Turkic peoples

TheTurkic peoplesare a collection of diverseethnic groupsofWest,Central,East, andNorth Asiaas well as parts ofEurope, who speakTurkic languages.
According to historians and linguists, theProto-Turkic languageoriginated in Central-East Asia,potentially in theAltai-Sayan region,MongoliaorTuva.Initially, Proto-Turkic speakers were potentially both hunter-gatherers and farmers; they later becamenomadicpastoralists.Early andmedievalTurkic groups exhibited a wide range of both East Asian and West-Eurasian physical appearances and genetic origins, in part through long-term contact with neighboring peoples such asIranic,Mongolic,Tocharian,UralicandYeniseianpeoples.
Many vastly differingethnic groupshave throughout history become part of the Turkic peoples throughlanguage shift,acculturation,conquest,intermixing,adoption, andreligious conversion.Nevertheless, Turkic peoples share, to varying degrees, non-linguistic characteristics like cultural traits, ancestry from a commongene pool, and historical experiences.Some of the most notable modern Turkic ethnic groups include theAltai people,Azerbaijanis,Chuvash people,Gagauz people,Kazakhs,Kyrgyz people,Turkmens,Turkish people,Tuvans,Uyghurs,Uzbeks, andYakuts.
The first known mention of the termTurk(Old Turkic: 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰Türükor 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰:𐰜𐰇𐰛Kök Türük,Chinese:突厥,Pinyin: Tūjué <Middle Chinese*tɦut-kyat< *dwət-kuɑt,Old Tibetan:drugu)applied to only one Turkic group, namely, theGöktürks,who were also mentioned, astürüg~török, in the 6th-centuryKhüis Tolgoi inscription, most likely not later than 587 AD.A letter byIshbara QaghantoEmperor Wen of Suiin 585 described him as "the Great Turk Khan".TheBugut(584 CE) andOrkhon inscriptions(735 CE) use the termsTürküt,TürkandTürük.
During the first century CE,Pomponius Melarefers to theTurcaein the forests north of theSea of Azov, andPliny the Elderlists theTyrcaeamong the people of the same area.However, English archaeologistEllis Minnscontended thatTyrcaeΤῦρκαι is "a false correction" forIyrcaeἹύρκαι, a people who dwelt beyond theThyssagetae, according toHerodotus(Histories, iv. 22), and were likelyUgricancestors ofMagyars.There are references to certain groups in antiquity whose names might have been foreign transcriptions ofTür(ü)k, such asTogarma,Turukha/Turuška,Turukkuand so on; but the information gap is so substantial that any connection of these ancient people to the modern Turks is not possible.
The ChineseBook of Zhou(7th century) presents an etymology of the nameTurkas derived from 'helmet', explaining that this name comes from the shape of a mountain where they worked in theAltai Mountains.Hungarian scholarAndrás 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.
It is generally accepted that the nameTürkis ultimately derived from theOld-Turkicmigration-term𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰Türük/Törük,which means 'created, born'or 'strong'.Turkologist Peter B. Golden agrees that the termTurkhas roots inOld Turkic,yet is not convinced by attempts to linkDili,Dingling,Chile,Tele, andTiele, which possibly transcribed *tegrek(probably meaning 'cart'), toTujue, which transliterated toTürküt.
Scholars, including Toru Haneda, Onogawa Hidemi, and Geng Shimin believed thatDi,Dili,Dingling,ChileandTujueall came from the Turkic wordTürk, which means 'powerful' and 'strength', and its plural form isTürküt.Even thoughGerhard Doerfersupports the proposal thattürkmeans 'strong' in general,Gerard Clausonpoints out that "the wordtürkis never used in the generalized sense of 'strong'" and thattürkwas originally a noun and meant "'the culminating point of maturity' (of a fruit, human being, etc.), but more often used as an [adjective] meaning (of a fruit) 'just fully ripe'; (of a human being) 'in the prime of life, young, and vigorous'".Hakan Aydemir (2022) also contends thatTürkoriginally did not mean "strong, powerful" but "gathered; united, allied, confederated" and was derived from Pre-Proto-Turkicverb *türü"heap up, collect, gather, assemble".
The earliest Turkic-speaking peoples identifiable in Chinese sources are theYenisei KyrgyzandXinli, located in South Siberia.Another example of an early Turkic population would be theDingling.
In Late Antiquity itself, as well as in and theMiddle Ages, the name "Scythians" was used inGreco-RomanandByzantineliterature for various groups of nomadic "barbarians" living on the Pontic-Caspian Steppe who were not related to the actual Scythians.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.
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 termTürkcorresponds specifically to the "Turkish-speaking" people (in this context, "Turkish-speaking" is considered the same as "Turkic-speaking"), while the termTürkirefers generally to the people of modern "Turkic Republics" (Türki CumhuriyetlerorTürk Cumhuriyetleri). However, the proper usage of the term is based onthe linguistic classificationin order to avoid anypoliticalsense. In short, the termTürkican be used forTürkor vice versa.
Possible Proto-Turkic ancestry, at least partial,has been posited forXiongnu,HunsandPannonian Avars, as well asTuobaandRouran, who were ofProto-MongolicDonghuancestry.as well asTatars, Rourans' supposed descendants.
The Turkic languages constitute alanguage familyof some 30 languages, spoken across a vast area fromEastern Europeand theMediterranean, toSiberiaandManchuriaand through to the Middle East. Some 170 million people have a Turkic language as their native language;an additional 20 million people speak a Turkic language as asecond language. The Turkic language with the greatest number of speakers isTurkish proper, orAnatolianTurkish, the speakers of which account for about 40% of all Turkic speakers.More than one third of these are ethnicTurks of Turkey, dwelling predominantly in Turkey proper and formerlyOttoman-dominated areas of Southern and Eastern Europe andWest 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, theCaucasus, China, and northern Iraq.
The Turkic language family was traditionally considered to be part of the proposedAltaic language family.Howeover since the 1950s, a majority of linguists have rejected the proposal, after supposedcognateswere found not to be valid, hypothesized sound shifts were not found, and Turkic andMongolic languageswere found to be converging rather than diverging over the centuries. Opponents of the theory proposed that the similarities are due tomutual linguistic influencesbetween the groups concerned.
