Martin Theodoor Houtsma

“ Ethnological affinities. But, though Turkish tribes did wander so far to the west, and even farther, in remote antiquity, it seems pretty certain that the Uigurian tradition has preserved the memory of the true origin of the race, that Turks and Mongols were originally different stems of a single people, and that these two members of the Ural-Altaic (q.v.) family were more closely related to each other than to any other member of the same family (Finnollgrians, Samoyedes, Tungus-Manchus) . ”

“ Masūd fell, probably about 1295, a victim to the vengeance of one of the amirs, whose father he had ordered to be put to death. After him Kaikobād, son of his brother Farāmarz, entered Konia as sultan in 1298, but his reign is so obscure that nothing can be said of it; some authors assert that he governed only till 1300, others till 1315. With him ended the dynasty of the Seljūks; but the Turkish empire founded by them continued to exist under the rising dynasty of the Ottomans. ”

“ The Turkmans are, with few exceptions, nomads, and were formerly the terror of their neighbours, who feared them as the "man-stealing Turks"; but since Merv has been annexed to Russia (1884) they have been compelled to abandon their predatory habits. [15] (VI.) The Turkish nomads scattered throughout Persia are partly the descendants of the Ghuzz tribes that invaded the country at the Seljukian period; others have migrated thither in the following centuries. ”

“ All the members of the Seljūk house had the same obligations in this respect, but they had not the same rights, as one of them occupied relatively to the others a place almost analogous to that of the great khān of the Mongols in later times. This position was inherited from father to son, though the old Turkish idea of the rights of the elder brother often caused rebellions and violent family disputes. After the death of Malik Shāh the head of the family was not strong enough to enforce obedience, and consequently the central government broke up into several independent dynasties. ”

“ During his reign—he died in 1155—the Greek emperors undertook various expeditions in Asia Minor and Armenia; but the Seljūk was cunning enough to profess himself their ally and to direct them against his own enemies. Nevertheless the Seljūkian dominion was petty and unimportant and did not rise to significance till his son and successor, Kilij Arslān II., had subdued the Danishmands and appropriated their possessions, though he thereby risked the wrath of the powerful atabeg of Syria, Nureddin, and afterwards that of Saladin. ”

“ The fate of the Turks of Transoxiana was shared by their brethren in Asia and Europe, and new Mongol-Turkish empires arose, of which an outline has been given under MONGOLS. As the Mongol rule grew weaker, there arose in Persia and on the frontiers of Asia Minor the Turkman dynasties of the Ak Koyun-lu, the Kara Koyun-lu, the Zu 1-kadria, and the Ramazan Oglu, whose history is closely connected either with that of the rise of the Ottoman power (see below) or with the history of PERSIA (see vol. xviii. p. 632 s j.) ”

“ Malik Shāh, the son and successor of Alp Arslān, had to encounter his uncle Kāvurd, founder of the Seljūkian empire of Kermān (see below) , who claimed to succeed Alp Arslān in accordance with the Turkish laws, and led his troops towards Hamadān. However, he lost the battle that ensued, and the bowstring put an end to his life (1073) . Malik Shāh regulated also the affairs of Asia Minor and Syria, conceding the latter province as an hereditary fief to his brother Tutush, who established himself at Damascus and killed Atsiz. ”

“ The Kajars, who dwelt in Transcaucasia down to the time of Abbas the Great, by whom one division of them was compelled to settle at the south-east comer of the Caspian near Astrabad. To this division belongs the present dynasty of Persia. (2) The Afshars or Aushars, a very numerous tribe, in the province of Adarbaijan (Azerbijan) . A division is also settled in the mountainous regions of the Antitaurus; its members are nominally subjects of the Ottoman empire but really independent. ”

“ After the great victory of Alp Arslān in which the Greek emperor was taken prisoner (1071) , Asia Minor lay open to the inroads of the Turks. Hence it was easy for Suleimān, the son of Kutulmish, [4] the son of Arslān Pigu (Israil) , to penetrate as far as the Hellespont, the more so as after the captivity of Romanus two rivals, Nicephorus Bryennius in Asia and Nicephorus Botaneiates in Europe, disputed the throne with one another. The former appealed to Suleimān for assistance, and was by his aid brought to Constantinople and seated on the imperial throne. ”

