The census: Tatars ride the streets writing down houses
Editorial contextNovgorod split over the Mongol census. The Tatars threatened to leave ('give us the number, or we go') while the common people swore to die for St Sophia rather than be counted. In the end the boyars gave way, and the census takers 'began to ride through the streets writing down the Christian houses'. The chronicler complains that the boyars made it easy for themselves and hard for the poor.
and the Tatars said: give us the number, or we will run away; and the common people would not give the number, but said: let us die honourably for St Sophia and for the houses of the angels … and the accursed ones began to ride through the streets, writing down the Christian houses
Working translation
Original wording
и рѣша Татарове: даите намъ число, или бѣжимъ проче; и чернь не хотѣша дати числа, но рѣша: умремъ честно за святую Софью и за домы ангелскыя … и почаша ѣздити оканьнии по улицамъ, пишюче домы христьяньскыя
About Tatar census officials of the Golden Horde
A note on this quote
The scan is too rough to double-check this quote by machine. Compare it with the page.
Tatar prisoners in Novgorod: baptism or the river
Editorial contextThe Second Novgorod Chronicle, a terse 16th-century town record, notes that in 1552 sixty Kazan Tatars were brought from Moscow and three new prisons were built for them. On this page, under the winter of 7065 (1556 to 1557), it records that clerks handed the Tatars held in the prisons who wished to be baptised over to the monasteries, while 'those who did not wish to be baptised, they threw into the water'.
the clerks gave out to the monasteries the Tatars who sat in the prisons and wished to be baptised; those who did not wish to be baptised, they threw into the water.
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Original wording
давали дьяки по монастыремъ Татаръ, которые сидѣли въ тюрмѣхъ и захотѣли креститись; которые не захотѣли креститись, ино ихъ метали въ воду.
About Tatar prisoners (Kazan Tatars brought to Novgorod after 1552)
Keep in mind
This is the Second Novgorod Chronicle, not the First, though it is bound in the same volume. The chronicle does not say explicitly that these were the Kazan prisoners of 1552.
Tver kills the Horde's envoy, and a Tatar army lays the land waste
Editorial contextIn 1327 Prince Alexander of Tver killed many Tatars in Tver and other towns, after the mighty envoy Shevkal had come from the Horde with a large Tatar retinue. That winter a huge Tatar army took Tver, Kashin and the Torzhok district and 'laid the whole Russian land waste'. Novgorod escaped by paying the Tatar envoys 2000 in silver and sending gifts to the commanders.
Prince Alexander Mikhailovich killed many Tatars in Tver and in other towns … for a mighty envoy had come from the Horde, named Shevkal, with a multitude of Tatars. … That same winter a Tatar army came, a very great multitude, and took Tver, and Kashin, and the Torzhok district, and, to put it simply, laid the whole Russian land waste
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князь Александръ Михаиловичь изби Татаръ много, во Тфери и по инымъ городомъ … пришелъ бо бяше посолъ силенъ изъ орды, именемь Шевкалъ, съ множествомъ Татаръ. … На ту же зиму приде рать Татарьская, множество много, и взяша Тфѣрь, и Кашинъ, и Новоторжьскую волость, и просто рещи всю землю Русьскую положиша пусту
About Golden Horde envoy Shevkal (Chol Khan) and a punitive Tatar army
Keep in mind
The OCR prints the year as 6855; the event belongs to 6835 (1327).
'Unknown peoples': nobody knew who the Tatars were
Editorial contextThe chronicler's first notice of the Tatars is an admission of ignorance. Nobody knew who they were, where they came from, what language they spoke or what faith they held. People called them Tatars, Taurmens or Pechenegs, and learned men linked them to the prophecy of Pseudo-Methodius about peoples locked away in the desert who would come out at the end of time.
there came unknown peoples, whom no one clearly knows: who they are and whence they came, and what their language is, and of what tribe they are, and what their faith is; and they call them Tatars, and others say Taurmens, and others Pechenegs, and others say that these are the ones of whom Methodius, bishop of Patara, bears witness: that they came out of the Etrian desert
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Original wording
придоша языци незнаеми, ихъ же добрѣ никто же не вѣсть, кто суть и отколѣ изъидоша, и что языкъ ихъ, и котораго племене суть, и что вѣра ихъ; а зовуть я Татары, а иніи глаголють Таурмены, а друзіи Печенѣзи, иніи же глаголють, яко се суть, о нихъ же Меѳодій Паторомьскыи епископъ съвѣдѣтельствуеть: яко си суть изъшли изъ пустыня Етріевьскыя
About Tatars (the Mongol army of Jebe and Subutai)
Keep in mind
The Methodius reference is to the apocalyptic Revelation of Pseudo-Methodius, a book legend, not an origin the Mongols gave.