The Turkic alphabets are sets of related alphabets with letters (formerly known asrunes), used for writing mostlyTurkic languages. Inscriptions in Turkic alphabets were found inMongolia. 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 theOld Uyghur alphabetin theEastandCentral Asia, Arabic script in the Middle and Western Asia,Cyrillicin Eastern Europe and in the Balkans, andLatin alphabetin Central Europe. The latest recorded use ofTurkic alphabetwas recorded in Central Europe's Hungary in 1699 CE.
The Turkicruniformscripts, unlike other typologically close scripts of the world, do not have a uniformpalaeographyas do, for example, theGothicruniform scripts, noted for their exceptional uniformity of language and paleography.The Turkic alphabets are divided into four groups, the best known of which is theOrkhonversion of the Enisei group. The Orkhon script is the alphabet used by theGöktürksfrom the 8th century to record theOld Turkic language. It was later used by theUyghur Empire; aYeniseivariant is known from 9th-centuryKyrgyzinscriptions, and it has likely cousins in theTalas ValleyofTurkestanand theOld Hungarian scriptof the 10th century.Irk Bitigis the only known complete manuscript text written in the Old Turkic script.
The origins of the Turkic peoples has been a topic of much discussion.Peter Benjamin Goldenproposes two locations for the Proto-Turkic Urheimat: the southernAltai-Sayanregion,and SouthernSiberia, fromLake Baikalto easternMongolia.Other studies suggested an early presence of Turkic peoples in Mongolia,orTuva.
A possible genealogical link of the Turkic languages to Mongolic and Tungusic languages, specifically a hypothetical homeland inManchuria, such as proposed in theTranseurasian hypothesis, byMartine Robbeets, has received support but also criticism, with opponents attributing similarities to long-term contact.The proto-Turkic-speakers may be linked toNeolithicEast Asianagricultural societies inNortheastern China, which is to be associated with theXinglongwa cultureand the succeedingHongshan culture, based on varying degrees of specific East Asian genetic substratum among modern Turkic speakers.According to historians, "the Proto-Turkic subsistence strategy included an agricultural component, a tradition that ultimately went back to the origin of millet agriculture in Northeast China".This view is however questioned by other geneticists, who found no evidence for a shared "Neolithic Hongshan ancestry", but in contrary primaryAncient Northeast Asian(ANA) Neolithic ancestry from theAmur region, supporting an origin from Northeast Asia rather than Manchuria.
Around 2,200 BC, the (agricultural) ancestors of the Turkic peoples probably migrated westwards intoMongolia, where they adopted a pastoral lifestyle, in part borrowed fromIranian peoples. Given nomadic peoples such asXiongnu,RouranandXianbeishare underlying genetic ancestry "that falls into or close to the northeast Asian gene pool", the proto-Turkic language likely originated in northeastern Asia.
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 mainTurkic expansiontook place during the 5th–16th centuries, partially overlapping with theMongol Empireperiod. 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 asMongolic peoplesfurther 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."
A 2018autosomalsingle-nucleotide polymorphismstudy suggested that theEurasian Steppeslowly transitioned fromIndo EuropeanandIranian-speaking groups with largely western Eurasian ancestry to increasing East Asian ancestry with Turkic and Mongolian groups in the past 4000 years, including extensive Turkic migrations out of Mongolia and slow assimilation of local populations.A 2022 report suggested that Turkic and Mongolic populations in Central Asia formed via admixture events during the Iron Age between "localIndo-Iranianand a South-Siberian or Mongolian group with a high East-Asian ancestry (around 60%)". Modern dayTurkmensform an outlier among Central Asian Turkic-speakers with a lower frequency of the Baikal component (c. 22%) and a lack of the Han-like component, being closer to other Indo-Iranian groups.A subsequent study in 2022 also found that the spread of Turkic-speaking populations into Central Asia happened after the spread of Indo-European speakers into the area.Another 2022 study found that all Altaic‐speaking (Turkic, Tungusic, and Mongolic) populations "were a mixture of dominant Siberian Neolithic ancestry and non-negligible YRB ancestry", suggesting their origins were somewhere in Northeast Asia, most likely theAmur 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".
A 2023 study analyzed the DNA ofEmpress Ashina(568–578 AD), a Royal Göktürk, whose remains were recovered from a mausoleum inXianyang,China.The authors determined that Empress Ashina belonged to the North-East AsianmtDNAhaplogroupF1d, and that approximately 96-98% of her autosomal ancestry was ofAncient Northeast Asianorigin, while roughly 2-4% was of West Eurasian origin, indicating ancient admixture.This study weakened the "western Eurasian origin and multiple origin hypotheses".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."The early medieval Türk samples were modelled as having 37.8% West Eurasian ancestry and 62.2% Ancient Northeast Asian ancestryand historic Central Steppe Türk samples were also an admixture of West Eurasian and Ancient Northeast Asian ancestry,while historic Karakhanid, Kipchak and the Turkic Karluk samples had 50.6%-61.1% West Eurasian ancestry and 38.9%–49.4% Iron AgeYellow Riverfarmer ancestry.A 2020 study also found "high genetic heterogeneity and diversity during the Türkic and Uyghur periods" in the early medieval period inEastern Eurasian Steppe.
The earliest separate Turkic peoples, such as theGekun(鬲昆) andXinli(薪犁), appeared on the peripheries of the lateXiongnuconfederation about 200 BCE(contemporaneous with the ChineseHan dynasty)and later among the Turkic-speakingTieleasHegu(紇骨)andXue(薛).
TheTiele(also known as Gaoche 高車, lit. "High Carts"),may be related to theXiongnuand theDingling.According to theBook of Wei, the Tiele people were the remnants of the Chidi (赤狄), the redDipeople competing with theJinin theSpring and Autumn period.Historically they were established after the 6th century BCE.
