a taste of almonds and could make a weak head drunk; a clear black kind, cara-cosmos, was kept for the great.
they pour it into a skin or other vessel, where they beat and stir it very well … it begins to bubble like new wine, then to turn sour like leaven … it stings the tongue like rough wine when you drink it. When you have finished drinking, it leaves a taste of almonds on the tongue and greatly cheers the heart
Working translation
Original wording
ils le versent dans vn outre, ou autre vaisseau, là où ils le battent & remuent tres-bien … cela commence à boüillir comme du vin nouueau, puis à s'aigrir, comme du leuain … cela pique la langue comme feroit du vin raspé quand on le boit. Lors que l'on a acheué de boire, cela laisse sur la langue vn goust d'amande, & resioüit grandement le cœur
About Tartars (Mongols)
Continue in this sourceBergeron's 1634 French collection of the friars' journeys into Tartaryc. 1245 to 1307 · 17 passagesCuman mounds, stone statues and brick towers
Editorial contextAmong the burial customs he saw on the steppe, Rubruck notes that the Cumans raised a great mound over the dead and set up a statue facing east holding a cup at the navel. For the rich they built small pointed 'pyramids', and in places he saw tall towers of baked brick and even stone houses, though no stone was found there. He also saw a newly dead man with the hides of sixteen horses hung on tall poles around him.
The Cumans raise a great mound over the dead man and set up a statue to him, its face turned to the east, holding a cup in its hand in front of the navel. For the rich they also build pyramids, that is, small pointed houses, and in some places I saw great towers of baked tiles, in others stone houses, although stones are not found there. I saw one man newly dead for whom they had hung the hides of sixteen horses, four towards each quarter of the world, between tall poles
Working translation
Original wording
Comani faciunt magnum tumulum super defunctum, et erigunt ei statuam versa facie ad orientem, tenentem ciphum in manu sua ante umbilicum. Fabricant etiam divitibus piramides, id est domunculas acutas, et alicubi vidi magnas turres de tegulis coctis, alicubi lapideas domos, quamvis lapides non inveniuntur ibi. Vidi quemdam noviter defunctum, cui suspenderant pelles .xvj. equorum, ad quodlibet latus mundi quatuor, inter perticas altas
About Cumans (Kipchaks), subjects of the Mongols
Keep in mind
On the same page Rubruck says the burial places of Mongol nobles were kept secret and guarded.
Women whose headdresses look like helmets and lances
Editorial contextMarried Mongol women wore the bocca (bogtak), a tall bark frame covered with silk and topped with a tuft of quills and peacock feathers. Rubruck says a group of ladies riding in the distance looked like soldiers in helmets with lances raised, and that women rode astride like men. He adds, less kindly, that the fattest women with the smallest noses were thought the most beautiful.
and one sees them from afar, they look like soldiers, helmets on head and lances erect. For this bocca looks like a helmet, and the tuft above it is like a lance. And all the women sit their horses astraddle like men.
About Tartar (Mongol) married women
Continue in this sourceFriar William's journey to the Mongol court, with Carpini and Benedict the Pole1245 to 1255 · 21 passagesNomads who sowed and reaped
Editorial contextBarbaro answers the obvious question of where so many people got their grain. Each February the horde announced where sowing would happen; volunteers went with seed, carts and families, ploughed and sowed, and later returned to harvest while the khan's camp circled nearby. He says the yields were huge.
About the mooneth of Februarie they make proclamacons throughout the Lordo, that he which woll sowe shall prepare his things necessarie against the mooneth of Marche, to sowe in such a place. … And there do they eare, sowe, and tarie, till they haue furnisshed that they came for, which doon they retorne to their Lordo.
About Tatars of the Golden Horde
Continue in this sourceTwo Venetians among the Tatars: Barbaro at Tana and Contarini at Astrakhanc. 1436 to 1479 · 19 passagesA house thirty feet wide, pulled by twenty-two oxen
Editorial contextSome Mongol houses were never taken down but rode on huge carts. Rubruck measured one cart himself and counted the oxen. The axle was as thick as a ship's mast and a driver stood in the doorway of the house. On the next pages he describes felt-covered chests on carts and a rich man's camp of one or two hundred carts.
I myself once measured the width between the wheel-tracks of a cart xx feet, and when the house was on the cart it projected beyond the wheels on either side v feet at least. I have myself counted to one cart xxii oxen drawing one house, eleven abreast across the width of the cart, and the other eleven before them.
