Turkoman people

“ As a nomadic people they have great contempt for the Sarts, who represent the town dwellers of the tribe. The Kalmucks are a Buddhist and Mongolian people who originated in a confederacy of tribes dwelling in Dzungaria, migrated to Siberia, and settled on the Lower Volga. From thence they returned late in the 18th century to the reoccupation of their old ground in Kulja under the Chinese. The Turkoman is the purest form of the Turk element, and his language is the purest form of the Turkish tongue, which is represented at Constantinople by a comparatively mongrel, or mixed, dialect. ”

“ The Turkomans are notorious among all the races of Central Asia as the most restless adventurers, and rightly; for not only there, but throughout the whole globe, hardly can a second nation be found of such a rapacious nature, of such restless spirit and untameable licentiousness as these children of the desert. To rob, to plunder, to make slaves, is in the eye of the Turkoman an honourable business, by which he has lived for centuries. ”

“ These form at this day the greatest and most powerful tribe of the Turkomans. They are separated into two principal encampments--the first at Akhal (to the east of Tedjend) , and the second at Merv. According to the best accounts, they have sixty thousand tents. Possessing less land that is capable of being cultivated than the other Turkoman tribes, they are, so to say, almost forced by nature itself to commit acts of robbery, and are a real scourge in the hand of God to the north-easterly portions of Persia, to Herat and its neighbourhood. ”

“ The Turkoman never retains a slave for his own use, except (1) when his captive is old or crippled, and yet not so much so but that he works enough to earn his meagre sustenance; if he cannot, he is at once mercilessly cut down; (2) infants who are brought up as Turkomans to become the wildest of robbers; (3) when Cupid makes some pretty brunette of an Iranian so dear to him that he cannot make up his mind to part with her. This last case, however, happens but seldom, as the Turkomans are notoriously the greatest misers in the world. ”

“ Still, only upon the borders, for those living in the interior of the desert and occupying themselves more with the peaceable occupation of keeping cattle than with alamans (foray) have, on the average, preserved the marks of the pure Turkoman type. As the nomads are generally more agile and quick than the settled tribes, which is naturally to be attributed to the endless wanderings of their adventurous existence; so the Turkomans are to be distinguished in this peculiarity from all the dwellers in tents in Central Asia. ”

“ These Turkomans, when one is on them, give the idea of riding on a gate, there is so little between the knees. They will get over, at a jog or loose canter, one hundred miles a day, and will keep it up for ten days. Their gallop is apparently slow, but, from the length of stride, they get over a great deal of ground.
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They are, however, not sure-footed, and quite useless on bad roads and hilly country, having a tendency to fall. I have never seen a Persian of condition ride a Turkoman horse himself, though many great personages keep several for show, on which they mount servants. ”

“ Turkomans (c. 170,000) , who live in the steppes, south and west of the oasis, and formerly plundered the settled inhabitants by their raids; and the Kara-kalpaks, or Black Bonnets, a Turki tribe some 50,000 in number. They live south of Lake Aral, and in the towns of Kungrad, Khodsheili and Kipchak form the prevailing element. They cultivate the soil, breed cattle, and their women make carpets. There are also about 10,000 Kirghiz, and when the Russians took Khiva in 1873 there were 29,300 Persian slaves, stolen by Turkoman raiders, and over 6500 liberated slaves, mostly Kizil-bashes. ”

“ Turcomania is inhabited by three different nations, Turcomans, Greeks, and Armenians. The Turcomans, who are Mahometans, are a rude, illiterate, and savage people, inhabiting the mountains and inaccessible places, where they can procure pasture, as they subsist only on the produce of their flocks and herds. In their country there are excellent horses, called Turkish horses, and their mules are in great estimation. The Greeks and Armenians possess the cities and towns, and employ themselves in manufactures and merchandize, making, especially, the best carpets in the world. ”

