Who are the Turks and where are they from? National character and morals of the inhabitants of the Turkish Republic. Chapter I. Ancient Turks

One of the most formidable medieval Asian conquerors were the Seljuk Turks. Over the course of several decades, they were able to create the largest empire of their time, which, however, soon collapsed. But these fragments of the empire gave birth to an even more powerful state. Let's find out what the Seljuk Turks were, who they were and where they came from.

Ethnogenesis of the Seljuks

First of all, we need to determine where the Seljuk Turks came from. Their occurrence still contains many mysteries for historians.

According to the most common version, they are one of the branches of the Turkic Oguz people. The Oghuz themselves, most likely, were the fruit of mixing on the territory of local Ugric and Sarmatian tribes with alien Turks, with the numerical and cultural predominance of the latter. Like other Turkic peoples, the Oguzes were engaged in nomadic animal husbandry, as well as raids on other tribes. Initially they were vassals of the powerful Khazar Khaganate, but then they separated and organized their own state on both sides of the Syr Darya with its capital in Yangikent, which was ruled by Yabgu.

Formation of the Seljuk state

In the 9th century, the noble Oghuz Tokak ibn Lukman from the Kynyk tribe went over, together with the people subordinate to him, to the service of the Khazar Kaganate. But with the decline of the Khazar power, he returned to Central Asia, where he began to serve the Oguz yabgh Ali, thereby becoming the second most important person in the Oghuz State.

Tokak had a son named Seljuk, who at one time served with his father among the Khazars. After the death of Tokak, Seljuk received the title of Syubashi (army commander) from Yabgu. But over time, relations between Seljuk and the ruler of the Oghuz state went wrong. Fearing for his life and the lives of his loved ones, Seljuk was forced in 985 to retire with members of his tribe to the south to Muslim lands, where he converted to Islam. He went into the service of the Samanids, who were nominally considered the governors of the Caliph in Central Asia, but in fact were completely independent rulers.

Then, having recruited people, Seljuk, under the banner of the new faith, returned to the Oghuz state, leading the fight against Yabgu. Thus, the personal enmity between Seljuk and Ali escalated into Muslim jihad. Soon the young commander managed to capture the large city of Jend and settle here. He was able to unite other Turkic peoples, thus founding his own still small state. Its capital was the city of Jend. And all the tribes that came under the banner of Seljuk became known in history as Seljuk Turks.

Strengthening the state

Meanwhile, at the beginning of the 11th century, the Samanid state fell under the onslaught of another powerful Turkic union - the Karakhanids. Initially, the Seljuks supported their overlords, the Samanids, in the struggle, for which they received great benefits and independence in managing their lands, but after their fall they switched to the service of the Karakhanids.

After the death of Seljuk, the state was ruled by his five sons: Israil (Turkic name Arslan), Mikail, Musa, Yusuf and Yunus. The eldest son, Israel, was in charge. He further strengthened the power of the Seljuks in the region.

Israil was married to the daughter of the Karakhanid ruler Ali-tegin. He sent two of his nephews, the sons of Mikail - Togrul and Daud (Chagry-bek), to the capital city of Bukhara to serve Ali-tegin, whose great conquests we will talk about below.

At this time, the powerful ruler of Ghazna, Mahmud, came into conflict with the Karakhanids, supported by the Seljuks. He managed to capture Israil in 1025, who was imprisoned and died seven years later. This event marked the beginning of the struggle between the Ghaznavids and the Seljuks, the head of which was Mikail, who fortified himself in Bukhara.

Great conquests

After Mikail's death, power was inherited by his sons - Togrul and Chagry-bek, the first of whom was considered the main one. The conflict between them and the Ghaznavids worsened until it was resolved in 1040 by the great Battle of Dandakan, in which the Seljuk Turks were completely victorious. After the conclusion of peace, they received into their possession all of Khorasan, taken from the Ghaznavids, and Toghrul now rightfully began to be called the Sultan.

In the coming years, the Seljuk Turks conquered Khorezm and all of Iran. In 1055, the capital of the caliphate, the city of Baghdad, was captured. But Toghrul, being a faithful Muslim, left spiritual power to the caliph, and in return he received from him the highest secular power and the title of king of the East and West.

Then the Seljuks began their raids on Transcaucasia and Asia Minor, which at that time belonged to Byzantium. Toghrul directly annexed some regions to his state, in others he placed relatives on the throne, in others he left power to local rulers, taking a vassal oath from them.

Seljuk Empire

By the end of Toghrul's life, a real Seljuk empire had formed, stretching from the Aral Sea in the east to the Caucasus and the borders of Asia Minor in the west. Died great commander in 1063, transferring supreme power to his nephew Alp Arslan, who was the son of Chagry Beg.

However, Alp Arslan did not stop at the achievements of his uncle, but continued to expand the empire. He managed to conquer Georgia and Armenia, and in 1071 he not only inflicted a crushing defeat on Byzantium at Manzikert, but also captured its emperor. Soon after this, almost all of it belonged to the Seljuk Turks.

In 1072, when Alp Arslan sent his army against the Karakhanids, an attempt was made on his life. The Sultan soon died from his wounds, bequeathing the throne to his minor son Malik Shah.

Despite his early age, the new sultan managed to suppress the uprisings that broke out. He was able to take away Syria and Palestine from the Fatimid state, which did not recognize the authority of the Caliph, and also forced him to recognize the Karakhanids. Under him, the Seljuk state reached its maximum power.

Decline of the Seljuk Empire

After the death of Malik Shah in 1092, the decline of the great empire began, which was actually divided between the sons of this sultan, who constantly participated in internecine wars. The situation was aggravated by the beginning of the Crusades of Western European knights in 1096, as well as the strengthening of Byzantium under the Comnenos dynasty. In addition, the regions in which the lateral branches of the Seljuks ruled began to fall away from the empire.

Eventually, after the death of the other brothers, the remnants of the empire fell into the hands of Ahmad Sanjar in 1118. This was the last supreme sultan recognized by the Seljuk Turks. The history of the Seljuk Empire ends in 1153 with his death.

The final collapse of the Seljuk state

Long before Sanjar’s death, entire countries, ruled by representatives of side branches of the Seljuk dynasty, fell away from the empire. Thus, in 1041, the Karman Sultanate was founded in southwestern Iran, which lasted until 1187. In 1094, the Syrian Sultanate separated. True, its existence was limited to 23 years. The year 1118 marks the founding of the Iraqi Sultanate, the fall of which dates back to 1194.

But of all the fragments of the Seljuk Empire, the Konya Sultanate (or Rum), located in Asia Minor, lasted the longest. The founder of this state is Alp Arslan's nephew Suleiman ibn Kutulmysh, who began to rule in 1077.

The successors of this ruler strengthened and expanded the sultanate, which reached its greatest power at the beginning of the 13th century. But the invasion of the Mongols in the middle of the same century undermined the last state of the Seljuks. In the end, it broke up into many beyliks (regions), only formally subordinate to the Sultan. The Konya Sultanate finally ceased to exist in 1307.

Arrival of the Ottomans

Even before the final death of the Kony Sultanate, one of its rulers, Kay-Kubad, in 1227 allowed one of the Oghuz tribes, the Kays, led by Ertogrul, to move to the territory of his state. Before this, this tribe lived in the territory of modern Iran.

The son founded a new Turkish state on the territory of Asia Minor, which later received the name Ottoman Empire. Under his successors, this power captured large parts of Asia, Africa and Europe, territorially exceeding the size of the Seljuk Empire. As we see, the Seljuk Turks and the Ottoman Turks are links in one chain of alternating state entities.

The significance of the conquests of the Seljuk Turks

The conquests of the Seljuk Turks had a very great importance for history. It was they who opened the period of widespread penetration of Turkic tribes into Western Asia. They had a significant influence on the formation of a number of modern ethnic groups: Azerbaijanis, Turks, Qizilbash and a number of other peoples.

In addition, we should not forget that the actual successor of the Seljuk state was the great Ottoman Empire, which had a very great influence on historical processes not only in Asia, but also in Europe.

