Chapter 7: The Turkish Civilization

Introduction

Turkistan, Turkey, Turkmen, Turko-Mongol, Xiongnu, Oghuz, Kirghiz, Mamluk, Ottoman, Karakhanid, Seljuk, and Uighur are all people, places, and states associated with Turks. Turk refers to a people that originated in the harsh north Central Asian steppes and moved mainly to the south and west for various reasons over the centuries. Like other nomads, Turks were comprised of various tribes with similar customs, traditions, and beliefs. They may have had different names and, because of dynamic alliances, fought each other for control over lands they were sharing. They interacted with Mongols, Chinese and Persian speaking people. As they moved further west into Caucasia and the Black Sea region, they interacted with the Russians, other Slavs, the Arabs, the Greeks, the Armenians, the Bulgarians, the Macedonians, the Albanians, the Serbs, the Croatians, the Bosnians and the Hungarians.

Turkish refers to the language that the Turks speak, especially in Turkey and other lands that were ruled by the Ottoman Empire. Arabic has had a significant influence, as the Turks borrowed many words since they were introduced to Islam and became adherents. However, Persian has had the heaviest influence on Turkish, since Central Asia for the longest time was a dual-language realm. Later, starting with the eighteenth century, as the Ottomans tried to reform themselves to catch up with the European powers, they borrowed many scientific and related words from Western languages, especially from French. Turkish also refers to the citizens of modern Republic of Turkey.

Turkic is generally used to characterize the five Central Asian countries that were formed following the collapse of the Soviet Union, namely Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Azerbaijan. However, it also refers to the language, culture, and traditions of all people of Turkish origin. Tajikistan is sometimes also grouped together with these Turkic countries; however, Tajiks are descendants of the Persian-speaking peoples of Transoxiana and hence are ethnically and linguistically more Persian than Turkic. The language spoken in Azerbaijan is called Azeri Turkish as it is very similar to the Turkish spoken in Turkey. The same can be argued about the language in Turkmenistan. Kazakh and Kyrgyz fall into the Kipchak Turkic family. Mongolian has influenced the latter two Turkic families. Russian has also influenced all these Turkic languages except Uighur since the Russian Empire. These Turkic peoples – Azeris, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Uzbek and Turkmen – were Russian subjects until the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 at which point they were incorporated into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

The Origin of Turkish Civilization

That is why the Turks have not used the writing system due to the nomadic way of life for a long time, it is too difficult to study the early periods of Turkish civilization. Historians believe that the Xiongnu , or Asiatic Huns, identified by the Chinese in third century BCE, is the precursor of the Turks. They were nomadic people and their leader was called Kut-u (holy) Shan-yu (emperor). Two kings of east and west served under the emperor and were called “tu-chi”. Chinese kingdoms were fighting with the Xiongnu’s army, who have skillful warriors and heavy wheeled forces.

The first notable leader of the Xiongnu was Teoman. He fought the Chinese and the Yuezhi people. Around 215 BCE, China started unifying and it completed the Great Wall to keep territory recently conquered and to advance further north and west. Touman’s son Modun became the leader in 209 BCE and was successful in subduing many other nomadic peoples. He then invaded China and laid siege to the capital Taiyuan. In 198 BCE, Modun signed a peace treaty with China and was recognized as having equal status with the Chinese emperor. To preserve peace, China had to send many royal princesses and gifts such as silk and other textiles over the years. By 176 BCE, Modun declared himself the leader of all nomads. The Great Wall served as the border between two big powers. Around 130 BC, Chinese took control over the region again and this helped establish a more stable Silk Road. By 59 BCE, Xiongnu divided into two and the northern half started moving further north and west, away from China. The northern Xiongnu tribes would later be called the Huns.

The last Turkic Kingdom to rule Northern China was the Tabgach. Under their first leader, named Toba Kuei, they captured many cities starting in 386 CE and established Pingcheng as their capital. Tabgach completed the unification of Northern China under one kingdom. The last strong Tabgach leader was Queen Hu, who ruled energetically from 515 to 528.

