A French court orientalist's life of Genghis Khan, compiled from Persian, Arabic and Turkish histories and European travellers, in its 1722 English translation.
François Pétis de la Croix the elder (1622-1695), secretary-interpreter in Turkish and Arabic to Louis XIV, spent years compiling a history of Genghis Khan from Oriental chronicles (Mirkhond, Fadlallah, Abulfeda, Abu'l-Ghazi and others) and from European travellers such as Carpini, Rubruck and Marco Polo, whose words he often gives in the margins. His son published it in Paris in 1710; this is the London English translation of 1722. It covers the Mongol rise, the conquest of Central Asia and China, Mongol laws and customs, and the geography of 'Eastern and Western Tartary'. It is a compilation, not a witness.
How they knew
Compiled from others
Who “Tartar” means here
The 'antient Moguls and Tartars' are the Mongols of Genghis Khan. The book explains 'Tartar' as the name of one Mongol people, the Tatars of the river 'Tata', later spread to all the Scythian nations Genghis ruled.
Why read it
An early modern synthesis showing how Europe around 1700 understood the Mongols: where the name 'Tartar' came from, how their wagon-houses were built, and how Prester John was identified with a real steppe king.
Watch out
Every passage is second-hand, stitched together from sources centuries apart; the author gives marginal source references but blends them freely. The OCR mixes marginal notes into the text.
Editorial contextDescribing the great assembly Genghis held on the plain of Toncat, Pétis explains that most lords brought their 'moveable houses' on wheels. They had wooden floors, lattice walls, a dome with a smoke hole, and felt covers rubbed with sheep's milk, or among the rich plastered with tallow, to shed the rain. Some were so heavy with furniture that thirty oxen pulled one, and every door faced south.
Some were cover'd with Felt rubbed with Sheep's Milk, so that the Rain might run off without penetrating it. … they are sometimes so heavy, by reason of the Furniture they contain, that they are obliged to put to one of them thirty Oxen to draw it along.
François Pétis de la Croix (English translation, 1722)
Editorial contextRetelling the Mongol sack of Bukhara from Persian historians, Pétis explains why the fire was so complete: most buildings were of wood, because stone was hard to get around Bukhara. Only public buildings such as the mosques and caravanserais, built of brick, escaped. It is a clear statement of what one of Central Asia's great cities was built from.
all Parts of the Town were strait on fire, the greatest part of the Building being made of Wood, because of the difficulty of getting Stone in the Country round Bocara. … and all the Houses became a Prey to the Flames, except some publick Buildings, such as the Mosques and Caravansera's, which were made of Bricks.
François Pétis de la Croix (English translation, 1722), citing Fadlallah (Rashid al-Din) and others
Grand Cham of the Tartars, named after the river Tata
Editorial contextAt Genghis Khan's proclamation, Pétis says, the new emperor praised the 'Soumoguls', called Tartars after the river Tata that ran through their land, and added 'Grand Cham of the Tartars' to his title to honour them. A footnote explains that this is how all the Scythian nations under Genghis came to be called Tartars, and that the Chinese, lacking an r, said 'Tata'.
And having much cause to praise the Soumoguls (who are particularly called Tartars, by reason of the River Tata that waters their Country) he declared in the Mogul Language, that he would add to his Title of Emperor of the Moguls that of Grand Cham of the Tartars, both to do that Nation Honour
François Pétis de la Croix (English translation, 1722)
A compiler's explanation drawn from Carpini (who first spoke of 'Su-Mongals' named after a river Tatar) and Oriental histories; the river origin of the name is not accepted today.
Prester John unmasked as a steppe king, and his letter as a forgery
Editorial contextPétis identifies the famous Prester John of Asia with Ong Khan, king of the Keraits and Genghis Khan's early patron, and summarises the boastful letter in Prester John's name, which claimed seventy vassal kings and rule over Gog and Magog. He then declares the letter a forgery spread by Nestorian Christians. Elsewhere (n126) he notes that the Great Wall of China was called by Arabs the Bank of Gog and Magog.
But 'tis not difficult to discover that this Letter is a Counterfeit, and that it was not writ by Ounghcan. The Nestorians who in that Country were very numerous, having established themselves there in the Year 757. by the means of the Missionaries of Moussoul and Basra, were the Authors of this Letter
François Pétis de la Croix (English translation, 1722)