Food of Ra – Chronology – All from the beginning…. About the flags and coats of arms of Tartary

Many of you have heard about the ancient state of Great Tartaria.
It was a huge empire that included Moscow Tartary (the territory of the Asian part of modern Russia), Chinese Tartary (the Far Eastern territory from the borders of Russia to the Chinese Wall, including modern Mongolia), Independent Tartary (the territory of modern Central Asian republics - from the Caspian Sea to India ) and Crimean Tartaria (Territory of Crimea and surrounding areas).
It should be noted that the main military force of Great Tartaria were the Cossacks. Religion was free, but all religions were considered branches of a single doctrine about one God. That is, the world in those days was divided into pagans (those who worshiped various gods, spirits and forces of nature) and monotheists (those who believed in a single creator god and his prophets - Jesus, Muhammad, Moses, Buddha , Krishna, etc.) Each nation had its own prophet, and the differences in religious rituals in those days were minimal - all these religions were still too close to each other.
You should also not confuse Chinese Tartary and China, since China (within the boundaries of the Chinese Wall) is apparently a separated part of the same Great Empire. The Chinese Wall served as a kind of border. India is another independent region, which also most likely once belonged to the Great Empire, but then gained independence. Not long before the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the world would be rocked by a series of uprisings. This is how European countries separated from the Great Empire. During the reign of Ivan the Terrible, Kazan and Astrakhan will try to secede, and then (after the Romanovs seized power) the entire European part of Russia will succeed in separating.
Then there will be a lot more: the introduction of serfdom as a mechanism for the assimilation of the Great Imperial people; persecution of the Cossacks, as the last representatives of the Horde troops; Razin's uprising, etc.
In the end, the Romanovs will be able to destroy Great Tartary and appropriate the territory of Moscow Tartary - the war with Pugachev, who was the last representative of the Horde dynasty of the Great Empire, will play a decisive role in this.
The Great Horde Empire imposed its will on the entire world for 300 years. And, naturally, having gained freedom, the newly formed states tried to completely erase evidence of this great hegemon! How is this possible, you ask? It’s very simple - the people were previously uneducated and stupid (for reference: after Napoleon’s defeat in France, history textbooks were rewritten in all schools, according to which Napoleon never existed. OFFICIAL documents were also published retroactively, so to speak, instead of Napoleonic orders. Only influence The international community was able to stop this brazen forgery. And this is the 19th century! Can you imagine? What can we say about earlier eras. Now we are brainwashed by television, earlier historians were brainwashed - both are lies that benefit the ruling class). Traces of Tartaria have been erased, but much remains.
Many may think, how could such a huge empire be formed in those distant times? The answer is elementary and logical - imagine that among underdeveloped peoples a more developed one appears with cavalry, guns and a powerful ideology, according to which there is one God! Naturally, it would not be difficult for such a people to populate empty lands and conquer underdeveloped peoples. However, what will happen when these peoples grow in civilization? That's right - the Empire will be torn apart. What actually happened...

So, all these thoughts follow from the numerous works of Fomenko and Nosovsky and their magnificent teaching (and dangerous for fools) New Chronology.
Once I tried to find the flag of Great Tartary in order to popularize this idea, but I found only with

It is no longer a secret to anyone that on the maps of bygone times, in the vastness of Eurasia, the mysterious Tartary freely spread out. On various maps it is depicted as a country - with borders and cities, and on some of them you can see the coats of arms and flags of this Empire.

Almost within these same borders, the Russian Empire subsequently appeared, and then the Soviet Union. Many also know that such concepts as Siberia, Tatars, Russians, Mongols, which previously had completely different meanings than we are used to using today, were gradually replaced.

On various maps, Tartary is depicted as a country - with borders and cities.

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But why is Tartary as a state not mentioned in domestic history textbooks? Perhaps due to the fact that Tartaria is not a self-name. Although there is a Russian name - Tataria. So why not talk about Great Tatary and the names of this country that previously existed in the world. But isn’t the reason for the silence that Tataria-Tartary was not a country, a state at all?

The symbols of the state are the coat of arms, flag and anthem.

The first national anthem is considered to be the British one, the first edition of which dates back to October 15, 1745. If we assume that Tataria-Tartaria was a state and it did have its own anthem, then I think we will never know what it sounded like.

In the book "World Geography", published in Paris in 1676, before the article about Tartary there is an image of an owl on a shield, which is known to many. It can be assumed that this is a coat of arms. We find a similar image in the often cited illustration to the book of Marco Polo, who described his journey through Asia and his stay with the “Mongol” Khan Kublai Khan. By the way, Marco Polo found the empire well organized and hospitable.

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So what do we have? We have two images of an owl on a shield in two different books, which can only hypothetically be considered as the coat of arms of Tataria-Tartaria.

But maybe Tataria-Tartaria had a flag? Let's get a look.

If we look into the collection of maritime flags of the world, drawn at the beginning of the 18th century, apparently in France, we will see not one flag of Tartary-Tartaria, but two. At the same time, along with the Tatar flags, there are also Russian and Mughal flags. (Note: some images are glued together because we had to copy them in parts)
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The only problem is that the images of the Tatar flags have practically been erased. But it should be noted that the first Tatar flag is the flag of the Emperor of Tataria, and the second is simply Tatarstan. The truth is that it is impossible to really determine what is drawn there. But what is important for us is that the flags of Tatarstan are shown in the old drawing along with the flags of other countries, and one of them is imperial.

Let's now look at another, now Dutch table of the early 18th century, where maritime flags of the world are collected. And again we find two flags of Tatarstan-Tartaria, but which are no longer worn out, and the image on them can be easily made out. And what do we see: on the imperial flag (here it appears as the flag of the Kaiser of Tartary) a dragon is depicted, and on the other flag - an owl! Yes, the same owl that is in “World Geography” and in the illustration for the book by Marco Polo.

There are Russian flags too, but in the table they are listed as flags of Muscovy.

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Now we know that Tataria-Tartaria had flags, which means it was a state, and not just a territory on the map. We also learned that one of the flags of Tatarstan is imperial, therefore we are talking about an empire.

It remains to find out what colors were used on the Tatar flags.

The answer to this question was found in the “Proclamation of the maritime flags of all states of the universe,” published in Kyiv in 1709 with the personal participation of Peter I. Unfortunately, only one copy of the Declaration with poor resolution was found on the Internet. Now we have learned that the colors used on the flags of Tartaria-Tartaria were black and yellow.

We find confirmation of this in the “Book of Flags” by the Dutch cartographer Karl Allard (published in Amsterdam in 1705 and republished in Moscow in 1709): “The flag of the king of Tataria is yellow, with a black dragon lying and looking outwards with a basilisk tail. Another Tatar flag, yellow with a black owl, whose feathers are yellowish."

It can be assumed that Allard drew the flag of Tataria by mistake, just as he allegedly drew another flag by mistake, which will be discussed below. But what about Peter? Or was he also mistaken?

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By the way, here among the Russian flags there appears a yellow flag with a black double-headed eagle (third row from the top, first flag from the middle of the table).

The low resolution copy of the Statement makes the labels on the flags difficult to read. Larger images of the flags of Tatarstan with Russian inscriptions are taken from the Russian-language “Book of Flags” by Alard, published in the same year as the Declaration. The text from the book seems to correspond to the Statement. At least with the maximum enlargement of the copy of the Statement, in the captions to the Tatar flags one can discern the text shown in the large images. And in fact, he repeats the captions for the Tatar flags on foreign tables, only in Russian. But here the autocrat of Tataria is called Caesar.

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There were also several more tables with Tatar flags - an English one from 1783 and a couple more tables from the same 18th century. But what is most surprising is that a table with the imperial flag of Tatarstan was discovered, published already in 1865 in the USA.

It is very interesting that in the English table of 1783 the first three Russian flags are indicated as the flags of the Tsar of Muscovy, followed by the imperial flag of Russia (Russia Imperial), then the merchant tricolor, followed by the admiral and other naval flags of Russia.