About Tartars (Mongols of the Golden Horde)
Keep in mind
Rockhill thinks these carts were exceptionally large ones.
'Unknown peoples': who are these Tatars?
Editorial contextThe first Suzdal notice of the Tatars admits that nobody knows who they are, where they came from, what language they speak or what faith they hold. People called them Tatars, Taumens or Pechenegs, while bookish men tied them to a prophecy of Methodius of Patara. The chronicler adds that he writes them down only 'for the memory of the disaster of the Rus princes' at the Kalka.
there appeared peoples whom no one clearly knows: who they are and whence they came out, and what their language is, and of what tribe they are, and what their faith is; and they call them Tatars, and others say Taumens, and others Pechenegs, and others say that these are the ones of whom Methodius, bishop of Patara, bears witness
Working translation
Original wording
явишася языци, ихже никтоже добрѣ ясно не вѣсть, кто суть и отколѣ изидоша, и что языкъ ихъ, и которого племени суть, и что вѣра ихъ; и зовуть я Татары, а инии глаголють Таумены, а друзіи Печенѣзи, ини глаголють, яко се суть, о нихъ же Меѳодій Патомьскый епископъ свѣдѣтельствуеть
About Tatars (the Mongol army of Jebe and Subutai)
Keep in mind
The editors note that other chronicles read 'Taurmens' (Turkmens). The Methodius link is a book legend, not anything the Mongols said of themselves.
Kazakh horde, Great and Lesser Nogais: the peoples on the old map
Editorial contextThe preface lists what the old Great Map showed in the south and east: the 'nomad Kazakh horde', the camps of the Great Nogais, the towns of Bukhara and Urgench, the Volga to Astrakhan and the Don to Azov, and the fields between Azov and Astrakhan 'where the Lesser Nogais roam'. The steppe is named by its nomad peoples, not by a single 'Tartary'.
and the nomad Kazakh horde, and the nomad camps of the Great Nogais, and the Bukharan and Urgench towns, and the river Volga to Astrakhan, and the river Don to Azov, and between Azov and Astrakhan to the Khvalyn [Caspian] and to the Azov and Black Seas, the fields and rivers where the Lesser Nogais roam.
Working translation
Original wording
и кочевую Казацкую орду, и большихъ Нагаевъ кочевье, и Бухарскіе и Юргенскіе города, и рѣку Волгу до Астарахани, и рѣку Донъ до Азова, и межъ Азова и Астарахани до Хвалинскаго, и до Азовскаго, и до Чернаго моря, поля и рѣки, что кочують малые Нагаи.
About Kazakhs ('Kazatskaia orda'), Great Nogai, Lesser Nogai; Bukhara and Urgench
A note on this quote
The scan is too rough to double-check this quote by machine. Compare it with the page.
A riddle: 'like a white tent, with no door'
Editorial contextThe Codex preserves Cuman riddles, the oldest recorded Turkic riddles. This one runs: 'Like a white tent, it has no mouth. That is the egg.' Kuun reads 'akkoy' as 'ak ev', literally 'white house', and renders it 'the tent of a new bride'. The riddle draws on the everyday sight of a tent, the home of the people who told it.
Like a white tent (ak ev), it has no mouth. That is the egg.
Working translation
Original wording
[6,] akkoy mania avzu joh. ol jumurtka.
About Cumans (Qipchaqs)
Keep in mind
Kuun's footnote on the page explains 'akkoy' as 'ak ev', 'tentorium novae nuptae' (the tent of a new bride); the gloss depends on his reading.
Checked against the page image.
Horse meat cooked under the saddle
Editorial contextChevalier repeats the famous story that Tartars on the march softened horse meat by riding on it under the saddle and ate it with no sauce but the horse's sweat. He adds that they chose worn-out, sick or lame horses for this, not the best ones. At home they ate millet porridge and boiled horse meat.
when they goe to war and are upon their March, they make it ready, or rather mortify, or just heat it, under their Saddles, and eat it afterwards in this condition without any other sauce then the froth upon the Flesh, made by the sweating of the Horse
About Crimean Tatars on campaign
Keep in mind
The saddle-meat story goes back to medieval writers and is a stock European image of steppe warriors; Chevalier does not say he saw it.
Were the Tatars Herodotus's Scythians?
