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.

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. Several contemporary travelers and modern historians associated the rise of the term with the potential employment of Crimean Tatar refugees by the Ottoman government.