cious. However, if we may judge by that of Ozman or ahmân, founder of the Othman empire, their pretences to antiquity feem very fufpicious: for, in three lifts of that prince's anceftors, two given by Leonclavius, one in his history of the Soltns, the other in his Musulman history, and the third by Prince Cantemir, in his hiftory of the growth and decay of the Othman empire ", all taken from the Turkish historians themselves (K); though, in all of them, I fay, we meet with the name of Oguz, yet none of them makes mention of either Afrafiab or Turk (L); Bulkhas (M) being put instead of the latter in one of them, which alone runs fo high as Japhet, The lift found in the history of the Soltâns, which was tranflated from the Turkish, ends at Lekrek, who is but the fifth in the other given in the history of the Muffulmans. And though both genealogies are faid to afcend from fon to fa-、 ther, yet Othman's ancestors by one are fifty-feven, and by the other only feventeen, to Lekrek. very fufpi- PRINCE Cantemir's lift wants three ancestors, found in the former, with which it beft agrees, and ends at Takva, called in the other Diptakoy (N); only adding, that he was of the houfe of Ja et. But although this author reprefents his lift as the best and most correct of any which are to be found in the Turkish hiftorians, yet he obferves, that his author, Saadi Effendi, does not venture to warrant it as certain. In fhort, the whole hiftory of the origin and descent of the Turks carries the marks of fiction: for, although we should admit that there might have been fuch perfons as Afrafiab, Oguz, and Turk, among the ancestors of the Turks, yet it is manifeft, that both the times and actions afcribed to those heroes must be falfe (O), as well as the tradition of Turk being the fon (P) of Jafet ; fince he is not to be found in the genealogy n Pref. p. 14. 1 P. m P. 90. (K) We shall infert them here- (L) This omiflion may pof- (M) Unlefs Bulkhas, or Abul (N) Son of Bulkhas, and father of Lekrek, who, in Cante mir's lift, is named Ulije Khán 3 from whom Oguz Khan was the third in descent. (0) See wh is remarked with regard to the Turkish chronology, in the preface to Abulgbázi Khan's history, p. 7. Also the new collection of voyages and travels, 4to. vol. iv. p. 412. and Univ. Hift. vol. xx. p. 44. (P) His right of primogeniture is alfo difputed; for fome hiftorians give it to Chin, whom others make the fecond fon, However, the oriental Turks maintain, genealogy of that patriarch, given by Mofes, which both the Chriftians and Mohammedans follow. THE truth may poffibly be, that the Soltâns of either the Gaznah or Seljuk families, firft Turkish sovereigns inPerfia,who were Mohammedans, having had, by tradition, one Turk for their common ancestor, or feigning him to be fuch, their hi- How ftorians, to honour them, by carrying his origin as high as theyframed. could, made him the fon of Jafet; whofe pofterity, according to Mohammedans, as well as Jews and Chriftians, peopled the north parts of Afia. The Othman Turks, who fucceeded the Seljuks, thought they could not do better than claim or acknowlege the fame original; and the fucceffors of Fenghiz Khan in Perfia, the two Bukharias and Karazm, being Mo hammedans, confented to be branches of Turks, that they might have the fon of fo great a patriarch as Jafet at the head of their ancestors. It must farther be confidered, that they, who were the first historiographers to this laft race, being Perfians, took care to make their hiftory tally with that of former writers of their nation, who made all the inhabitants of Tartary, from one end to the other, to be sprung from the fame common stock. But it is hardly to be prefumed that the Mogols, and other tribes of the east, who continued in their old religion, acknowleged themselves to be descended from Turk, though they were poffibly a branch of the Turkish nation; whom yet they always hated for their inroads, and had lately conquered. ACCORDING to the Chinese hiftorians, the Huns and Turks Origin of are the fame people; who, at different times, went under the Turks thofe different names. They give them the appellations offrom the Hyong-nú and Tu-ki-úk, that is, Huns and