
Lovers of domestic stories have long been aware of the existence of geographical maps of the XVII – XVIII centuries, on which east of the Volga shows a certain country called Grande Tartarie (Great Tartaria, on Russian maps - Tataria). Academic scientists try not to comment on this fact. But supporters of alternative versions are finding new proofs of the fallacy of our usual ideas about the past of the Fatherland. On this topic, an interesting material was spread on the Internet by our contemporary, who appears in LiveJournal under the account yuri_ost.

On various maps of Tartary portrayed as a country with borders and cities. But why in the domestic history textbooks of Tartary as a state is not mentioned?
Perhaps due to the fact that Tartaria is not a self-name. Although there is a Russian name - Tataria (Russian 1737 map of the year). So why not talk about it and the previously existing in the world names of this country?
The symbols of the state are traditionally the emblem, flag and anthem. It can be assumed that Tataria-Tartary was a state and it may have had its own anthem, but I think we will never know how it sounded.
As for the emblem and flag, then theoretically there is always a chance to find them. And it happened! In the book World Geography, published in Paris in 1676, the article on Tartary is preceded by the image of an owl on a shield, which many experts know (in Fig. 1). It can be assumed that this is the coat of arms of Tartaria.
We find a similar image in the frequently encountered illustration of the book by Marco Polo, who described his journey through Asia and his stay at the “Mongolian” Khan Kubilai (Fig. 2). The empire, by the way, Marco Polo found well organized and hospitable.
So what do we have? We have two images of owls on the shield in two different books, which can be considered, however, only hypothetically, as the coat of arms of Tartary.
But maybe Tataria-Tartary had a flag? Let's look in the library repositories.
If you look into the collection of maritime flags of the world, compiled at the beginning of the 18th century, apparently in France, then you will see not one flag of Tartaria, but two. At the same time, along with its flags, there are also flags of Russia, and flags of the Great Moguls (note that some images are glued together, because you had to copy them in parts).
The first Tartar flag is the flag of the emperor of Tartaria, and the second is just Tartaria. But the trouble is, the images of the flags have practically disappeared (the possibilities of newspaper printing, unfortunately, do not allow the images of these flags to be reproduced, only Internet users can see them in the electronic version of the article. - Ed.). It’s impossible to really determine what is painted there (like an owl). But it is important for us that the flags of Tartaria are shown in the old drawing along with the flags of other countries, and one of them is imperial. That is, no one in Western Europe at the beginning of the XNUMXth century has doubts that the empire of Tartary exists and has its own fleet.
Now let's look at one more - this time the Dutch table of the beginning of the XVIII century, where the sea flags of the world are also collected. And again we find two flags of Tartaria, but not so worn out anymore, the image on them can, although with difficulty, be disassembled (photo in the Internet version).
And what we see: on the imperial flag (here it appears as the flag of Kaiser Tartary) the dragon is depicted, and on the other flag - an owl! Yes, the same owl that in the French "World Geography" and in the illustration to the book of Marco Polo. Russian flags are also there, but they are listed in the table as the flags of Muscovy.
Now we know that the flags of Tartaria were, which means that it was a state, and not just a territory on the map. We also learned that one of the flags of Tartaria is imperial. Therefore, we are talking about the empire!
LEFT find out what colors were used on the Tartar flags. The answer to this question was found in the “Expression of the sea flags of all the universe states”, published in Kiev in 1709, with the personal participation of Peter I.
Unfortunately, only one copy of the "Declarations ..." was found on the Internet with a weak resolution, which makes flag signatures difficult to read. Nevertheless, we see that the flags of Tartaria used black and yellow colors.

By the way, here, among the Russian flags, a yellow flag with a black double-headed eagle appears.
In the Russian-language book about flags, the Dutchman Allard has a good understanding of the images of the flags of Tataria-Tartary with Russian inscriptions. But here the Tataria autocrat is called a czar (fig. 1).
A few more tables with Tartar flags were found on the Internet — the English table 1783 of the year and a couple of other tables from the same 18th century. What is most surprising, a table with the imperial flag of Tataria, published as much as 1865 in the USA, was found!
In the English 1783 table of the year, the first three Russian flags are listed as flags of the Tsar of Muscovy (at that time, according to the academic version of the story, the rule was Empress Catherine II), followed by the imperial flag of Russia (Russia Imperial), then the trade tricolor, followed by admiral and other sea flags Russia. And for some reason, the flag of the viceroy of Muscovy is located in front of the flags of the Muscovy in this table.
This flag is also present in the book of Allard, but it is not identified there and is considered a mistake by modern experts.

