Türk Identity among the Medieval Nomads of Central Eurasia

Abstract

The ethnonym Türk have been used in modern nation-building processes among the Turkic speaking peoples of Eurasia in the 20th–21th centuries. The cases of Turkey, the plan of a Turkic Republic in Central Asia in the 1920s and after the fall of the Sovietunion the latest Kazak, Tatar and Uyghur historiography demonstrate its historical importance. The study focuses on the meanings of Türk in the runic inscriptions of the Türk Khaganate (6th–8th centuries). Its first denotation is an ethnic community or nationality, i.e. a nomadic tribal confederation which can be described as using the model of gens, including the common origin, traditions and language with centuries long stabile political framework and the majority of society be-longed to same customary law. The political aspect of the usage of the term Türk referred to all peoples subjected to the power of the Türk Khagan. After the fall of the Türk Khaganate both meanings faded away due to the lack of political stability which is a key factor in the history of Eurasian steppe. It means that there is not ethnic continuity from the Middle Ages. The fragments of Türk identity may survived in the forms of language community; Islamic legend of descent with the heros eponymos and nomadic way of life as opposed to the territorial principles of settled civilisations. These elements could be used to rebuild modern Turkic speaking nations in Eurasia.