Editorial contextIn an appendix Schlözer prints what the Athenian historian Laonikos Chalkokondyles, writing in the later 1400s, said about the north. Like other learned Byzantines he gave new peoples old classical names and called the Tatars Scythians. Schlözer points out the result: taking them for Herodotus's Scythians of Moldavia, Chalkokondyles had them migrate from Europe into Asia instead of the other way round. He adds that the Polish writer Miechowita mocked this error and distinguished four kinds of Tatars: Chagatai east of the Caspian, the Kipchak Horde between the Don and the Yaik, the Crimeans, and the Lithuanian Tatars.
The good Chalkokondyles really seems to take the Tatars of his time, who lived from the Danube to the Altai under several Mongol rulers, for the Scythians of Herodotus in Moldavia: consequently they must of course have migrated from Europe to Asia, not the other way round!
Working translation
Original wording
Der gute Chalkokandyles scheint wirklich die Tataren seiner Zeit, die von der Donau an bis zum Altaj hin unter mehreren mogolischen Beherrschern lebten, für die Scythen des Herodots in der Moldau zu halten: folglich mußten sie freilich aus Europa nach Asien, nicht umgekehrt, gewandert seyn!
About Tatars of the Golden Horde and its successors
Continue in this sourceSchlözer's history of Lithuania (Northern History, part two)1771 · 4 passagesA plain without cities where the sun rises before a chop is cooked
Editorial contextFar to the north-west lies 'K'o-fu-ch'a', which Bretschneider identifies with the Kipchak steppe north of the Caspian. Yelü Chucai heard that it was endless plain, its people had no cities or towns, bred cattle and horses and made a drink from honey, and that summer nights were so short the sun rose again before a mutton chop could be cooked. Bretschneider shows the short-night detail was copied from a Tang-era account of a Siberian people.
To the north-west of Yin-du (Hindustan) is the realm of K'o fu-ch'a… The people there have no cities or towns. They breed much cattle and horses. They make a fermented beverage from honey. In that country the days (in summer) are long and the nights short. In little more than the time necessary to cook a mutton chop, the sun rises again.
About Kipchaks (the steppe later ruled by the Golden Horde)
Keep in mind
Hearsay, partly borrowed from the Tang history; the Mongols did not conquer the Kipchak steppe until 1236.
Cuman grave mounds, statues and brick towers on the steppe
Editorial contextCrossing the steppe, Rubruck describes the tombs of the Cumans, the Turkic people the Mongols had conquered there. They raised a mound over the dead with a statue facing east holding a cup; for the rich they built little pointed houses, and he saw great brick towers and stone houses in a land without stone. The same page notes that nobody knew where Chinggis Khan was buried.
As for the Cumans, they are accustomed to raise a mound over the grave of the dead man and set up a statue for him facing east … For the rich and great they put up pyramids, or little pointed houses, and in some places I saw great towers of brick, and in others houses built of stone, although no stone is found in those parts.
Working translation
Original wording
Pour les Comans, ils ont coustume d'esleuer vne motte ou tertre sur la sepulture du mort, & luy dressent vne statuë la face tournée à l'Orient … Aux riches & Grands ils dressent des pyramides, ou petites maisons pointuës, & ay veu en des endroits de grandes tours de brique, & en d'autres des maisons basties de pierres; encores qu'en ces quartiers là on n'y trouue point de pierres.
About Cumans (Qipchaqs), under Mongol rule
Keep in mind
These are Cuman (Qipchaq) monuments, not Mongol ones; Rubruck does not say who built the brick towers.
Nine animals for one stolen
Editorial contextCrossing the Kipchak steppe by hired cart (araba), Ibn Battuta noticed huge herds grazing with no herdsmen. He explains it by the harsh law on theft: a thief had to return the animal with nine more, and if he could not, his children were taken, or he himself killed. He also notes that the treeless steppe folk burned dung for fuel.
he is compelled to return it with nine others of equal value. But, if this is not in his power, his children are taken. If, however, he have no children, he is himself slaughtered just like a sheep.
About Golden Horde (Kipchak steppe)
Keep in mind
The sentence begins on the previous page (n102): a man 'convicted of having stolen a beast'. The law is what he was told, not a case he saw.
First taste of kumiss, and a moving city of carts
Editorial contextRubruck says that in two months between Soldaia and Sartaq's camp they never slept under a roof and saw no village, nor any trace of a building, except great numbers of Cuman tombs. One evening his guide gave him kumiss; he broke into a sweat from horror and novelty, but found it very tasty. Next morning the carts of the commander Scatatai, loaded with houses, looked to him like a great city coming towards him.
That evening the lad who was guiding us gave us kumiss to drink, and at the first draught I sweated all over from horror and novelty, for I had never drunk it before. Yet it seemed to me very tasty, as indeed it is. In the morning we met Scatatai's carts loaded with houses, and it seemed to me that a great city was coming to meet me.
