Turco-Mongol tradition


The Turco-Mongol or Turko-Mongol tradition was an ethnocultural synthesis that arose in Asia during the 14th century among the ruling elites of the Golden Horde and the Chagatai Khanate. The ruling Mongol elites of these khanates eventually assimilated into the Turkic populations that they conquered and ruled over, thus becoming known as Turco-Mongols. These elites gradually adopted Islam, as well as Turkic languages, while retaining Mongol political and legal institutions.[1]

The Turco-Mongols founded many Islamic successor states after the collapse of the Mongol khanates, such as the Kazakh Khanate, the Tatar khanates that succeeded the Golden Horde (e.g., Crimean Khanate, Astrakhan Khanate, Khanate of Kazan), and the Timurid Empire, which succeeded the Chagatai Khanate in Central Asia. Babur (1483–1530), a Turco-Mongol prince and a great-great-great-grandson of Timur, founded the Mughal Empire, which ruled almost all of the Indian subcontinent.[2][3] The Turks and Tatars also ruled part of Egypt, exercising political and military authority during the Mamluk Sultanate.[4][5][6][7][8][9]

One of the khanates where Turkic-Mongolian traditions are experienced most intensely is the Yenisei Kingdom. The ruling dynasty comes from the Melig lineage, the son of Ögedei khan, who was a Muslim. There are Turkic peoples such as Teleuts, Kimeks, Kipchaks, Altaians, Kyrgyzs, Naymans under their rule.

These Turco-Mongol elites became patrons of the Turco-Persian tradition, which was the predominant culture amongst the Muslims of Central Asia at the time. In subsequent centuries, the Turco-Persian culture was carried on further by the conquering Turco-Mongols to neighbouring regions, eventually becoming the predominant culture of the ruling and elite classes of South Asia (Indian subcontinent), specifically North India (Mughal Empire), Central Asia and the Tarim Basin (Northwest China) and large parts of West Asia (Middle East).[10]

  1. ^ Beatrice Forbes Manz (1989). The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane. Cambridge University Press. pp. 6–9. ISBN 978-0-521-34595-8.
  2. ^ "Timur". Encyclopædia Britannica (Online Academic ed.). 2007.
  3. ^ Beatrice F. Manz (2000). "Tīmūr Lang". Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. 10 (2nd ed.). Brill. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  4. ^ "The Cambridge History of Egypt", Volume 1, (1998) P. 250
  5. ^ "Mamluk | Islamic dynasty". Encyclopædia Britannica. 30 November 2023.
  6. ^ "Egypt – The Mamluks, 1250–1517". Country Studies US. Archived from the original on 8 April 2016. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
  7. ^ Kenneth M. Setton (1969). The Later Crusades, 1189–1311. Wisconsin: Univ of Wisconsin Press. p. 757. ISBN 978-0-299-04844-0.
  8. ^ Amalia Levanoni (1995). A Turning Point in Mamluk History: The Third Reign of Al-Nāṣir Muḥammad Ibn Qalāwūn (1310–1341). BRILL. p. 17. ISBN 9004101829. Archived from the original on 26 July 2023. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  9. ^ Carole Hillenbrand (2007). Turkish Myth and Muslim Symbol: The Battle of Manzikert. Edimburgo: Edinburgh University Press. pp. 164–165. ISBN 9780748625727.
  10. ^ Canfield, Robert L. (1991). Turko-Persia in Historical Perspective. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. p. 1 ("Origins"). ISBN 0-521-52291-9.