Tatar

“ This he did not try to explain to the Tatar, knowing that it was useless.
“See,” said the young Tatar again; “the standard advances. The wolf has shaken the dogs from his flanks.”
Michael saw that the masses of Tatars that had been stationary were moving forward now. It was almost imperceptible at first, this hive-like movement of men waiting grimly to slay.
Tamerlane's center had stood fast for three hours. Bayezid's last attack had been broken. ”

“ At our establishment there were several Tatars to milk the mares and make the kumys. The wife of one of them, a Tatar beauty, was the professional taster, who issued her orders like an autocrat on that delicate point. She never condescended to work, and it was our opinion that she ought to devote herself to dress, in her many leisure hours, instead of lounging about in ugly calico sacks and petticoats, as hideous as though they had originated in a backwoods farm in New England. ”

“ Later on, the converts moved away to Tatar and Bashkir villages, their place being taken by Tatars, until the whole village became practically Tatar, few of the younger generation retaining any knowledge of the Cheremiss language, and intermarriages taking place only with Tatars.84 Apart from this proselytising activity, there has been a very distinct spread of [251] Tatar influence in speech and manners among the Cheremiss. The Tatar language has spread among them, bringing with it the moral and religious ideas of Islam ”

“ Breaking from the Tatar warriors who held his arms, he fell on his knees.
“Mercy, great lord,” he bellowed. “Oh, mercy. Grant me royal clemency if I have offended. Make me a captive, but spare my life!”
This being interpreted, Tamerlane smiled.
“Verily,” he said shortly, “the Frank is frightened by my face. Nay, Timur the Tatar has harmed no ambassador. Fear not, but join in our feast.”
He signed to the men who held the visitors. Soranzi, a-tremble with anxiety, took this to be a signal for their destruction. ”

“ Turk and Tatar
The Tatars had arrived, swiftly and noiselessly, and a dozen of the warriors, still mounted, were surrounding him.
His helpless condition aroused their curiosity, and while some of them hastily cut away his bonds and raised him to his feet, other plied him with questions in their own language. Rob shook his head to indicate that he could not understand; so they led him to the chief—an immense, bearded representative of the tribe of Kara-Khitai, the terrible and relentless Black Tatars of Thibet. ”

“ The accomplished Mysseri, of whom you have heard me speak so often, and who served me so faithfully throughout my Oriental journeys, acted as our interpreter, and was, in fact, the brain of our corps. The Tatar, you know, is a government courier properly employed in carrying despatches, but also sent with travellers to speed them on their way, and answer with his head for their safety. The man whose head was thus pledged for our precious lives was a glorious-looking fellow, with the regular and handsome cast of countenance which is now characteristic of the Ottoman race. ”

“ Originally Tatar was a name of the Mongolic races, but through their political ascendency in Asia after Chingis-khán, it became usual to call all the tribes which were under Mongolian sway by the name of Tatar. In linguistic works Tataric is now used in two several senses. Following the example of writers of the Middle Ages, Tataric, like Scythian in Greek, has been fixed upon as the general term comprising all languages spoken by the nomadic tribes of Asia. Hence it is used sometimes in the same sense in which we use Turanian. ”

“ Tatar, tä′tar, n. a name originally applied to a native of certain Tungustic tribes in Chinese Tartary, but extended to the Mongol, Turkish, and other warriors, who swept over Asia under Genghis Khan. The term Tatars is used loosely for tribes of mixed origin in Tartary, Siberia, and the Russian steppes, including Kazan Tartars, Crim Tartars, Kipchaks, Kalmucks, &c. In the classification of languages Tartar′ic is used of the Turkish group.—adjs. Tatā′rian, Tatar′ic. [The Turkish and Persian Tátar became Tartar, because they were supposed to be like fiends from hell—Gr. tartoros.] ”

