Turkic peoples

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Turkic peoples
The distribution of the Turkic languages
Total population
Over 170 million[1]
Regions with significant populations
 Turkey60,000,000–65,000,000[2][3]
 Uzbekistan31,900,000[4][additional citation(s) needed]
 Iran15,000,000–20,000,000[5][6] (18% of population[7])
 Russia12,751,502[citation needed]
 Kazakhstan12,300,000[8][additional citation(s) needed]
 China11,647,000[9][additional citation(s) needed]
 Azerbaijan10,000,000[10][additional citation(s) needed]
European Union European Union5,876,318[citation needed] (Bulgaria 508,375[11])
 Afghanistan4,600,000–5,300,000 (2017)[12][13]
 Turkmenistan4,233,600[14][15][16][note 1]
 Kyrgyzstan4,500,000[19][additional citation(s) needed]
 Iraq3,000,000[20][21]
 Tajikistan1,200,000[22][additional citation(s) needed]
 United States1,000,000+[23]
 Syria800,000–1,000,000+[24]
 Ukraine398,600[25]
 Northern Cyprus313,626[26]
 Australia59,488[27] (Turkish)
 Mongolia135,618[28][29]
 Lebanon200,000[30][31][32][33]
 Moldova126,010[34]
 North Macedonia81,900[35][36]
Languages
Turkic languages
Religion
Various religions

The Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse

ethnic groups of West, Central, East, and North Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages.[37][38]

According to historians and linguists, the

Many vastly differing

ethnic groups have throughout history become part of the Turkic peoples through language shift, acculturation, conquest, intermixing, adoption, and religious conversion.[1] Nevertheless, Turkic peoples share, to varying degrees, non-linguistic characteristics like cultural traits, ancestry from a common gene pool, and historical experiences.[1] Some of the most notable modern Turkic ethnic groups include the Altai people, Azerbaijanis, Chuvash people, Gagauz people, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz people, Turkmens, Turkish people, Tuvans, Uyghurs, Uzbeks, and Yakuts
.

Etymology

Map from Kashgari's Diwan (11th century), showing the distribution of Turkic tribes.
Bust of Kul Tigin (AD 684–731), prince of the Second Turkic Khaganate, found in Khashaat, Arkhangai Province, Orkhon River valley. National Museum of Mongolia.

The first known mention of the term Turk (Old Turkic: 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰 Türük or 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰:𐰜𐰇𐰛 Kök Türük, Chinese: 突厥, Pinyin: Tūjué < Middle Chinese *tɦut-kyat < *dwət-kuɑt, Old Tibetan: drugu)[47][48][49][50] applied to only one Turkic group, namely, the Göktürks,[51] who were also mentioned, as türüg ~ török, in the 6th-century Khüis Tolgoi inscription, most likely not later than 587 AD.[52][53][54] A letter by Ishbara Qaghan to Emperor Wen of Sui in 585 described him as "the Great Turk Khan".[55][56] The Bugut (584 CE) and Orkhon inscriptions (735 CE) use the terms Türküt, Türk and Türük.[57]

During the first century CE,

Magyars.[61] There are references to certain groups in antiquity whose names might have been foreign transcriptions of Tür(ü)k, such as Togarma, Turukha/Turuška, Turukku and so on; but the information gap is so substantial that any connection of these ancient people to the modern Turks is not possible.[62][63]

The Chinese Book of Zhou (7th century) presents an etymology of the name Turk as derived from 'helmet', explaining that this name comes from the shape of a mountain where they worked in the Altai Mountains.[64] Hungarian scholar András Róna-Tas (1991) pointed to a Khotanese-Saka word, tturakä 'lid', semantically stretchable to 'helmet', as a possible source for this folk etymology, yet Golden thinks this connection requires more data.[65]

It is generally accepted that the name Türk is ultimately derived from the

Old-Turkic migration-term[66] 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰 Türük/Törük,<[67] which means 'created, born'[68] or 'strong'.[69] Turkologist Peter B. Golden agrees that the term Turk has roots in Old Turkic,[70] yet is not convinced by attempts to link Dili, Dingling, Chile, Tele, and Tiele, which possibly transcribed *tegrek (probably meaning 'cart'), to Tujue, which transliterated to Türküt.[71]

Scholars, including Toru Haneda, Onogawa Hidemi, and Geng Shimin believed that Di, Dili, Dingling, Chile and Tujue all came from the Turkic word Türk, which means 'powerful' and 'strength', and its plural form is Türküt.

