Tartary
properly TATARY, the name under which, in the Middle Ages, was comprised the whole central belt of central Asia and eastern Europe, from the Sea of Japan to the Dnieper, including Manchuria, Mongolia, Chinese Turkestan, Independent Turkestan, the Kalmuck and Kirghiz steppes, and the old khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan, and the Crimea, and even the Cossack countries; and hence arose a distinction of Tartary into European and Asiatic. But latterly the name Tartary had a much more limited signification, including only Chinese Turkestan and Western Turkestan. It took its name from the Tatars or TARTARS (q. v.).