¶ I. History. 1. The pre-Islamic period: the first Turks in history and their languages. Towards 540, on the northern fringes of China, the nomadic empire of the Z̲h̲ouan-z̲h̲ouan (proto-Mongols?) dominated the lands of Mongolia and some neighbouring zones. Its Ḳag̲h̲an or ruler had as his vassals notably the chiefs of two important tribal confederations, those of the Türks, in the northern Altai, and the equally Turkish-speaking one of the “High Waggons” (Chinese Kao-kiu) in the Selenga basin (the northern part of central Mongolia). After an abortive revolt by these last, the …

II. Languages . (vi) Turkic languages in non-Arabic and non-Latin scripts. During their history of over fifteen centuries Turkic peoples interacted with peoples and cultures of three continents. As a result of this process they became acquainted with many writing systems, used in various regions between Central Asia and Europe. The historical scene of the emergence of the first written and literary languages of Turkic peoples is Inner Asia, the territory of modern Mongolia, the Tarim Basin (in Sinkiang) an…

[see yeñi ʿot̲h̲mānli̊lar ].

[see turks ]

[see turks ]

[see turks. I.2].

[see ḳazan ; turks. I. History].

[see turks . II. vi, in Suppl.]

, the name given by the Turks to the Sanjak of Alexandretta, at the time of the crisis of 1936-9. For the history of the area see anṭākiya and iskandarūn .

, "mountain of various colours", a name often employed for mountains in Turkish speaking countries; it is the name e.g. (1) of a mountain S. W. of Ḳonya; (2) a mountain, constituting a spur of the Ḳara Dag̲h̲ in the S. E. part of Ḳarṣ, near which the Russians defeated the Turks on 16 Oct. 1877.

, the coming dawn, a Turkish literary group active in the period following the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, and associated with the review T̲h̲erwet-i Fünūn [ q.v.], where its initial manifesto was published. See further turks, ¶ literature, and the articles on the individual authors. (Ed.)

a title (originally ḳag̲h̲an or k̲h̲ag̲h̲an ) borrowed by the Turks from the Juan-juan and meaning “[supreme] ruler”. It was applied by the heathen Turks themselves and the mediaeval Muslim geographers and historians not only to the heads of the various Turkish confederations but also to other non-Muslim rulers such as the Emperor of China. In the form ḳāʾan it was borne by the successors of Čingiz-K̲h̲ān [ q.v.], the Mongol Great K̲h̲āns in Ḳaraḳorum and Peking. Adopted by the Ottoman Sulṭāns, the title, first brought to Europe by the Avars in the 6th century A.D. (the kaganus …

A term synonymous with atabeg , used not only among the Turks, but also in the Caucasus, Turkistan, and by the Tīmūrids and the Turkish dynasties of India. It was still used in the 19th century by the amīrs of Buk̲h̲ārā and Ḵh̲iva, and the amīr of Kās̲h̲g̲h̲ar, Yaʿḳūb Bey, bore the title of atali̊ḳ g̲h̲āzī . (R. Mantran) Bibliography See the article, with a very full bibliography, by M. F. Köprülü in IA, s.v.

, “new literature”, the name given to a Turkish literary movement associated with the review T̲h̲erwet -i Funūn [ q.v.] during the years 1895-1901—that is, during the editorship of Tewfīḳ Fikret [ q.v.]. See further turks, literature, and the articles on the individual authors. (Ed.)

, the Turkish name for Kythera (Cerigo), one of the Ionian islands. In early Ottoman times possession was disputed or shared between the Venetian state and the Venieri. Čoka Adasi̊ was an important post for watching shipping, especially after the loss of the Morea, and was often attacked. In 943-4/1537 the Turks carried off 7000 captives; many survivors fled to the Morea. Čoka Adasi̊ was again raided in 1571 and 1572, when an indecisive naval battle took place there. It was taken by the Turks in…

(Tk. "Great Khan"), a title borne by various of the ethnically Turkish Dihlī Sultans in 7th-8th/13th-14th century Muslim India, including the Slave King G̲h̲iyāt̲h̲ al-Dīn Balban (664-86/1266-87 [ q.v. in Suppl.] and then, as a prince, Sultan Muḥammad b. Tug̲h̲luḳ (724 or 725-52/1324 or 1325-51 [ q.v.]. It was further borne by non-Turks, including several Ḥabs̲h̲īs, hence of servile black East African origin, above all in the sultanate of Gud̲j̲arāt [see Ḥabs̲h̲ī , at Vol. III, 16a]. (Ed.)

, literally iron-head, a Turkish term for the movable stock and equipment, belonging to an office, shop, farm, etc. In Ottoman usage it was commonly applied to articles belonging to the state and, more especially, to the furniture, equipment, and fittings in government offices, forming part of their permanent establishment. The word Demirbas̲h̲ also means stubborn or persistent, and it is usually assumed that this was the sense in which it was ¶ applied by the Turks to King Charles XII of Sweden. It is, however, also possible that the nickname is an ironic comment o…

̲ (modern Turkish: çavuş ). A term used by the Turks to indicate (a) officials staffing the various Palace departments, (b) low-ranking military personnel. The word is met in Uygur, where it refers to a Tou-kiu ambassador; Maḥmūd Kās̲h̲g̲h̲arī defines it as ‘a man who controls promotion in army ranks, and supervises the maintenance of discipline’. The word cāʾūs̲h̲ passed from the Pečenegs and Sald̲j̲ūḳids to the Turks (cf. the μέγας τξαούσιος, chief of the imperial messengers of the Lascari and Paleologi). The Persians used it as a synonym for sarhang and dūrbās̲h̲ …

, a town in ʿAsīr, about 20 miles from Ḏj̲īzān. Philby describes it as kite-shaped, nearly a mile across, consisting mainly of brushwood huts ( ʿarāʾis̲h̲ ) and adjoining extensive ruins. The population (about 12,000) grows millet and sesame. The merchants are mostly of Ḥaḍramī origin. First settled by a s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ (7th/13th century), it prospered under the Zaydī Imāms who captured it in 1036/1627. In the next century the local as̲h̲rāf became independent. They temporarily submitted to the Wahhābīs (1217/1802-3) and later to the Egyptians. Wh…

, an old Turkish word which came, in Islamic times, to mean “slave boy, male slave”, defined by Maḥmūd Kās̲h̲g̲h̲arī, Dīwān lug̲h̲āt al-Turk , ed. Kilisli Rifʿat Bilge, i, 282, tr. Atalay, i, 336-7, as ʿabd . However, the original meaning of ḳul in Orkhon Turkish was rather “servant, vassal, dependent” (the masculine counterpart of kün “female servant, etc.”, the two words being linked in the Kültegin inscription, text references in Talât Tekin, A grammar of Orkhon Turkish, Bloomington, Ind. 1968, 347), since slavery in the Islamic juridical sense did not exist among the ancient Turks. The…