The leading group of the Tatar ethnic group is the Kazan Tatars. And now, few people doubt that the Bulgars were their ancestors. How did it happen that the Bulgars became Tatars? The versions of the origin of this ethnonym are very curious.
Türkic origin of the ethnonym
For the first time the name "Tatars" is found in the 8th century in the inscription on the monument to the famous commander Kyul-tegin, which was erected during the time of the Second Turkic Khaganate - the state of the Turks, which was located on the territory of modern Mongolia, but had a larger area. The inscription mentions the tribal unions "Otuz-Tatars" and "Tokuz-Tatars".
In the X-XII centuries the ethnonym “Tatars” spread in China, Central Asia and Iran. The XI century scholar Mahmud Kashgari in his writings called the "Tatar steppe" the space between North China and East Turkestan.
Perhaps that is why at the beginning of the XIII century, the Mongols were also called so, who by this time had defeated the Tatar tribes and seized their lands.
Turkic-Persian origin
Promotional video:
Scientist anthropologist Alexei Sukharev in his work "Kazan Tatars", published from St. Petersburg in 1902, noticed that the ethnonym Tatars comes from the Turkic word "tat", which means nothing more than mountains, and the words of Persian origin "ar" or " ir”, which means a person, a man, a resident. This word is found among many peoples: Bulgarians, Magyars, Khazars. It is also found among the Turks.
Persian origin
The Soviet researcher Olga Belozerskaya linked the origin of the ethnonym with the Persian word "tepter" or "deftar", which is interpreted as "colonist". However, it is noted that the ethnonym "Tiptyar" is of a later origin. Most likely, it arose in the XVI-XVII centuries, when they began to call the Bulgars who moved from their lands to the Urals or Bashkiria.
Ancient Persian origin
There is a hypothesis that the name "Tatars" came from the ancient Persian word "tat" - that is how the Persians were called in the old days. Researchers refer to the 11th century scholar Mahmut Kashgari, who wrote that “Tatami the Turks call those who speak Farsi”.
However, the Turks called tatami both the Chinese and even the Uighurs. And it could well happen that tat meant "foreigner", "foreign language". However, one does not contradict the other. After all, the Turks could first call the Iranian-speaking tatami, and then the name could spread to other outsiders.
By the way, the Russian word "tat" may also be borrowed from the Persians.
Greek origin
We all know that among the ancient Greeks the word "tartarus" meant the other world, hell. Thus, "tartarin" was an inhabitant of the underground depths. This name arose even before the invasion of Batu's troops to Europe. Perhaps it was brought here by travelers and merchants, but even then the word "Tatars" was associated with the Eastern barbarians among Europeans.
After the invasion of Batu Khan, the Europeans began to perceive them exclusively as a people who came out of hell and brought the horrors of war and death. Ludwig IX was nicknamed the saint because he prayed himself and called on his people to pray in order to avoid the invasion of Batu. As we remember, Udegei Khan died at this time. The Mongols turned back. This assured the Europeans that they were right.
From now on, among the peoples of Europe, the Tatars have become a generalization of all the barbarian peoples living in the east.
For the sake of fairness, it must be said that on some old maps of Europe, Tartary began immediately beyond the Russian border. The Mongol Empire collapsed in the 15th century, but European historians up to the 18th century continued to call all Eastern peoples from the Volga to China as Tatars.
By the way, the Tatar Strait, which separates Sakhalin Island from the mainland, is called this way because “Tatars” - Orochi and Udege also lived on its shores. In any case, this was the opinion of Jean Francois La Perouse, who gave the name to the strait.
Chinese origin
Some scholars believe that the ethnonym "Tatars" is of Chinese origin. Back in the 5th century, a tribe lived in the northeast of Mongolia and Manchuria, which the Chinese called "ta-ta", "yes-da" or "Tatan". And in some dialects of Chinese, the name sounded exactly like "Tatars" or "Tartar" because of the nasal diphthong.
The tribe was warlike and constantly disturbed the neighbors. Perhaps later the name tartare spread to other peoples, unfriendly to the Chinese.
Most likely, it was from China that the name “Tatars” penetrated into Arab and Persian literary sources.
According to legend, the warlike tribe itself was destroyed by Genghis Khan. Here is what the Mongol scholar Yevgeny Kychanov wrote about this: “This is how the Tatars tribe perished, which even before the rise of the Mongols gave its name as a common noun to all Tatar-Mongol tribes. And when in distant auls and villages in the West, twenty to thirty years after that massacre, alarming shouts were heard: "Tatars!", There were few real Tatars among the advancing conquerors, only their formidable name remained, and they themselves had long been lying in the land of their native ulus " ("The Life of Temujin, Who Thought to Conquer the World").
Genghis Khan himself categorically forbade calling the Mongols Tatars.
By the way, there is a version that the name of the tribe could have come from the Tungus word "ta-ta" - to pull the string.
Tokharian origin
The emergence of the name could be associated with the people of the Tochars (Tagars, Tugars), who lived in Central Asia, starting from the 3rd century BC.
The Tokhars defeated the great Bactria, which was once a great state and founded Tokharistan, which was located in the south of modern Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and in the north of Afghanistan. From the 1st to the 4th century A. D. Tokharistan was part of the Kushan kingdom, and later broke up into separate possessions.
At the beginning of the 7th century, Tokharistan consisted of 27 principalities, which were subordinate to the Turks. Most likely, the local population mixed with them.
All the same Mahmud Kashgari called the huge region between North China and East Turkestan the Tatar steppe.
For the Mongols, the Tochars were strangers, "Tatars". Perhaps, after some time, the meaning of the words "Tokhars" and "Tatars" merged, and so they began to call a large group of peoples. The peoples conquered by the Mongols adopted the name of their kindred aliens, the Tochar.
So the ethnonym Tatars could pass to the Volga Bulgars.