And for some reason, in front of the flags of the Tsar of Muscovy in this table is the flag of the Viceroy of Muscovy. This flag is still present in the same book by K. Allard, but it is not identified and is considered an error. In 1972, Moscow vexillologist A.A. Usachev suggested that one of the leaders of the Armenian liberation movement, Israel Ori, on behalf of Peter I, went to the Netherlands, where he recruited officers, soldiers and craftsmen on behalf of the Tsar, possessing great powers, which gave Allard grounds to call him “the Viceroy of Muscovy.” However, we must not forget that Ory died in 1711, and the table was published in 1783. The viceroy's flag is placed in front of the king's flag, i.e. It turns out that he is more important. The flags of Russia, including the imperial (imperial), are given after the flags of the Tsar of Muscovy. It can be assumed that the confusion with the flags of Muscovy and Russia is explained by the political need for the Romanovs to form a new heraldry. After all, we are taught that before Peter I we didn’t really have flags. But even in this case, the flag of some obscure viceroy of Muscovy, placed in first place, raises questions. Or maybe in the 70s and early 80s of the 18th century something happened that they don’t tell us about in history lessons?

But let's return to the Empire of Tatarstan. If this country had flags (this, as you see, is confirmed by both domestic and foreign sources of that time), then we can already assume with sufficient confidence that the shield with the image of an owl is, after all, the coat of arms (or one of the coats of arms) of this country states. Since the sources listed above dealt with sea flags, therefore navigation was developed in Tatarstan. But it is still strange that history has not left us a single name of the Emperor (Kaiser, Caesar) of Tataria. Or are they known to us, but under other names and titles?

We probably need to dwell in more detail on the flag of the Emperor of Tataria. On the last table we have from 1865, this flag is no longer called imperial, and there is no other flag with an owl next to it. Perhaps the time of empire is already in the past. If you look closely at the dragon, you can immediately discover that the imperial dragon of Tataria apparently has no direct relation to the dragons of China-China or the serpent Zilant on the coat of arms of Kazan. In addition, the Kazan kingdom ceased to be a subject of international relations in the middle of the 16th century under Ivan IV the Terrible. Oddly enough, the dragon on the imperial flag of Tataria vaguely resembles the dragon on the flag of Wales, although the colors are completely different. But this is already a topic for heraldry specialists.

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Now let's remember the coat of arms of Moscow. In his depictions of past centuries, St. George defeats rather a snake. And on the modern coat of arms it’s neither give nor take the Tatar dragon. This may be a coincidence, but in my opinion this is a good topic for a separate study. After all, this snake is sometimes yellow, sometimes black, the snake sometimes has two or four paws, and Ivan IV the Terrible for some time used a double-headed eagle, on whose chest there is not a horseman with a spear striking the snake, but a unicorn. In Allard’s description of the flag of the Tsar of Muscovy, it is indicated that on the eagle’s chest is St. George without the serpent.

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It is a pity that in those documents where the flags of the Tartarian Empire were found, there are no at least minimal details about the countries to which this or that flag belonged, with the exception of Allard’s “Book of Flags”. But even there there is nothing about Tataria, only a description of the flags and their colors. However, the most important thing is that the flags of Tatarstan were found in tables published by different countries and at different times. The idle reader may, of course, say: “Is it possible to conclude about the existence of the Empire just from a few pictures of flags?”

Indeed, we have considered only symbolism here. We know that on maps and in books of those distant times there were mentions of Moscow Tataria (with its capital in Tobolsk), Free or Independent Tataria (with its capital in Samarkand), Chinese Tataria (do not confuse it with China-China, which is a different state on the maps) and, in fact, the Great Empire of Tatarstan. Now we have found documentary evidence of the existence of state symbols of the Empire. We do not know which Tatarstan these flags belonged to, the entire Empire or some part of it, but the flags were found.

But in the search for the flags of Tatarstan, two more facts were discovered that do not fit into the canonical history.

Fact 1. In the 18th-19th centuries, among the then modern flags, the flag of the Kingdom of Jerusalem was depicted.

According to canonical history, this kingdom ceased to exist in the 13th century. But flags signed “Jerusalem” and illustrated on the page are in almost all the collections of maritime flags reviewed here. Information about the possible use of this flag after the defeat of the crusaders could not be found. And it is unlikely that the Muslims who captured Jerusalem would have left the city a flag with Christian symbols. Moreover, if this flag had been used in the 18th-19th centuries by any order such as the Jesuits, then most likely the authors would have written so in the documents. Maybe there are some facts about this that are known only to specialists?

But that's not all. In a note from a member of the Special Meeting, Lieutenant Commander P.I. Belavenets "The Colors of the Russian State National Flag", published in 1911, suddenly reveals something surprising. And this “something” makes us wonder whether Jerusalem was placed in Palestine due to a misunderstanding. Think about it, Mr. Belavenets writes that, by order of the Highest, he brought to St. Petersburg the flag granted by Tsar Peter Alekseevich to Archbishop Athanasius of Arkhangelsk in 1693. In the illustration with the caption “Flags kept in the Cathedral of Arkhangelsk” we see three flags, two of which are flags of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, with a white-blue-red tricolor attached to one of them. Otherwise, the Holy City of Jerusalem should be looked for somewhere on the East European Plain and most likely not in the 12th-13th centuries.

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Fact 2. In the 1904 reprint of the 17th century manuscript “On the conception of signs and banners or ensigns” we read:

“...The Caesars began to have their own sign of the double-headed eagle, from such an event as here it will be announced.
From the creation of the world in the year 3840, also from the conception of the construction of the city of Rome in 648, and from the Nativity of Christ our God for 102 years, there was a battle between the Romans and the Cysar people, and at that time the Romans had a mayor and regimental commander named Caius Marius. And he Caius, for a special sign, instead of the head banner of each legion, built a single-headed eagle, and the Romans kept that sign until the tenth year after the Nativity of Christ our God, during the reign of Caesar Augustus. And at the same time great battles broke out between the Romans and the Caesars, and the Caesars beat the Romans three times and took two banners from them, that is, two eagles. And from that date the Tsysarians began to have a double-headed eagle in their banner, sign and seal.”

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And what do we see in the source?

We see that “Tsysaryans” and “Romans” are not the same thing (well, this is already clear to everyone). That the “Tsysaryans” began to have a sign in the form of a double-headed eagle, which means they are Tsargorod residents, i.e. Byzantines. What is the so-called The "Eastern Roman Empire" fought with the so-called. "Western". That Emperor Octavian Augustus (he died 4 years after the events described - based on the year AD) was a “Caesar” and, based on the logic of the text, fought on the side of the “Tsarists,” i.e. Byzantines against the "Romans". However, according to canonical history, Byzantium begins its countdown from the year 330, i.e. 320 years after the events described, when the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (who, by the way, bore the title “August”) moved the capital to Byzantium, renaming it Constantinople.

We also see a not very clear interpretation of the appearance of the double-headed eagle in Byzantium in the aforementioned “Book of Flags” by Allard of 1709: “There was one eagle during the time of the old Roman CAESARS; depicting their forces, in which subsequently the last CAESARS even to this day (after the subjugation and unification two kingdoms, that is, from the east and from the west) the double-headed eagle was chosen to that place.” Those. According to Allard, both kingdoms existed simultaneously and independently, and then were united.

“Oh, simplicity,” the same idle reader will say with a wink: “I found some dubious sources and cast a shadow over the fence. The authors probably got it all mixed up or made it up.”

May be so. But in the 17th century, the author of the manuscript “On the Conception of Signs and Banners” knew that Gaius Marius carried out a reform in the Roman army, which means he revered Plutarch. But maybe Plutarch was a little different in the 17th-18th centuries? The re-release of "Conception" was carried out by the Imperial Society of Russian History and Antiquities at Moscow University, also not any kind of office. And the publishers of flag collections in the 18th-19th centuries, given, as it seems to me, the relatively high cost of producing documents, would hardly have published collections that were obviously unreliable.

Why did I have to dwell on these two seemingly unrelated facts, which seem to have nothing to do with the Empire of Tatarstan? Let's think about it.

