Turan (country)

The ethnonym "tour" was first recorded in the " Avesta " in two forms: the older " tūiriiānąm " (along with the ethnonyms of the Aryans ( Avest . " Airiiān » m " ) and Sairim ( Avest . " Sairimanąm " ) and the later " tūra " (" tūr "). The latter form subsequently formed the basis of the toponym Turan, which is mentioned in ancient Iranian mythology and Middle Persian religious and historical literature and documents, as well as in medieval Persian, Arab Muslim and Central Asian historical and geographical literature ^{[7] [8]}

Turans (tour) 3 thousand years ago at the time of formation of part of the eastern Iranian steppes ^[9] tribes of the economic structure of nomadic cattle breeding began to be called Iranian-speaking representatives of this (then completely new) type of economic activity. And he was the first to call the “Turanian name” of his fellow nomads (self-designation Saki ) the very same Iranian sedentary population of the then territory of Kazakhstan and southwestern Siberia , which did not accept the “nomadic runaway” economic revolution of those genera that were in the first centuries of the 1st millennium BC e. and became "Sakas" ^{[10] [11] [12] [13]} .

In later times, the Turans were called Saks , Massagets , Kushans , Parthians , Ephtalites, and other East Iranian peoples. The term meant almost the whole of Central Asia , where these peoples lived. In Persian literature , the theme of the centuries-old confrontation between Iran and Turan is widely covered ^[14]

The Iranian epos divides the Iranian world into Iran proper, usually identified with the Iranian highlands , and Turan, north of the Amu Darya , roughly corresponding to present-day Central Asia . Epic Iran is a country of world kingdoms, the first of which was founded by Kayumars , the legendary correspondence of the first man Gayumart, a character of Zoroastrian mythology.

According to legend, the Iranian king Faridun ^{[1] [15]} divided the world between his three sons. The eldest Salm was given the west of the oecumene (according to another tradition, the extreme East is China), the younger Eraj — Iran, and Tur / Turaj ^[16] , the middle son of the king — the northern lands, which became known as Turan. The tour, along with Salm, treacherously killed Eraj, luring him to Turan. Having learned about the death of his beloved son, Faridun did not forgive Tur and ordered to dig a grand ditch on the border between Iran and Turan, which turned into the Amu Darya river. In the most common version of the Iranian epic recorded in the poem by Firdousi, the Turans, the descendants of Tour, are depicted as the eternal antagonists of the kings of the Iranian highlands ^{[17] [18]} .

The ancient Aryans - the ancestors of the Iranians and Turans - called their country " Aryānem Vaējah ". The name is derived from the self-name of all the ancient Indo-Iranians and is either the adjective "Aryan country" or the genetics "Country of Aryans" in an expression like Avest. "Airyānem dahyunam" ("Aryan countries") ^[19] .

In the era of the Achaemenids (550–327 BC), the concept of “Aryānam Dahyunam” was transformed into “Aryānem Xšaθram” - “Aryan State”. The ancient Iranian concept of “Aryānem Xšaθram” gave the name to the state of Arshakids (250 BC - 224 BC) - pehl. "Aryānšaθr / Aryānšahr" .

The name of the state of the Sassanids (224-651 CE) - "Ērānšahr" ( pehl. "ʼYrʼnštr" ), comes from Avest. "Airyānem Xšaθram" . The Avestan diphthong “ai” was transformed into the Middle Persian “e” ^[20] .

Since the time of the Achaemenids, the name "Iran" has been assigned to the states of the Western Iranian peoples , who created powerful centralized empires. The country of the East Iranian peoples - Turan - was politically divided into separate states such as: Sogd , Bactria , Khorezm , as well as between the Iranian-speaking steppe tribes of Saks , Sarmatians , Yuezha , Massaget and others, which covered the territories of modern Russian Black Sea region , Volga region , Ural , modern states of Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China . Later Saks, Kushans and others conquered Sogd, Bactria and Khorezm, and the entire interfluve of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya became collectively called Turan. The ancient border between Iran and Turan in ancient times was first the Syr Darya, and in later times the Amu Darya.

