Turkic peoples on the territory of our country. Turkic-speaking peoples

* This item is introduced into the syllabus at the discretion of the teacher

Lecture 1. IntroductionThe first Turkic tribes.

1. Historiography of the general Turkic history.

2. The concept of nomad culture.

3. States of the Huns

4. Turkic states

Today, there are very few communities left in the world that received their name at the very beginning of history, determined their geography of residence, developed historically and survived to this day, like stormy, uninterrupted river flows. One of these communities is the Turkic nation or community. The “golden apple” for the Turks inhabiting the Turan space is represented by a symbol of a round ball made of pure gold or ruby, located on thrones located in the eastern, western, northern and southern directions, which stimulate the thirst for its acquisition. This golden ball is both a symbol of victory and a symbol of domination. It is located in those regions that are waiting to be conquered. The concept of Turan must be considered in the realities created by history.

Turan

Turan, was originally called the territory of present-day northern Iran, which was named so by the Persians. This word began to exist from the 4th century AD. The meaning of the root of the word Turan is the word Tura (Front), which was used in the Iranian Avesta (the old religion of the Iranian Sassanids, the sacred book of the Zoroastrians) in a certain sense. In the sacred book of the Zoroastrians, this word is used as a personal name and the name of a nomadic tribe.

The root of the word Türk or a root with a similar name appeared at the very beginning of our era. We must not forget that these words have always been associated with the meaning of "Turks". The word "tura" in Persian means extremeness, courage, selflessness. The most accurate meaning of the word Tura was determined by Markouat. According to the mentioned scientist, the well-known homeland of the Persians under the name "Airyanem waejo" was located in Khorezm. The war between the Persians and the Turans, at one time determined the course of world history.

The nomads living at the mouths of the Amu Darya River and the Aral Lake called themselves Turanians. One of the most important and significant facts is the work of Ptolemaeus (translated by the Armenian translator S?rakl? Anania'nin) which speaks of an administrative territory in Khorezm called "Tur", which is a confirmation of the existence of the Turan tribe.

The great migration of tribes served as a change in the national map of the Asians. Gradually, the word Tura began to be applied to the enemy tribes of the Persians as the Yue-chi, Kushans, Khions, Hephthalites and Turks. This idea reached its apogee in the works of Mahmud of Kashgar. This scientist, who is very fond of Turkism, speaks of the emergence of Turkic values ​​and the mission of the Turks as a "sacred phenomenon" sent down by God. Alisher Navoi, being a fan of Turkic culture, proved that the Turkic language is in no way inferior to Persian.

The geographical concept of the terminology "Turan": This name comes from the name of the Turan people. Turkic states were named Turan. This term is mentioned in a work called "Hvatay-namak" in the Pahlavi language in Arabic and Persian sources. Islamic scholars (Arabic, Persian and Turkic) very often used the term Turan in their works. Arab geographers indicate that the Turks lived in the territories located in the eastern part of the Syr Darya River. Therefore, other geographers also believed that the homeland of the Turks (Turan) was the territory between the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya.

The word Turan became known to Europeans from the Oriental Library of De Herbelot. The sources stored in this library say that Afrasiyab, the son of Faridun, comes from the Turkic family Tur and was the great ruler of all countries located in the eastern and western parts of the Amu Darya River. the state of Turkestan, indicated on the maps of the 16th century by Ortelius and Mercator'on. The word Turan began to be used in the scientific terminology of European countries at the beginning of the 19th century.

Turanian languages

The term Turanian languages ​​was first used by the historian Bunsen (1854).

Castren subdivides the ancient Altaic languages ​​into five subgroups: Finno-Ugric, Semitic, Turko-Tatar, Mongolian, and Tungus. Subsequent studies have made some changes regarding the grouping of languages. The first two subgroups of languages ​​were separated from the last three groups that form the Altaic group of languages.

SETTLEMENT OF THE TURKS

The Turks, who are one of the most ancient and fundamental peoples, during their approximately four thousand years of existence settled on the continents: Asia, Africa, Europe.