“ And in several instances the Tatars kept faith better than the monarchs of Europe. They respected an envoy and were bitter in their rage against enemies who slew Tatar emissaries.
“Ambassadors are here,“ repeated Michael. “Are you dogs, to worry the stranger who comes with gifts?“
Those who understood his words repeated them to the others. The leader heard and rose from Rudolfo to stride to Michael.
His men joined him. They were short, brawny warriors, wearing furs and leather over their mail, and with bronze helmets bearing pointed guards that came down over brow and nose. ”

“ Tartar is the name of the race of people to which the Turks, Cossacks, and several other peoples belong. The name by which they called themselves was Tatar; but Europeans changed it to Tartar, from the Latin word Tartarus, which means "hell." This gives us some idea of the impression these fierce people made on mediæval Europe—an impression which is kept in memory by the present humorous use of the word. [156]
It is chiefly Eastern peoples whose names have passed into common words meaning fierce and cruel people. Our fairy tales are full of tales of "ogres." ”

“ Jews who have adopted the Tatar language and dress, and who live chiefly by making morocco leather goods, knives, embroidery and so forth. The site is low, but the town is surrounded by hills, which afford protection from the north wind. The dirty streets full of petty traders, the gloomy bazaar with its multitude of tiny shops, the market squares, the blind alleys, the little gates in the dead courtyard walls, all give the place the stamp of a Tatar or Turkish town. ”

“ We called out to them to send us their boat, but the bargemen, though they heard us, went past and gave us no assistance.
A peasant, who had his wife with him in a small boat, rowed up to us and asked what was the matter. “What of that?” he said. “Stop the leak, say a prayer, and start off. There’s nothing to worry about; but you’re a Tatar, and that’s why you’re so helpless.” Then he waded over to our raft.
The Tatar was really very much alarmed. In the first place, my keeper, who was asleep when the water came on board and wet him, sprang to his feet and began to beat the Tatar. ”

“ The Tatar domination did not by any means Tatarise the country. The Tatars never settled in Russia proper, and never amalgamated with the people. So long as they retained their semi-pagan, semi-Buddhistic religion, a certain number of their notables became Christians and were absorbed by the Russian noblesse; but as soon as the horde adopted Islam, this movement was arrested. [165] There was no blending of the two races such as has taken place—and is still taking place—between the Russian peasantry and the Finnish tribes of the north. ”

“ The inhabitant of the city, however, is more changed than the peasant; and on the mountains of Hindoo Koosh we had among the Huzaras a much closer resemblance to the Tartars. Among them there is a singular tribe, known by the [266] name of Tatar Huzaras, which amount to about a thousand families, and occupies the space between Hindoo Koosh and Bameean. Tradition states these people to be descendants of Jengis Khan’s army, but their name of Tatar deserves remark, since the only other tribe so denominated by the people themselves is the Nogai on the frontiers of Russia. ”

“ Hence some would derive the word Tartar, "Tartar," after the Hebrew manner. They also think that the British word "Tor or Torriad," "a breaking or cutting off," has the same Origin. Those who travel, may be said to "search." When they travel in foreign, unknown Countries, they may be said to be "cut off" from their Friends, as the Ten Tribes were from their native Land by Nebuchadnezzar.
But it is not at all probable that the Tartars derived their Name from this Hebrew word; for, omitting other reasons, the original Name of that People is Tatar. ”

“ We find mention made in a Turkish inscription found on the river Orkhon and bearing that date, of the Tokuz Tatar, or ‘Nine (tribes of) Tatars,’ and of the Otuz Tatar, or ‘Thirty (tribes of) Tatars.’ It is probable that these tribes were then living between the Oguz or Uigúr Turks on the west, and the Kitan on the east. (Thomsen, Inscriptions de l’Orkhon, 98, 126, 140.) Mr. Thos. Watters tells me that the Tartars are first mentioned by the Chinese in the period extending from A.D. 860 to 874; the earliest mention I have discovered, however, is under date of A.D. 880. (Wu tai shih, Bk. 4.) ”

