Regardless of their original origins and the ethnic roots of their ruling clan, the Tatars in the early 13th century were a Mongol tribe. They lived in the eastern part of the Mongol plateau on the border with the Jurchens, Kidans and China and had little contact with the Turkic clans living far to the west.
Their further fate is not entirely clear. It was the Tatars who sent Yesugei Bagatur, the father of the future founder of the Mongol Empire, to heaven. Therefore, Temujin fought them a lot even before he became Genghis Khan. And after the final victory as a blood feud he exterminated all Tatar men taller than a cart wheel.
Nevertheless, in some decades they again appear on pages of annals. At first European and Russian sources name Tatars warriors-founders of Golden Horde, with fights reached as far as Germany. Then their name takes all population of this nomadic state, mainly of Turkic origin.
Why did the Turks of Eastern Europe call themselves Tatars? And how to resolve the contradiction that Genghis Khan himself destroyed the rebellious tribe?
Well, let’s start with the fact that in medieval times it is simply impossible to completely wipe off the face of the earth a whole people. Especially if they are nomads who are not tied to a particular territory. The whole tribe did not go to any war, adult men in large numbers always stayed in the camps.
Therefore, let us take it for granted that the Tatars were not destroyed, but defeated and deprived of political power, including on certain rights in the new steppe union. But as a clan realizing its unity they survived even after that. Some stayed at home and did not come to the war, others were protected by Genghis Khan’s younger brother Jochi-Khasar, married to a Tatar, like many steppe aristocrats.
The Mongolian historian Urgunge Onon expressed the view that the Tatars remained as a given. But in the understanding of the people of their time they were a kind of “penalties” — people who had crossed the road of the great khan himself, who needed to wash away their guilt before him with blood.
This scientist believed that they had to go in the vanguard of the Western campaign. And forced to participate in the hottest battles. Allegedly, they gained such incredible fame that all other tribes of the Golden Horde later adopted their name, because they were heroes.
Not surprisingly, the Mongols were called Tatars by Russian and European authors. However, in the Muslim world and in the Christian countries of the Caucasus they were called by the same name. That is, Tatars should have participated in the Western campaign in 1230-1240th, and then went to the Near East in 1250th. Is not too cool for the tribe, which was dealt with by Genghis Khan himself?
Therefore, a completely different version should be taken as a basis. The Chinese annals give us an approximate idea of what was happening in the Mongol steppes when the Turkic Khaganate and its successors ceased to exist. The historians of the Celestial Empire claimed that in the 9th-12th centuries the Shiwei union dominated there — this was their external, not proper name.
At first this tribal federation was dominated by the Tatars. But then the Borjigin clan began to rise, who called their subjects Mongols. However, ethnically they were the same people, the difference differed in the system of suzerainty and vassalage, i.e., politics. Therefore, by the time of the creation of what we call the Mongol Empire, its elite and common people could consider themselves Tatars in a broad sense.
In the book “Meng-da bei-lu” (“Complete Description of the Mongol Tatars”), the very first work devoted to the Mongol Empire, a Chinese traveler in 1221 reports that in the power of Genghis Khan live black Tatars, white Tatars and wild Tatars. The family of the great khan and all his close people are called Tatars. And he knows nothing about Mongols.
The author stated that General Mukhali, who was responsible for the conquest of the Jurchen Empire of Jin in Northern China, always said about himself and his men “we Tartars”. It would have been strange for him to do so, given that the men of their tribe were implacable enemies of his lord.
Another Chinese source, the book “Heida Shilue” is a report of diplomats who traveled to the court of Ugedei in 1235-1236. It said that the incumbent Mongolian Great Khan also referred to his people not as Mongols, but as Tatars. And I think he knew better.
So the most reasonable theory is that the Mongols for the first 30-40 years of their expansion were inclined to call themselves Tatars in memory of the ancient alliance they were a part of. This is why they were so called by the European and Middle Eastern peoples they conquered, who know no Mongols. Even the book of the Benedictine monk Plano Carpini, who visited Karakorum itself, begins with the words, “History of the Mongals, called by us Tatars.”
As the Mongol Empire conquered the Celestial Empire, it developed its own historiography. And now scribes authorized by their sovereigns wrote their works on behalf of the Tatars themselves. At the same time the unity of this power was shaken, and the Golden Horde was out of subordination.
The central power needed new terms to distinguish its own and strangers. Therefore, its own subjects began to bear the name of the Mongols, as a group of tribes from which Genghis Khan himself emerged. Whereas the western representatives of the same people retained their former name.
As for the Turkic population of the Golden Horde, they adopted the name of their own conquerors as an expression of their loyalty to them. This has already happened many times in the history of the Turkic-Mongolian peoples: all subjects of the Huns were called Huns, all subjects of the Turks were called Turks, all subjects of the Ottomans were called Ottomans.