Peter I, who personally edited the Statement in 1709 (this is a fact from canonical history), recognizes the existence of Tartary led by the Caesar. In the Russian-language version of the “Book of Flags” of the same 1709, there are only three “types” of Caesars: “old Roman Caesars”, Caesars of the Holy Roman Empire and the Tatar Caesar. In the Statement, the imperial flag of Russia is yellow with a black double-headed eagle, the “Caesar” flag of the Holy Roman Empire is yellow with a black double-headed eagle, the flag of the Tatar Caesar is yellow with a black dragon (?). On the coins of the Golden Horde during the reign of the khans of Uzbek, Janibek and, apparently, Aziz-Sheikh, there is a double-headed eagle. The coat of arms of Byzantium is a double-headed eagle. The appearance of the double-headed eagle in Byzantium, according to one version, after victories over Rome, according to another, “after... the union of two kingdoms” (the word “subjugated” is not very clear what it refers to). Along with considering the double-headed eagle and the tricolor, Peter I is trying on the flag of Jerusalem (the Kingdom of Jerusalem) or may have the right to it. The flag of the Kingdom of Jerusalem was in circulation in the 18th-19th centuries. Emperor Constantine the Great made Constantinople the capital of the Roman Empire. He is revered by the Russian Orthodox Church as a saint among the Equal-to-the-Apostles, but the Catholic Church does not consider him such. He is also the first king of Jerusalem.

Yes, our research raised more questions than it answered. Let everyone decide for themselves whether the Tartarian Empire existed as a state or not. History is like a religion, where there are canonical books, there are also apocrypha, which are anathematized by zealous ministers of the cult. But when the flock has many questions, and the preacher does not give comprehensive and clear answers to them, faith weakens, and religion gradually fades away and then dies. And on its ruins.... But, as they write in the tabloid books, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This is a completely different story.

Brief conclusions (exclusively for myself):

1. In addition to depicting the territory of the Empire of Tartary on maps, documents from the 18th-19th centuries contain sufficient images of its flags.

2. The flag is a symbol of the state, not the territory, which means the Tatarian Empire existed as a state.

3. This state existed independently of the Mughal and Chin states (modern China).

4. Despite the presence of the imperial flag, we cannot yet say with certainty whether these flags were symbols of all of Tartary or some part of it.

5. In a number of the sources considered, there are tensions, inconsistencies and contradictions (the Kingdom of Jerusalem and Rome-Byzantium), which raise doubts about the canonical version, require additional research and even make one doubt whether there should be a dragon on the flag of the Tartarian Empire or another symbol.

6th and last. I just like the flag with the owl, because there are many flags with eagles, but only one with the owl. Owls are beautiful and useful birds. Among the Slavic and Turkic peoples living in the territory of the former Tataria, as well as among the Greeks, owls are revered. For many other peoples, owls represent dark forces, which is suggestive. I would like all doubts to be dispelled, and the yellow flag with a black owl would be recognized as the flag of the Great Empire of Tataria.

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Continuation of the study:

interesting hypothesis - Flag and coat of arms of Tartary - Part 1

It is no longer a secret to anyone that on the maps of bygone times, in the vastness of Eurasia, the mysterious Tartary freely spread out. Almost within these same borders, the Russian Empire subsequently appeared, and then the Soviet Union. Many also know that such concepts as Siberia, Tatars, Russians, Mongols, which previously had completely different meanings than we are used to using today, were gradually replaced.

On various maps, Tartary is depicted as a country - with borders and cities.

But why is Tartary as a state not mentioned in domestic history textbooks? Perhaps due to the fact that Tartaria is not a self-name. Although there is a Russian name - Tataria. So why not talk about Great Tatary and the names of this country that previously existed in the world. But isn’t the reason for the silence that Tataria-Tartary was not a country, a state at all?

The symbols of the state are the coat of arms, flag and anthem.

The first national anthem is considered to be the British one, the first edition of which dates back to October 15, 1745. If we assume that Tataria-Tartaria was a state and it did have its own anthem, then I think we will never know what it sounded like.

In the book "World Geography", published in Paris in 1676, before the article about Tartary there is an image of an owl on a shield, which is known to many. It can be assumed that this is a coat of arms. We find a similar image in the often cited illustration to the book of Marco Polo, who described his journey through Asia and his stay with the “Mongol” Khan Kublai Khan. By the way, Marco Polo found the empire well organized and hospitable.

So what do we have? We have two images of an owl on a shield in two different books, which can only hypothetically be considered as the coat of arms of Tataria-Tartaria.

But maybe Tataria-Tartaria had a flag? Let's get a look.

If we look into the collection of maritime flags of the world, drawn at the beginning of the 18th century, apparently in France, we will see not one flag of Tartary-Tartaria, but two. At the same time, along with the Tatar flags, there are also Russian and Mughal flags. (Note: some images are glued together because we had to copy them in parts)

The only problem is that the images of the Tatar flags have practically been erased. But it should be noted that the first Tatar flag is the flag of the Emperor of Tataria, and the second is simply Tatarstan. The truth is that it is impossible to really determine what is drawn there. But what is important for us is that the flags of Tatarstan are shown in the old drawing along with the flags of other countries, and one of them is imperial.

Let's now look at another, now Dutch table of the early 18th century, where maritime flags of the world are collected. And again we find two flags of Tatarstan-Tartaria, but which are no longer worn out, and the image on them can be easily made out. And what do we see: on the imperial flag (here it appears as the flag of the Kaiser of Tartary) a dragon is depicted, and on the other flag - an owl! Yes, the same owl that is in “World Geography” and in the illustration for the book by Marco Polo.

There are Russian flags too, but in the table they are listed as flags of Muscovy.

Now we know that Tataria-Tartaria had flags, which means it was a state, and not just a territory on the map. We also learned that one of the flags of Tatarstan is imperial, therefore we are talking about an empire.

It remains to find out what colors were used on the Tatar flags.

The answer to this question was found in the “Proclamation of the maritime flags of all states of the universe,” published in Kyiv in 1709 with the personal participation of Peter I. Unfortunately, only one copy of the Declaration with poor resolution was found on the Internet. Now we have learned that the colors used on the flags of Tartaria-Tartaria were black and yellow.

We find confirmation of this in the “Book of Flags” by the Dutch cartographer Karl Allard (published in Amsterdam in 1705 and republished in Moscow in 1709): “The flag of the king of Tataria is yellow, with a black dragon lying and looking outwards with a basilisk tail. Another Tatar flag, yellow with a black owl, whose feathers are yellowish."

It can be assumed that Allard drew the flag of Tataria by mistake, just as he allegedly drew another flag by mistake, which will be discussed below. But what about Peter? Or was he also mistaken?

By the way, here among the Russian flags there appears a yellow flag with a black double-headed eagle (third row from the top, first flag from the middle of the table).

The low resolution copy of the Statement makes the labels on the flags difficult to read. Larger images of the flags of Tatarstan with Russian inscriptions are taken from the Russian-language “Book of Flags” by Alard, published in the same year as the Declaration. The text from the book seems to correspond to the Statement. At least with the maximum enlargement of the copy of the Statement, in the captions to the Tatar flags one can discern the text shown in the large images. And in fact, he repeats the captions for the Tatar flags on foreign tables, only in Russian. But here the autocrat of Tataria is called Caesar.

There were also several more tables with Tatar flags - an English one from 1783 and a couple more tables from the same 18th century. But what is most surprising is that a table with the imperial flag of Tatarstan was discovered, published already in 1865 in the USA.

It is very interesting that in the English table of 1783 the first three Russian flags are indicated as the flags of the Tsar of Muscovy, followed by the imperial flag of Russia (Russia Imperial), then the merchant tricolor, followed by the admiral and other naval flags of Russia.

And for some reason, in front of the flags of the Tsar of Muscovy in this table is the flag of the Viceroy of Muscovy. This flag is still present in the same book by K. Allard, but it is not identified and is considered an error. In 1972, Moscow vexillologist A.A. Usachev suggested that one of the leaders of the Armenian liberation movement, Israel Ori, on behalf of Peter I, went to the Netherlands, where he recruited officers, soldiers and craftsmen on behalf of the Tsar, possessing great powers, which gave Allard grounds to call him “the Viceroy of Muscovy.” However, we must not forget that Ory died in 1711, and the table was published in 1783. The viceroy's flag is placed in front of the king's flag, i.e. It turns out that he is more important. The flags of Russia, including the imperial (imperial), are given after the flags of the Tsar of Muscovy. It can be assumed that the confusion with the flags of Muscovy and Russia is explained by the political need for the Romanovs to form a new heraldry. After all, we are taught that before Peter I we didn’t really have flags. But even in this case, the flag of some obscure viceroy of Muscovy, placed in first place, raises questions. Or maybe in the 70s and early 80s of the 18th century something happened that they don’t tell us about in history lessons?

