
Seeing the Tartars - Thevet
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/seeing-tartars
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danielam
Haven't yet read the article in full (though I am familiar with the murderous
medieval Tartar raids in Poland), but last summer, I visited the Tartar[0]
village of Kruszyniany in northeastern Poland. During the tour of the local
mosque[1], the Tartar tour guide touched on Polish-Tartar relations over the
centuries. When asked by Crimean Tartars why they fought against their
brothers in the faith (under the Catholic Polish banner, no less), the Polish
Tartars responded that they do not fight them as brothers, but as thieves and
robbers. In other words, the Lipka Tartars also have a long tradition of
loyalty to one European state, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (and its
successor states). The meaning of that loyalty, and in the broader Islamic
context, would be an interesting thing to understand, but for some Muslims,
their loyalty has been baffling, perhaps even offensive.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipka_Tatars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipka_Tatars)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kruszyniany_Mosque](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kruszyniany_Mosque)

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jcranmer
Shouldn't it be the "Tatars", not the "Tartars"?

~~~
keiferski
_Tatar became a name for populations of the former Golden Horde in Europe,
such as those of the former Kazan, Crimean, Astrakhan, Qasim, and Siberian
Khanates. The form Tartar has its origins in either Latin or French, coming to
Western European languages from Turkish and the Persian language (tātār,
"mounted messenger"). From the beginning, the extra r was present in the
Western forms, and according to the Oxford English Dictionary this was most
likely due to an association with Tartarus._

-

 _In Greek mythology, Tartarus ( /ˈtɑːrtərəs/; Ancient Greek: Τάρταρος,
Tártaros)[1] is the deep abyss that is used as a dungeon of torment and
suffering for the wicked and as the prison for the Titans._

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatars](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatars)

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartarus](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartarus)

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voldacar
Articles with names like "X as Y in Z" are almost invariably awful, but this
was actually super interesting, and made me want to read some of those primary
source documents from the 13th century.

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jogundas
On the subject of Mongols, I highly recommend the popular lectures by Dan
Carlin [https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-wrath-
of-...](https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-wrath-of-the-khans-
series/) . Very entertaining, but also historically accurate and balanced.