Meskhetian Turks are one of the most ancient nationalities. According to some researchers, their appearance dates back to the reign of Queen Tamara.

However, over the past few decades, this people has occupied a very controversial place in the political and geographical arena. This is due to the fact that at present the ethnicity of the Meskhetian Turks has not been precisely established. However, they themselves cannot come to a common point of view regarding their identification. Let's consider the most interesting information about the origin, history and current state of this ancient people.

The emergence of Meskhetian Turks

The Meskhetian Turks, whose origins date back to the 11th century, appeared as a nationality at a time when there was a massive settlement of the Turks in Transcaucasia and Asia Minor. In the regions bordering Georgia, a special ethnic group gradually formed. Mass migrations took place in the area of the Meskheti Range, especially associated with the arrival of the Mongols in the 13th and 14th centuries.

Which significantly increased the number of Turks in these territories. Especially considering that Meskheti was much less protected from enemy attacks from the south. All these factors influenced the assimilation of local residents by the Ottoman Turks.

History of the 16th-19th centuries

In 1555, the territory of Meskheti was annexed to the Ottoman Empire. Thus, she came under the strong influence of Turkish ethnicity and culture. Mass assimilation of local residents began. This concerned culture, religion (voluntary conversion to Islam was especially encouraged), and language (spoken Turkish became interethnic in mixed territories).

Further, as the story goes, the Turks (Meskhetians, by the way, like the inhabitants of other subordinate localities, were called exactly that, specifying this ethnonym with the name of a specific locality, in in this case Meskheti) successfully maintained their rule in these areas until 1826. Then the region was occupied by Russian troops, and three years later most of its regions officially ceded to the Russian Empire.

It should be noted that at that time the population of the city of Akhaltsikhe alone exceeded fifty thousand people. And subsequently it began to rapidly decrease. At the end of the 19th century, mass persecution of the Turks began. They were organized by armed Armenian militants. Then the leaders of the local Turks rallied and organized everything in their power to maintain peace and order in the region.

Meskhetian Turks in the 20th century

With the formation of the Georgian SSR, the lands on which the Meskhetian Turks lived officially became part of it. When the Great Patriotic War began, almost all adult men were drafted to the battlefields. Of the forty thousand, more than twenty-eight fell in those years.

And already in 1944, the first wave of large-scale eviction of Meskhetian Turks from their native places began. More than one hundred thousand people were sent to Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. The Meskhetian Turks, whose photos from that period clearly and picturesquely demonstrate all the horrors and hardships of the terrible years for them, were settled in different regions and territories without the right to change their permanent place of residence. Many years later, they were given back the opportunity to move freely around the country, but they were forbidden to return to their homeland. However, the majority decided to stay where they were. Since then, a time of wandering began for this people, which, by and large, has not ended even now.

In the summer of 1989, after ethnic clashes and unrest in Fergana, many Meskhetian Turks were forced to emigrate. Most of them went to Azerbaijan, where they were provided with government assistance.

A significant number of representatives of this people moved to Turkey. However, many of them were not satisfied with the conditions offered to them by the government, which planned to resettle them in poor regions.

The current state of the people

Currently, the issue of repatriation and identification of Meskhetian Turks is becoming increasingly acute. Almost twenty years ago, Georgia pledged to welcome them to their historical homeland. But no real steps were taken to achieve this goal. The insufficiently decisive position of the government and the unfriendly attitude of the local population towards repatriates have led to the fact that about one thousand representatives of the people now live in Georgia.

Some Meskhetian Turks went to America under a large-scale government program. In total, more than sixty cities were covered. But on this moment the program has been suspended.

Thus, the Meskhetian Turks remain an ethnic group that is still searching for their lost homeland.

Language and culture

In the process of assimilation of the population naturally There was also a mixture of languages, with Turkish becoming dominant. He played the role of an interethnic one, while the Georgian one was gradually supplanted. And today Meskhetians communicate with each other in one of the dialects of the Turkish language. However, many linguists claim a special dialect, which is supported by some Turkic scholars. Let us note that the vast majority of the population (according to various sources, up to 85 percent) is fluent in Russian.

Deportation had a negative impact on the general condition traditional culture. A significant layer of it has been lost. However, religion, folklore and high ethnic self-awareness remain significant consolidating factors.

Identification problems

According to some scientists studying this issue, many peoples took part in the ethnogenesis of the Meskhetian Turks. Perhaps this is why their identification is still the subject of much discussion and scientific controversy today. However, the majority of Meskhetians themselves adhere to the pro-Turkish version of their origin. The same position is supported by the most active public organization “Vatan”. It is interesting that its leaders note that Azerbaijan turned out to be the most friendly to the people.

Meskhetians in the world

As mentioned above, over the past decades, Meskhetian Turks have settled throughout the world. Today their total number is about half a million people. At the same time, the largest groups live in Kazakhstan and Turkey. A significant number of them have found refuge in Azerbaijan, the USA and Kyrgyzstan. Small groups live in Ukraine, Georgia and some other countries.

Meskhetian Turks in Russia settled mainly in the Stavropol Territory. And in one of the local settlements they make up the majority of the population. In total, according to the latest data, about ninety thousand Meskhetian Turks live in Russia.

Famous representatives of the ethnic group

The Meskhetian Turks gave the world many famous personalities. Among them are eight heroes of the Soviet Union, two Heroes of Socialist Labor, one Lenin Prize laureate. There are also many famous athletes among them, in particular wrestlers and football players, eminent scientists, artists and journalists.

Like the rest of the people, these people are scattered all over the world and represent different countries. Let's hope that in the end the Meskhetian Turks will find their longed-for home.

1 st row: Osman I Bayezid I Lightning-fast Mehmed II Fatih Suleiman I Magnificent Abdul-Mecid I Abdul-Aziz
2nd row: Safiye Ali Mustafa Fehmi Qubila Khalide Edib Adivar Mimar Kemaleddin Feriha Tevfik Ali Fethi Okyar

3rd row: Namık Kemal Cahide Soncu Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Fatma Aliye Topuz Tevfik Fikret Nigar Hanim

4th row: Ivan Kutaisov Tarkan Elif Shafak Nuri Shahin Vezhdi Rashidov Recep Tayyip Erdogan Self-name Current distribution area and numbers

Total: about 60,000,000
Türkiye: 55,500,000 - 59,000,000
Germany: 3,500,000 - 4,000,000
Canada: 190,000
Russia: 105,058 (2010), 92,415 (2002)
Kazakhstan: 97,015 (2009)
Kyrgyzstan: 39,534 (est. 2011)
Azerbaijan: 38 000 (2009)
Ukraine: 8,844 units (2001)
Tajikistan: 700 (2000)
Belarus: 469 (2009)
Latvia: 142 (2010 estimate)

Language Religion Racial type Included in Related peoples

Ethnic history

Asia Minor before the mass migration of Turkic tribes

The beginning of ethnogenesis. Seljuk era. Beiliks

Modern Turks were formed from two main components: Turkic nomadic pastoral tribes (mainly Oguzes and Turkmens), who migrated in the 11th-13th centuries. from Central Asia and Persia, and the local Asia Minor population.

By the beginning of the 14th century, dozens of independent state entities - beyliks - were formed on the territory of Anatolia, which existed until the 16th century. All of them were formed on a tribal basis as associations of nomadic and semi-nomadic Turkic tribes around the ruling clan. Unlike the Seljuks, whose language of administration was Persian, the Anatolian beyliks used Turkish as their formal language literary language. The rulers of one of these beyliks - the Karamanids - took possession of the Seljuk capital - Konya, where in 1327 the Turkic language began to be used as an official language - in office correspondence, in documents, etc. And although the Karamanids managed to create one of the strongest states in Anatolia, the main role in uniting all the Turkic beyliks under their rule was played by a small Ottoman state, whose rulers came from the Kayi tribe.

Ottoman era

Ottoman Empire by 1683.