The Tiele were first mentioned in Chinese literature from the 6th to 8th centuries.Some scholars (Haneda, Onogawa, Geng, etc.) proposed thatTiele,Dili,Dingling,Chile,Tele, &Tujueall transliterated underlyingTürk; however,Goldenproposed thatDili,Dingling,Chile,Tele, andTieletransliteratedTegrekwhile Tujue transliteratedTürküt, plural ofTürk.The appellationTürük(Old Turkic: 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰) ~Türk(OT: 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰚) (whenceMiddle Chinese突厥 *dwət-kuɑt> *tɦut-kyat>standard Chinese:Tūjué) was initially reserved exclusively for theGöktürksby Chinese, Tibetans, and even the Turkic-speakingUyghurs. In contrast, medieval Muslim writers, including Turkic speakers like Ottoman historianMustafa Âlîand explorerEvliya Çelebias well asTimuridscientistUlugh 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 speakingTurkic languages, differentiated from non-Turkic speakers.
According to some researchers (Duan, Xue, Tang, Lung, Onogawa, etc.) the laterAshina tribedescended from theTiele confederation.The Tiele however were probably one of many early Turkic groups, ancestral to later Turkic populations.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.
It has even been suggested that the Xiongnu themselves, who were mentioned in Han dynasty records, wereProto-Turkicspeakers.The Turks may ultimately have been of Xiongnu descent.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.Some scholars believe they were probably a confederation of various ethnic and linguistic groups.According to a study by Alexander Savelyev and Choongwon Jeong, published in 2020 in the journalEvolutionary Human Sciencesby 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.
Using the only extant possibly Xiongnu writings, the rock art of theYinshanandHelan Mountains,some scholars argue that the older Xiongnu writings are precursors to the earliest knownTurkicalphabet, theOrkhon script. Petroglyphs of this region dates from the9th millennium BCEto the 19th century, and consists mainly of engraved signs (petroglyphs) and few painted images.Excavations done during 1924–1925 inNoin-Ulakurgans located in theSelengaRiver in the northernMongolianhills north ofUlaanbaatarproduced objects with over 20 carved characters, which were either identical or very similar to therunicletters of the Turkic Orkhon script discovered in theOrkhon Valley.
The earliest certain mentioning of the politonym "Turk" was in the ChineseBook 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 theWestern Weidynasty and the Turks in the years 545 and 546.
According to theBook of Suiand theTongdian, they were "mixed barbarians" (雜胡;záhú) who migrated fromPingliang(now in modernGansu province,China) to theRouransseeking inclusion in their confederacy and protection from the prevailing dynasty.Alternatively, according to theBook of Zhou,History of the Northern Dynasties, andNew Book of Tang, the Ashina clan was a component of theXiongnuconfederation.Göktürks were also posited as having originated from an obscure Suo state (索國), north of the Xiongnu.The Ashina tribe were famedmetalsmithsand were granted land south of theAltai Mountains(金山Jinshan), which looked like ahelmet, from which they were said to have gotten their name 突厥 (Tūjué),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.
The originalOld TurkicnameKök Türkderives fromkök~kö:k, "sky, sky-coloured, blue, blue-grey".Unlike its Xiongnu predecessor, the Göktürk Khaganate had its temporaryKhagansfrom theAshinaclan, who weresubordinateto asovereignauthority controlled by a council of tribal chiefs. TheKhaganateretained elements of its originalanimistic-shamanisticreligion, that later evolved intoTengriism, although it received missionaries ofBuddhistmonks and practiced a syncretic religion. The Göktürks were the first Turkic people to writeOld Turkicin a runic script, theOrkhon 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".
The Göktürks (First Turkic Kaganate) quickly spread west to the Caspian Sea. Between 581 and 603 theWestern Turkic Khaganatein Kazakhstan separated from theEastern Turkic Khaganatein Mongolia andManchuriaduring a civil war. The Han-Chinese successfully overthrew the Eastern Turks in 630 and created a military Protectorate until 682. After that time theSecond Turkic Khaganateruled large parts of the former Göktürk area. After several wars between Turks, Chinese and Tibetans, the weakened Second Turkic Khaganate was replaced by theUyghur Khaganatein the year 744.
TheBulgarsestablished themselves in between the Caspian and Black Seas in the 5th and 6th centuries, followed by their conquerors, theKhazarswho converted to Judaism in the 8th or 9th century. After them came thePechenegswho created a large confederacy, which was subsequently taken over by theCumansand theKipchaks. One group of Bulgars settled in the Volga region and mixed with localVolga Finnsto become theVolga Bulgarsin what is todayTatarstan. These Bulgars were conquered by the Mongols following their westward sweep underOgedei Khanin the 13th century.Other Bulgars settled in Southeastern Europe in the 7th and 8th centuries, and mixed with theSlavicpopulation, adopting what eventually became the SlavicBulgarian language. Everywhere, Turkic groups mixed with the local populations to varying degrees.
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 theGolden Hordein Eastern Europe, western and northern Central Asia, and even western Siberia. TheCuman-Kipchak Confederationand IslamicVolga Bulgariawere absorbed by the Golden Horde in the 13th century; in the 14th century, Islam became the official religion underUzbeg Khanwhere the general population (Turks) as well as the aristocracy (Mongols) came to speak theKipchak languageand were collectively known as "Tatars" by Russians and Westerners. This country was also known as theKipchak Khanateand covered most of what is todayUkraine, as well as the entirety of modern-day southern and easternRussia(the European section). The Golden Horde disintegrated into several khanates and hordes in the 15th and 16th century including theCrimean Khanate,Khanate of Kazan, andKazakh Khanate(among others), which were one by one conquered and annexed by the Russian Empire in the 16th through 19th centuries.
In Siberia, theSiberian Khanatewas established in the 1490s by fleeing Tatar aristocrats of the disintegratingGolden Hordewho established Islam as the official religion in western Siberia over the partly Islamized nativeSiberian Tatarsand indigenous Uralic peoples. It was the northernmost Islamic state in recorded history and it survived up until 1598 when it was conquered by Russia.
