to time they borrowed a good deal from their more civilized neighbours, but their natural manner of life was simple and untrammelled. The Turkish-speaking tribes were apparently the most mobile and adventurous. Starting from the confines of China they reached India, Algeria and the walls of Vienna. They probably formed a large contingent in the hordes of Jenghiz and of the Huns, and perhaps the Petchenegs, Avars and Comans all belonged to this group. In comparison with them the Mongol and Manchu-speaking tribes, though conquerors in the East on no mean scale, seem stationary and inactive, while the Finno-Ugrians are nomad hunters rather than warriors. To the honour of the Turks it must be said that, bad as is their administration when judged by European standards and especially when applied to Europeans, the empires of the Seljuks, Osmanlis and Moguls which they founded rise far above the ordinary standard of ephemeral Oriental dynasties.
The effect of Turkish invasions has been in the main destructive, but they have also played a considerable part in transporting both ideas and commodities from one end of the old world to the other. The achievement by which they are best known—the transplantation of Mahommedanism on to European soil—is a remarkable, though not successful, feat of this kind. But they are also largely responsible for the introduction of Mahommedanism into India, for carrying Nestorian Christianity and Persian fire-worship into China, and for the overland intercourse between China and India which fostered if it did not introduce Chinese Buddhism. They exported Chinese silk to Byzantium, and the most ancient Buddhist temple in Japan contains Persian objects which must have been brought across Asia by their caravans.
Divisions.—At the present day the name Turk is applied primarily to the people who have conquered Constantinople and the regions known as Turkey, but the following may be classed as Turkish in the sense of belonging to the same group linguistically and to some extent racially:—
1. The Yakuts are a Siberian tribe who inhabit the country near the banks of the middle and lower Lena, including Yakutsk and Verkhoyansk on the Yana. Their language is purely Turkish, though differing considerably from the more western Turkish idioms, but they have largely intermingled with the Tunguses. They are said to be industrious and skilful alike as artisans, traders and agriculturists. They are nominal Christians, but preserve much of their old nature worship.
2. Tatar (q.v.) or Tartar is a popular name which in its most correct sense is applied to Turkish-speaking Moslems in Russia, who number over three millions and are mostly remnants of the Mongol invasion which took place in the 13th century. But it is also extended rather loosely to various tribes in Siberia and elsewhere who speak Mongolian, Finnish or other languages.
The following classes of Tatars speak Turkish languages: (a) The Kazan Tatars, numbering perhaps a million. Their centre is in the government of Kazan, but they extend down both banks of the Volga as far as the government of Saratov. (b) The Astrakhan Tatars, numbering only about 10,000. (c) The Bashkirs, whose headquarters are in the government of Ufa. They appear to be a tribe of Finnish origin who have adopted a Turkish language. (d ) The Tatars of the Crimea, sometimes called the Krim or Nogai Tatars, who occupied the Crimea in the 13th century and had a considerable empire from the 15th to the 17th century. There are also Nogai Tatars in the Caucasus and Kuban country, (e) There are considerable bodies of Tatars in Rumania and Bulgaria, who appear to be Nogais who have emigrated from the Crimea, Bessarabia and other parts of Russia. (f ) The Tatars of the Caucasus seem to be for the most part Azerbaijan Turks mingled with Armenian, Georgian, Lesghian and other blood. But the name is often loosely applied to any Mahommedan Caucasian tribe.
3. Kirghiz (q.v.), nomadic tribes amounting to about three million souls who are found chiefly in Asiatic Russia. They fall into two chief divisions, (a) The Kazaks, who inhabit the northern and eastern parts of the Aral-Caspian basin, including the government of Orenburg. They do not call themselves Kirghiz, and apparently the name has been given them by the Russians in order not to confuse them with the Cossacks, (b) The Kara-Kirghiz, who are the less numerous division, live in Dzungaria, in the Altai, about lakes Balkash and Issyk-kul, and extend southwards to the Pamirs and the sources of the Oxus. Some of them inhabit Chinese territory. Both divisions live chiefly on the produce of their herds. Their chief drink is koumiss, or fermented mare's milk.
