Twin brothers named Mogul and Tatar
Editorial contextIn a Tabriz prison Wolff met a captive chieftain who wrote out his family tree for him. It calls him a 'Tatar of the family of Genghis Khan' and gives a traditional origin story: an ancestor had twin sons, Mogul Khan and Tatar Khan, from whom the Moguls and the Tatars descend.
Muhammed, son of Izhak Khan Kerahe, Tatar of the family of Ghengis Khan. The ancestors of Ghengis Khan were Oolinjah Khan and Olamgoo, a Mogul, who had twins : the name of the one was Mogul Khan, and the other Tatar Khan, from whom all the Tatars descend, as the Moguls do from Mogul Khan.
About Muhammad Khan Qarai, a Khorasani chief claiming descent from Genghis Khan
Keep in mind
A traditional genealogy (a version of the Mongol origin story found in Persian and Turkic histories), not history.
Spices come by the Tartar road through Baghdad and Tabriz
Editorial contextSanudo, a Venetian with merchant experience, argues that the Pope should ban trade with Mamluk Egypt because goods can come instead through the lands of the Tartars. Christian merchants, he says, can travel from the Tartar dominions all the way to India, and many have gone and come back, whereas the Sultan lets no Christian pass; light, precious spices such as cloves, nutmeg and mace already reach the Mediterranean via Baghdad and Tabriz.
from this side, namely the dominion of the Tartars, Christian merchants will be able to direct their steps as far as India, since there are many who have already gone and come back. ... it should be known that from the parts of the Tartars, namely from Baghdad and from Tabriz, for a long time past and at present almost all goods of small weight and great price are carried to the Mediterranean Sea
Working translation
Original wording
ab hac parte scilicet dominii Tartarorum, vsque in Indiam ipsi mercatores Christiani poterunt dirigere gressus suos, cùm multi sint, qui iam iuerunt & redierunt. … sciendum est quod à partibus Tartarorum, scilicet à Baldach & à Thorisio, à magno tempore citra conducta sunt & cōducuntur ad præsens ad Mare Mediterraneum, quasi omnia mercimonia modici ponderis, & magni prætii
About Mongols of the Ilkhanate (Persia and Iraq)
Keep in mind
A policy argument for a trade embargo; his trade information came from Venetian and other merchants.
Transcribed from the page image; long s normalized.
Women who ride into town with bow and arrows
Editorial contextRiccoldo says Tartar women are held in great honour, run the realm or the household, buy and sell, and are fierce and warlike. He adds from his own eyes that they ride like men and that he often saw them entering cities armed with bows and arrows. Elsewhere on the same page he explains their tall crowns, topped with a foot to remind them they are still under their husbands.
and it is they who govern the kingdom or the household, and they buy and sell, and they are fierce and warlike. They ride like men, and I often saw them entering cities girded with bow and arrows like men.
Working translation
Original wording
et ipse sunt, que gubernant regnum vel domum, et emunt et vendunt, et sunt feroces et bellicose. Equitant autem vt viri, et frequenter vidi eas intrantes ciuitates cum arcu et sagittis accinctas vt viros.
About Tartar women (Mongols of the Ilkhanate)
Continue in this sourceFriar Riccoldo's pilgrimage book, with chapters on the Tartars of Persia and Baghdadc. 1288 to 1300 · 11 passages'Saracenized Tartars' in Persia
Editorial contextJordanus, who lived in Tabriz, lists Persia's peoples: Saracens (Muslims), 'Saracenized Tartars', and Christians of many sects, plus a few Jews. The phrase captures the Mongol rulers of Persia after their conversion to Islam around 1295. He calls their ruler simply 'the emperor of Persia'.
This Persia is inhabited by Saracens and by Saracenized Tartars, and by schismatic Christians of various sects, that is Nestorians, Jacobites, Greeks, Georgians and Armenians, and by a few Jews.
Working translation
Original wording
Ista Persida habitatur per Saracenos et per Tartaros saracenatos, atque per Christianos schismaticos diversarum sectarum, seu per Nestorianos, Jacobitas, Græcos, Georgianos, Armenos, et per paucos Judæos.
About Tartars of the Ilkhanate (Mongols in Persia converted to Islam)
A note on this quote
OCR normalized against the page image.