Turkomans

Turkoman (also Turсoman or Turkman; Azerbaijani: Türkümənlər, Türkmanlar или Türkəmənlər, Turkmen: Türkmenler, Turkish: Türkmenler) is a term used in the West as the name for Oguz Turkic peoples . According to medieval authors Al-Biruni and Marvasi, this term refers to the Oghuz who converted to Islam.

Originally an exonym, presumably from the period of the high Middle Ages, along with the ancient and familiar name Turk (türk) and tribal names (bayat, bayandur, afshar, kaya and others), the word turkoman began to be used as an ethnonym for all of the Oguz tribes of Anatolia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan .

In Anatolia, from the late Middle Ages, it was replaced by the term "Ottomans" - from the name of the state and the ruling dynasty. It ceased to be used in Azerbaijan since the 17th century, but it has been preserved by the semi-nomadic tribes Terekem, a subethnos of Azerbaijanis.

Today, this ethnonym is used by the Turkmens of Central Asia (the people of Turkmenistan), as well as the descendants of the Oghuz - Iraqi and Syrian Turkmens.

Etymology

There are several versions about the origin of this ethnonym. The very first mention of the term Turkman is recorded in the dictionary “Divan Lugat at-Turk” by Mahmud Kashgari (1074), where the invention of this name is attributed to Alexander the Great. The same version of the etymologization of the term is indicated by Rashid ad-Din. Another version explains the origin of the term from Persian. Türk İman - "a believing Turk." Biruni and Marvasi also mentioned that the Oguzes who converted to Islam were called the Turkmens. F. A. Mikhailov in his work “The Natives of the Trans-Caspian Region and Their Life” notes another version: that the Oghuz Turks called themselves so, answering the question “who are you” - Turk Men (“Turk I”).

Story

For the first time, the term Turkman or Turkoman was probably mentioned in Chinese sources of the 8th – 9th centuries (as Tё-ku-mung, presumably in Semirechye). The spread of the term Turkmen occured with the expansion of the area of ​​residence of that part by the Oghuz that had converted to Islam.

The greatest distribution of the term Turkoman occurs in the era of the Seljuk conquests. Muslim Oghuz turks from the Kinik tribe formed the main core of the future Seljuk tribal union and of the state they would go on to create in the future. Since the Seljuk era, the sultans of the dynasty, with the aim of consolidating power, created military settlements in various parts of the Near and Middle East; so large settlements of Turkomans were created in Syria, Iraq, and eastern Anatolia. After the Battle of Manzikert, the Oghuz turks massively settled throughout Anatolia and on the territory of Azerbaijan (the historical region in the present northwestern Iran). In the XI century, Turkomans densely populated Arran.