Tatars - Name

Name

The name Tatar likely originated amongst the nomadic Tatar confederation in the north-eastern Gobi desert in the 5th century. The name "Tatars" was used an alternative term for the Shiwei, a nomadic confederation to which these Tatar people belonged.

As various of these nomadic groups became part of Genghis Khan's army in the early 13th century, a fusion of Mongol and Turkic elements took place, and the invaders of Rus and the Pannonian Basin became known to Europeans as Tatars or Tartars (see Tatar yoke). After the breakup of the Mongol Empire, the Tatars became especially identified with the western part of the empire, known as the Golden Horde.

The form Tartar has its origins in either Latin or French, coming to Western European languages from Turkish and Persian Tātār ("mounted courier, mounted messenger; postrider"). From the beginning, the extra r was present in the Western forms, and according to the Oxford English Dictionary this was most likely due to an association with Tartarus (Hell in Greek mythology), though some claim that the name Tartar was in fact used amongst the Tatars themselves. Nowadays Tatar is usually used to refer to the people, but Tartar is still almost always used for derived terms such as tartar sauce or steak tartare.

Some Volga Tatars prefer to be called Bulgars and reject the Tatar name, a position known as Bulgarism. Bulgarism pertains to the notion that the Volga Tatars are actual Bulgars.