Tatar (term)

Tatar is a term whose meaning varied throughout history.

The Orkhon inscriptions, a group of 8th-century Old Turkic texts, include the first instances of the term (otuz tatar, toquz tatar), where it most probably referred to a group of Mongolian-speaking tribes. Certain western groups of these tribes were later associated with Turkic tribes. Although the Tatar confederation was a long-time archenemy to Genghis Khan and his ancestors, later sources employed the term for most Mongol conquerors, the reason for which remains unclear.^[1]

Within the Ottoman Empire, the term gained the new meaning of “court messenger” replacing ulak, coinciding with the undated establishment of Tatar Corps (Ottoman Turkish: Tatarān ocağı), which is known to have undergone reorganization in 1775.^[2] Several contemporary travelers and modern historians associated the rise of the term with the potential employment of Crimean Tatar refugees by the Ottoman government.^[3]