The Turks

T he name of Turkey, a country that forms a land bridge between Europe and Asia, reflects the Turkish heritage of its majority population. Yet the region was inhabited for thousands of years before the Turks arrived, during which time it was known variously as Asia Minor or Anatolia. Its ancient civilization and culture were much more closely tied to Greece than they were to the Turks, a Central Asian people who arrived only in the Middle Ages. Once they arrived, however, they soon made their influence known, establishing a distinctive culture and several mighty empires.

Early Turkish empires (500s–900s)

As with most ethnic groups, the Turks can be defined not so much on the basis of race or appearance, but according to language. Because of their nomadic (wandering) lifestyle and lack of written records, it is difficult to know much about their movements; nonetheless, it appears that in the 500s a group who spoke a Turkic language were enslaved by a nation known as the Juan-Juan in what is now Mongolia. In about 550, these Turks overthrew the Juan-Juan, who moved westward and became known as the Avars.

Avars, Khazars, Bulgars, and Oghuz

The Avars would remain a threat to the Byzantine Empire for two centuries beginning in the late 500s, but in so doing, they had to face an old enemy. Tribes of Turks had also moved westward, to what is now southern Russia, where they established an empire called the Khazar Khanate (kuh-ZAHR KAHN-et). Khan is a title of leadership among Central Asian peoples, and though the khanate was loosely organized as befit a nomadic tribe, the Khazars viewed themselves as enough of a nation to send an ambassador to Byzantium in 568. Later the region came to be known simply as Khazaria, and in the 700s its people converted to Judaism (see box, "The Jewish Kingdom of Khazaria," chapter 8).

In the 600s, another Turkic group moved westward, where they became identified as Bulgars. As they intermarried with Slavs to found the nation of Bulgaria, their Turkish identity vanished. Also during this time, various groups of Turks controlled an enormous expanse of land from China to the Black Sea, and some historians view this as a single, ill-defined "empire." Whatever the case, its impact on history was minor, particularly in the face of the rapid Arab expansion that followed the establishment of the Islamic faith.

Words to Know: The Turks

Diplomat:

Someone who negotiates with other countries on behalf of his own.

Divan:

A council of state in the Ottoman Empire.

Islamize:

To convert to Islam.

Khan:

A Central Asian chieftain.

Shi'ism:

A branch of Islam that does not acknowledge the first three caliphs, and that holds that the true line of leadership is through a series of imams who came after Ali.

Sultan:

A type of king in the Muslim world.

Sultanate:

An area ruled by a Sultan.

Sunni:

An orthodox Muslim who acknowledges the first four caliphs.

Terrorist:

Frightening (and usually harming) a group of people in order to achieve a specific political goal.

Vizier:

A chief minister.

Among the Turkish groups in the "empire" to become Islamized (IZ-lum-ized) were the Oghuz (oh-GÜZ), converted by missionaries from Persia in 960. Their Islamic faith had enormous significance for the Turks' future history, as did the fact that many Turks had served the Abbasid caliphate as slave soldiers. The use of slave soldiers, males raised and trained from childhood to serve a military commander, would become a common practice in Turkish-dominated states throughout

the medieval world. Slave soldiers often gained their freedom, and many went on to become leaders: a slave soldier established the Delhi Sultanate in India in 1206, and a group of slave soldiers called Mamluks won control of Egypt in 1252.

The Seljuks (900s–1243)

In the late 900s, the Oghuz split into several groups, among them the Cumans, who moved into the Black Sea area of southern Russia and would remain there for two centuries. Another tribe of Oghuz, the Seljuks, began migrating southward and westward into Iran, causing their fellow Turks the Ghaznavids to spread into India. By then the Abbasids controlled their caliphate (the region they ruled) in name only; the Buwayhids (boo-WY-edz), a Shi'ite dynasty, actually ruled in Baghdad—that is, until 1055, when the Seljuks seized control. The fact that the Seljuks were Sunni Muslims, like the majority of people in the area, probably helped them win the allegiance of the conquered.