During the period of the Mongol conquests, the Oghuz Kayy tribe migrated to the west along with the Khorezmshah Jalal ad-Din and entered the service of the Seljuk Sultan of Rum. In the 1230s. the leader of the Kayi tribe, Ertogrul, received from the Sultan on the border with Byzantium possession on the river. Sakarya with residence in the city of Söğüt. The Sultan awarded his son Osman I the title of bey in 1289, and in 1299 Osman I proclaimed his principality an independent state, becoming the founder of a new dynasty and state that went down in history as the Ottoman Empire. As a result of their aggressive campaigns, the Ottoman sultans managed to take possession of the Byzantine possessions in Asia Minor in the second half of the 14th-15th centuries. they conquered the Balkan Peninsula, and in 1453, Sultan Mehmed II Fatih took Constantinople, ending the existence of the Byzantine Empire. ON THE. Baskakov believes that the Turks as a people began to exist only from the end of the 13th century. D.E. Eremeev, in turn, dates the completion of the formation of the Turkish nation at the end of the 15th - first half of the 16th century. . According to the Turkish Ottoman historian of Crimean Tatar origin Khalil Inalcik, the formed Turkish ethnic group consisted of 30% of the Islamized autochthonous population, and 70% were Turks; D.E. Eremeev believes that the percentage of Turks was much lower. About the historical role of the first Ottoman sultans, Lord Kinross writes:

Osman's historical role was that of a tribal leader who rallied the people around himself. His son Orhan transformed the people into a state; his grandson Murad I turned the state into an empire. Their achievements as politicians were appreciated by one Ottoman poet of the 19th century, who said: “From a tribe we raised a power that subjugated the world.”

In 1516, Selim I the Terrible led an Egyptian campaign against the Mamluks, ending the existence of their Mamluk Sultanate. With the conquest of Egypt, the Ottomans assumed an exceptional position in the Islamic world, taking upon themselves the protection of holy places, in particular the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Khadimu"l-Haremein. According to the widespread version, Selim I accepted the caliphate from Caliph al-Mutawakkil in the Hagia Sophia mosque. About the role of the Ottoman dynasty in the Islamic Ummah, the greatest political thinker of Tunisia in the 19th century, Hayraddin al-Tunisi, wrote: "they united most of the Muslim countries under their just rule, which was established in 699 (1299). Through good governance, respect for the inviolable Sharia, respect for the rights of subjects, glorious conquests reminiscent of those of the righteous caliphs, and upward mobility civilization (tamaddun) The Ottomans returned its power to the ummah..."

In the 18th century, a crisis arose in the Ottoman Empire. In 1821, the war of national liberation began in Greece, which achieved its independence in 1830. The Greek Revolution was accompanied by ethnic cleansing of Turks and Jews on the one hand and Greeks on the other, leading to the disappearance of a significant Turkish community in the Peloponnese. As William Clare notes: "The Turks of Greece left few traces. They disappeared suddenly and completely in the spring of 1821, unmourned and unnoticed by the rest of the world. Years later, when travelers asked about the origin of the stone ruins, the old people said: “Here stood the tower of Ali Agha. The owner himself, his harem and his slaves were killed in it.” It was hard to believe then that the majority of Greece's population were once people of Turkish origin, living in small communities scattered throughout the country, prosperous farmers, merchants and officials whose families had known no other home for many years. As the Greeks said, the moon devoured them." .

Recent history

Turkish infantry during the War of Independence, 1922

After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War and the signing of the Armistice of Mudros, the victorious powers began dividing its territory, including the Turkish lands themselves. A spontaneous popular movement arose among the population against the occupation of several regions of the country, which grew into a national liberation struggle led by the former Ottoman officer Mustafa Kemal Pasha. National liberation movement 1918-1923 contributed to the final consolidation of the Turks into a nation. The Turkish national movement led to the liquidation of the sultanate and the formation of a new state, the Turkish Republic.

Outside of Turkey, a large Turkish community was represented in Cyprus. After World War II, there was a growing movement among the Greek population for the unification of historical Greek territories (enosis), including Cyprus with Greece. In response to the doctrine of enosis, the Turkish population of the island put forward the doctrine of “taksim”, i.e. department. The increase in intercommunal tension in Cyprus soon led to the formation of armed groups - the Greek EOKA and the Turkish TMT. As a result of a coup in 1974 carried out by the military junta in Greece, Greek nationalists from EOKA came to power on the island, which provoked the invasion of Cyprus by Turkish troops and the occupation of the north and northeast of the island. In the territory occupied by Turkish troops in 1983, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was proclaimed.

Self-identification

Ethnonym

The word “Turk” itself means “strong, strong.” In Turkish, “Turk” means “Turk”, as a representative of the Turkish ethnic group and “Turk”, as a representative of the ethno-linguistic community of Turkic peoples. The terms "Turkey" and then "Turkish rule" first appeared in 1190 in Western European political literature to refer to Anatolia under Seljuk rule. In the Ottoman Empire, Turkish peasants called themselves “Turks,” and among the feudal elite the name “Ottomans” was common, meaning most of all belonging to the empire. However, among the subjects of the Ottoman Empire legal status was determined by belonging to any religious community, and ethnic identity was replaced by confessional one. As K. McCoan noted: “national identity was subordinated to the religious: a subject of the Ottoman Empire rarely calls himself a Turk or even an Ottoman, but always a Muslim”. ON THE. Ivanov also noted that “The Europeans themselves put into the expression “Turk” not only ethnic, but also religious and political content. In this sense, the word “Turk” meant Muslims, subjects of the Sultan, or the Great Turk. Hence the expressions “non-Turkish”, “become a Turk”, which applied to Europeans, in particular to Russians, who converted to Islam".

Until the beginning of the 20th century, the ethnonym “Turk” was most often used in a pejorative sense. “Turks” was the name given to the Turkic-speaking peasants of Anatolia, with a hint of ignorance (eg. kaba turkler"rude Turks"). The 18th century French traveler M. Huet noted that Turk means “peasant”, “rude”, “uncouth” and that to the question “is he a Turk or not?” The Ottoman answers - a Muslim. , published in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, also noted that “in scientific literature the name Ottomans or, better, “Ottomans” has long been established for the European Turks; the Ottomans themselves [In Western European literature they are called Ottomans.] do not even like to be called “Turks”, considering these the last people rude and uneducated" .

It is noteworthy that in the Ottoman era in Bosnia, Turk meant a Muslim Yugoslav, and the Bosnian-Muslim population called themselves Turks, implying that they belonged to the dominant religion, while they called the Turks themselves Osmanli. Christians also called Muslim Slavs Turks. In the 1850s Russian Slavist gave the following characteristics of the ethnic composition and identity of the population of Bosnia: “The inhabitants of Bosnia constitute, by their own concept and by official recognition, three peoples, although all belong to the Serbian tribe and speak the same language. These three peoples are: Turks, i.e. Muslims, Latins..., i.e. Catholics, and Serbs... i.e. Orthodox.". In the Armenian language, until modern times, Turks were called “tatshiks,” which was originally used to refer to Muslims in general.