The population of Sogd, Bactria, Khorezm was originally Northeast Iranian in language ^[21] and was closely related to the modern Ossetian language . It is known that Zarathustra addressed the Sogdians and Bactrians in his native language, conditionally called Avestan ^[22] , which is recorded in the “ Ghats ” - the oldest part of the book “ Avesta ” - which is why the language is called Avestan . The Avestan language was North-East Iranian in typology, and the Sogdian and Bactrian languages, which have come down to us in written monuments, are also characterized as East Iranian: the first is the northern subgroup, the second is the southern ^[23] . Previously, it was believed that Avestan is an Old Bactrian language , but today it has come to naught. The difference between the West Iranian and East Iranian languages ​​can be seen by comparing the Persian - Tajik language ( West-Iranian ) with the Pamiri languages ( East-Iranian ) ^[23] .

In the IV century, the Kushans were replaced by a new dynasty of the Ephthalites - Haitals - immigrants from Badakhshan ^[24] . In the middle of the VI century, they stubbornly resisted the Sassanid Empire , which threatened them from the west, and the Turkic Kaganate , who attacked Turan from the east. In 561 - 563, the Turks entered into an alliance against the Ephtalites with Sasanian Iran . In 564, the troops of Shah Khosrov Anushirvan occupied a strategically important area - Tokharistan . In 565, the Turks won the battle at Nakhshab , and Sogd was annexed to the Kaganate. In 567, the largest battle in the history of the region between the Ephthalite army and the Turkic horde took place near Bukhara . The battle lasted eight days and was the bloodiest battle in the history of Central Asia. The battle ended with the complete defeat of the Ephthalites ^[25] . Later, the lands of Turan were divided among themselves by the Sasanian Iran and the Western Turkic Kaganate . Allegedly from this moment the process of settling of Turkic tribes in the lands of Turan begins.

The genetic and linguistic heritage of the ancient Turans in Tajikistan is preserved in the form of Yagnob and Pamiri , as well as place names . So, for example, the name of the modern Pamir district of Shugnan in “ Shahnam ” is given in the more ancient form of Shaknan with the meaning “country of Saks”. Judging by the "Shahname", historical Shugnan, along with Huttalan , Vashgird , Shuman , Chaganyan and Termez , was part of the kingdom of Afrasiab , that is, Turan ^[26] .

The ethnonym Sakov is also preserved in the name Ishkashim ( in Ishkashim - Shkoshim) - an administrative region in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of the Republic of Tajikistan . According to the researcher T.N. Pakhalina, the toponym is of Indo-Aryan origin and dates back to Indo-Aar. * sakā-kšam-, where the first part can be interpreted either as the name of the country where the Sak tribe lived (cf. avest. sakā - the name of the country and people), or as the name of the Sak tribe, and the second part can be compared with Skt. * kšm- "land", "country" and with its derivative modern Indo-Aryan kšama - "land". In this case, in general, the word "* sakā-kšam-", obviously, meant 'land of Saks', 'Scythia' ^[27] .

If Turan in the Avestan era was called the steppe and deserts surrounding the interfluve of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, then in the Middle Ages and until the beginning of the 20th century. - the Amu-Syr-Darya interfluve itself, that is, the historical Sogdiana , better known as Maverannahr ^[28] .

The explanatory dictionary of the Persian language “Farhange Anandraj” , compiled in 1888 by Mohammad Padshah in India , specifies the territory of Turan as follows:

"And Turan is not identical to Turkestan ... When this region was conquered by the Arabs, it began to be called Maverannahr ...

Maverannahr is a region whose eastern limit is Ferghana , the western is Khorezm , the northern is Tashkent , the southern is Balkh and Samarkand and is the largest region of Turan. ” ^[29]

Original text (pers.)

«و توران غیر ترکستان بوده ... چون عراب بر آن ولایت مستولی شدند, به ماوراءالنهر موسم شد ... ماوراءالنهر ولایتی است, شرق آن فرغانه و غرب آن خوارزم و شمال آن تاشکند و جنوب آن بلخ و سمرقند و معظم بلاد توران است ".

