TheTurco-Mongol orTurko-Mongol tradition was anethnocultural synthesis that arose in Asia during the 14th century among the ruling elites of theGolden Horde and theChagatai Khanate. The rulingMongol elites of these khanates eventually assimilated into theTurkic populations that they conquered and ruled over, thus becoming known asTurco-Mongols. These elites gradually adoptedIslam, as well asTurkic languages, while retaining Mongol political and legal institutions.[1]
The Turco-Mongols founded many Islamic successor states after the collapse of the Mongol khanates, such as theKazakh Khanate, theTatar khanates that succeeded the Golden Horde (e.g.,Crimean Khanate,Astrakhan Khanate,Khanate of Kazan), and theTimurid Empire, which succeeded theChagatai Khanate inCentral Asia.Babur (1483–1530), a Turco-Mongol prince and a descendant ofTimur, founded theMughal Empire, which ruled much of theIndian subcontinent.[2][3] The Turks and Tatars also ruled part ofEgypt, exercising political and military authority during theMamluk Sultanate.[4][5][6][7][8][9]
These Turco-Mongol elites became patrons of theTurco-Persian tradition, which was the predominant culture amongst the Muslims of Central Asia at the time. In subsequent centuries, the Turco-Persian culture was carried on further by the conquering Turco-Mongols to neighbouring regions, eventually becoming the predominant culture of a good part of the ruling and elite classes of South Asia (Indian subcontinent), specifically North India (Mughal Empire),Central Asia and theTarim Basin (Northwest China) and large parts of West Asia (Middle East).[10]
Before the time ofGenghis Khan, Turkic and Mongolic peoples exchanged words with each other, with Turkic languages being more active than Mongolic.[11][clarification needed] Extensive lexical borrowings fromProto-Turkic into theProto-Mongolic language occurred from at latest the first millennium BCE. Turkic andMongolic languages share extensive borrowed similarities in their personal pronouns, among other lexical similarities, which seem to date to before this era and already existed before the breakup of the Turkic people around 500 BCE.[11] A still more ancient period of prolonged language contact between Turkic and Mongol languages is indicated by further and more fundamental phonotactic, grammatical, and typological similarities (e.g. synchronicvowel harmony, lack ofgrammatical gender, extensiveagglutination, highly similarphonotactic rules andphonology).[11][original research?]
In the past, these similarities were attributed to a genetic relationship and led to the widespread acceptance of anAltaic language family. More recently, due to the lack of a definitive demonstration of a genetic relationship, these similarities have been divided into these three known periods of language contact. The similarities have led to the proposal of aNortheast Asian sprachbund instead, which also includes theTungusic,Koreanic, andJaponic language families, although Turkic and Mongolic display the most extensive similarities. According to recent aggregation and research, there aredoublets, which are considered to be the same in terms of their roots, found in the vocabulary in Mongolian language and Turkic loanwords. Also, words of Turkic origin are the most common loanwords in Mongolian vocabulary.[12]
Following the Mongol conquests, the ruling Mongol elites of the Mongol successor states began a process of assimilation with the non-Mongol populations that they ruled over. The population of theGolden Horde was largely a mixture ofTurks andMongols who adopted Islam later, as well as smaller numbers ofFinno-Ugric peoples,Alans,Slavs, and people from theCaucasus, among others (whether Muslim or not).[13][failed verification]
Most of the Horde's population was Turkic:Kipchaks,Cumans,Volga Bulgars,Khwarezmians, and others. The Horde was gradually Turkified and lost its Mongol identity, while the descendants ofBatu's original Mongol warriors constituted the upper class.[14][better source needed] They were commonly calledTatars by Russians and other Europeans. Russians preserved this common name for this group down to the 20th century. Whereas most members of this group identified themselves by their ethnic or tribal names, most also considered themselves to be Muslims. Most of the population, both sedentary and nomadic, adopted theKypchak language, which developed into the regional languages of Kypchak groups after the Horde disintegrated.