Proto-Turkic verb *türü "heap up, collect, gather, assemble".[74]

The earliest Turkic-speaking peoples identifiable in Chinese sources are the Yenisei Kyrgyz and Xinli, located in South Siberia.[75][76][note 2] Another example of an early Turkic population would be the Dingling.[81][82][83]

In Late Antiquity itself, as well as in and the

Greco-Roman and Byzantine literature for various groups of nomadic "barbarians" living on the Pontic-Caspian Steppe who were not related to the actual Scythians.[84][85] Medieval European chroniclers subsumed various Turkic peoples of the Eurasian steppe as "Scythians". Between 400 CE and the 16th century, Byzantine sources use the name Σκύθαι (Skuthai) in reference to twelve different Turkic peoples.[86]

In the modern Turkish language as used in the Republic of Turkey, a distinction is made between "Turks" and the "Turkic peoples" in loosely speaking: the term Türk corresponds specifically to the "Turkish-speaking" people (in this context, "Turkish-speaking" is considered the same as "Turkic-speaking"), while the term

political sense. In short, the term Türki can be used for Türk or vice versa.[87]

List of ethnic groups

List of the modern Turkic peoples
Ethnonym Population National-state formation Religion
Turks 60,000,000–65,000,000  Turkey,  Northern Cyprus Sunni Islam, Alevism
Azerbaijanis 31,300,000  Azerbaijan,  Dagestan (Russian Federation) Shia Islam, Sunni Islam
Uzbeks 30,700,000  Uzbekistan Sunni Islam
Kazakhs 15,193,000  
Barköl Kazakh Autonomous County, Mori Kazakh Autonomous County,  Altai
Sunni Islam
Uyghurs 11,900,000 China Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (PRC) Sunni Islam
Turkmens 8,000,000  Turkmenistan Sunni Islam
Volga Tatars 6,200,000  Tatarstan (Russian Federation) Sunni Islam, Orthodox Christianity
Kyrgyz 6,000,000  Kyrgyzstan, China Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture Sunni Islam
Bashkirs 1,700,000  Bashkortostan (Russian Federation) Sunni Islam
Chuvashes 1,500,000  Chuvashia (Russian Federation) Orthodox Christianity, Vattisen Yaly
Khorasani Turks 1,000,000 N/A Shia Islam
Qashqai 949,000 Shia Islam
Karakalpaks 796,000  Karakalpakstan (Uzbekistan) Sunni Islam
Kumyks 520,000  Dagestan (Russian Federation) Sunni Islam
Crimean Tatars <500,000

 Crimea (disputed by Ukraine and Russia)

Sunni Islam
Yakuts (Sakha) 482,000 Yakutia Sakha Republic or Yakutia (Russian Federation) Orthodox Christianity, Tengrism
Karachays 346,000  Karachay-Cherkessia (Russian Federation) Sunni Islam
Tuvans 273,000  Tuva (Russian Federation) Tibetan Buddhism, Tengrism
Gagauz 126,000 Gagauzia Gagauzia (Moldova) Orthodox Christianity
Balkars 112,000  Kabardino-Balkaria (Russian Federation) Sunni Islam
Nogais 110,000  Dagestan and  Karachay-Cherkessia (Russian Federation) Sunni Islam
Salar 104,000 China Xunhua Salar Autonomous County, Jishishan Bonan, Dongxiang and Salar Autonomous County Sunni Islam, Tibetan Buddhism
Khakas
75,000  Khakassia (Russian Federation) Orthodox Christianity, Tengrism
Altaians 74,000  Altai (Russian Federation) Burkhanism, Tengrism, Orthodox Christianity
Äynu >60,000 N/A Alevism
Khalaj 42,000 Shia Islam
Yugurs
13,000

China Sunan Yugur Autonomous County

Tibetan Buddhism, Tengrism
Dolgans 13,000

Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky District (Russian Federation)

Tengrism, Orthodox Christianity
Khotons 10,000 N/A Sunni Islam
Nağaybäk 8,000 Orthodox Christianity
Shors 8,000 Orthodox Christianity, Tengrism
Siberian Tatars 6,000 Sunni Islam
Telengits 3,700 Orthodox Christianity, Burkhanism, shamanism
Soyots 3,600 Tibetan Buddhism, Tengrism
Kumandins 2,900 Orthodox Christianity, Tengrism
Teleuts 2,700 Orthodox Christianity, Tengrism
Crimean Karaites 2,000 Karaite Judaism
Tubalar
1,900 Orthodox Christianity, shamanism
Fuyu Kyrgyz 1,400 Sunni Islam
Chelkans 1,100 Orthodox Christianity, Burkhanism, shamanism
Krymchaks 1,000 Orthodox Judaism
Tofalars 800 Tengrism, Orthodox Christianity
Chulyms 355 Orthodox Christianity
Dukha 282 Tengrism
Ili Turks
177 Sunni Islam
Historical Turkic groups

Possible Proto-Turkic ancestry, at least partial,[90][91][92][93][94][95] has been posited for Xiongnu, Huns and Pannonian Avars, as well as Tuoba and Rouran, who were of Proto-Mongolic Donghu ancestry.[96][97][98][99] as well as Tatars, Rourans' supposed descendants.[100][101][note 6]

