Turkestan
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Map of Turkestan (green) with borders of modern states in white |
Turkestan (
Persian: ترکستان ) (also spelled
Turkistan or
Türkistan, literally means "Land of the Turks") is a region in
Central Asia, which today is largely inhabited by
Turkic people. It also contains some of the great cities of
Persian culture, notably
Samarkand,
Bukhara and
Tashkent. It still has a substantial
Iranian population, known today as
Tajiks.
It is subdivided into
West (Russian) and
East Turkestan (called Xinjiang Turkestan by the
PRC, administered as the
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, titled Uyghuristan by
Uyghur separatists), with the
Tian Shan and
Pamir ranges forming a rough division between the two.
It has a rich history, dating back to the
3rd millennium BC and the
2nd millennium BC. Many
artifacts were produced in that period, much
trade was conducted; the region was a focal point for
cultural diffusion, as the
Silk Road traversed the region.
In the
Mongol Empire era, the area was governed by the
Chagatai Khanate. Subsequently it was governed by the
Timurid Empire.
Known as
Turan to
Iranians, western Turkestan has also been known historically as
Sogdiana,
Ma wara'u'n-nahr (by its
Arab conquerors), and
Transoxiana by Western travellers. The latter two names refer to its position beyond the River
Oxus when approached from the south, emphasizing Turkestan's long-standing relationship with
Iran, the
Persian Empires and the
Umayyad and
Abbasid Caliphates.
Russian and Chinese influence
The region became part of the
Russian Empire in the 1860s, and is thus sometimes called
Russian Turkestan or the Туркестанский Край (
Turkestanskii Krai). After the
Russian Revolution, a
Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of the
Soviet Union was created, which was eventually split into the
Kazakh SSR (
Kazakhstan),
Kirghiz SSR (
Kyrgyzstan),
Tajik SSR (
Tajikistan),
Turkmen SSR (
Turkmenistan) and
Uzbek SSR (
Uzbekistan). After the
collapse of the Soviet Union, these republics gained their independence.
Eastern Turkestan, often called Chinese Turkestan, is home to the oldest settled Turkic people in the region, the
Uyghurs. It was conquered by the
Qing Dynasty in the mid-18th century and was named
Ice Jecen or
Xinjiang (otherwise spelt
Sinkiang), meaning
new frontier. It was taken over by the
Republic of China and then the
People's Republic of China by which it is now administered as the
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
*
V.V. Barthold "Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion" (London) 1968 (3rd Edition)
*
René Grousset "L'empire des steppes" (Paris) 1965
*David Christian "A History Of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia" (Oxford) 1998 Vol.I
*Svat Soucek "A History of Inner Asia" (Cambridge) 2000
*
Vasily Bartold "Работы по Исторической "еографии" (Moscow) 2002
**
English translation: V.V. Barthold "Work on Historical Geography" (Moscow) 2002
* Rall, Ted. "Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia the New Middle East?" New York: NBM Publishing, 2006.
*
Zeki Velidi Togan*
Hasan Paksoy*
Basmachi*
Welcome to Turkistan*
Turkic Languages: Practice Kazakh
