Issue 4 (85)
| FIGHTING A “MONSTROUS AND INHUMAN RACE”: THE 16TH–18TH CENTURY WESTERN WRITERS ON THE WARS OF THE CRIMEAN KHANATE | |||
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| Year | 2024 | Number | 4(85) |
| Pages | 6-14 | Type | scientific article |
| UDC | 94 (477.75)“15/17” | BBK | 63.3(2)43-94 |
| Authors | Khrapunov Nikita I. |
Topic | ANTHROPOLOGY OF WAR IN THE MIDDLE AGE AND MODERN TIMES |
| Summary | The paper discusses the image of the Crimean Khanate’s army, its traditional tactics, doings in campaigns, and the attitude to the prisoners of war in the works of the Western authors from the Early Modern Period. Although the Crimean Khanate’s warfare has been studied by the scholarship, its imagological aspect remains obscure. The given research has revealed various sides of the otherness to become stereotypes in “European” texts. The writers in question added the letters to the ethnonym Ta(r)tars to emphasise the parallel with the underworld, Tartarus. The khan’s army was perceived as the apocalyptic comers from Hell. The Mongoloid appearance of the Nogais was considered an “opposition to Christian being” and a result of peculiarities of child development. “Europeans” underlined the effectiveness of light cavalry equipped with primitive weapons, but perfectly adapted to the environmental conditions of the steppe. Stressing the Ta(r)tar otherness, they went so far as to claim that they entered a battle unarmed. From the very childhood, Crimean warriors were accustomed to campaigns and battles, scarce exotic food, and harsh natural conditions. According to the “Europeans”, the Crimean army not only practised “unconventional” ways of battling, but also had severe discipline. Explaining the successes of the khan’s army, some writers greatly exaggerated its numbers. A special motif was the description of the suffering of the captives, who constituted the main trophy of the Ta(r)tars; the latter developed an effective system of getting, transportation, distribution, pricing, selling, and use of the “live goods”. | ||
| Keywords | Crimean Khanate, Crimean Tatars, Crimea, travelogues, image of the enemy, historical imagology | ||
| References |
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