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Turkic peoples

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Turkic peoples are Northern and Central Eurasian peoples who speak languages belonging to the Turkic family, and who, in varying degrees, share certain cultural and historical traits. The term "Turkic" is generally considered to represent a broad linguistic characterization, and not necessarily an ethnic one. The term "Turk" refers to a nation/ethnicity. "Turkish" on the other hand, is considered to represent more specifically the citizens of Turkey, as well as the Turkish ethnicity. The family of Turkic languages are considered by some linguists to be a subdivision of the proposed Altaic language group, and are one of the most geographically widespread in the world, being spoken in a vast region spanning from Europe to Siberia.

Geographical distribution[edit]

The Turkic linguistic family has many branches, and the total population of Turkic speakers worldwide is around 150 million.[unverified] More than one third of these are ethnic Turks of Turkey, dwelling predominantly in Turkey proper and formerly Ottoman-dominated areas of Eastern Europe and West Asia;[unverified] as well as in Western Europe, Australia and the Americas as a result of immigration. The remainder of the Turkic peoples are concentrated in Central Asia, Russia, the Caucasus, China and Northern and North Western Iran.

At present, there are six independent Turkic countries: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in the island of Cyprus (recognized only by Turkey and by Nakhichevan, an autonomous republic in Azerbaijan). There are also several Turkic national subdivisions in the Russian Federation including Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, Tuva,Yakutia,Republic of Altay, Altaysky Kray Kabardino-Balkaria and karachayevo-Cherkessiya. Each of these subdivisions has its own flag, parliament, laws and official state language (in addition to Russian).

The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (also referred to as East Turkestan) in western China, and the autonomous state of Gagauzia, located within eastern Moldova, and bordering Ukraine to the north are two major autonomous Turkic regions. The Autonomous Republic of Crimea within Ukraine is a home of Crimean Tatars. In addition, there are several Turkic-inhabited regions in Iran, Iraq, Georgia, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and western Mongolia.

Turkic roots[edit]

The Xiongnu mentioned in Han Dynasty records may have been Proto-Turkic speakers. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Another viewpoint is that the Xiongnu language was Samoyedic rather than Turkic.[1] [6] The first recorded use of "Turk" as a political name is a sixth century reference to the word now pronounced in Modern Chinese as Tujue.It is believed that some Turkic tribes such as Khazars,Pechengs probably lived as nomads for many years before establishing a political state (Göktürk empire). While some of these peoples may have represented, to some extent, a proto-Turkic or Turkic tribe or confederation, many of them are considered non-Turkic by mainstream historians[unverified]. Turkic peoples originally used their own alphabets, like Orkhon and Yenisey runiform, and later the Uyghur alphabet.The oldest inscription found near Issyk river in Kazakhstan dated 500 BC. The traditional, national and cultural symbols of the Turkic peoples include the star and crescent—used as a symbol of Turks since pre-Islamic times [unverified] when they aspired to Shamanism—wolves, a part of Turkic mythology and tradition; as well as the color blue, iron and fire.

In the age of nationalism, Turkic speakers were among the first Muslim peoples to take up Western ideas of liberalism and secular ideologies. Pan-Turkism first sprang up at the end of 19th century in the Russian Empire and was advanced by leading Turkic intellectuals like Crimean Tatar İsmail Gaspıralı,Azerbaijan philosophers like Mirza Fatali Akhundov and Tatar Yusuf Akçura, as a reaction to Panslavist and Russification policies of the Russian Empire. The first fully democratic and secular republics in the Islamic world were Turkic: the ill-fated Idel-Ural State established in 1917, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918 (both annexed and absorbed by Soviet Union) and in 1923, Republic of Turkey.In 1991 Azerbaijan became an independent Azerbaijan Republic.

Nomenclature[edit]

In modern Turkey, a distinction is made between "Turks" and the "Turkic peoples": the term Türk corresponds specifically to Turkish people and culture, while the term Türki refers generally to modern Turkic peoples and cultures.

