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Turkic languages
The Turkic languages
constitute a language
family of some thirty
languages, spoken
by Turkic peoples
across a vast area
from Eastern Europe
and the Mediterranean
to Siberia and Western
China, and are traditionally
considered to be part
of the proposed Altaic
language family. Turkic
languages are spoken
by some 180 million
people as a native
language; and the
total number of Turkic
speakers is about
200 million, including
speakers as a second
language. The Turkic
language with the
greatest number of
speakers is Turkish
proper, or Anatolian
Turkish, the speakers
of which account for
about 40% of all Turkic
speakers.
Early written records
The first established
records of the Turkic
languages are the
8th century Orkhon
inscriptions by the
Göktürks,
recording the Old
Turkic language, which
were discovered in
1889 in the Orkhon
Valley in Mongolia.
The Compendium of
the Turkic dialects
( Divânü
Lügati't-Türk),
written during the
11th century by Kasgarli
Mahmud of the Kara-Khanid
Khanate, constitutes
an early linguistic
treatment of the family.
The Compendium is
the first comprehensive
dictionary of the
Turkic languages and
also includes the
first known map of
the Turkic speakers'
geographical distribution.
It mainly pertains
to the Southwestern
branch of the family.
Geographical expansion and development
With the Turkic expansion
during Early Middle
Ages (c. 6th - 11th
centuries), Turkic
languages, in the
course of just a few
centuries, spread
across Central Asia,
stretching from Siberia
(the Sakha Republic)
to the Mediterranean
(Seljuk Turks). Various
elements from the
Turkic languages have
passed into Hungarian,
Persian, Urdu,
Russian, Chinese and
to a lesser extent,
Arabic. Many of the
Turkic peoples have
their homelands in
Inner Asia, where
the Turkic peoples
originated from, but
since then Turkic
languages have spread,
through migrations
and conquests, to
other locations including
present-day Turkey.
While the term Turk
may refer to a member
of any Turkic people,
the term Turkish usually
refers specifically
to the people and
language of Turkey.
Turkic People
Turkic PeopleThe Turkic
peoples are Eurasian
peoples residing in
northern, central
and western Eurasia
who speak languages
belonging to the Turkic
language family. These
peoples share, to
varying degrees, certain
cultural traits and
historical backgrounds.
The term Turkic represents
a broad ethno-linguistic
group of people and
includes existing
societies such as
the Kazakhs, Uzbeks,
Kyrgyz, Uyghur, Azerbaijani,
Turkmen, and Turkish
people, as well as
historical societies
such as the Xiongnu,
Kipchaks, Eurasian
Avars, Bulgars, Huns,
Seljuks, Khazars,
Ottomans and Timurids.
Many of the Turkic
peoples have their
homelands in Inner
Asia, where the Turkic
peoples originated
from, but since then
Turkic languages have
spread, through migrations
and conquests, to
other locations including
present-day Turkey.
While the term Turk
may refer to a member
of any Turkic people,
the term Turkish usually
refers specifically
to the people and
language of Turkey.
Migrations
The Turkic peoples
and the related groups
migrated west towards
Eastern Europe, Iranian
plateau and Anatolia.
Turks or Turkish people
are among those who
migrated early from
what is known today
as Mongolia to modern
Turkey but also among
the late-arrival peoples;
they also participated
in the Crusades. After
many battles they
established their
own state and later
created the Ottoman
Empire; their tactics
were all-out sieges
and invasions.
History
It is generally believed
that the first Turkic
people were native
to a region extending
from Central Asia
to Siberia. Some scholars
contend that the Huns
were one of the earlier
Turkic tribes, while
others support Mongolic
origin for the Huns.
Otto Maenchen-Helfen's
linguistic studies
also support a Turkic
origin for the Huns.
The main migration
of Turks, who were
among the ancient
inhabitants of Turkestan,
occurred in medieval
times, when they spread
across most of Asia
and into Europe and
the Middle East.
The precise date of the initial expansion
from the early homeland
remains unknown. The
first state known
as "Turk",
giving its name to
many states and peoples
afterwards, was that
of the Göktürks
(gog = "blue"
or "celestial")
in the sixth century
AD. The head of the
Asena clan led his
people from Li-jien
(modern Zhelai Zhai)
to the Juan Juan seeking
inclusion in their
confederacy and protection
from China. His tribe
were famed metal smiths
and were granted land
near a mountain quarry
which looked like
a helmet, from which
they were said to
have gotten their
name (tujué).
