ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2179
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2179
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* NOTE: Later research turned up additional     *
*       information relevant to this report.    *
*       See the end of the letter for details.  *
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9 Feb 2001
From:  (Josh Mittleman)


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked whether <Subutai> is an appropriate name for a Mongol living in
Smolensk or Novgorod between 800 and 1300, working as a Silk Road caravan
guard.  Here is what we have found.

<Subutai> is a reasonable spelling of a Mongol name recorded variously as
<Subetei>, <Subudei>, <Subutay>, <Subegedei>, <Subegeti>, etc [1].
<Subetei> was the name of the 13th century Mongol general who led the
armies that conquered Russia [2].

It is entirely authentic for a Mongol to be known by just a single name.
However, if you want to register your name with the SCA College of Arms,
you'll need to add a second element.  You can learn more about Mongol name
construction in an article in our library:

  Period Mongolian Names
    http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/baras-aghur/mongolian.html

While you're off to a good start choosing a Mongol name, you may want to do
a bit more research on your persona: The caravan routes known as the Silk
Road didn't run through northern Russia.  From the west, they began in
Antioch and Tyre and ran through Persia, passing south of the Caspian Sea,
northeast to Lake Balkhash, then east and south, passing north of Tibet and
into China [3].

Until the great Mongol expansion of the early 13th century, a Mongol in
Novgorod or Smolensk would have been very far from his tribesmen.  Earlier,
the Mongols were located much further east, and later any Mongol would
probably have been part of an army, not a peaceful resident [2].

A good setting for a Mongol working the Silk Road caravans is Tashkent, the
capital of Uzbekistan [4].


We hope this letter has been useful.  Please write us again if any part of
it has been unclear or if you have other questions.  I was assisted in
researching and writing this letter by Maridonna Benevenuti, Juliana de
Luna, Talan Gwynek, Dietmar von Straubing, Adelaide de Beaumont, and
Aryanhwy merch Catmael.

For the Academy,


  Arval Benicoeur
  9 Feb 2001


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References

[1] Marta as tu Mika-Mysliwy, "Mongolian Names Revisited" in Proceedings of
the Known World Heraldic Symposium, 1998 (SCA, Inc.)

[2] Newark, Tim, _The Barbarians_ (Blandford Press, 1986, ISBN
0-7137-1462-X).

[3] Wild, Oliver, "The Silk Road" (WWW: privately published, 1992).
http://ess1.ps.uci.edu/~oliver/silk.html 

That URL is no longer valid; the same page is now available at:

  http://www.ess.uci.edu/~oliver/silk.html

[4] There's a capsule history of Tashkent on the web:
http://www.tashkent.org/uzland/history.html

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Update, Arval, 21 Mar 2005: Updated the URL in note [3].