Mud ruins the Kazakhs credited to the Nogais
Editorial contextAlong a dried-up river channel Meyendorff saw long earth mounds with canals and broken pottery, the remains of buildings of sun-dried brick. The Kazakhs could not say when or why they were built but guessed they were the work of the Nogais, who had held the steppe before them. The best-known ruin, Djankend, was of fired brick and said to be the seat of an Oghuz chief.
It is clear these buildings, whatever they may have been, were built with sun-burnt bricks; near these ruins are small canals about 1 toise or 6 feet broad and two deep; a great quantity of broken pottery is also to be met with. … The Kirghiz could give us no account of their use or date, but supposing they must have been erected by the Nogais
About Kazakhs; earlier Nogais and Oghuz
Keep in mind
The attribution to the Nogais is the Kazakhs' guess, as Meyendorff says.
Songs to the moon by the Syr Darya
Editorial contextWintering among the reeds of the Syr Darya was the Kazakhs' great wish. Meyendorff describes men sitting half the night on a stone, gazing at the moon and singing sad improvised songs, and regrets never hearing the heroic songs that only professional bards performed.
The Kirghiz often pass half the night seated on a stone, gazing at the moon, and singing melancholy impromptu words to airs not less so. They also have historical songs, which celebrate the great actions of their heroes, but these are chaunted only by professional singers, and I greatly regret not having heard them.
About Kazakhs (Kirghiz)
Continue in this sourceThe Russian embassy's march from Orenburg to Bukhara1820 to 1821 · 14 passagesEvery unknown ruin 'comes from the Tatars'
Editorial contextRiding through saxaul woods, the caravan passed ruins of 'an earlier town or fortress'. Eversmann saw walls of sun-dried bricks four to five inches thick mixed with some fired ones, two window openings with pointed arches in the largest building, three rings of walls now slumped into banks, and many unglazed potsherds. The Kazakhs called the place Kutschuk and said the Tatars built it, but he warns that they credit everything unknown in their steppe to the Tatars simply because the Tatars lived there just before them.
These ruins, which were probably once a fortress, are called Kutschuk by the Kirghiz and are supposed, as they claim, to come from the Tatars; but their statement is not to be relied on at all: they make everything that is unknown to them in their steppe come from the Tatars, because these lived there immediately before them.
Working translation
Original wording
Diese Ruinen, die wahrscheinlich früher eine Festung gewesen sind, werden von den Kirgisen Kutschuk genannt, und sollen, wie sie behaupten, von den Tataren herstammen; aber auf ihre Aussage ist durchaus nicht zu bauen, sie lassen alles, was ihnen in ihrer Steppe unbekannt ist, von den Tataren herstammen, weil diese zunächst vor ihnen dort gehaust haben.
About Kazakhs (Kirghiz) as informants; 'Tatars' as the supposed builders
Continue in this sourceEversmann's journey from Orenburg to Bukhara, 1820 to 18211820 to 1821 · 10 passagesRuined cities on the Syr Darya
Editorial contextRiding east, Carpini crossed the old Khwarazmian lands the Mongols had conquered in 1219 to 1221 and found them full of ruins. He names Ianckint, Barchin and Ornas. Rockhill's footnote on the same page quotes Carpini's longer account of how the Mongols took Ornas by diverting the river and flooding the city, and on the page before Carpini describes skulls and bones lying on the steppe 'like cattle-dung'.
We found in that country innumerable ruined cities, overthrown villages, and many deserted towns. There is a great river in that country whose name I do not know, and on which stands a city called Ianckint, and also another called Barchin, and still another called Ornas
About Bisermins (Muslims of the Khwarazmian lands), conquered by the Tartars
Keep in mind
Identifications of Ornas (Otrar or Urgench) are uncertain; see Rockhill's note.