Invasion of Byzantine Empire

Invasion of Byzantine Empire

Peoples of Asia and Europe who speak Turkic languages, which form one of the two main branches of the Altaic subfamily of the Ural-Altaic language family (The other branch is Mongolic). The term Turks may also refer to the people of Turkey, but in this article the term is used in the broader, linguistic sense.

The Turks appeared first in history as a Mongolian people living in East Asia, but are now found all across that continent and in Eastern Europe. The tribes that migrated westward absorbed the Caucasoid peoples of Central Asia; consequently, western Turks rarely have a Mongolian appearance. Today there are five Turkic nations: Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. In addition, Turkic people form a large part of the population of Kazakhstan, although not the majority; and there are many Turkic peoples in Russia, mainly in the Bashkir, Tatar, and Chuvash republics in European Russia and in the Yakut Republic in Siberia. The Uighurs is a Turkic group in China, forming the largest part of Xinjiang province's population.

The Turks in History

The Turks were nomadic herdsmen first reported in ancient Chinese writings as living in the area of present Mongolia and being among the barbarians who harassed China. It is probable that Turkic tribes had begun migrating westward early in the Christian era. In the fourth century Turkic-speaking barbarians known as Huns appeared in Europe, where they caused terror and destruction for several generations. They were followed by the Avars, who were conquered by Charlemagne in the eighth century (Page, 2008).

The Turks as they moved west absorbed the local population, consisting mostly of descendants of the Indo-European Scythians who had long roamed the Asian steppes. A powerful Turkic empire developed in Central Asia in the sixth century, but it was soon disrupted by Chinese expansion. Some Turkic tribes became allies of the Chinese and were gradually assimilated by them. The Uighur Turks restored the eastern part of the empire in the eighth century, but were displaced 100 years later by the Kirghiz.

Meanwhile, other tribes traveled westward. Some of the Bulgars settled in present Bulgaria in the seventh century and there merged with the Slavic population. Other Bulgars established a country along the middle Volga River. The Khazars formed a nation in the Caucasus and southeastern Russia in the seventh century. The Cumans, (or Polovtsi) and the Petchenegs were among the Turkic tribes that passed north of the Black Sea in the next few centuries and clashed with both the Grand Principality of Kiev in Russia and the Byzantine Empire.

The tribal confederacy of Ghuz (or Oghuz) Turks settled in the area that became known as Turkestan. The Seljuks, a tribe named for a 10th-century leader, became dominant among the Ghuz and by 1055 had conquered all of Persia and had been converted to Islam. In 1071 the Seljuks met the Byzantines in battle at Manzikert (Malazgirt, in eastern Turkey). Although the Byzantines were supported by Turkic allies, the Seljuks won a victory that eventually ...