In theChagatai Khanate, the Turkic language that was adopted by the Mongol elites became known as theChagatai language, a descendant ofKarluk Turkic. The Chagatai language was the native language of theTimurid dynasty, a Turco-Mongol dynasty which gained power in Central Asia after the decline of the Chagatai khans. Chagatai is the predecessor of the modern Karluk branch of Turkic languages, which includesUzbek andUyghur.[15]
The Mongols during the period of the early Mongol conquests and the conquests of Genghis Khan largely followedTengrism. However, the successor states of the Mongol Empire, theIlkhanate, Golden Horde and Chagatai Khanate ruled over large Muslim populations. The Ilkhanate and Chagatai Khanate in particular ruled over Muslim-majority populations in Iran and Central Asia, respectively.[citation needed]
In the Golden Horde,Uzbeg (Öz-Beg) assumed the throne in 1313 and adopted Islam as thestate religion. He proscribed Buddhism and Shamanism among the Mongols in Russia, thus reversing the spread of the Yuan culture. By 1315, Uzbeg had successfully Islamicized the Horde, killingJochid princes and Buddhistlamas who opposed his religious policy and succession of the throne. Uzbeg Khan continued the alliance with theMamluks begun byBerke and his predecessors. He kept a friendly relationship with the Mamluk Sultan and his shadow Caliph inCairo. After a long delay and much discussion, he married a princess from his family toAl-Nasir Muhammad,Sultan of Egypt. Under Uzbeg and his successorJani Beg (1342–1357), Islam, which among some of the Turks in Eurasia had deep roots going back into pre-Mongol times, gained general acceptance, though its adherents remained tolerant of other beliefs.[citation needed]
In order to successfully expand Islam, the Mongols built mosques and other "elaborate places" requiring baths—an important element of Muslim culture. Sarai attracted merchants from other countries. The slave trade flourished due to strengthening ties with theMamluk Sultanate. Growth of wealth and increasing demand for products typically produce population growth, and so it was with Sarai. Housing in the region increased, which transformed the capital into the centre of a large Muslim Sultanate.[citation needed]
In the Chagatai Khanate,Mubarak Shah converted to Islam, and over time, the Chagatai elite became entirely Islamized. The Chagatai Khanate was succeeded by theTimurid Empire in Central Asia, founded by the Turco-Mongol warrior Timur. According toJohn Joseph Saunders, Timur was "the product of an Islamized and Iranized society", and not steppe nomadic.[16] To legitimize his conquests, Timur relied on Islamic symbols and language, referred to himself as the "Sword of Islam", and patronized educational and religious institutions. He converted nearly all theBorjigin leaders to Islam during his lifetime. Timur decisively defeated the ChristianKnights Hospitaller at theSiege of Smyrna, styling himself aghazi.[17]
In theGolden Horde, especially during the reign ofÖzbeg Khan, a significant process of Turkification occurred among theMongols living in the ulus. The secretary of the Egyptian sultan, Ibn Fadlallah al-Umari, explicitly described this process, stating:
"In ancient times, this state (theGolden Horde) was the land of theKipchaks, but when it was conquered by the Tatars, the Kipchaks became their subjects. Later, as the Tatars intermingled and intermarried with them, the land itself overcame the original qualities and racial characteristics of the Tatars. All of them became exactly like Kipchaks, as if they were of the same stock. The Mongols settled in the land of the Kipchaks and remained there among them. Thus, long habitation in a land alters human nature and changes one's inherent features according to the nature of the country, as we said before."[18][19]
A similar perspective was expressed in the 18th century byJohann Eberhard Fischer, who described the Tatars as "the most populous among all Turkic peoples," and explained:
"That the name 'Tatar' later prevailed and became confused with the Mongols may be due to the fact that the Tatars, after being united under Genghis Khan's rule, served in his and his successors' armies in much greater numbers than the Mongols themselves. This can be concluded from the fact that in all those conquered lands, which previously had their own languages and were unfamiliar with either the Mongol or Tatar tongues, only the Tatar language came into use, while Mongolian disappeared. This would not have happened if the Tatars had not greatly outnumbered the Mongols."[20]
The Soviet MongolistBoris Vladimirtsov also emphasized that "the Mongols who moved westward were quickly Turkified and generally assimilated into the surrounding ethnographic environment, which was more or less akin to them." However, he added that inCentral Asia the process of adopting "Muslim" culture by the Mongols proceeded more slowly than inPersia, due to their close proximity to other ethnically related Turkic nomads.[21]
Translation cited in "Sbornik materialov", p. 250–251
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