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The Turks in World History

Carter V. Findley

3.77 · Rating details · 139 ratings · 23 reviews

Beginning in Inner Asia two thousand years ago, the Turks have migrated and expanded to form today's Turkish Republic, five post-Soviet republics, other societies across Eurasia, and a global diaspora. For the first time in a single, accessible volume, this book traces the Turkic peoples' trajectory from steppe, to empire, to nation-state. Cultural, economic, social, and p ...more

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Paperback, 320 pages

Published November 11th 2004 by Oxford University Press, USA (first published 2004)

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Aug 21, 2016 Caracalla rated it really liked it

A very solid survey of the history of Turkic speaking groups. It's only 250 pages so not enough really enough to give a detailed treatment of anything and although that's understandable it's also somewhat disappointing given the interest that a detailed treatment of Ottoman society and culture, or the Great Game, or the conquests of Timur. Instead the book ties its subject together with a sort of comparative politics approach, detailing the different destinies of Turkic groups in Anatolia, the C A very solid survey of the history of Turkic speaking groups. It's only 250 pages so not enough really enough to give a detailed treatment of anything and although that's understandable it's also somewhat disappointing given the interest that a detailed treatment of Ottoman society and culture, or the Great Game, or the conquests of Timur. Instead the book ties its subject together with a sort of comparative politics approach, detailing the different destinies of Turkic groups in Anatolia, the Caucasus and Central Asia who all left the same Turkic homeland of what's now Western Mongolia and continue to speak closely related languages. The two main changes Findley believes Turkic groups underwent (at around the same time) were conversion to Islam and modernity (a sort of complex integration into the modern industrialized world economy and also a grappling with new mass politics enabled through the technology). It's a fruitful approach and has a lot of interesting things to say about Islam and modernity, as well as state formation. Interestingly enough one of the main texts the work engages with is the spectacular Baburnameh, partly because it shows state formation in action in Babur's early forays in Ferghana and India. Two inconceivably massive dislocations in Turkish history were the giant changes in language found in Turkey (where the language was in the space of less than half a century denuded of Arabic and Persian loan-words and changed to the extent that Ataturk's speeches are no longer comprehensible) and Central Asia (where Soviet initiatives contributed to the diminishment of the classical languages of Persian and Chagatai Turkish common in music, etc. in favour of upgrading Turkic dialects to full languages) and detribalization (which partly as a result of the Mongol invasions and the black death, meant all the old kinship links and tribal structure fell away, a giant change in the political culture of these people). Findley's theory that Turkic groups as traditionally constituted (large and mobile groups of nomads with compound bows) could only form states parasitically (i.e. by exacting tribute from sedentary/urban populations and using it to achieve a group cohesion) is interesting and makes a lot of sense when the period after Timur is reached and gunpowder becomes wide-spread in usage; now nomads are at a firm disadvantage against sedentary populations with access to this technology and state formation has to involve a switch to a sedentary lifestyle, internal taxation, etc. (something the Ottomans and the Mughals did, anticipated by the Seljuks, 400 years earlier) ...more

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Oct 19, 2012 Mark Rossiter rated it really liked it

This book by Carter Vaughn Findley of Ohio State University (whose Wikipedia page is in Turkish), traces the movement of the Turkic and Turkish peoples through history from the earliest records of steppe nomads on the margins of ancient empires (the Scythians for the Romans, the Xiongnu for the Chinese) to the contemporary Turkish republic which inhabits Anatolia and Thrace, and Turkic post-Soviet central Asia and Xinjiang. He sees all of these folk as a loose cultural and linguistic unit, but w This book by Carter Vaughn Findley of Ohio State University (whose Wikipedia page is in Turkish), traces the movement of the Turkic and Turkish peoples through history from the earliest records of steppe nomads on the margins of ancient empires (the Scythians for the Romans, the Xiongnu for the Chinese) to the contemporary Turkish republic which inhabits Anatolia and Thrace, and Turkic post-Soviet central Asia and Xinjiang. He sees all of these folk as a loose cultural and linguistic unit, but with the important caveat that it is impossible to fix this to any one particular “ethnic” group, certainly at least in terms of genetics. The appealing metaphor he uses at the beginning is that of a caravan rolling gradually across Asia from Mongolia to Istanbul, picking up and dropping people and baggage as it goes, so that by the time it reaches its destination it is both the same vehicle that started out and yet a different phenomenon altogether.