The name "Turk"

The fact that the Turks are an ancient people forced researchers to look for the name "Turks" in the oldest historical sources. Targits (Targit), mentioned by Herodotus as one of the eastern peoples, or the so-called Tiraks (Yurks) (Tyrakae, Yurkae), who lived on the lands of Iskit, or Togharmans, mentioned in biblical traditions, or Turughas, found in ancient Indian sources, or Thraki, or Turukki, which are mentioned in the old sources of Western Asia, or Tiki, who, according to Chinese sources, played an important role in the 1st millennium BC, and even the Trojans were Turkic peoples who were called "Turk".

The word Turk was first used in writing in 1328 BC. in the history of China in the form of "tu-kiu". The appearance of the name "Turks" on the historical arena occurred along with the creation of the Gok-Turkic state in the 6th century. AD The name "Turk" found in the Orkhon inscriptions in most cases passes as "tyuryuk". It is known that the first political entity that had the word "Turk" in its name was the Turkic state, called the Gok-Turkic Empire.

The meaning of the word "Turk"

The name "Turk" in sources and studies was assigned different meanings: T'u-kue (Turk) = helmet (in Chinese sources); Turk = Turk (leaving) (in Islamic sources); Turk = maturity; Takye = a person sitting by the sea, etc. From the document in the Turkic language, it was found out that the word "Turk" has the meaning of strength, power (or "strong, powerful" as an adjective). According to A.V. Le Coq (A.V.Le Coq) the word "Turk" used here is the same as "Turk", meaning the Turkic people. This version was also confirmed by the researcher of Gök-Turkic inscriptions V. Thomsen (1922). Later, this circumstance was fully proved by Nemeth's research.

The first political entity to use the word "Turk" to designate the official name of the Turkic state was the Gök-Turkic Empire (552-774). This suggests that the word "Turk" does not have an ethnic character characteristic of a particular community, but is a political name. Starting from the creation of the kingdom of the Gök-Turks, this word first meant the name of the state, and then became a common name for other Turkic peoples.

The habitat of the Turks before the beginning of nomadism from the last century is the cause of disputes. Historians relying on Chinese sources. The Altai Mountains are recognized as the homeland of the Turks, ethnographers - the northern regions of inner Asia, anthropologists - the area between the Kyrgyz steppes and the Tien Shan (Mountains of God), art historians - northwestern Asia or the southwest of Lake Baikal, and some linguists - the east and west of the Altai mountains or the Kingan ridge.

The Turks, who were the first to pacify horses and began to use them as a riding animal, spread high views about the state and society over wide geographical areas. Their settled and nomadic life is based mainly on the culture of animal husbandry and self-sufficient agriculture. Historical sources also indicate that the Turkic nomad camps were made due to economic difficulties, i.e. due to the insufficiency of native Turkic lands for living. Severe droughts (Hunnic migration), dense population and lack of pastures (Oguz migration) forced the Turks to migrate. The Turks, who, in addition to farming in small areas, were engaged only in animal husbandry, had other natural needs: clothing, various foodstuffs, etc. Then, when the available lands became insufficient to feed the ever-growing population, the neighboring Turkic lands were still sparsely populated, rich in natural resources, and had a favorable climate.

These circumstances, indicated in the sources of Turkic history as the main reasons for the migrations, contributed not only to their direction to different countries, but also to the attack on other Turkic lands, which were relatively more favorable for trade. Thus, some Turkic tribes, attacking others, forced them to roam (for example, nomads of the 9th-11th centuries).

Hun name

The political unity of the Huns, which stretched from the Orkhon and Selenga rivers to the Huanggo-Kho river in the south and was centered on the Otuken district, which was considered the sacred country of the Turks, is seen from 4. BC. The first historical document connected with the Huns was a treaty concluded in 318 BC. After that, the Huns increased their pressure on the Chinese lands. Local rulers, after long defensive wars, began to surround the areas of residence and places of military concentration with protective structures in order to protect themselves from the Hun horsemen. One of the Chinese rulers Si-Huang-Ti (259-210 BC) built the famous Great Wall of China (214 BC) against the attacks of the Huns. And at that time, when the Chinese brought evidence of protection from Turkic attacks, two important events took place: the birth of the Han dynasty, which for a long time brought up insightful emperors (214 BC) and the arrival of Mete Khan at the head of the Hunnic state. (209-174 BC).