Remarks

  1. ^ Figure combines population of Turkmen and Uzbeks only. Population estimates of Turkmenistan's minority groups often widely vary. Some sources have cast doubt on the reliability of official government data for minority population figures.[17][18]
  2. ^ The Xueyantuo were first known as Xinli 薪犁, later Xue 薛 in the 7th century;[77][78] the Yenisei Kyrgyz were first known as Gekun (鬲昆) or Jiankun (堅昆), later known as Jiegu (結骨), Hegu (紇骨), Hegusi (紇扢斯), Hejiasi (紇戛斯), Hugu (護骨), Qigu (契骨), Juwu (居勿), and Xiajiasi (黠戛斯), all being transcriptions of Kyrgyz.[79][80]
  3. ^ Book of Wei vol. 102. quote: "悅般國 [...] 其風俗言語與高車同" translation: "Yueban nation [...] Their customs and language are the same as the Gaoche['s]"; Gaoche (高車; lit. "High-Carts") was another name of the Turkic-speaking Tiele
  4. , Facts on File, Inc. 2004.
  5. ^ Refers to forest peoples of the North, including the Turkic-speaking Tuvans and Yakuts, and also Mongolic-speaking Altai Uriankhai. The ethnonym Uriankhai is etymologically Mongolic, compare Khalkha uria(n) "war motto" and khai, alternation of khan. Uriankhai people are possibly linked to the Wuluohun tribe of the Shiwei people, who were predominantly Mongolic-speaking.
  6. ^ Even though Chinese historians routinely ascribed Xiongnu origin to various nomadic peoples, such ascriptions do not necessarily indicate the subjects' exact origins; for examples, Xiongnu ancestry was ascribed to Turkic-speaking Göktürks and Tiele as well as Para-Mongolic-speaking Kumo Xi and Khitan.[102]

Language

Distribution

Descriptive map of Turkic peoples.

The Turkic languages constitute a language family of some 30 languages, spoken across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean, to Siberia and Manchuria and through to the Middle East. Some 170 million people have a Turkic language as their native language;[103] an additional 20 million people speak a Turkic language as a second language. The Turkic language with the greatest number of speakers is Turkish proper, or Anatolian Turkish, the speakers of which account for about 40% of all Turkic speakers.[104] More than one third of these are ethnic Turks of Turkey, dwelling predominantly in Turkey proper and formerly Ottoman-dominated areas of Southern and Eastern Europe and West Asia; as well as in Western Europe, Australia and the Americas as a result of immigration. The remainder of the Turkic people are concentrated in Central Asia, Russia, the Caucasus, China, and northern Iraq.

The Turkic language family is traditionally considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.[105] Howeover since the 1950s, many comparative linguists have rejected the proposal, after supposed cognates were found not to be valid, hypothesized sound shifts were not found, and Turkic and Mongolic languages were found to be converging rather than diverging over the centuries. Opponents of the theory proposed that the similarities are due to mutual linguistic influences between the groups concerned.[106][107][108][109][110]

Alphabet

missionaries communicate with the Kumans
.

The Turkic alphabets are sets of related alphabets with letters (formerly known as runes), used for writing mostly Turkic languages. Inscriptions in Turkic alphabets were found in Mongolia. Most of the preserved inscriptions were dated to between 8th and 10th centuries CE.

The earliest positively dated and read Turkic inscriptions date from the 8th century, and the alphabets were generally replaced by the

Turkic alphabet
was recorded in Central Europe's Hungary in 1699 CE.

The Turkic

Talas Valley of Turkestan and the Old Hungarian script of the 10th century. Irk Bitig is the only known complete manuscript text written in the Old Turkic script.[112]

History


Origins

The origins of the Turkic peoples has been a topic of much discussion.

Altai-Sayan region,[40] and in Southern Siberia, from Lake Baikal to eastern Mongolia.[115] Other studies suggested an early presence of Turkic peoples in Mongolia,[116][41] or Tuva.[42]

A possible genealogical link of the Turkic languages to Mongolic and Tungusic languages, specifically a hypothetical homeland in

Amur region, supporting an origin from Northeast Asia rather than Manchuria.[123]

Ancestral composition of modern-day Turkic-speaking populations, using three components: blue, Ancient Northeast Asian (Northern Mongolia and exemplified by Empress Ashina); green, West Eurasian‐related ancestry; and yellow, associated with neolithic millet farmers from Yellow River in China.[124]
According to Uchiyama et al. 2020 the "ultimate Proto-Turkic homeland may have been located in a more compact area, most likely in Eastern Mongolia, that is, close to the ultimate Proto-Mongolic homeland in Southern Manchuria and the ultimate Proto-Tungusic homeland in the present-day borderlands of China, Russia and North Korea. This hypothesis would explain the tight connections of Proto-Turkic with Proto-Mongolic and Proto-Tungusic, regardless of whether one interprets the numerous similarities between the three Altaic families as partly inherited or obtained owing to long-lasting contact."[122]