A century later their
power had increased
such that they conquered
the Juan Juan and
set about establishing
their Gök Empire.
Later Turkic peoples include the Karluks
(mainly eighth century),
Uyghurs, Kyrgyz, Oghuz
(or Guz) Turks, and
Turkmens. As these
peoples were founding
states in the area
between Mongolia and
Transoxiana, they
came into contact
with Muslims, and
most gradually adopted
Islam. However, there
were also (and still
are) small groups
of Turkic people belonging
to other religions,
including Christians,
Jews (Khazars), Buddhists,
and Zoroastrians.
Turkic soldiers in the army of the Abbasid
caliphs emerged as
the de facto rulers
of most of the Muslim
Middle East (apart
from Syria and Egypt),
particularly after
the tenth century.
The Oghuz and other
tribes captured and
dominated various
countries under the
leadership of the
Seljuk dynasty and
eventually captured
the territories of
the Abbasid dynasty
and the Byzantine
Empire.
Meanwhile, the Kyrgyz and Uyghurs were
struggling with one
another and with the
Chinese Empire. The
Kyrgyz people ultimately
settled in the region
now referred to as
Kyrgyzstan. The Tatar
peoples conquered
the Volga Bulgars
in what is today Tatarstan,
following the westward
sweep of the Mongols
under Genghis Khan
in the thirteenth
century. The Bulgars
were thus mistakenly
called Tatars by the
Russians. Native Tatars
live only in Asia;
European "Tatars"
are in fact Bulgars.
Other Bulgars settled
in Europe in the seventh-8th
centuries, and were
assimilated into the
Slavic population
after adopting what
eventually became
the Slavic Bulgarian
language. Everywhere,
Turkic groups mixed
with the local populations
to varying degrees.
The Ottoman Empire c. 1683As the Seljuk
Empire declined following
the Mongol invasion,
the Ottoman Empire
emerged as the new
important Turkic state,
that came to dominate
not only the Middle
East, but even southeastern
Europe, parts of southwestern
Russia, and northern
Africa.
The Mughal
Empire was a Muslim
empire that, at its
greatest territorial
extent, ruled most
of the South Asia,
then known as Hindustan,
and parts of what
is now Afghanistan
and Pakistan
from the early 16th
to the mid-18th century.
The Mughal dynasty
was founded by a Chagatai
Turkic prince named
Babur (reigned 1526–30),
who was descended
from the Turkic conqueror
Timur (Tamerlane)
on his father's side
and from Chagatai,
second son of the
Mongol ruler Genghis
Khan, on his mother's
side.[38][39] The
Mughal dynasty was
notable for the ability
of its rulers, who
through seven generations
maintained a record
of unusual talent,
and for its administrative
organization. A further
distinction was the
attempt of the Mughals
to integrate Hindus
and Muslims into a
united Indian state.
The Ottoman Empire gradually grew weaker
in the face of maladministration,
repeated wars with
Russia and Austro-Hungary,
and the emergence
of nationalist movements
in the Balkans, and
it finally gave way
after World War I
to the present-day
republic of Turkey.
Chagatai language
Chagatai belongs to
the Uyghur branch
of the Turkic language
family. It is descended
from the Old Uyghur
that served as a lingua
franca in Central
Asia, with a strong
infusion of Arabic
and Persian words
and turns of phrase.
It was developed as
a sophisticated written
language using the
Perso-Arabic alphabet.
It can be divided
into three periods:
Pre-classical Chagatai (1400-1465)
Classical Chagatai
(1465-1600)
Post-classical Chagatai
(1600-1921)
The first period is a transitional phase
characterized by the
retention of archaic
forms; the second
phase starts with
the publication of
Mir Alisher Navoi's
first Divan and is
the highpoint of Chagatai
literature, followed
by the third phase,
which is characterized
by two bifurcating
developments. One
is the preservation
of the classical Chagatai
language of Navoi,
the other trend is
the increasing influence
of the dialects of
the local spoken languages.
The Chagatai Turkic
language lived its
heyday in the Timurid
Empire. Chagatai remained
the universal literary
language of Central
Asia until the Soviet
reforms of the early
twentieth century.
Uzbek and modern Uyghur are the two modern
languages most closely
related to Chagatai,
and Uzbeks regard
Chagatai as an earlier
form of their language
and claim Chagatai
literature as their
own. In Uzbekistan,
then a part of the
Soviet Union, Chagatai
was replaced by a
literary language
based on the local
Uzbek dialect in 1921.
