Ibn Rusta, a Persian scholar of Isfahan, compiled his Book of Precious Records c.903 to 913. Its chapters on the northern peoples (Pechenegs, Khazars, Burtas, Volga Bulghars, Magyars, Slavs, Rus) copy a lost report of the later ninth century, probably from the Samanid vizier al-Jayhani. It is not firsthand. The corpus copy is M. J. de Goeje's Arabic edition in the Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum VII (Leiden 1892), a University of Toronto scan whose Arabic OCR is unreadable, so quotes were read from the page images.
How they knew
Compiled from others
Who “Tartar” means here
The word Tatar does not appear in these chapters, which predate the Mongols by three centuries. They describe Turkic and other peoples (Khazars, Volga Bulghars, Magyars, 'a race of the Turks') of the lands later labelled Tartary.
Why read it
It shows the steppe and Volga before the Mongols: a Khazar state whose king was Jewish, towns with mosques and Quran schools, Muslim Bulghar farmers trading furs with the Rus, and Magyars moving with their tents.
Watch out
Second-hand information, a century old when copied; names are uncertain in the unique manuscript. Quotes are transcribed from the printed Arabic and the translations are working translations.
Editorial contextHaving named the Khazar towns (Sarighshin and a second, garbled name) as the people's winter quarters, Ibn Rusta continues that in spring they go out to the steppe and stay there until winter comes. The two towns held many Muslims, with mosques, imams, muezzins and Quran schools. It is a pattern of town and pasture later seen among the Golden Horde.
[these two] towns. When spring comes they go out to the steppes and stay there until winter approaches. In these two towns there is a multitude of Muslims, who have mosques, imams, muezzins and Quran schools.
Working translation
Original wording
المدينتين فاذا كان ايام الربيع خرجوا الى الصحارى فلم يزالوا بها الى اقبال الشتاء وفى هاتين المدينتين خلق من المسلمين لهم مساجد وائمة ومؤذنون وكتاتيب
Editorial contextBefore they moved to Hungary, the Magyars lived on the steppe north of the Black Sea. Ibn Rusta calls them a race of the Turks, says their chief rides out with twenty thousand horsemen, and that they have tents (qibab) and move with the grass and pasture. In winter they camped by the rivers and fished.
The Majghariyya are a race of the Turks; their chief rides out with about twenty thousand horsemen … They have domed tents and travel with the grass and the pasture, and their country is wide.
Working translation
Original wording
والمجغرية جنس من الترك ويركب رئيسهم فى مقدار عشرين الف فارس … ولهم قباب يسيرون مع الكلأ والخصب وبلادهم واسعة
Editorial contextThe Bulghars (written Bulkar) lived on the Itil (Volga), between the Khazars and the Slavs; their king was a Muslim. Ibn Rusta says the Khazars and the Rus came to trade with them in sable, ermine and squirrel, and that they farmed wheat, barley and millet, and that most of them were Muslims with mosques and schools. Their land around Bolgar later became part of the Golden Horde and then the Kazan khanate.
They are a people who have crops and ploughing; they sow every kind of grain, wheat, barley, millet and so on. Most of them profess the religion of Islam; in their settlements there are mosques and Quran schools, and they have muezzins and imams.
Working translation
Original wording
وهم قوم لهم زرع وحراثة يزرعون كل الحبوب من الحنطة والشعير والدخن وغير ذلك واكثرهم ينتحلون دين الاسلام وفى محالهم مساجد وكتاتيب ولهم مؤذنون وائمة
Editorial contextIbn Rusta says the Khazars had a king called Isha who ran the army, while the supreme king, the Khazar Khaqan, had only the name. The supreme ruler was of the Jewish religion, as were Isha and the commanders and nobles who followed him; the rest followed a religion like that of the Turks.
They have a king called Isha; the supreme king is the Khazar Khaqan, but he has nothing of the Khazars' obedience except the name … Their supreme chief follows the religion of the Jews, and so do Isha and those commanders and great men who lean his way; the rest of them follow a religion like the religion of the Turks.
Working translation
Original wording
ولهم ملك يقال له ايشا والملك الاعظم انما هو خزر خاقان وليس له من طاعة الخزر الا الاسم … ورئيسهم الاعظم على دين اليهود وكذلك ايشا ومن يميل ميله من القواد والعظماء والبقية منهم على دين شبيه دين الاتراك
Copied from an earlier report; the Khazar state was destroyed c.965, long before the word Tartar came into use.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR of the Arabic is garbled); vowel marks omitted.
The fine print
How we know
compilation Assembled from earlier sources. The author did not observe it directly.
compilation of the Jayhani tradition (lost) on the Khazars, Burtas, Bulghars, Magyars, Slavs and Rus; not firsthand
Research notes
IA series metadata dates every BGA volume 1870 and attributes all to Ibn Hawqal; volume VII is Ibn Rusta and al-Ya'qubi (1892). Khvolson's 1869 Russian edition of the northern chapters is on vostlit.
Why it matters
Earliest surviving redaction of the Jayhani description of the northern peoples (Khazars to Rus), the textual ancestor of Gardizi, Marvazi and the Hudud al-Alam sections on the steppe.