Turkic migration

Quick Facts: Who was Turkic migration?

Subject:

Turkic migration

Known for:

The vast historical spread of Turkic tribes and languages across Eurasia from the 6th to 11th centuries.

Verified Source:

2Day Chrono-Wiki & Primary Historical Archives

Origins & Early Life

The Turkic migrations were the spread of Turkic tribes and Turkic languages across Eurasia between the 6th and 11th centuries. In the 6th century, the Göktürks overthrew the Rouran Khaganate in what is now Mongolia and expanded in all directions, spreading Turkic culture throughout the Eurasian steppes. Although Göktürk empires came to an end in the 8th century, they were succeeded by numerous Turkic empires such as the Uyghur Khaganate, Kara-Khanid Khanate, Khazars, and the Cumans. Some Turks eventually settled down into sedentary societies such as the Qocho and Ganzhou Uyghurs. The Seljuq dynasty invaded Anatolia starting in the 11th century, resulting in permanent Turkic settlement and presence there.

Career & Major Achievements

Modern nations with large Turkic populations include Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, and Turkic populations also exist within other nations, such as Chuvashia, Bashkortostan, Tatarstan and the Sakha Republic of Siberia in Russia, Northern Cyprus, the Crimean Tatars, the Kazakhs in Mongolia, the Uyghurs in China, and the Azeris in Iran. Proposals for the homeland (Urheimat) of the Turkic peoples and their language are far-ranging, from the Transcaspian steppe to Northeastern Asia (Manchuria). Peter Benjamin Golden listed Proto-Turkic lexical items about the climate, topography, flora, fauna, people's modes of subsistence in the hypothetical Proto-Turkic Urheimat and proposed that the Proto-Turkic Urheimat was located at the southern, taiga-steppe zone of the Sayan-Altay region. According to Yunusbayev et al. (2015), genetic evidence points to an origin in the region near South Siberia and Mongolia as the "Inner Asian Homeland" of the Turkic ethnicity. Similarly several linguists, including Juha Janhunen, Roger Blench and Matthew Spriggs, suggest that Mongolia is the homeland of the early Turkic language.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

According to Robbeets, the Turkic people descend from people who lived in a region extending from present-day South Siberia and Mongolia to the West Liao River Basin (modern Manchuria). Authors Joo-Yup Lee and Shuntu Kuang analyzed ten years of genetic research on Turkic people and compiled scholarly information about Turkic origins, and said that the early and medieval Turks were a heterogeneous group and that the Turkification of Eurasia was a result of language diffusion, not a migration of a homogeneous population. Uchiyama et al argue that since nomadic peoples such as Xiongnu, Rouran and Xianbei share underlying genetic ancestry "that falls into or close to the northeast Asian gene pool", the proto-Turkic language likely originated in northeastern Asia, on the eastern fringes of the Northern Eurasian Greenbelt forest zone. Around 1200 BC, the (hunter-gathering and semi-agricultural) ancestors of the Turkic peoples probably migrated westwards into the steppe of Mongolia, where they adopted a pastoral lifestyle, in part borrowed from Iranian peoples. The Huns have often been considered a people with Turkic origins and/or associated with the Xiongnu.

Chronological Milestones & Life Events

1. 1200: 1200 Milestone — Around 1200 BC, the (hunter-gathering and semi-agricultural) ancestors of the Turkic peoples probably migrated westwards into the steppe of Mongolia, where they adopted a pastoral lifestyle, in part borrowed from Iranian peoples.
2. 2015: 2015 Milestone — (2015), genetic evidence points to an origin in the region near South Siberia and Mongolia as the "Inner Asian Homeland" of the Turkic ethnicity.

Historical Fact-Check Quiz: Turkic migration

True or False: “Did all groups speaking Turkic languages adopt the name 'Turk' as their primary identity during the Göktürk period?”

Answer (FALSE ❌): No; while the term was used for the Eastern Turkic Khaganate, other groups like the Western Turkic Khaganate and Tiele maintained their own distinct tribal names.

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Frequently Asked Questions about Turkic migration