Tatars / Tartars

Originally an ethnonym for a Turkic speaking folk group, probably descending from an Eurasian confederation of ancient Bulgar tribes known as Old Great Bulgaria (founded in the 7th century AD). They were followers of the Sky God Tengri. According to the World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples:

“Most Tatars living within the former Soviet Union are descended from three main groups: Volga Tatars (which constitute the largest group of Tatars and the clear majority in Kazakhstan), Crimean Tatars, and Siberian Tatars. Their roots in historical and ethnological terms go back to Turkic-speaking Bulgars who settled the Volga-Ural region in the 7th century and the Kipchak tribes who invaded the area as part of the Mongol Empire. From the 13th to the 15th centuries, Tatars were grouped together in the Golden Horde, after which they broke up into the Kazan, Astrakhan,

Crimean and Siberian hordes.”

Eventually European writers began to falsely label all Central Asian tribes and its members as “Tatars,” including the Golden Horde, whose leaders were Mongol. When reading travelogues from the period one cannot avoid the impression that the term had acquired racist implications. This is especially evident when consulting slavery registries, which list Tatars as the highest valued “merchandise.” It is no wonder that enterprising slavers would attempt to market their “goods” with the Tatar sticker. Tatars were touted as the most loyal of slaves and figured prominently at the slave market of Kaffa. This is attested by the traveller/writer Pero Tafur, who bought some slaves there. He details the entire purchasing and evaluation process in this passage from his Travels and Adventures (1435–1439 AD):

“In this city [Kaffa] they sell more slaves, both male and female, than anywhere else in the world, and the Sultan of Egypt has his agents here, and they buy the slaves and send them to Cairo, and they are called Mamelukes. The Christians have a Bull from the Pope, authorizing them to buy and keep as slaves the Christians of other nations, to prevent their falling into the hands of the Moors and renouncing the Faith. These are Russians, Mingrelians, Caucasians, Circassians, Bulgarians, Armenians and diverse other people of the Christian world. I bought there two female slaves and a male, whom I still have in Cordova with their children. The selling takes place as follows. The sellers make the slaves strip to the skin, males as well as females, and they put on them a cloak of felt, and the price is named. Afterwards they throw off their coverings, and make them walk up and down to show whether they have any bodily defect. The seller has to oblige himself, that if a slave dies of the pestilence within sixty days, he will return the price paid. When slaves of different nationalities are sold, if there is a Tartar man or woman among them, the price is a third more, since it may be taken as a certainty that no Tartar ever betrayed a master.”

The remark about the slaver repaying the buyer if the slave dies from “pestilence” shows how Kaffa’s association with the Black Death was still on everyone’s mind.