If you ask today who the Tatars are, you will rightly be told: they are a beautiful and distinctive Turkic people living in the Volga region, Siberia, Crimea, and other regions. But if you had asked the same question a thousand years ago across the vastness of the Great Steppe, the answer would have been completely different.
The history of the ethnonym “Tatars” is one of the most astonishing historical paradoxes. How did it happen that a tribe, which was Genghis Khan’s worst enemy and which he ordered to be almost completely wiped out, ultimately gave its name to a vast empire and dozens of modern peoples? And most importantly—who were those original Tatars: Turks or Mongols? Let’s find out.
Dadan” from Chinese chronicles: the first mentions
To trace the origins, we must look to the 5th-century Chinese chronicles—the “Book of Songs.” That is where the term “Dadan” (or “Ta-ta”) first appears. The Chinese used it as a synonym for the Zhuzhans—a powerful nomadic people who spoke an ancient Mongolian language.
In those days, the steppe was a veritable melting pot. Chinese chroniclers noted that the Shivei tribes (which included the Tatars) had absorbed remnants of the even more ancient Xiongnu. And the Xiongnu, as is well known, were the ancestors of both many Turkic and Mongolian clans. In other words, right from the start of their history, the Tatars represented a complex ethnic mix.
“Thirty” and “Nine”: Evidence from Ancient Stones»
The first mention of the Tatars by the steppe peoples themselves is carved on the famous Orkhon runic stones (8th century) in honor of the rulers of the Second Turkic Khaganate. The stones speak of two major confederations:
-Otuz Tatar Bodun (“thirty Tatar clans”)—historians attribute to them a broad group of Mongol-speaking Shivei tribes. Interestingly, their sphere of influence also included the Borjigin clan, from which Genghis Khan himself would later emerge.
—Tokuz Tatar (“nine Tatars”)—these are the Tatars in the strict sense of the word, the formidable masters of the eastern steppes.
The 11th-century Arab geographer and lexicographer Mahmud al-Kashgari introduced considerable confusion into this matter. He confidently referred to the Tatars as Turks, but made a crucial caveat: “they also have their own language,” meaning they were bilingual. Most likely, al-Kashgari, like many sedentary scholars of the time, referred to all the nomads of the Great Steppe as “Turks” based on their way of life, without delving into linguistic subtleties.
White, Black, and Wild: How the Chinese Categorized Them
By the 11th–12th centuries, the Tatars had become so powerful that in neighboring China (the Liao and Jin empires), their name came to be used to refer to all steppe peoples north of the Great Wall of China. They were divided into three categories based on their degree of “civilization”:
-White Tatars—lived closest to the empire’s borders, wore silk, and ate from porcelain. They were mainly Shatu and Ongut Turks.
-Black Tatars—true steppe wolves who lived in felt yurts and despised agriculture. This group included the Tatars themselves and their Mongol relatives.
Wild Tatars—hunters and fishermen who lived on the border between the steppe and the Siberian taiga.
Blood feuds and the cruelty of the “Shaker of the Universe”
In the 12th century, nine Tatar tribes dominated the Mongolian Plateau. It was they who became the main obstacle for the young Borjigin clan, which was attempting to unify the steppe.
The Tatars played a cunning geopolitical game, relying on the support of the Chinese Jin Dynasty. They treacherously captured and handed over the Mongol leader Ambagai to be executed. And later, they poisoned Yesugei-bagatur, the father of the young Temujin (the future Genghis Khan).
For Temujin, the destruction of the Tatars became a matter of honor and the meaning of his life. In 1202, he dealt them a crushing defeat. Genghis Khan’s verdict was terrifying and went down in history for its blood-chilling pragmatism: to execute all men taller than a cartwheel (that is, everyone except small children). The surviving women and children were sold into slavery or integrated into Mongol families.
The Tatar tribe itself ceased to exist as a political and military force. But this is where the most interesting part began.
The Great Paradox of History
If the Tatars were annihilated, why were Batu’s troops, who invaded Rus’ and Europe, called Tatar-Mongols?
The fact is that a huge number of conquered peoples joined Genghis Khan’s army, among whom the Turks (Kipchaks, Polovtsians, Bulgars) were dominant. Since in Asia, even before Genghis Khan’s rise, the word “Tatars” was the most recognizable label for nomads (thanks to Chinese diplomats), this name spread throughout the entire empire he created.
Even Genghis Khan’s son, Ögedei, sometimes referred to his people as Tatars out of old habit. And when the empire collapsed, its western neighbors (Russians, Europeans, Arabs) continued to call the inhabitants of the Golden Horde Tatars. Over time, the Turkic peoples inhabiting these territories adopted this powerful and resonant ethnonym as their self-designation.
So who were they, then?
To summarize modern historical and linguistic research: the ancient Tatars (those very “nine tribes” with whom Genghis Khan fought) were, most likely, a Mongol-speaking ethnic group. However, they were in close contact with the Turkic world, actively intermingled with it, and were often bilingual.
They lost the most decisive battle in their history and vanished from the face of the earth as a distinct tribe. But, ironically, their name has become immortal, transforming into the name for the great Turkic peoples of today, who are now writing their own, entirely new history.