“ Among the Turkomans the 'Deb' is obeyed; everything is practised or abominated according to its injunctions. Next to the 'Deb' we may refer also, in exceptional cases, to the influence of religion. The latter, however, which came to them from Bokhara, where so much fanaticism prevails, is far from being so influential as has been said. It is generally supposed that the Turkoman plunders the Persian because the latter belongs to the detested sect of the Shiites. ”

“ Hadji Bilal, Hadji Salih, and myself, the acknowledged triumvirate of the beggar-caravan, immediately went in search of the Turkoman whose name was Yakub. We found him to be a young man still, with an air of boldness about him. He immediately embraced every one of us, and declared himself willing to wait another day in order that we might procure the necessary articles of food. We had here to provide ourselves with flour, rice and other sustenance to last as far as Khiva; the Turkomans themselves coming to this place to make their purchases. ”

“ In my land, across the gulf, the chieftains obey the customs of the clan, but here in Iran it was otherwise. In a moment I saw the proof of it.
Three of the Red Hats dismounted, at a sign from their leader; they ran suddenly at the Turkoman who was too bewildered with wine to take heed. One caught his arms behind his back, another seized his girdle and beard, while the third drew a small and thin knife.
The Turkoman fought, like a buffalo, twisting and bellowing and butting. Eh, the moment had gone by when he could have drawn his weapons—and what avail to struggle without steel in the hand? ”

“ The Turkoman was silent. He was conscious of recurring rage, rage of jealousy, and not of outraged Islamic ethics this time, as he looked at Demidoff, standing there motionless before him, tall and young and good-looking. Then his double rage, of jealousy and wounded ethics, mated with a third: rage of race against race. For a moment he crystallized in his heart all the contempt and hate that Slav and Tartar have felt for each other ever since the latter rode their shaggy Mongol ponies out of Central Asia and up to the Kremlin walls, sweeping over the steppes with torch and scimitar. ”

“ In the opinion of a well-known living authority,567 the Turkomans belong to a branch of the Turkish race inhabiting the Altaī Mountains and the upper regions of the Yenesei and Irtish in Mid-Siberia. Long before the Christian era the pressure of population led them to migrate southwards and eastwards, and, following in all probability the old course of the Oxus, their hordes spread over the great steppes extending from the Caspian to the Hindu Kush. ”

“ The Turcomans have preserved the good old customs of [Pg 239] their native country; they are the greatest plunderers in the steppes, and the only people whom there is any real cause to regard with distrust. Before the end of summer, in the latter part of August, the Turcomans begin to retire behind the Kouma, into the government of the Caucasus.
A Tatar horde called Sirtof likewise encamps on the lands of the Kalmucks, within sixty miles of Astrakhan, on the road to Kisliar. It reckons but 112 tents, and as the lands it occupies are of little importance, no one thinks of troubling it. ”

“ RUSSIAN ARMY ON THE TURCOMEN STEPPES. important victory ever achieved by the Russians in Turkestan. It opened the way for the Russian advance to the frontier of India, and carried the boundaries of the Empire southward to those of Persia. In the interest of humanity it was of the greatest importance, as it broke up the system of man-stealing and its attendant cruelties which the Turcomans had practised for centuries. The people of Northern Persia no longer live in constant terror of Turcoman raids; the slave-markets of Central Asia are closed, and doubtless forever. ”

“ The Usbàks are a confederation of many Turk and Tartar tribes, not one race. They are flat faced, with scanty beard and slanting eyes. They speak the same language as the Turkoman—Turki—and have the same disposition, tastes, and ferocity. They do not, however, lead a wandering life, but dwell in villages, and may be considered the established and civilized [209] inhabitants of Central Asia beyond the Oxus. ”

“ Our traveller had an opportunity, near Firashbend, of visiting a Turkoman camp. He found them rich in camels, horses, asses, cows, and sheep. Their women, like those of the Bedouins, enjoyed the [Pg 135] most perfect liberty, and wore no veils. These Turkoman women were said to be exceedingly laborious, and the small carpets so universal in Persia were of their workmanship. He likewise beheld a Kurdish family. Farther on, he had a very laughable adventure with a troop of Armenian women, which, as characteristic at once of the Armenians and of himself, merits some attention. ”