Turks; the firft Chinese is that which they had before the Christian æra; the fecond, hiftorians. that which a remnant of thofe Huns, re-eftablished in Tartary, affumed afterwards; and fay, that they dwelt in the neighbourhood of the great defart, extending from the country of Korea, in the eaft, to that of the Getes, in the weft; which part of Tartary was their habitation from all antiquity ? That Mau-ton, fon of the laft Chinese monarch, of the first family, or the Hya race, was the firft Tanju, or emperor of • Ven-byen-tum-kaw, Kam-mo, Ye-tum chi van fan tum pow fwi fu, as cited by Guigues fur l'origen des Huns & des Turks. P Ven-hyen-tum fhau, Kam-mo. maintain, that Turk was the count the founder of their naeldeft, whom they tall Jafet tion (4). Oglan, the fon of Jafet, and ac (4) See D'Herbelet. Art. Turk. p. 898. thefe Huns; and the fame with the famous Oguz Khân, fo renowned among the prefent Turks and Tartars, and acknowleged for the founder of their empire: that, in the reign of one of his fucceffors, they came to be divided under two diftinct Tanjûs; one branch was called the northern, the other the southern Huns; but the Perfian hiftorians diftinguished them by the names of Tartars and Magols that the northern Huns, being destroyed by the Chineses, removed weftward; and paffed, at least part of them, into Europe, That the fouthern Huns, after this, became beft known by the name of Turks; about which time they were fubdued by the Juijen, eastern Tartars; and at length, being greatly reduced, they retired into the mountain of Erganakon, where they forged iron for their conquerors that they afterwards overthrew them in their turn, and established a new empire under the name of Turks, as will be more fully related lower down 9. In this account we difcover two very material facts, hitherto unknown to the hiftorians of Europe, and perhaps to those of the west of Afia; namely, firft, the original of the Huns, about which Jornandes, and other writers, have related fuch ridiculous fables: fecondly, that the Huns and Turks are the fame people, under different names; which latter feems not to have been given them till about the year 500, as noted before; at what time they became known by it in Europe. 9 See fect. iv. See anc. hift. vol. xix. p. 204, & feq. SECT. II. A general defcription of Great Tartary, with an account of the Turkish tribes or nations inhabiting it, according to the Arab authors. EFORE we treat of the feveral branches of the Turk Bib nation inhabiting Great Tartary, it will be necellary previously to infert fome general account of that vast region; that the reader may be better able to form a notion in what part of it the feveral tribes formerly were, or at prefent are, fituated. TARTARY, or rather Tatary, in its greatest extent, is fituate between fifty-feven and one hundred and fixty degrees of longitude (A); and between the thirty-feventh and fifty-fifth de (A) Reckoning from the weft end of the ifle of Ferro, fuppofed to be twenty degrees weft of Pa ris, and feventeen degrees thirtyfive minutes west of London. grees grees of latitude: being bounded on the north by Siberia, or that part of North Afia which belongs to Ruffia; on the weft, by the rivers Don (B), the Wolga, and Kama, which feparate it from Ruffia; on the fouth, by the Euxine and Cafpian feas, Karazm, the two Bukharias, China, and Korea; and on the east, by the oriental or Tartarian ocean. From this account it appears, that Tartary, or Great Tartary, as we call it, is a vaft region, fituate almoft in the middle of Afia, and extending the whole length of it, in that part from west to eaft, the space of one hundred and four degrees in longitude, or four thoufand one hundred and forty-five geographical miles but its breadth is not proportionable; being not above nine hundred and fixty miles where broadeft, and, where narroweft, three hundred and thirty. : THIS vaft region is divided into two great parts; the one Divifion. called the Western, the other the Eaftern Tartary: which laft is fcarce one-fourth part fo large as the former; beginning at about the one hundred and thirty-ninth degree of longitude, and ending at the one hundred and fixty-first. Hence