Martin Theodoor Houtsma

“ 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. ”

“ 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.) ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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) ”

“ 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. ”