But let's return to the Empire of Tatarstan. If this country had flags (this, as you see, is confirmed by both domestic and foreign sources of that time), then we can already assume with sufficient confidence that the shield with the image of an owl is, after all, the coat of arms (or one of the coats of arms) of this country states. Since the sources listed above dealt with sea flags, therefore navigation was developed in Tatarstan. But it is still strange that history has not left us a single name of the Emperor (Kaiser, Caesar) of Tataria. Or are they known to us, but under other names and titles?

We probably need to dwell in more detail on the flag of the Emperor of Tataria. On the last table we have from 1865, this flag is no longer called imperial, and there is no other flag with an owl next to it. Perhaps the time of empire is already in the past. If you look closely at the dragon, you can immediately discover that the imperial dragon of Tataria apparently has no direct relation to the dragons of China-China or the serpent Zilant on the coat of arms of Kazan. In addition, the Kazan kingdom ceased to be a subject of international relations in the middle of the 16th century under Ivan IV the Terrible. Oddly enough, the dragon on the imperial flag of Tataria vaguely resembles the dragon on the flag of Wales, although the colors are completely different. But this is already a topic for heraldry specialists.

Now let's remember the coat of arms of Moscow. In his depictions of past centuries, St. George defeats rather a snake. And on the modern coat of arms it’s neither give nor take the Tatar dragon. This may be a coincidence, but in my opinion this is a good topic for a separate study. After all, this snake is sometimes yellow, sometimes black, the snake sometimes has two or four paws, and Ivan IV the Terrible for some time used a double-headed eagle, on whose chest there is not a horseman with a spear striking the snake, but a unicorn. In Allard’s description of the flag of the Tsar of Muscovy, it is indicated that on the eagle’s chest is St. George without the serpent.

It is a pity that in those documents where the flags of the Tartarian Empire were found, there are no at least minimal details about the countries to which this or that flag belonged, with the exception of Allard’s “Book of Flags”. But even there there is nothing about Tataria, only a description of the flags and their colors. However, the most important thing is that the flags of Tatarstan were found in tables published by different countries and at different times. The idle reader may, of course, say: “Is it possible to conclude about the existence of the Empire just from a few pictures of flags?”

Indeed, we have considered only symbolism here. We know that on maps and in books of those distant times there were mentions of Moscow Tataria (with its capital in Tobolsk), Free or Independent Tataria (with its capital in Samarkand), Chinese Tataria (do not confuse it with China-China, which is a different state on the maps) and, in fact, the Great Empire of Tatarstan. Now we have found documentary evidence of the existence of state symbols of the Empire. We do not know which Tatarstan these flags belonged to, the entire Empire or some part of it, but the flags were found.

But in the search for the flags of Tatarstan, two more facts were discovered that do not fit into the canonical history.

Fact 1. In the 18th-19th centuries, among the then modern flags, the flag of the Kingdom of Jerusalem was depicted.

According to canonical history, this kingdom ceased to exist in the 13th century. But flags signed “Jerusalem” and illustrated on the page are in almost all the collections of maritime flags reviewed here. Information about the possible use of this flag after the defeat of the crusaders could not be found. And it is unlikely that the Muslims who captured Jerusalem would have left the city a flag with Christian symbols. Moreover, if this flag had been used in the 18th-19th centuries by any order such as the Jesuits, then most likely the authors would have written so in the documents. Maybe there are some facts about this that are known only to specialists?

But that's not all. In a note from a member of the Special Meeting, Lieutenant Commander P.I. Belavenets "The Colors of the Russian State National Flag", published in 1911, suddenly reveals something surprising. And this “something” makes us wonder whether Jerusalem was placed in Palestine due to a misunderstanding. Think about it, Mr. Belavenets writes that, by order of the Highest, he brought to St. Petersburg the flag granted by Tsar Peter Alekseevich to Archbishop Athanasius of Arkhangelsk in 1693. In the illustration with the caption “Flags kept in the Cathedral of Arkhangelsk” we see three flags, two of which are flags of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, with a white-blue-red tricolor attached to one of them. Otherwise, the Holy City of Jerusalem should be looked for somewhere on the East European Plain and most likely not in the 12th-13th centuries.

Fact 2. In the 1904 reprint of the 17th century manuscript “On the conception of signs and banners or ensigns” we read:

“...The Caesars began to have their own sign of the double-headed eagle, from such an event as here it will be announced.
From the creation of the world in the year 3840, also from the conception of the construction of the city of Rome in 648, and from the Nativity of Christ our God for 102 years, there was a battle between the Romans and the Cysar people, and at that time the Romans had a mayor and regimental commander named Caius Marius. And he Caius, for a special sign, instead of the head banner of each legion, built a single-headed eagle, and the Romans kept that sign until the tenth year after the Nativity of Christ our God, during the reign of Caesar Augustus. And at the same time great battles broke out between the Romans and the Caesars, and the Caesars beat the Romans three times and took two banners from them, that is, two eagles. And from that date the Tsysarians began to have a double-headed eagle in their banner, sign and seal.”

And what do we see in the source?

We see that “Tsysaryans” and “Romans” are not the same thing (well, this is already clear to everyone). That the “Tsysaryans” began to have a sign in the form of a double-headed eagle, which means they are Tsargorod residents, i.e. Byzantines. What is the so-called The "Eastern Roman Empire" fought with the so-called. "Western". That Emperor Octavian Augustus (he died 4 years after the events described - based on the year AD) was a “Caesar” and, based on the logic of the text, fought on the side of the “Tsarists,” i.e. Byzantines against the "Romans". However, according to canonical history, Byzantium begins its countdown from the year 330, i.e. 320 years after the events described, when the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (who, by the way, bore the title “August”) moved the capital to Byzantium, renaming it Constantinople.

We also see a not very clear interpretation of the appearance of the double-headed eagle in Byzantium in the aforementioned “Book of Flags” by Allard of 1709: “There was one eagle during the time of the old Roman CAESARS; depicting their forces, in which subsequently the last CAESARS even to this day (after the subjugation and unification two kingdoms, that is, from the east and from the west) the double-headed eagle was chosen to that place.” Those. According to Allard, both kingdoms existed simultaneously and independently, and then were united.

“Oh, simplicity,” the same idle reader will say with a wink: “I found some dubious sources and cast a shadow over the fence. The authors probably got it all mixed up or made it up.”

May be so. But in the 17th century, the author of the manuscript “On the Conception of Signs and Banners” knew that Gaius Marius carried out a reform in the Roman army, which means he revered Plutarch. But maybe Plutarch was a little different in the 17th-18th centuries? The re-release of "Conception" was carried out by the Imperial Society of Russian History and Antiquities at Moscow University, also not any kind of office. And the publishers of flag collections in the 18th-19th centuries, given, as it seems to me, the relatively high cost of producing documents, would hardly have published collections that were obviously unreliable.

Why did I have to dwell on these two seemingly unrelated facts, which seem to have nothing to do with the Empire of Tatarstan? Let's think about it.

Peter I, who personally edited the Statement in 1709 (this is a fact from canonical history), recognizes the existence of Tartary led by the Caesar. In the Russian-language version of the “Book of Flags” of the same 1709, there are only three “types” of Caesars: “old Roman Caesars”, Caesars of the Holy Roman Empire and the Tatar Caesar. In the Statement, the imperial flag of Russia is yellow with a black double-headed eagle, the “Caesar” flag of the Holy Roman Empire is yellow with a black double-headed eagle, the flag of the Tatar Caesar is yellow with a black dragon (?). On the coins of the Golden Horde during the reign of the khans of Uzbek, Janibek and, apparently, Aziz-Sheikh, there is a double-headed eagle. The coat of arms of Byzantium is a double-headed eagle. The appearance of the double-headed eagle in Byzantium, according to one version, after victories over Rome, according to another, “after... the union of two kingdoms” (the word “subjugated” is not very clear what it refers to). Along with considering the double-headed eagle and the tricolor, Peter I is trying on the flag of Jerusalem (the Kingdom of Jerusalem) or may have the right to it. The flag of the Kingdom of Jerusalem was in circulation in the 18th-19th centuries. Emperor Constantine the Great made Constantinople the capital of the Roman Empire. He is revered by the Russian Orthodox Church as a saint among the Equal-to-the-Apostles, but the Catholic Church does not consider him such. He is also the first king of Jerusalem.