TheUyghur Khaganatehad established itself by the year 744 AD.Through trade relations established with China, its capital city ofOrdu Baliqin central Mongolia'sOrkhon Valleybecame a wealthy center of commerce,and a significant portion of the Uyghur population abandoned their nomadic lifestyle for asedentaryone. The Uyghur Khaganate produced extensive literature, and a relatively high number of its inhabitants were literate.
The official state religion of the early Uyghur Khaganate wasManichaeism, which was introduced through the conversion ofBögü Qaghanby theSogdiansafter theAn Lushan rebellion.The Uyghur Khaganate was tolerant of religious diversity and practiced variety of religions including Buddhism, Christianity, shamanism and Manichaeism.
During the same time period, theShatuoTurks 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.The Uyghurs also fought against an alliance of Shatuo and Tibetans at Beshbalik.
The Shatuo Turks under Zhuye Chixin (Li Guochang) served the Tang dynasty in fighting against their fellow Turkic people in theUyghur Khaganate. In 839, when the Uyghur khaganate (Huigu) general Jueluowu (掘羅勿) rose against the rule of then-reigningZhangxin 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.In 843, Zhuye Chixin, under the command of the Han Chinese officerShi Xiongwith 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.
TheShatuoTurks had founded several short-livedsinicizeddynasties in northern China during theFive Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms periodstarting 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.
After the fall of the Tang dynasty in 907, the Shatuo Turks replaced them and created theLater Tangdynasty in 923. The Shatuo Turks ruled over a large part of northern China, includingBeijing. 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 theLater JinandLater HanandNorthern 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 theMengshan Giant Buddhain 945. The Shatuo dynasties were replaced by the Han ChineseSong dynasty.The Shatuo became theOngudTurks living in Inner Mongolia after the Song dynasty conquered the last Shatuo dynasty of Northern Han.The Ongud assimilated to the Mongols.
The Yenisei Kyrgyz allied with China to destroy the Uyghur Khaganate in the year 840 AD.From theYenisei River, the Kyrgyz pushed south and eastward in to Xinjiang and theOrkhon Valleyin central Mongolia, leaving much of the Uyghur civilization in ruins.Much of the Uyghur population relocated to the southwest of Mongolia, establishing theGanzhou Uyghur Kingdomin Gansu where their descendants are the modern dayYugursandQocho Kingdomin Turpan, Xinjiang.
The Kangar Union (Qanghar Odaghu) was aTurkicstate in the former territory of the Western Turkic Khaganate (the entire present-day state ofKazakhstan, withoutZhetysu). The capital of the Kangar union was located in the Ulytau mountains. Among the Pechenegs, theKangarformed the elite of the Pecheneg tribes. After being defeated by theKipchaks,Oghuz Turks, and theKhazars, they migrated west and defeatedMagyars,and after forming an alliance with theBulgars, they defeated theByzantineArmy.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.
The elite of the Kangar tribes are believed to have had anIranianorigin,and they likely spoke an Iranian language,while most of the Pecheneg population spoke a Turkic language, with a significant percentage speakingHunno-Bulgardialects.
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 theKanglypeople, who are now part of theUzbek,Kazakh, andKarakalpaktribes.
The Oguz Yabgu State (Oguz il, meaning "Oguz Land", "Oguz Country")(750–1055) was aTurkicstate, founded byOghuz Turksin 766, located geographically in an area between the coasts of theCaspianandAral Seas. Oguz tribes occupied a vast territory inKazakhstanalong theIrgiz,Yaik,Emba, andUilrivers, the Aral Sea area, theSyr Daryavalley, the foothills of theKaratau MountainsinTien-Shan, and theChui Rivervalley (see map). The Oguz political association developed in the 9th and 10th centuries in the Syr Darya basin.
TheSalarsare descended 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 marryingAmdoTibetanwomen during the early Ming dynasty.
Turkic peoples and related groups migrated west from present-dayNortheastern China,Mongolia,Siberiaand theTurkestan-region towards theIranian plateau, South Asia, andAnatolia(modern Turkey) in many waves. The date of the initial expansion remains unknown.
TheGhaznavid dynasty(Persian:غزنویانġaznaviyān) was aPersianateMuslimdynasty of Turkicmamlukorigin,at their greatest extent ruling large parts ofIran,Afghanistan, much ofTransoxianaand the northwestIndian subcontinent(part ofPakistan) from 977 to 1186.The dynasty was founded bySabuktiginupon his succession to rule of the region ofGhaznaafter the death of his father-in-law,Alp Tigin, who was a breakaway ex-general of theSamanid EmpirefromBalkh, north of theHindu KushinGreater Khorasan.
Although the dynasty was ofCentral AsianTurkic origin, it was thoroughlyPersianisedin terms of language, culture, literature and habitsand hence is regarded by some as a "Persian dynasty".
TheSeljuk Empire(Persian:آل سلجوق,romanized:Āl-e Saljuq,lit.'House of Saljuq') or theGreat Seljuq Empirewas ahigh medievalTurko-PersianSunni Muslimempire, originating from theQiniqbranch ofOghuz Turks.At its greatest extent, the Seljuk Empire controlled a vast area stretching from westernAnatoliaand theLevantto theHindu Kushin the east, and fromCentral Asiato thePersian Gulfin the south.
The Seljuk empire was founded byTughril Beg(1016–1063) and his brotherChaghri Beg(989–1060) in 1037. From their homelands near theAral Sea, the Seljuks advanced first intoKhorasanand then into mainlandPersia, before eventually conquering eastern Anatolia. Here the Seljuks won thebattle of Manzikertin 1071 and conquered most of Anatolia from theByzantine Empire, which became one of the reasons for theFirst Crusade(1095–1099). From c. 1150–1250, the Seljuk empire declined, and was invaded by theMongolsaround 1260. The Mongols divided Anatolia intoemirates. Eventually one of these, theOttoman, would conquer the rest.
TheTimurid Empirewas a Turko-Mongol empire founded in the late 14th century through military conquests led byTimurlane. The establishment of a cosmopolitan empire was followed by theTimurid Renaissance, a period of local enrichment inmathematics,astronomy,architecture, as well as newfound economic growth.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.