The other metaphor that threads its way through the book is that of the weaving of a Turkish carpet, so that all the shifting developments that have occurred in the Turkic/Turkish space – most significantly the conversion to Islam, and the encounter with modernity (whether in its European or Soviet forms) which characterized the 19th and 20th century Turkish/Turkic experience – are seen as strands woven into the fabric of its history by those who have created them. One dynamic that stands out is the author’s contention that historically it has been possible, even (in conditions of diffuse power) inevitable for states to be formed on the steppes, but that they have not been able to last unless they took over an Empire (the Mongols became the Yuan Dynasty, the Ottoman conquest of Byzantium) and then became sedentary themselves; otherwise the centrifugal forces were bound to overwhelm the centripetal ones. Another is the change that came with gunpowder and industry: now the steppes themselves can be pinned down by the great empires.

There is plenty of dense academic analysis here, but it is Findley’s propensity for weaving metaphor in and out of the text that lifts the book into a higher class, where the provision of detailed information merges with the sympathetic human search for meaning in history and the quest to create a liberating space where once nomadic peoples can live in an age where there are no more open spaces to roam. ...more

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Jan 03, 2016 Hakan rated it it was amazing

5 vermemin sebebi biraz reklam amacli:) Turk kulturunun daha cok kisi tarafindan ogrenilmesi amacli diyelim. Bir Turk olarak cogunlukla asina oldugunuz seyleri bulucaksiniz kitapta. O acidan yeni bir seyler ogrenmek icin pek uygun olmayabilir. Ama bir yabanciya epey bir seyler katacagini fusunuyorum. En guzel buldugum yani haliciligi Turklerin diger ozellikleri ile cok guzel bir sekilde sentez yapip bunu butun kitaba yaymasi. Orta asya turkleri ve anadolu turklerinin son donem icin 1900 ve sonra ...more

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Feb 28, 2013 Helmut rated it liked it

Uninspirierter Flickenteppich

Der Teppich - ein zentrales türkisches Kulturfundament - wird in diesem Fachbuch über die Geschichte der Türken von ihren Ursprüngen in Zentralasien über die Islamisierung bis heute als Metapher für die Entwicklung der Gesellschaft genutzt. Eine wirklich tolle Idee, leider schlecht umgesetzt.

Dieses Fachbuch, laut Klappentext auch inbesondere für den Laien geschrieben, hat mich schwer enttäuscht. Meine Erfahrung ist, dass englischsprachige Fachbücher in den allermeis ...more

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May 12, 2016 Ali Rehman rated it really liked it

The importance of Turk race and it's impact on different civilizations have been explored in this book Transition to being a modern country have also been highlighted All in all a must read for those who are willing to explore this topic ...more

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Jan 30, 2011 Nick added it · review of another edition

Shelves: unfinished-probably-school-books

Stopped after chapter 3. I'd like to come back to this one day when the study of Central Asia is not sullied by the memory of school. ...more

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Aug 04, 2019 Ukpharos added it · review of another edition

Türkler dilleriyle, kültür ve tarihlerindeki bazı ortak unsurlarla tanımlanabilen,bunun dışındaysa insanı şaşırtacak kadar farklı özellikler gösteren bir halklar grubudur. Uygarlık açısından, zaman içinde derin dönüşümler geçirmişlerdir. Herhangi bir dönemde, şu ya da bu yabancı grubun onları pek de uygar görmediği olmuştur. Böyle algılanmaları, tarihsel olarak göçebe bir yaşam sürdürmelerinden kaynaklanır. Bir anlamda, Türkler Avrasya boyunca göçerken uygarlıklar arasında da göçmüşler, ama bu s ...more

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Dec 12, 2018 Evan rated it really liked it

Though a little light on specificities regarding Turkic interactions with the Persian world in particular, still a very fine overview, and highly recommended.

