- As the Turks and Tartars were originally the same people, whatever is advanced concerning the first progenitors, and early antiquities, of the one, must be allowed to be, with the utmost propriety, applicable to those of the other….In general,however, it may be observed, that the people in view are supposed to have spread themselves at least over the two Scythias, the European and Asiatic Sarmatia, which some affirm to have appertained to the former countries, and Iberia. This very considerable part of the globe seems to have comprehended most of the Russian empire, Great and Little Tartary, Georgia, the Polish and Muscovian Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland, many provinces of Hungary and Transylvania, Walachia, Moldovia, Bulgaria, besides some part at least of Finland, Lapland, and Sweden. The three last countries were very thinly, if at all, peopled, before the extinction of the Roman republic.
- Nay, Scythia lay only between the 45th and 57th degree of longitude, and the 47th and 55th degrees of north latitude, in the time of Herodotus.
- So that Italy, one of the last European regions to which the descendants of that planter advanced, did not receive any number of Gomerians, as may be fairly presumed, till about 600 years before the birth of Christ. From whence we may conclude, that no Celtic or Gallic colonies settled either in Umbria or Etruria, before the Gauls passed the Alps in the reign of Tarquinius Priscus; and consequently that neither the Umbrians nor the Etruscans deduced their origin from the Celts.
- … a great part of Tartary was undoubtedly peopled before China, as being nearer the land of Sbinar, where the whole race of mankind lived together at the time of the dispersion…
- The northern part of Scythia has been considered by Pliny and Solinus as the most forlorn, dark, and dismal part of the terraqueous globe; which amounts to an evident proof, that the antients conceived a most melancholy idea of it. The Nubian geographer represents the land of Jagog and Magog, as well as the sea bordering upon it, as covered with eternal darkness which exactly corresponds with the notion that has ever been entertained of hell. Nor do the ancients seem to have understood any thing else primarily by the word Tartarus, than the thick, dark, caliginous air about the poles, though they afterwards applied it to the country itself that was covered with so gross and noisome an atmosphere.
- Ocus Khan, entering Iran, found that country greatly embroiled. This greatly facilitated the reduction of Khorassan to Ogus Khan. From thence he moved towards the cities of Irak, Aderbayagjan, and Armenia; some of which he took by force, and others by capitulation. In fine, this great conqueror made himself master of Kathay, and subdued all the Turkish tribes or nations of the East. He also reduced Persia, Khorassan, Media or Adarbayagjan, and Armenia; and planted, in the countries he possessed himself of, the true religion. Those, who embraced it, he treated with great lenity, and even heaped many favours upon them ; but the idolaters he cut off without mercy. He likewise lest governors in all his conquests, commanding them to govern according to the Oguzian laws, which he had caused to be promulged for the good of all his subjects. The memory of Ogus Khan is still held in high veneration over a great part ot the East. He is considered as the greatest hero, except the famous Jenghiz Khan, that ever lived,at least in the Eastern parts of the world, by the Turks and Tartars of all denominations.