TheBukhara Khanatewas an Uzbekstate that existed from 1501 to 1785. The khanate was ruled by three dynasties of theShaybanids, Janids and the Uzbek dynasty of Mangits. In 1785,Shahmurad, formalized the family's dynastic rule (Manghitdynasty), and the khanate became theEmirate of Bukhara(1785–1920).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.
TheAfsharid dynastywas named after the Turkic Afshar tribe to which they belonged. The Afshars had migrated fromTurkestantoAzerbaijanin the 13th century. The dynasty was founded in 1736 by the military commanderNader Shahwho deposed the last member of theSafavid dynastyand proclaimed himself King ofIran. Nader belonged to the Qereqlu branch of the Afshars.During Nader's reign, Iran reached its greatest extent since theSassanid Empire.
The Qajar dynasty was created by the TurkicQajar tribe, ruling over Iran from 1789 to 1925.The Qajar family took full control of Iran in 1794, deposingLotf 'Ali Khan, the lastShahof theZand dynasty, and re-asserted Iranian sovereignty over large parts of theCaucasus. In 1796,Mohammad Khan QajarseizedMashhadwith ease,putting an end to theAfsharid dynasty, and Mohammad Khan was formally crowned as Shah after hispunitive campaign against Iran's Georgian subjects.In the Caucasus, the Qajar dynasty permanently lost many of Iran's integral areasto theRussiansover the course of the 19th century, comprising modern-dayGeorgia,Dagestan,AzerbaijanandArmenia.The dynasty was founded byAgha Mohammad Khan Qajarand continued untilAhmad Shah Qajar.
TheDelhi Sultanateis a term used to cover five short-lived,Delhi-based kingdoms, two of which were of Turkic origins: theMamluk dynasty(1206–1290) and theTughlaq dynasty(1320–1414).Southern Indiasaw rise of theQutb Shahi dynasty, one of theDeccan sultanates.
TheMughal Empirewas a Turko-Mongol empire that, at its greatest territorial extent, ruled most of South Asia, includingAfghanistan, Pakistan, India,Bangladeshand parts ofUzbekistanfrom the early 16th to the early 18th centuries. The Mughal dynasty was founded by aTurko-Mongolprince namedBabur(reigned 1526–1530), who was descended fromTimur(Tamerlane) on his father's side and from Chagatai, second son of theMongolrulerGenghis Khan, on his mother's side.A further distinction was the attempt of the Mughals to integrate Hindus and Muslims into a united Indian state.
The Arab MuslimUmayyadsandAbbasidsfought against the pagan Turks in theTürgeshKhaganate in theMuslim conquest of Transoxiana. Turkic soldiers in the army of theAbbasidcaliphsemerged as the de facto rulers of most of the Muslim Middle East (apart fromSyriaandEgypt), particularly after the 10th century. Examples of regional de facto independent states include the short livedTulunidsandIkhshididsin Egypt. TheOghuzand other tribes captured and dominated various countries under the leadership of theSeljuk dynastyand eventually captured the territories of the Abbasid dynasty and theByzantine Empire.
After many battles, the westernOghuz Turksestablished their own state and later constructed theOttoman 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.They also took part in the military encounters of theCrusades.In 1090–91, the Turkic Pechenegs reached the walls ofConstantinople, where EmperorAlexius Iwith the aid of the Kipchaks annihilated their army.
As theSeljuk Empiredeclined following theMongol invasion, theOttoman Empireemerged 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.
Turkic peoples like theKarluks(mainly 8th century),Uyghurs,Kyrgyz,Turkmens, andKipchakslater came into contact withMuslims, and most of them gradually adoptedIslam. 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 ofZoroastrians.
The Ottoman Empire gradually grew weaker in the face of poor administration, repeated wars withRussia, Austria and Hungary, and theemergence of nationalist movements in the Balkans, and it finally gave way after World War I to the present-dayRepublic of Turkey.Ethnic nationalism also developed in Ottoman Empire during the 19th century, taking the form ofPan-TurkismorTuranism.
The Turkic peoples of Central Asia were not organized in nation-states during most of the 20th century, after the collapse of theRussian Empireliving either in the Soviet Union or (after a short-livedFirst East Turkestan Republic) in theChinese Republic. For much of the 20th century, Turkey was the only independent Turkic country.
In 1991, after the disintegration of theSoviet Union, five Turkic states gained their independence. These wereAzerbaijan,Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan,Turkmenistan, andUzbekistan. Other Turkic regions such asTatarstan,Tuva, andYakutiaremained in theRussian Federation.Chinese Turkestanremained part of thePeople's Republic of China. Immediately after the independence of the Turkic states, Turkey began seeking diplomatic relations with them. Over time political meetings between the Turkic countries increased and led to the establishment ofTÜRKSOYin 1993 and theTurkic Councilin 2009, which later was renamedOrganization of Turkic Statesin 2021.
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".However "Chinese histories also depict the Turkic-speaking peoples as typically possessing East/Inner Asianphysiognomy, as well as occasionally having West Eurasian physiognomy."According to "fragmentary information on the Xiongnu language that can be found in the Chinese histories, the Xiongnu were Turkic",however historians have been unable to confirm whether or not they were Turkic.Sima Qian's description of their legendary origins suggest their physiognomy was "not too different from that of... Han (漢) Chinese population",but a subset of Xiongnu known as theJie peoplewere described having "deep-set eyes", "high nose bridges" and "heavy facial hair".The Jie may have beenYeniseian, although others maintaining anIranianaffiliation, and regardless of whether or not the Xiongnu were Turkic, they were a hybrid people.According to theOld Book of Tang,Ashina Simo"was not given a high military post by the Ashina rulers because of his Sogdian (huren胡人) physiognomy."TheTanghistorianYan Shigudescribed the Hu people of his day as "blue-eyed and red bearded"descendants of theWusun, whereas "no comparable depiction of the Kök Türks or Tiele is found in the official Chinese histories."