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Aug 04, 2018 Shane Hill rated it really liked it

Solid short read of the Turkic peoples going back over 2000 years!! Excellent material here!

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Feb 20, 2017 Joe rated it liked it

Very comprehensive but also very dry. Recommend Central Asia in World History by Peter B. Golden for those who want a lighter, less detailed read.

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Apr 09, 2014 Simon Jones rated it liked it

Good as a high level overview and particularly in as much as it treated the whole sweep of Turkic history from the Xiongnu to the Huns and Bulgars to the Seljuks to the Mongols, Ottomans and Mughals to modern former Soviet Republics. So from that point of view it is comprehensive and inclusive. It focusses on big picture cultural and social/political phenomena rather than the nitty gritty of conquering hordes or specific personalities. My main complaint was that 50% of the content was focussed o ...more

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Jul 02, 2015 Eric Dykes rated it liked it

This is a pretty comprehensive history of the Turkic ethnic group of Northeast Central Asia, its ethnic branches, and the state of the Turkic peoples today. One can come away from this book with a good understanding of how the Turks came from the Central Asian steppes near Mongolia, and ended up with countries today such as Turkey, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Xinjiang province in China, as well as Turkic enclaves in Russia and elsewhere. What is also very intere ...more

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Dec 29, 2012 Hasan rated it really liked it

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the origins and development of the Turkic people. The early introduction of an analogy of a caravan with carpet traders moving from central Asia to Europe describing simultaneously, Turkic diversity and common cultural roots, paints a powerful picture of context for the reader.
It should also be highlighted that this book is written in a very formal academic style with a great amount of reference material. While offering the assurance of accuracy, t ...more

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Jul 12, 2016 Cem Ertül rated it really liked it

At the first glance, this book seems short considering it is about a very broad topic. But it is written very densely and thanks to the authors vast amount of knowledge, and his clever use of many different sources, it manages to successfully cover the entire turkic history. Findley is clearly an expert of the topic, instead of focusing on the Ottoman Empire, or even the Turkish Republic, he explores less known turkic states, both modern and ancient, such as the Xiongnu or Azerbaijan. This sums ...more

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Jan 19, 2013 Robert rated it really liked it

Shelves: near-eastern-studies

Good analysis of Turkic history and themes spanning throughout their existence. However, incredibly dry and academic, which makes it very inaccessible. In addition, given its scope and language, its brevity is a both a blessing and a curse... but still, it probably since been longer to flesh out the innumerable concepts discussed within its pages. If you're considering this as an introductory text.... well, just don't. ...more

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Oct 18, 2013 Nargiz rated it it was amazing

Each chapter of the book can be a separate book by itself. It seems like a history textbook, so it gets boring in some part. However, the titanic effort of the author to comprehend as much as possible about Turkic people shouldn’t be underestimated, and taking this into consideration, the book is really good.

I recommend “The Turks in the World History” for anyone, who would like to have a general picture about Turks.

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May 06, 2012 Lauren Albert rated it liked it

Shelves: history-world, history-middle-east

I found the book a bit dry, especially the first half. The second half is an easier read, admittedly at least in part because the earlier history is so much more complex. But I was interested to learn how much of the Turkic lineage comes from Asia and just how large and diverse a group the Turkic people are (Findley distinguishes "Turkic" from "Turkish"--the country and its people). ...more

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Sep 23, 2016 Nurlan Mustafayev rated it it was amazing

Great book. Unlike Golden Peter, this author is more optimistic about the future of Turkic nations if they can tackle the legacy of Soviet institutions.

It is also interesting in that it talks about the colonization policy of Russian empire in Caucasus and the Central Asia and its impact Turk nations, state-building and their future, which is absent in Golden Peter's monumental work. ...more

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Mar 09, 2015 Nick rated it really liked it

I gave it as high a rating as I did because it's an excellent overview of the Turks, their culture and their political development throughout history.
I was tempted to score it lower because I did bog down in some of the later chapters. ...more

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