Around 2,200 BC, the (agricultural) ancestors of the Turkic peoples probably migrated westwards into Mongolia, where they adopted a pastoral lifestyle, in part borrowed from Iranian peoples. Given nomadic peoples such as Xiongnu, Rouran and Xianbei share underlying genetic ancestry "that falls into or close to the northeast Asian gene pool", the proto-Turkic language likely originated in northeastern Asia.[125]

Genetic data found that almost all modern Turkic peoples retained at least some shared ancestry associated with populations in "South Siberia and Mongolia" (SSM), supporting this region as the "Inner Asian Homeland (IAH) of the pioneer carriers of Turkic languages" which subsequently expanded into Central Asia. The main

Turkic expansion took place during the 5th–16th centuries, partially overlapping with the Mongol Empire period. Based on single-path IBD tracts, the common Turkic ancestral population lived prior to these migration events, and likely stem from a similar source population as Mongolic peoples further East. Historical data suggests that the Mongol Empire period acted as secondary force of "turkification", as the Mongol conquest "did not involve massive re-settlements of Mongols over the conquered territories. Instead, the Mongol war machine was progressively augmented by various Turkic tribes as they expanded, and in this way Turkic peoples eventually reinforced their expansion over the Eurasian steppe and beyond."[114]

Population structure of Turkic-speaking populations in the context of their geographic neighbors across Eurasia. Turkic-speaking populations are shown in red. The upper barplot shows only Turkic-speaking populations.

A 2018

Amur river basin. Except Eastern and Southern Mongolic-speakers, all "possessed a high proportion of West Eurasian-related ancestry, in accordance with the linguistically documented language borrowing in Turkic languages".[123]

A 2023 study analyzed the DNA of

mtDNA haplogroup F1d, and that approximately 96-98% of her autosomal ancestry was of Ancient Northeast Asian origin, while roughly 2-4% was of West Eurasian origin, indicating ancient admixture.[129] This study weakened the "western Eurasian origin and multiple origin hypotheses".[129] However, they also noted that "Central Steppe and early Medieval Türk exhibited a high but variable degree of West Eurasian ancestry, indicating there was a genetic substructure of the Türkic empire."[129] The early medieval Türk samples were modelled as having 37.8% West Eurasian ancestry and 62.2% Ancient Northeast Asian ancestry[130] and historic Central Steppe Türk samples were also an admixture of West Eurasian and Ancient Northeast Asian ancestry,[131] while historic Karakhanid, Kipchak and the Turkic Karluk samples had 50.6%-61.1% West Eurasian ancestry and 38.9%–49.4% Iron Age Yellow River farmer ancestry.[132] A 2020 study also found "high genetic heterogeneity and diversity during the Türkic and Uyghur periods" in the early medieval period in Eastern Eurasian Steppe.[133]

Early historical attestation

The earliest separate Turkic peoples, such as the Gekun (鬲昆) and Xinli (薪犁), appeared on the peripheries of the late

Han Dynasty)[136] and later among the Turkic-speaking Tiele[137] as Hegu (紇骨)[138] and Xue (薛).[77][78]

The Tiele (also known as Gaoche 高車, lit. "High Carts"),[139] may be related to the Xiongnu and the Dingling.[140] According to the Book of Wei, the Tiele people were the remnants of the Chidi (赤狄), the red Di people competing with the Jin in the Spring and Autumn period.[141] Historically they were established after the 6th century BCE.[135]

The Tiele were first mentioned in Chinese literature from the 6th to 8th centuries.

Mustafa Âlî and explorer Evliya Çelebi as well as Timurid scientist Ulugh Beg, often viewed Inner Asian tribes, "as forming a single entity regardless of their linguistic affiliation" commonly used Turk as a generic name for Inner Asians (whether Turkic- or Mongolic-speaking). Only in modern era do modern historians use Turks to refer to all peoples speaking Turkic languages, differentiated from non-Turkic speakers.[144]

According to some researchers (Duan, Xue, Tang, Lung, Onogawa, etc.) the later Ashina tribe descended from the Tiele confederation.[145][146][147][148][149] The Tiele however were probably one of many early Turkic groups, ancestral to later Turkic populations.[150][151] However, according to Lee & Kuang (2017), Chinese histories do not describe the Ashina and the Göktürks as descending from the Dingling or the Tiele confederation.[152]

Xiongnu (3rd c. BCE – 1st c. CE)

Territory of the Xiongnu, which included Mongolia, Western Manchuria, Xinjiang, East Kazakhstan, East Kyrgyzstan, Inner Mongolia, and Gansu.