HistorianPeter Goldenhas reported that genetic testing of the proposed descendants of the Ashina tribe does seem to confirm a link to theIndo-Iranians, emphasizing that "the Turks as a whole 'were made up of heterogeneous and somatically dissimilar populations'".HistorianEmel Esinand ProfessorXue Zongzhenghave argued that West Eurasian features were typical of the royalAshina clanof 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 ofKul Tigin(684 AD), members of the Ashina dynasty had East Asian features.A 2023 genetic study found thatEmpress Ashina(568–578 AD), a Royal Göktürk, had nearly entirelyAncient Northeast Asianorigin, weakening the "western Eurasian origin and multiple origin hypotheses".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."They also suggest that many modern Turkic-speaking populations are not directly descended from early Turkic peoples.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."
Like Chinese historians, Medieval Muslim writers generally depicted the Turks as having an East Asian appearance.Unlike Chinese historians, Medieval Muslim writers used the term "Turk" broadly to refer to not only Turkic-speaking peoples but also various non-Turkic speaking peoples,such as theHephthalites,Rus,Magyars, andTibetans. In the 13th century,Juzjanireferred to the people of Tibet and the mountains between Tibet and Bengal as "Turks" and "people with Turkish features."Medieval Arab and Persian descriptions of Turks state that they looked strange from their perspective and were extremely physically different from Arabs. Turks were described as "broad faced people with small eyes", having light-colored, often reddish hair, and with pink skin,as being "short, with small eyes, nostrils, and mouths" (Sharaf al-Zaman al-Marwazi), as being "full-faced with small eyes" (Al-Tabari), as possessing "a large head (sar-i buzurg), a broad face (rūy-i pahn), narrow eyes (chashmhā-i tang), and a flat nose (bīnī-i pakhch), and unpleasing lips and teeth (lab va dandān na nīkū)" (Keikavus).OnWestern Turkiccoins "the faces of the governor and governess are clearly Mongoloid (a roundish face, narrow eyes), and the portrait have definite old Türk features (long hair, absence of headdress of the governor, a tricorn headdress of the governess)".
In theGhaznavids' residential palace ofLashkari Bazar, there survives a partially conserved portrait depicting a turbaned and haloed adolescent figure with full cheeks, slanted eyes, and a small, sinuous mouth.The Armenian historianMovses Kaghankatvatsidescribes the Turks of theWestern Turkic Khaganateas "broad-faced, without eyelashes, and with long flowing hair like women".
Al-Masudiwrites that theOghuz Turksin Yengi-kent near the mouth of theSyr Darya"are distinguished from other Turks by their valour, their slanted eyes, and the smallness of their stature."Later Muslim writers noted a change in the physiognomy of Oghuz Turks. According toRashid al-Din Hamadani, "because of the climate their features gradually changed into those of Tajiks. Since they were not Tajiks, the Tajik peoples called themturkmān, i.e. Turk-like (Turk-mānand)." Ḥāfiẓ Tanīsh Mīr Muḥammad Bukhārī also related that the Oghuz' 'Turkic face did not remain as it was' after their migration intoTransoxianaandIran.KhivakhanAbu al-Ghazi Bahadurwrote in hisChagatai languagetreatiseShajara-i Tarākima(Genealogy of the Turkmens) that "their chin started to become narrow, their eyes started to become large, their faces started to become small, and their noses started to become big' after five or six generations". Ottoman historianMustafa Âlîcommented inKünhüʾl-aḫbārthat Anatolian Turks and Ottoman elites are ethnically mixed: "Most of the inhabitants ofRûmare of confused ethnic origin. Among its notables there are few whose lineage does not go back to a convert to Islam."
Kevin Alan Brook states that like "most nomadic Turks, the Western TurkicKhazarswere racially and ethnically mixed."Istakhridescribed Khazars as having black hair whileIbn Sa'id al-Maghribidescribed 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."Old East Slavicsources called the Khazars the "White Ugry" and the Magyars the "Black Ugry."Soviet excavated Khazar remains show Slavic-type, European-type, and a minority Mongoloid-type skulls.
TheYenisei Kyrgyzare mentioned in theNew Book of Tangas having the same script and language as theUyghursbut "The people are all tall and
big and have red hair, white faces, and green eyes."TheNew Book of Tangalso 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.According toGardizi, the Kyrgyz were mixed with "Saqlabs" (Slavs), which explains the red hair and white skin among the Kyrgyz, while theNew Bookstates that the Kyrgyz "intermixed with the Dingling."The Kyrgyz "regarded those with black eyes as descending from [Li] Ling," aHan dynastygeneral who defected to the Xiongnu.
In a Chinese legal statute from the early period of theMing dynasty, theKipchaksare described as having blond hair andblueeyes. It also states that they had a "vile" and "peculiar" appearance, and that some Chinese people would not want to marry them.Russian anthropologist Oshanin (1964: 24, 32) notes that "the 'Mongoloid' phenotype, characteristic of modern Kazakhs and Qirghiz, prevails among the skulls of the Qipchaq and Pecheneg nomads found in the kurgans in eastern Ukraine"; Lee & Kuang (2017) propose that Oshanin's discovery is explainable by assuming that the historical Kipchaks' modern descendants areKazakhsof theLesser 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.
Byzantine historians of the 11th-12th centuries provided description of Turkmens as very different from the Greeks.Bertrandon de la Broquière, a French traveller to theOttoman Empire, met with sultanMurad IIinAdrianople, 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 aTartar. He has a broad and brown face, high cheek bones, a round beard, a great and crooked nose, with little eyes".
There are several international organizations created with the purpose of furthering cooperation between countries with Turkic-speaking populations, such as theJoint Administration of Turkic Arts and Culture(TÜRKSOY) and the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-speaking Countries (TÜRKPA) and theTurkic Council.
TheTAKM– Organization of the Eurasian Law Enforcement Agencies with Military Status, was established on 25 January 2013. It is anintergovernmentalmilitarylaw enforcement(gendarmerie) organization of currently three Turkic countries (Azerbaijan,KyrgyzstanandTurkey) andKazakhstanas observer.
Türksoy carries out activities to strengthen cultural ties between Turkic peoples. One of the main goals to transmit their common cultural heritage to future generations and promote it around the world.