it contains only twenty-two degrees of longitude, or is but nine hundred geographical miles from weft to east, though eight hundred and eighty broad, from fouth to north. But with this part of Tartary we have nothing to do at prefent: for although fome oriental authors would derive all the inha bitants of Tartary in general from the fame ftock, making the people of Katay, under which denomination they seem to comprise all the inhabitants of Eaftern, Tartdry (of whom they had scarce any knowlege at all), to be defcended from Turk, the fon of Fafet; yet, in the genealogy of those tribes given by Abu'lghazi Khân, and doubtlefs in that of Fadlal lah (C), from whom chiefly he extracted his hiftory, we meet with none but what are to be found in Western Tartary: for which reafon we fhall confine our defcription, in this place, to that part only. In this vaft region of Western Tartary, (containing in Western extent one hundred and thirty-nine degrees of longitude Tartary, out of one hundred and fixty-one), although the lands belonging to every nation or tribe are marked out, and well known to the inhabitants; yet as there are few or no (B) The limits might be car ried weftward, beyond the Dniepar or Borifbenes; but thefe parts were rather conquered of later ages, than originally inhabited by Turkish or Tartar tribes. (C) We cannot be pofitive as to this point, becaufe De la Croix, in his hiftory of Genghis Khan, taken chiefly from Fadlal lah, has mentioned only the Mogol tribes. elties, Chief cities, towns, or villages, to direct ftrangers, their feveral fituations or poffeffions are beft diftinguished and afcertained by the natural marks or boundaries, fuch as mountains, rivers, lakes, and the like, with which Western Tartary abounds. But it will be fufficient for our prefent purpose to mention only the most remarkable of them. THE principal mountains, or rather chains of mountains, mountains, found in this part of Great Tartary, may be divided into three classes: first, those which run along the northern borders of it; and though perhaps not always contiguous, or of the fame denomination, go under the general name of Vlug Tag or Dag, that is, the great mountain: fecondly, those which make the fouthern bounds, and are called Kichuk Tag, or the leffer mountain: the third great chain is called mount Altay, lying nearly in the middle, between the Cafpian fea and Eastern Tartary, and extending between the other two, in about the one hundred and tenth degree of longitude. and defarts. The Ili. THE chief defarts or plains are, firft, thofe of Kipják or Kapchak in the weft, extending many, days journey on the north and north-eaft of the Cafpian fea. Thefe are generally fertile lands. Secondly, thofe ftretching eastward from Kipják to mount Altay. Thirdly, that called the great Kobi, or fandy defart, by the Mogols, and Sha-me by the Chineses. It is divided by ridges of hills into three or four parts, and extends eastward from mount Altay to Eastern Tartary. Rivers. THE principal rivers of Western Tartary, befides the Dnieper, The Jaik. Don, and Wolga, are the Jaik or Taik and rem, both defcending from the Ulug Tâg, and falling into the Cafpian fea, on the north fide. The river Ili or Khonghis, which rifes out of the Kichuk Tag, on the borders of Little Bukharia, about the one hundred and fourth degree of longitude, and runs northweft into the lake Palkafi (D): on this river the Khan of The Irtifh. the Eluths or Kalmûks ufually refides. The river Irtish, Irtis, or Erchis, which rifes in mount Altay, and runs weftward, inclining to the north, between two branches of it, into the lake Sayfan (E); from whence iffuing again, it paffes northThe Obi. weft, through part of Siberia, and falls into the Obi, which has its fource out of the fame mountains, about one degree, to the north of that of the Irtifb: and feven or eight degrees (D) It is about forty miles long, and thirty broad, in latitude forty-eight degrees, longitude ninety-feven, reckoning from the ifle of Ferro. (E) Saffan or Ifan, called alfo Honhotu Nor, ninety miles long from weft to east, and forty broad; in latitude forty-feven degrees thirty minutes, longitude one hundred and four de grees, ta |