Some claim that this distinction is an artificial one, and one not made by speakers of Turkic languages elsewhere. It is sometimes claimed further that much of the separation is the result of Stalinism, and that prior to the founding of the Soviet Union, the term "Turkish" had been used to describe all Turkic peoples as part of a greater family. Others counter that this argument is without basis, and only used to support the racial theories of Pan-Turkism—pointing out that the differences among the separate governmental administrations, as well as cultural, religious, historical, and even racial differences, are too great to speak of any political unity. However, those ideas do not refute the claim that "Turkish" is a term for all Turkic peoples. For one thing, the claim that "Turkish" had been used to represent Turkic peoples at large is not necessarily used to support racist ideas. It is also not a political claim and does not necessarily belong to people who want political union of Turks. It is basically a historical claim that is mostly supported by Turkish nationalists.[unverified]

The first known mention of the term "Turk" applied to a Turkic group, was in reference to the Göktürks in the 6th century. A letter by the Chinese Emperor written to a Göktürk Khan named Ishbara in 585 described him as "the Great Turk Khan". The Orhun inscriptions (AD 735) use the terms Turk and Turuk".

Previous use of similar terms are of unknown significance, although some strongly feel that they are evidence of the historical continuity of the term and the people as a linguistic unit since early times. This includes a Chinese record of 1328 BC referring to a neighbouring people as "Tu-Kiu".

Traditions about nomenclature[edit]

In the ancient Zoroastrian texts of the Avesta, one of the grandsons of Yima (comparable to Noah as the sole survivor of a catastrophe that depopulated the Earth) is named "Tur" or "Tura"—the supposed ancestor of so-called "Turanian" peoples, a term used in Ancient Iran for all the inhabitants of Central Asia. The term "Turanian" is derived from the Iranian word "tur" or "tar", meaning "dark",[unverified](in reference to how the West Iranians saw the lands to their north as a mysterious "land of darkness"), however claims that there is any etymological connection to the word "Turk" are hotly disputed among various historians. This traditional Persian genealogy has been confused by some with the late 16th century Mughal (Indian) work Akbarnama by Abul-Fazel, where he recounts certain Islamic traditions making "Turk" the oldest son of Japheth and grandson of Noah; also, in the 19th century, it was common in Christian circles to equate the ancestor of the Turks with Togarmah, grandson of Japheth in Genesis 10.[unverified]

According to Mahmud of Kashgar, an 11th century Turkic scholar, and various other traditional Islamic scholars and historians, the name "Turk" stems from "Tur", one of the sons of Japheth, and comes from the same lineage as Gomer (Cimmerians) and Ashkenaz (Scythians, Ishkuz) who, according to tradition, were some of the earliest Turks (most modern scholars believe these tribes to have been Iranian). A similar name, "Dur", also appears in Mediaeval Hungarian legend, as a legendary chieftain of the Caucasian Alans (Arran, Iron) whose daughters supposedly bred with the Magyar ancestors, "Magor" and "Hunor".[unverified]

In the Turkic dictionary (Divan ul-Lughat at-Turk) of Mahmud of Kashgar, the eponymous hero of the Turks, Alp Er Tunga, is identified with the character Afrasiab ("Frangasyan" in the Avesta) in Persian literature. Alp Er Tunga is a symbolic figure in Turkic tradition; the Göktürks of the sixth century carried on the tradition of Alp Er Tunga and they too believed to be descendants of a wolf. According to the "Book of Kings" written by the Persian author Ferdowsi, Afrasiyab was hunted down and killed in Azerbaijan.

History[edit]

Main article: history of the Turkic peoples

It is generally believed that the first Turkic people were native to a region spanning from Caspian Sea as west Central Asia-Turkestan across throughout Mongolia as east and Siberia-Altai as north and Kashmir as south. Some scholars contend that the Huns were one of the earlier Turkic tribes, while others support either a Mongolic or Finno-Ugric origin for the Huns.[2] The main migration of Turks, who were the ancient inhabitants of Turkestan, occurred from ancient times, when they spread across most of Asia and into Europe and the Middle East.[3]

The precise date of the initial expansion from the early homeland remains unknown. The first state known as "Turk", giving its name to the many states and peoples afterwards, was that of the Göktürks (gog = "blue" or "celestial") in the 6th century AD. The head of the Asena clan led his people from Li-jien (modern ZhelaiZhai) to the Juan Juan seeking inclusion in their confederacy and protection from China. His tribe were famed metal smiths and were granted land near a mountain quarry which looked like a helmet from which they got their name 突厥(tūjué). A century later their power had increased such that they conquered the Juan Juan and set about establishing their Gök Empire.[3]

Karachay patriarchs in the 19th century

Later Turkic peoples include the Karluks (mainly 8th century), Uyghurs, Kirghiz, Oghuz (or Äžuz) Turks, and Turkmens. As these peoples were founding states in the area between Mongolia and Transoxiana, they came into contact with Muslims, and most gradually adopted Islam. However, there were also (and still are) small groups of Turkic people belonging to other religions, including Christians, Jews (see Khazars), Buddhists, and Zoroastrians.

