lettered by Abraham Ortelius, 1570
Written source · Russian

Gerhard Friedrich Müller's History of the Siberian Tsardom

The first scholarly history of Siberia, written from archives, chronicles and Tatar informants gathered on the Academy expedition of 1733 to 1743.

Full title Description of the Siberian Tsardom and of all that happened in it from the beginning, especially from its subjection to the Russian power (book 1; 1750, accessed 1787 reissue)

Описание Сибирского царства и всех происшедших в нем дел от начала, а особливо от покорения его Российской державе по сии времена

Gerhard Friedrich Müller

Read the 4 passagesOpen the original book

G. F. Müller, a German historian of the St Petersburg Academy, spent ten years in Siberia copying archives and interviewing Tatars, Mongols and others. Book 1 of his Description of the Siberian Tsardom (1750) covers the Siberian Tatar khanate from its legendary origins to Kuchum and Yermak's conquest. He compares Tatar, Mongol and Chinese traditions with Abu al-Ghazi and European travellers, visits the ruins of Tatar towns, and argues openly with legends he thinks unfounded. This corpus copy is the 1787 reissue of the Russian text.

How they knew
Compiled from others
Who “Tartar” means here
Müller uses 'Tatars' for the Turkic Muslims of the Tobol, Irtysh, Ob and Tom (Siberian Tatars), and also for the realm of Chinggis Khan's heirs, whom he treats together with the Mongols. He notes that the Chinese call all lands beyond the Great Wall 'Tartary'.
Why read it
A careful 18th century scholar who visited the ruins of Tatar towns, recorded Tatar oral traditions, and explained where names like Isker, Sibir and 'Tartary' came from.
Watch out
Müller wrote with the Russian state's archives and outlook; his account of the khanate depends partly on late chronicles like the Kungur and Esipov texts. OCR of the 1787 type is poor and quotes are normalized.

What it says: 4 passages

CitiesIsker (Kashlyk), near Tobolsk15th to 16th century (written 1740s)

Isker, the real Tatar name of the town of Sibir

Editorial contextMüller says Khan Makhmet moved the princely seat from the Tura to a high headland on the Irtysh and fortified it, because the old capital Chimgi (Tyumen), though protected by ravines, a rampart and ditches, lay on flat ground. The ruins could still be seen above Tobolsk. He rejects the idea that 'Sibir' is a Tatar word for 'capital': the Tatars call the fortress Isker, and the name Kashlyk used in the Tobolsk chronicle was, he says, used by no people he knew.

This place is the so-called old Tatar town and fortress of Sibir, whose remains can still be seen upriver of Tobolsk … The true Tatar name of this old fortress is Isker, by which name the Tatars call it to this day.

Working translation

Original wording

Сіе мѣсто есть такъ именуемое старинной Татарской городъ и крѣпость Сибирь, котораго остатки повыше Тобольска … еще и теперь видны. … Подлинное Татарское имя сей старинной крѣпости есть Искеръ, которымъ именемъ Татаре еще и понынѣ оную называютъ.

Gerhard Friedrich Müller (Russian edition, 1787 issue)
See the original page (p. 38)

About Siberian Tatars (khans of the Taibugid line)

Keep in mind

The distance from Tobolsk is garbled in the OCR and has been left out.

BuildingsSouthern Siberia13th to 14th century (written 1740s)

Stone markers, idols and gold from the graves: whose were they?

Editorial contextMüller points to the traces of old towns on the steppes, the many stone markers and 'idols' (stone statues), old grave mounds, and the gold and silver objects dug out of them. He attributes them to the earlier Tatars, reasoning that the treasures of China, Persia, Russia, Poland, Bohemia and Hungary had fallen to them as conquerors. It is a scholar's inference, not a report from the graves themselves.

How many traces of small towns are seen in various places on the steppes? What a multitude of stone markers set up as memorials, idols, old graves and other such things are found everywhere? What precious objects, of gold and silver, have not been dug out of the graves? Where could they have come from, if not from the former Tatars

Working translation

Original wording

Сколько не видно слѣдовъ на разныхъ мѣстахъ по степямъ городковъ? Коликое множество въ память поставленныхъ каменныхъ маяковъ, болвановъ, старинныхъ могилъ и другихъ принадлежащихъ къ тому вещей на всѣхъ мѣстахъ не находится? Какихъ дорогихъ вещей, золотыхъ и серебреныхъ, изъ могилъ не выкопано? Откуда можно было имъ произойти, какъ только отъ прежнихъ Татаръ

Gerhard Friedrich Müller (Russian edition, 1787 issue)
See the original page (p. 2)

About Tatars and Mongols of Chinggis Khan's era (as Müller supposes)

Keep in mind

Müller's attribution to the Chinggisid Tatars is his own guess; modern archaeology dates many of these kurgans and stone figures far earlier.