Huns first defeated the Alans, then the Ostrogoths. Next, the Visigoths ran for their lives, crossed the Danube River and invaded Roman territory. Around 425 CE, Huns were ruled by three brothers: Ruas, Mundzuk, and Oktar. Mundzuk’s sons Bleda and Attila assumed power around 434. Attila declared war on the Eastern Roman Empire, the Byzantines. He conquered major cities south of the Danube River. Then Attila turned his attention to the West. He allied with some Germanic peoples and attacked the Roman Gaul in June of 451. His main target was Rome. Atilla attacked to Rome and Rome had to pay a large tribute and Attila took a Roman princess, Honoria, as bride. When Attila died in 453 CE, the European Hun Empire extended from north of the Caspian Sea to the Adriatic Sea. After Attila’s death, the Huns began to weak and they had to withdraw to the northeast of the Black Sea. At the end of the sixth century Avar Turks appeared and this group were called later as The Kok Turk (Göktürk) Empire, founder of which was Bumin Khagan. His brother Istemi Khagan formed an empire that extended from Manchuria to the Black Sea. This was the first empire that covered the Eurasian steppes and linked East Asia with Europe.

The first mention of Turks in the Chinese sources is by Tujue in the sixth century CE. Tujue is the Chinese transcription for the Mongolian word Turkut, plural of Turk, which literally means strong. There are several myths recorded in Chinese sources as to the origins of the Turks like Ergenekon. And Turks would establish many more states and empires over the centuries.

The Major Events in Turkish Civilization and Timeline

The Eastern Kok Turk Empire could not last longer and it fell in 630. At the same time, the Western Kok Turk Empire continued its expansion south, all the way to southern Afghanistan. It took the Turks five decades of struggle to revive the Eastern Kok Turk Empire under Ilterish Kutlugh Khagan with his chief advisor Tonyukuk in 682. The second Eastern Kok Turk Empire lasted until 744 when it collapsed due to infighting and by the emergence of another Turkic Empire, the Uighurs. By this time, Arab armies had conquered Iran and were making incursions into Transoxiana. China was pressing from the East and the Sogdians, the Turks and even the Tibetans were all fighting and/or making alliances for the control of Central Asia.

Uighurs established a large empire centered in Xinjiang and Mongolia and extending into Siberia, China, and Transoxiana. The founder Qutlugh Bilge Kul Khagan was supported by a tribal confederation called Toquz Oghuz. Uighurs were different from the Kok Turks in that they built cities, including their capital Ordu Baliq in 757. The Uighur Empire lasted almost a century and ended after long wars with the Tibetans and the Kyrgyz.

Around the time the Uighur Empire replaced the Eastern Kok Turk Empire on the eastern side of Central Asia, the Qarluqs declared independence from the Uighurs, moved west, and assumed rulership over the former Western Kok Turk Empire lands. In the inevitable clash between the Chinese on the East and the Arabs on the West. the Qarluqs allied with the Arabs during the Battle of Talas in 751. This propelled the Arabs to a decisive victory over the Chinese. Turks were introduced to Islam around the eighth century and became Muslims at an increasing rate by the eleventh century and established control over Islamic lands. Following the Qarluqs, the Oghuz tribes became dominant in Transoxiana. This occurred when they pushed the Pechenegs west, to the north shores of the Black Sea.

The Kyrgyz Empire was centered around the Yenisei river as opposed to the Orkhon and Selenge river areas previously occupied. the Kyrgyz state focused more on commercial trading and lasted until around 900 CE.

Another Turkic empire was the Khazar Khanate, which ruled North Caucasia, the Ukraine, and southern Russia. It arose from the ashes of the Western Kok Turk Empire around the 640s. In addition to fighting for a long time with the Arabs, the Khazars defeated the Bulgars in the Ukraine steppes and pushed them into the Balkans around 680. Around the beginning of the ninth century, the Khazar Khanate and its ruling tribes converted to Judaism.

It is worth mentioning that tenth and eleventh centuries saw the rise of Mongolic Qitans. Due to various reasons many Turkic tribes started migrating west. Because of these migrations, Mongolia, for the first time in history, had a majority Mongolian-speaking population. However this movement accelerated Turkification of the western part of Central Asia. One of these Turkic peoples was the Qarakhanids, who appeared in the late tenth century. Saltuq Bughra Khan was also the first Turkic leader to convert to Islam and a majority of the population in his realm followed his decision. This led to the first Muslim Turkic empire. A second Muslim Turkic empire was started around the same time by Alp Tigin in Ghazni. The Ghaznavids used firstly the elephants in the army. Mahmud’s son Masud lost the Battle of Dandanaqan against the Seljuks in 1040, retreated from Khorasan back into Afghanistan and the Ghaznavid Empire collapsed During the second quarter of the tenth century, Oghuz tribesmen started moving south because of harassment by the Kipchaks.

