Tang histories on the Uighur empire
Chinese court histories on the Uighur steppe empire of Mongolia in the eighth and ninth centuries.
Full title Tang History excerpts concerning the Uighurs
Compilers of the Tang histories
The Tang histories were compiled in the tenth and eleventh centuries from earlier court records. They describe the Uighurs, a Turkic people whose steppe empire in Mongolia lasted from the 740s to 840. The card lists excerpts translated by Colin Mackerras, an English selection rather than the complete Old or New Tang History. The atlas does not hold the text of this edition: no copy was harvested into the corpus, so nothing from it was read for this guide.
- How they knew
- Compiled from others
- Who “Tartar” means here
- Not recorded. The Tang period is when the name Tatar first appears in Turkic and Chinese records for a group on the steppe, but the card does not say whether these excerpts mention it.
- Why read it
- It offers a Chinese neighbour's view of a steppe empire and its politics, several centuries before the Mongols.
- Watch out
- The histories were put together long after the events, and the catalogue entry is a selection. It should not be read as the whole Tang record.
What it says
No quotes from this one yet. Its text is out of reach for now, or the scan could not be read.
The fine print
How we know
compilation Assembled from earlier sources. The author did not observe it directly.
Court records / later compilation
Research notes
- English selection, not complete Old or New Tang History.
Why it matters
A neighboring perspective on Inner Asian political communities.
Places named
Mongolia; Uighur / Uyghur polities