Mete Khan, responding with war to the constant demands of the land by the Mongol-Tunguz tribes, conquered them and expanded his territory to the northern Pechli, he returned to the southwest and forced the Yue-chi, who lived in Central Asia, to leave. Mete-khan, developing trade relations with China, took under his control the steppes that stretched to the bed of the Irtysh (Kie-Kun = the country of the Kirghiz), the lands of the Ting-lings, to the west of them, northern Turkistan and conquered the Wu-suns who lived along the banks of Issyk-Kul. Thus, Mete Khan gathered all the Turkic tribes that were at that time in Asia under his control and a single flag.

In 174 BC The Great Hun Empire, with its military and property organization, domestic and foreign policy, religion, army and military equipment, art, was at the very height of power and subsequently served as an example to the Turkic states for centuries. Mete Khan's son Tanhu Ki-Ok (174-160 BC) tried to preserve this legacy.

At the beginning of the 2nd century BC. Asian Huns were three groups: 1 - in the vicinity of Lake Balkhash, the remnants of the Chi-Chi Huns, 2 - in the vicinity of Dzungaria and Barkol - Northern Huns (they moved here in 90-91 BC from the Baikal-Orkhon region) , 3- on the territory of northwestern China - the southern Huns, who, having been advanced to the east by the Suenpi tribe from the Mongol clan, in 216 were almost completely expelled from their lands. The southern Huns, disagreeing among themselves, were divided into two more parts, and China, which increased pressure in 20, completely seized their territory. At the same time, the Asian Huns existed until the 5th century. and some people from the Tanhu clan created short-lived small states. Three of them: Liu Tsung, Khia, Pei-liang.

Some Huns, after the fall of the power of Chi-chi, dispersed and continued to exist, especially in the steppes east of the Aral Lake. The masses of the Huns, which increased in number due to other Turkic tribes living there and the Huns who came there in the 1st-2nd centuries. from China, after a while they got stronger and headed, presumably due to climate change, to the west. After the Huns conquered the country of Alan in the middle of the 4th century, they appeared on the banks of the Volga in 374. The great offensive of the Huns led by Balamir fell first on the eastern Goths and destroyed their state (374). The Hun attack, which continued with amazing speed and skill, this time defeated the western Goths, which are along the banks of the Dnieper, and King Atanarik with a large group of zvp. Gottov fled to the west (375).

The Great Migration of Peoples, which began in 375, is of great importance in the history of the world and especially of Europe. The Great Migration had a direct impact on the fall of the Roman Empire, the ethnic and political formation of Europe and, starting a new era (the Middle Ages), is considered a turning point in the history of Europe. in 395 the Huns began to act again. This offensive was carried out from two fronts: one part of the Huns advanced from the Balkans to Thrace, and the other, a large part, through the Caucasus to Anatolia. This offensive represents the first appearance of the Turks in Anatolia. taking Byzantium under their rule is the main goal of the Huns, and since the barbarian tribes that constantly threatened the western Rome with ruin were enemies for the Huns, it was necessary to maintain good relations with them. With the appearance of Uldiz on the Danube, the second wave of the Great Migration of Nations began. Turkic tribes. ...in a generation, illuminated story people, his life manners, customs, and... culture peoples Russia, including the Bashkirs. re-interested them story and the manners of the freedom-loving people ...

Many Turkic-speaking tribes participated in the historical process of formation and development of the ancient Turkic statehood and culture. An important role in this process was played by the Pechenegs, united in a powerful union of tribes.

Pechenegs

The Pechenegs roamed in the 8th-9th centuries between the Aral Sea, the Lik and Volga rivers and controlled the territory inhabited by Iranian-speaking Sarmatian, Finno-Ugric and other tribes.

Faced with pressure from the Khazars, Oguzes, and Polovtsians (Kipchaks), the Pechenegs moved west. One of the reasons that prompted the Pechenegs to move to the east of Europe, first the Pechenegs, and then the Oguzes and Polovtsians, was an almost century-long drought, which sharply reduced the areas suitable for nomadism in the Aral Sea and Transcaspia.

In the 9th century, the Pechenegs crossed the Volga and settled in the Northern Black Sea region, controlling the vast steppe strip from the Don to the Danube and fighting with almost all of their close neighbors: the Khazars, Magyars, Russia and Byzantium.

Byzantium often resorted to the military assistance of the Pechenegs to weaken Ancient Russia. So, in 972, the Pechenegs met the squad of Svyatoslav Igorevich, who was returning from Byzantium, at the Dnieper rapids, and defeated it.

