 Enthroned figure usually identified as the last Oghuz TurkSeljuk Empire rulerTughril III (1176–1194), fromRayy,Iran.Philadelphia Museum of Art.[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Central Asia,South Caucasus,Middle East | |
| Languages | |
| Oghuz Turkic (Azerbaijani · Turkmen · Turkish) | |
| Religion | |
| PredominantlyIslam (Sunni · Alevi · Bektashi · Twelver Shia) | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| OtherTurkic people |
Turkoman, also known asTurcoman[note 1] (English:/ˈtɜːrkəmən/),[2] was a term for the people ofOghuz Turkic origin, widely used during theMiddle Ages. Oghuz Turks were a westernTurkic people that, in the 8th century A.D, formed atribal confederation in an area between theAral andCaspian seas inCentral Asia, and spoke theOghuz branch of theTurkic language family. Today, much of the populations ofTurkey,Azerbaijan andTurkmenistan are direct descendants of Oghuz Turks once called Turkomans.[3][4]
Turkmen, originally anexonym, dates from theHigh Middle Ages, along with the ancient and familiar name "Turk" (türk), and tribal names such as "Bayat", "Bayandur", "Afshar", and "Kayi". By the 10th century,Islamic sources were referring to Oghuz Turks asMuslim Turkmens, as opposed toTengrist orBuddhist Turks. It entered into the usage of theWestern world through theByzantines in the 12th century, since by that time Oghuz Turks were overwhelmingly Muslim. Later, the term "Oghuz" was gradually supplanted by "Turkmen" among Oghuz Turks themselves, thus turning an exonym into anendonym, a process which was completed by the beginning of the 13th century.
InAnatolia, since theLate Middle Ages, "Turkmen" was superseded by the term "Ottoman", which came from the name of theOttoman Empire and itsruling dynasty. It remains as an endonym of the semi-nomadic tribes of theTerekeme, asub-ethnic group of theAzerbaijani people.
Today, a significant percentage of residents ofAzerbaijan,Turkey, andTurkmenistan are descendants of Oghuz Turks (Turkmens), and the languages they speak belong to theOghuz group of theTurkic language family. As of the early 21st century, this ethnonym is still used by theTurkmens ofCentral Asia,[5] the main population of Turkmenistan, who have sizeable groups in Iran, Afghanistan and Russia, as well asIraqi andSyrian Turkmens, the other descendants of Oghuz Turks.
The current majority view for the etymology of the ethnonymTürkmen orTurcoman is that it comes fromTürk and the Turkic emphatic suffix-men, meaning 'most Turkic of the Turks' or 'pure-blooded Turks'.[6] Afolk etymology, dating back to the Middle Ages and found inal-Biruni andMahmud al-Kashgari, instead derives the suffix-men from thePersian suffix-mānind, with the resulting word meaning 'like a Turk'. While formerly the dominant etymology in modern scholarship, this mixed Turkic-Persian derivation is now viewed as incorrect.[7]
The first-known mention of the term "Turkmen", "Turkman" or "Turkoman" occurs near the end of the 10th century A.D inIslamic literature by the Arab geographeral-Muqaddasi inAhsan Al-Taqasim Fi Ma'rifat Al-Aqalim. In his work, which was completed in 987 A.D, al-Muqaddasi writes about Turkmens twice while depicting the region as the frontier of the Muslim possessions in Central Asia.[8] According to medievalIslamic authorsAl-Biruni andal-Marwazi, the term Turkmen referred to the Oghuz who converted to Islam.[9] There is evidence, however, that non-Oghuz Turks such asKarluks also have been called Turkomans andTurkmens; Kafesoğlu (1958) proposes that Türkmen might be the Karluks' equivalent of the Göktürks' political term Kök Türk.[10][11] Later during the Middle Ages, the term was extensively employed for Oghuz Turks, a western Turkic people, who established a large tribal confederation called Oghuz Yabgu in the 8th century A.D. This polity, whose inhabitants spoke Oghuz Turkic, occupied an area between the Aral and Caspian seas in Central Asia.[12][13]
The Seljuqs appeared in the beginning of the 11th century inMawarannahr.[14] Muslim Oghuz people, generally identified as Turkmens by then,[15] rallied around theQinik tribe that made up the core of the future Seljuq tribal union and thestate they would create in the 11th century.[16]
Since theSeljuk era, the sultans of the dynasty created military settlements in parts of theNear andMiddle East to strengthen their power; large Turkmen settlements were created inSyria,Iraq, and EasternAnatolia. After theBattle of Manzikert, the Oghuz extensively settled throughout Anatolia andAzerbaijan. In the 11th century, Turkmens densely populatedArran.[17] The 12th-centuryPersian writeral-Marwazi wrote about the arrival of Turkmens to Muslim lands, portraying them as people of noble character who are strong and persistent in battle because of their nomadic lifestyle, and calling themsultans (rulers).[18]
"Turkoman" entered into the usage of the Western world through the Byzantines in the 12th century.[19] By the beginning of 13th century, it became an endonym among Oghuz Turks themselves.[20]
The Turkmens also included theYiva and Bayandur tribes, from which the ruling clans of the states ofQara Qoyunlu andAq Qoyunlu emerged. After the fall of Aq Qoyunlu, the Turkmen tribes—partly under their own name, for exampleAfshars, Hajilu, Pornak, Deger, and Mavsellu—united in a TurkmenQizilbash tribal confederation.[21]