Yes, our research raised more questions than it answered. Let everyone decide for themselves whether the Tartarian Empire existed as a state or not. History is like a religion, where there are canonical books, there are also apocrypha, which are anathematized by zealous ministers of the cult. But when the flock has many questions, and the preacher does not give comprehensive and clear answers to them, faith weakens, and religion gradually fades away and then dies. And on its ruins.... But, as they write in the tabloid books, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This is a completely different story.

Brief conclusions (exclusively for myself):

1. In addition to depicting the territory of the Empire of Tartary on maps, documents from the 18th-19th centuries contain sufficient images of its flags.

2. The flag is a symbol of the state, not the territory, which means the Tatarian Empire existed as a state.

3. This state existed independently of the Mughal and Chin states (modern China).

4. Despite the presence of the imperial flag, we cannot yet say with certainty whether these flags were symbols of all of Tartary or some part of it.

5. In a number of the sources considered, there are tensions, inconsistencies and contradictions (the Kingdom of Jerusalem and Rome-Byzantium), which raise doubts about the canonical version, require additional research and even make one doubt whether there should be a dragon on the flag of the Tartarian Empire or another symbol.

6th and last. I just like the flag with the owl, because there are many flags with eagles, but only one with the owl. Owls are beautiful and useful birds. Among the Slavic and Turkic peoples living in the territory of the former Tataria, as well as among the Greeks, owls are revered. For many other peoples, owls represent dark forces, which is suggestive. I would like all doubts to be dispelled, and the yellow flag with a black owl would be recognized as the flag of the Great Empire of Tataria.

Many people nowadays are interested in whether there is a coat of arms of Tartary. But with this country everything is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. Medieval people imagined that somewhere far away there were countries described in ancient myths, where mystical monsters and people with dog heads lived. Geographers and cartographers of Western Europe, for example, believed in the mysterious kingdom of Prester John, and also believed that in the east there was a huge territory called Great Tartary. It is not surprising that many people still want to learn more about this state and see a photo of the coat of arms of Tartary.

Probably, this is where the river of the dead originates, and the inhabitants of this particular country once announced to the whole world that the end of the world was coming. Where is this wonderful, mysterious and elusive promised land located?

General information

Let's start with the fact that Great Tartaria is a completely scientific term used mainly by Western European scientists. From the 12th to the 19th century, they located this state in different parts of Asia: from the Urals and Siberia to Mongolia and China.

Some cartographers believed that this was the name of all the land that had not been explored by representatives of the Catholic world. And then the borders of Tartary moved from the Caspian Sea to the Pacific Ocean. Other scientists, on the contrary, associated this mysterious country with Turkestan or Mongolia.

Terminology

This toponym was first found in the works of Rabbi Benjamin of Navarre, Benjamin of Tudela; around 1173, this traveler wrote about Tartary, calling it a Tibetan province. According to a Jewish cleric, the country is located north of Moghulistan in the Tangut region of Turkestan. Unfortunately, he did not create a description of the symbols of the coat of arms of Tartary.

Scientists associate the origin of the name Tartary with a mixture of two words that are completely different in origin: the ancient Greek dungeon Tartarus and the name of the Tatar people. It is believed that these words came together in the minds of Western Europeans due to their similar sound. The fact is that from the caravans that transported goods from China along the Great Silk Road, Europeans heard about the mysterious Tatars inhabiting the eastern lands. Since the Chinese called almost all the peoples living in the north of the Celestial Empire Tatars, including the Mongols and Yakuts, the West formed the concept that Tartary, the country of the Tatars, is a huge empire that occupies almost all of Asia. At the same time, the Europeans knew neither the description of the coat of arms of Tartary, nor the external description of its inhabitants.

Geography and history

Tartary was often divided into different regions, related to the country that owned them or geographic location. Thus, according to medieval cartographers, Western Siberia was inhabited by Muscovites or Russian Tatars, Xinjiang and Mongolia were settled by the Chinese, Western Turkestan (later Russian Turkestan) was known as independent Tartary, and Manchuria was Eastern Tartary.

As the Russian Empire expanded eastward and most of Tartaria opened up to Europeans, the term gradually fell into disuse. The European areas north of the Black Sea, inhabited by Turkic peoples, were known as Little Tartary.

The “Komul desert of Tartary” was mentioned by Immanuel Kant in “Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime” as “a great, far-reaching loneliness.” It was this note of the great philosopher that, apparently, at one time inspired the creators of the film “The Desert of Tartary”.

New time

Not all scientists were inclined to attribute such a huge size to this country. Some geographers placed it in Central Asia. Thus, the Encyclopedia Britannica (Volume 3, 1773) indicates that the state of Tartaria is located south of Siberia, north of India and Persia and west of China.

This view was also shared by the Swedish explorer Philipp Johann von Strahlenberg. In 1730, he published “A New Geographical Description of Great Tartary,” placing it between Mongolia, Siberia and the Caspian Sea. And not a word about the coat of arms of Great Tartary.

Eastern Tartaria

This is what the Manchu territories were once called, stretching from the confluence of the Amur River with the Ussuri River to Sakhalin Island. This area is now Primorsky Krai with Vladivostok as the regional administrative center.

These lands were once occupied by the Mohe tribes and the Jurchen people, as well as various old kingdoms including Koryo, Balhae, Liao and the Khitan state.

According to the chronicles of the Ming Dynasty, this land was once inhabited by the Tungus-Vedzhi tribes. They were later united into the Manchu Qing Empire with Nurhaci as their leader and founder. These lands were seized in favor of Russia in accordance with the Beijing Treaty. And again, no information about the coat of arms of Tartaria.

At one time, these lands were visited by Japanese explorers, Mamiya Rinzo and others, who reported various important cities and ports, such as Haishenway (today's Vladivostok). From these lands and the nearby areas of Hulun (Amur Region), according to Japanese scientists of the 19th century, the ancestors of their people arrived. Other ancient cities in the region: Tetyukhe (now Dalnegorsk) and possibly Deleng, according to some sources, an important commercial imperial port.

Various versions

Many Western European cartographers were guided in their works by the works of the Italian Franciscan diplomat over several centuries. Some scientists considered the Great Tartaria to be the mysterious expanses of Siberia. Thus, the Flemish scientist Abraham Ortelius published the world atlas “Review of the Circle of the Earth” in 1570. In this edition, Tartary was located between Moscow and the Far East.

Role in modern false history

The problem of Great Tartary in modern historiography is very extensive, since this territory, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica of 1771, is the largest state in the world! This huge state disappeared without a trace from all subsequent editions of the encyclopedia. Anything is possible!

Why then do academic historians not accept the extravagant theories of the mathematician, academician, home-grown historian Dr. Fomenko? The Russians cannot accept them, since Fomenko claims that the Tatar and Mongol invasions did not happen as such, nor did three centuries of slavery, providing an extensive body of “documentary evidence” to support his claim.

The so-called Tatars and Mongols, according to the historian-mathematician, were the real ancestors of modern Russians, living in a bilingual state with Arabic as the second official language, which they allegedly spoke as freely as Russian. The Old Russian state was governed by a dual structure of civil and military authorities. The hordes were actually professional armies with a tradition of lifelong conscription (conscription was the so-called “blood tax”). Their “invasions” were punitive operations against regions that tried to evade paying taxes. Fomenko argues that Russian history as we know it today is a blatant forgery, invented by scores of German scholars brought to Russia by the "usurper" Romanov dynasty, whose accession to the throne was the result of a coup d'etat. Fomenko insists that Ivan the Terrible is in fact a cocktail of four rulers, no less. They represented two competing dynasties - legitimate rulers and ambitious upstarts. The winner took it all! Over 30 years of controversy, Russian historians made the most remarkable transition - they initially accused the young mathematician Fomenko of anti-communist dissident activities and an attempt to destroy the historical heritage of Soviet Russia. Currently, the middle-aged mathematician is accused of “pro-communist Russian nationalism” and violating the proud historical heritage of Great Russia. Fomenko, unfortunately, did not describe the symbol of the coat of arms of Tartary.

