Who were the Turks? On the face of it, the question seems simple, but it has fueled heated debates for generations among scholars and the general public alike. The deeper one digs into the origins of the Turkic peoples, the more the certainties dissolve into blank spots, contested theories, and competing claims. In an interview with Qalam, historian Joo-Yup Lee explains why the ethnonym ‘Türk’ originally referred to a small ruling class at the head of a vast empire, and how, over centuries, it expanded to encompass an entire family of peoples scattered across Eurasia.
Uyghur princes. Wall painting from Cave 9 of the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves. 8th–9th century / Ethnological Museum, Berlin / Wikimedia Commons
Gold buckle with a scene of boar hunting. 2nd–1st century BCE. Found at Saksanokhur, Tajikistan / National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan / Wikimedia Commons
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THE ORIGINS OF THE TURKS
Peter B. Golden on Etymology, Identity, and Power in the Early Turkic world
Coin of Shahi Tegin (Sri Shahi), ruler of the Turk Shahi dynasty. After 679 CE / Classical Numismatic Group / Wikimedia Commons
Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky. General view of the Shah-i-Zinda complex. Samarkand, 1905–1915 / Library of Congress / Wikimedia Commons
Monuments bearing the Tonyukuk inscriptions, part of the Orkhon inscriptions complex. Mongolia / Vezirtonyukuk / Wikimedia Commons
Fragment of the Tonyukuk inscription, written in the Old Turkic runic script. 8th century / Wikimedia Commons
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THE MONGOLS AND THE KIPCHAKS
Why Did the Mongol Elite of the Golden Horde Adopt Turkic Language?
Manichaean priests writing at their desks. Leaf from a Manichaean manuscript from the Uyghur Kingdom of Qocho. 8th–9th century. Painting on paper / Wikimedia Commons
Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky. Turkmen woman in traditional clothing and jewelry at the entrance to a yurt. 1911 / Library of Congress / Wikimedia Commons
