TURAN

'Tūrān' () is the ancient Iranian name^[1] for Central Asia, literally meaning "the land of the Tur". As described below, the original Turanians are the
Tuirya Iranian people^[2][3][4] of the Avesta age. According to Shahnameh's account, at least 1500 years later after the Avesta, the nomadic tribes who inhabited these lands, were ruled by 'Tūr' who was the emperor Fereydun's elder son. In modern discourse, now obsolete, it was primarily an ideological term designating Turkic, Mongolic, Dravidian languages and Ugric languages and people more or less indiscriminately, implying a common ancestry and common culture of the various ethnicities in question (see Turanian). The association with Turkic cultures is also primarily based on the Shahnameh's account^[5]. Tur/Turaj(Tuzh in Middle Persian)^[6] is the son of emperor Fereydun and is the ancestors.

Contents

Turan in literature

Avesta

Late Sassanid and early Islamic era

Shahnameh

Turan in modern literature

Geography

Linguistics

Anthropology

Ideology

Politics

Fiction

Names

See also

References

External links

Turan in literature

Avesta

The oldest existing mention of Turanian is in the Farvardin Yashts of the young Avesta, which is dated by linguists to have been composed somewhere approximately 2500 years ago. ^[7]. The Avesta contains the names of various tribal groups who lived in proximity to each other. According to Prof. Gherado Gnloli:’’Iranian tribes that also keep on recurring in the Yasht, Airyas, Tuiryas, Sairimas, Sainus and Dahis’’. ^[8]. In the hymns of the Avesta, the adjective ''Tūrya'' is attached to various enemies of Zoroastrism like Fraŋrasyan (Shahnameh: Afrāsīāb). The word occurs only once in the Gathas, but 20 times in the later parts of the Avesta. Apparently there is no ethnic difference between the ''Tūrya'' and the ''Ārya'' in the Avesta, both having Iranian names and being related genealogically.
The Turanians or Tuiryas as they were called in Avesta play a more important role in the Avesta than in the Sairimas, Sainus and Dahis. Zoroaster himself hailed from the Airya people but he also preached his message to other neighboring tribes. ^[9][8].
According to Prof. Mary Boyce, in the Farvardin Yasht "In it (verses 143-144) are praised the fravashis of righteous men and women not only among the Aryas (as the “Avestan” people called themselves), but also among the Turiyas, Sairimas, Sainus and Dahis; and the personal names, like those of the people, all seem Iranian character". ^[11]. Hostility between Tuirya and Airya is indicated also in the Farvardtn Yast (vv. 37-8), where the Fravashis of the Just are said to have provided support in battle against the Danus, who appear to be a clan of the Tura people. ^[12]. Thus in the Avesta, some of the Tuiryas believed in the message of Zoroaster while others rejected the religion.
Similar to the ancient homeland of Zoroaster, the precise geography and location of Turan is unknown. ^[13]. In post-Avestan traditions they were thought to inhabit the region north of the Oxus, the river separating them from the Iranians. Their presence accompanied by incessant wars with the Iranians, helped to define the latter as a distinct nation, proud of their land and ready to spill their blood in its defense.^[14]. The common names of Turanians in Avesta including Frarasyan^[15], Aghraethra^[16],Biderafsh^[17], Arjaspa^[18] Namkhwast^[19] have been studied by Professor. Mayrhofer in his comprehensive book on Avesta etymology titled: ‘’ Iranisches Personennamenbuch, I: Die altiranischen Namen. Faszikel l, Die Avestischen Namen’’.^[20]

Late Sassanid and early Islamic era

The continuation of nomadic invasions on the north-eastern borders in historical times kept the memory of the Turanians alive. ^[14] . After the 6th century, when the Turks, who had been pushed westward by other tribes, became neighbours of Iran and were identified with the Turanians. ^[14][23]. The identification of the Turanians with the Turks is a late development, possibly made in the early 7th century, the Turks having first come into contact with the Iranians only in the 6th century. ^[24]
According to C.E. Boseworth^[25]:
The equivalence of Turk for Turanians is common in the Islamic era. The Shahnameh or the book of kings which compiled the Iranian mythical heritage uses the two terms equivalently. Other authors including Tabari, Hakim Iranshah and many other texts follow like. A notable exception is the Abl-Hasan Ali ibn Masudi , an Arab historian who writes: ‘’The birth of Afrasiyab was in the land of Turks and the error that historians and non-historians have made about him being a Turk is due to this reason” ^[26],. By 10th century, the myth of Afrasiyab was adopted by the Qarakhanid dynasty^[15]. In the Safavid era, following the common geographical convention of the Shanmahe, the domain of the Uzbek empire who were in conflict with the Safavids were referred to as Turan.
Some linguists normally derive the word from the Indo-Iranian root
★ ''tura-'' "strong, quick". Others link it to old Iranian
★ ''tor'' "dark, black", related to the New Persian ''tār(ik)'', Pashto ''tor (thor)'', and possibly English ''dark''. In this case, it's a reference to the "dark civilization" of Central Asian nomads in contrast to the "illuminated" Zoroastrian civilization of the settled Ārya.
According to Mohammad Taghi Bahar's work Sabk Shenaasi, the name ''Turan'' derives from the Avestan "Tau-Raodan" which means "Further on the River" where the "River" is to be considered Amu Darya. In the same document he mentions the word ''Turk'' is from Middle Persian "Turuk" which means "Warrior" or "Horseman".

Shahnameh

In the Persian epic Shahnameh, the term ''Tūrān'' ("land of the Tūrya" like ''Ērān, Īrān'' = "land of the Ārya") refers to the inhabitants of eastern-Iranian border, referring to the Kushan Empire, pointing to a time when those areas where inhabited by mostly Iranian nomadic tribes such as Scythians, Xionites, and Hephthalites.
According to the foundation myth given in the Shahnameh, King Firēdūn (= Avestan Θraētaona) had three sons, Salm, Tūr and Ēraj, among whom he divided the world: Asia Minor was given to Salm, Kushan (including India) to Tūr and Iran to Ēraj. The older brothers killed the younger brother, but he was revenged by his grand-son, and the Iranians became the rulers of the world. However, the war continued for generations.

Turan in modern literature

Geography

Since early 20th century, the word ''Turan'' was borrowed by the western languages as a general word for Central Asia. Accordingly, the phrase ''Turan Plain'' or ''Turan Depression'' is a geographical term referring to a part of Central Asia.

Linguistics

Main articles: Ural Altaic languages

The term ''Turanian'' was formerly used by European (especially German, Hungarian and Slovak) ethnologists, linguists and Romantics to designate populations speaking non-Indo-European, non-Semitic and non-Hamitic languages. ^[28] and specially speakers of Altaic, Uralic and Dravidian languages[2]. Marx Muller classified the Turanian language family into different sub-branches. The Northern or Ural-Altaic division branch compromised Tungusic, Mongolic, Turkic, Samoiedic, and Finnic. The Southern branch consisted of Dravidian languages like Tamil,Kannada,Telugu,Malayalam and other Dravidian languages. The languages of the Caucasus were classified as the ''scattered languages of the Turanian family Muller also began to muse whether Chinese belonged to the Northern branch or Southern branch. ^[29]
The main relationship between Dravidian, Uralic and Altaic languages were considered typological. According to Encyclopedia Britannica: ''Language families, as conceived in the historical study of languages, should not be confused with the quite separate classifications of languages by reference to their sharing certain predominant features of grammatical structure.''^[30]. Today languages are classified based on the method of comparative linguistics rather than their typological features. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Max's Muller proposal ''efforts were most successful in the case of the Semites, whose affinities are easy to demonstrate, and probably least successful in the case of the Turanian peoples, whose early origins are hypothetical''^[31]. Today the linguistic usage of the word Turanian is not used in the scholarly community to denote classification of language families. The relationship between Uralic and Altaic, whose speakers were also designated as Turanian people in 19th century European literature is also uncertain.^[32]

Anthropology

Modern DNA research has given a new insight into the concept of the Turan idea, at least insofar as it relates to Northern Eurasian populations, especially Finno-Ugric, Baltic, Altaic, and Northeast Siberian peoples. According to the DNA research of Tambets, Willems and Karaferet^[33] at least 70% of Finnish, 49% of Sami, 53% of Udmurt, 35% of Latvian, 41% of Lithuanian, 20% of Eastern Evenk, 80% of Yakut, 47% of Buryat, 40% of Chukchi and some 60% of western Inuit a.k.a Eskimo males carry the so-called N3 haploid in their Y-chromosome DNA.

Ideology

In European discourse, the words ''Turan'' and ''Turanian'' designate a certain mentality, i.e. the nomadic contrast of the urbanized agricultural civilizations. This usage is probably in accordance with the Zoroastrian concept of the ''Tūrya'', which is not primarily a linguistic or ethnic designation, but rather a name of the infidels that oppose the civilization based on the preaching of Zoroaster.
Combined with physical anthropology, the concept of the Turanian mentality has a clear racist potential. Thus, the scholar J.W. Clackson described the ''Turanid'' or ''Turanian'' race in the following words:^[34]

Politics

In the declining days of the Ottoman Empire, the word ''Turanian'' was adopted by some Turkish nationalists to express a pan-Turkic ideology, also called Turanism. Presently, Turanism forms an important aspect of the ideology of the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party (''MHP''), whose members are also known as Grey Wolves.
In recent times, the word ''Turanian'' is sometimes used to express a pan-Altaic nationalism (theoretically including Manchus and Mongols in addition to Turks - and potentially Japanese and Koreans), though no political organization seems to have adopted such an ambitious platform.

Fiction

The name "Turan" also appears in the fictional geography of the Conan the Barbarian stories.
The Turanic Raiders from the real time strategy game Homeworld may be a reference to the Turan.

Names

Turandot or ''Turandokht'' is a female name in Iran and it means ''"Turan's Daughter"'' in Persian.
Turan is also a common name in the Middle East including in Iran and Turkey. Turanshah (Shah of Turan) is also the name of the brother of Saladin. Turaj who is ancient Iranian myths was the ancestor of Turanians is also a popular name. The name Turan according to Iranian myths derives from the homeland of Turaj. The Pahlavi pronunciation of Turaj is Tuzh according to Dehkhoda. Similarly, Iraj which is also a popular name, is the brother of Turaj in the Shahnameh.

See also

★ Aniran

References

1. Emeri “van” Donzel, Islamic Reference Desk, Brill Academic Publishers, 1994. pg 461. Actual Quote: ''Iranian term applied to region lying to the northeast of Iran and ultimately indicating very vaguely the country of the Turkic peoples.''
2. Edward A Allworth,''Central Asia: A Historical Overview'',Duke University Press, 1994. pp 86.
3. I. M. Diakonoff, The Paths of History, Cambridge University Press, 1999, pp 100 : ''Turan was one of the nomadic Iranian tribes mentioned in the Avesta. However, in Firdousi’s poem, and in the later Iranian tradition generally, the term Turan is perceived as denoting ‘lands inhabited by Turkic speaking tribes''
4. According to Prof. Gherado Gnloli:’’Iranian tribes that also keep on recurring in the Yasht, Airyas, Tuiryas, Sairimas, Sainus and Dahis’’. G. Gnoli, Zoroaster's time and homeland, Naples 1980
5. http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/f/firdausi/f52ek/part8.html Firdawsi, "The Epic of Kings", translated by Helen Zimmern, eBooks@Adelaide 2004]
6. Dehkhoda dictionary: Turaj
7. Prods Oktor Skjærvø, “Avestan Quotations in Old Persian?” in S. Shaked and A. Netzer, eds., Irano-Judaica IV, Jerusalem,1999, pp. 1-64
8. G. Gnoli, Zoroaster's time and homeland, Naples 1980
9. M. Boyce, History of Zoroastrianism. 3V. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1991. (Handbuch Der Orientalistik/B. Spuler).
10. G. Gnoli, Zoroaster's time and homeland, Naples 1980
11. M. Boyce, History of Zoroastrianism. 3V. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1991. (Handbuch Der Orientalistik/B. Spuler)., pg 250
12. G. Gnoli, Zoroaster's time and homeland, Naples 1980, pg 107
13. G. Gnoli, Zoroaster's time and homeland, Naples 1980, pg 99-130
14. Ehsan Yarshater, "Iranian National History," in The Cambridge History of Iran 3(1)(1983), 408-409
15. Encyclopædia Iranica, "Afrasiyab", E. Yarshater
16. Encyclopedia Iranica, “Agrerat”, Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh
17. Encyclopedia Iranica, “Bidarafsh”, Ahmad Tafazzoli
18. Encyclopedia Iranica,[ http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/v2f4/v2f4a064.html “Arjasp”, A. Tafazzoli
19. Encyclopedia Iranica,“Bidarafsh”, A. Tafazzoli
20. M. Mayrhofer, ‘’Die avestischen Namen’’,IPNB I/1(Vienna 1977).
21. Ehsan Yarshater, "Iranian National History," in The Cambridge History of Iran 3(1)(1983), 408-409
22. Ehsan Yarshater, "Iranian National History," in The Cambridge History of Iran 3(1)(1983), 408-409
23. R. Frye, The Heritage of Persia: The pre-Islamic History of One of the World's Great Civilizations, World Publishing Company, New York, 1963. pg 41
24. Encyclopedia Iranica, "Afrasiyab", E. Yarshater
25. Encyclopædia Iranica, "CENTRAL ASIA: The Islamic period up to the mongols", C. Edmund Bosworth
26. Abi al-Ḥasan Ali ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Ali al-Masudi, Muruj al-dhahab wa-maadin al-jawhar , Beirut, Lebanon : Dar al-Marifah, 2005
27. Encyclopædia Iranica, "Afrasiyab", E. Yarshater
28. Abel Hovelacque, The Science of Language: Linguistics, Philology, Etymology , pg 144, [1]
29. George “van” Driem, Handbuch Der Orientalistik, Brill Academic Publishers, 2001. pp 335-336. [3]
30. "language." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 27 Apr. 2007 .
31. religions, classification of." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
32. "Ural-Altaic languages." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2007
33. ''Tambets et al. American Journal of Human Genetics, April 2004''
34. "The Iran and Turan", ''Anthropological Review'' 6:22 (1868), p. 286

External links

★ Iranians and Turanians in the Avesta

★ Der Schatten von Turan (a history of the Turan ideology - ''in German'')

★ Hunmagyar.org (a representative of the controversial Turanian theory)

★ Turanian community site