The fierce war continued under Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavovich, who created several fortified lines to protect the southern borders of Russia, concluded an alliance with the Oghuz against the Pechenegs and became close to Byzantium.

In 1036, he defeated the Pechenegs near Kyiv, after which the Pecheneg military association broke up.

The Oghuz-Torks completed the work, and later, who ousted the Pechenegs in the middle of the XI century to the Carpathians and the Danube. Groups of Pechenegs gradually dissolved among the surrounding population, and most of them merged with the Polovtsians (Cumans).

There are reasons to consider the Pechenegs, Oguzes and Polovtsy, who settled and lived on the Danube, the Turkic-speaking people of the Gagauz, as distant descendants of the Bulgarians. The Gagauzians adopted Christianity in the 13th century and moved to Bessarabia in the late 18th-19th century. Now they have formed the Gagauz Republic within Moldova.

Oghuz

The Oghuz tribes were mentioned in the Orkhon-Yenisei inscriptions of the 8th century. under the name tokuz-oguz (literally - nine genera). Subsequently, they became part of the Turkic and Uyghur Khaganates, where, in the process of the formation of the Uyghur ethnos, the name Tokuz-Oguz was replaced by the ethnonym "Uyghur".

In the 9th - 11th centuries, under the name Oguz, a Turkic union of the Aral and Caspian tribes was formed with a center in the city of Yangikent in the lower reaches of the Syr Darya. In the 10th century, Western Oguzes (guzes, uzes, torks) appeared in the east of Europe, another part of them moved to Central Asia. The Western Oghuz Torks fought against the Khazar Khaganate, the Pechenegs, made an unsuccessful campaign against Byzantium, and at the beginning of the 11th century roamed the steppes of the Black Sea region.

Oghuz-torks often acted as allies of the Kievan princes. The chronicle first mentions Torks in 985, when they participated in the campaign of Prince Vladimir against the Volga Bulgarians. Later, they participated in the internecine wars of the Russian princes, fought with the Polovtsians. Part of the Torks, settled by the sons of Yaroslav along the rivers Ros and Torch (the city of Torchesk), eventually became Slavic, and those who remained in the steppes were assimilated by the Polovtsians.

Mentioned from the end of the XI - XII century. the tribal association of the "black hoods" also consisted of the remnants of the Turkic tribes - Pechenegs, Torks, Berendeys. It defended the southern borders of Kievan Rus and was used by the Russian princes competing in the struggle for power as a military support. Gradually, the Torks moved to a settled way of life. In the XII century. the prince of Kyiv was formally "the supreme overlord of the black hoods." It is interesting to note that the ethnonym "black hoods" echoes the self-name of the Karakalpaks - a modern Turkic ethnic group living in Karakalpakstan as part of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

The Oguzes of Central Asia, led by the Seljuks, subjugated Khorezm, Iran, Azerbaijan, moved to Asia Minor and the Middle East, creating by the end of the 11th century the huge Seljuk State. In the XI-XIII century, the ethnonym "Oguz" was replaced in Central Asia by the ethnonym "Turkmen", and in the Middle East - by the ethnonym "Turk". The Oghuz played a significant role in the ethnogenesis of modern Turkmens, Azerbaijanis and Turks.

Kipchaks (Polovtsy, Cumans)

In the 11th century, the peoples of Eastern Europe and Central Asia witnessed the next wave of migration of nomadic peoples after the great Hunnic migration, caused by the movement of a new strong union of Turkic nomadic tribes called Kipchaks, Polovtsy or Cumans. The term "Kipchaks" was used in the east, the Slavs called these tribes Polovtsy, and they were most often called Cumans in Europe.

The Kipchaks in the 8th century were part of the so-called Kimak Khaganate, which existed in Western Siberia, and were the western group of this tribal union. After isolation, the Kipchaks occupied the territory of North-Western Kazakhstan and in the 10th century bordered the Kimaks in the east, the Khazars in the west, and the Oguzes in the south. Already in the middle of the 10th century, the Kipchaks, following the Oghuz-Torks, crossed the Volga and spread in a wide wave across the steppes of Eastern Europe, subjugating the main part of the Pechenegs and Torks-Oguzes remaining there.