Turkic soldiers in the army of the Abbasid caliphs emerged as the de facto rulers of most of the Muslim Middle East (apart from Syria and Egypt), particularly after the 10th century. The Oghuz and other tribes captured and dominated various countries under the leadership of the Seljuk dynasty, and eventually captured the territories of the Abbasid dynasty and the Byzantine Empire.[3]

Meanwhile, the Kirghiz and Uyghurs were struggling with one another and with the Chinese Empire. The Kirghiz people ultimately settled in the region now referred to as Kyrgyzstan. The Tatar peoples conquered the Volga Bulgars in what is today Tatarstan, following the westward sweep of the Mongols under Genghis Khan in the 13th century. The Bulgars were thus mistakenly called Tatars by the Russians. Native Tatars live only in Asia; European "Tatars" are in fact Bulgars. Other Bulgars settled in Europe in the 7-8th centuries, exchanging their original Turkic tongue for what eventually became the Slavic Bulgarian language. Everywhere, Turkic groups mixed with the local populations to varying degrees.[3]

As the Seljuk Empire declined following the Mongol invasion, the Ottoman Empire emerged as the new important Turkic state, that came to dominate not only the Middle East, but even southeastern Europe, parts of southwestern Russia, and northern Africa.[3]

The Ottoman Empire gradually grew weaker in the face of maladministration, repeated wars with Russia and Austro-Hungary, and the emergence of nationalist movements in the Balkans, and it finally gave way after World War I to the present-day republic of Turkey.[3]

Language[edit]

Main article: Turkic languages


The Turkic language branch belong to Altaic language groups. The various Turkic languages are usually considered in geographical groupings, since high mobility and intermixing of Turkic peoples in history makes an exact classification extremely difficult: Oghuz (or Southwestern) languages, Kypchak (or Northwestern) languages, Eastern languages (like Uygur) and Northern languages (like Altay and Yakut) and divergent languages like Chuvash.

Religion[edit]

Main article: Zoroastrism in Azerbaijan

Various pre-Islamic Turkic civilizations of the 6th century were Shamanist and Tengriist. The Shamanist religion is based on spiritual and natural elements of earth. Tengriism involves belief in Tengri as the god who ruled over the skies. These civilizations also followed the Zoroastrian religion, especially in Azerbaijan, as well as Buddhism and Judaism.

Today, most Turks are Sunni Muslims. They include the majority of Balkan Turks, Balkars, Bashkorts, Crimean Tatars, Karachay, Kazaks, Kumuk, Kyrgyz, Nogay, Tatars (Kazan Tatars) Turkmens, Turks of Turkey, Uygurs, Yellow (Sari) Uygurs and Uzbeks. The Azerbaijanis of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Iranian Azerbaijan are the only major Turkic-speaking people that adhere to the Shia sect of Islam, while there have been many conversions to Sunni Islam as of late[unverified]. The Qashqay nomads and Khorasani Turks as well as various Turkic tribes spread across Iran are also Shia Muslims. The Alevis of Turkey are the largest religious minority in the country. Even though it is claimed that they believe in a doctrine of Islam that is closely related to that of the Shia school of thought, Shias, however, regard Alevis as heretics.

The major Christian-Turkic peoples are the Chuvash of Chuvashia and the Gagauz (Gökoğuz) of Moldova. Many Karaim Turks of eastern Europe are Jewish, and there are Turks of Jewish backgrounds who live in major cities such as Istanbul, Ankara and Baku. In the Siberian region, the Altay, some Tuvan and Hakas are Tengriist, having kept the original religion of Turkic peoples. The Yakuts of Yakutia in northeastern Siberia are traditionally Shamanists, yet many have converted to Christianity. The Sari Uygurs (Yellow Uygurs) of western China, as well as the Tuvans of Russia are the only remaining Buddhist Turkic peoples. In addition, there are small scattered populations of Turks belonging to other religions such as the Bahá'í Faith and Zoroastrianism.