In 1060, the founder of the principal Seljuk dynasty, Toghril Beg (tawg-REEL; c. 990–1063) declared

himself sultan. His successor, Alp Arslan (ruled 1063–72), dealt the Byzantines a near-fatal blow at Manzikert in 1071, and soon afterward the Seljuks gained control of Asia Minor, which they called the Sultanate of Rum—that is, Rome. At this point, they constituted a tiny ethnic minority in the region, but they had established a foothold.

The Seljuks reached the height of their power under Alp Arslan's son Malik Shah (mah-LEEK; 1055–1092), controlling a large portion of the Middle East. After that, they began to decline, partly due to a lack of organization typical among nomadic-style rulers. The Crusades also played a role. The Seljuks had a less tolerant attitude than the Arabs toward Christians visiting the Holy Land, and their harassment of pilgrims—combined with their use of the name "Rome," which implied that they viewed themselves as inheritors of the Roman Empire—angered Europeans.

The Seljuks, finally defeated by the Mongols in 1243, left several important legacies. One was an informal power structure based on loyalty to local religious leaders, who in turn gave their allegiance to political leaders. This made it possible for conquerors to easily replace one another, because the religious leaders served as a buffer between the people and their rulers, who were often foreigners. Another important feature of Seljuk rule was the use of slave soldiers, a group of whom would soon rise to prominence in Egypt.

The Mamluks (1252–1517)

From the time of the Fatimids (909–1171), Egyptian rulers had used the services of Turkish slave soldiers who came to be known as Mamluks (MAM-lükz). In 1252, the Mamluks come to power, and they would maintain control of Egypt for more than 250 years. During that time, the elite Mamluk troops typically chose their rulers, rather than simply passing leadership from father to son.

The Assassins

Today the word "assassin" refers to anyone who kills for a political purpose; originally, however, the name referred to a group of fanatical killers whose primary targets were the Seljuk Turks.

A terrorist organization associated with the Ismaili sect of Islam, the Assassins were established in 1090 by Hasan-e Sabbah, an Iranian religious leader. Hasan was known as the "Old Man of the Mountain," a title that passed to each successive Assassin leader. Operating from a castle in a valley stronghold, the Assassins conducted acts of terrorism and political killing throughout the Muslim world, but particularly in Iran and Iraq. Because the Seljuks happened to be in power at that time, they were the principal target, and all attempts to uproot the Assassins proved fruitless. During the Crusades, Assassins in Syria terrorized both Turks and Christians, but combined attacks by the Mongols and Mamluks in the mid-1200s brought about the end of the terrorist group.

Crusaders brought the word "assassin" home with them, and eventually it entered the languages of Europe. It is thought that the name derives from the Assassins' use of the drug hashish. According to Venetian traveler Marco Polo, Assassin leaders would ensure their men's loyalty by drugging them and taking them to a garden where they could enjoy all manner of earthly delights—pleasures that, they were told, would await them in the afterlife if they died on the field of battle. Contemporary Ismaili sources, however, contain no mention of this "Garden of Paradise."

One of the Mamluks' most astounding achievements came in 1260, when they dealt the Mongols the first defeat in their long campaign of conquest. Their control spread to Syria, and the Mamluks' capital at Cairo in Egypt flourished. The late 1200s constituted a golden age for the Mamluks, and this was followed by a long, slow decline. In 1517 they were removed from power by yet another group of Turks, the Ottomans.

The Ottomans

In the aftermath of the Seljuks' defeat by the Mongols, various Turkish principalities came to power in Anatolia. Among the most prominent was one controlled by the Osman (ahs-MAHN) family. Around 1300, Osman Gazi (GAH-zee; 1258–c.1326) founded what came to be known as the Ottoman dynasty.

The rise of the Ottomans (c. 1300–1389)

Osman's son Orkhan (OHR-kahn; ruled 1326–62) greatly expanded Ottoman control, partly by military action but even more so by skillful maneuvering. Orkhan introduced the offices of vizier and divan (di-VAHN), or council of state, and proved his ability as a diplomat in his relations with the Byzantine emperor John VI Cantacuzenus (kan-tuh-kyoo-ZEE-nuhs; ruled 1347–54).