Every year, one city in the Turkic world is selected as the "Cultural Capital of the Turkic World". Within the framework of events to celebrate the Cultural Capital of the Turkic World, numerous cultural events are held, gathering artists, scholars and intellectuals, giving them the opportunity to exchange their experiences, as well as promoting the city in question internationally.
TheOrganization of Turkic States, founded on 3 November 2009, by theNakhchivan Agreementconfederation,Kazakhstan,KyrgyzstanandTurkey, aims to integrate these organizations into a tighter geopolitical framework.
The member countries areAzerbaijan,Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan,TurkeyandUzbekistan.The idea of setting up this cooperative council was first put forward by Kazakh PresidentNursultan Nazarbayevback in 2006.Hungaryhas announced to be interested in joining the Organization of Turkic States. Since August 2018, Hungary has official observer status in the Organization of Turkic States.Turkmenistanalso joined as an observer state to the organization at 8th summit.Turkish Republic of Northern Cypruswas admitted to the organization as observer member at the2022 Samarkand Summit.
The distribution of people of Turkic cultural background ranges fromSiberia, across Central Asia, to Southern Europe. As of 2011the largest groups of Turkic people live throughout Central Asia—Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan,Turkmenistan,Uzbekistan, andAzerbaijan, in addition toTurkeyandIran. Additionally, Turkic people are found withinCrimea,Altishahrregion of westernChina, northernIraq,Israel,Russia,Afghanistan,Cyprus, and theBalkans:Moldova,Bulgaria,Romania,Greeceand formerYugoslavia.
A small number of Turkic people also live inVilnius, the capital ofLithuania. Small numbers inhabit easternPolandand the south-eastern part ofFinland.There are also considerable populations of Turkic people (originating mostly fromTurkey) inGermany,United States, andAustralia, largely because of migrations during the 20th century.
Sometimes ethnographers group Turkic people into six branches: theOghuz Turks,Kipchak,Karluk,Siberian,Chuvash, andSakha/Yakutbranches. The Oghuz have been termed Western Turks, while the remaining five, in such a classificatory scheme, are called Eastern Turks.
The genetic distances between the different populations of Uzbeks scattered across Uzbekistan is no greater than the distance between many of them and the Karakalpaks. This suggests that Karakalpaks and Uzbeks have very similar origins. The Karakalpaks have a somewhat greater bias towards the eastern markers than the Uzbeks.
Historical population:
The following incomplete list of Turkic people shows the respective groups' core areas of settlement and their estimated sizes (in millions):
Markets in the steppe region had a limited range of foodstuffs available—mostlygrains,dried fruits,spices, andtea. Turks mostly herdedsheep,goatsandhorses. Dairy was a staple of the nomadic diet and there are many Turkic words for various dairy products such assüt(milk),yagh(butter),ayran,qaymaq(similar toclotted cream),qi̅mi̅z(fermented mare's milk) andqurut(dried yoghurt). During the Middle AgesKazakh,KyrgyzandTatars, who were historically part of the Turkic nomadic group known as theGolden Horde, continued to develop new variations of dairy products.
Nomadic Turks cooked their meals in aqazan, a pot similar to acauldron; a wooden rack called aqasqancan be used to prepare certain steamed foods, like the traditional meat dumplings calledmanti. They also used asaj, a griddle that was traditionally placed on stones over a fire, andshish. In later times, the Persiantavawas borrowed from the Persians for frying, but traditionally nomadic Turks did most of their cooking using the qazan, saj and shish. Meals were served in a bowl, called achanaq, and eaten with a knife (bïchaq) and spoon (qashi̅q). Both bowl and spoon were historically made from wood. Other traditional utensils used in food preparation included a thin rolling pin calledoqlaghu, acolandercalledsüzgu̅çh, and a grinding stone calledtāgirmān.
Medieval grain dishes included preparations of whole grains, soups, porridges, breads and pastries. Fried or toasted whole grains were calledqawïrmach, whileköchäwas crushed grain that was cooked with dairy products.Salmawere broadnoodlesthat could be served with boiled or roasted meat; cut noodles were calledtutmajin the Middle Ages and are calledkesmetoday.
There are many types of bread doughs in Turkic cuisine.Yupqais the thinnest type of dough,bawi̅rsaqis a type of fried bread dough, andchälpäkis a deep fried flat bread.Qatlamais a fried bread that may be sprinkled with dried fruit or meat, rolled, and sliced likepinwheel sandwiches.Toqachandchöräkare varieties of bread, andböräkis a type of filled piepastry.
Herd animals were usually slaughtered during the winter months and various types of sausages were prepared to preserve the meats, including a type of sausage calledsujuk. Though prohibited byIslamic dietary restrictions, historically Turkic nomads also had a variety ofblood sausage. One type of sausage, calledqazi̅, was made from horsemeat and another variety was filled with a mixture of ground meat,offaland rice. Chopped meat was calledqïymaand spit-roasted meat wassöklünch—from the rootsök-meaning "to tear off", the latter dish is known askebabin modern times.Qawirmais a typical fried meat dish, andkullamais a soup of noodles and lamb.
EarlyTurkic mythologywas dominated byShamanism,AnimismandTengrism. The Turkic animistic traditions were mostly focused onancestor worship,polytheistic-animismandshamanism. Later this animistic tradition would form the more organized Tengrism.The chief deity wasTengri, asky god, worshipped by the upper classes of early Turkic society untilManichaeismwas introduced as the official religion of theUyghur Empirein 763.
Thewolfsymbolizes honour and is also considered the mother of most Turkic peoples.Ashinais the wolf mother ofTumen Il-Qağan, the first Khan of theGöktürks. Thehorseandpredatory birds, such as theeagleorfalcon, are also main figures of Turkic mythology.
Buddhismplayed an important role in the history of Turkic peoples, with the first Turkic state adopting and supporting the spread of Buddhism being the Turkic Shahis and the Göktürks. The Göktürks syncretized Buddhism with their traditional religionTengrismand also incorporated elements of the Iranian traditional religions, such asZoroastrianism. Buddhism had its height among theUyghursin theXinjiangregion.Buddhism had also considerable impact and influence onto various other historical Turkic groups. In pre-Islamic times, Buddhism andTengrismcoexisted, with several Buddhist temples, monasteries, figures and steles, with images of Buddhist characters and sceneries, were constructed by various Turkic tribes. ThroughoutKazakhstan, there exist various historical Buddhist sites, including an underground Buddhist cave monastery. After theArab conquest of Central Asia, and the spread of Islam among locals, Buddhism (and Tengrism) started to lose ground, however a certain influence of the Buddhist teachings remained during the next centuries.