“ During the wars with Persia the Turkish sultans forced them to settle here. They are agriculturists and highly praised by several travellers for their honesty and laborious habits. (4) Turkmenian tribes Yuruks and Gotchebes (words meaning "nomads" and characteristic of their most distinctive quality) , who occupy the mountains in summer and descend into the plains in winter, though some are settled in the plains of Cilicia near Tarsus and Adana, the rest being semi -nomads. Reclus estimates the total number of Turks in Europe at 1,500,000 and 35,000 Tatars. ”

“ Thus there originated a separate dynasty of Irak with its capital at Hamadān (Ecbatana) ; but Sinjar during his long reign often interfered in the affairs of the new dynasty, and every occupant of the throne had to acknowledge his supremacy. In 1117 he led an expedition against Ghazni and bestowed the throne upon Bahrām Shāh, who was also obliged to mention Sinjar’s name first in the official prayer at the Ghaznavid capital—a prerogative that neither Alp Arslān nor Malik Shāh had attained. ”

“ It is therefore certain that long before the age of the Hiong-nu Turkish tribes had spread to the borders of the Jaxartes, and even along the northern coast of the Caspian to the rivers Ural and Volga. But the ethnical denominations of antiquity—Scythians, Parthians, Massagetæ, Sacæ, &c.—do not convey to our mind clear ethnical distinctions, so that the true nationality of these peoples has been much debated. ”

“ After this victory the three princes Toghrul Beg, Chaḳir Beg and Ibrahīm Niyāl separated in different directions and conquered the Mahommedan provinces, east of the Tigris; the last named, after conquering Hamadān and the province of Jebel (Irak i Ajami) , penetrated as early as 1048, with fresh Ghuzz troops, into Armenia and reached Manzikert, Erzerūm and Trebizond. This excited the jealousy of Toghrul Beg, who summoned him to give up Hamadān and the fortresses of Jebel ”

“ The Uzbegs are therefore a mixed race of different Turkish tribes. According to Kostenko, [12] they number 201,972 in the Russian pro vinces of Sir-Daria, Ferghana, Zerafshan, and Amu-Daria, and Vambery conjectures that there are 1,000,000 more in Bokhara, 700,000 in Khiva, and 200,000 under Afghan supremacy, giving a total number of about 2,000,000. They are agriculturists or inhabit the cities; a few are semi-nomads. Eastern Turks. ”

“ But after the death of Toghrul Shāh (1170) his three sons disputed with each other for the possession of the throne, and implored foreign assistance, till the country became utterly devastated and fell an easy prey to some bands of Ghuzz, who, under the leadership of Malik Dinār (1185) , marched into Kermān after harassing Sinjar’s dominions. Afterwards the shāhs of Khwārizm took this province. ”

“ The acquisition of Khelāt led, however, to a new war, as Kaikobād's ally, the Ayyubite prince, envied him this conquest. Sixteen Mahommedan princes, mostly Ayyubite, of Syria and Mesopotamia, under the leadership of Malik al-Kāmil, prince of Egypt, marched with considerable forces into Asia Minor against him. ”

“ The Tu-kiu.Be this as it may, the Hiong-nu are, so to speak, proto-Turks, and the history of the Turks proper begins with the Tu-kiu, the Chinese equivalent of the word Turk. Originally a division of the Hiong-nu, almost extirpated by wars, but miraculously saved from complete destruction, the Tu-kiu settled south of the Kin-Shan (Altai?) Mountains, and were miners and iron-smelters in the service of the Juen-Juen [6] ("les Tartares Geou-gen" of Deguignes) . About 552 A.D., however, they conquered their former masters and founded a mighty empire under princes who took the title of Ili khan. ”

“ Anushtagīn, who was succeeded in 1128 by his son Atsiz, and against him Sinjar marched in 1138. Though victorious in this war, Sinjar could not hinder Atsiz from afterwards joining the gurkhan (great khān) of the then rapidly rising empire of the Karakitai, at whose hands the Seljūk suffered a terrible defeat at Samarkand in 1141. By the invasion of these hordes several Turkish tribes, the Ghuzz and others, were driven beyond the Oxus, where they killed the Seljūk governor of Balkh, though they professed to be loyal to Sinjar. Sinjar resolved to punish this crime ”

“ Besides these, many other names are recorded of tribes wandering in the Transcaucasian regions and in the provinces of Adarbaijan and Mazenderan, but many of them are very uncertain. Turks of southern Persia.All these Turks are Turks of comprehended under the general denomination of Adarbaijani southern Turks; they are nomads or semi -nomads and speak a peculiar Persia. Turkish dialect, the Turk Azeri or Adarbaijani Turkish. ”