By the 10th century A.D, Turkmens were predominantly Muslim. They later found themselves divided intoSunni andShia branches of Islam.[22] Medieval Turkmens markedly contributed to the expansion of Islam with their extensive conquests of previouslyChristian lands, specifically those ofByzantine Anatolia and theCaucasus.[23]
Turkmens primarily spoke languages that belong or belonged to the Oghuz branch ofTurkic languages, which included such languages and dialects asSeljuq,Old Anatolian Turkish, and oldOttoman Turkish.[24] Kashgari had cited phonetic, lexical and grammatical features of the language of Oghuz-Turkmens;[25] he also identified several dialects and presented a couple of examples displaying the differences.[26]
Old Anatolian language, introduced toAnatolia by Seljuk Turkmens[27][28] who migrated westward from Central Asia toKhorasan and further to Anatolia during the Seljuk expansion in the 11th century, was widely spoken by Turkmens of the area until the 15th century.[29] It is also one of the known ancient languages within the Oghuz group of Turkic languages, along with old Ottoman.[30] It displays certain characteristics peculiar to eastern Oghuz languages such as modernTurkmen andKhorasani Turkic languages,[31][32] rather than western Oghuz languages such asTurkish orAzerbaijani. Such Old Anatolian Turkic features as bol- 'to be(come)', also present in modern Turkmen[33] and Khorasani Turkic,[34] isol in modernTurkish.[35]
TheBook of Dede Korkut is considered an Oghuz masterpiece.[36][37] Other prominent works of literature produced during the High Middle Ages also include theOghuzname,Battalname,Danishmendname,Köroğlu epics, which are part of the literary history of Azerbaijanis, Turks of Turkey, and Turkmens.[38]
TheBook of Dede Korkut is a collection of epics and stories bearing witness to the language, the way of life, religions, traditions and social norms of the Oghuz Turks.[39]
In Anatolia in thelate Middle Ages, the term "Turkmen" was gradually supplanted by the term "Ottomans".[40] The Ottoman ruling class identified themselves as Ottomans until the 19th century.[41] In the late 19th century, as the Ottomans adoptedEuropean ideas ofnationalism, they preferred to return to a more common termTurk instead ofTurkmen, whereas previouslyTurk was used to exclusively refer to Anatolian peasants.[42]
The term continued to be used interchangeably with other ethnohistorical terms for the Turkic people of the area, including Turk,Tatar andAjam, well into the early 20th century.[43][44][45] In the early 21st century, "Turkmen" remains as the self-name for the semi-nomadic tribes of theTerekime, a sub-ethnic group of theAzerbaijani people.[46]
In the early 21st century, the ethnonyms "Turkoman" and "Turkmen" are still used by theTurkmens ofTurkmenistan,[47] who have sizeable groups inIran,[48][49] Afghanistan,[50] Russia,[51] Uzbekistan,[52]Tajikistan[53] andPakistan,[54] as well asIraqi andSyrian Turkmens, descendants of the Oghuz Turks who mostly adhere to an AnatolianTurkish heritage and identity.[55] Most Iraqi and Syrian Turkmens are descendants of Ottoman soldiers, traders, and civil servants who were taken into Iraq from Anatolia during the rule of the Ottoman Empire.[56]Turks of Israel[57] andLebanon,[58] Turkish sub-ethnic groups ofYoruks,[59][60]Karapapaks (sub-ethnic group of Azerbaijanis)[61] are also referred to as Turkmens.[62][63]
"Turkoman", "Turkmen", "Turkman" and "Torkaman" were – and continue to be – used interchangeably.[64][65][66]
| Name | Years | Map | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seljuq Empire | 1037–1194 | .png) | |
| Ahmadilis | 1122–1225 | – | – |
| Salghurids | 1148–1282 | – |
|
| Zengids | 1127–1250 |  | – |
| Ottoman Empire | c. 1299–1922 |  | Founded by Turkoman tribal leaderOsman I. |
| Qara Qoyunlu | 1374–1468 |  |
|
| Aq Qoyunlu | 1378–1508 |  |
|
| Safavid Iran | 1501–1736 |  |
|
| Qutb Shahi dynasty | 1518–1687 |  |
|
| Afsharid Iran | 1736–1796 |  |
|
| Qajar Iran | 1789-1925 |  | |
Turkomans also founded many small states inAnatolia and neighboring regions, originally one of them, the Ottomans, turned into an empire. SeeAnatolian beyliks. | |||
The ruler is usually identified as Sultan Tughril III of Iraq (r. 1176–94), who was killed near Rayy and buried there (Mujmal al-tavārīkh 2001, p. 465). Pope (Pope and Ackerman, eds. 1938–39, vol. 2, p. 1306) and Wiet (1932b, pp. 71–72) wrote Tughril II but intended Tughril III.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link)One of those dialects appears to have been spoken by the Karluk Turkmen, who were identified by Kashgari as "A tribe of the Turks. They are nomads, not Oghuz, but they are also Turkmen."
Whatever the former significance of the Oghuz people in the Eastern Asia, after the events of the 8th and 9th centuries, it focuses more and more on the West, on the border of the Pre-Asian cultural world, which was destined to be invaded by the Oghuz people in the 11th century, or, as they were called only in the west, by the Turkmen.
The Seljuks emerged in the beginning of the 11th century in Transoxania (present-day Uzbekistan). Until the early 14th century, they ruled over Khorasan, Khwarezm, Iran, Iraq, Hejaz, Syria, and Anatolia.
Selim was a devout Sunni who hated the Shia as much as Ismail despised the Sunni. He saw the Shia Turkman of Anatolia as a potential "fifth column"...
Turkmen, Iraqi citizens of Turkish origin, are the third largest ethnic group in Iraq after Arabs and Kurds and they are said to number about 3 million of Iraq's 34.7 million citizens according to the Iraqi Ministry of Planning.
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