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The content of the article consists of a generalization of the results of multidisciplinary research conducted using the graphic analytical method and the study of ancient anthroponymy and toponymy of Eurasia. To confirm the conclusions drawn during the research process, historical information, and data from archeology, anthropology, ethnography, geography, and other disciplines were used. The narration of this article begins with the substantiation of the Urheimat of the Proto-Turks in Transcaucasia in the area of Mount Ararat. The further history of the Turks continues in the steppes of the Azov and Black Sea regions, which ends with their expansion as carriers of Corded Ware cultures and the migration of most of them east towards Altai. The return of former CWC carriers to the steppes heralds the beginning of the Scythian period in history. The article contains links to 82 authors from different countries in Europe and Asia, as well as 11 illustrations, mainly maps. Genetics show that 80-90% of Y-chromosomes of the Bronze Age in Europe have counterparts in the steppe, i.e. they were brought by the Turks. The presence of the Turkic people in Western Europe is also confirmed by toponymy.. Most of the Turkic people who migrated from the steppes were men who married local women and had many children. The children were raised by their mothers in their language, so they learned their mothers' language better than their fathers.

The Turkic Languages, ed. L. Johanson, E. A. Csato, 1998

© 2013 Autorul volumului. Toate drepturile rezervate. Reproducerea integrală sau parţială a textului, prin orice mijloace, fără acordul autorului, este interzisă şi se pedepseşte conform legii.

2008

in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

Studia Orientalia Electronica, 2018

The Türk Khaganate and the ethnonym Türk have been used in modern nation-building processes among the Turkic-speaking peoples of Eurasia since the end of the nineteenth century. The historical importance of the name is exemplified by the country of Turkey today, the plan for a Turkic Republic in Central Asia in the 1920s, and the latest Kazak (Tatar) historiography after the fall of the Soviet Union. The study focuses on the meanings of Türk in the period of the Türk Khaganate (6th–8th centuries). Its first denotation is for an ethnic community or nationality, that is, a nomadic tribal confederation defined by use of the model of gens, including a common origin, language, and traditions with centuries of a stable political framework and the majority of society sharing common law. The second aspect of the usage of the term Türk, being political, referred to all peoples subject to the power of the Türk Khagan. After the fall of the Türk Khaganate, both meanings faded away due to the l...

Although being in special positions in Turkish Islamic communities, this triad was established at the beginning of the XX century, in general has affected the Turks of Turkey and Azerbaijan. This formula affects the social life of the two countries so much that in the establishment of the Republic of Azerbaijan in 1918, this factor was taken as the basis and reflected in the flag which is the state symbol. The formula became an ideological system that derives from its nature and political-philosophical sources. Modernization, which is second in the formula, has come a long way before others, as an imitation of Europe-Europeanization-modernization. At the beginning of the formation of the triad ("Turkization, Islamization, Europeanization"), Europeanization is located at the end, but in the last period (in the Azerbaijani option) is located in the second place as modernization. Moving forward from the third place to the second, the formula has acquired a new life and purpose. Turkism is the first principle of the formula and passes through the path of Turkish-Turkiation-Turkism. We have to say that we have many ideas and thoughts that most speak about the two main principles and the formation of them. Turkization, like other basic principles, did not occur suddenly, but it began to develop over time. The third principle of the formula of Islamization is the way to develop of Islam-Islamic nation-Islamic Union. But the reform of thought in the political life of the XIX century, the revolutions were influenced by the Islamic world, and the necessity of Islamic unity arises in search of new ideological associations. Thus, each basic principle of the triple formula passed through several stages of development: Turk-Turkism-Turkiation; Imitation of Europe-Europeanization-Innovation; Islam-Islamic nation-Islamic Union-Islamization. M.A.Rasulzadeh notices that these expressions were the first an idea and then used as a formula by the theorists. Z.Gokalp is one of these theorists. It is M.A.Rasulzadeh who formulated this idea theoretically in Azerbaijan. M.A.Rasulzadeh, a politican who has a political case in establishing the state, reflected the symbols he has created in his mind for years in the colors of the flag. Thus, a triple formula which passes through various stages (scientific, educator, theoretical, social, political) for fifty years by the activities of M.

In this study, I examine the evolution of the concept of the nation among Turkic-speakers in Eurasia between 1828 and 1917. I argue that although words such as "nation" and "fatherland" might have been imported from European sources, the meanings attached to them and their interaction with other sources of identity were largely local. I explore the flexibility and complexity of belonging and community prior to the October Revolution in both the Ottoman Empire and Tsarist Russia, and conclude that external pressures, including war and revolution, forced these otherwise amorphous identities to gel in the mold of European-style nations.