Turkish identity

D.E. Eremeev, speaking about the ethnonym, touched upon identity:

The core of the Turkish nation began to take shape first in the Ottoman beylik, where the Ottoman tribe occupied a dominant position. This tribal ethnonym later became the official name for all Turks of the Ottoman Empire. However, the word “Osmanly” (Ottoman or, as is sometimes written, Ottoman) did not become an ethnonym, the popular self-name of the Turks. At first it meant belonging to the Ottoman tribe or to the beylik of Osman, and then to citizenship of the Ottoman Empire. True, neighboring peoples sometimes used this name in relation to the Turks and as an ethnonym, but only to distinguish them from other Turkic peoples. For example, in the Russian language, especially until the 20-30s of the 20th century, the name Ottoman Turks or Ottoman Turks was common (other Turks were often also called Turks or Turk-Tatars, Turkish peoples or Turkish-Tatar peoples, like their languages - Turkish-Tatar dialects or languages).
And the ethnonym of the Turks, their national self-name, which, however, spread mainly among the peasants, and not among the townspeople and the feudal elite of Ottoman society, remained the ancient ethnonym “Turk” (Turk). The reasons for this were the following. As noted above, the ethnonym “Turk” was common to all Turkic tribes that moved to Anatolia. When some of the nomadic Turks settled and mixed with the local population, tribal ties were broken, and tribal ethnonyms were gradually forgotten. In the process of assimilation of local residents by the Turks, the Turkic language prevailed. Spiritual and especially material culture was borrowed, on the contrary, from local culture. However, the newly formed ethnic group considered itself Turkic, since it spoke the Turkic language, or rather, dialects of the Anatolian-Turkic language, and was aware that the Turks played a large role in its origin. But all this was true of predominantly peasants, Turkish peasants, who arose from the mixing of settled nomadic Turks and local pre-Turkish peasants who converted to Islam. As for the urban population, their self-name most often was not ethnic, but religious - Muslims. The feudal elite also called themselves the same. Among these population groups, the official name “Ottoman” was also common, but it more often meant “subject of the Ottoman state.” This was due to the fact that urban population, and the feudal elite in the Ottoman Empire often came not from former nomadic Turks, but from the local Islamized population. The word “Turk” (Turk) in the mouths of the Ottoman ruling class was for a long time synonymous with “peasant”, “plebeian”, as in the Seljuk state of Asia Minor.

Decline of the Ottoman Empire in the 17th-18th centuries. led to the degradation of various spheres of cultural life, and the socio-economic development of the Turks increasingly lagged behind the development of non-Muslim peoples. The first Turkish book was printed in 1729, while in the Ottoman Empire the first printing press appeared among the Jews in 1494, among the Armenians in 1565 and among the Greeks in 1627. In addition, at the beginning of the 20th century, 90% of the Turks remained illiterate , while among the Greeks 50% were illiterate, and among the Armenians - 33%. Even at the beginning of the 20th century, the history of the Turks was not taught in Ottoman schools, and the doors of religious schools (madrassas) were closed to the Turkish language until the 1908 revolution. Ottoman-Islamic history was taught, beginning with the life of the prophet. These circumstances, as well as the policy of the European powers in relation to national movements in the empire, which stimulated the growth of national self-awareness among these peoples, affected the lag of the Turks in the level of development of national ideas. The first beginnings of Turkish nationalism arose in the second half of the 19th century among the secret political organization of the “new Ottomans”. The leaders of this movement developed the concept of Ottomanism (Ottomanism), which was based on the idea of merging all the peoples of the empire into one “Ottoman nation.” The Nationality Law passed in 1869 established equal status for all citizens of the Ottoman Empire, declaring that "that all citizens of the empire are called Ottomans without distinction, regardless of the religion they profess". Art. 8 of the Constitution of the Ottoman Empire of 1876 reflected the principle of Ottomanism: “All subjects of the empire are called Ottomans without distinction of religion”. Turkish scientist Taner Akcam writes:

Turkish nationalism, or in in general terms, Turkish national identity, appeared on the historical scene quite late. Some anecdotes were often repeated in which this delay was clearly highlighted. At the end of the 19th century, when some representatives of the Young Turks based in Paris were asked what nation they belonged to, they first answered “We are Muslims,” and only after it was explained to them that Islam is a religion, they answered “We are Ottomans.” They were explained that this is not a nation, but it is completely unthinkable for these young people to say that they were Turks .

Original text (English)

Turkish nationalism or, in more general terms, Turkish national identity, appeared on the historical stage very late. Certain anecdotes are often repeated which clearly highlight this lateness. Toward the end of the 19th century, when certain members of the Young Turks who were located in Paris were asked what nation they belonged to, they would at first reply, “We are Muslims,” and only after it was explained that Islam was a religion would they reply, "We are Ottomans." They would then be reminded that this was not a nation either, but it was utterly inconceivable for these youths to say that they were Turks.

Turkish nationalism is the last national movement that emerged belatedly during the collapse of the empire. The owners of the empire, that is, the Turks, seeing its collapse and realizing that the state they rule is an empire that arose on foreign territories and with a foreign population, perhaps realized themselves precisely as Turks. The concepts of Turkish nation, Turkish homeland, Turkish language and Turkish culture - all this arose in those days and was developed .

After the Kemalist revolution and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the ethnonym "Turks" replaced the names "Muslims" and "Ottomans". In Art. 88 of the Turkish Constitution of 1924 stated: “All residents of Turkey, regardless of religion and nationality, are Turks from the point of view of citizenship”. At one time, it was planned to introduce the name Anatolian (“Anadolulu”) instead of the ethnonym “Turk” in order to finally eliminate the confusion between the ethnonyms “Turk” and “Turk” in the Turkish language.

Language

Ottoman language

Until the 20th century, there was a literary language of the Ottoman Empire, which was quite different from colloquial Turkish speech - the Ottoman language (Ottoman. لسان عثمانى ‎, lisân-ı Osmânî, tour Osmanlı Turkcesi, Osmanlıca), which, although it was the language of the Turkic group, consisted of up to 80-90% of Arabic and Persian words. Thus, in some monuments of the 17th, 18th and subsequent centuries, the Turkish layer occupies an insignificant place (approximately 10-15%). The Old Ottoman language was the direct successor of the extinct Seljuk language. Based on vocabulary and grammar, the Ottoman language was divided into three varieties:

"Exquisite" (Turkish fasih Türkçe) - the language of court poetry, official documentation and aristocracy;
“Middle” (Turkish orta Türkçe) - the language of the urban population, traders and craftsmen;
“Vulgar” (Turkish kaba Türkçe) is the language of the broad masses, mainly the peasantry.

Modern Turkish was formed from a "vulgar" variant of the Ottoman language.

Turkish language

The beginning of the 20th century was marked by the growth of Turkish national consciousness; Ideas for the purity of the Turkish literary language were increasingly spreading among the Turkish intelligentsia. A. Tyrkova recorded a statement by one, by her definition, “prominent Turkish writer,” made in 1911: “The Turk has forgotten his origins. Question him, who is he? He will say that he is a Muslim. Everything was taken from him, even his tongue. Instead of a healthy, simple Turkish language, he is given a foreign, incomprehensible, dotted with Persian and Arabic words."

Having come to power, the Kemalists waged a struggle to cleanse the language of Arabic and Persian influence. In order to study the issue of alphabet reform, on January 15, 1928, the Council of Ministers of Turkey formed the “Language Commission” (Turkish: Dil Encümeni) under the Ministry of Education, which was soon dissolved. In its place, on June 28, it was created new organization- “Alphabet Commission” (Turkish Alfabe Encümeni), which adopted a draft alphabet based on Latin script at meetings on July 8 and 12. In his famous speech on August 8 of the same year in Istanbul, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk stated:

“Citizens, we must adopt a new alphabet for our beautiful sounding language. We must free ourselves from signs that we do not understand, in the iron grip of which our brain has been languishing for centuries. Learn these new Turkish letters without delay. Teach them to all the people, peasants, shepherds, loaders and hawkers, consider it as a patriotic and national duty."

On November 1, 1928, at the first meeting of the regular session of the VNST, parliament adopted a law introducing a new alphabet. The modern Turkish alphabet consists of 29 letters (21 consonants and 8 vowels) and 2 spelling signs. On June 12, 1932, the Turkish Linguistic Society was founded by Atatürk.

The northwestern dialects of the Turkish language are phonetically very close to the Gagauz language, and Turkish itself (in particular its northwestern dialects) and Gagauz are both close to the Pecheneg language.

The dialects of the Turkish language are divided into 2 main groups:

Western or Danube-Turkish: Adakalian, Adrianople, Bosnian and Macedonian dialects
Eastern Anatolian: Aydin, Izmir, Karaman, Kenya, Sivas dialects. The Cypriot dialect and the urban dialect of Ankara belong to the same group.

The Istanbul dialect is used as the basis of the literary language, which is Lately influenced by the dialect of the country's capital - the city of Ankara.

Anthropology

Turkish woman, between 1880 and 1900

Turkish girl in Ottoman costume

To be as general as possible, the basis of the anthropological type of Turks is the Western Asian version of the Balkan-Caucasian race as part of the large Caucasian race.

