D'Ohsson's History of the Mongols from Genghis Khan to Tamerlane
A diplomat-scholar's four-volume history of the Mongol empire built from Persian and Arabic manuscripts, The Hague and Amsterdam 1834 to 1835.
Full title History of the Mongols from Genghis Khan to Timur Bey or Tamerlane (4 vols, second enlarged edition 1834-1835; first edition vol. 1 only, 1824)
Constantin d'Ohsson, a Swedish diplomat of Armenian-Ottoman background, wrote the standard nineteenth-century history of the Mongols from Persian and Arabic historians (Rashid al-Din, Juvaini, Ibn al-Athir, Wassaf and others) read in Paris manuscripts, with Chinese material taken from Gaubil and Mailla. He saw none of the places; he compiled, translated and compared sources, often quoting them at length in notes. The work runs from the steppe tribes before Chinggis Khan to the Ilkhans and the Golden Horde. This corpus has the 1834 to 1835 Van Cleef edition, 4 vols (T0656 to T0659), and the 1852 reissue (T0655).
How they knew
Compiled from others
Who “Tartar” means here
D'Ohsson uses 'tatare' for a whole 'race' of steppe peoples (Mongols, Turks and others) and 'Tatares' for the Mongol armies as Muslim writers named them, while keeping 'Tatars' also as the name of one tribe, the enemies Chinggis destroyed in 1202.
Why read it
A clear, source-based narrative that lets the reader hear the medieval Persian and Arabic historians, with the original chroniclers quoted in the notes.
Watch out
Derivative, and d'Ohsson read no Mongolian or Chinese; he could be severe on the Mongols, reflecting his Muslim sources. The 1852 reissue repeats the 1834 text.
Editorial contextIn a note d'Ohsson translates the Arab historian Ibn al-Athir on the first Mongol raid into the western steppe. The 'Tatars' reached Sudak, a Qipchaq port on the Black ('Khazar') Sea where ships called and where Qipchaqs traded slaves and furs of fox, beaver and squirrel for cloth. They took the town; its people fled to the mountains or by sea to Seljuk Anatolia. The note then describes the Tatars' feigned retreat before crushing the Russians.
The Tatars advanced as far as the town of Sudak, which belongs to the Qipchaqs and from which they draw their grain; it lies on the Khazar Sea and ships put in there. Cloth is found there, which the Qipchaqs come to buy, giving in exchange slaves of both sexes and fox skins … The Tatars took Sudak, whose inhabitants fled
Working translation
Original wording
Les Tatares s'avancèrent jusqu'à la ville de Soudac, qui appartient aux Kiptchacs, et d'où ils tirent leurs grains; elle est située sur la Mer Khazarienne, et les vaisseaux y abordent. On y trouve des étoffes, que les Kiptchacs viennent acheter, donnant en échange des esclaves des deux sexes et des peaux de renard … Les Tatares s'emparèrent de Soudac, dont les habitants prirent la fuite
Ibn al-Athir, translated by Constantin d'Ohsson (Note VII)
Editorial contextIn his opening survey d'Ohsson sums up the old steppe religion: a supreme being called Tangri, like the sky; worship of sun, moon, mountains, rivers and elements, with bows to the south and drink sprinkled to the heavens; and little wooden or felt figures, ongon, hung on the walls of their huts, bowed to and fed by smearing meat or milk on their mouths. The page before describes burial with a mare, a foal and a saddled horse.
They acknowledged a Supreme Being, whom they called, like the sky, by the name Tangri. … Their divinities were represented by small figures of wood or felt, called Ongon, which they hung on the walls of their huts; they bowed before these idols and offered them the first portions of their meals, rubbing their mouths with meat or milk.
Working translation
Original wording
Ils reconnaissaient un Etre Suprême, qu'ils désignaient ainsi que le ciel, par le nom de Tangri. … Leurs divinités étaient représentées par de petites figures de bois ou de feutre, nommées Ongon, qu'ils suspendaient aux parois de leurs huttes; ils s'inclinaient devant ces idoles, et leur offraient les prémices de leurs repas, en leur frottant la bouche avec de la viande ou du lait.
The Tatars: a separate nation that Chinggis crushed in 1202
Editorial contextD'Ohsson, following Rashid al-Din and the Chinese annals, treats the Tatars as a distinct people: seventy thousand households around Lake Buir by the Jurchen frontier, split into six feuding tribes and bitter enemies of the Mongols. In spring 1202 Temüjin attacked and defeated them.
This nation, which lived in the country around Lake Buir, near the frontier of the Jurchen, then numbered seventy thousand huts, or families, and was divided into six tribes … There was great hostility between them and the Mongols.
Working translation
Original wording
Cette nation, qui habitait le pays environnant le lac Bouyour, près de la frontière des Tchourtchés, comptait alors soixante-dix mille huttes, ou familles, et se divisait en six tribus … Il régnait une grande animosité entre eux et les Mongols.
Constantin d'Ohsson (from Rashid al-Din and the Chinese annals)
A 'magician' who dug up a jewel and won the Ilkhan's trust
Editorial contextIn a footnote from the Syriac chronicler Bar Hebraeus, d'Ohsson tells of Abd al-Rahman, a slave's son who escaped the sack of Baghdad, worked as a carpenter in Mosul, and then claimed spirits had taught him magic. Taken to the Mongol ruler Abaqa, he asked to be brought to the treasure castle of Tala, paced the ground, pointed to a spot, and there a ring with a precious stone was dug up. From then on he was believed to command demons, and under Ahmad he ran the whole kingdom.
he began to measure the ground this way and that; then he pointed to a spot where they should dig, and himself stood some distance away. Digging, they found a ring set with a stone of great value; it was taken to Abaqa. This having confirmed the words of the so-called magician, everything he said was believed
Working translation
Original wording
il se mit à mesurer le sol de côté et d'autre; puis il indiqua un endroit où l'on devait creuser, et se tint lui-même à quelque distance. En creusant on trouva un anneau, où il y avait une pierre d'un grand prix; on le porta à Abaca. Ce fait ayant confirmé les paroles du prétendu magicien, on ajouta foi à tout ce qu'il disait
Constantin d'Ohsson, summarising Bar Hebraeus (footnote)
About Mongols of the Ilkhanate (Abaqa and Ahmad Tegüder)
Keep in mind
A hostile anecdote from a Christian chronicler about a Muslim favourite; d'Ohsson calls him a 'so-called' magician.
The fine print
How we know
compilation Assembled from earlier sources. The author did not observe it directly.
compilation of earlier sources: built on Rashid al-Din, Juvaini, Ibn al-Athir, Wassaf and other Persian and Arabic manuscripts in Paris, with Chinese material via Gaubil and Mailla; no observation
Research notes
Derivative; d'Ohsson used Paris manuscripts (some now identified) and did not know Mongolian or Chinese; supersedes Petis de la Croix (W077) but preceded Quatremere's edition of the Persian text.
The standard nineteenth-century narrative of the Mongol empire from Islamic sources; its Exposition surveys and evaluates the Persian and Arabic historians of the Mongols, so it doubles as a guide to the primary sources behind the European picture of Tartary in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.