Hi, I'm trying to work out how different tribes identified each other. For background: I'm writing a novel set in a fictional steppe-based world. One of my antagonists is a minor tribal warlord, who tries to gain power by starting a major tribal war between two larger clans--by having his warriors disguise themselves as warriors from one side and attack the other, then do the reverse. The so called "false flag operation".
Could this even have been done in real life? How? Are there any recorded notes about how tribes identified one another?
This isn't going to be the best answer, but it's the only one I've got. From what I understand, each of the Turco-Mongol tribes could identify each other. So, if you were of the Oirat tribe, you could identify a Tatar, a Khitan, or a Buryat. Now, I'm not entirely sure if that is due to clothing recognition or if it is a physical appearance phenomenon. The Mongols didn't really take notes because until 1206, there was no written Mongolian language. A majority of the only surviving documents we have are translations of Chinese translations of the original Mongol documents. We have the Secret History of the Mongols and parts of the Koko Debter. We have a Chinese translation of the Golden History, but I cannot remember seeing any mention of this kind of tactic being used for battle.
Now, the concept of a minor tribal leader starting a war between two larger clans is a completely plausible idea. If you need any more background information about the Mongols for your fictional steppe-based world, please let me know! I'd be happy to provide more insight into the Mongol world!
I hope that helped!