Rashid al-Din Hamadani named nine tribes: Tutukliud (Tutagud), Alchi, Kuyn, Birkuy, Terat, Tamashi, Niuchi, Buyragud, and Ayragud, living in the eastern steppe and the Khalkhyn Gol's basin during the second half of 12th century.

[1] Toquz-Tatars and Otuz-Tatars from the Orkhon inscriptions are proposed to be Mongolic speakers (e.g. by sinologists Paul Pelliot,[22] and Ulrich Theobald,[3] turkologist Peter Benjamin Golden,[21]: 145  Altaist Volker Rybatzki,[2] etc.).

[28] Kashgari additionally noted that Tatars were bilingual, speaking Turkic alongside their own languages; the same for the Yabaqus, Basmïls, and Chömüls.

[30] As Ushnitsky writes, the ethnonym "Tatar" was used by the Turks only to designate "strangers", that is, peoples who did not speak Turkic languages.

[32]: 560 The Rourans, Tatars' putative ancestors, roamed modern-day Mongolia in summer and crossed the Gobi Desert southwards in winter in search of pastures.

[12] The Otuken region, constantly mentioned in the Orkhon inscriptions as the place of residence of the Turks, according to Mahmud Kashgar, was once in the country of the Tatars.

[32]: 559  According to Vasily Bartold, this message suggests that the Mongols already then reached the west to the area where their neighbors from different sides were Turkic tribes.

[35] The Shine Usu inscription mentioned that the Toquz Tatars, in alliance with the Sekiz-Oghuz,[f] unsuccessfully revolted against Uyghur Khagan Bayanchur, who was consolidating power between 744 and 750 CE.

[43] The news about the Tatars, from whom the Kimaks separated, according to Josef Markwart, confirms the fact of the movement to the west of the Turkified Mongolian elements.

After the fall of the Liao, the Tatars experienced pressure from the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty and were urged to fight against the other Mongol tribes.

[44][45] Southern Song ambassador Zhao Hong wrote in 1221 that in Genghis Khan's Mongol Empire, there were three divisions based on their distance from the Jurchen Jin-ruled China: the White Tatars (白韃靼 Bai Dada), the Black Tatars (黑韃靼 Hei Dada), and the Wild Tatars (生韃靼 Sheng Dada),[3] who were identified, by Kyzlasov, with the Turkic-speakers - including the Öngüds (of Turkic Shatuo origin),[46][45] Mongolic speakers -to whom belonged Genghis Khan and his companions-, and the Tungusic speakers,[g] respectively.

[54]: 545, 549–551, 560–563 Turkic-speaking peoples of Cumania, as a sign of political allegiance, adopted the endonym of their Mongol conquerors, before ultimately subsuming the latter culturally and linguistically.