The khan's palace: stone walls and iron gates
Editorial contextEvliya's tour of the Crimean khan's palace (the Khan Saray) says it is surrounded on all four sides by gardens, like a fortress, with walls of masonry cut stone but no battlements or ramparts. It has four strong iron gates, a mint, kitchens, a garden gate and the harem gate guarded by black eunuchs, and many storeyed pavilions and halls, each built by a different khan.
First: because this heart-delighting palace has gardens like Iram on all four sides, it is a garden palace (bagche saray). On all four sides it is a most private palace with walls of masonry cut stone, square like a fortress, like the palace of Shaddad; but around this palace there are no battlements or ramparts … It has strong, solid iron gates in four places in all.
Working translation
Original wording
اولا بوسرای دلکشانك جانب اربعه‌سی باغ ارملر اولدوغیچون باغچه‌سرایدر جانب اربعه‌سی قلعه‌مثال چارکوشه شدادی مثال کارکیر طاش بنا دیوارلی سرای خاص الخاصدر امابو سرایك اطرافنده دندان بدنلری وقلعه یصدقلری یوقدر ... جمله درت یرده قوی ومتین دمیر قپولری واردر
About Crimean Tatars (Giray khans)
Keep in mind
The palace he saw was largely rebuilt after a Russian fire in 1736; this is one of the fullest early descriptions.
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The slave market at Karasu
Editorial contextEvliya describes a great slave market beside the walls of Shirin Bey's khan at Karasubazar, where mothers were sold away from sons and brothers from sisters amid weeping. He calls the traders a merciless people, cursed in a saying as 'sellers of men', and warns buyers about the tricks of dealers and midwives. The Crimean economy rested heavily on captives taken in raids.
At the head of the great bridge, in a wide square below the wall of Shirin Bey's khan, there is a huge slave market; this too is an ill-omened market, a lesson to behold, for of them it is said: 'The seller of men, the cutter of trees and the breaker of stone, God curse him in this world and the next' … They are slave-dealing peoples, for this people is exceedingly merciless.
Working translation
Original wording
وبیوك جسر باشنده بر واسع میدانده شیرین بکی خانك دیواری دبنده بر عظیم اسیر بازاری دورر بو دخی بر عبرت نما بازار نحوستدرکم حقلرنده ( بایع البشر وقاطع الشجر وخارق الحجر لعن الله فی الدنیا والآخرة ) ... دینلمش اسیرجی قوملریدر زیرا بوقوم زیاده‌سیله بی‌رحم قومدرلر
About Crimean Tatars and captives (Russians, Circassians, Abkhaz)
Keep in mind
Evliya was himself a slave-owner and took captives on raids; he condemns the dealers, not the institution.
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Horsemeat, mare's milk and 'no lies' among the Sarai Tatars
Editorial contextOn the Tatars around old Sarai, Evliya writes that they love horseflesh above all, some boiling it and some eating it raw with the blood running, and drink boza, kumiss (mare's milk) and camel's milk. He claims they know no backbiting, slander or lies, since they fear no one. All these Tatars are desert-dwellers who move with their camel-carts, and they became Muslims (Hanafi and Shafi'i) after Chinggis Khan.
What all of them love most is horse meat: many tribes cook horse meat, and many tribes eat the meat raw with the blood running. Instead of water they drink boza, mare's-milk kumiss and camel's milk … and all the Tatars are desert-dwellers; they mount their camel-carts and migrate.
Working translation
Original wording
همان جمله‌سی زیاده محبت اتدکلری آت اتیدر ونیجه قبیله‌سی آت اتن بشررلر ونیجه قبیله‌سی قانی آقیده آقیده اتی چیك یرلر صو یرینه بوزا وآت سودی قمزی ودوه سودی ایچرلر ... وجمله تاتار صحرا نشینلردر دوه عربه‌لریله بنوب کوچرلر
About Nogay and other Tatars of the Volga (the 'Sarai Tatars')
Keep in mind
Mixes observation with stock claims; Evliya's Volga journey is thought partly invented or exaggerated.
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Kalmyks who live in houses on carts
Editorial contextEvliya says the Kalmyks have no fleas, lice, bedbugs, snakes, scorpions or tarantulas among them, because their round houses stand on carts and they live on the open steppe. He then begins his description of their appearance: small eyes, said to come from the salt mines of the region.
Among them there are no fleas, lice, bedbugs, snakes, tarantulas or scorpions at all, because their round houses are on carts and they are desert-dwellers.