2018

Layout and typesetting: Hüseyin Yavuz (Ankara/Turkey)

Layout and typesetting: Hüseyin Yavuz

2017

The Geographical setting. The region comprises an area from the Volga-Ural zone to the northern borderlands of China. It includes the present day states of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, as well as the Tatarstan and Bashqortostan republics and western and southern Siberia in the Russian Federation, Mongolia as well as the Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang (Eastern Turkestan) autonomous regions in the People’s Republic of China.

“SMSR - Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni” (A-rated journal), n. 89/1, 2023

This is my "lateral" contribution to a monographic dossier concerning the legend of the Priester John. Many of the other contributions tell what the Western, Christian peoples "knew" about the peoples of the steppes and their relations with the imaginary clercyman-king. Hence the title of my paper, where I draw a sinthetic picture of their ancestral culture, from tengrism to totemism, from their matching colors and cardinal points to their ability in tapestry.

Speculum, 2017

2007

2024

The Turks are one of the oldest nations of the world, and there is evidence that they had established states very early in their history. The masses of the Turks living a nomadic life in the steppes had formed political structures diff erent from the state systems of settled societies, and we can call these "steppe states". The most important feature of the steppe states was that they did not have fi xed centers and ruled over expansive territories using their well-trained armies. Nomadic steppe states were unions of tribes. They were established not by settled states or cities, but by the gathering of nomads who had the power of war. A family with authority to rule ("kut" in ancient Turkic), which was received from God and could be held by legitimacy, established the state. The strength of the centralized structure depended on the ability to intervene in the remote corners of the state; otherwise, the dynamics of the steppe would bring about the rebellion of the connected tribes. The Turkic state existed in tribes formed by families connected to each other by blood kinship, and the state emerged from the tight, disciplined cooperation among these tribes. This gave the state a military character. Since the soldiers, horses and weapons were always ready for war, the expansion of the state was inevitable. Starting from the Huns until the 9th century, the center of these great states, which had a nomadic structure before Islam came onto the scene, was Ötüken, which was originally thought to be in the Orkhun Valley. After the 9th-10th centuries, Turkic states were established by Muslim horse warriors who combined urban and nomadic steppe traditions, making rich trade networks their political centers.

2008

in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

27.Historical Layers of the Central–Asian Turkic Ethnonymy. European Society for Central Asian Studies. Tenth Conference. Central Asia: Sharing Experiences and Prospects. September 12–15, 2007, Ankara, 2007

My paper aims at analysing some of the structural and semantic types of Central Asian Turkic ethnonyms. At the same time, I am going to attempt to identify the different historical layers of these types in terms of their structural and semantic features. The system of Turkic ethnonyms has been analysed in several studies by Gyula Németh, 1 N. A. Baskakov, 2 S. M. Abramzon, 3 D. E. Eremeev 4 and Ahmet Caferoğlu. 5 More than half a century ago, Gyula Németh, a Hungarian Turkologist, set up the following categories: 1. ethnonyms originating from toponyms, e.g. Yış-kişi, Ağaç-eri 'forest man'; 2. ethnonyms designating external features, e.g. Koyan-kulaklı 'rabbiteared', Kara-koylı 'having black sheep', Kara-kalpak 'black hat'; 3. ethnonyms designating inner features, e.g. Çuvaş 'calm, peaceful,' Kıpçak 'angry, irascible'; 4. ethnonyms with some other (!) meaning (Sabır, Bulğar, Kütäül, Çepni, etc.), such as titles, e.g. Çur, Yula, Kül-bäy, and meteorological phenomena, e.g. Qarluq, Buzlaq, etc. After Németh, D. E. Eremeev coupled semantical analysis with the study of grammatical features, classifying his data based on affixes as four groups: 1. ethnonyms ending in-Ar: Tatar, Hazar, Kangar, Bulgar, Kangar, Macar, Kabar, etc.; 2. ethnonyms ending ink ,-Ak/-Ik/-Uk: Kazak, Emek, Yürük, Kaltak, Caruk, etc.; 3. ethnonyms ending in-mAn: Kuman, Karaman, Akman, Besermen, etc.; and 4. ethnonyms ending in-t (Mongolian plural affix): Teleut, Telengit, Torgout, etc. In the wake of Eremeev's promising experiment, N. A. Baskakov dealt with the question in 1977 and set up structural and semantic types for ethnonyms, categorising them chronologically as well as emphasising the need for a many-sided analysis. However, as preliminary investigations and the first results are still missing, a strict classification has to be based on the (1) functional, (2) semantical and (3) structural aspects of the ethnonyms in question. The present paper adopts the basic elements of Baskakov's classification, while adding to it new categories and examples. The additional categories I suggest are also applicable to the classification of other types of proper names, such as personal and place names, since Turkic name-giving is based on uniform principles in more or less identical cultural and linguistic circumstances. General Notes on Turkic Ethnonyms According to Kuzeev, a three-grade system (confederation ← tribe ← clan) is typical of Turkic ethnonyms. 6 However, larger tribes may be divided into two to three, sometimes five, groups of clans which have many more clans and sub-clans of up to eleven levels (grades), as the example of the Tkm. tribe Ata shows-* The presentation was given at the conference European Society for Central Asian Studies. Tenth Conference. Central Asia: Sharing Experiences and Prospects. September 12-15, 2007, Ankara. A slightly revised version of it appears in print in the "Vásáry Festschrift", which is currently being published.

