The Tatar Likeness in Polish Historical Writings

Abstract

The Tatar–Polish mutual contacts have more than a six-hundred-year-long history. The contacts began in the 14th century when the first Tatar tribes began to settle on the territories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Polish Kingdom.
The developing Tatar–Polish contacts, although various and sometimes difficult in their character, caused an increase of Polish interests in Tatar issues.
Consequently, the increasing interest contributed to the appearance of numerous and differentiated in their subjects Polish writings discussing also the Tatar matters.
Beginning from the 16th century, several Polish excellent descriptions of Tatar issues appeared. They cannot be compared to those written in other European countries where the knowledge on the Tatar matters was minimal at that time.
Let us mention several examples of Polish works in which the subject of Tatars appeared.
In 1517, in Cracow “Tractatus de duabus Sarmatiis Asiana et Europiana et de contentis in eis“ by Maciej Miechowita was published for the first time.
Another 16th – century work worth mentioning was that written in Latin by Michał Litwin. It included a very comprehensive description of Tatar customs, however, only a small part of this treatise was published at the beginning of the 17th century under the title “Michalonis Litvani moribus Thartarorum, Litvanorum et Moschorum“ (Basel, 1615).
Nevertheless, the most popular at that time was “Sarmatiae Europae descriptio […]“ written by Alexander Gwagnin (or Maciej Stryjkowski) and published in Craców in 1578.
In comparison with the 16th century, the 17th century brought an apparent decrease of Polish literature concerning the Tatar matters.
However, among the 17th century works we can find some publications worth mentioning, for example, the one written by Marcin Paszkowski “Dzieie Tureckie y utarczki Kozackie z Tatary […]“ (Craców 1615).
Another one that should be mention of here was the treatise “Alfurkan tatarski […]“ by Piotr Czyżewski (Wilno, 1617).
All the above-mentioned works describe the picture of Tatars in various aspects. They give not only information concerning the history of Tatars’ origin (in some sources rather fantastic) and the settlement in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, but also present different examples of Tatars’ customs, habits, religion, faith, etc.
Some information included in those sources are objective and reliable, some others being fantastic and even insulting (cf. “Alfurkan tatarski“ by Piotr Czyżewski). Besides, in Gwagnin’s and Paszkowski’s works we can even find some information concerning Tatar names and official titles for the first time.
In conclusion, it should be emphasized that, no matter what the character of those works was, they constitute a very rich source of various information about the Tatar nation.