Working translation
Original wording
Illo sero dedit nobis garcio, qui ducebat nos, bibere cosmos, ad cujus haustum totus sudavi propter horrorem et novitatem, quia nunquam biberam de eo. Valde tamen sapidum videbatur michi, sicut vere est. Mane ergo obviavimus bigis Scatatay honustis domibus, et videbatur michi quod obviaret michi civitas magna.
About Tartars (Mongols of the Golden Horde)
Continue in this sourceCarpini and Rubruck in the original Latinc. 1245 to 1329 · 19 passagesFelt houses thirty feet wide, pulled by 22 oxen
Editorial contextRubruck describes the Mongol felt houses built on a frame of rods and carried whole on carts. He measured one cart's wheel track at 20 feet, with the house overhanging by at least 5 feet each side, and counted 22 oxen pulling one house, in two rows of eleven, with an axle as big as a ship's mast and a driver standing in the doorway.
And they make these houses so large that they are sometimes thirty feet across. I once measured the width between the wheel tracks of one cart at 20 feet, and when the house was on the cart it overhung the wheels on each side by at least 5 feet. I counted 22 oxen drawing one house on one cart, eleven in a row across the width of the cart and another eleven in front of them.
Working translation
Original wording
Et faciunt tales domus ita magnas quod habent aliquando triginta pedes in latitudine. Ego enim mensuravi semel latitudinem inter vestigia rotarum unius bige .xx. pedum, et quando domus erat super bigam excedebat extra rotas in utroque latere .v. pedibus ad minus. Ego numeravi in una biga .xxij. boves trahentes unam domum, undecim in uno ordine secundum latitudinem bige, et alios .xj. ante illos.
About Tartars (Mongols of the Golden Horde)
Continue in this sourceCarpini and Rubruck in the original Latinc. 1245 to 1329 · 19 passagesTwenty-two oxen to pull one house
Editorial contextRubruck took a tape to a Mongol wagon-house. He measured one at twenty feet between the wheels, with the house overhanging them, and counted twenty-two oxen, eleven abreast on each side, hauling it, with an axle as thick as a ship's mast. On the same page he says the felt roof was painted and the door-felt embroidered with vines, trees, birds and beasts.
They have some of these houses so large that they are a good thirty feet long: for I once took the trouble to measure one that was a good twenty feet from one wheel to the other, and when the house was set on it, it overhung the wheels. … And I counted up to twenty-two oxen drawing one of these houses, eleven on one side and eleven on the other.
Working translation
Original wording
Ils ont de ces maisons-là de telle grandeur, qu'elles ont bien trente pieds de long : car i'ay pris la peine quelquefois d'en mesurer vne qui auoit bien vingt pieds d'vne rouë à l'autre : & quand ceste maison estoit posée dessus, elle passoit au delà des rouës. … & ay conté iusqu'à vingt-deux bœufs pour traisner vne de ces maisons, vnze d'vn costé, & vnze de l'autre.
About Tartars (Mongols of the Golden Horde)
Continue in this sourceBergeron's 1634 French collection of the friars' journeys into Tartaryc. 1245 to 1307 · 17 passages'May you stay in one place like a Christian'
Editorial contextHerberstein reports that the roving Tartars thought staying put was a misfortune, and that their worst curse on a child was to wish it a fixed home like a Christian's. He is careful to add that Tartars who live in towns and cities live differently, so he is describing the herders, not all Tartars.
They never stay for any length of time in one spot, for they consider it a great calamity to be obliged to remain long in the same place ; hence, when they are angry with their children, and wish to utter a heavy imprecation against them, they are accustomed to say, " may you abide in one place continually like a Christian, and inhale your own stink !"
About Nomadic Tartars (contrasted with town dwellers)
Keep in mind
A saying reported secondhand; the next lines note that Tartars in towns and cities live otherwise.
No towns, only houses on wheels
Editorial contextFletcher says the Tartars build no towns or standing buildings. They live in wheeled 'walking houses' which they park in rows to form streets and the shape of a town, and even the khan's capital is a moving 'town of wood'. They reportedly think fixed buildings unhealthy.
Townes they plant none, nor other standing buildings, but have walking houses, which the Latines call veii, built upon wheeles like a shepheards cottage. … And when they come to their stage or standing place, they plant their cart houses very orderly in a ranke ; and so make the forme of streetes and of a large towne.