In the West, Fomenko’s so-called new chronology will not be accepted, since he removes the cornerstone from under the impeccable edifice of world history. He mocks the history of our entire civilization, destroying one after another Ancient Rome (the founding of Rome in Italy dates back to the 14th century AD) and Ancient Greece and its numerous city-states, which he identifies as medieval crusader settlements on the territory of Greece and Ancient Egypt (the pyramids of Giza dated to the 11th-15th centuries AD and are named nothing other than the cemetery of the Great “Mongol Empire”). The civilization of Ancient Egypt is irrefutably attributed to the XII-XV centuries. using ancient Egyptian horoscopes carved from stone. He was the first to decipher and chart all such horoscopes, timing them to medieval dates. English historians are both angry and laughing at the suggestion that the history of Ancient England was a de facto Byzantine import transplanted onto English soil by fugitive Byzantine nobility. To reward English historians who consider themselves real experts in world history, the cover of one of Fomenko’s books depicts Jesus Christ crucified on Big Ben. Successful trolling on Fomenko’s part, but the coat of arms of Tartary on the cover would have been much more aesthetically pleasing.

Asians also got it, because in his books Fomenko completely destroyed the Ancient History of China. There is no such thing. Full stop. The collection of so-called ancient Chinese history is reliably applicable only to the 17th-18th centuries. According to the would-be historian, this is all just ancient Hebrew history, revised and rewritten in hieroglyphs as another historical transplant, this time performed on Chinese soil by loving Jesuit hands.

Yngling sect and coat of arms and description)

According to the teachings of the Ural sect of the Ynglings, once headed by the odious writer and psychic Nikolai Levashov, Great Tartary was a state of “Slavic-Aryans, descendants of Perun and Svarog, who arrived from outer space and settled the Eurasian continent.” According to Levashov’s supporters, the capital of this state was located in Omsk, which in ancient times allegedly bore the name Asgard-Iria. According to them, the coat of arms of Tartary is a griffin soaring in the sky. However, there is some disagreement on this matter in the Yngling community. Some of them, for example, are convinced that the coat of arms of Tartaria is a basilisk.

Tartary on Russian maps

Although you can find this state on the first Russian maps, this is due to the influence of Western European tradition. Thus, Tartaria ended up on the “Draft of Siberia, written in Tobolsk by order of Tsar Alexy Mikhailovich,” which was compiled in 1667 under the leadership of the boyar Peter Godunov.

Reflection in art

In the novel Ada by Vladimir Nabokov, Tartary is the name of a large country on the fictional planet Antiterra. Russia is the approximate geographical analogue of Tartaria on Terra, a twin world of Antiterra, apparently identical to "our" Earth, but doubly fictional in the context of the novel.

In Puccini's last opera, Turandot, Calaf's father Timur is the deposed king of Tartary.

In Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials novels, the European protagonists often express fear of the Tartars, which seems to apply to many Asian races since the story takes place far from Mongolia.

In William Shakespeare's Macbeth, the witches add the lips of the Tartars to their potion.

In Mary Shelley's gothic novel Frankenstein, Doctor Frankenstein pursues the monster "through the wilds of Tartary and Russia."

In his short work with E. Hoffmann Price, Through the Gate of the Silver Key, Lovecraft briefly mentions Tartaria: "On their hidden heads now seemed to stand tall, strangely colored mitres, suggestive of nameless figures carved by a forgotten sculptor along the living rocks high, forbidden mountain in Tartary."

"The Squire's Tale" from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is set in the royal court of Tartary.

In Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, the main character twice mentions his travels in Tartary.

In Walter de la Mare's poem "If I Were the Lord of Tartary", this country is described as an imaginary land full of happiness.

In Washington Irving's short story "Rip Van Winkle," the title character "sits on a wet rock, with a shaft as long and heavy as the spear of Tartary."

Do the flag and coat of arms of Tartary exist?

Since we are talking about a historical region, and not about a really existing state, it apparently did not have any official symbols. Some people believe that the coat of arms of Tartary is a griffin, while others see some other animal in this role. This question is the subject of numerous speculations, and above all, by various false historians (Fomenko, Nosovsky) and ideologists of the New Age movements (Levashov, Khinevich, Trekhlebov). Perhaps this region really had its own totem in the form of some animal common in the Eurasian latitudes, and the original coat of arms of Tartary was an owl. We leave these conjectures to the reader. The article contains illustrations that can be attributed to the flag or coat of arms of Tartary. The photos above are not historically accurate. Perhaps the images on them are simply inventions of people of that time.

However, a number of Western European reference books still provided images of the symbols of the flag and coat of arms of Tartaria, which were indeed described as a canvas with the above-mentioned animals.

What is Tartarus, or why the word "Tartaria" inspired horror

In Greek mythology, Tartarus is both a deity and a place in the underworld. In the ancient Orphic sources and in the secret schools, Tartarus is also the unlimited first being from which Light and Cosmos are born.

In Hesiod's Greek poetry Theogony (c. 700 BC), Tartarus was the third of the primordial deities, following Chaos and Gaia (Earth) and before Eros, he was also the father of the monster Typhon. According to Hyginus, Tartarus was a descendant of Ether and Gaia.

Regarding its location, Hesiod states that the bronze anvil falling from heaven will fall nine days before it reaches the earth. The anvil will take another nine days to fall from the earth to Tartarus. In the Iliad (c. 700 BC), Zeus states that Tartarus is “as far below Hades as the sky is above the earth.”

Although the kingdom of Hades is a place of death according to Greek mythology, Tartarus also has many inhabitants. When Cronus came to power as King of the Titans, he imprisoned the one-eyed Cyclopes and one hundred armed Hecatoncheires in Tartarus and installed the monster Kampe as a guard. Zeus killed Kampe and freed these prisoners to help him in the conflict with the Titans. The gods of Olympus eventually won. Cronus and many other Titans were banished to Tartarus, although Prometheus, Epimetheus, Metis and most of the female Titans were destroyed (according to Pindar, Cronus somehow later earned Zeus's forgiveness and was released from Tartarus to become ruler of Elysium). Other gods may also have been imprisoned in Tartarus. Apollo is a prime example, although he was freed by Zeus. The Hecatoncheires became guards for the prisoners of Tartarus. Later, when Zeus overcame the monster Typhon, he threw him into “wide Tartarus.”

Initially, this place was used only to limit the dangers to the gods of Olympus. In later mythologies, Tartarus became a place where punishment fits crime. For example:

• King Sisyphus was sent to Tartarus for killing guests and travelers in the castle in violation of hospitality, seducing his own niece and much more.
• King Tantalus also ended up in Tartarus after cutting up the son of Palops, boiling him and serving him as food when he was invited to dine with the gods. He also stole ambrosia from the gods and told people about it. Another story mentioned that he was holding on to a golden dog forged by Hephaestus and stolen by Tantalus' friend Pandareus.

Griffin as a coat of arms

Since many associate the history of the flag and coat of arms of Tartary with the image of a griffin, it is worth considering what this fantastic animal represents from the point of view of heraldry.

In heraldry, the fusion of a griffin with a lion and an eagle symbolizes courage and bravery, and is always attracted to powerful, cruel monsters. It is used to denote strength and military courage, as well as leadership. Griffins are depicted with the hindquarters of a lion, the head of an eagle with straight ears, a feathered chest, and the front legs of an eagle, including the talons. These features show a combination of intelligence and strength.

In British heraldry, the griffin is depicted without wings and with a short horn emerging from its forehead, like a unicorn. His body is covered with tufts of menacing thorns. The most commonly used is a "female" griffin with wings.

In architectural decoration, the griffin is usually represented as a four-foot beast with wings and the head of an eagle with horns.

The statues that mark the entrance to the City of London are sometimes mistaken for griffins, but are actually Tudor dragons, symbolizing the arms of the city. They are most easily distinguished from griffins by their webbed rather than feathered wings.

Basilisk in heraldry

The symbol of this mysterious country, if you believe the descriptions of the flag and coat of arms of Tartaria, could also be a basilisk, which has a much more sinister meaning.