“ Alp Arslān, the son of Chakḳir Beg, succeeded his uncle and extended the rule of his family beyond the former frontiers. He made himself master, e.g. of the important city of Aleppo; and during his reign a Turkish amir, Atsiz, wrested Palestine and Syria from the hands of the Fātimites. He made successful expeditions against the Greeks, especially that of 1071, in which the Greek emperor Romanus Diogenes was taken prisoner and forced to ransom himself for a large sum (see Roman Empire, Later) . The foundation of the Seljūk empire of Rūm (q.v.) ”

“ These northern Uigurs are called by the Chinese Kao-che, Chi-le, Di-li, and Te-le. The history of the southern branch is unknown, for the chronological data of Rashīd ed-Dīn and Abu-'l-Ghāzi are contradictory and useless, though their statements that the prince bore the title of Idi-kut and submitted to the Mongols have full historical weight. That the Uigurs rose during the 660 TURKS Mongolian epoch to a certain supremacy by higher culture is attested by Rashid ed-Dln and Jowaini, who often men tion Uigurian books. ”

“ Vambery thinks that the total number of Iranian Turks may amount to about two millions, or, if we add the Caucasian Turks under Russian supremacy, three millions. [17] Osmanlis (VII) . The OsmanOsmanlis, under which term are comprehended all the Turkish sub- lis. jects of the sultan of Turkey, consist chiefly of the following elements. (1) Turkmanian tribes and Turks of every description, who poured into Asia Minor after the defeat of Romanus Diogenes (1071) ”

“ In the meantime fresh bands of the Ghuzz poured from the east and the north into Turkestan, the region becoming overstocked with a nomadic population. Some of them sought and found an outlet to the west by occupying the territory of the Petchenegs and joining the Turkish population of southern Russia ; but 1 Comp. Blau, Bosnisch-Turkische Sprachdenkmaler (Leipsic, 1868) , T- 315. - Edited by Geza Kuun, Buda-Pesth, 1880-83. the great majority, seeing the ruined state of the empire of the caliphs, crossed the Oxus and overran the northern and eastern provinces of Persia. ”

“ Like his brother Mahommed (1104–1118) , who successfully rebelled against him, his most dangerous enemies were the Isma‛īlites, who had succeeded in taking the fortress of Alamut (north of Kazvīn) and become a formidable political power by the organization of bands of fedais, who were always ready, even at the sacrifice of their own lives, to murder any one whom they were commanded to slay. ”

“ Beresine in 1848 distinguished nine teen, grouped round three types, viz., (1) Jagatai dialects (Uigur, Coman, Jagatai, Uzbegian, Turkmani, Kazani literary language) ; (2) Tatar dialects (Kirghizian, Bashkiri, Nogai, Kumi, Karatchai, KaraKalpaki, Meshtcheryaki, and Siberian) ; (3) Turki dialects (Derbendi, Adarbaijani, Krimmi, Anadoli, and Kumili) . Bohtlingk (1851) added the Yakuti, and Shaw (1877) the Eastern Turki. Radloff (1882) subdivided the one Siberian dialect of Beresine into more than a dozen different dialects. ”

“ In the southern provinces of Persia are settled the (5) Kashkais, (6) Abul-werdis, (7) Kara - Gozliis, (8) Bahar-lu, and (9) Inan-lu. To the first named are reckoned by some the Khalaches, [16] an old Turkish tribe which was already settled near Herat before the Seljukian period and has given rise to some Indian dynasties. ”

“ His objections against the popular etymology mentioned above are, however, not quite unfounded. long to Russia, Turkey, Persia, China, and Afghanistan. In religion the great majority are Mohammedans; a few tribes in Russia are baptized Christians; and some others adhere to the original Shamanism, which has also influenced the religious conceptions of the Christian and Mohammedan Turks. The principal Turkish peoples are the following. ”

“ At the present day the Turkish people occupy a very extensive Modern area, the centre of which lies in Khiva, Bokhara, and Khokand, tribes., and which stretches from the lower Lena in Siberia to the Danube and from the Crimea to Kernian and India. Politically they be- 3 The term "Turkman" occurs iu Arabic chronicles of the Seljukian period, and even in Mokaddasi, p. ”