Tengri Bögü Khan initially made the now extinctManichaeismthe state religion of theUyghur Khaganatein 763 and it was also popular among theKarluks. It was gradually replaced by theMahayana Buddhism.It existed in the Buddhist UyghurGaochangup to the 12th century.
Tibetan Buddhism, orVajrayanawas the main religion after Manichaeism.They worshippedTäŋri Täŋrisi Burxan,Quanšï Im PusarandMaitri Burxan.TurkicMuslim conquest in the Indian subcontinentand westXinjiangattributed with a rapid and almost total disappearance of it and other religions in North India and Central Asia. TheSari Uygurs"Yellow Yughurs" of Western China, as well as theTuvansof Russia are the only remainingBuddhistTurkic peoples.
Most Turkic people today areSunniMuslims, although a significant number in Turkey areAlevis. Alevi Turks, who were once primarily dwelling in eastern Anatolia, are today concentrated in major urban centers in western Turkey with the increased urbanism. Turkic Sunni Muslims generally follow theHanafirite. Azeris are traditionally Shiite Muslims. Religious observance is less strict in the Republic of Azerbaijan compared to Iranian Azerbaijan.
Islam first made contact with the Turkic peoples in 642, when Muslim armies crossed theAmu Daryaafter toppling theSassanid Empirethe year before. Some of the earliest rulers to convert to Islam were the Turkic princes of the city-states in the region ofSogdiana. Mass conversions did not take place until theBattle of Talasin 751, in which Turkic tribes sided with the Arabs against Chinese forces, which marked a significant milestone in the history of Islam in the region. From then onwards much of the Turkic heartland became Muslim.In the 19th century, Turkic Muslim progressives in the Russian Empire spearheaded a reformist movement calledJadidism, calling for a return to basic Islamic beliefs while simultaneously accepting modernist trends.
The major Christian-Turkic peoples are theChuvashofChuvashiaand theGagauz(Gökoğuz) ofMoldova, the vast majority ofChuvashand theGagauzareEastern Orthodox Christians.The traditional religion of theChuvashof Russia, while containing many ancient Turkic concepts, also shares some elements withZoroastrianism,KhazarJudaism, and Islam.
The Chuvash converted toEastern Orthodox Christianityfor 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.Between the 9th and 14th centuries,Church of the Eastwas popular among Turks such as theNaimans.It even revived in Gaochang and expanded inXinjiangin theYuan dynastyperiod.It disappeared after its collapse.
Kryashensare a sub-group of theVolga Tatars, and the vast majority areOrthodox Christians.Nağaybäkare an indigenous Turkic people in Russia, most Nağaybäk are Christian and were largely converted during the 18th century.ManyVolga TatarswereChristianizedbyIvan the Terribleduring the 16th century, and continued to Christianized under subsequent Russian rulers and Orthodox clergy up to the mid-eighteenth century.
Today there are several groups that support a revival of the ancient traditions. Especially after the collapse of theSoviet Union, many inCentral Asiaconverted or openly practice animistic and shamanistic rituals. It is estimated that about 60% ofKyrgyz peoplepractice a form of animistic rituals. InKazakhstanthere are about 54,000 followers of the ancient traditions.
The Uyghur Turks, who once belonged to a variety of religions, were gradually Islamized during a period spanning the 10th and 13th centuries. Some scholars have linked the phenomenon of recently Islamized Uyghur soldiers recruited by theMongol Empireto the slow conversion of Uyghur populations to Islam.
The non-Muslim Turks' worship ofTengriand other gods was mocked and insulted by the Muslim TurkMahmud al-Kashgari, who wrote a verse referring to them –The Infidels – May God destroy them!
The Basmil, Yabāḳu and Uyghur states were among the Turkic peoples who fought against the Kara-Khanids spread of Islam. The Islamic Kara-Khanids were made out ofTukhsi, Yaghma, Çiğil and Karluk.
Kashgari claimed that the Prophet assisted in a miraculous event where 700,000 Yabāqu infidels were defeated by 40,000 Muslims led by Arslān Tegīn claiming that fires shot sparks from gates located on a green mountain towards the Yabāqu.The Yabaqu were a Turkic people.
Mahmud al-Kashgariinsulted the Uyghur Buddhists as "Uighur dogs" and called them "Tats", which referred to the "Uighur infidels" according to the Tuxsi and Taghma, while other Turks called Persians "tat".While Kashgari displayed a different attitude towards the Turks diviners beliefs and "national customs", he expressed towards Buddhism a hatred in his Diwan where he wrote the verse cycle on the war against Uighur Buddhists. Buddhist origin words like toyin (a cleric or priest) and Burxān or Furxan (meaning Buddha, acquiring the generic meaning of "idol" in the Turkic language of Kashgari) had negative connotations to Muslim Turks.
Mahmud al-Kashgariin hisDīwān Lughāt al-Turk, described a game called "tepuk" among Turks in Central Asia. In the game, people try to attack each other's castle by kicking a ball made of sheep leather.(see also:Cuju)
Kyz kuu(chase the girl) has been played by Turkic people at festivals since time immemorial.
Horses have been essential and even sacred animals for Turks living as nomadic tribes in the Central Asian steppes. Turks were born, grew up, lived, fought and died on horseback.Jereedbecame the most important sporting and ceremonial game of Turkish people.
Thekokparbegan with the nomadic Turkic peoples who have come from farther north and east spreading westward from China and Mongolia between the 10th and 15th centuries.
"jigit" is used in the Caucasus and Central Asia to describe a skillful and brave equestrian, or a brave person in general.
Images of Buddhist and ManicheanOld Uyghursfrom theBezeklik cavesandMogao grottoes.