page_title: Turkoman (ethnonym)
section_title: Etymology and history
hierarchical_section_title: Turkoman (ethnonym) / Etymology and history
caption_attribution_description: English: scanned by Olahus. Origin of the map: HISTORISCH-GENEALOGISCH-GEOGRAPHISCHER ATLAS von Le Sage Graf Las Cases. Karlsruhe. Bei Creuzbauer und Nöldeke 1829.
context_page_description: Turkoman is a term widely used during the Middle Ages for the people of the Oghuz Turkic origin. According to medieval authors Al-Biruni and al-Marwazi, this term referred to the Oghuz who converted to Islam. However, there is also evidence that non-Oghuz Turks such as Karluks may have been called as Turkomans as well.
  Originally an exonym, presumably from the period of the high Middle Ages, along with the ancient and familiar name Turk and tribal names, it started to be used as an ethnonym by the Oguz tribes that settled in Anatolia, Azerbaijan, Iran, and Turkmenistan.
  In Anatolia, since the late Middle Ages, it was supplanted by the term "Ottomans" - from the name of the state and the ruling dynasty. It ceased to be used in Azerbaijan since the 17th century, but it remained as the self-name for the semi-nomadic tribes of the Terekime, a sub-ethnic group of the Azerbaijani people.
  Today, this ethnonym is still used by the Turkmens of Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan and Russia, as well as the other descendants of the Oghuz Turks - Iraqi and Syrian Turkmens.
context_section_description: For the first time, the term "Turkmen", "(Turkman)" or "Turkoman" was mentioned in the Chinese sources of the 8th – 9th centuries (as Тö-kü-möng, presumably in Zhetisu). The spread of the term "Turkoman" occurs with the expansion of the area of residence of that part of the Oghuz that converted to Islam.
  The greatest spread of the term Turkoman occurs in the era of the Seljuk conquests. Muslim Oghuz people rallied around the Kınık tribe that made up the main core of the future Seljuk tribal union and the state they would create in the 11th century. Since the Seljuk era, the sultans of the dynasty created military settlements in various parts of the Near and Middle East in order to strengthen their power; so large Turkoman settlements were created in Syria, Iraq, and eastern Anatolia. After the Battle of Manzikert, the Oghuz massively settled throughout Anatolia and Azerbaijan (the historical region mainly in northwestern Iran). In the 11th century, Turkomans densely populated Arran. The Persian writer of the 12th century, al-Marvazi wrote about the Turkomans the following:
  “Turkomans settled in Islamic countries and showed great character. So much so that they rule most of these lands, becoming kings and sultans .... Those who live in deserts and steppes and lead a nomadic lifestyle in summer and winter, they are the strongest of people and the most persistent in battle and war ”.
  Towards the high Middle Ages, the eastern part of Anatolia became known as "Turkomania" in European and as "Turkmeneli" in Ottoman sources. The center of the Turkoman settlement in the territory of modern Iraq became Kirkuk.
  The Turkmens also included the Ive and Bayandur tribes, from which the ruling clans of the states of Kara Koyunlu and Aq Qoyunlu emerged. After the fall of the latter, the Turkoman tribes, partly under their own name, for example Afshars, Hajilu, Pornak, Deger, and Mavsellu united in a single tribe of Turkoman or Qizilbash tribal confederation.
caption: Turkomania of the Ottoman Empire, as shown on the German map
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