The first survey of the Crimea after its annexation by Russia, written by the peninsula's vice-governor in 1784 and 1785 and translated into German in 1789.
Full title Physical Description of the Taurida Governorate according to its situation and all three realms of nature (German translation, Hanover and Osnabrück 1789)
Karl Ludwig Hablizl, a German-born naturalist who had travelled with Samuel Gmelin as a student, served as vice-governor of the new Russian province of Taurida (the former Crimean Khanate) in 1784 and 1785. His 'Physical Description' surveys the peninsula's steppes, mountains, rocks, soils, climate, plants and animals. The Crimean Tatars appear mostly in passing: the Tatar names of mountains and plants, their gardens, foods, bees and livestock, and the old cave towns and ruined fortresses around Bakhchysarai and on the south coast. The corpus holds two Bavarian State Library copies of the 1789 German translation (Hanover and Osnabrück).
How they knew
Eyewitness
Who “Tartar” means here
The Crimean Tatars, the Muslim Turkic villagers, gardeners and herders of the peninsula, recently subjects of the Russian Empire after the end of the Crimean Khanate in 1783.
Why read it
It shows how an official naturalist saw the Crimea right after the annexation, and it treats the famous cave towns as the work of unnamed 'old inhabitants', not of the Tatars who then lived beside them.
Watch out
Mainly a natural history: Tatar life appears only in short asides, often with a Russian official's condescension about Tatar 'neglect'. It is a German translation of a Russian original, and the OCR of both copies is patchy.
Cave rooms at Tepe-Kermen were homes, not just tombs
Editorial contextHablizl describes the rock-cut rooms in the cliffs around Bakhchysarai, 'two- and three-chambered caves' in many hills. The most remarkable are on the cone-shaped hill of Tepe-Kermen, five versts from Bakhchysarai. Some writers claimed they were only tombs, because human bones lie in them, but he argues that the doorways, light openings and water channels show people really lived there. Nearby, at Bakla-Koba, he likewise says the caves 'served the old inhabitants of this region as dwellings'; he never credits them to the Tatars.
The most remarkable of them is in the high, solitary hill of Tepe-Kermen, five versts from Bakhchysarai. … In the caves various human bones are found, from which some writers have claimed that they served only for burial; but the openings for the entrance, for letting in light, and the various water channels there prove that they were really inhabited.
Working translation
Original wording
Die merkwürdigste derselben ist in dem, fünf Werste von Bachschisarai, einzeln stehenden hohen Berge: Täpe-Kirmann … befindlich. … In den Höhlen finden sich verschiedene Menschenknochen, woher einige Schriftsteller ausschließend behauptet haben, daß solche blos zum Begräbniß gedient hätten; allein die Oefnungen zum Eingange, zur Durchlassung des Lichts und die verschiedenen dort befindlichen Wasserleitungen beweisen, daß sie wirklich bewohnt gewesen sind.
Tatar orchards that look as if nature planted them
Editorial contextHablizl was struck by the Tatar gardens in the valleys, with fruit trees mixed among shade trees round the fences. He saw almost no sign of labour in them, so that they looked planted by nature alone, and the Tatars seldom grafted or pruned their trees, yet they got the best fruit; the vines grew huge, crawling on the ground or up the trees. His tone is that of a Russian official who thought the land could be 'improved'.
… one sees everywhere very few traces of effort and labour applied. For that very reason they look as though they had been laid out by nature alone. Despite the almost complete lack of care, most fruits turn out exceptionally well. The Tatars seldom graft their trees, or take the trouble, as is usual elsewhere, to prune them, and yet they get the best fruit from them.
Working translation
Original wording
… so bemerkt man überall äußerst wenig Spuren von angewandter Mühe und Arbeit. Eben deswegen hat es auch das Ansehen, als ob sie von der Natur allein angelegt worden wären. Ungeachtet der fast gänzlich mangelnden Aufsicht, gerathen die meisten Früchte vorzüglich gut. Selten pfropfen die Tataren ihre Bäume, oder bemühen sich, wie es sonst gewöhnlich ist, sie zu reinigen und dennoch erhalten sie von ihnen die besten Früchte.
Editorial contextSix versts from Inkerman a soapy clay was dug from pits and tunnels. Turkish and Tatar women used it in the bath to wash their faces, and it was shipped in quantity from Balaklava to Constantinople. The Tatars called it simply kil, while mineralogists knew it as 'keffekil', probably, Hablizl thinks, because it was once shipped from Kaffa (Feodosia).
Turkish and Tatar ladies use it in the bath for washing the face. It is shipped very often from Balaklava to Constantinople … The Tatars call it kil and not keffekil, the name under which it is otherwise known among mineralogists.
Working translation
Original wording
Die Türkischen und Tatarischen Frauenzimmer bedienen sich desselben beym Baden zum Waschen des Gesichts. Er wird sehr häufig, von Baluklawa aus, nach Constantinopel geführt … Die Tataren nennen ihn Kil und nicht Keffekil, unter welchem letztern Namen er sonst unter den Mineralogen bekannt ist.
Editorial contextIn his list of garden plants, Hablizl notes that long pumpkins grew in all the gardens and that the Tatars cooked them in many ways, most often stuffing them with meat to make the dish called dolma.
The Tatars prepare them in various ways as food and eat them often. Mostly they stuff them with meat and make from them the dish called dolma.
Working translation
Original wording
Die Tataren bereiten sie auf verschiedene Art zu Speisen, und essen sie häufig. Meistentheils füllen sie solche mit Fleisch, und verfertigen daraus das Gericht, welches man Dolma …
Editorial contextOn a headland of the Crimean south coast, Hablizl saw the remains of old columns and fallen masonry. The Tatars called the ruins Choban-kale, 'the shepherds' fortress', not after whoever built them but because the herds grazing there used them as a shelter. It is a small example of how Tatar place names often describe present use rather than claim ancient origins.
On the summit of the headland one still sees the remains of former columns and ruined masonry, which ruins are called by the Tatars Choban-kale, or the Shepherds' Fortress, because they serve as a refuge for the herds grazing there.
Working translation
Original wording
Auf dem Gipfel des Vorgebirges sieht man jetzt noch die Trümmer von ehemaligen Säulen und verfallenes Mauerwerk, welche Ruinen von den Tataren Tschoban-kale oder die Hirten-Festung genannt werden, weil sie den dort weidenden Heerden zum Zufluchtsorte dienen.
Editorial contextHablizl notes that one of the two great mountains closing the valley near Alushta, thought to be the highest in all Taurida, is called by the Tatars Chatyr-Dag, 'Tent Mountain', because from a distance its summit looks like a tent.
From a distance its summit has the shape of a tent, and for that very reason the Tatars call it Chatyr-Dag or Chatyr-Dagi, which in German means as much as 'Tent Mountain'.
Working translation
Original wording
Sein Gipfel hat von weitem die Gestalt eines Zeltes, und eben … deswegen wird er von den Tataren Tschatür-dag … oder Tschatür-dagi genannt, welches auf deutsch so viel als Zeltberg heißt.
firsthand The author saw the places or people described.
firsthand observation by the vice-governor of Taurida 1784-1785; official survey
Research notes
Translation from Russian; mainly natural history, Tatar society treated briefly.
Why it matters
First systematic post-annexation survey of the Crimean peninsula, the former Crimean Khanate; German access to Russian official knowledge of Little Tartary in the 1780s.