Anthropologically, most Turks belong to the Mediterranean race. The Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, published at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, gives a brief description:

The Ottomans (the name of the Turks is considered mocking or abusive) were originally the people of the Ural-Altai tribe, but due to a massive influx from other tribes they completely lost their ethnographic character. Especially in Europe, today's Turks are for the most part descendants of Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian and Albanian renegades or descended from marriages of Turks with women from these tribes or with natives of the Caucasus. By virtue of a kind of natural selection, the Turks at present represent a tribe of tall, well-built and handsome people with noble features. The dominant features of their national character are importance and dignity in behavior, moderation, hospitality, honesty in trade and barter, courage, exaggerated national pride, religious fanaticism, fatalism and a tendency to superstition. .

In the article “Ottoman Turks,” ESBE broadly describes the anthropological features of the Turks:

In anthropological terms, the Ottoman Turks have almost completely lost the original features of the Turkic tribe, presently representing the most heterogeneous mixture of various racial types depending on one or another nationality absorbed by them, in general most approaching the types of the Caucasian tribe. The reason for this fact is that the initial mass of Ottoman Turks, who invaded Asia Minor and the Balkan Peninsula, in the subsequent period of their existence, without receiving any new influx from among other Turkic peoples, thanks to continuous wars, gradually decreased in number and was forced to include in its composition the peoples forcibly Turkified by them: Greeks, Armenians, Slavs, Arabs, Kurds, Ethiopians, etc. Even under the Seljuks, a mass of Christian Greeks became renegades, and under the Ottomanids, mass forced conversions, the formation of Janissary corps from Christian youth , polygamy, which filled the harems of the Ottoman Turks with beauties of the most diverse countries and races, slavery, which introduced the Ethiopian element into the houses of the Ottoman Turks, and finally, the custom of expelling the fetus - all this gradually reduced the Turkic element and contributed to the growth of alien elements.
Therefore, among the Ottoman Turks we meet all the transitions to a type with gentle, graceful facial contours, a spherical structure of the skull, a high forehead, a large facial angle, a perfectly formed nose, lush eyelashes, small lively eyes, an upwardly curved chin, a delicate physique, black, slightly curly hair. hair, rich facial hair. It is also common among Turks to meet even blond and red-haired individuals (Riegler). In particular, in certain areas, Vambery notes: the predominance of features of the Kurdish type in the region of Ancient Armenia (starting from Kars to Malatya and the Karoja ridge), although with a darker complexion and less elongated facial contours, Arab along the northern border of Syria, and finally, homogeneous Greek type in Northern Anatolia, a type that, as one approaches the sea coast, becomes, however, less and less monotonous. As for European Turkey, even Istanbul is a mixture of the most various types Western Asian, Greco-Slavic and Caucasian, a mixture that seems homogeneous solely due to the uniform cut of clothing, headdress, shaved head and untrimmed beard, etc. Measurements by Weisbach and Ivanovsky over a hundred skulls from different places in European Turkey gave the overwhelming majority of dolichocephalies (among . goal index: 74), the rest from the display. 80-81 (subrachycephaly). In 143 Ottoman Turks, measured by Eliseev in Asia Minor, the height turned out to be on average 1.670, and the cephalic index 84, with 60% of brachycephalics and subbrachycephalics (mainly among nomads) and only 20% of dolichocephals and subdolichocephalics (among the urban population) .

Culture

Literature

The first written works in Turkish date back to the middle of the 13th century, and in Asia Minor, Turkish-language written texts were exclusively Sufi in nature. The earliest Sufi work is the Book of Fate by Ahmed Faqih, whose student Sheyad Hamza created the poem Yusuf and Zelikha. The first significant work in Turkish dates back to 1330, when the Sufi Ashik Pasha created the mesnevi poem “The Book of the Wanderer”.

In the middle of the 15th century, the so-called classical period of the development of Turkish poetry began, which lasted until the beginning of the 17th century. During this period, court poetry developed rapidly. The founder of new Turkish literature was the writer and publicist Shinasi Ibrahim, who created the first dramatic work in Turkish literature - the one-act satirical comedy “The Marriage of the Poet” (1860).

Music

External video files
	Turkish classical song "Katibim (Üsküdar"a Gider iken)" performed by Safiye Ayla
	Ottoman war melody - Mehter March
	Ottoman music, composer Prince Dimitri Cantemir
	“Chechen Daughter”, composer Tanburi Cemil Bey

Traditional Turkish music is associated with Arab-Iranian culture, having absorbed the characteristic features inherent in the art of the peoples who inhabited Anatolia. In folk music, melodies of a small range with a uniform rhythm are kyryk hava (short melody) and melodies of a wide range, rhythmically free, do not fit into clear metro-rhythmic patterns (changing time division predominates) - uzun hava (long melody).

During the Ottoman Empire, a new musical genre emerged - orchestral military music, which accompanied many of the campaigns of the imperial army. At the beginning of the 18th century, a set of traditional instruments of the Janissary military band appeared in Europe, which at that time included a large drum (daul), 2 small drums (sardar-nagara), 2 cymbals (tsil), 7 copper pipes (bori) and 5 shawls (tsurnader ). Janissary music as a specific timbre complex (a large drum with cymbals, often accompanied by a triangle) had a noticeable influence on European operatic and symphonic music. ESBE described Turkish music as the music of the Janissaries, whose percussion instruments "passed on to the military brass bands of Austria, and then other countries, but with a more limited and meaningful use."

In the 20th century, Turkish music was enriched with new genres that originally emerged in Europe. However, symphonies, operas, ballets, etc. have not gained much popularity in Turkey. Modern Turkish music develops under the strong influence of Western music.

Turkish diaspora

Main article: Turkish diaspora

Historically, the first known Ottoman (Turkish) diaspora existed in the Crimean Khanate, a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. However, by the 18th century, when Crimea became part of Russia, the Turks were almost completely integrated into the Crimean Tatar ethnic group. The southern dialect of the Crimean Tatar language belongs to the Oguz group of languages (two other dialects of Kipchak origin are noticeably different from it lexically and grammatically).

Currently, the largest Turkish diasporas are in countries that were previously part of the Ottoman Empire. In Arab countries (Maghreb countries, Egypt, Syria, Iraq), Turks do not experience religious pressure, but at the same time, their ability to learn their native language and maintain cultural ties with Turkey is seriously limited.

Turkish Cypriots

In Cyprus, as a result of an unsuccessful attempt to annex the island to Greece and the subsequent war of 1974, the unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was formed. Northern Cyprus as an independent state is recognized only by Turkey, which, according to a number of UN resolutions, illegally occupies this territory, seized as a result of a military invasion in 1974 from the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus. According to international law, the Republic of Cyprus retains sovereignty over all the territory that was part of it before 1974. In the year Cyprus was admitted to the EU without the northern (Turkish) part.

Turks in Germany

The Turkish diaspora in Germany was formed as a result of the “economic miracle” of the 1960s, when, as a result of economic growth, the demand for labor increased, while the population of Germany not only did not grow, but even decreased. Due to this, a large number of Turks arrived in Germany. Clashes occurred between Turks and German nationalists, often with deaths. In the 1990s, however, the situation began to change for the better: the German government began a targeted program to integrate Turks into German society while preserving their national identity.