The basilisk usually represents evil and is a symbol of death. Christianity from time to time used the symbol of the basilisk, and, like a number of other snakes, described it as a demon or representative of the devil himself. Therefore, he was often depicted in church paintings or stone carvings as being killed or defeated by a Christian knight to symbolize the ability to overcome evil.

Around the same time, the basilisk became included in heraldry, especially in the city of Basel, Switzerland.

In alchemy, the basilisk played a dual role. On the one hand, it can represent the powerful destructive force of fire, which destroys the elements that allow the transformation of metals, on the other hand, it is the immortalizing balm created by the philosopher's stone.

Considering how Tartaria was perceived in the West, the basilisk suits it much more than the griffin.

It is no longer a secret to anyone that on the maps of bygone times, in the vastness of Eurasia, the mysterious Tartary freely spread out. Almost within these same borders, the Russian Empire subsequently appeared, and then the Soviet Union. Many also know that such concepts as Siberia, Tatars, Russians, Mongols, which previously had completely different meanings than we are used to using today, were gradually replaced.

On various maps, Tartary is depicted as a country - with borders and cities.

But why is Tartary as a state not mentioned in domestic history textbooks? Perhaps due to the fact that Tartaria is not a self-name. Although there is a Russian name - Tataria. So why not talk about Great Tatary and the names of this country that previously existed in the world. But isn’t the reason for the silence that Tataria-Tartary was not a country, a state at all?

The symbols of the state are the coat of arms, flag and anthem.

The first national anthem is considered to be the British one, the first edition of which dates back to October 15, 1745. If we assume that Tataria-Tartaria was a state and it did have its own anthem, then I think we will never know what it sounded like.

In the book "World Geography", published in Paris in 1676, before the article about Tartary there is an image of an owl on a shield, which is known to many. It can be assumed that this is a coat of arms. We find a similar image in the often cited illustration to the book of Marco Polo, who described his journey through Asia and his stay with the “Mongol” Khan Kublai Khan. By the way, Marco Polo found the empire well organized and hospitable.

So what do we have? We have two images of an owl on a shield in two different books, which can only hypothetically be considered as the coat of arms of Tataria-Tartaria.

But maybe Tataria-Tartaria had a flag? Let's get a look.

If we look into the collection of maritime flags of the world, drawn at the beginning of the 18th century, apparently in France, we will see not one flag of Tartary-Tartaria, but two. At the same time, along with the Tatar flags, there are also Russian and Mughal flags. (Note: some images are glued together because we had to copy them in parts)

The only problem is that the images of the Tatar flags have practically been erased. But it should be noted that the first Tatar flag is the flag of the Emperor of Tataria, and the second is simply Tatarstan. The truth is that it is impossible to really determine what is drawn there. But what is important for us is that the flags of Tatarstan are shown in the old drawing along with the flags of other countries, and one of them is imperial.

Let's now look at another, now Dutch table of the early 18th century, where maritime flags of the world are collected. And again we find two flags of Tatarstan-Tartaria, but which are no longer worn out, and the image on them can be easily made out. And what do we see: on the imperial flag (here it appears as the flag of the Kaiser of Tartary) a dragon is depicted, and on the other flag - an owl! Yes, the same owl that is in “World Geography” and in the illustration for the book by Marco Polo.

There are Russian flags too, but in the table they are listed as flags of Muscovy.

Now we know that Tataria-Tartaria had flags, which means it was a state, and not just a territory on the map. We also learned that one of the flags of Tatarstan is imperial, therefore we are talking about an empire.

It remains to find out what colors were used on the Tatar flags.

The answer to this question was found in the “Proclamation of the maritime flags of all states of the universe,” published in Kyiv in 1709 with the personal participation of Peter I. Unfortunately, only one copy of the Declaration with poor resolution was found on the Internet. Now we have learned that the colors used on the flags of Tartaria-Tartaria were black and yellow.

We find confirmation of this in the “Book of Flags” by the Dutch cartographer Karl Allard (published in Amsterdam in 1705 and republished in Moscow in 1709): “The flag of the king of Tataria is yellow, with a black dragon lying and looking outwards with a basilisk tail. Another Tatar flag, yellow with a black owl, whose feathers are yellowish."

It can be assumed that Allard drew the flag of Tataria by mistake, just as he allegedly drew another flag by mistake, which will be discussed below. But what about Peter? Or was he also mistaken?

By the way, here among the Russian flags there appears a yellow flag with a black double-headed eagle (third row from the top, first flag from the middle of the table).

The low resolution copy of the Statement makes the labels on the flags difficult to read. Larger images of the flags of Tatarstan with Russian inscriptions are taken from the Russian-language “Book of Flags” by Alard, published in the same year as the Declaration. The text from the book seems to correspond to the Statement. At least with the maximum enlargement of the copy of the Statement, in the captions to the Tatar flags one can discern the text shown in the large images. And in fact, he repeats the captions for the Tatar flags on foreign tables, only in Russian. But here the autocrat of Tataria is called Caesar.

There were also several more tables with Tatar flags - an English one from 1783 and a couple more tables from the same 18th century. But what is most surprising is that a table with the imperial flag of Tatarstan was discovered, published already in 1865 in the USA.

It is very interesting that in the English table of 1783 the first three Russian flags are indicated as the flags of the Tsar of Muscovy, followed by the imperial flag of Russia (Russia Imperial), then the merchant tricolor, followed by the admiral and other naval flags of Russia.

And for some reason, in front of the flags of the Tsar of Muscovy in this table is the flag of the Viceroy of Muscovy. This flag is still present in the same book by K. Allard, but it is not identified and is considered an error. In 1972, Moscow vexillologist A.A. Usachev suggested that one of the leaders of the Armenian liberation movement, Israel Ori, on behalf of Peter I, went to the Netherlands, where he recruited officers, soldiers and craftsmen on behalf of the Tsar, possessing great powers, which gave Allard grounds to call him “the Viceroy of Muscovy.” However, we must not forget that Ory died in 1711, and the table was published in 1783. The viceroy's flag is placed in front of the king's flag, i.e. It turns out that he is more important. The flags of Russia, including the imperial (imperial), are given after the flags of the Tsar of Muscovy. It can be assumed that the confusion with the flags of Muscovy and Russia is explained by the political need for the Romanovs to form a new heraldry. After all, we are taught that before Peter I we didn’t really have flags. But even in this case, the flag of some obscure viceroy of Muscovy, placed in first place, raises questions. Or maybe in the 70s and early 80s of the 18th century something happened that they don’t tell us about in history lessons?

But let's return to the Empire of Tatarstan. If this country had flags (this, as you see, is confirmed by both domestic and foreign sources of that time), then we can already assume with sufficient confidence that the shield with the image of an owl is, after all, the coat of arms (or one of the coats of arms) of this country states. Since the sources listed above dealt with sea flags, therefore navigation was developed in Tatarstan. But it is still strange that history has not left us a single name of the Emperor (Kaiser, Caesar) of Tataria. Or are they known to us, but under other names and titles?

We probably need to dwell in more detail on the flag of the Emperor of Tataria. On the last table we have from 1865, this flag is no longer called imperial, and there is no other flag with an owl next to it. Perhaps the time of empire is already in the past. If you look closely at the dragon, you can immediately discover that the imperial dragon of Tataria apparently has no direct relation to the dragons of China-China or the serpent Zilant on the coat of arms of Kazan. In addition, the Kazan kingdom ceased to be a subject of international relations in the middle of the 16th century under Ivan IV the Terrible. Oddly enough, the dragon on the imperial flag of Tataria vaguely resembles the dragon on the flag of Wales, although the colors are completely different. But this is already a topic for heraldry specialists.

Now let's remember the coat of arms of Moscow. In his depictions of past centuries, St. George defeats rather a snake. And on the modern coat of arms it’s neither give nor take the Tatar dragon. This may be a coincidence, but in my opinion this is a good topic for a separate study. After all, this snake is sometimes yellow, sometimes black, the snake sometimes has two or four paws, and Ivan IV the Terrible for some time used a double-headed eagle, on whose chest there is not a horseman with a spear striking the snake, but a unicorn. In Allard’s description of the flag of the Tsar of Muscovy, it is indicated that on the eagle’s chest is St. George without the serpent.

