Tumen, or tümen ("unit of ten thousand"; Old Turkic: tümän; mn, Түмэн, ''tümen''; tr , tümen; hu , tömény), was a

decimal The decimal numeral system (also called the base-ten positional numeral system and denary or decanary) is the standard system for denoting integer and non-integer numbers. It is the extension to non-integer numbers of the Hindu–Arabic numeral ...

unit of measurement used by the Turkic and Mongol peoples to quantify and organize their societies in groups of

10,000 10,000 (ten thousand) is the natural number following 9,999 and preceding 10,001. Name Many languages have a specific word for this number: in Ancient Greek it is (the etymological root of the word myriad in English), in Aramaic , in Hebrew ...

. A ''tumen'' denotes a tribal unit of 10,000 households, or a military unit of 10,000 soldiers. English Orientalist Sir Gerard Clauson (1891-1974) defined ''tümän'' as immediately borrowed from Tokharian ''tmān'', which according to Edwin G. Pulleyblank might have been

etymological Etymology () The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words a ...

ly inherited from

Old Chinese Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones from around 12 ...

''tman'' or .

Magyar military organization of the Conquest Era

It was thought that the same kind of military organization was used by the

Magyars Hungarians, also known as Magyars ( ; hu, magyarok ), are a nation and ethnic group native to Hungary () and historical Hungarian lands who share a common culture, history, ancestry, and language. The Hungarian language belongs to the Uralic ...

during the conquest of Hungary. According to Ahmad ibn Rustah (c. 930), a Persian explorer and geographer relying on second-hand information, the "Magyars are a race of Turks and their king rides out with horsemen to the number of 10,000 and this king is called Kanda". However, the Magyars were linguistically Finno-Ugric-speaking peoples and did not speak Turkic. Modern scholarship finds that the Magyar/Hungarian cavalry units were called ''banderia'' and ''dundar'' and not organized in units of 10,000.

Genghis Khan's organization

Genghis Khan Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; ; xng, Temüjin, script=Latn; ., name=Temujin – August 25, 1227) was the founder and first Great Khan (Emperor) of the Mongol Empire, which became the List of largest empires, largest contiguous empire in history a ...

's military system, a tumen was recursively built from units of 10 (aravt), 100 (zuut) and 1,000 ( mingghan), each with a leader reporting to the next higher level. Tumens were considered a practical size, neither too small for an effective campaign nor too big for efficient transport and supply. The military strategy was based on the use of tumens as a useful building block causing reasonable shock and attack. A Mongol army usually consisted out of three tumen, but armies consisting of only one tumen were also deployed. Regardless, tumen would often be understrength and the number of tumen deployed doesn't provide an accurate number of combatants. The commander of a tumen was a ''tümen-ü noyan'', a term sometimes translated "myriarch" (cf.

myriad A myriad (from Ancient Greek grc, μυριάς, translit=myrias, label=none) is technically the number 10,000 (ten thousand); in that sense, the term is used in English almost exclusively for literal translations from Greek, Latin or Sinospher ...

), meaning commander of 10,000.

In modern armies

Tümen is a military unit which is still used in the Turkish Army, consisting of 6,000 to 10,000 soldiers.

Sabah Sabah () is a state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indonesia to the south. The Federal Territory ...

Newspaper Online
''Turkish Armed Forces''
/ref> Its commander is a tümgeneral in the Army and Air Forces and a tümadmiral in the Naval Forces. It is the equivalent of a modern division.

References

{{Mongol Empire Genghis Khan Military history of the Mongol Empire Military units and formations by size Mongolian words and phrases Turkish words and phrases 10000 (number) tr:Tümen

Magyar military organization of the Conquest Era

Genghis Khan's organization

In modern armies

See also

References