A German orientalist's 1826 history of Inner Asia, people by people, built from Chinese, Persian and Arabic sources.
Full title Historical tables of Asia from the monarchy of Cyrus to our days, with historical and ethnographic researches on that part of the world (text volume; atlas of 27 maps separate)
Julius Klaproth (1783-1835), a German-born orientalist working in Paris, had crossed the Siberian-Mongolian frontier with a Russian embassy in 1805-1806 and toured the Caucasus in 1807-1808. In 1826 he published this text volume to go with an atlas of 27 historical maps, tracing which peoples held which parts of Asia from Cyrus to his own day. It rests mainly on Chinese dynastic histories, Rashid al-Din, Abu'l-Ghazi and Arabic travellers, which he read in the original languages. The corpus copy is the 1826 Paris edition (Google scans); the atlas itself is a separate item.
How they knew
Compiled from others
Who “Tartar” means here
Klaproth insists that 'Tatar' properly means the Mongols, a tribe first named in Chinese annals in the 9th century, and that calling the Turkic-speaking peoples of Kazan, Astrakhan and Crimea 'Tatars' is a later confusion. He still uses 'Tatarie' loosely as a geographical name for Inner Asia.
Why read it
It shows a leading scholar of the 1820s taking apart both the loose use of the word Tatar and the romantic idea of a lost high civilisation on the 'plateau of Tatary'.
Watch out
Everything here is compiled from written sources, and some of Klaproth's racial and language groupings are his own guesses that have not all held up. In the Google scan, marginal headings run into the text.
The 'High Carts' people and their felt tents on wheels
Editorial contextRetelling Chinese histories, Klaproth explains that one nomadic branch of the Uighurs was called Kao-tche, 'High Carts', probably because the wheels of the carts carrying their felt tents were taller than those of other Turkic tribes. Their main camp lay between the Tula, Orkhon and Selenga rivers.
In the 3rd century of our era it bore the name Kao-tche, or High Carts, probably because the wheels of the carts that carried its felt tents were higher than those of the other Turkic tribes.
Working translation
Original wording
Elle porta, dans le IIIe siècle de notre ère, le nom de Kao tchhe ou de Chariots élevés, vraisemblablement parceque les roues des chariots, qui portaient ses tentes de feutre, étaient plus hautes que celles des autres peuplades turques.
Julius Klaproth, summarising Chinese dynastic histories
Editorial contextFrom Chinese annals Klaproth lists the customs of the High Carts people: bride-price paid in oxen and horses, weddings feasted on curdled mare's milk and roast meat, and a terror of lightning. When a bolt struck they shrieked, shot arrows at the sky and moved camp, then came back the next year to burn a ram in a pit while their sorceresses performed.
When lightning struck, the Kao-tche let out terrible cries, shot arrows against the sky, left their camp and moved it further off. The next year, when their horses were well fattened, they came back in great numbers and dug a pit in which they burned a ram; the sorceresses then performed their magic.
Working translation
Original wording
Quand la foudre tombait, les Kao tchhe poussaient des cris affreux, tiraient des flèches contre le ciel, quittaient leur camp et le transportaient plus loin. L'année suivante, quand leurs chevaux étaient bien gras, il y revenaient en grand nombre, faisaient une fosse dans laquelle ils brûlaient un bélier : les sorcières exécutaient alors leurs prestiges.
Julius Klaproth, translating Chinese dynastic histories
Editorial contextIn a long footnote Klaproth explains that the khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan and Crimea were called Tatar because their rulers descended from Chinggis Khan, even though their subjects were Turks. He adds that a so-called Tatar of Kazan or Astrakhan will deny being a Tatar, calls his language 'Turki', and hears 'Tatar' as an insult meaning brigand.
Yet ask a so-called Tatar of Kazan or Astrakhan whether he is a Tatar: he will say no; he will call the language he speaks Turki, and never Tatari. Not having forgotten that his ancestors were subjugated by the Mongols or Tatars, he regards that name as an insult equal to the word brigand.
Working translation
Original wording
Qu'on demande, cependant, à un soi-disant Tatar de Kazan ou d'Astrakhan, s'il est un Tatar; il répondra négativement ; il appellera l'idiome qu'il parle turki, et jamais tatari. N'ayant pas oublié que ses ancêtres ont été subjugués par les Mongols ou Tatars, il regarde ce dernier nom comme une injure équivalente au mot brigand.
The 'plateau of Tatary' that exists only in their heads
Editorial contextSome 18th-century writers had argued that all Old World civilisation began on a high plateau in the middle of Tatary. Klaproth, discussing the Uighurs, says their little kingdom never counted for much and gives no support to that idea, and he says bluntly that the plateau exists only in the brains of those who believe in it.
The favourite hypothesis of those who would have all the civilisation of the Old World come from the plateau of Tatary, which exists only in their brains, therefore receives no support from the Uighurs, whose little kingdom never rose to any political importance
Working translation
Original wording
L'hypothèse favorite de ceux qui veulent que toute la civilisation de l'ancien continent soit venue du plateau de la Tatarie, qui n'existe que dans leur cerveau, ne reçoit donc aucun appui de la part des Ouigour, dont le petit royaume ne s'est jamais élevé à une certaine importance politique
About Uighurs (a Turkic people of the eastern Tian Shan)
Keep in mind
Klaproth is arguing against earlier scholars (notably Bailly); this is his judgement, not an observation.
The fine print
How we know
compilation Assembled from earlier sources. The author did not observe it directly.
compilation of earlier sources (Chinese, Persian, Greek, Russian) with Klaproth's own Caucasus and Siberian frontier observations of 1805-1808 informing the ethnography
Research notes
Klaproth's racial-linguistic identifications (e.g. Massagetae as Germanic) are his own conjectures; treat as retrospective interpretation. The accompanying atlas (27 maps) is a separate physical item.
German-language Klaproth works (Reise in den Kaukasus, Asia polyglotta) belong to the German agent; only the French items recorded here.
Why it matters
Klaproth's attempt to map the succession of peoples over Inner Asia period by period; the commentary states which ancient and medieval names he equates with which modern Tartar peoples and why, making the reasoning behind such identifications inspectable.