Turks in other European countries

Notes

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KONDA Research and Consultancy, Social Structure Survey 2006
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CIA. The World Factbook. Retrieved July 27, 2011.
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Kotter, I; Vonthein, R; Günaydin, I & Müller, C (2003), "Behçet's Disease in Patients of German and Turkish Origin- A Comparative Study", in Zouboulis, Christos (ed.), "Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, Volume 528", Springer, p. 55, ISBN 0306477572
Haviland, William A.; Prins, Harald E. L.; Walrath, Dana & McBride, Bunny (2010), "Anthropology: The Human Challenge",Cengage Learning, p. 675, ISBN 0495810843
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Distribution of the population of Latvia by national composition and state affiliation as of 07/01/2010 (Latvian)
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Academy of Sciences of the USSR. The World History . - Mr. publishing house polit. Literary, 1956. - P. 253.
Original text(Russian)

Along with large and ancient centers of economic and cultural life, there were areas in it that preserved ancient forms of relations dating back to the primitive communal era. Asia Minor had an unusually diverse ethnic composition, and its population often spoke several languages within a relatively small territory.
, With. 49-73
, With. 52: “In the west of Anatolia and in the coastal areas they were mainly Greeks. And in the east, the ethnic composition of the population was much more complex: in addition to the Greeks, there were Lazis, Georgians, Armenians, Kurds, Arabs, and Assyrians.”
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Original text(Russian)

In the most general terms, the ethnogenesis of the Turks is characterized by the fact that the Turkish people were formed from many ethnic components, but the determining component were the Turkic tribes - Oguzes, Turkmens, Uzes (Western Oguzes), Pechenegs, Kipchaks, etc. Another component was the local population groups assimilated by the Turks - Greeks, Armenians, Kurds, Laz, Georgians, etc. The assimilation of the local population was “facilitated by the fact that the Turks created a powerful feudal state in Asia Minor - the Seljuk Sultanate (70s of the 11th century - 1307), i.e. they were the politically dominant community.
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Original text(English)

Combined with the Seljuks and the immigration of Turkic tribes into the Anatolian mainland, they spread Turkish and Islamic influence in Anatolia. Unlike the Seljuks, whose language of administration was Persian, the Karamanids and other Anatolian Turkish emirates adopted spoken Turkish as their formal literary language. The Turkish language achieved widespread use in these principalities and reached its highest sophistication during the Ottoman era.
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ON THE. Baskakov Turkic languages. - M.: Publishing House of Eastern Literature, 1960. - P. 141.
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The Greek revolt against the Ottoman Empire (1821) proved a serious disaster for Greek Jewry, loyal to the Turkish government. In the cities captured by the rebels, many Jews were killed. Five thousand Jews died in the Peloponnese alone. Despite the fact that independent Greece proclaimed equal rights for Jews, after 1821 they lived until the end of the century under the constant threat of pogroms.
William St Clair.. - Open Book Publishers, 2008. - P. 1. - ISBN 1906924007, 9781906924003

The bulk of the population of modern Turkey are ethnic Turks belonging to the Turkic ethnic group of peoples. The Turkish nation began to take shape in the 11th-13th centuries, when the Turkic pastoral tribes (mainly Turkmens and Oguzes) living in Central Asia and Iran were forced to move to Asia Minor under the pressure of the Seljuks and Mongols. Some of the Turks (Pechenegs, Uzes) came to Anatolia from the Balkans. As a result of the mixing of Turkic tribes with a diverse local population (Greeks, Armenians, Georgians, Kurds, Arabs), the ethnic basis of the modern Turkish nation was formed. During the process of Turkish expansion into Europe and the Balkans, the Turks experienced some influence from Albanian, Romanian and numerous South Slavic peoples. The period of the final formation of the Turkish people is usually attributed to the 15th century.

Tyumrki is an ethno-linguistic community that took shape on the territory of the steppes of Northern China in the 1st millennium BC. The Turks were engaged in nomadic cattle breeding, and in territories where it was impossible to engage in it, farming. Modern Turkic-speaking peoples should not be understood as direct ethnic relatives of the ancient Turks. Many Turkic-speaking ethnic groups, called today Turks, were formed as a result of the centuries-old influence of Turkic culture and the Turkic language on other peoples and ethnic groups of Eurasia.

Turkic-speaking peoples are among the most numerous peoples on the globe. Most of them have long lived in Asia and Europe. They also live on the American and Australian continents. Turks make up 90% of the inhabitants of modern Turkey, and in the territory former USSR there are about 50 million of them, i.e. they constitute the second largest population group after the Slavic peoples.

In ancient times and the Middle Ages, there were many Turkic state formations: Scythian, Sarmatian, Hunnic, Bulgar, Alanian, Khazar, Western and Eastern Turkic, Avar and Uyghur Khaganates, etc.” Of these, only Türkiye has retained its statehood to this day. In 1991-1992 On the territory of the former USSR, the Turkic union republics became independent states and members of the UN. These are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan. Included Russian Federation Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, and Sakha (Yakutia) gained statehood. In the form of autonomous republics within the Russian Federation, the Tuvans, Khakassians, Altaians, and Chuvashs have their own statehood.

The sovereign republics include Karachais (Karachay-Cherkessia), Balkars (Kabardino-Balkaria), Kumyks (Dagestan). The Karakalpaks have their own republic within Uzbekistan, and the Nakhichevan Azerbaijanis within Azerbaijan. The Gagauz people declared sovereign statehood within Moldova.

To date, the statehood of the Crimean Tatars has not been restored; the Nogais, Meskhetian Turks, Shors, Chulyms, Siberian Tatars, Karaites, Trukhmens and some other Turkic peoples do not have statehood.

The Turks living outside the former USSR do not have their own states, with the exception of the Turks in Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots. About 8 million Uighurs, over 1 million Kazakhs, 80 thousand Kyrgyz, 15 thousand Uzbeks live in China (Moskalev, 1992, p. 162). There are 18 thousand Tuvans living in Mongolia. A significant number of Turks live in Iran and Afghanistan, including about 10 million Azerbaijanis. The number of Uzbeks in Afghanistan reaches 1.2 million, Turkmens - 380 thousand, Kyrgyz - 25 thousand people. Several hundred thousand Turks and Gagauz live on the territory of Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, a small number of Karaites live in Lithuania and Poland. Representatives of the Turkic peoples also live in Iraq (about 100 thousand Turkmen, many Turks), Syria (30 thousand Turkmen, as well as Karachais, Balkars).Turkic-speaking populations are found in the USA, Hungary, Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Australia and some other countries.

Since ancient times, Turkic-speaking peoples had a significant influence on the course of world history and made a significant contribution to the development of world civilization. However, the true history of the Turkic peoples has not yet been written. Much remains unclear about the question of their ethnogenesis; many Turkic peoples still do not know when and on the basis of what ethnic groups they were formed.

Scientists express a number of considerations on the problem of the ethnogenesis of the Turkic peoples and draw some conclusions based on the latest historical, archaeological, linguistic, ethnographic and anthropological data.

When covering one or another issue of the problem under consideration, the authors proceeded from the fact that, depending on the era and the specific historical situation, some type of sources - historical, linguistic, archaeological, ethnographic or anthropological - may be more or less significant for solving the problem ethnogenesis of this people. However, none of them can lay claim to a fundamentally leading role. Each of them needs to be cross-checked with data from other sources, and each of them in any particular case may turn out to be devoid of real ethnogenetic content. S.A. Arutyunov emphasizes: “No single source can be decisive or superior to others; in different cases, different sources may have predominant importance, but in any case, the reliability of the conclusions depends primarily on the possibility of their mutual re-verification.”