2013

As of the IVth century, the Turks were forced to leave their homeland in theTurkestan region due to various reasons including natural disasters, population increase, insufficient grazing lands, political disputes, severe external pressure andthe idea of world dominance. The Turkic tribes who departed from Asia towards thewest have asserted their dominance on the steppes of the northern Black Sea regionfor a long time. Especially after the arrival of the Huns to the region, numerous tribes had to leave their homeland, which led to the "Great Migration of thePeoples". Between the IVth and VIIth centuries, the Huns, Sabars, Carpathians,Ogur groups, Avars and Bulgars have founded great states in the large geography that also includes the Danube River basin. The Turks have continued their rule in Eastern Europe for a long time and made a great contribution to the transformationin the socio-cultural structure of the region. Since they found the Balkan Regionsuitable for their so...

Orientalia Suecana, 2025

Review of A Dictionary of Early Middle Turkic by Hendrik Boeschoten

2014

Central Asian and Turkic History Revisited. Not long ago, we entered a new millennium. Among Inner Asian Turkic populations, where societies are developing and growing with this new millennium, there is a search for cultural historical legacies with the aim of identifying features of nationhood or arriving at some related comprehension of belonging to a specific societal community. History means “past” – near past or remote past. Does this search for a cultural historical identity entail efforts to resuscitate, or revitalize, cultural features or patterns from the past? Is it possible to revive cultural patterns belonging to another era? The territory – the geographical area – is the same as it was in the past. Its inhabitants are people with memories and narrations of traditions and life among ancestors living on the same territory during long stretches of time. How is this past to be accessed and how is it to be interpreted by present-day man, in another era and in a world where people’s lives are lived in quite another fashion and under quite different conditions from those of bygone days? In a more general perspective, it is often stated by those who are cautious about traditions andlegacies that societies need to rest on history. If this is true and if societies do in fact need their history, why is this so and, furthermore, what is it that constitutes our knowledge of past times, our knowledge of our own past? How is historical knowledge created and how is it to be narrated in order to become historical knowledge for future generations? What is envisioned in historical narration and where do we look in order to find that which can be turned into historical knowledge? Finally, what may trigger revisions of such narration? These are questions central to the accounts offered in the following chapters of the present book. The need and search for cultural and historical images may seem to be determined and influenced to a considerable degree by current political circumstances at different levels – not least regional and other levels beyond the individual state. Some of the chapters focus on such synchronic circumstances rather than long-term historiographies. Nevertheless, whatever temporal settings and geographical extensions are chosen, all presentations are contributions to the study of nation building or – with the term used in one of the ensuing chapters – “nation branding”. The first two contributions to the present volume are accounts from broad regional and interregional perspectives drawing attention to current post-Soviet changes in terms of both political conditions and identity formation. The chapter On Oral History of the Soviet Past in Central Asia by Timur Dadabaev, Tsukuba University, addresses methodological issues relating to the question as to how new historiographies could also be shaped by common-man “lived” experiences elicited from personal memories of the Soviet past by elderly people who were once Soviet citizens living in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan. In her chapter, The Coverage of Central Asia in Turkey, the Turkish scholar Büşra Ersanlı from Marmara University, Istanbul, comments on the development and modifications of Turkey’s foreign policy towards the young ex-Soviet Central Asian states and the endeavors of this country to determine its role as one – and in many respects the leading – member of a large Turkic world where coordination and cooperation have gained greater potentials than ever before. Emre Gürbüz, Kyrgyzstan-Turkey Manas University, Bishkek, with his chapter titled In Search of New Historiographies for Ex-Soviet Turkic States, likewise includes Turkey in his survey of works on new history writing in Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan. This time the former country is contrasted to the latter three republics from the point of view of territoriality, which the author identifies as “one of the main characteristics of post-Soviet historiographies”. The three ex-Soviet republics under investigation are shown to base their