It has even been suggested that the Xiongnu themselves, who were mentioned in Han Dynasty records, were Proto-Turkic speakers.[153][154][155][156] The Turks may ultimately have been of Xiongnu descent.[157] Although little is known for certain about the Xiongnu language(s), it seems likely that at least a considerable part of Xiongnu tribes spoke a Turkic language.[158] Some scholars believe they were probably a confederation of various ethnic and linguistic groups.[159][160] According to a study by Alexander Savelyev and Choongwon Jeong, published in 2020 in the journal Evolutionary Human Sciences by Cambridge University Press, "the predominant part of the Xiongnu population is likely to have spoken Turkic". However, genetic studies found a mixture of western and eastern Eurasian ancestries, suggesting a large genetic diversity within the Xiongnu. The Turkic-related component may be brought by eastern Eurasian genetic substratum.[161]

Using the only extant possibly Xiongnu writings, the rock art of the

runic letters of the Turkic Orkhon script discovered in the Orkhon Valley.[164]

Huns (4th–6th c. CE)

Huns (c.450 CE)

In the 18th century, the French scholar

Hun hordes ruled by Attila, who invaded and conquered much of Europe in the 5th century, might have been, at least partially, Turkic and descendants of the Xiongnu.[136][166][167] Since Guignes' time, considerable scholarly effort has been devoted to investigating such a connection. The issue remains controversial. Their relationship to other peoples known collectively as the Iranian Huns is generally accepted, but whether these groups are all inter-related remains controversial.[168]

Some scholars claimed Huns as

Otto Maenchen-Helfen and others have suggested that the language used by the Huns in Europe was too little documented to be classified. Nevertheless, the majority of the proper names used by Huns appear to be Turkic in origin,[171][172] though they are "far from unambiguous, so no firm conclusion can be drawn from this type of data".[173]

Steppe expansions

Göktürks – Turkic Khaganate (5th–8th c.)

The earliest certain mentioning of the politonym "Turk" was in the Chinese Book of Zhou. In the 540s AD, this text mentions that the Turks came to China's border seeking silk goods and a trade relationship. A Sogdian diplomat represented China in a series of embassies between the Western Wei dynasty and the Turks in the years 545 and 546.[175]

According to the Book of Sui and the

Rourans seeking inclusion in their confederacy and protection from the prevailing dynasty.[176][177] Alternatively, according to the Book of Zhou, History of the Northern Dynasties, and New Book of Tang, the Ashina clan was a component of the Xiongnu confederation.[178][179][180][181] Göktürks were also posited as having originated from an obscure Suo state (索國), north of the Xiongnu.[182][183] The Ashina tribe were famed metalsmiths and were granted land south of the Altai Mountains (金山 Jinshan), which looked like a helmet, from which they were said to have gotten their name 突厥 (Tūjué),[184][176] the first recorded use of "Turk" as a political name. In the 6th-century, Ashina's power had increased such that they conquered the Tiele on their Rouran overlords' behalf and even overthrew Rourans and established the First Turkic Khaganate.[185]

A Turkic warrior from the Göktürk period. The horse's tail is knotted in Turkic style. His hair is long, braided and his big-collared caftan and boots are Turkic clothing features.

The original

Orkhon script. The Khaganate was also the first state known as "Turk". It eventually collapsed due to a series of dynastic conflicts, but many states and peoples later used the name "Turk".[187][188]

The Göktürks (

First Turkic Kaganate) quickly spread west to the Caspian Sea. Between 581 and 603 the Western Turkic Khaganate in Kazakhstan separated from the Eastern Turkic Khaganate in Mongolia and Manchuria during a civil war. The Han-Chinese successfully overthrew the Eastern Turks in 630 and created a military Protectorate until 682. After that time the Second Turkic Khaganate ruled large parts of the former Göktürk area. After several wars between Turks, Chinese and Tibetans, the weakened Second Turkic Khaganate was replaced by the Uyghur Khaganate in the year 744.[189]

Bulgars, Golden Horde and the Siberian Khanate

The migration of the Bulgars after the fall of Old Great Bulgaria in the 7th century

The

Ogedei Khan in the 13th century.[190] Other Bulgars settled in Southeastern Europe in the 7th and 8th centuries, and mixed with the Slavic population, adopting what eventually became the Slavic Bulgarian language. Everywhere, Turkic groups mixed with the local populations to varying degrees.[185]

Golden Horde

The Volga Bulgaria became an Islamic state in 922 and influenced the region as it controlled many trade routes. In the 13th century, Mongols invaded Europe and established the

Kipchak Khanate and covered most of what is today Ukraine, as well as the entirety of modern-day southern and eastern Russia (the European section). The Golden Horde disintegrated into several khanates and hordes in the 15th and 16th century including the Crimean Khanate, Khanate of Kazan, and Kazakh Khanate (among others), which were one by one conquered and annexed by the Russian Empire in the 16th through 19th centuries.[191]

In Siberia, the

Siberian Khanate was established in the 1490s by fleeing Tatar aristocrats of the disintegrating Golden Horde who established Islam as the official religion in western Siberia over the partly Islamized native Siberian Tatars and indigenous Uralic peoples. It was the northernmost Islamic state in recorded history and it survived up until 1598 when it was conquered by Russia.[192]

Uyghur Khaganate (8th–9th c.)