The ancestors of modern Turks - nomadic Oghuz tribes - first penetrated into Anatolia from Central Asia in the 11th century during the period of the Seljuk conquests. In the 12th century, the Iconian Sultanate was formed on the lands of Asia Minor conquered by the Seljuks. In the 13th century, under the onslaught of the Mongols, the resettlement of Turkic tribes to Anatolia intensified. However, as a result of the Mongol invasion of Asia Minor, the Iconian Sultanate disintegrated into feudal principalities, one of which was ruled by Osman Bey. In 1281-1324, he turned his possession into an independent principality, which, after Osman, became known as the Ottoman principality. Later it turned into the Ottoman Empire, and the tribes inhabiting this state began to be called Ottoman Turks. Osman himself was the son of the leader of the Oghuz tribe, Ertogul. Thus, the first state of the Ottoman Turks was the state of the Oguz. Who are the Oguzes? The Oghuz tribal union arose at the beginning of the 7th century in Central Asia. The Uighurs occupied a predominant position in the union. In the 1st century, the Oguzes, pressed by the Kyrgyz, moved to the territory of Xinjiang. In the 10th century, an Oghuz state was created in the lower reaches of the Syr Darya with its center in Yanshkent. In the middle of the 11th century, this state was defeated by the Kipchaks who came from the east. The Oghuzs, together with the Seljuks, moved to Europe. Unfortunately, nothing is known about the state structure of the Oguz, and today it is impossible to find any connection between the state of the Oghuz and the Ottomans, but it can be assumed that the Ottoman state administration was built on the experience of the Oghuz state. Osman's son and successor Orhan Bey conquered Brusa from the Byzantines in 1326, making it his capital, then captured the eastern coast of the Sea of Marmara and established himself on the island of Galliopolis. Murad I (1359-1389), who already bore the title of Sultan, conquered all of Eastern Thrace, including Andrianople, where he moved the capital of Turkey (1365), and also eliminated the independence of some principalities of Anatolia. Under Bayezid I (1389-4402), the Turks conquered Bulgaria, Macedonia, Thessaly and approached Constantinople. Timur's invasion of Anatolia and the defeat of Bayezid's troops at the Battle of Angora (1402) temporarily stopped the advance of the Turks into Europe. Under Murad II (1421-1451), the Turks resumed their attack on Europe. Mehmed II (1451-1481) took Constantinople after a month and a half siege. The Byzantine Empire ceased to exist. Constantinople (Istanbul) became the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Mehmed II eliminated the remnants of independent Serbia, conquered Bosnia, the main part of Greece, Moldavia, the Crimean Khanate and completed the subjugation of almost all of Anatolia. Sultan Selim I (1512-1520) conquered Mosul, Syria, Palestine and Egypt, then Hungary and Algeria. Türkiye has become the largest military power that time. The Ottoman Empire did not have internal ethnic unity, and, nevertheless, in the 15th century the formation of the Turkish nation ended. What did this young nation have behind it? Experience of the Oghuz state and Islam. Together with Islam, the Turks perceive Islamic law, which is as significantly different from Roman law as the difference between the Turks and the Europeans was. Long before the appearance of the Turks in Europe, in the Arab Caliphate the only legal code was the Koran. However, the legal subjugation of more developed peoples forced the caliphate to face significant difficulties. In the 6th century, a list of Mohammed’s advice and commandments appeared, which was expanded over time and soon reached several dozen volumes. The set of these laws, together with the Koran, constituted the so-called sunnah, or “righteous path”. These laws constituted the essence of the law of the huge Arab Caliphate. However, the conquerors gradually became familiar with the laws of the conquered peoples, mainly with Roman law, and began to present these same laws in the name of Mohammed to the conquered. In the 8th century, Abu Hanifa (696-767) founded the first legal school. He was a Persian by origin and managed to create a legal direction that flexibly combined strict Muslim principles and the needs of life. These laws gave Christians and Jews the right to use their traditional laws.

It seemed that Arab Caliphate took the path of becoming law society. However, this did not happen. Neither the Arab Caliphate nor all subsequent medieval Muslim states created a state-approved code of laws. The main essence of Islamic law is the existence of a huge gap between legal and real rights. The power of Mohammed was theocratic in nature and carried within itself both the divine and political beginning. However, according to the precepts of Mohammed, the new caliph had to either be elected at a general meeting or appointed before death by the previous caliph. But in reality, the power of the caliph was always inherited. According to the legal law, the Mohammedan community, especially the community of the capital, had the right to remove the caliph for misbehavior, for mental disability or for loss of vision and hearing. But in fact, the power of the caliph was absolute, and the entire country was considered his property. Laws were broken in reverse side. According to legal laws, a non-Muslim had no right to participate in the government of the country. Not only did he not have the right to be at court, but he also could not rule the region or city. In fact, the Caliph used his discretion to appoint non-Muslims to the highest government positions. Thus, if the Europeans, during the transition from the harmonic era to the heroic, replaced God with Roman Law, then, having spent their harmonic period in Central Asia, the future Mohammedans in the heroic era turned law, together with religion, into a toy of the ruler of the Caliphate, who was both a legislator and an executor , and a judge.

We observed something similar in the Soviet Union during Stalin's rule. This form of government is common to all eastern despotism and is fundamentally different from European forms of government. This form of government gives rise to unbridled luxury of rulers with harems, slaves and violence. It gives rise to catastrophic scientific, technical and economic backwardness of the people. Today, many sociologists and economists, and primarily in Turkey itself, are trying to figure out the reasons for the economic backwardness of the Ottoman Empire, which has persisted to this day, despite a number of so-called revolutions within the country. Many Turkish authors criticize the Turkish past, but none of them dares to criticize the roots of Turkish backwardness and the regime of the Ottoman Empire. The approach of other Turkish authors to the history of the Ottoman Empire is fundamentally different from the approach of the modern historical science. Turkish authors, first of all, try to prove that Turkish history has its own specific features that are absent in the histories of all other peoples. "Historians who study public order The Ottoman Empire not only did not try to compare it with general historical laws and patterns, but, on the contrary, they were forced to show how Turkey and Turkish history differ from other countries and from all other histories.” The Ottoman social order was very convenient and good for the Turks, and the empire developed in its own special way until Turkey came under European influence. He believes that under European influence the liberalization of the economy occurred, the right to land ownership, freedom of trade and a number of other measures were legalized, and all this ruined the empire. In other words, according to this author, the Turkish Empire went bankrupt precisely as a result of the penetration of European principles into it.

As stated earlier, distinctive features European culture was law, self-restraint, the development of science and respect for the individual. In contrast, in Islamic law we saw the unlimited power of the ruler, which does not value the individual and gives rise to unbridled luxury. A society given over to faith and passions almost completely neglects the sciences, and therefore leads a primitive economy.

The territory now called Turkey is actually the territory of the Roman (Byzantine) Empire, captured at one time by the Turks.
The Turks arose in the 10th century on the territory of the Ural region of Kazakhstan. Initially, it was a tribe called kynyk, who lived on the banks of the Syr Darya at its confluence with the Aral Sea. The Kynyk tribe still lives in the Kamystykol area in the Chapaevsky region of Western Kazakhstan and is part of the Baybakty from the Junior Zhuz.
The Kynyks were part of the Bedzhene tribal association, known in Rus' as the Pechenegs. The appearance of the Turks is closely related to events in the neighboring Pecheneg nomads. In 740, one of the Khazar rulers Bulan, having married a Jewish woman, converted to Judaism and took the Hebrew name Sabriel. However, the main population of Khazaria remained pagans, among whom Mohammedanism gradually took root, spread by preachers from Khorezm. The Khazar Jews were immediately exempted from taxes, and the entire burden of tax oppression fell on the non-Jewish part of the population. The tax burden was so severe that people fled to the steppe or voluntarily asked to be slaves to the Jews. Naturally, such a government was not popular among the indigenous population, and did not want to fight for their interests, going over to the enemy’s side at the first opportunity. Therefore, the Jewish government of Khazaria was forced to use foreign mercenaries to maintain order within the country and to keep vassal countries in obedience. The basis of the Khazar army was the ancestors of the future - speakers of the Nakh-Dagestan languages. However, in order to prevent them from conspiring and carrying out a coup, the Khazars began to dilute the army with mercenaries from the Pechenegs who lived in what is now Western Kazakhstan. One of these detachments was commanded by a certain tribal bek Seljuk Dukakovich Kynykov. Seljuk enjoyed the trust of King Joseph because he converted to Judaism in 955 at the age of 20.

After the defeat of the Khazar Kaganate by our troops, the mercenaries found themselves free. The Pechenegs who served the Khazars began to attack Rus'. In 968 the Pechenegs besieged Kyiv, but were defeated. In 970 they took part in the battle of Arcadiopolis on our side, but after the conclusion of the Russian-Byzantine peace (July 971), a new Russian-Pecheneg conflict began to brew. In 972, the Pechenegs of Prince Kuri killed Grand Duke Svyatoslav Igorevich at the Dnieper rapids, and made a cup from his skull. In the 990s, there was a new deterioration in relations between Russia and the Pechenegs. Grand Duke Vladimir defeated them in 992 at Trubezh, but in 996 he himself was defeated by them at Vasilyev. Vladimir built fortresses with a warning system on the steppe border to effectively counter the Pecheneg invasions. Seljuk declared himself a Muslim and was accepted with his detachment by Khorezmshah Abu Abdallah Muhammad to serve in the rank of muqaddam. The city of Jend in the Kzyl-Orda region of present-day Kazakhstan and its surroundings were transferred to him for feeding. Seljuk received the right to rob the population of the territories under his control and pledged to protect the section of the Khorezm border entrusted to him.

