Moals

Moals are the people described by the traveler Guillaume de Rubruk in his work Journey to the Eastern Countries, describing his journey through the countries of the Mongolian (Tatar) empire (Great Tartary). Apparently, this name should be understood as residents, citizens and representatives of the military estate of the Mongol Empire, and Mongols (Tatars) with whom the traveler communicated and interacted during his travels.

Medieval trade routes and travel routes

In 1253, the embassy of King Louis of France, led by the Franciscan monk Guillaume de Rubruck, arrived to the Horde prince Sartak through Constantinople. Prince Sartak graciously accepted Guillaume, but did not begin to negotiate, but redirected him to his father, who ruled at that moment prince (tsar) Batu , the founder of the Golden Horde. One of Sartak’s close associates advised Guillaume: “Do not say that our master is a Christian, he is not a Christian, but a moal, since the name“ Christianity ”seems to them to be the name of some people. They were exalted to such great pride that, although they may have some faith in Christ, they do not want to be called Christians, wanting their name, that is, moal ” ^[1] .

Translated from the ancient Mongolian language, "moal" means "divine", "silver".

“We Moals,” he said ^[2] , “believe that there is only the One God with whom we live and whom we will die, and we have an open, straight heart to Him.”

"They do not want to call themselves Tatars, since the Tatars are a different people, they themselves call Moals, that is, Mongols." (Guillaume de Rubruck, Journey to the Eastern Countries, 1253)

One of the phonetic features in the Mongolian language is that the average consonant in words during pronunciation is reduced, that is, drowned, for example: Kagan - Kaan, which probably caused the appearance of the term Moal in Guillaume de Rubruk, as a distortion from Mogul or Mongol.