The 'raw-eaters' come with their wives
Editorial contextIn 1257 'evil news' reached Novgorod that the Tatars wanted the tamga (a trade tax) and a tithe. In the winter of 1259 the Tatar officials Berkai and Kasachik arrived with their wives and many others. The chronicler calls them 'accursed Tatar raw-eaters' (syroyadtsy), a standard insult for steppe nomads.
Evil news came from Rus that the Tatars wanted the tamga and the tithe from Novgorod, and the people were in turmoil all through the summer. … That same winter the accursed Tatar raw-eaters arrived, Berkai and Kasachik, with their wives, and many others
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Original wording
Приде вѣсть изъ Руси зла, яко хотять Татарове тамгы и десятины на Новѣгородѣ, и смятошася люди черезъ все лѣто. … Тои же зимы приѣхаша оканьнии Татарове сыроядци, Беркаи и Касачикъ, съ женами своими, и инѣхъ много
About Tatar officials of the Golden Horde (Berkai and Kasachik)
Keep in mind
'Raw-eaters' is an insult, not a description the chronicler checked.
Kulikovo: 'Ishmaelites' ruled by Mamai behind a puppet khan
Editorial contextThe younger Novgorod text on the battle of Kulikovo explains the politics of the Horde: a weak khan reigned while Mamai did everything. It calls Mamai's army the pagan 'Ishmaelite race' and 'sons of Hagar', and when Dmitry arrays his troops it is 'against the pagan Polovtsy'. Old names for steppe enemies were simply reused for the Tatars.
the pagan Ishmaelite race rises against the Christians: for a certain feeble man reigns among them, and Prince Mamai does everything among them … and Grand Prince Dmitry, with his brother Vladimir, arrayed his regiments against the pagan Polovtsy
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въздвизается на крестьяны Измаилтескии родъ поганыи: нѣкоему убо у нихъ худу царствующу, а все дѣющу у нихъ князю Мамаю … великии же князь Дмитрии, съ братомъ своимъ съ Володимеромъ, изрядивъ полкы противу поганыхъ Половець
About Tatars of the Golden Horde under the emir Mamai
Keep in mind
Written in Novgorod, far from the battle, in a religious register.
A Tatar commander buried alive in a Polovtsian kurgan
Editorial contextWhen Prince Mstislav crossed the Dnieper and beat the Tatar vanguard, the survivors fled with their commander Gemyabeg into a Polovtsian kurgan (burial mound). Unable to hold out, they buried him alive in the earth to save his life. He was found, and the Polovtsy begged him from Mstislav and killed him. The steppe was already dotted with mounds that the chronicler credits to the Polovtsy.
and the rest of them fled with their commander Gemyabeg into a Polovtsian kurgan, and there they could not hold out, and they buried their commander Gemyabeg alive in the earth, wishing to save his life; and there they found him, and the Polovtsy, having begged him from Mstislav, killed him.
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Original wording
а прокъ ихъ въбѣже съ воеводою своимъ Гемябегомъ въ курганъ Половьчьскыи, и ту имъ не бы мочи, и погребоша воеводу своего Гемябега жива въ земли, хотяще животъ его ублюсти, и ту й налѣзоша, испросивъше Половьци у Мьстислава, и убиша й.
About Tatars (Mongol vanguard) and Polovtsy (Cumans)
A victory feast on top of the captured princes
Editorial contextAfter the Kalka, the Tatars crushed the captured Rus princes under boards and sat on top to feast, 'and so ended their lives'. Then they turned back from the Dnieper and vanished, and the chronicler confesses he does not know where they came from or where they went: 'God knows whence He brought them upon us, for our sins.'
and the princes they seized and crushed, putting them under boards, and they themselves sat on top to dine, and so they ended their lives. … And the Tatars turned back from the Dnieper river, and we do not know whence they came nor where they have gone again; God knows whence He brought them upon us, for our sins.
Working translation
Original wording
а князи имъше издавиша, подъкладъше подъ дъскы, а сами верху сѣдоша обѣдати, и тако животъ ихъ концяша. … Татари же възвратишася отъ рѣкы Днѣпря, и не съвѣдаемъ откуду суть пришли, и кдѣ ся дѣша опять; Богъ вѣсть, отколѣ приде на насъ, за грѣхы наша.
About Tatars (Mongols) and the defeated Rus princes
Keep in mind
Reported from survivors' accounts; not seen by a Novgorod writer.
The scan is too rough to double-check this quote by machine. Compare it with the page.