“ The Turcoman barrier against western progress was broken completely when the Russian flag floated in triumph over the Green Hills of the Tekkes.
It is an interesting circumstance that the Turcomans, now that they are forbidden to indulge in raiding, have turned their attention to steady industry, and promise to make good citizens. Whatever may be their faults, they are not a lazy people; they gave up their raiding habits very unwillingly; but when once convinced that they must live by industry, they seem to have accepted the situation. ”

“ Thus it is between the Turks and us—the little of their affairs which the prejudices of the Mahomedans have allowed themselves to communicate, or suffered others to glean among them, has been in 18generalgeneral so misused, distorted, and misrepresented by the prejudices of the Christians, that it is not going beyond the truth to say, there exist not a people in the civilized world whose real history and genuine state are so little known as those of the Turks: and the worst of it is, that not one misrepresentation, not one single mistake has fallen on the generous, charitable side ”

“ Future generations will profit by it. But the peasant who had had all his ideas and habits upheaved had had time to forget the oppression of the Turk, but remembered, with kindness, his slop-dawdle tolerance, This happens, I believe, in every land "freed" from the Turk. The people vaguely expect an earthly paradise where every one will do as he pleases, and find to their dismay that you can no longer evade the sheep-tax by tipping the hodja to let you put your flock on "vakuf" land. ”

“ Indeed, several of the Turcoman tribes have long been at war with one another; and their animosity is quite as deadly among themselves as when directed against strangers to their race. The butt, however, of most of the Turcoman expeditions is the northern part of Persia,—Korassan in particular. It is into this province that most of their great forays are directed, either against the peaceful citizens of the Persian towns and villages, or as often against the merchant caravans that are constantly passing between Teheran and the cities of the east,—Mushed, Balkh, Bokara, Herat, and Kelat. ”

“ These people are very jealous, but rarely punish a criminal wife with death; divorce is the usual penalty.
The Turks in Syria, as well as in other parts of their empire, kill a woman as soon as they suspect her; and the fine incurred by a seducer is enormously heavy.
The Turkomans are a wandering tribe, living in tents like Bedouins. They are peculiar for giving a dowry with their daughters, instead of receiving a price for them. They are exceedingly scrupulous about the honor of their women. ”

“ Vámbéry gives an excellent description of the Turcoman character, which has been fully confirmed by other travellers, and later by the Russian conquerors of Turkestan. They are honest in their dealings with each other, and often display much tenderness; at the same time they are the most brutal of slave-masters and man-stealers, and capable of the severest cruelty. Vámbéry says that one day a Turcoman said it was a sin to destroy a basket in the desert, because it had once been the seat of a man on a camel ”

“ Moreover, it is not a cramped country like the Morea, but perfectly open; and after you leave the coast, which is really populous and well cultivated, it is a desert. In nine hours' journey from Akhissar to Sart, I came across only one village and a few Turcomans.
These Turcomans are a nomadic people. They live in tents, of which you find perhaps twenty together, with their herds of cattle, horses, and camels around them, and wander about following the pasture. They consider themselves just as much part of the inhabitants as the settled population, and are well [Pg 143] armed and dressed. ”

“ The desert, then, between the Caspian Sea and the Oxus River may be regarded as the true land of the Turcomans, and is usually known as Turcomania. It 224is to remembered, however, that there are some kindred tribes not included within the boundaries of Turcomania—for the Turkistan of the geographers is a country of much larger extent; besides, an important division of the Turcoman races are settlers, or rather wanderers in Armenia. ”

“ Mere occupation of a rich country is not enough for civilization, as I have granted already. The Turks came into the pleasant plains and valleys of Sogdiana; the Turcomans into the well-wooded mountains and sunny slopes of Asia Minor. The Turcomans were brought out of their dreary deserts, yet they retained their old habits, and they remain barbarians to this day. But why? it must be borne in mind, they neither subjugated the inhabitants of their new country on the one hand, nor were subjugated by them on the other. ”