The so-called Berendek,
a 12th century medieval
nomadic Turki people
possibly related to
the Cumans, seem also
to have spoken a language
which ultimately was
identified as Chagatai.
Ethnologue records the use of the word
"Chagatai"
in Afghanistan to
describe the "Tekke"
dialect of Turkmen.
Up to and including
the eighteenth century
Chagatai was the main
literary language
in Turkmenistan as
elsewhere in Central
Asia, and had some
influence on Turkmen,
but in fundamentals
the two languages
belong to different
branches of the Turkic
family.
Baburnama (written Chagatai Turk) literally:
"Book of Babur"
or "Letters of
Babur") are the
memoirs of Zahir ud-Din
Mohammad Babur (1483-1530),
the founder of the
Mughal Empire and
a great-great-great-grandson
of Timur. It is an
autobiographical work,
originally written
in the Chagatai language,
known to Babur as
"Turki"
(meaning Turkic),
the spoken language
of the Andijan-Timurids.
It also contains many
phrases and smaller
poems in Persian.
It is also known as
Tuzk-e-Babari.
Tuzk e Babari or Babar Nameh
Babur was a highly
educated Central Asian
Muslim and his observations
and comments in his
memoirs reflect an
interest in nature,
society, politics
and economics. His
vivid account of events
covers not just his
life, but the history
and geography of the
areas he lived in,
and their flora and
fauna, as well as
the people with whom
he came into contact.
The Baburnama begins with these plain
words:
“ In the province of Fergana, in the
year 1494, when I
was twelve year old,
I became king. ”
After some background, Babur describes
his fluctuating fortunes
as a minor ruler in
Central Asia - in
which he took and
lost Samarkand twice
- and his move to
Kabul in 1504.
There is a break in the manuscript between
1508 and 1519. By
the latter date Babur
is established in
Kabul, now in Afghanistan,
and is campaigning
in northwestern India.
The final section
of the Baburnama covers
the years 1525 to
1529 and the establishment
of the Mughal empire
in South Asia, which
Babur's descendants
would rule for three
centuries.
Babur also writes about his homeland,
Fergana:
“ The Domain of Fergana has seven towns,
five on the south
and two on the north
of the Syr river.
Of those on the south,
one is Andijan. It
has a central position
and is the capital
of the Fergana Domain.
”
He also wrote:
“ A man took aim at Ibrahim Beg. But
then Ibrahim Beg yelled,"Hai!Hai!";
and he let him pass,
and by mistake shot
me in an armpit from
as near as a man on
guard at the Gate
stands from another.
Two plates of my armour
cracked. I shot at
a man running away
along the ramparts,
adjusting his cap
against the battlements.
He abandoned his cap,
nailed to the wall
and went off, gathering
his turban sash together
in his hand. ”
The Baburnama is widely translated and
is part of text books
in no less than 25
countries mostly in
Central, Western,
and Southern Asia.
Tuzk-e-Taimuri
Tuzk-e-Taimuri is
considered by many
as the autobiography
of Amir Timur. Timur's
generally recognized
biographers are Ali
Yazdi, commonly called
Sharaf ud-Din, author
of the Zafarnama in
Persian , translated
by Petis de la Croix
in 1722 , and from
French into English
by J. Darby in the
following year; and
Ahmad ibn Muhammad
ibn Abdallah, al-Dimashiqi,
al-Ajami (commonly
called Ahmad Ibn Arabshah)
translated by the
Dutch Orientalist
Colitis in 1636. In
the work of the former,
as Sir William Jones
remarks, "the
Tatarian conqueror
is represented as
a liberal, benevolent
and illustrious prince",
in that of the latter
he is "deformed
and impious, of a
low birth and detestable
principles."
But the favourable
account was written
under the personal
supervision of Timur's
grandson, Ibrahim,
while the other was
the production of
his direst enemy.
Among less reputed biographies or materials
for biography may
be mentioned a second
Zafarnama, by Nizam
al-Din Shami, stated
to be the earliest
known history of Timur,
and the only one written
in his lifetime. Timur's
purported autobiography,
the Tuzk-e-Taimuri
("Memoirs of
Temur") is a
later fabrication,[need
quote] although most
of the historical
facts are accurate.
Page last updated:
Sunday, August 10, 2008 05:59:27 PM -0700
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