What ‘the Horde’ meant
Editorial contextSchlözer explains that orda, from which the German word Horde was corrupted, is Turkish and Tatar ordu: first a field camp, then the sutlers' quarter of the camp and everyone who trailed after the army. Because the Mongols and Tatars of Kipchak long stayed nomads and warriors, Russian annals added a third meaning: the headquarters of the khan to whom the Russians paid tribute. ‘Going to the Horde’ meant appearing before the overlord as supplicant, vassal or litigant, just as Greek princes after 1453 went ‘to the Porte’ of the sultan.
Because the Mongols and Tatars in Kipchak long remained nomads and mere warriors, a third meaning arose in the Russian annals, by which Orda denoted the headquarters of the Tatar commander, namely the one under whose yoke the Russians stood. To go to the Horde now meant to appear before the supreme ruler as a supplicant, as a vassal, as a defendant or as an accuser.
Working translation
Original wording
Weil nun die Mogolen und Tataren in Kaptschak lange Zeit Nomaden und blosse Krieger blieben: so kam in den rußischen Annalen eine IIIte Bedeutung auf, nach der Orda das Hauptquartier des tatarischen Heerführers, und zwar desjenigen, unter dessen Joche die Russen stunden, bezeichnete. In die Orde gehen, hieß nun so viel, als wie Supplicant, wie Vasall, wie Beklagter, oder wie Ankläger, vor dem Ober Regenten erscheinen.
About Mongols and Tatars of the Kipchak khanate