About Crimean and Nogai Tartars (Fletcher's general 'Tartar')
Keep in mind
This echoes medieval accounts of the 13th-century Mongols; the Crimean khans of Fletcher's day actually ruled from the town of Bakhchysarai, which Fletcher never visited.
A rich Tartar's camp looks like a big town
Editorial contextThe Mongol camp could look like a settlement. Each wife of a great lord had her own large house with a train of smaller wagon-houses (Rubruck says Batu's wives each had more than 200), and the wives' courts were pitched in a row from west to east, a stone's throw apart. The result, he says, resembles a large town, though few men live in it.
the first wife has her little court set up to the west, then all the others do the same, each in her rank, so that the last is at the east, and the space between them is about a stone's throw: so that the court of one of these rich Tartars looks like a big town, although there will be very few men in it.
Working translation
Original wording
la premiere des femmes fait poser sa petite court vers l'Occident, puis toutes les autres en font de mesme chacune en son rang: si bien que la derniere se trouue à l'Orient, & l'espace d'entr'elles est enuiron vn iet de pierre: de sorte que la court d'vn de ces riches Tartares semble vn gros bourg, où il y aura toutesfois bien peu d'hommes.
About Tartars (Mongols; Batu's household)
Continue in this sourceBergeron's 1634 French collection of the friars' journeys into Tartaryc. 1245 to 1307 · 17 passagesA round frame of sticks covered with white felt
Editorial contextRubruck describes the Mongol dwelling (the yurt or ger): a circular frame of interlaced sticks meeting in a hoop at the top with a chimney collar, covered in felt. The felt is whitened with chalk, clay or bone powder and embroidered with vines, trees, birds and beasts. Rockhill's note adds Carpini's description of the same round felt tents.
converging into a little round hoop on the top, from which projects above a collar as a chimney, and this (framework) they cover over with white felt. Frequently they coat the felt with chalk, or white clay, or powdered bone, to make it appear whiter, and sometimes also (they make the felt) black.
About Tartars (Mongols of the Golden Horde)
Continue in this sourceFriar William's journey to the Mongol court, with Carpini and Benedict the Pole1245 to 1255 · 21 passagesThe road to Cathay is safe, day and night
Editorial contextAccording to merchants who had used it, the road from Tana to Cathay was perfectly safe by day and by night. The one risk was death: if a merchant died on the way, the lord of the land took everything he carried, unless a brother or close companion was there to claim it. On the same page Pegolotti advises hiring an interpreter and two servants who speak Cuman, the Turkic language of the steppe, and taking flour and salt fish for the journey, since meat is plentiful everywhere.
The road from Tana to Cathay is perfectly safe, by day and by night, according to what the merchants say who have used it; except that if a merchant, going or coming, should die on the road, everything would belong to the lord of the country where he died, and the lord's officials would take it all
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Original wording
Il cammino d'andare dalla Tana al Gattajo è sicurissimo e di dì, e di notte secondo che si conta per gli mercatanti, che l'hanno usato: salvo se il mercatante, che va, o che viene, morisse in cammino, ogni cosa sarebbe del Signore del paese, ove morisse il mercatante, e tutto prenderebbono gli uficiali del Signore
About Merchants on the Mongol roads; officials of the Tartar lords
Keep in mind
Reported from merchants' experience; Pegolotti himself is not known to have made the journey.
The scan is too rough to double-check this quote by machine. Compare it with the page.
Why 'Golden Horde': the khan's gilded tent
Editorial contextOn Abu'l-Fida's remark that the horde of the Tartar prince of Berke's country comes as far as Ukek, Reinaud explains that horde (Turkish ordu) means tent: the Chinggisid khans moved with the seasons and wherever they pitched their tents was called the horde. He suggests the Russians called the dynasty the Golden Horde because the khan's tent stood on wooden posts plated with gold, citing Ibn Battuta.
The word horde, in Arabic ordu, belongs to the Turkish language and means tent. The Tartar princes of the race of Chinggis Khan who ruled the Qipchaq steppe used to change their residence with the seasons, and the place where they pitched their tents was called the horde … probably because the tent the khan occupied rested on wooden posts covered with plates of gold
Working translation
Original wording
Le mot horde, en arabe ordou, appartient à la langue turke et signifie tente. Les princes tartares de la race de Gengiskhan, qui régnèrent sur le Capichac, étaient dans l'usage de changer de demeure, suivant la saison, et le lieu où ils dressaient leurs tentes portait le nom de horde … probablement parce que la tente qu'occupait le khan était appuyée sur des pieux de bois recouverts de lames d'or
About Mongol khans of the Qipchaq steppe (Golden Horde)
Keep in mind
An editor's explanation drawing on Rubruck, Ibn Battuta and Hammer-Purgstall, not Abu'l-Fida's own words.
