(1.) “Great Tartaria.”—The details entered into by Schiltberger
in this chapter, demonstrate that he includes in Great Tatary the
possessions of the three branches of the Jujy. First, the Ordou Itchen
or the White Horde, who were the successors of the eldest son of
Jujy. Secondly, those of the Golden Horde, the successors of Batou,
the second son; and, Thirdly, those of Shaïban, the fifth son, who,
in recompense for his brilliant services during Batou’s campaign in
Russia, received from the Ordou Itchen some territories near the
Ural for his summer encampment; and for his winter use, those near
the Syr Darya, that is to say, the actual steppe of the Kirghis, so
that the domains of the Shaïbani separated the Golden Horde from the
White Horde. Their dominions afterwards extended northwards, when they
nominated khans to Siberia.
(1A.) “Tartaria” and “Tartaren”, as the names are spelled throughout
the text, are substituted in these Notes by Tatary and Tatars, it is
hoped on fair grounds. Professor Nève asserts (_Exposé des Guerres de
Tamerlan_, etc.: _d’après la Chronique Arménienne inédite de_ Thomas de
Medzoph, 24) that Tatar is the term employed by Armenian chroniclers,
and he names no exceptions; and is not her ancient literature one
of the several excellencies of which Armenia may be justly proud?
A note by Dr. Smith in Gibbon (_Rise and Fall_, etc., iii, 294)
shows how the Tatars became accidentally named Tartars, through an
exclamation of St. Louis of France, although it must be admitted that
according to other authors, the use of the word Tartar, in Western
Europe, is of earlier date; and Genebrard states (_Lib. Heb. Chro.
Bib._, i, 158) that Tatar, which in the Hebrew and Syriac signifies
abandoned, deserted, should more correctly be written without an r.
The Russians, whose pronunciation of these words is, for obvious
reasons, entitled to every consideration, speak of Tatáry’ya-Tatary—and
Tatáry—Tatars—unquestionably the sound uttered by the various people
themselves, claiming the distinctive appellation, whether on the
banks of the Volga, in South Russia, the Crimea, or in the steppes
and lowlands of Transcaucasia, as the writer of this note is prepared
to testify. The Russian word Tatarui, or Tatars, says Ralston (_Early
Russian History_, 198, wherein is cited F. Porter Smith’s _Vocab._,
etc., 52), modified in Western Europe by a reference to Tartarus into
Tartars, is now generally applied by Russian writers to what used
to be the Turkish subjects of the Mongol Empire. It is said to be a
corruption of Tah-tan, the name under which the Mongols were anciently
known to the Chinese. Morrison writes Tătă as Chinese for Tartars.
Colonel Yule (Marco Polo, i, 12) calls attention to an article in the
_Journal Asiatique_, ser. v, tom. xi, 203, to show that the name Tartar
is of Armenian rather than of European origin, whilst admitting that
Tatar was used by Oriental writers of Polo’s age, exactly as Tartar was
then, and is still, used in Western Europe as a generic title for the
Turanian hosts who followed Chingis and his successors; but he believes
that the name in this sense was not known in Western Europe before the
time of Chingis.
In Howorth’s _History of the Mongols_, 1877 (the one volume as yet
published), a ponderous book of 743 pages, replete with the most
erudite information, but unhappily unprovided with any guide to its
contents, will be found at page 700, a long note, in which admission is
made that the word Tartar has given rise to much discussion; and whilst
the Russian and Byzantine authors, the Bohemian chronicler Dalemil, Ivo
of Narbonne, and Thomas of Spalatro, are cited in favour of the use of
Tatar, other authorities are quoted to establish a respectable pedigree
for Tartar.—ED.
(2.) “Seat him on white felt, and raise him in it three times.”—The
raising to the White Felt is similarly described by Giovanni dal Piano
di Carpine (_Recueil de Voy. et de Mém._, etc.). Vambery (_Trav. in
Central Asia_, 356) says that the being raised to the White Felt is
still the exclusive privilege of the gray-beards of the tribe of
Jagatai, and that the custom is kept up at the investiture of the khans
of Khokand.—ED.