What do you think?
Rate this book
Турция до османских султанов
French
- GenresHistory
416 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1968
5 people are currently reading
132 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 21, 2016
This is a rare attempt by a foreign historian to shed light into pre-Ottoman history of the nomadic Turkic migrants (Turcomans) in areas stretching from Transoxiana to Asia Minor, and the empires which they established along the way (Kara-khitans, Khwarazmians, Ghaznavids, Great Seljukids) and sultanates (Seljuks of Rum, Danishmendids, Artukids, etc.), starting from the 10th century onward. However, author’s efforts seem to suffer from limited historical documents available to him, in part due to lack of officially appointed historians during the reign of the mentioned empires. In the absence of well documented chronicles, the author relied on travel logs, treaties, correspondences, coinage, and church documents.
Cahen expresses how the West is perplexed today, and this is repeated a few times in the book, with the fact that the Turkic migrants from central Asia could establish empires and alter the cultural and racial makeup of a huge region, coincident with their conversion to Islam; in areas which have been under the influence and domination of Byzantine, Greek, Persian, and Arabic cultures for millenniums. It is true that some earlier Turkic migrants from Central Asia to the west (Huns, Magyars, Pecheneks, etc.) starting from the 5th century onward have been absorbed by local populations and cultures, and the book attempts to provide explanation as to what made the Turkic migrations into the Asia Minor from the 10th century onward so enduring.
There are plenty of discussions on semantics throughout the book, but when it comes to stating historical facts, we sometime get “nothing can be said about this” etc., from the author. Narration of political history and chronology of events in the first 1/3rd of the book are quite dry, perhaps compounded by problems in translation into English from French. The reminder of the book is on socio-economic history and the following brief Seljukido-Mongolian protectorate period, where it is explained that cultural exchanges and racial mixing with local populations inevitably took place as some of the nomads became settled as farmers and townsfolk, and some Turcomans continued to resist change in their nomadic traditions well into the Ottoman period. Non-Muslims populations and their churches were mostly well-tolerated and thrived after the Turcoman conquests were made. As the Mongols moved westwards in the 13th century, they pushed to the West plenty of new Turcomans ahead of them, who felt affinity with their already existing kinsmen, and the Mongols were eventually assimilated (e.g. Turco-Mongols or Tatars, remnants of the Golden Horde who resided mainly in Crimea and north of the Caspian Sea).
One of the remarkable aspect of the multi-ethnic, multi-religious Seljukids was the official recognition and the use multiple languages; Turkish mainly in military and administration, Persian mainly in chancery and literature, and Arabic mainly in religion and jurisprudence. Science, philosophy, and poetry flourished in some prominent centers of learning at the time of Seljukids, such as Khorasan and Konya, where the likes of Omar Khayyam and Mevlana (Rumi) created their greatest works. After the defeat of Seljukids of Rum by the Mongols at Köse Dağ in 1243, the Seljukids remained a vassal of the Ilkhanid Mongols and gradually disintegrated during the next seventy years or so. With the collapse of the Ilkhanids in the early 14th century, Turcomans from the frontier areas moved in and established numerous principalities in the former Seljukid domains of the Asia Minor; among which, Ottomans, emerged as the dominant power and established their empire in the following centuries.
Cahen expresses how the West is perplexed today, and this is repeated a few times in the book, with the fact that the Turkic migrants from central Asia could establish empires and alter the cultural and racial makeup of a huge region, coincident with their conversion to Islam; in areas which have been under the influence and domination of Byzantine, Greek, Persian, and Arabic cultures for millenniums. It is true that some earlier Turkic migrants from Central Asia to the west (Huns, Magyars, Pecheneks, etc.) starting from the 5th century onward have been absorbed by local populations and cultures, and the book attempts to provide explanation as to what made the Turkic migrations into the Asia Minor from the 10th century onward so enduring.
There are plenty of discussions on semantics throughout the book, but when it comes to stating historical facts, we sometime get “nothing can be said about this” etc., from the author. Narration of political history and chronology of events in the first 1/3rd of the book are quite dry, perhaps compounded by problems in translation into English from French. The reminder of the book is on socio-economic history and the following brief Seljukido-Mongolian protectorate period, where it is explained that cultural exchanges and racial mixing with local populations inevitably took place as some of the nomads became settled as farmers and townsfolk, and some Turcomans continued to resist change in their nomadic traditions well into the Ottoman period. Non-Muslims populations and their churches were mostly well-tolerated and thrived after the Turcoman conquests were made. As the Mongols moved westwards in the 13th century, they pushed to the West plenty of new Turcomans ahead of them, who felt affinity with their already existing kinsmen, and the Mongols were eventually assimilated (e.g. Turco-Mongols or Tatars, remnants of the Golden Horde who resided mainly in Crimea and north of the Caspian Sea).
One of the remarkable aspect of the multi-ethnic, multi-religious Seljukids was the official recognition and the use multiple languages; Turkish mainly in military and administration, Persian mainly in chancery and literature, and Arabic mainly in religion and jurisprudence. Science, philosophy, and poetry flourished in some prominent centers of learning at the time of Seljukids, such as Khorasan and Konya, where the likes of Omar Khayyam and Mevlana (Rumi) created their greatest works. After the defeat of Seljukids of Rum by the Mongols at Köse Dağ in 1243, the Seljukids remained a vassal of the Ilkhanid Mongols and gradually disintegrated during the next seventy years or so. With the collapse of the Ilkhanids in the early 14th century, Turcomans from the frontier areas moved in and established numerous principalities in the former Seljukid domains of the Asia Minor; among which, Ottomans, emerged as the dominant power and established their empire in the following centuries.
March 19, 2019
A must read for those interested in the Selcuks and those who want to understand the situation and background of Anatolia prior to the rise of the Ottomans.
May 21, 2020
İlgi duyduğum bölümleri kısım kısım okudum. Bir başvuru kitabı.. ihtiyaç duyuldukça okunabilecek, iyi bir kitap.
September 9, 2022
Перевод выполнен с английского перевода.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews