Bibliography.—The literature on Turkestan has of late years become very voluminous, especially in the form of papers scattered through the periodicals published by the European Geographical Societies and other scientific bodies. The reader is referred to the following works as fitted to facilitate research. Vols. vi. and vii. of Elisée Reclus’s Géographie Universelle contain maps showing the routes of the chief explorers. Prof. Mushketoff’s Turkestan (in Russian, vol. i. 1886) contains an excellent critical analysis of all explorations of Turkestan and works thereupon, and the information they contain with regard to the physical geography and geology of West Turkestan. Prof. Grigorieff’s addenda to Ritter’s Asien embody the whole of the older and more modern researches into the geography and history of East Turkestan down to 1873. Amu and Uzboi (Saratoff, 1879), by the chief of the Amu-Daria expedition, and Bogdanoff’s Review of Expeditions and Explorations in the Aral-Caspian Region from 1720 to 1874 (St Petersburg, 1875) are most useful works. Prof. Lenz’s paper "Ueber den früheren Lauf des Amu-Daria", in Mem. Acad. Sc. St Petersburg, discusses valuable information borrowed from ancient sources. Mezhoff’s Turkestanskiy Sbornik is a catalogue of the Central-Asian library at Tashkend, and his annual "Index" contains full classified lists of Russian geographical literature. Of works of a general character, with descriptions of both regions (apart from travels), the following, arranged in chronological order, are worthy of mention:—Semenoff’s "Tian-Shan," being vol. i. of Ritter’s Asien (Russ. trans., 1856); Grigorieff’s "East Turkestan," forming two vols. of Ritter’s Asien (Russ. transl., 1869 and 1873); Syevertsoff’s "Vertical and Horizontal Distribution of Mammalia in Turkestan," in Izvestia Lub. Est. of Moscow, 1873; Wenjukoff’s Die Russisch-Asiatischen Grenzlande (trans. from Russian by Krahmer, Leipsic, 1874); Hellwald’s Centralasien, 1875; Petzholdt’s Umschau im Russ. Turk., 1877; Kuropatkin’s Kashgaria, 1879 (partially translated into French); Kostenko’s Turkestanskiy Krai, 3 vols., 1880, very copious translations from which are embodied in Lansdell’s Central Asia, but unhappily too intimately combined with less useful information; Schlagintweit’s Reisen in Indien und Hochasien, vol. iii., East Turkestan; Prjevalsky’s three journeys to Central Asia (the first two translated into English; all three in German); Olga Fedtchenko’s Album of Views of Russ. Turk., 1885; Nalivkin’s History of the Khanate of Kokand (in Russ.), Kazan, 1885; Vambéry’s Das Türkenvolk, 1885; Roskoschny’s Afghanistan u. angrenz. Länder (for Afghan Turk.); and Mushketoff’s Turkestan, vol. i. (in Russian), 1886. (p. a. k.)
TURKEY
Part I.—History.
SOMEWHERE about the second decade of the 13th century the little Turkish tribe which in due course was to found the Ottoman empire fled before the Mongols from its original home in Central Asia, and, passing through Persia, entered Armenia, under the leadership of Suleymán Sháh, its hereditary chief. Er-Ṭoghrul. His son, Er-Ṭoghrul, who succeeded him as head of the tribe, when wandering about the country with his warriors came one day upon two armies engaged in a furious battle. Er-Ṭoghrul at once rode to the assistance of the weaker party, who were on the point of giving way, but who through the timely aid thus rendered not only regained what they had lost but totally defeated their enemies. The army thus saved from destruction proved to be that of ‘Alá-ud-Dín, the Seljúḳ sultan of Asia Minor, and their adversaries to be a horde of marauding Mongols. By way of recompense for this service ‘Alá-ud-Dín granted to Er-Ṭoghrul a tract of land on the Byzantine frontier, including the towns of Sugut and Eski Shehr. ‘Osmán. ‘Osmán, the son of Er-Ṭoghrul and the prince from whom the race derives its name of ‘Osmánli (see Turks, p. 661 below), corrupted by Europeans into Ottoman, was born in Sugut in 1258 (a.h. 656). While still young ‘Osmán won from the Greeks Ḳaraja Ḥiṣár (Karahissar) and some other towns, on which account he received from his suzerain, the Seljúḳ sultan of Ḳonya (Konieh), the title of beg or prince, along with the drum and the horsetail standard, the symbols of princely rank.
Early Turkish principalities.
In 1300 (699) the Seljúḳ empire (see Seljuks) fell to pieces under the onslaught of the Mongols, who were, however, powerless to replace it by any government of their own. Thereupon ten separate Turkish dynasties arose from its ruins: that of Ḳarasi sprang up in ancient Mysia, the houses of Ṣaru Khan and Aydin in Lydia, of Mentesha in Caria, of Tekka in Lycia and Pamphylia, of Hamíd in Pisidia and Isauria, of Karaman in Lycaonia, of Kermiyan in Phrygia, of Ḳizil Aḥmedli in Paphlagonia, and of ‘Osmán in Phrygia Epictetus. These principalities were all eventually merged in that of the ‘Osmánlis, once the least among them, and the inhabitants assumed the name of Ottoman. Hence by far the greater portion of the people called Ottomans owe their name to a series of political events. On the collapse of the Seljúḳ power the Greeks retained hardly any possessions in Asia except Bithynia and Trebizond. Armenia was abandoned for a time to roving Tatar or Turkman tribes, till some sixty or seventy years later one or two petty local dynasties sprang up and founded short-lived states.
Founding of Ottoman power.