During the second quarter of the tenth century, Oghuz tribesmen started moving south because of harassment by the Kipchaks. Traveling north of the Black Sea, they invaded the Balkans, but they were crushed by the Byzantines in 1065. Hailing from the Qiniq tribe of the Oghuz, Seljuk and his sons occupied Jand on the Syr Darya River. Seljuk and his tribe sided briefly with the Samanids. Under Arslan Yabgu they were loyal to Mahmoud the Ghaznavid. As soon as Mahmoud died, the Seljuks rebelled against his son Masud.

Seljuk’s grandsons from his son Mikail, Tughrul and Chaghri, moved to Khorasan and conquered Nishapur in 1038. Tughrul had the khutba pronounced in his name there. With the help of other Oghuz tribes, the two brothers defeated the Ghaznavids near Merv in 1040. In a very short time, they were ruling an empire that stretched from Khwarazm, to Transcaucasia, including most of Iran, Tebriz and Ganja.Seljuks now found themselves the rulers of the Islamic world. The Abbasid Caliph Al-Qaim invited Tughrul to Baghdad in 1055 and recognized him as Sultan, King of East and West. Tughrul’s successor, Chaghri’s son Alp Arslan, dealt with two rebellions as soon as he assumed power. In the fateful Battle of Manzikert (Malazgirt) in 1071, he defeated the Byzantines. Byzantine Empire had lost control of most of Anatolia for good and there was no obstacle left to prevent the conquest and settlement of Anatolia by the Turks. Alp Arslan obtained great help administering the vast empire from Nizam al-Mulk, his chief minister of Persian descent. Seljuks in general left the Arabo-Persian bureaucracy intact. Alp Arslan’s son Malikshah ascended to the throne in 1072 and soon after established authority over the Qarakhanids to the northeast. The Great Seljuk Empire now ruled most of the lands in the Middle East and Central Asia. An offshoot of the Great Seljuk Empire was started by Malikshah’s cousin, Suleiman. Suleiman took Nicaea and Nicomedia from the Byzantines and established Nicaea as his capital in 1077. Suleiman’s son Kilij Arslan conquered Konya in 1092 and made it the capital of the Anatolian Seljuk Sultanate. Following Malikshah’s death in 1092, his son Barkiyaruk faced rebellions in all corners of the empire and the Seljukids lost control of Anatolia permanently.

His namesake Kilij Arslan II defeated the Byzantines at the Battle of Myriokephalon in 1176, ending any Byzantine contest for the control of Anatolia for good. With the fall of the Anatolian Seljuk Sultanate and loose Mongolian control, various Turk statelets were formed across Anatolia. Tughrul III re-established some authority only to be run over by the Khwarazmian Turks in 1194. As the thirteenth century opened, Temujin had unified all Mongolian tribes under one flag. He was declared Genghis Khan in a quriltai in 1206. And then they established a vast empire. Mongol conquests continued during the reigns of Genghis’s sons and grandsons. The result was the largest land empire in history. The Anatolian Seljuk Sultanate fell victim to the Mongol Army in Kosedag in 1243. Mongolian control over Eurasia lasted until mid1300s.

One such statelet was headed by Osman Beg at the northwest side of Anatolia bordering the remaining Byzantine lands surrounding its capital Constantinople. Ottomans were ready to expand both in Asia and Europe. In the Balkans, many peoples -- such as the Bulgarians, the Greeks, the Albanians, the Macedonians, and the Romanians -- all became Ottoman subjects. That dramatic event finally happened in 1453 with Mehmed II, The Conqueror, as the young Ottoman Sultan. This was a major turning point. Not only did the Ottoman state gain legitimacy in Europe, but also the Turks gained a permanent foothold in that continent. Mehmed II subdued both the Serbs and the Bosnians, then eliminated a threat on the East by defeating the Akkoyunlu leader Uzun Hasan at the Battle of Otlukbeli in 1473.

