Marvazi on China, the Turks and India
A twelfth-century Arabic natural history with ethnographic chapters on the peoples of the steppe, about 1120.
Full title Sharaf al-Zaman Tahir Marvazi on China, the Turks and India: Arabic text (c. AD 1120) with English translation and commentary (James G. Forlong Fund XXII, London 1942)
طبائع الحیوان
Marvazi (fl. c.1120); Vladimir Minorsky (editor and translator)
Sharaf al-Zaman Tahir Marvazi wrote this Arabic work around 1120, joining earlier geographers to fresh twelfth-century news from Seljuk court informants about the Qun and Qay migrations and the Qara Khitai. Vladimir Minorsky edited and translated the chapters on China, the Turks and India (London, 1942). The atlas does not hold the text: the two Internet Archive copies are a 1942 publication, and the corpus keeps full text only for works published before 1929 or openly licensed.
- How they knew
- Compiled from others
- Who “Tartar” means here
- Not recorded. The card lists Turkic peoples (Toghuzghuz, Kimek, Qun, Qay, Kirghiz, Qipchaq, Ghuzz, Pechenegs) and the Qara Khitai. Marvazi wrote before the Mongol empire.
- Why read it
- It holds a famous account of peoples pushing across the steppe about 1000 to 1050, evidence for the steppe world before the Mongols.
- Watch out
- Minorsky's chapter text is an extract, and the full Arabic work is partly unpublished. The atlas quotes nothing from this work.
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.
compilation of earlier Arabic geography (Jayhani tradition) with new twelfth-century information from Seljuk court informants on the Qun-Qay migrations and the Qara Khitai
Research notes
- Minorsky's chapter text is an extract; the full Taba'i al-hayawan remains partly unpublished.
Why it matters
Contains the famous passage on the chain-migration of the Qun, Qay, Sari and Turkmen across the steppe c.1000-1050, a primary datum for steppe ethnogenesis before the Mongols.
Places named
China; Central Asian steppe; Siberia; Volga; India
Peoples named
Turks (Toghuzghuz, Kimek, Qun, Qay, Kirghiz, Qipchaq, Ghuzz, Pechenegs); Khazars; Bulghars; Rus; Chinese; Qara Khitai