once celebrated and powerful, and whose descendants now
occupy the country extending from Khasigar or Kashgar
to Khamil, possessed this art some centuries before the time
of Mohammed, having been taught/ as it would appear,
by Nestorian or other Syrian instructors, who formed for
them an alphabet on the model of the Estranghelo. The
Ouigours were the scribes of all Northern Asia long before
the time of Tschingghis, but if they wrote historical books
no records are known to have been preserved by them.
This want of all records, composed in ancient times by
native writers of the Tartar races, has been supplied in
a very imperfect manner partly by accounts derived from
Chinese historians, which were the only documents nearly
contemporary with the early events of dike Tartar history ;
and partly by later historical works composed by Mohammedan
writers. Gaubil, Visdelou, Mailla, I)e Guignes,
and others, have collected facts that were to h$ found-
relating to the Turkish and Mongolian nations,- in the
Thoung-kian-kang-mou, or great Chinese annals/'ànd in
other particular histories ; and later writers., especially .
Klaproth and Abel-Remusat,# have analysed and more
correctly estimated the value of these materials". The
most celebrated of the Mohammedan historians wh%4©m£
piled the traditions of the Tartar nations, were lbn-el-
athir, who lived in the twelfth century, Atta-mëîik in the
thirteenth, and the more famous Rascbid-ed-din/ bOrh-'at
Hamadan in Media, the first volume of whose history is
dated in the beginning of the fourteenth century. Lastly,
there are two works of later and of inferior value written
by native Tartar princes, both descendants of Tschingghis
and collectors of the histories of their respective nations.
One of these, Abou’l-Gazi Bahadour-Khan, wrote in the
Turkish language : he was a Mohammedan prince of Kho-
* See in Abel-Rémusat’s Nouveaux Mélanges Asiatiques* tom. 1, a critical
account of the works of the different Mohammedan historians who* In the
Arabic, Persian, and Turkish languages, compiled the history, of the Turkish
and Mongolian conquerors. These works are preserved in M.S., in the King's
library, at Paris, Their contents have been made known to the public, and
admirably illustrated, in the late work of M. le Baron C. D’Ohsson, entitled
“ Histoire des Mongoles,” &c., La. Haye et Amsterdam, 1884, 4 tomes.
rasmia, and died;, in 1663, His work, which was long
regarded as the highest authority in Turkish history,
was translated and published at Leyden in 1 7 2 6 .# It contains
the history and early traditions of the Tartar nations,
mkejisf.up with the fabulous legends of Mohammedans.
The second writer of this class is Sanang Setzen, chief of the
Mèhgolian . tritaggffr Ordûs, who lived since that people
became .subject to the Mandshurian emperors. Sanang Set-?
Zcn was a zealdi|S Buddhist and;/fb.iihded his history on the
traditions of,4 he Lamas : he deduces all his dynasties from
the Indian Sakya, and’allots^ beiteween them the different
provinces of Jambu-dwipa.’t*
The writers above mentioned. have treated on the,Turkish
and Mongolian history. They have scarcely touched on
that ofi the. Mapdshurians, which is only to.be investigated
in the.necords left, by Chinese .writers.'^
I shall now endeayouruto d a ^ ^ ^ e tm y rea^^s a connected
statement o f the most important facts which can be
traced in these different quarters in connection’ with the
history and. relation of The three Races of Great Tartary,
and I |^ n ll‘r,suhsequen%l|lndeavoUT ; further to elucidate
the subjectîby a comparison of their languages,
Section IV.—Of the j Tungusian Rave, comprehending the
Mandshoos, Toung-hous, Kin, Khitans, and, Ourianguites.
The pbwerfuLnation of Mandshoos or Mand-shu Tartars,
now masters of the richest part of Asia, and the most
populous empire in the: world,. is> only uonei^ferifee^of the
Tungusian race, a race which reckons among its numerous
* An edition ip folio has appeared, some years ■ sin ce* -published at Kasan,
böriitaining the Turkish text without any translation.
+ S&nang-Setzen’s work haë been translated into- German, and published by
I. J. Schmidt at Petersburg, in li82Qï-(uà'denthe Geschichte dor Ost-
. Mongolemind ihrer,Fürstenhauses verfasst von Ssanang Ssetsen Chungtaidsehi
der Ordus aus deni^Mongolischen, übersetzt, <fec. : 'hierausgegeben von I. J.
.^Schmidt. St. Petersbourg, 1829,f in. 4to. '
See an excellent! analysis and review of this publication by M. Abel-Rému
sat in tjjèi Nouveau. Journal Asiatique.