Turan ( ae, Tūiriiānəm, pal, Tūrān; fa, توران, Turân, , "The Land of Tur") is a historical region in Central Asia. The term is of Iranian origin and may refer to a particular prehistoric human settlement, a historic geographical region, or a culture. The original Turanians were an Iranian tribe of the Avestan age.

Overview

In ancient Iranian mythology, Tūr or Turaj (''Tuzh'' in Middle Persian) is the son of the emperor Fereydun. According to the account in the '' Shahnameh'', the nomadic tribes who inhabited these lands were ruled by Tūr. In that sense, the Turanians could be members of two Iranian peoples both descending from Fereydun, but with different geographical domains and often at war with each other. Turan, therefore, comprised five areas: the Kopet Dag region, the Atrek valley, parts of

Bactria Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia in Amu Darya's middle stream, stretching north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Gissar range, covering the northern part of Afghanistan, southwe ...

Sogdia Sogdia (Sogdian language, Sogdian: ) or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian peoples, Iranian civilization between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, and in present-day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Sogdiana was also ...

and Margiana. A later association of the original Turanians with Turkic peoples is based primarily on the subsequent Turkification of Central Asia, including the above areas. According to C. E. Bosworth, however, there was no cultural relationship between the ancient Turkic cultures and the Turanians of the Shahnameh.

History

Ancient literature

Avesta

The oldest existing mention of Turan is in the Farvardin '' yashts'', which are in the Young Avestan language and have been dated by linguists to about 2500 years ago. According to

Gherardo Gnoli Gherardo Gnoli (6 December 1937 in Rome – 7 March 2012 in Cagli) was a historian of Italy, Italian religions and Iran expert.Carlo Cereti, “GNOLI, GHERARDO,” Encyclopædia Iranica, online edition, 2015, available at http://www.iranicaonline.or ...

, the ''Avesta'' contains the names of various tribes who lived in proximity to each other: "the Airyas ryans Tuiryas

uranians The Uranians were a 19th-century clandestine group of up to several dozen male homosexual poets and prose writers who principally wrote on the subject of the love of (or by) adolescent boys. In a strict definition they were an English literary an ...

Sairimas armatians Sainus acaeand

Dahis Dey (Arabic: داي), from the Turkish honorific title ''dayı'', literally meaning uncle, was the title given to the rulers of the Regency of Algiers (Algeria), Tripoli,Bertarelli (1929), p. 203. and Tunis under the Ottoman Empire from 1671 on ...

ahae.G. Gnoli, ''Zoroaster's time and homeland'', Naples 1980 In the hymns of the '' Avesta'', the adjective ''Tūrya'' is attached to various enemies of Zoroastrism like Fraŋrasyan (Shahnameh: Afrāsīāb). The word occurs only once in the ''

Gathas The Gathas ()"Gatha"
''

According to Mary Boyce, in the Farvardin Yasht, "In it (verses 143–144) are praised the fravashis of righteous men and women not only among the Aryas (as the "Avestan" people called themselves), but also among the Turiyas, Sairimas, Sainus and Dahis; and the personal names, like those of the people, all seem Iranian in character". Hostility between Tuirya and Airya is indicated also in the Farvardtn Yast (vv. 37-8), where the Fravashis of the Just are said to have provided support in battle against the Danus, who appear to be a clan of the Tura people. Thus in the ''Avesta'', some of the Tuiryas believed in the message of Zoroaster while others rejected the religion. Similar to the ancient homeland of Zoroaster, the precise geography and location of Turan is unknown. In post-Avestan traditions they were thought to inhabit the region north of the Oxus, the river separating them from the Iranians. Their presence accompanied by incessant wars with the Iranians, helped to define the latter as a distinct nation, proud of their land and ready to spill their blood in its defense.Ehsan Yarshater, "Iranian National History," in ''The Cambridge History of Iran'' 3(1)(1983), 408–409 The common names of Turanians in Avesta and '' Shahnameh'' include Frarasyan, Aghraethra, Biderafsh, Arjaspa Namkhwast. The names of Iranian tribes including those of the Turanians that appear in Avesta have been studied by Manfred Mayrhofer in his comprehensive book on Avesta personal name etymologies.