claims on legitimacy as sovereign states on “conventional territorial understanding”, albeit under partly different socio-political legacies and, furthermore, with differing visions as to future objectives for their respective nation-states. The account of History-Writing and History-Making in Azerbaijan by Zaur Gasimov at the German Orient-Institut Istanbul could be read as a comment on such future objectives as regards one of these three states – Azerbaijan. The author offers a thorough survey of new trends in post-Soviet Azerbaijani history-writing with regard to both the choice of topics and interpretation as well as language (Azerbaijani rather than Russian) and style, although there amy be new obstacles and taboos due to present-day policies. From the perspective of “a post-modern world of images and influence”, Anita Sengupta, fellow of the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata, takes the Republic of Uzbekistan under scrutiny in a chapter subtitled The Politics of Nation Branding in Uzbekistan. There she writes that “modern nations are in actuality based on invented traditions and the continuous mobilization and adaptation of history” in order to “reposition themselves in a fluid globalizing world” and that “nation-state building is no longer an activity confined to the domestic arena”. The significance of language in sociopolitical development and nation building is highlighted in the remaining three chapters of this volume. Two of them focus on the language situation in Uzbekistan and the interdependence of language and identity formation, whereas the third chapter deals with language development in the late 19th-century Xinjiang. Rano Turaeva-Hoehne, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, refers to ethnographic fieldwork among Khorezmian migrants in Tashkent when commenting on the use of different linguistic codes “for communicating collective and social identities in a multiethnic context”, in her paper concerning Linguistic and Social Contradictions within Uzbek National Identity. In her chapter titled The Status of Uzbek as “National Language” the SRII Director Birgit N. Schlyter, Istanbul, examines the post-Soviet Uzbek state language from the point of view of three parameters – “distribution”, “corpus”, and “manifestation” – for an evaluation of the chances for this language to become a symbol of Uzbekistani national identity. In particular the third parameter is crucial relating to the “narrative capacity” of language and the loyalty towards a state or community through language. The author of Language and State in Late Qing Xinjiang, Eric T. Schluessel from Harvard University, wants to show how the very concept of language changed in the final years of Qing rule and writes that language “was conceived of not just as a system of varieties marking kinds of people, but as an instrument of reform and an institution of power”. He describes a rather complex language situation that could not be characterized merely in terms of one language community (Chinese) dominating another (Turki). For a general comment on the relationship between language and society, he finds it “useful to examine national identity and language attitudes as part of an ongoing process of negotiation between state and other actors promoting competing language regimes and linguistic institutions”. The authors of these chapters have all been participating in research work conducted within the framework of the Stockholm International Program for Central Asian Studies (SIPCAS). Their contributions originate from papers presented at conferences and workshops arranged or co-organized by SIPCAS for discussions of societal change and transformation in the wake of the Soviet demise. Issues of cultural historical legacies and nation-state legitimacy have been at the top of the agenda. As usual, the spelling of names and titles has been an intricate issue, the more so as variations are due to not only personal preferences but also the fact that different alphabets (e.g. Cyrillic or Latin for Azerbaijani names) may have been used for one and the same reference. There has been homogenization to a certain degree, especially in the spelling of scientific terms, linguistic and others (e.g. Kipchak, not Kypchak or Qipchaq). Moreover, American spelling has been chosen whenever there has been an option contrasting with a British alternative. In certain cases, on the other hand, the authors have been free to use a spelling of their own choice, independent of the spelling of the same word or name in another chapter (e.g. Uyghur in one chapter versus Uighur in another). The abovementioned SIPCAS program encourages and welcomes the participation of young researchers and students. During work on the manuscript of this volume much help was offered by Nina Lind while on a one-month internship at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul and by Azize Güneş, who was my assistant throughout the whole editing process and shared the proofreading of all chapters with me. It was a great pleasure to work with them, and I’m much obliged to their cautious efforts. Istanbul, May 2014 The Editor