In 995, the last Khorezmshah from the Afrigid dynasty, Abu Abdallah Muhammad, was captured and killed by the emir of Urgench, Mamun ibn Muhammad. Khorezm was united under the rule of Urgench. In 1017, Khorezm was subordinated to Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni. By that time, Seljuk’s detachment had grown into a large army, the corps of which were commanded by Seljuk’s eldest sons Israel and Michael, and the younger Musa, Yusuf and Yunus, who were born after Seljuk adopted Islam. Since, during the capture of Khorezm, the sons of Seljuk did not support the former ruler and recognized the power of Mahmud Ghaznavi, the latter began to distribute gubernatorial positions to the sons and grandsons of Seljuk. However, in 1035, the kynyks, who were called Turkmens in Iranian-speaking Khorezm, led by Seljuk’s grandson Togrulbek Mikhailovich, his brother Daud (David) and their uncle Musa Seljukovich left Khorezm. They crossed the Amu Darya and settled in the territory of modern Turkmenistan. Mahmud's successor Ghaznavi Masud, fearing the loss of Khorasan, moved his army against the Turkmens in the summer. The Turkmen ambushed and defeated the Sultan's army.

In 1043, the Turkmen captured Khorezm itself, as well as almost all of Iran and Kurdistan. In 1055, the Turkmens captured Baghdad and all of Iraq. Under Sultan Alp Arslan, nephew of Torgul, who died on September 4, 1063, who reigned in 1063-72, Armenia was conquered (1064) and a victory was won over the Byzantines at Manzikert (1071). In this battle, one of the Byzantine military leaders Andronikos Dukas, declaring that the emperor was dead, deserted from the battlefield, as a result of which the battle was lost, and the Byzantine emperor Romanus IV Diogenes was captured by Alp Arslan. A week later he was released by Alp Arslan on the condition of handing over the Seljuk prisoners and paying a million gold pieces.

From that moment on, the conquest of Asia Minor began, that is, the territory that now represents the Asian part of Turkey. This territory belonged to Rome and comprised several Roman provinces - Asia, Bithynia, Pontus, Lycia, Pamphylia, Cilicia, Cappadocia and Galatia. After the division of the Roman Empire, Asia Minor was part of the Eastern Roman Empire. Asia Minor was captured by the Turks from 1071 to 1081, mainly under Alp Arslan's son and successor Melik Shah. The state of the Seljuk Turks reached its greatest political power under Sultan Melik Shah (1072-92). Under him, Georgia and the Karakhanid state in Central Asia were subjugated by the Turks.

After the collapse of the Seljuk state under the blows of the Tatar-Mongols, the Rum Sultanate continued to exist in Asia Minor from the Turkic name of Rome Rum. The initial center of the state was Nicaea, since 1096 the capital was moved to the city of Konya, which is why the Rum Sultanate is often called the Konya Sultanate in our literature. As a result of feudal strife and the invasion of the Mongols, the Konya Sultanate by the beginning of the 14th century broke up into a number of beyliks. Bey Osman ruled in one of these beyliks. In 1299, he separated from the Rum Sultanate, and in 1302 he defeated the Byzantine forces under the command of George Muzalon. Byzantium lost actual control over the rural areas of Bithynia, which is why, during further sieges, it lost its remaining isolated fortresses. The defeat caused mass emigration of the Christian population, which changed the demographic situation in the region. However, the conquest of Bithynia by the Ottomans was gradual, and the last Byzantine stronghold, Nicomedia, was captured by them in 1337. Osman's last campaign, before dying of old age, was against the Byzantines in the city of Bursa. After the death of Osman I, the power of the Ottoman Empire began to spread over the Eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans.

In 1352, the Ottomans, having crossed the Dardanelles, set foot on European soil for the first time on their own, capturing the strategically important fortress of Tsimpu. The Christian states missed the key moment to unite and drive the Turks out of Europe, and within a few decades, taking advantage of civil strife in Byzantium itself and the fragmentation of the Bulgarian kingdom, the Ottomans, having strengthened and settled in, captured most of Thrace. In 1387, after a siege, the Turks captured the largest city in the empire, after Constantinople, Thessaloniki.

The Turkish state, which was quickly gaining power and successfully fought to expand its borders in both the west and the east, had long sought to conquer Constantinople. In 1396, the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I brought his troops under the walls of the great city and blocked it from land for seven years, but Byzantium was saved by an attack on the Turkish possessions of Emir Timur. In 1402, the Turks suffered a crushing defeat from him at Ankara, which delayed a new great siege of Constantinople for half a century. Several times the Turks attacked Byzantium, but these attacks failed due to dynastic conflicts in the Turkish state. This is how the campaign of 1423 was disrupted, when Sultan Murad II lifted the siege of the city due to rumors of uprisings in his rear and the escalation of court intrigues.
In 1451, Mehmed II came to power in the Ottoman Sultanate, killing his brother in the struggle for the throne. In the winter of 1451-1452. Mehmed began building a fortress at the narrowest point of the Bosphorus Strait, thereby cutting off Constantinople from the Black Sea. The Byzantine ambassadors sent by Constantine to find out the purpose of the building were sent back without an answer; those sent again were captured and beheaded. This was a virtual declaration of war. The fortress of Rumelihisar or Bogaz-kesen (from Turkish - “cutting the strait”) was completed by August 1452, and the bombards installed on it began to fire at Byzantine ships sailing through the Bosporus to the Black Sea and back. Mehmed II, after building the fortress, approached the walls of Constantinople for the first time, but retreated three days later.
In the fall of 1452, the Turks invaded the Peloponnese and attacked the brothers of Emperor Constantine so that they would not be able to come to the aid of the capital (Sphrandisi George, “Great Chronicle” 3:3). In the winter of 1452-1453, preparations began for the assault on the city itself. Mehmed issued an order to Turkish troops to capture all Roman cities on the Thracian coast. He believed that all previous attempts to take the city had failed due to the support of the besiegers from the sea. In March 1453, the Turks managed to take Mesemvria, Achelon and other fortifications on Pontus. Silimvria was besieged, the Romans were blocked in many places, but continued to control the sea and devastated the Turkish coast with their ships. In early March, the Turks set up camp near the walls

Constantinople, and in April the excavation work for the siege of the city began. On April 5, the main part of the Turkish army approached the capital. On April 6, Constantinople was completely blocked.
On April 9, the Turkish fleet approached the chain blocking the Golden Horn, but was repulsed and returned to the Bosporus. On April 11, the Turks concentrated heavy artillery against the wall above the bed of the Lykos River and began a bombardment that lasted 6 weeks. On May 16, the Turks began to undermine the walls near the Blachernae quarter, at the same time, their ships, to the sound of trumpets and drums, approached the chain at the Golden Horn on May 16, 17, and 21, trying to attract attention to themselves in order to hide the noise of the tunnel from the Greeks, but the Romans managed to discover the tunnel and began to conduct counter-mining. The underground mine war ended in favor of the besieged; they blew up and flooded the passages dug by the Turks with water. On May 29, 1453, after a long siege, the city fell. Constantinople became the capital of the Ottoman Empire.
Emperor Constantine IX Palaiologos rushed into battle as a simple warrior and was killed. His heir was his brother Thomas, whose daughter Sophia Fominichna became the wife of our Grand Duke Ivan III. In 1490, her brother Andrei arrived in Moscow, who became the heir to the Byzantine throne after the death of his father, and transferred the rights to the throne to his son-in-law. His daughter Maria married our governor of Vereisky appanage prince Vasily Mikhailovich Udalgo, second cousin of the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III Vasilyevich.

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