- Mohammad Padshah , Farhang Anandraj, vol. 1. p. 1224

Proponents of the "Turkic concept" identify Central Asia with the mytho-epic toponym Turan and, based on the phonetic proximity of ethnic ("Turk" - Turks, Turks) and geographical (Turan) designations, localize one of the ancestral lands of the Turks in Central Asia. These mythological representations are so stable in the Turkic environment from Altai to the Mediterranean Sea that even the modern news agency of Azerbaijan , a Turkic-speaking republic located in the Caucasus, is called "Turan" ^[30] .

According to scientific data, opponents of Iran living in Turan were Iranian by origin, both settled and nomadic , and not at all Türks ^{[1] [4] [15] [31] [32] [33]} .

According to the supporters of the Turkic concept, in ancient times it was populated exclusively by Turks. This substitution, which is discordant with strict scientific knowledge, is continued in the unambiguous assignment to a certain “Turan-Turkic” cultural space of the early Middle Ages of individual, but certainly outstanding personalities, such as Avicenna , Al-Khorezmi , Biruni and other representatives of Islamic-Iranian civilization, as well as the oldest monuments of the material culture of Central Asia ^[34] .

For the first time, the term Turan as a proper name in the form of Alp-Turan is found in ancient Turkic inscriptions from the 7th – 8th centuries ^[35] .

In order to legitimize their power over Turan, the Turkic Karakhanid rulers raised their clan to Afrasiab , the legendary Shah of Turan, and began to be called the "house of Afrasiab." Afrasiab himself was identified with the hero of Turkic legends Alp Er-Tong ^[36] .

Timur , the founder of the Timurid empire and dynasty with its capital in Samarkand , calls himself in the Karsakpay inscription made in the Chagatai language , “the Sultan of Turan ”, which clearly indicates the existence of this name in the political terminology of the XIV century. ^[37] .

It is known that the Bukhara emirs from the Mangyt dynasty described themselves as rulers of Turkestan and Turan. For example, Emir Khaidar (1800-1826) in a number of letters referred to himself as "Hakim of Turan" or "Padishah of Turkestan and Turan-Zamin." ^[38]

The Chuvash people suggest their Turanian origin according to linguistic and cultural characteristics. Tura - the supreme God Chuvash, comes from the word "Tu" - "peak / mountain", Tus - friend, "Turan" - "relative / tribesman" (literally translated from the mountain), "Turash" - "Icon" and similar interrelated a lot of words. According to the geographical data of the books of Muslim historians, Turan was called a mountainous area in eastern Balochistan , north of Mekran .

According to the geographical data of the books of Muslim historians, Turan was called a mountainous area in eastern Balochistan , north of Mekran . However, the word “Turan” acquired its fame as the name of the territory lying northeast of the Khorasan and the Amu Darya River and inhabited by Turkic and other non-Iranian peoples ^[39] .

• The name Turan appears in the geography of the fictional universe of Conan stories.
• The Turan sector (hence the Turan Raiders) from the Homeworld real-time strategy is a reference to Turan.

• Turandot - or Turandokht - is a feminine name in Iran, and this is translated from Persian means "Daughter of Turan." This name is famous in the West, thanks to Puccini , his famous opera Turandot (1921-24).
• Turan is also a common name in the Middle East, a family name in some countries, including Bahrain, Iran, Bosnia and Turkey.
• The ruler of the Kurdish Ayyubid Saladin had an older brother, named Turan Shah.
• Turaj, whom the ancient Iranian myths portray as the ancestor of the Turans, is also a popular name and means the Son of Traetaon (Faridun). The name Turan according to Iranian myths comes from the homeland of Turaj. The pronunciation of Pahlavi Turaj is Tuzh, according to the dictionary of Dehhod ^[16] . Similarly, Iraj, who is also a popular name, is the brother of Turaj in Shahnam. The modified version is Turaj Zaraj, which means "son of gold."

• Turan lowland
• Turanian tribes
• Turan plate

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