Sassanian Empire

From the 5th century CE, the

Sasanian Empire The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the History of Iran, last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th cen ...

defined "Turan" in opposition to "Iran", as the land where lay its enemies to the northeast. The continuation of nomadic invasions on the north-eastern borders in historical times kept the memory of the Turanians alive. After the 6th century the Turks, who had been pushed westward by other tribes, became neighbours of Iran and were identified with the Turanians. The identification of the Turanians with the Turks was a late development, possibly made in the early 7th century; the Turks first came into contact with the Iranians only in the 6th century.

Middle literature

Early Islamic era

According to Clifford E. Bosworth: The terms "Turk" and "Turanian" became used interchangeably during the Islamic era. ''The Shahnameh'', or the Book of Kings, the compilation of Iranian mythical heritage, uses the two terms equivalently. Other authors, including Tabari, Hakim Iranshah and many other texts follow like. A notable exception is the Abl-Hasan Ali ibn Masudi, an Arab historian who writes: "The birth of Afrasiyab was in the land of Turks and the error that historians and non-historians have made about him being a Turk is due to this reason". By the 10th century, the myth of Afrasiyab was adopted by the Qarakhanid dynasty. During the

Safavid Safavid Iran or Safavid Persia (), also referred to as the Safavid Empire, '. was one of the greatest Iranian empires after the 7th-century Muslim conquest of Persia, which was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often conside ...

era, following the common geographical convention of the ''Shahnameh'', the term Turan was used to refer to the domain of the Uzbek empire in conflict with the Safavids. Some linguists derive the word from the Indo-Iranian root *''tura-'' "strong, quick, sword(Pashto)", Pashto ''turan (thuran)'' "swordsman". Others link it to old Iranian *''tor'' "dark, black", related to the New Persian ''tār(ik)'', Pashto ''tor (thor)'', and possibly English ''dark''. In this case, it is a reference to the "dark civilization" of Central Asian nomads in contrast to the "illuminated" Zoroastrian civilization of the settled Ārya.

Shahnameh

In the Persian epic ''Shahnameh'', the term ''Tūrān'' ("land of the Tūrya" like '' Ērān, Īrān'' = "land of the Ārya") refers to the inhabitants of the eastern-Iranian border and beyond the Oxus. According to the foundation myth given in the ''Shahnameh'', King Firēdūn (= Avestan Θraētaona) had three sons, Salm, Tūr and '' Iraj'', among whom he divided the world: Asia Minor was given to Salm, Turan to Tur and Iran to Īraj. The older brothers killed the younger, but he was avenged by his grandson, and the Iranians became the rulers of the world. However, the war continued for generations. In the ''Shahnameh'', the word Turan appears nearly 150 times and that of Iran nearly 750 times. Some examples from the ''Shahnameh'':

Modern literature

Geography

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Western languages borrowed the word ''Turan'' as a general designation for modern Central Asia, although this expression has now fallen into disuse. Turan appears next to Iran on numerous maps of the 19th century to designate a region encompassing modern Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and northern parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. This area roughly corresponds to what is called Central Asia today. The phrase ''Turan Plain'' or ''

Turan Depression The Turan Depression, Turan Lowland or Turanian Basin is a lowland, low-lying desert Depression (geology), basin region stretching from southern Turkmenistan through Uzbekistan to Kazakhstan. Geography The lowland region lies to the east of th ...

'' became a geographical term referring to a part of Central Asia.

Linguistics

The term ''Turanian'', now obsolete, formerly occurred in the classifications used by European (especially

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

, Hungarian, and Slovak) ethnologists,

linguists Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

, and Romantics to designate populations speaking non- Indo-European, non-

Semitic Semitic most commonly refers to the Semitic languages, a name used since the 1770s to refer to the language family currently present in West Asia, North and East Africa, and Malta. Semitic may also refer to: Religions * Abrahamic religions ** ...

, and non- Hamitic languages and specially speakers of Altaic, Dravidian,

Uralic The Uralic languages (; sometimes called Uralian languages ) form a language family of 38 languages spoken by approximately 25million people, predominantly in Northern Eurasia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian (w ...

