The minaret of Bolgar, built by a vanished people
Editorial contextHaxthausen climbed the surviving minaret at Bolgar, which he credits to the old Bulgarian state destroyed by the Mongols and Tatars. The ruins stand beside a Russian church, Kazan Tatars still make pilgrimages to the saints' tombs there, and Alexander von Humboldt had scratched his name on the minaret wall.
The powerful and civilized Bulgarian people who founded this important city have quite disappeared, and the Russians, Tatars, Tchuvash, etc. have taken their place ; all trace of their physiognomy, customs, and language is lost. … We ascended the lofty minaret, which commands an extensive view over boundless forests.
About Volga Bulgars; Kazan Tatar pilgrims
Keep in mind
His claim that the Bulgars left no trace is his own opinion; the Kazan Tatars themselves (see his p.323) were often described as partly descended from them.
Russian stoves, Tatar benches: a village house
Editorial contextLodging in a large Tatar peasant house, Haxthausen found it split into a men's half and a women's half. He noticed it looked much like a Russian house and honestly admits he cannot tell who borrowed from whom. The rooms mixed Russian stoves, Tatar sleeping benches, a samovar, European chairs and a Black Forest clock, with 'God is great' written over the door.
This was divided into two parts ; the right half is the dwelling of the men (our host lived with four of his brothers), the left that of the women and children. It bore much resemblance to Russian arrangements : whether the Russians borrowed of the Tatars, or the latter of the former, cannot be determined. In the rooms the stoves were Russian, the sleeping-benches Tatar
About Kazan Tatar villagers
A Nogai village built on a Mennonite plan
Editorial contextNear the Mennonite colonies on the Molochna, Haxthausen visited a Nogai Tatar village that looked 'perfectly German'. The Mennonite farmer Johann Cornies had persuaded the formerly nomadic Nogais to build this way and, Haxthausen was told, had already settled 17,000 of them. Solid houses with chimneys, poplars, gardens and Mennonite ploughs had replaced the old steppe life.
The houses in this village were all built with regularity and solid structure ; they had chimneys and enclosed courtyards. In front of the house-doors generally stand two poplars, with small flower-beds on each side ; in the gardens I noticed a great many fruit-trees, and in the courtyard ploughs, harrows, and carts of Mennonite construction
About Nogai Tatars
Keep in mind
The figure of 17,000 settled Tatars was told to him, not counted.
Inside a Tatar merchant's house in Kazan
Editorial contextHoping to see a 'genuine national household', Haxthausen is taken to the home of two merchant brothers and finds the rooms furnished in European style, with Chinese porcelain, mirrors, a Persian carpet and a stone bowl inscribed with Koran verses. He glimpsed a six-foot-wide family sleeping bench, but the women's rooms were closed to him.
I wished to see a genuine national household, but this no longer exists, at least in Kazan, as the people here too are already affected by European cultivation. The furniture of the rooms into which we were conducted was quite European … In one of the glass cases was a stone bowl, inscribed with texts from the Koran.
About Kazan Tatar merchants
Horseflesh, honey mead and the tea trade
Editorial contextKazan Tatars, Haxthausen reports, avoid pork as Muslims but prize horseflesh above all, brew mead, and control much of the tea trade. On the same page he admires Kazan leather boots embroidered with gold and silver and calls Tatar peasants excellent beekeepers.
They live principally upon animal food, avoiding pork, which is forbidden by the Koran ; horseflesh is considered by the common Tatars the choicest food. They are very fond of honey, and make good mead from it. The higher classes drink much tea ; and a large proportion of the tea-trade being in their hands, the best sorts are found among them.
About Kazan Tatars
Bride price and wives in Tatar villages
Editorial contextIn the village he notes that women walked about unveiled, that village men rarely had more than one wife, and that a bride price (kalym, which he writes 'halim') was paid, sometimes 500 roubles even among peasants. He adds that the Tatars kept some village arrangements secret from Russian officials.
In the Tatar villages the men have rarely more than one wife ; in the towns, particularly among the rich merchants, bigamy frequently occurs, but to have more than two wives is very rare. The women are sold, and the halim paid for them, which even in the case of peasants frequently amounts to five hundred roubles.
About Kazan Tatars
Keep in mind
'The women are sold' is his gloss on the bride-price custom, based on what villagers told him.
Tatar, the French of the East
Editorial contextHaxthausen was impressed that nearly all Kazan Tatars could read and write, that their village schools were run by mullahs, and that students went to Orenburg and Bukhara. In a footnote he claims their Turkic language worked as a common tongue from Persia to China and even Tunis.
The Tatar language occupies the same place in the East as the French in the West. Eastwards from Persia to China, westwards throughout all the Turkish countries, and even in Tunis, any one can make himself understood by means of it.
About Kazan Tatars and Turkic speakers generally
Keep in mind
An enthusiastic generalisation: related Turkic languages were widely understood, but not one single 'Tatar' language everywhere he names.
Bulgars and Mongols merged into Tatars
Editorial contextHaxthausen explains who the Kazan Tatars are: a mixed people in whom the old Volga Bulgar population and the Mongol conquerors have blended. He quotes Herberstein calling them 'half Mongols', but his own description (oval faces, curved noses, light complexions) mostly contradicts a Mongol look, apart from the eyes.
The Kazan Tatars belong, both mentally and physically, to the nobler races of mankind ; they are a mixed people, and possess high mental qualities, but Mohammedanism only permits their development in a limited degree. The ancient Bulgarian and Mongol population has been completely merged in the Tatar. The aspect of the Tatars clearly indicates their consanguinity with the Mongols : Herberstein describes them as half Mongols.
About Kazan Tatars
Keep in mind
Uses the racial ranking language of the 1840s; his origins theory is his own opinion.
The cathedral for Kazan and the blinded architect
Editorial contextSt Basil's Cathedral on Red Square was built to celebrate Ivan the Terrible's capture of Kazan, the Tatar capital, in 1552. Haxthausen compares it to a rainbow-coloured dragon and repeats the tale that Ivan had the architect blinded so he could never build anything finer. He clearly marks it as hearsay ('is said to').
Ivan Vasilievitch ordered it to be erected in 1554 by an Italian, to commemorate the conquest of Kazan. After it was completed, he is said to have asked the architect whether he would undertake to make a plan for a still more singular building ; and when the latter in his vanity answered in the affirmative, he ordered his eyes to be put out
About Ivan IV; the conquered Kazan Tatars
Keep in mind
Russian tradition names the builders as the Russian masters Barma and Postnik, not an Italian, and the blinding story is a legend with no contemporary evidence.