Even though many Turkic peoples became Muslims under the influence of Sufis, often of Shi'a persuasion, most Turkic people today are Sunni Muslims—although a significant number in Turkey are Alevis. Alevi Turks, who were once primarily dwelling in eastern Anatolia, are today concentrated in major urban centers in western Turkey with the increased urbanism.

The traditional religion of the Chuvash of Russia, while contanining many ancient Turkic concepts, also shares some elements with Zoroastrism, Khazar Judaism, and Islam. The Chuvash religious calendar cycle and the agrarian cult that it was based on combined ancestor worship and worship of earth, water and vegetation. The Chuvash converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity for the most part in the second half of the 19th century. As a result, festivals and rites were made to coincide with Orthodox feasts, and Christian rites replaced their traditional counterparts. A minority of the Chuvash still profess their traditional faith [7].

The Gagauz people of Moldova are largely Christians.

There are Turkic-speaking groups of Jews, such as Crimean Karaites.

Some Turkic peoples (particularly in the Russian autonomous regions and republics of Altay, Khakassia, and Tuva) are largely Tengriists. Tengriism was the predominant religion of the different Turkic branches prior to the 8th century, when the majority accepted Islam.

There are also a few Buddhist (e.g. Tuvans), Jewish, Zoroastrian, and Bahá'í Turkic peoples today.

Remark: The name Tengri has been changed to "Tanrı" in modern Turkish (as spoken in Turkey), the same as in Azeri, literally meaning "God" in English. However, traditionally, God is referred to as "Allah" in most daily usage, where "Allah" is one of many names of "God" as mentioned in the Qur'an. The word "tengri / tanrı" is still in use by citizens of Azerbaijan and Turkey, where Islam at present is the dominant religion.

Geographical distribution and ethnic division[edit]

The distribution of peoples of Turkic cultural background ranges from Siberia where the Yakuts reside, across Central Asia, to Eastern Europe. Presently, the largest groups of Turkic people live throughout Central Asia—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, in addition to Turkey. Additionally, Turkic peoples are found within Crimea, the Xinjiang region of western China, northern Iraq, Iran, Israel, Russia, Afghanistan, Cyprus, and the Balkans: Moldova, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and former Yugoslavia. A small number of Turkic people also live in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. There are also considerable populations of Turkic people (originating mostly from Turkey) in Germany, United States, and Australia, largely because of the migrations during the 20th century.

An exact line between the different Turkic peoples cannot easily be drawn. The following is a non-comprehensive list of the major groups:

Some divide the above into six branches: the Oghuz Turks, Kipchak, Karluk, Siberian, Chuvash, and Sakha/Yakut branches. The Oghuz have been termed Western Turks, while the remaining five, in such a classificatory scheme, are called Eastern Turks.

One of the major difficulties perceived by many who try to classify the various Turkic languages and dialects, is the impact Soviet, and particularly Stalinist nationality policies—the creation of new national demarcations, suppression of languages and writing scripts, and mass deportations—had on the ethnic mix in previously multicultural regions like Khwarezm, the Fergana Valley, and Caucasia. Many of the above-mentioned classifications are therefore by no means universally accepted, either in detail or in general. Another aspect often debated is the influence of Pan-Turkism, and the emerging nationalism in the newly independent Central Asian republics, on the perception of ethnic divisions.

Physical appearance[edit]

Some historians consider "Turkic" as a linguistic categorization, rather than a strictly ethnic characterization. This is unsurprising, since Turkic peoples often differ greatly from one another in physical appearance, reflecting the abundant migrations, conquests and settlements across Eurasia. Therefore, the already considerable problems involved in any racial classification are made much more difficult in the case of the Turks. Many Turkic peoples had a mixture of Caucasoid and Asiatic features in Central Asia before they migrated to Turkey.

The majority of Turkic-speaking peoples, from former Ottoman lands to western China, and from the Siberian plains to central Iran, seem to possess physical features ranging from Eastern & Southern European,Near East to Northern Asiatic, in varying degrees.