The Ottoman Empire reached its peak for power and supremacy during the sixteenth century. Selim I defeated the Safavids at the Battle of Chaldiran (1512) and then the Mamluks at the Battles of Marj Dabiq (1516) and Ridaniya (1517). His son, Suleiman, solidified control in the Middle East and expanded the Empire in Europe by conquering Hungary after the Battle of Mohacs (1526). The Ottoman Navy was very successful in the Mediterranean and was the most crucial factor in making sure that the Ottomans controlled the entire North African shore all the way to Morocco. Between the mid-sixteenth century and the mid-eighteenth century, a traveler starting at the outskirts of Vienna would have passed through numerous lands and meet various peoples ruled by these three Turkish Empires as he made his way to the Bay of Bengal. Ottomans entered the seventeenth century with some economic problems. The Ottomans continued to win victories, but the expansion of the territories under the control of the empire slowed down. But ominous clouds appeared in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They spelled trouble for the supremacy of the Ottomans. The eighteenth century started with victory against Russia in the Pruth River Campaign in 1711. The Austrians were soon on the offensive. They invaded Serbia and forced the Ottomans to sign the Passarowitz Treaty in 1718. In the next round of campaigns, the Ottomans found themselves fighting against the Austrians and the Russians at the same time. Austria and Russia left the Ottomans alone for a while, as they had to deal with a new rising power: Prussia.

Yet, starting with the late eighteenth century, the Ottomans had an increasingly harder time keeping up with the industrial and military progress in Europe. his was undoubtedly proven in losses against the Russians, which culminated in the Treaty of Kucuk Kaynarca in 1774. The Ottomans had to give Russians the authority to interfere in their internal affairs with the Christian Orthodox subjects of the empire. Because of the moves of the European powers and the nationalistic aspirations of the peoples under Ottoman rule, the Empire gradually lost almost all the lands it held in Europe and Africa.

World War I (1914-1918) resulted in losing control of the Middle East. The invasion of Anatolia and the occupation of Istanbul by the allied powers (United Kingdom, France, Italy) and later Greece, followed. Yet, the Turks united under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) and they won the War of Independence (1919-1922), establishing the Republic of Turkey on October 29, 1923. That same year, Ataturk was elected as the first president. Atatürk instituted reforms to modernize Turkey by modern law sytem, granting to woman equal right, changing of alphabet, etc.

Mustafa Kemal, who received the last name Atatürk in 1934, passed away on November 10, 1938. His comrade from the War of Independence and his prime minister for years, Ismet Inonu, became the president. Inonu continued with the reforms amid the pressures put on by the Second World War (1939-1945).

Advancements in politics continued after Atatürk’s passing; for example, in 1946 the multi-party system was introduced permanently. Republican People’s Party, founded by Ataturk and led by Ismet Inonu, won the first democratic-style election by participation of the two main political parties with Celal Bayar in charge of the opposition Democratic Party. Turkish democracy experienced military coups in 1960, 1971, and 1980. The Turkish Army took control of state affairs. Around the late sixties and early seventies, tension arose with one of Turkey’s neighboring countries, Greece. On the island of Cyprus, a coup took place in 1974 that was backed by the Greeks. As a result, Cypriot Turks under the leadership of Rauf Denktash established the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus on November 15, 1983.

Turkey is attempting to join the European Union. It is a charter member of the United Nations and an early member of North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. It is also a founding member of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Group of 20 (G-20).

The Culture of the Turkish Civilization

Turks over the centuries absorbed many of the traditions and institutions of cultures in the regions they conquered, and they also modified them by adding new dimensions. Numerous cultural traditions including literature, architecture, cuisine, music, other arts, leisure, and government were adopted by the Ottoman Turks, who molded them into new forms, coming up with a distinctively Ottoman cultural identity. Throughout the years of the past century, while forming a stable government and military, the new Republic of Turkey has picked up and modernized its own unique Eurasian culture.

The Culture of the Turkish Civilization

From pastoral nomads in the steppes of Upper Central Asia to city-dwellers of today, the society of the Turks has transformed immensely. Starting with Turko-Mongol roots in the tough terrain touching the Siberian forests, picking up assorted traditions of settled peoples such as the Chinese and the Arabo-Persians, and finally adding some finishing touches from Western Europe or Russia, each Turkic society has gone through its own processes of Islamization, adopting to settled life and modernization.