, Japanese, Korean and other languages. Max Müller (1823–1900) identified different sub-branches within the Turanian language family: * the Middle Altaic division branch, comprising Tungusic, Mongolic, Turkic. * The Northern Ural Samoyedic, Ugriche and Finnic. * the Southern branch consisted of Dravidian languages such as Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, and other Dravidian languages. * the languages of the Caucasus which Müller classified as the ''scattered languages of the Turanian family''. Müller also began to muse whether

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

belonged to the Northern branch or Southern branch. The main relationships between Dravidian, Uralic, and Altaic languages were considered

typological Typology is the study of types or the systematic classification of the types of something according to their common characteristics. Typology is the act of finding, counting and classification facts with the help of eyes, other senses and logic. Ty ...

. According to Crystal & Robins, "Language families, as conceived in the historical study of languages, should not be confused with the quite separate classifications of languages by reference to their sharing certain predominant features of grammatical structure." linguists classify languages according to the method of

comparative linguistics Comparative linguistics, or comparative-historical linguistics (formerly comparative philology) is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness. Genetic relatedness ...

rather than using their typological features. According to ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', Max's Müller's "efforts were most successful in the case of the Semites, whose affinities are easy to demonstrate, and probably least successful in the case of the Turanian peoples, whose early origins are hypothetical". the scholarly community no longer uses the word ''Turanian'' to denote a classification of language families. The relationship between Uralic and Altaic, whose speakers were also designated as Turanian people in 19th-century European literature, remains uncertain.

Ideology

In European discourse, the words ''Turan'' and ''Turanian'' can designate a certain mentality, i.e. the nomadic in contrast to the

urbanized ''Urbanized'' is a documentary film directed by Gary Hustwit and released on 26 October 2011. It is considered the third of a three-part series on design known as the Design Trilogy; the first being ''Helvetica'', about the typeface, and the seco ...

agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating Plant, plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of Sedentism, sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of Domestication, domesticated species created food ...

civilizations. This usage probably matches the Zoroastrian concept of the ''Tūrya'', which is not primarily a linguistic or ethnic designation, but rather a name of the infidels that opposed the civilization based on the preaching of Zoroaster. Combined with physical anthropology, the concept of the Turanian mentality has a clear potential for cultural polemic. Thus in 1838 the scholar J.W. Jackson described the ''Turanid'' or ''Turanian'' race in the following words:"The Iran and Turan", ''Anthropological Review'' 6:22 (1868), p. 286 Polish philosopher Feliks Koneczny claimed the existence of a distinctive Turanian civilization, encompassing both Turkic and some

Slavs Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...

, such as Russians. This alleged civilization's hallmark would be militarism, anti-intellectualism and an absolute obedience to the ruler. Koneczny saw this civilization as inherently inferior to Latin (Western European) civilization.

Politics

In the declining days of the Ottoman Empire, some Turkish nationalists adopted the word ''Turanian'' to express a pan-Turkic ideology, also called Turanism. Turanism forms an important aspect of the

ideology An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied pri ...

of the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party (''MHP''), whose members are also known as Grey Wolves. In recent times, the word ''Turanian'' has sometimes expressed a pan-Altaic nationalism (theoretically including Manchus and Mongols in addition to Turks), though no political organization seems to have adopted such an ambitious platform.

Names

''Turandot'' – or ''Turandokht'' – is a female name in Iran and it means ''"Turan's Daughter"'' in Persian. (It is best known in the West through

Puccini Giacomo Puccini (Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long lin ...

's famous opera '' Turandot'' (1921–24).) Turan is also a common name in the Middle East, and as family surnames in some countries including Bahrain, Iran,

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and He ...

and Turkey. The

Ayyubid The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni ...

ruler Saladin had an older brother with the name Turan-Shah. Turaj, whom ancient Iranian myths depict as the ancestor of the Turanians, is also a popular name and means ''Son of Darkness''. The name Turan according to Iranian myths derives from the homeland of Turaj. The Pahlavi pronunciation of Turaj is Tuzh, according to the Dehkhoda dictionary. Similarly, Iraj, which is also a popular name, is the brother of Turaj in the ''Shahnameh''. An altered version of Turaj is ''Zaraj'', which means ''son of gold''.

References

External links

Iranians and Turanians in the Avesta
{{Shahnameh Historical regions History of Central Asia Places in Shahnameh Locations in Persian mythology