TATARS (less correctly Tartars, Fr. Torture, from SIL. Tartarus, from Pers. Tatar, Chin. Tab tar, Tah-dzfi, Tatar, possibly from a Tungusic or Manchu word meaning archer, nomad; probably confused by popular etymology with Lat. Tar tarus, hell, on account of their atrocities). A term loosely applied to certain Tungusic tribes originally inhabiting Manchuria and Mongolia, and now represented by the Fishshin Tatars of Northern Manchuria, the Solons and Daurians of Northeastern Mongolia, and the Manchus of China. In the course of the westward movement of the Mongols the term Tartar obtained vogue among the civilized peoples of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, and came to be applied with little discrimination to the hordes of Mongols who descended from time to time upon the fron tiers of Occidental civilization and to the kindred peoples subdued by them. Ultimately it came to be used almost, if not quite, as a synonym for Turkish (TtIrki), in which sense it is still em ployed by some modern ethnologists.
The 'Tatars of Siberia' (Baraba. Irtish, 'Polio], etc.) are probably of very mixed origin.
In Western Siberia some fragments of the Osti aks, etc., have been styled Tatars, probably from their adoption of Tatar customs, etc. The Tatars of European Russia are of diverse origins. Time so called Kazan and Astrakhan Tatars are fragments of the Golden Horde. The Tatars of the Crimea are probably composed of the Nogai-Tatars of the steppes and the Tatars of the mountains and coast regions. There are besides the Tatars of the Cauca sus. It will easily be seen that most of these peo ples styled Tatars are, linguistically at least, of Turkic stock, but very mixed physically. Con sult: Wolff, Gcschichte der Ilongo/en oder Tar (area (Breslau, 1872) ; Howortb, History of the Mongols (London, 1876-80) ; Vambery, Ety mologisches Wiirterbuch dcr turko-tatarischen Sprachen (Leipzig, 1878) ; id., Die prim-i-tive Guitar des turko-tatarischen Volkes (ib., 1879) ; De Harlez, La religion rationale des Tortures orientoux (Brussels, 1887) ; Chantre, Recherches anthropologiques dans he Caucase (Paris, 1885 87 ).