Tatar (term)
Tatar is a term whose meaning varied throughout history.
The Orkhon inscriptions, a group of 8th-century Old Turkic texts, include the first instances of the term (otuz tatar, toquz tatar), where it most probably referred to a group of Mongolian-speaking tribes. Certain western groups of these tribes were later associated with Turkic tribes. Although the Tatar confederation was a long-time archenemy to Genghis Khan and his ancestors, later sources employed the term for most Mongol conquerors, the reason for which remains unclear.[1]
Within the Ottoman Empire, the term gained the new meaning of “court messenger” replacing ulak, coinciding with the undated establishment of Tatar Corps (Ottoman Turkish: Tatarān ocağı), which is known to have undergone reorganization in 1775.[2] Several contemporary travelers and modern historians associated the rise of the term with the potential employment of Crimean Tatar refugees by the Ottoman government.[3]
References
[edit]Bibliography
[edit]- Koh, Choon Hwee (2024). The Sublime Post: How the Ottoman Imperial Post Became a Public Service. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300270532.
- Vàsàry, Istvàn (24 March 2005). Cumans and Tatars: Oriental Military in the Pre-Ottoman Balkans, 1185–1365. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781139444088. OCLC 750757219.