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Turkmenistan
Historical Setting
Like the other Central Asian republics, Turkmenistan underwent
the intrusion and rule of several foreign powers before falling
under first Russian and then Soviet control in the modern era.
Most notable were the Mongols and the Uzbek khanates, the latter
of which dominated the indigenous Oghuz tribes until Russian incursions
began in the late nineteenth century.
Origins and Early History
Sedentary Oghuz tribes from Mongolia moved into present-day
Central Asia around the eighth century. Within a few centuries,
some of these tribes had become the ethnic basis of the Turkmen
population.
The Oghuz and the Turkmen
The origins of the Turkmen may be traced back to the Oghuz confederation
of nomadic pastoral tribes of the early Middle Ages, which lived
in present-day Mongolia and around Lake Baikal in present-day
southern Siberia. Known as the Nine Oghuz, this confederation
was composed of Turkic-speaking peoples who formed the basis of
powerful steppe empires in Inner Asia. In the second half of the
eighth century, components of the Nine Oghuz migrated through
Jungaria into Central Asia, and Arabic sources located them under
the term Guzz in the area of the middle and lower Syrdariya
in the eighth century. By the tenth century, the Oghuz had expanded
west and north of the Aral Sea and into the steppe of present-day
Kazakstan, absorbing not only Iranians but also Turks from the
Kipchak and Karluk ethnolinguistic groups. In the eleventh century,
the renowned Muslim Turk scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari described
the language of the Oghuz and Turkmen as distinct from that of
other Turks and identified twenty-two Oghuz clans or sub-tribes,
some of which appear in later Turkmen genealogies and legends
as the core of the early Turkmen.
Oghuz expansion by means of military campaigns went at least
as far as the Volga River and Ural Mountains, but the geographic
limits of their dominance fluctuated in the steppe areas extending
north and west from the Aral Sea. Accounts of Arab geographers
and travelers portray the Oghuz ethnic group as lacking centralized
authority and being governed by a number of "kings" and "chieftains."
Because of their disparate nature as a polity and the vastness
of their domains, Oghuz tribes rarely acted in concert. Hence,
by the late tenth century, the bonds of their confederation began
to loosen. At that time, a clan leader named Seljuk founded a
dynasty and the empire that bore his name on the basis of those
Oghuz elements that had migrated southward into present-day Turkmenistan
and Iran. The Seljuk Empire was centered in Persia, from which
Oghuz groups spread into Azerbaijan and Anatolia.
The name Turkmen first appears in written sources of
the tenth century to distinguish those Oghuz groups who migrated
south into the Seljuk domains and accepted Islam from those that
had remained in the steppe. Gradually, the term took on the properties
of an ethnonym and was used exclusively to designate Muslim Oghuz,
especially those who migrated away from the Syrdariya Basin. By
the thirteenth century, the term Turkmen supplanted the
designation Oghuz altogether. The origin of the word
Turkmen remains unclear. According to popular etymologies
as old as the eleventh century, the word derives from Turk
plus the Iranian element manand , and means "resembling
a Turk." Modern scholars, on the other hand, have proposed that
the element man /men acts as an intensifier
and have translated the word as "pure Turk" or "most Turk-like
of the Turks."
The Seljuk Period
In the eleventh century, Seljuk domains stretched from the delta
of the Amu Darya delta into Iran, Iraq, the Caucasus region, Syria,
and Asia Minor. In 1055 Seljuk forces entered Baghdad, becoming
masters of the Islamic heartlands and important patrons of Islamic
institutions. The last powerful Seljuk ruler, Sultan Sanjar (d.
1157), witnessed the fragmentation and destruction of the empire
because of attacks by Turkmen and other tribes.
Until these revolts, Turkmen tribesmen were an integral part
of the Seljuk military forces. Turkmen migrated with their families
and possessions on Seljuk campaigns into Azerbaijan and Anatolia,
a process that began the Turkification of these areas. During
this time, Turkmen also began to settle the area of present-day
Turkmenistan. Prior to the Turkmen habitation, most of this desert
had been uninhabited, while the more habitable areas along the
Caspian Sea, Kopetdag Mountains, Amu Darya, and Murgap River (Murgap
Deryasy) were populated predominantly by Iranians. The city-state
of Merv was an especially large sedentary and agricultural area,
important as both a regional economic-cultural center and a transit
hub on the famous Silk Road.
Data as of March 1996
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