The vast territory controlled by the Kipchaks in the 11th-13th centuries was called Desht-i-Kipchak in the east (from the Persian “Kipchak steppe”), its borders stretched from the Irtysh to the Danube.

It is assumed that the northern border of Desht-i-Kipchak passed along the Moskva River, where the Turks bordered on the Finno-Ugric peoples, and displays a toponymic series of names near Moscow: Kolomenskoye - from "kolloma" (protection), Kapotnya - from "high settlement" (" tall grass”), Kuntsevo - from the “shelter” (“travelling yard”), Desht-i-Kipchak was conditionally divided into the western and eastern parts, the borders of which were the Urals and the Yaik River.

The western part of the Kipchak steppes was called the Polovtsian land in the Russian chronicles. Nomadic cattle breeding remained the basis of the Kipchak economy, but under the influence of the peoples of the occupied lands, part of the Kipchaks switched to a settled way of life, agriculture, crafts and trade. A significant role was played by the military aristocracy, which sought to expand power and replenish wealth.

Most of the Polovtsians remained pagans. The dominant religion, obviously, was shamanism, which had been preserved among the Kipchaks from ancient times. The Polovtsian archaeological monuments of the Black Sea steppes are considered to be burial mounds, on which “stone women” were usually installed - statues of human figures from one and a half to three and a half meters high, which have early analogues among the Scythian-Sarmatian and Turkic peoples. The sculptures preserved in the southern Russian steppes allow us to present the details of the costume and weapons of the Polovtsy. The social system of the Polovtsy was at the stage of formation of early feudal relations.

Despite the vastness of the territories controlled by the Kipchaks, they did not have a state as a formalized political institution. Separate tribal unions, headed by prince-khans, were nothing more than a conglomerate. But, located at strategically important geopolitical and trade crossroads that connected the countries, cultures and civilizations of the East and Europe, they played an important role in the fate of many peoples of Eurasia, especially Russian and Tatar. The Kipchak enzyme gave brightness and strength to the multicolored Turkic civilization.

Thus, by the beginning of the Middle Ages, the Great Steppe was not only charged with the energy of the multi-ethnic flow of Eurasian peoples, but also turned into an arena of unique historical creativity and cultural and civilizational competitive rivalry.

They are settled on the vast territory of our planet, ranging from the cold Kolyma basin to the southwestern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Turks do not belong to any particular racial type, even among the same people there are both Caucasoids and Mongoloids. They are mostly Muslims, but there are peoples who profess Christianity, traditional beliefs, and shamanism. The only thing that connects almost 170 million people is the common origin of the group of languages ​​that the Turks now speak. Yakut and Turk - they all speak related dialects.

Strong branch of the Altai tree

Among some scholars, disputes still do not subside over which language family the Turkic language group belongs to. Some linguists singled it out as a separate large group. However, the most generally accepted hypothesis today is the version about the entry of these related languages ​​into the large Altaic family.

A great contribution to these studies was made by the development of genetics, thanks to which it became possible to trace the history of entire peoples in the wake of individual fragments of the human genome.

Once a group of tribes in Central Asia spoke the same language - the ancestor of modern Turkic dialects, but in the 3rd century. BC e. a separate Bulgar branch separated from the large trunk. The only people who speak the languages ​​of the Bulgar group today are the Chuvash. Their dialect is noticeably different from other related ones and stands out as a special subgroup.

Some researchers even propose to place the Chuvash language in a separate genus of the large Altai macrofamily.

Southeast direction classification

Other representatives of the Turkic group of languages ​​are usually divided into 4 large subgroups. There are disagreements in the details, but for simplicity, we can take the most common way.

Oguz, or southwestern, languages, which include Azerbaijani, Turkish, Turkmen, Crimean Tatar, Gagauz. Representatives of these peoples speak very similarly and can easily understand each other without an interpreter. Hence the huge influence of strong Turkey in Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, whose inhabitants perceive Turkish as their native language.

The Turkic group of the Altai family of languages ​​also includes the Kypchak, or northwestern, languages, which are spoken mainly on the territory of the Russian Federation, as well as representatives of the peoples of Central Asia with nomadic ancestors. Tatars, Bashkirs, Karachays, Balkars, such peoples of Dagestan as Nogais and Kumyks, as well as Kazakhs and Kirghiz - they all speak related dialects of the Kypchak subgroup.