Working translation
Original wording
وبونلرده اصلا پیره وکهله وتخته بتی ویلان وچیان وعقرب اولمز زیرا درم اولری عربه‌لر اوزره اولوب صحرا نشینلردر
About Kalmyks (Oirat Mongols)
Keep in mind
The link between cart-houses and the absence of vermin is Evliya's own explanation. 'Kalmyk' here means Oirat Mongols recently arrived on the Volga, whom he treats as a kind of Tatar.
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How Bahcesaray was founded, 'as the Tatar historians say'
Editorial contextEvliya reports the Crimean Tatars' own story of their origins: the first conquerors of Crimea settled at Eski Yurt near Salachik, coming from Mahan, Ahlat, Kerman and Yesu, and from Kazan, Astrakhan and Sarai. As the Tatars multiplied and the old site grew too small, they settled at Bahcesaray and spread over the whole peninsula, while the 'Genoese infidels' stayed in their seaside fortresses. He names Jochi Khan and 'Artogmuz Khan' as the conquerors behind its first building.
According to the Tatar historians, the first conqueror of Crimea settled at the Eski Salachik yurt; Tatars came to Crimea from the cities of Mahan, Ahlat, Kerman and Yesu and from the lands of Kazan, Astrakhan and Sarai, and as they multiplied they no longer fitted into the old yurt, and settled at this Bahcesaray site.
Working translation
Original wording
قوم تاتارك مورخلری قوللری اوزره ابتدا فاتح قریم اسکی صلاجق یوردنده ساکن اولوب ماهان واخلاط وکرمان ویسو شهرلرندن وقازان واژدرخان وسرای اولکه‌لرندن قریمه تاتارلر کله‌رك تناسل بوله‌راق اسکی یورده صغمیوب بوباغچه سرای یوردنده توطن ایدوب
About Crimean Tatars
Keep in mind
A local origin tradition, retold with Evliya's own additions; it links Crimea to Kazan, Astrakhan and the Golden Horde capital Sarai.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR is partly garbled); bracketed variant markers omitted.
Kalmyks and the hadith of the Turks
Editorial contextEvliya lists the many spellings of the Kalmyk name and says all historians call them the 'yellow folk' (Bani Asfar). He applies to them a hadith about God's soldiers in the east 'whose name is Turk'. He adds that twenty years earlier the Kalmyks were not on this steppe and 140 Nogay tribes grazed it, sending butter to Taman to be sold cheaply in Istanbul; when the Kalmyks arrived the Nogays were routed and butter became dear.
Kalmuk, Kalmak, Kalmaq, Kalmakh and Kalmagh: all the historians call them the people of Bani Asfar [the 'yellow folk'] … Indeed, twenty years ago this Kalmyk people were not present on this vast steppe, and all the hundred and forty tribes of the Nogay people camped and migrated on the open steppe.
Working translation
Original wording
قالمق وقالماق وقلماق وقلماخ وقلماغ جمیع مورخان بونلره بنی عصفر قومی درلر ... حتی بوقالمق قومی یکرمی سنه مقدم بوهیهات صحراسنده وجودلری اولمیوب جمله نوغای قومنك یوز قرق عدد قبیله‌لری صحرای هیهاتده قنوب کوچوب
About Kalmyks (Oirat Mongols)
Keep in mind
The print reads 'Bani Asfar' with a misprint noted by the editor. The dating of the Kalmyk arrival is roughly right (1630s); the religious framing is Evliya's.
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The Kalmyk 'Kaaba' and Alexander's wall
Editorial contextEvliya records what Kalmyks told him about a domed shrine they call their Kaaba, far to the east beyond a sea of ice. He adds his own learned gloss: Alexander built the Wall of Gog and Magog from every kind of metal, the mountains the Kalmyks call the Yildirak Dag, then built this dome with ancient sages and hid his treasures in it. On a following page Kalmyk elders say their ancestors died from a deafening noise behind the metal mountains.
[Alexander] built the Barrier of Alexander, the mountains, out of every kind of metal; it is the Barrier of Gog, which the Kalmyk people call the 'Yildirak Dag' [the glittering mountain]; afterwards Alexander built the dome which they call their Kaaba.
Working translation
Original wording
سد اسکندر داغلرن جمیع معادنلردن بنا ایدوب قوم قالمغك ( یلدراق داغ ) دیدکلری سد یأجوجدر بعده اسکندر بونلرك کعبه دیدکلری قبه‌یی بنا ایدوب
About Kalmyks (Oirat Mongols)
Keep in mind
Evliya's modern editor adds a long note calling the story an invention; it mixes Kalmyk (Buddhist) pilgrimage tales with Islamic Alexander legend.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR is partly garbled); bracketed variant markers omitted.