Russian treasure hunters in 'Tartarian tombs'
Editorial contextIn a long footnote on tomb treasures, Clarke suggests that Turkish beliefs about gold hidden in ancient ruins may come from real finds in tombs. He adds that the Russians had found 'immense treasure' in 'Tartarian tombs', referring readers to his earlier book on the Tomb of Alexander (1805). The graves he means are the steppe kurgans, not necessarily Tatar at all.
The immense treasure found by the Russians in Tartarian tombs has been alluded to by the author, upon a former occasion.
About (ancient steppe burials)
Keep in mind
'Tartarian tombs' is a loose label for any ancient burial mound on the steppe; the footnote does not say who was buried in them.
The end-of-time peoples of Pseudo-Methodius
Editorial contextStraight after naming the Tatars, the chronicler quotes the prophecy he thinks explains them: peoples driven into the desert by Gideon would come out at the end of time and conquer everything from the east to the Euphrates and from the Tigris to the Black Sea, except Ethiopia. He hedges at once: 'God alone knows who they are.' This is the same book legend that western writers linked to Gog and Magog.
for thus Methodius said: that toward the end of time those whom Gideon drove out will appear, and they will capture all the land from the east to the Euphrates, and from the Tigris to the Pontic Sea, except Ethiopia.
Working translation
Original wording
тако бо Меѳодій рече: яко къ скончанью временъ явитися тѣмъ, яже загна Гедеонъ, и поплѣнять всю землю отъ встока до Ефранта и отъ Тигръ до Понетьскаго моря, кромѣ Еѳіопья.
About Tatars (Mongols), read as an apocalyptic nation
Keep in mind
A prophecy the chronicler read in a book, offered as one guess among several.
The 'valiant fool'
Editorial contextThe bravest Tatar warriors, Barbaro says, earned the title 'Tulubagator', which he translates 'valiant fool', an honour like 'the wise' or 'the handsome' in Italy. The editor explains it as tulu bahadur; bahadur is the root of the Russian bogatyr, hero. He follows it with the story of a Tatar merchant who chased forty Circassians alone.
The hablemen are verie valiaunt and hardie, in such wise that some of them for their excellencie are called Tulubagator, which signifieth a valiaunt foole : being a name of no lesse reputacon amongst them than the sernames of wisedome or beaultie with vs
About Tatars of the Golden Horde
Keep in mind
'Fool' is Barbaro's own gloss; the etymological note is the 1873 editor's.
Magyars: 'a race of the Turks' living in tents
Editorial contextBefore they moved to Hungary, the Magyars lived on the steppe north of the Black Sea. Ibn Rusta calls them a race of the Turks, says their chief rides out with twenty thousand horsemen, and that they have tents (qibab) and move with the grass and pasture. In winter they camped by the rivers and fished.
The Majghariyya are a race of the Turks; their chief rides out with about twenty thousand horsemen … They have domed tents and travel with the grass and the pasture, and their country is wide.
Working translation
Original wording
والمجغرية جنس من الترك ويركب رئيسهم فى مقدار عشرين الف فارس … ولهم قباب يسيرون مع الكلأ والخصب وبلادهم واسعة
About Magyars (Hungarians), called Turks
Keep in mind
'Turks' here is a broad label for steppe horsemen; the Magyars spoke a Finno-Ugric language.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR of the Arabic is garbled); vowel marks omitted.
The Tartars of the West and their kings
Editorial contextPolo calls the Golden Horde the 'Tartars of the Ponent' (of the West). Their first king, 'Sain', conquered Russia, the Cumans, Alans, Circassians, Goths of Crimea and Khazaria. He lists the later khans down to Toqta, who reigned in Polo's time. Yule's note points out that 'Sain' (the Good) was really Batu's own surname, so Polo turned one khan into two.
The first lord of the Tartars of the Ponent was Sain, a very great and puissant king, who conquered Rosia and Comania, Alania, Lac, Menjar, Zic, Gothia, and Gazaria ; all these provinces were conquered by King Sain.