- IL Khan, and Siuntz Khan, a descendent of Tatar Khan, were cotemporaries. These two princes were continually at war together: but ILKhan always proved victorious ; which obliged Siuntz Khan to procure the assistance of the khan of the Kergis, a potent prince, with magnificent presents. He likewise found means to unite all the neighbouring princes against IL Khan, and put a period to the Mogul empire… Of IL Khan’s family only two survived the intire defeat given that prince by Siuntz Khan. These were the youngest of his sons, called Kajan, and his nephew Nagos, his ther’s son, who were both of an age, and both married the same year. These two princes, with their wives, had been taken prisoners by Siuntz Khan; but found means to make their escape. Several of these they traversed without much difficulty, and at last advanced to the foot of an exceeding high mountain, which had no way over it, but a very small path made by certain animals called in the Tartar language archara. Having ascended the mountain on one side by this path, they descended it also on the other by the same, and were agreeably surprised to see themselves in a most delightful tract, interspersed with rivulets, and charming meadows, abounding with a vast variety of delicious fruits, and inclosed on all fides by inaccessible mountains, in such a manner as to shelter them from all future pursuits of the Tartars. Here they lived some time, and gave this beautiful country the name of Irgana-Kon, [Irgana-Kon, or Hyrkania is a modern Shirvan , a region in Azerbaijan Republic . -Ed ] in allusion to its situation; Irgana signifying in the old language of the Moguls ‘a valley’, and Kon ‘ a steep height’. In process of time, these two families very much increased. Kajan, whose posterity was the most numerous, called his descendents Kajath; but the people springing from Nagos were divided into two tribes, one of which received the appellation of Nagosler, and the other that of Durlagan. Kajan signifying ‘a torrent that falls with great rapidity from the top of a rock’.These two Mogul princes, and their descendents, lived in this place above four hundred years. And though there were only two Mogul families, who at first escaped thither, yet in so short a space of time as 450 years, they became so numerous, that, after their sally out of Irgana Kon, without the knowlcge of arms, they defeated the Tartars, a very warlike nation, overturned their empire, and a second time erected their own. [Both Moguls and Tatars are the Turkic nations. -Ed]
- M. Von Strahlenberg thinks, that the fable of Prometheus’s being fastened to mount Caucasus, and delivered from thence by Vulcan, alludes to this memorable event. The same ingenious author, not without an appearance of truth, imagines, that the defeat of the Moguls by Siuntz Khan, the abode of the few Moguls who survived that defeat in Irgana Kon for 450 years, their sally from thence, and the total overthrow they gave the Tartars, after that sally, under the conduct of Bertezena Khan, relate to the war between the Pygmai and the cranes. He observes, that Pliny calls the Pygmai Cattutzi or Katuzi, which in found pretty nearly approaches Kajat,the name of the Moguls whilst they lived in Irgana Kon ; and that, after their sally from thence, they made war upon the Tartars, who had annually their summer and winter-quarters, as they have at this very day, in the same manner as cranes and storks. For, in the summer-time, they lived on the banks of rivers, lakes, or seas, where fish was to be met with in plenty ; and, during the winter, in woods, where game abounded, for the convenience of hunting. Pliny therefore and Solinus compared the Scythians to storks and cranes, and by the Pygmai they understood a warlike people, as may be evinced from several authors. The same Latin writers call the habitations, or rather the capital city, of the Pygmai Gerania and Geronia; which may possibly be corruption of Gergonia, a word that differs but little from Irgania or Irgana-Kon [Hyrkania, which is modern Shirvan, located in Azerbaijan Republic.- Ed.]; nay, they have both the very same signification, as has been fully proved by M. Strablenberg. This will appear still the more probable, as the country of the Pygmai, according to Pliny, and that of the Moguls and Tartars, had nearly the same situation. Farther, as Pliny tells us, that the Pygmai were put to flight by the cranes, so, according; to our royal author, the Moguls were first defeated by the Tartars under Siuntz Khan.
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We have not here touched upon the migrations of the Scythian, Turkish, or Tartar colonies,from various parts of Scythia or Tartary into different parts of Europe… However, several such migrations really happened. The Chazari, a Turkish or Tartar colony, came from Turkestan into the Taurica Chersoneusus, and the upper regions extending to the heads of the Tanais, many ages before the birth of Constanline Porphyrogenneta. Above the Chazari another tribe of Turks seated themselves, about the same time, and occupied all the tract extending from the springs of the Tanais to the Ister. These, being expelled by the Pazinacita about the year of Christ 893 took up their habitations near the Ister or Danube, and in Pannonia. Nay, that some hordes or tribes of Getæ and Scythians inhabited the whole extent of this tract in the time of the famous Odin, or the age of Pompey the Great, may be inferred from the learned Stiernhielm and Snorro Sturlaus. That the Getæ also about this time broke, with the greatest part of their strength, into Scythia Propria, and, under the conduct of Odin, forced the Neuri, Geloni, etc. to attend them in their migrations into the northern and western regions of Europe, has been rendered extremely probable by M. Bayer.
- The same thing may be said of the migration of the Getæ into the northern parts of Europe, towards the commencement of the Roman empire. For these Getæ, though originally a branch of the Scythians or Tartars, leaving their parental country, formed a particular nation, that greatly distinguished themselves. They were the ancestors of, or rather the same people with, the Goths, who spread terror over so large a part of the world, and to whom we have assigned a place in this history.