The scan is too rough to double-check this quote by machine. Compare it with the page.

The nameNorthern frontier of Chinawritten 1740s

Tartary: the Chinese name for everything beyond the Wall

Editorial contextDiscussing a Siberian Tatar story that Chinese once lived in Siberia, Müller suggests that at most the Chinese may have built some towns on the Daurian and Mongol frontiers and toward Liaodong, because in China all lands beyond the Wall are called Tartary. The name, in his view, is a broad outsiders' label, not the name of one country.

By all the circumstances one may judge that they perhaps meant certain towns built on the Daurian and Mongol borders and toward Liaotung, of which there are examples in ancient times, because in China all the lands lying beyond the Wall are called by the general name Tartary.

Working translation

Original wording

По всѣмъ обстоятельствамъ разсуждать можно, что развѣ о построенныхъ нѣкоторыхъ городахъ на границахъ Даурскихъ и Мунгальскихъ и къ Леотонгу, о чемъ и въ древнихъ временахъ примѣры имѣются, упоминать хотѣли, по тому что въ Китаѣ всѣ за стѣною находящіяся земли общимъ именемъ Татарія называются.

Gerhard Friedrich Müller (Russian edition, 1787 issue)
See the original page (p. 8)

About Mongols and other peoples north of the Great Wall

Keep in mind

Müller cites Martini's Chinese atlas and Witsen for this; it reflects European usage of his day.

The scan is too rough to double-check this quote by machine. Compare it with the page.

Strange talesTobolsk and the Irtyshrecorded 1670 and in the 1730s

The Tatar tale of Chinese who fled when the forest grew

Editorial contextMüller reports a story still told orally by the Tobolsk Tatars: Siberia was once a bare steppe where the Chinese lived, but when forest began to grow everywhere the people took fright, 'as the land became as if horned', and moved away to their present home. He says it was also written down in 1670 on the orders of the Tobolsk governor Pyotr Godunov. Müller calls it a false tale that no reasonable person can believe, and notes that forest could easily grow over abandoned sites in 450 years without any miracle.

They say that at first all Siberia was a bare steppe without forest, and when at that time the Chinese lived there, forest little by little began to grow in various places, at which the people took fright, because the land became as if horned, and moved to their present dwelling. This tale can still be heard by word of mouth from the Tobolsk Tatars.

Working translation

Original wording

Сказываютъ, якобы сперва вся Сибирь была голая степь безъ лѣсу, а какъ въ оное время Китайцы тамъ жительство свое имѣли, то помалу по разнымъ мѣстамъ началъ лѣсъ расти, чего народъ испужавшись, понеже земля подобно какъ рогатая стала, на нынѣшнее жилище переселился. Сію повѣсть еще и нынѣ у Тобольскихъ Татаръ изустно слышать можно.

Gerhard Friedrich Müller, reporting Tobolsk Tatar oral tradition (Russian edition, 1787 issue)
See the original page (p. 9)

About Siberian Tatars of Tobolsk (tellers); 'Chinese' (in the tale)

Keep in mind

Müller records the tale in order to reject it; the next page adds the claim that ruined towns between the Irtysh and Tobol are overgrown with forest.

The scan is too rough to double-check this quote by machine. Compare it with the page.

The fine print

How we know

compilation Assembled from earlier sources. The author did not observe it directly.

retrospective history compiled from Siberian archives, chronicles and Tatar informants gathered on the 1733-1743 Academy expedition

Research notes
  • Catalogue date 1787 is a reissue of the 1750 edition; Fischer (below) abridged Miller.

Why it matters

Foundational scholarly history of Siberia, first to use the Siberian chronicles and Tatar traditions critically; describes Kuchum khanate and its Nogai and Bukharan ties.

Places named

Siberia; Tobolsk; Irtysh; Ob; Yenisei

Peoples named

Golden Horde and its Tatar successor khanates
Indigenous peoples of Siberia and the North Pacific
Western Mongols (Oirat, Dzungar, Kalmyk)
Turkic and Central Asian peoples and states
Rus, Muscovy and the Russian Empire

Siberian khanate (Kuchum); Siberian Tatars; Ostyaks; Kalmyks; Kirghiz; Muscovy

Keep exploring

The witness before
1733 to 1743Gmelin's journey through Siberia, volume 1A German naturalist's eyewitness diary of Kazan, Tobolsk and the Tatar, Kalmyk and Teleut lands of western Siberia, 1733 to 1735.Eyewitness · 15 passages
The witness after
1733 to 1743Müller's Collection of Russian History, with his history of SiberiaThe St Petersburg Academy's historical serial (1732 to 1764), including G. F. Müller's archive-based history of the Tatar khanate of Siberia and its conquest.Part eyewitness · 11 passages
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