However, we must not forget that Ori died in the 1711 year, and the table was published by the English in the 1783 year. The flag of the viceroy of Muscovy is in front of the flag of the king, that is, it turns out that he is superior. The flags of Russia, including the imperial (imperial), are shown after the flags of the king of Muscovy.
It can be assumed that the mess with the flags of Muscovy and the Russian Empire is explained by the political necessity of the formation of the Romanov dynasty of new heraldry.

BUT RETURN to the empire of Tartary. If this country had flags (this, as we can see, is confirmed by both domestic and foreign sources of that time), it means that you can already assume with reasonable confidence that the shield with the image of an owl is, after all, the GERB (or one of the emblems) this power.
Since the above-mentioned sources dealt with maritime flags, therefore, maritime navigation was developed in Tartaria ...
And yet it is strange that history has not left us a single name of the emperor (Kaiser, Caesar) Tartary. Or are they known to us, but under different names and with other titles?

We are completing the publication of material on the flags of Tartaria, which were found in the tables of the sea flags, published several centuries ago in Western Europe and the USA.
On the flag of the emperor of Tartaria, probably, it makes sense to dwell in more detail. On the last 1865 table of our year (published in the USA), this flag is no longer called imperial, and there is no other flag (with an owl). Probably, the time of the empire is already in the past.
If you look closely at this image of the Tartar dragon, you may find that the emperor dragon of Tartary has no direct relation to the dragons of China-China (now China) or the legendary serpent Zilant on the coat of arms of Kazan. (See drawing in the Internet version) .
Strangely enough, the dragon on the imperial flag of Tataria resembles the dragon on the flag of Wales, although the colors are completely different. But this is a topic for heraldry specialists ...
It is a pity that in those documents in which only images of the flags of the empire of Tartaria were found, there are at least minimal details about the countries that owned one flag or another, with the exception of the “Book of flags” Allard. But there is nothing about Tartaria either - just a description of its flags and their colors.
However, the most important thing is that the flags of Tataria were found in tables published by different countries and at different times. A leisurely reader can, of course, say: "Is it possible to draw a conclusion about the existence of an empire only from a few flag designs?"
In his own way, he is right. Indeed, we considered only symbolism here.
But now we know for sure that on the maps and in the books of those distant times there were references to Moscow Tartary (with the capital in Tobolsk), Free or Independent Tartaria (with the capital in Samarkand), Chinese Tartary (do not confuse with the Tea-Room, which is on the maps - another state), and, in fact, the Great Empire of Tartaria.
We have found documentary evidence of the existence of the state symbols of the empire in the north-east of Eurasia. We do not know which of Tartaria these flags belonged to: the whole empire or some part of it. However, the main thing that the flags were found.
* * *