- This vast chain of mountains, which separated the latter from the former, was the same as the mount Pamer and the Mus Tag, or Imus Tag, of the present Tartars. By the last of these Ptolemy understands a large ridge of mountains running from south to north, which he calls the Semanthini; but for this he has not a proper foundation. For the true Imaus, or Imus Tag bends chiefly from east to west, and separates a great part of Kalmuk Tartary from Little Bukharia, or the kingdom of Kashgar. It may not be improper to observe here, that in the Tartarian language Mus, or Maus, to which the Tartars in common pronunciation prefix the vowel I, signifies ‘ ice’, and Tag ‘ a mountain’. Imustag, therefore, denotes the icy or snowy mountain’, and from hence the corrupt word Imaus deduces its origin. The ancient term signifying mountain was Tau, or Taui; and this is still added to the proper names of their mountains by the Tartars of Siberia. Some of the modern Tartars pronounce this Dag, Dak, Dau, and Daui; from whence we may derive the name of the Dad, a nation of Scythian extraction, who were antiently denominated not only Daci, but Daui, as we learn from Strabo.
- That author [Cosmas of India, Ægyptius, or, as he is sometimes called, Cosmas Indicopleujles – noted by Ed.]... tells us, that the most populous nation of the Hunns inhabited the northern parts of India. These were the progenitors of the present Hungarians… They were situated near Bactria, and seem to have been the Massagetæ of Herodotus, though in the days of Cosmos they went under the names of Magiares and Abares.
- That there was a second migration of the Hunns, Alans, Avares, Turks, Tartars, Moguls, Parians, and other Scythian nations, into America, we learn from Hornius.
- …he [Herodotus -Ed.] tells us, that the Scythians possessed themselves of Asia, whereas they only conquered the Upper Asia, or the two Armenia’s [Actually, Herodotus never mentioned two Armenia’s, and only one Armenia was stated and located in Asia Minor on the map created by Herodotus – Ed.], Cappadocia [part of modern Turkey – noted by Ed.], Pontus [part of modern Turkey – Ed.], Colchis [part of modern Republic of Georgia -Ed.], and Iberia [part of modern Republic of Georgia -Ed.].
- Erzeroom ranks as the chief city of Armenia. It is also the capital of a Turkish pashalic, which is hardly exceeded in extent by any in the Ottoman‘ empire. It has a very lofty situation at the source of the Euphrates, on a plain at the foot of one of the highest mountains in the country. This city was founded by one of the generals of Theodosius II, the Byzantine emperor, (A. D. 415,) and named by him Theodosiopolis. Erzeroom has a population varying from eighty thousand to one hundred thousand inhabitants, about three fourths of whom are Turks. The houses are built of a dark-colored stone, and are mostly one story high, with a cheerless and diminutive appearance. The roofs are terraced with earth, which is overrun with grass; and this gives the city, when viewed from an eminence above, much the appearance of a meadow. The city contains a large citadel, solidly built of stone, and containing the bazaars, the mosques, and many private dwelling-houses.
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Erivan, the capital of Russian Armenia, lies on the north-east side of the great plain of the Araxes, three thousand feet above the level of the Black Sea. It is surrounded by barren hills, and the prospect, in every direction, is of the most desolate character. The interior of the place is hardly more agreeable to the view. The streets are narrow; the houses are built of irregular stones, cemented together by a species of mortar made of mud and chopped straw. The gardens of the mosques afford the only relief to the eye: here are trees and fountains, with open spaces, affording air and light, which are not to be found in the dusty and dismal streets. Twenty years ago, Erivan vas a place of considerable commercial importance. The great caravan of Tabreez [the modern city of Southern Azerbaijan – Ed.] touched here, and the khans and bazaars were animated by the presence of crowds of traders; the peasants of the neighboring country also found a ready market here for their produce. But since the Russian occupation, the flourishing transit trade of Erivan has gone entirely to ruin. The caravans avoid the Russian territory, and the most considerable merchants have emigrated. Those who have been compelled to remain, have become wretchedly poor; and notwithstanding the religious bigotry of the Armenians, many of them look back with sorrow to the times of Persian dominion.