About 'Tartars of the Ponent' (the Golden Horde)
Continue in this sourceThe Book of Ser Marco Polo (Yule's edition)c. 1271 to 1295 · 14 passagesJustice on the spot
Editorial contextIn the camp, Barbaro says, quarrels were settled without violence or paperwork: the parties walked off together and asked the first respectable man they met to judge, and his verdict was accepted, with bystanders as witnesses. He also describes petitioners kneeling repeatedly as they approached the lord's pavilion.
Whan a difference groweth betwene partie and partie, and wordes multiplied (not aftre the maner of our quarters, for these do vse no violence), thei both or moo (if they be moo) arise and go what waie they thinke good : and to the first man of any estimacon that they meete they saie : Master, do vs right, for we here are in controversie
About Tatars of the Golden Horde
Continue in this sourceTwo Venetians among the Tatars: Barbaro at Tana and Contarini at Astrakhanc. 1436 to 1479 · 19 passagesKhan Uzbek turns Muslim, with an army counted in tens
Editorial contextSanudo warns the Pope that the Sultan of Egypt, with gifts and treaties, had drawn 'the Emperor of the Tartars named Husbecho, who rules in Gazaria and other northern parts' to accept Islam. Trustworthy people told him Uzbek's cavalry was so vast that, his army being organised in tens, he could take just three of every ten and still field an almost unbelievable host.
the said Sultan so changed and drew the Emperor of the Tartars, named Uzbek, who rules in Gazaria and other northern parts, that he received the law of the faithless Muhammad ... For it is asserted by some trustworthy people that the said Uzbek has so numerous a multitude of horsemen that, taking three out of ten, since he has his army ordered by tens, from the threes alone he puts so large a force in the field that it seems almost incredible.
Working translation
Original wording
prædictus Soldanus Imperatorem Tartarorum, nomine Husbecho, qui in Gazaria, & aliis Septentrionis partibus dominatur, immutauit taliter & attraxit, vt legem receperit perfidi Mahumeti … Nam à nonnullis dignis fide asseritur quod dictus Husbecho, habet equitum multitudinem adeò numerosam, vt subtrahendo tres de decem, cum per decuriones habeat exercitum ordinatum, ex solis ternariis in campo ponit ita militiam copiosam, quod quasi incredibile videatur.
About Golden Horde under Uzbek Khan ('Husbecho')
Keep in mind
Uzbek's conversion was his own and not simply the Sultan's doing; the army figure is hearsay.
Transcribed from the page image; long s normalized.
Felt idols on the doors of their wagons
Editorial contextFletcher says that, unlike Turks, Tartars keep silk or cloth human figures fastened to the doors of their 'walking houses' as house guardians, made by religious women, and bow to a huge image of their khan when the army marches. He also calls them much given to witchcraft and omens.
Herein they differ from the Turkish religion, for that they have certeine idole puppets, made of silke or like stuffe, of the fashion of a man, which they fasten to the doore of their walking houses, to be as Janusses or keepers of their house. And these idols are made not by all, but by certeine religious women
About Crimean Tartars (as described by Fletcher)
Keep in mind
This closely follows 13th-century friars' descriptions of pagan Mongols; the Muslim Crimean Tatars of 1590 are unlikely to have kept such idols.
Kurgans built by others, dug up by everyone
Editorial contextDescribing the Crimean gold in the Hermitage, Kohl credits the southern burial mounds to the Greeks of Taurida and older peoples of the Caucasus and Siberia. The Tartars appear not as builders but as one of many later peoples, with Goths, Huns and Cossacks, who dug into the kurgans and melted down the treasure.
the countless graves of the Greeks of Taurus, and of the original inhabitants of the Caucasus and Siberia, have been objects of zealous research … the Tartars and the Cossacks of the present day, have plundered them, and melted down the treasures found therein. The greater part of the kurgans and mohilos of South Russia, have been long since burrowed like rabbit-warrens
About Tatars among later plunderers of ancient graves
Keep in mind
The list of plunderers ('Alarics' and a garbled name, probably Huns) is rhetorical.
Kurgans: graves or ash heaps from Tartar tents?
Editorial contextCrossing the steppe she notes many conical mounds (kurgans) like those on the plain of Troy. She reports a view that they are heaps of ash from Tartar camps and adds her own twist: that the Tartars buried their dead beneath the ash to make cheap monuments. On the next page she suggests this is the origin of mound burial across Europe.
Some people contend that they are not tombs, but hillocks formed by the ashes thrown out of the Tartar tents while encamped on the spot; which is a fact, and a very wise measure too, as, by making the graves of their companions the bases of these conic hillocks, they prevent putrid exhalations, while they raise a rude monument to departed friends without either trouble or expence
About Nogai Tatars; ancient steppe nomads
Keep in mind
A speculation presented as fact; most steppe kurgans are ancient burial mounds far older than the Tatars.