4. The Kara-Kalpaks (q.v.) or Black-caps, who inhabit the south-eastern shores of the sea of Aral, are sometimes classed with the Kirghiz, but seem to be a separate branch of the Turki stock. They are a feeble race, apparently in process of extinction, and now number only about 50,000.
5. Uzbeg is a political and not an ethnological denomination. It is derived from Uzbeg Khan of the Golden Horde (1312–1340), and was subsequently used at the beginning of the 16th century to designate the adherents of Shaibani Khan. Finally it was employed as the name of the ruling tribes in the Central Asian khanates (much like Osmanli in Turkey), in opposition to Kirghiz and Sarts, as well as to non-Turkish tribes. The Uzbegs are accordingly a mixed race, but the elements of which they are composed are mostly Turkish. Their numbers have been estimated at about two millions. They are mostly agriculturists or dwellers in cities, not nomads.
6. Sart is the name commonly given to the Turkish-speaking urban population of the Central Asian khanates. It is opposed to Tajik, which denotes the agricultural, Iranian-speaking population, but both words are used very loosely and have come to mean little more than town and country people. Sart and Uzbeg are also opposed in the meanings of common people and aristocracy, but many Sarts claim Uzbeg descent. The word is hardly suitable for scientific use, but is employed by Russian writers as the name of the Turkish language spoken in Bokhara, Samarkand and Ferghana.
7. The various Turkish tribes found on the eastern slopes of the Tian Shan, in Kashgar, Yarkand, Khotan, &c., are the descendants of the ancient Uīghurs or Ouīghours. These people were probably the most eastern branch of the Turks who remained behind when the first westward movements were made, but subsequently moved westward themselves. They ruled in Kashgaria from the 10th to the 12th centuries, and, like other branches of the Turks, adopted Mahommedanism. They continued, however, to use a variety of the Syriac alphabet introduced by Nestorian missionaries, and a book, the Kudatku Bilik, composed in their language about 1065, is extant. The Taranchis, an agricultural tribe of the Ili basin, seem also to belong to this group. The Turkish spoken in Kashgaria, &c., is often distinguished as Turki.
8. Mogul, Moghul or Mughal, appears to be the same word as Mongol, but is commonly restricted to the tribes who invaded northern India from Ferghana in 1526 under Baber (or Babar) and established the Mahommedan Empire of Delhi. Memoirs written by Baber in Jagatai Turkish are extant.
9. The Koibals and Karagasses of the upper Yenisei are perhaps of Finnish stock, but they speak languages akin to the Kashgarian Turki. They are sometimes called Tatars.
10. Turkoman or Turkman is the name usually given to the nomadic tribes who inhabit the country between the Caspian and the Oxus. They appear to be a branch of the Western Turks and not essentially different from the Osmanlis or Azerbaijanis, except that until the Russian occupation of Merv they remained in the condition of predatory horse-riding nomads, much feared by their neighbours as “man-stealing Turks.”
They are divided into many tribes, of which the principal are (a) The Chaudors in the north-western part of the Ust-Urt and near the Kara-boghaz Gulf. (b) The Yomuts or Yamuds extending from Khiva across the Ust-Urt and along the shore of the Caspian to Persia, (c) The Goklans or Göklens settled in the Persian province of Astarabad. They are said to be the most civilized and friendly of all the Turkomans, (d ) The Tekkes, who were the most important tribe when the Russians conquered Transcaspia. They are first heard of in the peninsula of Mangishlak, but were driven out by the Kalmuks in 1718, and subsequently occupied the Akhal and Merv oases. The Russians inflicted a crushing defeat on them at Geok-Tepe in 1881. (e) The Sakars inhabit the left bank of the Oxus near Charjui. (f ) The Sariks are found in the neighbourhood of Panjdeh and Yulatan. (g) The Salors, an old and important tribe, suffered much in the course of fights with the Tekkes and in 1857 migrated to Zarabad in Persian territory near the Hari-rud. (h) The Ersaris are now chiefly found
