A horse on a pole for the dead lord
Editorial contextRiccoldo describes Tartar funerals: cooked meat, clothes and money buried with the dead, and for a great lord a horse ridden to exhaustion, killed, stuffed with green grass and hung up on a stake, told to be ready whenever its master rises again. He adds that they once buried up to twenty living slaves with a lord until Christians shamed them out of it, and that Tartars even paid bishops to be buried in Christian cemeteries.
and the horse falls, and he guts it and empties everything from the horse's belly and fills it with green grass, and then drives a great stake in from behind and makes the stake come out at the mouth, and so leaves the horse impaled, and hangs it up and orders it to be ready whenever its lord wishes to rise
Working translation
Original wording
et equus cadit, et ipse exenterat eum et euacuat omnia de ventre equi, et implet herba viridi, et postea infigit palum magnum per posteriora, et facit palum exire vsque ad os, et ita dimittit equum impalatum, et suspendit eum et mandat ei, quod sit paratus, quandocumque wlt dominus surgere
About Tartars (Mongols of the Ilkhanate)
Keep in mind
He does not say he watched a funeral; this is presented as general custom. The horse-on-a-pole rite matches steppe burial practice reported by other travellers.
Execution called 'sleep', and a blank space for the lord's name
Editorial contextTwo sharp details of Mongol court manners. When writing to a superior, a Tartar leaves a gap where the lord's name belongs and writes the name out in the margin. When a man is condemned, the lord says 'cut him and make him sleep', because they do not call death death, and the condemned simply holds out his arms to be bound.
When they write to their superiors they keep such reverence that they do not write their superior's name in its place, but leave an empty space and afterwards write the name outside, in the margin, in another place.
Working translation
Original wording
Cum scribunt suis maioribus, tantam reuerenciam habent et seruant, quod non scribant nomen sui maioris in suo loco, sed dimittunt spacium vacuum et postea scribunt nomen de foris in margine in alio loco.
About Tartars (Mongols of the Ilkhanate)
Why the Tartars became Muslims
Editorial contextRiccoldo explains the Ilkhanate's conversion to Islam from a missionary's frustrated point of view: the Tartars had neither law nor prophet, found Islam an easy law, and Muslims gave them rich gifts to convert, so that now 'for the most part' they have become Saracens. He adds that many still like Christians but find Christianity too hard and are offered no presents.
they took up the law and became Saracens, above all because the Tartars had neither law nor prophet. So now for the greater part the Tartars have become Saracens. For the Saracens buy them and give them very great gifts so that they will become Saracens.
Working translation
Original wording
acceperunt legem, et facti sunt Sarraceni, maxime quia ipsi Tartari nec legem nec prophetam habebant. Vnde modo pro magna parte Tartari facti sunt Sarraceni. Nam et Sarraceni eos emunt et dant eis maxima dona, vt ipsi efficiantur Sarraceni.
About Tartars (Mongols of the Ilkhanate)
Keep in mind
A partisan explanation; the Ilkhan Ghazan converted in 1295, within Riccoldo's stay.
'Mogoli' from 'Magogoli': the Tartars and Gog and Magog
Editorial contextRiccoldo weighs the theory that the Tartars were the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel shut behind the Caspian mountains by Alexander, notes that they hate Alexander's name and that their script looks like Chaldean, then argues against it. He reports that they themselves claim descent from Gog and Magog, which is why they are called Mogoli, as if a corruption of 'Magogoli'. It is a textbook example of how Europeans fitted the Mongols into biblical and Alexander legends.
They themselves say they are descended from Gog and Magog. Hence they are called Mogoli, as if from a corruption of the word Magogoli.
Working translation
Original wording
Ipsi vero dicunt se descendisse de Gog et Magog. Vnde ipsi dicuntur Mogoli, quasi corrupto vocabulo Magogoli.
About Tartars (Mongols)
Keep in mind
A folk etymology. 'Mongol' has nothing to do with Magog; the claim that Mongols themselves said this is Riccoldo's report and is doubtful.
The hare, the owl and the fortress of wind
Editorial contextRiccoldo's origin tale: the Tartars lived shut in by mountains whose only pass held an empty fortress that roared with the noise of horses, men and trumpets, a trick of the wind. A hunter chasing a hare followed it in, saw an owl singing on the gate, reasoned that no one lives where a hare runs and an owl sings, and led his people out. So, Riccoldo says, Tartars honour the hare and paint it on arms and tents, and nobles wear owl feathers and owl skins, which Western merchants now sell them for up to twenty pounds each.
'There is no dwelling of men where a hare flees and an owl sings.' And so, entering confidently, he found no one.
Working translation
Original wording
Non est habitacio hominum, vbi lepus fugit et bubo cantat. Et sic fiducialiter intrans neminem inuenit.
About Tartars (Mongols)
Keep in mind
A legend Riccoldo heard; Hayton of Corycus (W229) tells a different owl story in which the bird saves Genghis Khan in a bush.
A shaman who seemed to fly
Editorial contextRiccoldo says the Tartars honour above all men certain 'boxitae' (bakhshis), priests of idols from India, wise and grave, who practise magic with the help of demons, show many marvels and foretell the future. One of their leaders was said to fly, but, Riccoldo reports, it was found that he only walked just above the ground without touching it and sat on nothing solid.
For one of the greater among them was said to fly, but according to the truth it was found that he did not fly, but walked close to the ground without touching it, and when he seemed to sit he was held up by nothing solid.
Working translation
Original wording
Nam et vnus maior inter eos dicebatur volare, sed secundum veritatem repertum est, quod non volauit, sed ambulabat iuxta terram et eam non tangebat, et quando videbatur sedere, nulla re solida sustentabatur.
About Tartars and their 'baxitae' (Buddhist or shamanic priests)
Keep in mind
Hearsay about a wonder, which Riccoldo half-debunks (not flying) and half-repeats (levitating).
The officer boiled alive by the Tartar women
Editorial contextAfter Abaqa's army turned tail before the Mamluks in Syria, Riccoldo says, a great Tartar baron was caught plotting revolt. When the khan wanted to execute him, the Tartar ladies asked for him instead, boiled him alive and fed him in tiny pieces to the whole army as a warning.
the ladies and women of the Tartars opposed it, asking that he be given to them. When he was handed over they cooked him alive and gave him, cut into the smallest pieces, to the whole army to eat, as an example to others.
Working translation
Original wording
obstiterunt domine et mulieres Tartarorum, petentes eum sibi dari. Quo accepto coxerunt eum viuum, et dederunt eum comedere incisum per partes minimas toti exercitui in exemplum aliorum.
About Tartars under Abaqa
Keep in mind
A lurid atrocity story Riccoldo did not witness; treat as rumour.