The southeastern, or Karluk, languages ​​are solidly represented by the languages ​​of two large peoples - the Uzbeks and the Uighurs. However, for almost a thousand years they developed separately from each other. If the Uzbek language has experienced a colossal influence of Farsi and Arabic, then the Uighurs, the inhabitants of East Turkestan, have brought a huge amount of Chinese borrowings into their dialect over the years.

Northern Turkic languages

The geography of the Turkic group of languages ​​is wide and varied. Yakuts, Altaians, in general, some indigenous peoples of northeastern Eurasia, are also combined into a separate branch of a large Turkic tree. Northeastern languages ​​are quite heterogeneous and are subdivided into several separate genera.

The Yakut and Dolgan languages ​​separated from the single Turkic dialect, and this happened in the 3rd century BC. n. e.

Tuvan and Tofalar languages ​​belong to the Sayan group of languages ​​of the Turkic family. Khakasses and residents of Gornaya Shoria speak the languages ​​of the Khakass group.

Altai is the cradle of the Turkic civilization, the indigenous inhabitants of these places still speak the Oirot, Teleut, Lebedin, Kumandin languages ​​of the Altai subgroup.

Incidents in a slender classification

However, not everything is so simple in this conditional division. The process of national-territorial delimitation, which took place on the territory of the Central Asian republics of the USSR in the twenties of the last century, also affected such subtle matter as language.

All residents of the Uzbek SSR were called Uzbeks, a single version of the literary Uzbek language was adopted, based on the dialects of the Kokand Khanate. However, even today the Uzbek language is characterized by pronounced dialectism. Some dialects of Khorezm, the westernmost part of Uzbekistan, are closer to the languages ​​of the Oguz group and closer to Turkmen than to literary Uzbek.

Some regions speak dialects that belong to the Nogai subgroup of the Kipchak languages, hence the situations are not uncommon when a Ferghana native hardly understands a native of Kashkadarya, who, in his opinion, shamelessly distorts his native language.

The situation is approximately the same with other representatives of the peoples of the Turkic group of languages ​​- the Crimean Tatars. The language of the inhabitants of the coastal strip is almost identical to Turkish, but the natural steppe people speak an dialect closer to the Kypchak ones.

Ancient history

For the first time, the Turks entered the world historical arena in the era of the Great Migration of Nations. In the genetic memory of Europeans, there is still a shudder before the invasion of Attila's Huns in the 4th century. n. e. The steppe empire was a motley formation of numerous tribes and peoples, however, the Turkic element was still predominant.

There are many versions of the origin of these peoples, but most researchers place the ancestral home of today's Uzbeks and Turks in the northwestern part of the Central Asian plateau, in the area between Altai and the Khingar Range. This version is also followed by the Kyrgyz, who consider themselves the direct heirs of the great empire and are still nostalgic about this.

The neighbors of the Turks were the Mongols, the ancestors of today's Indo-European peoples, the Ural and Yenisei tribes, the Manchus. The Turkic group of the Altaic family of languages ​​began to take shape in close cooperation with close peoples.

Confusion with Tatars and Bulgarians

In the first century A.D. e. individual tribes begin to migrate towards southern Kazakhstan. In the 4th century, the famous Hun invasion of Europe took place. It was then that the Bulgar branch separated from the Turkic tree and an extensive confederation was formed, which was divided into the Danubian and Volga. Today's Bulgarians in the Balkans now speak Slavic and have lost their Turkic roots.

The reverse situation occurred with the Volga Bulgars. They still speak Turkic languages, but after the invasion of the Mongols they call themselves Tatars. The conquered Turkic tribes living in the steppes of the Volga took the name of the Tatars, a legendary tribe that had long disappeared in wars, with whom Genghis Khan began his campaigns. They also called their language Tatar, which they used to call Bulgar.

Chuvash is considered the only living dialect of the Bulgar branch of the Turkic group of languages. The Tatars, another descendant of the Bulgars, actually speak a variant of the later Kipchak dialects.

From Kolyma to the Mediterranean

The peoples of the Turkic language group include the inhabitants of the harsh regions of the basin of the famous Kolyma, the resort beaches of the Mediterranean, the Altai mountains and the steppes of Kazakhstan, which are flat as a table. The ancestors of today's Turks were nomads, along and across the Eurasian continent. For two thousand years they interacted with their neighbors, who were Iranians, Arabs, Russians, Chinese. During this time, an unimaginable mixture of cultures and bloodlines occurred.