“ Hereto are attributable the causes of the widely different destinies of these three groups—particularly the neighbouring Finns and Tatars. It is religion which has prepared the one for its European existence; it is religion which has made that existence impossible for the other. Islam has given the Tatar a higher and more precocious civilisation; it has inspired him to build flourishing cities like the ancient Sarai and Kazan, and to found powerful states in Europe and Asia ”

“ The modern method of dealing with annexed provinces was wholly unknown to the Tatars. The khans never for a moment dreamed of attempting to Tatarise their Russian subjects. They demanded simply an oath of allegiance from the princes, and a certain sum of tribute from the people. The vanquished were allowed to retain their land, their religion, their language, their courts of justice, and all their other institutions.
A Female Samoyed
The nature of the Tatar domination is well illustrated by the policy which the conquerors adopted towards the Russian church. ”

“ The Kazañ Tatars, from having lived so long amongst Russians and Finnish tribes, have lost a good many of the characteristic features of their Tatar (Mongol) ancestry, and bear now the stamp of a distinct ethnographic type. They are found also in the neighbouring governments of Vyatka, Ufa, Orenburg, Samara, Saratov, Simbirsk, Tambov and Nizhniy-Novgorod. They are intelligent and enterprising, and are engaged principally in trade. ”

“ Russian writers, or rather writers who have been in Russia, sometimes try to force on us a specific limitation of the word Tartar to a certain class of Oriental Turkish race, to whom the Russians appropriate the name. But there is no just ground for this. Tátár is 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 Chinghiz and his successors. But I believe the name in this sense was unknown to Western Asia before the time of Chinghiz. ”

“ The word Tatâr, in Turkey, is applied to a native courier, guide, and companion, a hardy horseman who fulfils all these functions, speaking two or more languages, and ready to do the best that can be done to overcome the multiplied tribulations of regions almost roadless and innless. ”

“ Their horses do not know barley, but they tear up the ground with their hoofs and live on the roots. As to their faith, the Tatars worship the sun at the time of its rising. They do not regard anything as forbidden, and eat all animals, even dogs and pigs. Marriage is unknown to them, but many men come to a woman, and when a child is born it does not know its father.”
Similar descriptions are met with in the narratives of Europeans who knew the Mongols in the days of their power.
JENGHIZ KHAN; THE TATAR INVASION
It was among this rude nomad people that Jenghiz Khan was born in 1162. ”

“ TARTARS (more correctly Tatars, but Tartars is the form generally current) , a name given to nearly three million inhabitants of the Russian empire, chiefly Moslem, and of Turkish origin. The majority—in European Russia—are remnants of the Mongol invasion of the 13th century (see Mongols) , while those who inhabit Siberia are survivals of the once much more numerous Turkish population of the Ural-Altaic region, mixed to some extent with Finnish and Samoyedic stems, as also with Mongols. ”

“ Effects of the Tartar domination. Sources of autocracy. "The invasion of the Mongols, in the beginning of the 13th century, snapped the thread of Russia's destinies. ... Nature, after preparing the invasion, herself marked its bounds. The Tatars, now masters of the steppes in the southeast, which felt to them very much like home, grew ill at ease as soon as they began to lose themselves in the forests of the north. They did not settle there. These regions were too European to suit their half-nomadic habits, and they cared more for tribute-payers than for subjects. ”

“ Calling my Tatars, I sent them off to follow the tracks for a few versts and bring back what they found. Then I spurred my tired nag into the group of Moskyas who were watching with covert interest. I pulled out a pistol and cocked it, then primed the pan.
“What are you doing, Uncle?” asked the one who had said there were no horses. “And why did you send the Tatars away?”
“God keep you, brother,” I made answer, “or the devil will get you. I sent the Tatars for a priest.” ”

“ The consequence was that the Tatars led a life of fear and distrust, agriculture languished, and every man cultivated yearly only as much as was necessary for the subsistence of his family, that he might not excite the cupidity of the employés. ”