1 fact. In the 18th – 19th centuries, flags of the Kingdom of Jerusalem were depicted among the flags at the time (pictured).
According to the traditional version of history, this kingdom ceased to exist in the 13th century. But the flags signed by Jerusalem are in almost all the collections of nautical flags mentioned above. Information about the possible use of this flag after the defeat of the Crusaders could not be found. And it is unlikely that Muslims who captured Jerusalem would leave the flag with Christian symbols to the city.
In addition, if this flag were used in the 18th – 19th centuries by any order (like the Jesuits), then most likely, the authors would have written in documents.
Maybe there are some facts on this subject that are known only to a narrow circle of initiates?
But that's not all. In a note by a member of the Special Meeting on Russian national colors of Lieutenant Commander P.I. Belavenets “Colors of the Russian State National Flag”, published in 1911, suddenly reveals something amazing.
And this “something” makes you wonder if Jerusalem was placed in Palestine due to a misunderstanding?
Think about it: Peter Belavenets writes that, by the highest order, he brought to St. Petersburg a flag granted by Tsar Peter Alekseevich to Archangel Archbishop Athanasius in 1693 year.
In the illustration with the caption “Flags stored in the cathedral of Arkhangelsk” we see three flags, two of which are the flags of the Jerusalem kingdom, while one of them is tied to a white-blue-red tricolor. Not otherwise, the Holy City of Jerusalem should be searched somewhere on the East European Plain and, most likely, not in the 12th – 13th centuries.
2 fact. In the 17th century manuscript reprinted in 1904, “On the initiation of a sign and flags or ensigns,” we read: “... Caesarians began to have their own sign of a double-headed eagle, from such a case as it will be announced here. From the creation of the world in 3840 year, also from the conception of the structure of Rome hail in 648 year and from the Nativity of Christ our God for 102, the Romans had a battle with the Tsysar people, and at that time the Romans were a burgher and a regimental governor named Kaius Marius. And he Kaius for the special sign, instead of the head-flag, he built a single-headed eagle in every legion, and the Romans held that sign until the tenth year after the birth of Christ our God, during the time of the state of Caesar Augustus. And at the same time, there were still great battles between the Romans and Caesars, and the Caesars three times beat the Romans and took from them two banners, that is, two eagles. And from that number, the Tsysarians began to have in their rank, in the sign and in the seal of the double-headed eagle. ”
And what do we learn from the source? "Tsysaryan" and "Romans" - not the same thing. "Tsysaryan" began to have a sign in the form of a two-headed eagle, which means they - Tsargorod, that is, Byzantines.
"Eastern Roman Empire" fought with the "Western". Emperor Octavian Augustus (he died 4 after the described events) was a “czar” and, if we proceed from the textual logic of the text, he fought on the side of the “Cesarians”, 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! Then the Roman emperor Constantine the Great (who, incidentally, bore the title "Augustus") transferred the capital to the city of Byzantium, renaming it Constantinople.
We do not see a very clear interpretation of the appearance of the double-headed eagle in Byzantium in the mentioned Book on the Flags of Allard 1709: “One eagle was during the old Roman CESARES; expressing their power, in which, later, the last CESARI even came to this (after the conquest and unification of the two kingdoms, that is, from the east and the west), the double-headed eagle and the aboriginal place were abolished. ”
That is, both kingdoms, according to Allard, existed simultaneously and independently, and then were merged.
“Eh, simplicity,” the same leisurely reader will say with a wink, find some dubious sources and cast a shadow on the fence. This, I suppose, the authors confused everything or made up their minds. ”
May be so. But the reprint of the manuscript "On the initiation of the sign and flags or prapor" was carried out by the Imperial Society of Russian History and Antiquities at Moscow University. This is not anyhow what office. Yes, and publishers of collections of flags in the XVIII – XIX centuries at a relatively high cost of producing documents, it seems to me, it would hardly be possible to publish deliberately unreliable collections.
Why did you have to dwell on these two seemingly unrelated facts? It seems that they have nothing to do with the empire of Tartary ...

In the Russian-language version of the “Book of flags” of the same 1709, there are only three types of crown princes: “Old Roman Caesars”, Caesars of the Holy Roman Empire and Tatar Caesar.
In the "Expression" the imperial flag of Russia is yellow with a black double-headed eagle, the "Caesar" flag of the Holy Roman Empire is also 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 under the rule of the khans of Uzbek, Janibek and seemingly Aziz-Sheikh, a double-headed eagle is depicted. The coat of arms of Byzantium is also a double-headed eagle.

Apparently, Peter I tried on the flag of Jerusalem (Kingdom of Jerusalem). Maybe he had a right to it. Flag of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, we repeat, was in use in the XVIII – XIX centuries!
Yes, there were more questions in our study than there were answers. Let everyone decide for himself whether the empire of Tartaria-Tataria existed as a state or not.
History is like a religion: where there are canonical books, there are apocrypha there, which are anathematized by zealous worshipers.
But when the flock has many questions, and the preacher does not give them comprehensive and clear answers, faith weakens and religion gradually fades away, and then dies. And on its fragments ... Thinking about this academic science.
Brief conclusions of the author:

• the flag is a symbol of the state, and not of the territory, which means that the empire of Tartary existed as a state;
• this state existed independently of the state of the Mughal and Chinas (modern China);
• despite the presence of the imperial flag of Tartaria, we cannot yet say with certainty whether these flags were symbols of the whole of Tartaria or some of its parts;
• In a number of considered sources there are tensions, inconsistencies and contradictions (the Kingdom of Jerusalem and Rome-Byzantium), which give rise to doubts about the truth of the canonical version, require additional study of our past; there is also doubt as to whether the dragon should be on the flag of the empire of Tartaria or another symbol;
• the author simply likes the flag with the owl, because there are many flags with the eagles, and one with the owl. Owls are beautiful and useful birds. Slavic and Turkic peoples living in the territory of the former Tartary, as well as Greeks, owls are revered. But for many other peoples, owls personify dark forces, which leads to some thoughts. I wanted all doubts to disappear and a yellow flag with a black owl would be recognized as the flag of the Eurasian Great Empire.