Uyghur Khaganate
Uyghur painting from the Bezeklik cavels from the 9th century
Uyghur painting from the Bezeklik murals
Uyghur royals in Chinese-style dresses

The

sedentary one. The Uyghur Khaganate produced extensive literature, and a relatively high number of its inhabitants were literate.[195]

The official state religion of the early Uyghur Khaganate was

Sogdians after the An Lushan rebellion.[196] The Uyghur Khaganate was tolerant of religious diversity and practiced variety of religions including Buddhism, Christianity, shamanism and Manichaeism.[197]

During the same time period, the Shatuo Turks emerged as power factor in Northern and Central China and were recognized by the Tang Empire as allied power.

In 808, 30,000 Shatuo under Zhuye Jinzhong defected from the Tibetans to Tang China and the Tibetans punished them by killing Zhuye Jinzhong as they were chasing them.[198] The Uyghurs also fought against an alliance of Shatuo and Tibetans at Beshbalik.[199]

The Shatuo Turks under Zhuye Chixin (

Zhangxin Khan, he elicited the help from Zhuye Chixin by giving Zhuye 300 horses, and together, they defeated Zhangxin Khan, who then committed suicide, precipitating the subsequent collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate. In the next few years, when Uyghur Khaganate remnants tried to raid Tang borders, the Shatuo participated extensively in counterattacking the Uyghur Khaganate with other tribes loyal to Tang.[200] In 843, Zhuye Chixin, under the command of the Han Chinese officer Shi Xiong with Tuyuhun, Tangut and Han Chinese troops, participated in a raid against the Uyghur khaganate that led to the slaughter of Uyghur forces at Shahu mountain.[201][202][203]

The Turkic Later Tang Dynasty

The

sinicized dynasties in northern China during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period starting with Later Tang. The Shatuo chief Zhuye Chixin's family was adopted by the Tang dynasty and given the title prince of Jin and the Tang dynasty imperial surname of Li, which is why the Shatuo of Later Tang claimed to be restoring the Tang dynasty and not founding a new one. The official language of these dynasties was Chinese and they used Chinese titles and names. Some Shaotuo Turk emperors (of the Later Jin, Later Han and Northern Han) also claimed patrilineal Han Chinese ancestry.[204][205][206]

After the fall of the Tang-Dynasty in 907, the Shatuo Turks replaced them and created the Later Tang Dynasty in 923. The Shatuo Turks ruled over a large part of northern China, including Beijing. They adopted Chinese names and united Turkic and Chinese traditions. Later Tang fell in 937 but the Shatuo rose to become a powerful faction of northern China. They created two other dynasties, including the Later Jin and Later Han and Northern Han (Later Han and Northern Han were ruled by the same family, with the latter being a rump state of the former). The Shatuo Liu Zhiyuan was a Buddhist and he worshipped the Mengshan Giant Buddha in 945. The Shatuo dynasties were replaced by the Han Chinese Song dynasty.[207][208] The Shatuo became the Ongud Turks living in Inner Mongolia after the Song dynasty conquered the last Shatuo dynasty of Northern Han.[209][210] The Ongud assimilated to the Mongols.[211][212][213][210]

The Yenisei Kyrgyz allied with China to destroy the Uyghur Khaganate in the year 840 AD.

Qocho Kingdom in Turpan, Xinjiang.[215]

Central Asia

Kangar union (659–750)

Kangar Union after the fall of Western Turkic Khaganate, 659–750

The Kangar Union (Qanghar Odaghu) was a

Byzantine Army.[217] The Pecheneg state was established by the 11th century and at its peak carried a population of over 2.5 million, composed of many different ethnic groups.[218]

The elite of the Kangar tribes are believed to have had an

Hunno-Bulgar
dialects.

The Yatuks, a tribe within the Kangar state who could not accompany the Kangars as they migrated West, remained in the old lands, where they are known as the Kangly people, who are now part of the Uzbek, Kazakh, and Karakalpak tribes.[221]

Oghuz Yabgu State (766–1055)

Oghuz Yabgu State (c.750 CE)

The Oguz Yabgu State (Oguz il, meaning "Oguz Land", "Oguz Country")(750–1055) was a

Chui River valley (see map). The Oguz political association developed in the 9th and 10th centuries in the Syr Darya basin.[222]

Salar Oghuz migration

The Salars are desended from Turkmen who migrated from Central Asia and settled in a Tibetan area of Qinghai under Ming Chinese rule. The Salar ethnicity formed and underwent ethnogenesis from a process of male Turkmen migrants from Central Asia marrying Amdo Tibetan women during the early Ming dynasty.[223][224][225][226]

Iranian, Indian, Arabic, and Anatolian expansion

Turkic peoples and related groups migrated west from present-day

Iranian plateau, South Asia, and Anatolia
(modern Turkey) in many waves. The date of the initial expansion remains unknown.

