Editing Gog and Magog (section)

=== Eurasian steppes ===
As one nomadic people followed another on the Eurasian steppes, so the identification of Gog and Magog shifted. In the 9th and 10th centuries these kingdoms were identified by some with the lands of the [[Khazars]], a Turkic people whose leaders had converted to Judaism and whose empire dominated Central Asia–the 9th-century monk [[Christian of Stavelot]] referred to Gazari, said of the Khazars that they were "living in the lands of Gog and Magog" and noted that they were "circumcised and observing all [the laws of] Judaism".{{sfn|Brook|2006|pp=7–8, 96}}{{sfn|Westrem|1998|p=65}} Arab traveler ibn Fadlan also reported of this belief, writing around 921 he recorded that "Khazars are part of the Gog and Magog".{{sfn|Brook|2006|p=8}}

After the Khazars came the [[Mongols]], seen as a mysterious and invincible horde from the east who destroyed Muslim empires and kingdoms in the early 13th century; kings and popes took them for the legendary [[Prester John]], marching to save Christians from the Muslim [[Saracens]], but when they entered Poland and Hungary and annihilated Christian armies a terrified Europe concluded that they were "Magogoli", the offspring of Gog and Magog, released from the prison Alexander had constructed for them and heralding [[Armageddon]].{{sfn|Marshall|1993|pp=12, 120–122, 144}}

[[Europeans in Medieval China]] reported findings from their travels to the [[Mongol Empire]]. Some accounts and maps began to place the "Caspian Mountains", and Gog and Magog, just outside the [[Great Wall of China]]. The ''[[Tartar Relation]]'', an obscure account of [[Giovanni da Pian del Carpine|Friar Carpini]]'s 1240s journey to Mongolia, is unique in alleging that these Caspian Mountains in Mongolia, "where the Jews called Gog and Magog by their fellow countrymen are said to have been shut in by Alexander", were moreover purported by the Tartars to be magnetic, causing all iron equipment and weapons to fly off toward the mountains on approach.{{r|painter}} In 1251, the French friar [[André de Longjumeau]] informed his king that the Mongols originated from a desert further east, and an apocalyptic Gog and Magog ("Got and Margoth") people dwelled further beyond, confined by the mountains.{{sfn|William of Rubruck|Rockhill (tr.)|1900|pp=xxi, fn 2}} In the map of [[Muhammad al-Idrisi|Sharif Idrisi]], the land of Gog and Magog is drawn in the northeast corner (beyond Northeast Asia) and enclosed.<ref>Gow, Andrew. "Gog and Magog on Mappaemundi and early printed world maps: Orientalizing ethnography in the apocalyptic tradition." Journal of Early Modern History 2, no. 1 (1998): 61–88.</ref> Some medieval European world maps also show the location of the lands of Gog and Magog in the far northeast of Asia (and the northeast corner of the world).<ref>Van Duzer, Chet. "The Legends on the Yale Martellus Map." In Henricus Martellus's World Map at Yale (c. 1491), pp. 44–117. Springer, Cham, 2019.</ref>

In fact, Gog and Magog were held by the Mongol to be their ancestors, at least by some segment of the population. As traveler and Friar [[Riccoldo da Monte di Croce]] put it in c. 1291, "They say themselves that they are descended from Gog and Magog: and on this account they are called ''Mogoli'', as if from a corruption of ''Magogoli''".{{sfn|Boyle|1979|p=126}}{{Sfn|Marco Polo|Yule (tr.)|1875|pp=285, fn 5}}{{sfn|Westrem|1998|pp=66–67}} [[Marco Polo]], traveling when the initial terror had subsided, places Gog and Magog among the [[Tartars]] in [[Hohhot|Tenduc]], but then claims that the names Gog and Magog are translations of the place-names Ung and Mungul, inhabited by the Ung and Mongols respectively.{{Sfn|Marco Polo|Yule (tr.)|1875|pp=276–286}}{{r|strickland}}

<!--Even if Gog and Magog were considered ancestors, this location of Gog and Magog seems too far east.-->An explanation offered by Orientalist [[Henry Yule]] was that Marco Polo was only referring to the "Rampart of Gog and Magog", a name for the Great Wall of China.{{sfn|Marco Polo|Yule (tr.)|1875|pp=283, fn 5}} Friar André's placement of Gog and Magog far east of Mongolia has been similarly explained.{{sfn|William of Rubruck|Rockhill (tr.)|1900|pp=xxi, fn 2}}