In western Turkic lands, such as Turkey and Azerbaijan, a great many people look "Middle Eastern" and "Mediterranean", having Caucasoid features, dark hair and eyes, and olive skin.However,in Turkey,particularly in the Marmara,Aegean and Black Sea regions, people with light coloured eyes such as blue,green,hazel or gray and blond, brown hairs are common. This is because most European descended people of Turkey whose ancestors were Turkish refugees(Muhajirs) from lost European territories of the Ottoman Empire(Balkans,Crimea and Caucasus) to Anatolia live there.

Parallel but different patterns of diversity occur in central Asia, in the lands once host to the Silk Road; for many centuries, the main route of trade between China and the world west of it. The inhabitants of these regions can exhibit extremes of racial phenotype from Caucasoid to Asiatic.For centuries,Iranian Peoples,Mongolians,Turkics,Arabs, and other peoples have passed through,settled,took refuge and conquered the region. Central Asians with Caucasoid and Asiatic facial structure, is common among some Northern Central Asian Turkic groups, such as Kazakhs,Uzbeks & Turkmens, although black hair, yellow to light-brown skin and Mongoloid or Northeast Asian facial structure tends to be the norm.

There has been much debate about the racial nature of the original Turkic speaking ancestors, with some in the past presuming a "Ural-Altaic race" that is Caucasoid features at one end of the spectrum, and Asiatic features at the other. It is however widely accepted that Turkic linguistic roots are Altaic, i.e. originating in present-day Russia, West China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan, and it may be that they have relation to Uralic peoples than previously thought. In recent times, linguists have tended to separate the old Ural-Altaic language group in two. Turkic languages now sit alongside Altaic and Tungusic, and Finnish and Hungarian sitting alongside Uralic.

Turkic identity exists on two levels. On one, it is a race of Eurasian peoples whose mother tongue is a Turkic language and practises a Turkic culture. On another, it is like an ocean current, spreading and mingling with far-flung waters, and giving rise to a broad-shared history, language, and cultural values transcending genes and racial categorization.

Pan-Turkism[edit]

Main article: Pan-Turkism

Some refer to the Turkic countries, regions and peoples as part of the Turkish World. Others are worried that this is a result and example of Pan-Turkism, claimed to encourage hegemonial or even imperialistic aims of modern day Turkey. However, this may not be the case as many claim that Pan-Turkism is supported widely outside Turkey. Turkey's official stance as a nation state is not to support Pan-Turkism - though it does not reject it either.

Proponents of the concept point out that in similar fashion, many Arabs also feel to be part of a greater "Arab World". It is also held that encouragement of this cultural and linguistic affinity can be used as a vehicle to increased regional development and security.

Opponents point to the negative elements that can become involved in any kind of nationalism (be it Turkic or otherwise), the role of pan-Turkic movements in the revolutionary wars in Russia, and the cultural, religious, and political diversity among the many Turkic peoples and ethnic groups, and feel that a movement to greater pan-Turkic unity would have a negative influence on the region.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ G. Pulleyblank, The Consonantal System of Old Chinese: Part II, Asia Major n.s. 9 (1963) 206—65
  2. ↑ The Origins of the Huns
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Carter V. Findley, The Turks in World History, (Oxford University Press, October 2004) ISBN 0-19-517726-6
  • Golden, Peter B. "Some Thoughts on the Origins of the Turks and the Shaping of the Turkic Peoples". (2006) In: Contact and Exchange in the Ancient World. Ed. Victor H. Mair. University of Hawai'i Press. Pp. 136-157. ISBN-13: ISBN 978-0-8248-2884-4; ISBN-10: ISBN 0-8248-2884-4

Further reading[edit]

  • Findley, Carter Vaughn. 2005. The Turks in World History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-516770-8; 0-19-517726-6 (pbk.)
  • Charles Warren Hostler, The Turks of Central Asia, (Greenwood Press, November 1993), ISBN 0-275-93931-6
  • H.B. Paksoy ALPAMYSH: Central Asian Identity under Russian Rule (Hartford: AACAR, 1989)
  • http://vlib.iue.it/carrie/texts/carrie_books/paksoy-1/
  • Peter B. Golden, An introduction to the history of the Turkic peoples: Ethnogenesis and state-formation in medieval and early modern Eurasia and the Middle East, (Otto Harrassowitz (Wiesbaden) 1992) ISBN 3-447-03274-X
  • Colin Heywood, The Turks (The Peoples of Europe), (Blackwell 2005), ISBN 978-0631158974

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

New DNA Results

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