Persia

Ghaznavid dynasty (977–1186)
Ghaznavid Empire at its greatest extent in 1030 CE

The Ghaznavid dynasty (

Alp Tigin, who was a breakaway ex-general of the Samanid Empire from Balkh, north of the Hindu Kush in Greater Khorasan.[232]

Although the dynasty was of

Persianised in terms of language, culture, literature and habits[233][234][235][236] and hence is regarded by some as a "Persian dynasty".[237]

Seljuk Empire (1037–1194)
A map showing the Seljuk Empire at its height, upon the death of Malik Shah I in 1092.

The Seljuk Empire (

Qiniq branch of Oghuz Turks.[242] At its greatest extent, the Seljuk Empire controlled a vast area stretching from western Anatolia and the Levant to the Hindu Kush in the east, and from Central Asia to the Persian Gulf
in the south.

The Seljuk empire was founded by

first crusade (1095–1099). From c. 1150–1250, the Seljuk empire declined, and was invaded by the Mongols around 1260. The Mongols divided Anatolia into emirates. Eventually one of these, the Ottoman, would conquer the rest.[243]

Timurid Empire (1370–1507)
Map of the Timurid Empire at its greatest extent under Timur.

The

Timurlane. The establishment of a cosmopolitan empire was followed by the Timurid Renaissance, a period of local enrichment in mathematics, astronomy, architecture, as well as newfound economic growth.[244] The cultural progress of the Timurid period ended as soon as the empire collapsed in the early 16th century, leaving many intellecuals and artists to turn elsewhere in search of employment.[245]

Central Asian khanates (1501–1920)
Central Asia in 1636

The

Manghit dynasty), and the khanate became the Emirate of Bukhara (1785–1920).[247] In 1710, the Kokand Khanate (1710–1876) separated from the Bukhara Khanate. In 1511–1920, Khwarazm (Khiva Khanate) was ruled by the Arabshahid dynasty and the Uzbek dynasty of Kungrats.[248]

Afsharid dynasty (1736–1796)

The

Sassanid Empire
.

Qajar dynasty (1789–1925)

The Qajar dynasty was created by the Turkic

Russians over the course of the 19th century, comprising modern-day Georgia, Dagestan, Azerbaijan and Armenia.[255] The dynasty was founded by Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar and continued until Ahmad Shah Qajar
.

South Asia

Prince Khurram
with a turban ornament.
Babur, founder of the Mughal Empire and Mughal emperor Humayun.

The

Southern India saw rise of the Qutb Shahi dynasty, one of the Deccan sultanates
. The
Mongol ruler Genghis Khan, on his mother's side.[256][257] A further distinction was the attempt of the Mughals to integrate Hindus and Muslims into a united Indian state.[256][258][259][260]

Arab world

Silver dirham of AH 329 (940/941 CE), with the names of Caliph al-Muttaqi and Amir al-umara Bajkam (de facto ruler of the country)

The Arab Muslim

Seljuk dynasty and eventually captured the territories of the Abbasid dynasty and the Byzantine Empire.[185]

Anatolia – Ottomans

Ottoman empire in 1683

After many battles, the western Oghuz Turks established their own state and later constructed the Ottoman Empire. The main migration of the Oghuz Turks occurred in medieval times, when they spread across most of Asia and into Europe and the Middle East.[185] They also took part in the military encounters of the Crusades.[261] In 1090–91, the Turkic Pechenegs reached the walls of Constantinople, where Emperor Alexius I with the aid of the Kipchaks annihilated their army.[262]

As 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.[185]

Islamization

Turkic peoples like the

Muslims, and most of them gradually adopted Islam. Some groups of Turkic people practice other religions, including their original animistic-shamanistic religion, Christianity, Burkhanism, Judaism (Khazars, Krymchaks, Crimean Karaites), Buddhism, and a small number of Zoroastrians
.

Modern history

Map highlighting present-day Turkic countries
Independent Turkic states shown in red

The Ottoman Empire gradually grew weaker in the face of poor administration, repeated wars with

Republic of Turkey.[185]
Ethnic nationalism also developed in Ottoman Empire during the 19th century, taking the form of Pan-Turkism or Turanism.

The Turkic peoples of Central Asia were not organized in nation-states during most of the 20th century, after the collapse of the

Chinese Republic. For much of the 20th century, Turkey was the only independent Turkic country.[263]

In 1991, after the disintegration of the

Turkic Council in 2009, which later was renamed Organization of Turkic States in 2021.[264]

Physiognomy

According to historians Joo-Yup Lee and Shuntu Kuang, Chinese official histories do not depict Turkic peoples as belonging to a single uniform entity called "Turks".