Orkhan supported John militarily in a struggle against another claimant on the Byzantine throne, and in return the Ottomans received the Gallipoli (gah-LIP-oh-lee) Peninsula. A narrow strip of land some sixty-three miles long, Gallipoli happened to lie on the other side of the strait separating Europe from Asia.

Beginning with this small territory, Orkhan's son Murad (moo-RAHD; ruled 1362–89) was able to greatly expand Ottoman territories in Europe. Following his defeat of Serbian and Bulgarian forces in 1371, Murad moved his capital from Bursa in Anatolia to Edirne (ay-DEER-nuh) or Adrianople in Europe, thus showing his determination to keep moving deeper into the continent.

The Janissaries

Around the time he conquered Bulgaria in 1388, the Ottoman sultan Murad established a force similar to the Mamluks, an elite military group called the Janissaries (JAN-uh-sair-eez). The latter was composed of non-Turkish captives who had been converted to Islam and subjected to strict discipline.

In time the Janissaries became so influential that they had the power to make or break sultans. The institution continued to exist for more than 400 years, until 1826, when Sultan Mahmud II (ruled 1808–39) ordered the execution of all Janissaries.

Murad went on to conquer Bulgaria in 1388, and on June 28, 1389, his armies defeated a combined force of Serbians and others at Kosovo (KOH-suh-voh) Field in southern Serbia. The battle established Ottoman power over the southeastern portion of Europe—all except for the remnants of the Byzantine Empire—but Murad himself did not get to enjoy it for long. Soon after Kosovo, he was assassinated by a Serbian officer.

Troubled times and recovery (1389–1481)

In 1396, on a battlefield in what is now Bulgaria, an army led by Murad's son Bajazed (by-yuh-ZEED; ruled 1389–1402) defeated a combined Hungarian and Venetian force, organized by the pope to protect Europe from an Islamic invasion. The Ottomans seemed poised to begin absorbing more and more of Europe; then from the east came the Mongol armies of Tamerlane, who in 1402 captured Bajazed himself.

As it turned out, Mongol power was as shortlived in Anatolia as in most parts of the world, and upon Tamerlane's death in 1405, the sons of Bajazed began vying for power. The restored line of Ottoman rulers faced numerous military challenges: from Venice in the Aegean Sea; from Hungary in the Balkans; and from rebel forces in Anatolia and Albania. The leader of the Albanian revolt, Skanderbeg or George Kastrioti (1405–1468), was celebrated throughout the Western world for his brave resistance to the Turkish armies, and Albanians remember him as their national hero.

Had the Ottoman Empire kept going the way it was, it would not have lasted much longer, but in fact it continued until 1922. Its recovery began under Mehmed (meh-MET) the Conqueror, who ruled from 1451 to 1481. It was Mehmed who finally brought down the Byzantine Empire in 1453, after which Constantinople became the new Ottoman capital, Istanbul. Mehmed added Bosnia and Herzegovina (hurt-ze-GOH-vi-nuh) to the empire, and by the end of his reign Turkish power extended from the coast of the Adriatic (ay-dree-AT-ik) Sea, which faces Italy, to the region known as the Caucasus (KAW-kuh-sus) in southern Russia.

For More Information

Books

Dijkstra, Henk, editor. History of the Ancient and Medieval World, Volume 11: Empires of the Ancient World. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 1996, pp. 1555–65.

Roberts, J. M. The Illustrated History of the World, Volume 4: The Age of Diverging Traditions. New York: Oxford, 1998, pp. 97–102, 122–23.

Stewart, Desmond, and The Editors of Time-Life Books. Early Islam. New York: Time-Life Books, 1967.

Web Sites

"End of Europe's Middle Ages—Ottoman Turks." [Online] Available http://www.ucalgary.ca/HIST/tutor/endmiddle/ottoman.html (last accessed July 28, 2000).

"The Seljuk Civilization." Explore Turkey. [On-line] Available http://www.exploreturkey.com/selcuklu.htm (last accessed July 28, 2000).

"The Turkish Dynasties: The Seljuks." Art Arena. [Online] Available http://www.artarena.force9.co.uk/seljuk.html (last accessed July 28, 2000).