Today it is even impossible to determine the race to which the Turks belong. Residents of Turkey, Azerbaijanis, Gagauz belong to the Mediterranean group of the Caucasian race, there are practically no guys with slanted eyes and yellowish skin. However, the Yakuts, Altaians, Kazakhs, Kirghiz - they all carry a pronounced Mongoloid element in their appearance.

Racial diversity is observed even among peoples who speak the same language. Among the Tatars of Kazan you can meet blue-eyed blonds and black-haired people with slanted eyes. The same is observed in Uzbekistan, where it is impossible to deduce the appearance of a typical Uzbek.

Faith

The majority of Turks are Muslims who practice the Sunni branch of this religion. Only in Azerbaijan adhere to Shiism. However, individual peoples either retained ancient beliefs or became adherents of other major religions. Most of the Chuvash and Gagauz profess Christianity in its Orthodox form.

In the northeast of Eurasia, individual peoples continue to adhere to the faith of their ancestors; among the Yakuts, Altaians, Tuvans, traditional beliefs and shamanism continue to be popular.

During the time of the Khazar Khaganate, the inhabitants of this empire professed Judaism, which continues to be perceived as the only true religion by today's Karaites, fragments of that mighty Turkic state.

Vocabulary

Along with world civilization, the Turkic languages ​​also developed, absorbing the vocabulary of neighboring peoples and generously endowing them with their own words. It is difficult to count the number of borrowed Turkic words in the East Slavic languages. It all started with the Bulgars, from whom the words “kap” were borrowed, from which arose “temple”, “suvart”, transformed into “serum”. Later, instead of "serum" they began to use the common Turkic "yogurt".

The exchange of vocabulary became especially lively during the Golden Horde and the late Middle Ages, during active trade with the Turkic countries. A huge number of new words came into use: donkey, cap, sash, raisins, shoe, chest and others. Later, only the names of specific terms began to be borrowed, for example, snow leopard, elm, dung, kishlak.

The origin and history of the Turkic peoples and their cultural traditions is one of the least studied topics in science. Meanwhile, the Turkic-speaking peoples are among the most numerous on the globe. Most of them have been living in Asia and Europe for a long time. But they also swam to the American and Australian continents. In modern Turkey, the Turks make up 90% of the inhabitants of the country, and in the territory of the former USSR there are about 50 million of them, i.e. they are the second largest group of the population after the Slavic peoples.

In antiquity and the early Middle Ages, there were many Turkic state formations:

• Sarmatian,
• Hunnic,
• Bulgarian,
• alanian,
• Khazar,
• Western and Eastern Turkic,
• Avar
• Uighur Khaganate

But to this day, only Turkey has retained its statehood. In 1991-1992 Turkic republics emerged from the former USSR and became independent states:

• Azerbaijan,
• Kazakhstan,
• Kyrgyzstan,
• Uzbekistan,
• Turkmenistan.

The Russian Federation includes the republics of Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, Sakha (Yakutia), as well as a number of autonomous districts and territories.

The Turks living outside the CIS do not have their own state formations either. So in China live Uighurs (about 8 million), more than 1 million Kazakhs, as well as Kyrgyz, Uzbeks. There were many Turks in Iran and Afghanistan.

The Turkic-speaking peoples are numerous and, of course, from ancient times they significantly influenced the course of the history of the regions and the world as a whole. However, the true history of the Turkic peoples is as vague as the history of the Eastern Slavic peoples. Fragments of testimonies, old books, artifacts, etc. are scattered around the world. And all this is only a small part found, described, systematized.

Many of the ancient and medieval authors wrote about the Turkic peoples and tribes. However, Europeans were the first to undertake scientific research on the history of the Turkic peoples. We will not rewrite their names, as well as ancient authors, because their conclusions are scattered, dissimilar, and the significance of their conclusions for our reality is not clear. Let us name only the name of Academician E. I. Eichwald, who was the first to scientifically substantiate the assertion that the Turkic tribes lived in Europe long before our era.

And now they are coming back - en masse!

Most researchers show the Turks as destroyers, belittle the level of their socio-economic and cultural development, deny their contribution to the development of civilization.