Pigs as a border defence
Editorial contextRussian borderers, Fletcher says, kept almost nothing but pigs, because Muslim Tartar raiders would not touch or drive them off. He also notes that the Crimean khan was now largely picked by the Ottoman sultan and paid him a tenth of his war booty.
The Russe borders (being used to their invasions lightly every yeere in the sommer) keepe fewe other cattel on the border parts save swine onely, which the Tartar will not touch nor drive away with him ; for that he is of the Turkish religion, and will eate no swines flesh.
About Crimean Tartars
Continue in this sourceFletcher's Russe Common Wealth and Horsey's Travels1566 to 1599 · 13 passagesSober Tatars who still enjoy a drink
Editorial contextCommenting on Ibn Fadlan's horror at Rus drinking, Frähn notes that not all Muslims keep the ban on wine. Among the Tatars of Russia, he says, 'sober as this people is', he met many who did not refuse wine and strong drink, though he never saw them drink too much. It is a small firsthand note on real Tatars by a scholar who knew them.
And so among the Tatars of Russia too, sober as this people is, I have found not a few who did not scorn wine and such strong drinks, though I never saw them exceed moderation.
Working translation
Original wording
Und so habe ich auch unter den Tataren Russlands, so nüchtern dieses Volk auch ist, nicht wenige gefunden, die Wein und derlei starke Getränke nicht verschmähten, wenn ich sie gleich nie das Maass überschreiten sah.
About Tatars of Russia (Kazan Tatars)
Keep in mind
Editorial observation, not part of Ibn Fadlan's text.
Kasimov: a Tatar prince's town on the Oka
Editorial contextWhen 'wind-swift' Tatars of Sayyid Ahmad's horde raided Muscovy, Sultan Kasim drove them off, and in gratitude the grand prince granted him a yurt (here, a domain) on the Oka in the Murom district, and 'there he built a town'. Hammer adds that the district town that still bears his name, on a height at the mouth of the Babinka, ringed by an earthen rampart, was in his day home to about five hundred Tatars with their own quarter and mosque. A rare case of a Tatar town founded inside Russia with Russian consent.
Out of gratitude the grand prince granted Kasim a yurt on the Oka, in the district of Murom. There he built a town … His name is still borne today by the district town at the mouth of the Babinka into the Oka, which, lying on a height and surrounded by an earthen rampart, and still inhabited today by half a thousand Tatars, preserves the memory of its origin through its Tatar quarter and mosque.
Working translation
Original wording
Aus Dankbarkeit dafür räumte der Grossfürst dem Kasim einen Jurt an der Okka, im Gebiethe von Murom, ein. Dort baute er eine Stadt … Seinen Nahmen erhält noch heute die am Einflusse der Babinka in die Okka gelegene Kreisstadt, welche, auf einer Anhöhe gelegen, mit einem Erdwall umgeben, noch heute von einem halben Tausend Tataren bewohnt, durch tatarische Slobode und Moschee das Andenken ihres Ursprunges bewahrt.
About Sultan Kasim, a Tatar prince in Muscovite service, and his Tatars
Keep in mind
The same sentence oddly says Kasim named the town after 'the Khan of the Crimea'; the modern details come from a handbook, not Hammer's own visit.
A stone that 'burns like a candle' in Witsen's Tartary book
Editorial contextAmong the rocks of the district Schrenk lists a black, combustible shale soaked with bitumen from the Ukhta, known locally as Domanik, and in a footnote he notes that the naphtha springs there were already known to Witsen. He translates the passage from the first edition of Witsen's 'Noord en Oost Tartarye' (Amsterdam 1692): a shallow in the river drives a black oil to the surface, and a stone found there burns like a candle with a black light. Schrenk calls it the oldest report of the Domanik, a real oil-bearing rock, and goes on to later Russian accounts of an old timber enclosure built over the oil spring.
the river Oegta [Ukhta] is a day's journey from the Pechora; on this river … there is a shallow in it (drooghte die daer in is) which drives a fattiness onto the water, which is black naphtha; which stone is also found there, and burns like a candle, giving off a black light.
Working translation
Original wording
der Fluss Oegta [Uhta] ist eine Tagereise vom Petschorastrom entfernt; an diesem Flusse … findet sich darin eine Untiefe (drooghte die daer in is), die eine Fettigkeit aufs Wasser treibt, welche schwarze Naphta ist; welcher Stein dort auch gefunden wird, und brennt wie eine Kerze, ein schwarzes Licht von sich gebend.
Keep in mind
The 'black light' is Witsen's wording, and his source for it is not given here. Schrenk confirms that the shale exists and burns, but not Witsen's exact description.
'Away with those new devils and their thundering puffs'
Editorial contextHorsey claims he persuaded Ivan IV to arm captured Scottish mercenaries and send them against the Crimean Tartars. Twelve hundred Scots with guns, he boasts, did better than 12,000 Russian archers, and the Tartars, unused to firearms, fled crying out against the 'new devils'.
Twelve hundred of them did better service against the Tartor then 12 thowsand Russes, with their shortte bowe and arowes. The Crim, not knowinge then the use of peece and pistolls, stroken dead of their horses with shott they sawe not, cried : " Awaye with those new divells that com with their thunderinge puffs ;"
About Crimean Tartars
Keep in mind
A boastful anecdote; the Crimean khanate had firearms and Ottoman gunners by this time.