Islam arrives, idols linger
Editorial contextBarbaro says Islam had taken hold among the Tartars only about a hundred years before he wrote, in the time of the warlord Edigu. Before that, some were Muslims but each believed what he liked, and some worshipped idols of wood and rags carried on their carts. On another page a Tatar tells him there are still plenty of secret idolaters.
The faith of Macomett beganne to take place amonge the Tartariens about an C yeres past. In dede some of them were Macomettanes before, but everie man was at his libertie to believe what hym best liked ; so that some worshipped ymags of woode, and of ragges
About Tatars of the Golden Horde
Keep in mind
Historians usually date the Golden Horde's official conversion to Khan Uzbek (1313); Barbaro's timeline reflects what he was told.
No towns outside the peninsula
Editorial contextChevalier says Lesser Tartary stretched far beyond the Crimean peninsula across the steppe as far as the Don, but that outside the peninsula there were no towns or villages at all. The Tartars simply moved their camps to wherever the grazing was good; the next page says they used huts and 'travelling sheds' only in winter.
There are no Towns nor yet Villages, but in the Chersonesus, the rest being only incultivated Plains, yet of themselves very fruitful, and the Tartars encamp up and down in them as they find more or less forrage
About Crimean Tatars and Nogais
Continue in this sourceA French officer's account of the Cossacks and the Crimean Tartars17th century · 13 passagesKipchak: the boy born in a hollow tree
Editorial contextThe legendary conqueror Oghuz Khan's officer died in battle, and his pregnant widow gave birth inside a hollow tree. The khan raised the boy and named him Kipchak, said to mean 'hollow tree' in old Turkish. The Kipchaks gave their name to the Dasht-i Kipchak, the steppe that later became Batu's Golden Horde.
she could find no other Place to retire to when her Time was come but an old Hollow-Tree; into which having crept when her Labour came on, she there brought forth a Son. … and gave him the Name of Kipzak, which signifies in the antient Turkish, an Hollow-Tree.
About Kipchaks (ancestors of the Golden Horde's Turkic subjects)
Keep in mind
A folk etymology from the Oghuz legend.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR for this volume is unreadable); long s normalized.
The Qipchaq steppe: pasture, nomads and few towns
Editorial contextMustawfi's short entry on the Dasht-i Qipchaq, the Golden Horde's steppe, says it has rich pasture but few houses, towns or villages, and that most people are nomads. He then lists its towns, including 'Saray Batu', the Horde capital on the Volga. Le Strange's footnote places the ruins of Saray above Astrakhan.
Dasht-i-Qipchaq. This is of the Sixth Clime, its plains bear excellent pasturage, stretching to the north of the Caspian Sea, but there are here few houses or towns or villages. Most of the inhabitants are nomads of the plain. Its most celebrated town is Khazar … then there is Burtas, also Suvar, Muhtal, Saray Batu and Sarir
About Nomads of the Qipchaq steppe (Golden Horde lands)
Keep in mind
Compiled at second hand: several of the 'towns' (Khazar, Burtas, Suvar) are names from much older Arabic geographies.
'Godless Moabites, called Tatars'
Editorial contextThe Galician chronicler opens the Kalka story with an 'unheard-of army': godless Moabites 'called Tatars' who fell on the Polovtsian land. Even the greatest Cuman chief could not stand against them. After the rout the Tatars 'went back to their vezhi', the steppe word for nomad tent camps. The biblical name Moabites shows how the chronicler fitted a new enemy into scripture.
There came an unheard-of army: the godless Moabites, called Tatars, came onto the Polovtsian land. The Polovtsy made a stand, but Iurii Konchakovich, who was greatest of all the Polovtsy, could not stand against their face; he fled, and many were killed, as far as the river Dnieper, and the Tatars turned back and went to their tent camps.
Working translation
Original wording
Приде неслыханая рать: безбожніи Моавитяне, рекомыи Татарове, придоша на землю Половецькую. Половцемь же ставшимъ, Юрьгій Кончаковичь бѣ болійше всихъ Половець, не може стати противу лицо ихъ; бѣгающи же ему, и мнози избьени быша, до рѣкы Днѣпра, Татарове же возвратишася, идоша въ вѣжа своя.
About Tatars (Mongols); Polovtsy (Cumans)
Keep in mind
Written decades after 1223; the date 6732 was added by a later copyist.