It is a pity that in those documents where the flags of the Tartarian Empire were found, there are no at least minimal details about the countries to which this or that flag belonged, with the exception of Allard’s “Book of Flags”. But even there there is nothing about Tataria, only a description of the flags and their colors. However, the most important thing is that the flags of Tatarstan were found in tables published by different countries and at different times. The idle reader may, of course, say: “Is it possible to conclude about the existence of the Empire just from a few pictures of flags?”

Indeed, we have considered only symbolism here. We know that on maps and in books of those distant times there were mentions of Moscow Tataria (with its capital in Tobolsk), Free or Independent Tataria (with its capital in Samarkand), Chinese Tataria (do not confuse it with China-China, which is a different state on the maps) and, in fact, the Great Empire of Tatarstan. Now we have found documentary evidence of the existence of state symbols of the Empire. We do not know which Tatarstan these flags belonged to, the entire Empire or some part of it, but the flags were found.

But in the search for the flags of Tatarstan, two more facts were discovered that do not fit into the canonical history.

Fact 1. In the 18th-19th centuries, among the then modern flags, the flag of the Kingdom of Jerusalem was depicted.

According to canonical history, this kingdom ceased to exist in the 13th century. But flags signed “Jerusalem” and illustrated on the page are in almost all the collections of maritime flags reviewed here. Information about the possible use of this flag after the defeat of the crusaders could not be found. And it is unlikely that the Muslims who captured Jerusalem would have left the city a flag with Christian symbols. Moreover, if this flag had been used in the 18th-19th centuries by any order such as the Jesuits, then most likely the authors would have written so in the documents. Maybe there are some facts about this that are known only to specialists?

But that's not all. In a note from a member of the Special Meeting, Lieutenant Commander P.I. Belavenets "The Colors of the Russian State National Flag", published in 1911, suddenly reveals something surprising. And this “something” makes us wonder whether Jerusalem was placed in Palestine due to a misunderstanding. Think about it, Mr. Belavenets writes that, by order of the Highest, he brought to St. Petersburg the flag granted by Tsar Peter Alekseevich to Archbishop Athanasius of Arkhangelsk in 1693. In the illustration with the caption “Flags kept in the Cathedral of Arkhangelsk” we see three flags, two of which are flags of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, with a white-blue-red tricolor attached to one of them. Otherwise, the Holy City of Jerusalem should be looked for somewhere on the East European Plain and most likely not in the 12th-13th centuries.

Fact 2. In the 1904 reprint of the 17th century manuscript “On the conception of signs and banners or ensigns” we read:

“...The Caesars began to have their own sign of the double-headed eagle, from such an event as here it will be announced.
From the creation of the world in the year 3840, also from the conception of the construction of the city of Rome in 648, and from the Nativity of Christ our God for 102 years, there was a battle between the Romans and the Cysar people, and at that time the Romans had a mayor and regimental commander named Caius Marius. And he Caius, for a special sign, instead of the head banner of each legion, built a single-headed eagle, and the Romans kept that sign until the tenth year after the Nativity of Christ our God, during the reign of Caesar Augustus. And at the same time great battles broke out between the Romans and the Caesars, and the Caesars beat the Romans three times and took two banners from them, that is, two eagles. And from that date the Tsysarians began to have a double-headed eagle in their banner, sign and seal.”

And what do we see in the source?

We see that “Tsysaryans” and “Romans” are not the same thing (well, this is already clear to everyone). That the “Tsysaryans” began to have a sign in the form of a double-headed eagle, which means they are Tsargorod residents, i.e. Byzantines. What is the so-called The "Eastern Roman Empire" fought with the so-called. "Western". That Emperor Octavian Augustus (he died 4 years after the events described - based on the year AD) was a “Caesar” and, based on the logic of the text, fought on the side of the “Tsarists,” i.e. Byzantines against the "Romans". However, according to canonical history, Byzantium begins its countdown from the year 330, i.e. 320 years after the events described, when the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (who, by the way, bore the title “August”) moved the capital to Byzantium, renaming it Constantinople.

We also see a not very clear interpretation of the appearance of the double-headed eagle in Byzantium in the aforementioned “Book of Flags” by Allard of 1709: “There was one eagle during the time of the old Roman CAESARS; depicting their forces, in which subsequently the last CAESARS even to this day (after the subjugation and unification two kingdoms, that is, from the east and from the west) the double-headed eagle was chosen to that place.” Those. According to Allard, both kingdoms existed simultaneously and independently, and then were united.

“Oh, simplicity,” the same idle reader will say with a wink: “I found some dubious sources and cast a shadow over the fence. The authors probably got it all mixed up or made it up.”

May be so. But in the 17th century, the author of the manuscript “On the Conception of Signs and Banners” knew that Gaius Marius carried out a reform in the Roman army, which means he revered Plutarch. But maybe Plutarch was a little different in the 17th-18th centuries? The re-release of "Conception" was carried out by the Imperial Society of Russian History and Antiquities at Moscow University, also not any kind of office. And the publishers of flag collections in the 18th-19th centuries, given, as it seems to me, the relatively high cost of producing documents, would hardly have published collections that were obviously unreliable.

Why did I have to dwell on these two seemingly unrelated facts, which seem to have nothing to do with the Empire of Tatarstan? Let's think about it.

Peter I, who personally edited the Statement in 1709 (this is a fact from canonical history), recognizes the existence of Tartary led by the Caesar. In the Russian-language version of the “Book of Flags” of the same 1709, there are only three “types” of Caesars: “old Roman Caesars”, Caesars of the Holy Roman Empire and the Tatar Caesar. In the Statement, the imperial flag of Russia is yellow with a black double-headed eagle, the “Caesar” flag of the Holy Roman Empire is yellow with a black double-headed eagle, the flag of the Tatar Caesar is yellow with a black dragon (?). On the coins of the Golden Horde during the reign of the khans of Uzbek, Janibek and, apparently, Aziz-Sheikh, there is a double-headed eagle. The coat of arms of Byzantium is a double-headed eagle. The appearance of the double-headed eagle in Byzantium, according to one version, after victories over Rome, according to another, “after... the union of two kingdoms” (the word “subjugated” is not very clear what it refers to). Along with considering the double-headed eagle and the tricolor, Peter I is trying on the flag of Jerusalem (the Kingdom of Jerusalem) or may have the right to it. The flag of the Kingdom of Jerusalem was in circulation in the 18th-19th centuries. Emperor Constantine the Great made Constantinople the capital of the Roman Empire. He is revered by the Russian Orthodox Church as a saint among the Equal-to-the-Apostles, but the Catholic Church does not consider him such. He is also the first king of Jerusalem.

Yes, our research raised more questions than it answered. Let everyone decide for themselves whether the Tartarian Empire existed as a state or not. History is like a religion, where there are canonical books, there are also apocrypha, which are anathematized by zealous ministers of the cult. But when the flock has many questions, and the preacher does not give comprehensive and clear answers to them, faith weakens, and religion gradually fades away and then dies. And on its ruins.... But, as they write in the tabloid books, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This is a completely different story.

Brief conclusions (exclusively for myself):

1. In addition to depicting the territory of the Empire of Tartary on maps, documents from the 18th-19th centuries contain sufficient images of its flags.

2. The flag is a symbol of the state, not the territory, which means the Tatarian Empire existed as a state.

3. This state existed independently of the Mughal and Chin states (modern China).

4. Despite the presence of the imperial flag, we cannot yet say with certainty whether these flags were symbols of all of Tartary or some part of it.

5. In a number of the sources considered, there are tensions, inconsistencies and contradictions (the Kingdom of Jerusalem and Rome-Byzantium), which raise doubts about the canonical version, require additional research and even make one doubt whether there should be a dragon on the flag of the Tartarian Empire or another symbol.

6th and last. I just like the flag with the owl, because there are many flags with eagles, but only one with the owl. Owls are beautiful and useful birds. Among the Slavic and Turkic peoples living in the territory of the former Tataria, as well as among the Greeks, owls are revered. For many other peoples, owls represent dark forces, which is suggestive. I would like all doubts to be dispelled, and the yellow flag with a black owl would be recognized as the flag of the Great Empire of Tataria.

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