Ashina Simo "was not given a high military post by the Ashina rulers because of his Sogdian (huren 胡人) physiognomy."[268] The Tang historian Yan Shigu described the Hu people of his day as "blue-eyed and red bearded"[269] descendants of the Wusun, whereas "no comparable depiction of the Kök Türks or Tiele is found in the official Chinese histories."[269]

caftan. Late 7th to early 8th century CE.[270][271][272]

Historian Peter Golden has reported that genetic testing of the proposed descendants of the Ashina tribe does seem to confirm a link to the Indo-Iranians, emphasizing that "the Turks as a whole 'were made up of heterogeneous and somatically dissimilar populations'".[273] Historian Emel Esin and Professor Xue Zongzheng have argued that West Eurasian features were typical of the royal Ashina clan of the Eastern Turkic Khaganate and that their appearance shifted to an East Asian one due to intermarriage with foreign nobility. As a result, by the time of Kul Tigin (684 AD), members of the Ashina dynasty had East Asian features.[274][275] A 2023 genetic study found that Empress Ashina (568–578 AD), a Royal Göktürk, had nearly entirely Ancient Northeast Asian origin, weakening the "western Eurasian origin and multiple origin hypotheses".[129] Lee and Kuang believe it is likely "early and medieval Turkic peoples themselves did not form a homogeneous entity and that some of them, non-Turkic by origin, had become Turkicised at some point in history."[276] They also suggest that many modern Turkic-speaking populations are not directly descended from early Turkic peoples.[276] Lee and Kuang concluded that "both medieval Chinese histories and modern DNA studies point to the fact that the early and medieval Turkic peoples were made up of heterogeneous and somatically dissimilar populations."[277]

Like Chinese historians, Medieval Muslim writers generally depicted the Turks as having an East Asian appearance.

Ghaznavid portrait, Palace of Lashkari Bazar. Schlumberger noted that the turban, the small mouth and the strongly slanted eyes were characteristically Turkic.[283]

In the Ghaznavids' residential palace of Lashkari Bazar, there survives a partially conserved portrait depicting a turbaned and haloed adolescent figure with full cheeks, slanted eyes, and a small, sinuous mouth.[283] The Armenian historian Movses Kaghankatvatsi describes the Turks of the Western Turkic Khaganate as "broad-faced, without eyelashes, and with long flowing hair like women".[284]

Rûm are of confused ethnic origin. Among its notables there are few whose lineage does not go back to a convert to Islam."[285]

Kevin Alan Brook states that like "most nomadic Turks, the Western Turkic Khazars were racially and ethnically mixed."[286] Istakhri described Khazars as having black hair while Ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi described them as having blue eyes, light skin, and reddish hair. Istakhri mentions that there were "Black Khazars" and "White Khazars." Most scholars believe these were political designations: black being lower class while white being higher class. Constantin Zuckerman argues that these "had physical and racial differences and explained that they stemmed from the merger of the Khazars with the Barsils."[287] Old East Slavic sources called the Khazars the "White Ugry" and the Magyars the "Black Ugry."[288] Soviet excavated Khazar remains show Slavic-type, European-type, and a minority Mongoloid-type skulls.[287]

The Yenisei Kyrgyz are mentioned in the New Book of Tang as having the same script and language as the Uyghurs but "The people are all tall and big and have red hair, white faces, and green eyes."[289][note 2] The New Book of Tang also states that the neighboring Boma tribe resembled the Kyrgyz but their language was different, which may imply the Kyrgyz were originally a non-Turkic people, who were later Turkicized through inter-tribal marriages.[289] According to Gardizi, the Kyrgyz were mixed with "Saqlabs" (Slavs), which explains the red hair and white skin among the Kyrgyz, while the New Book states that the Kyrgyz "intermixed with the Dingling."[294][295] The Kyrgyz "regarded those with black eyes as descending from [Li] Ling," a Han dynasty general who defected to the Xiongnu.[296]

In a Chinese legal statute from the early period of the

Lesser Horde, whose men possess a high frequency of haplogroup C2's subclade C2b1b1 (59.7 to 78%). Lee and Kuang also suggest that the high frequency (63.9%) of the Y-DNA haplogroup R-M73 among Karakypshaks (a tribe within the Kipchaks) allows inference about the genetics of Karakypshaks' medieval ancestors, thus explaining why some medieval Kipchaks were described as possessing "blue [or green] eyes and red hair.[299]

Byzantine historians of the 11th-12th centuries provided description of Turkmens as very different from the Greeks.

Adrianople, and described him in the following terms: "In the first place, as I have seen him frequently, I shall say that he is a little, short, thick man, with the physiognomy of a Tartar. He has a broad and brown face, high cheek bones, a round beard, a great and crooked nose, with little eyes".[300]

Remarks

  1. ^ For its etymology see Kangar union#Etymology
  2. ^ 9th-century author Duan Chengshi described the Kyrgyz tribe (Jiankun buluo 堅昆部落) as "yellow-haired, green-eyed, red-mustached [and red-]bearded".[290] New Book of Tang (finished in 1060) describes Alats, a medieval Turkic people, as resembling Kyrgyzes[291] who were "all tall, red-haired, pale-faced, green-irised";[292] New Book of Tang also states that Kyrgyzes regarded black hair as "infelicitous" and insisted that black-eyed individuals were descendants of Han general Li Ling.[293]

Archaeology

International organizations

TÜRKSOY
members.