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Historical Timeline
The Emergence of the TURKs through the 13th Century |
206 BC-8 AD During the Earlier Han Dynasty a tribe existed in
western China known as the Xiongnu (Hsiung-nu)
8-100 The power of Xiongnu weakened and they separated into two
distinct camps, one of which penetrated into the Caspian steppes and
beyond toward the west and the northwest. The Xiongnu are thought to
have merged into a people, who came to be known in history as the
Huns.
300-399 The Huns were a nomadic Asian people, probably of Turkish,
Tataric, or Ugrian origins, who spread from the Caspian steppes to
make repeated incursions into the Roman Empire.
432-453 The Hun attacks culminated in a series of wars under Attila.
Out of these mists emerged the Oguz (Ghuzz), who were a nomadic
tribe that grazed the area between the Aral and the Caspian Seas and
the steppes north of the Aral Sea. They lived off of their flocks,
and their principal occupation was war.
501-600 The Gokturk Empire was formed by the Oguz in the sixth
century.
909-1000 The Oguz tribes first converted to Islam during the 10th
century after which they became known as the Turkmens. Their
conversion began with their conquest of Iran and their defeat of the
Gaznavids. Seljuk, whose name the Seljuk Dynasty adopted was a
tribal chief, whose homeland lay beyond the Oxus River near the Aral
Sea. He was the son of Dukak of the line of Kiniks, which is a
branch of the Ucoks of the Oguz. Tughril Beg and Cagri (Cakir) Beg
were the grandsons of Seljuk.
1036 Tughril Beg the Seljuk, a Sunni Muslim and leader of the Oguz
tribe was crowned Sultan.
1038-1077 Seljuk Turks expanded from their remote homelands north of
the Caspian and Aral Seas into the heart of the Islamic world. The
coming of the Seljuks signaled the first large-scale penetration of
Turkish element into the Middle East. The Seljuks developed a highly
effective fighting force. They were superb horsemen and archers.
Individually, the Seljuk warrior was far superior to the Byzantine
mercenary soldier. However, they lacked organization and unity,
which was improved after their close contacts with Persian court
life in Khorasan and Transoxania, when they attracted a body of able
administrators. Extending from Central Asia to the Byzantine marches
in Asia Minor, the Seljuk state under its first three sultans -
Tughril Beg, Alp-Arslan, and Malikshah - established a highly
cohesive, well-administered Sunni state under the nominal authority
of the Abbasid caliphs at Baghdad.
1040 The Seljuks subdued Horasan, defeated the Ghaznavid ruler Mesud
in the Battle of Dandanakan and established the Great Seljuk Empire
in 1040. Masud's deposition as Ghazanavid Sultan was followed by the
accession of Muhammad.
1042 The Seljuks led by Tughril Beg, conquered the entire region.
1050-1055 Tughril Beg's conquest of Isfahan and Baghdad ensured the
Seljuk dominance in the Islamic world.
1055 Tughril Beg led his Seljuk army into Bagdad and took the city.
Tughril Beg overthrew the Buwayhids.
1059 Tughril Beg recaptured power in Baghdad.
1063 In August 1063 upon the death of the Seljuk Sultan Tughril Beg,
his place as chieftain of the Seljuks was taken by his nephew Alp-Arslan.
1064 Western Caucasus captured.
1071 Alp-Arslan (1063-1072) fought the battle of Malazgirt (Manzikert)
or Lake Van (19 Aug 1071) in what is now extreme eastern Turkey to
defeat the Byzantine Emperor's forces. Then it was the border of the
Byzantine Empire and the Islamic world. CONSIDERED A BATTLE THAT
CHANGED THE WORLD. The Seljuks defeated the army of the Byzantine
emperor Romanus IV Diogenes and took him prisoner. This opened the
doors of Anatolia to the Moslem Turk. It is considered to be the
date of the beginning of the Turks and of Islam in Anatolia. It is
following this date the Turks fully conquered the whole of Anatolia
and established the Anatolian Seljuk state there as a part of the
Great Seljuk Empire. The Seljuks established a small state in
Anatolia called the sultanate of Rum (Rome). From here they attacked
both the Arabs in Syria and Palestine and the Christians of the
Byzantine Empire in Asia Minor. In the same year they conquered
Jerusalem and with it the Holy Land.
1072-1092 Malikshah, eldest son of Alp-Arslan, succeeded his father.
Under Malikshah's rule the empire reached its pinnacle of glory. He
was educated and was passionately interested in the sciences,
especially astronomy. He established an observatory in Persia, which
he placed under the administration of Omar Khayyam, the famous
mathematician and author of the Rubaiyat.
1075 Süleyman Sah led an army of Turkmens gathered from the
Anatolian regions toward Konya, capturing the city and the region.
Syria and Palestine were captured.
1076-1174 The Fatamids finally lost control of Damascus to the
Seljuks in
1076. For a time, Syria was split into northern and southern
provinces ruled by two Seljuk brothers; Damascus was the capital of
the smaller and weaker southern province. (Allepo was the capital of
the north). Damascus was ruled by princes of Turkish origin, the
Seljuks and Atabegs. Starting with Seljuk rule, Damascus experienced
an artistic and architectural revival. Architects were commissioned
to rebuild the city, which had fallen into considerable disrepair.
The Citadel of Damascus was built in 1078 to house the ruler of
Damascus and provide a military stronghold.
1077 Foundation of the new state.
1092 Seljuk Sultan Malikshah died, accession of Mahmud, and the
Seljuk Empire became torn by civil war. Internal conflict among the
young heirs led to the fragmentation of the Seljuks' central
authority into smaller Seljuk states led by various members of the
family, and still smaller units led by regional chieftains, no one
of whom was able to unite the Muslim world as still another force
appeared in the Middle east: the Crusaders.
1094 Death of Mahmud; accession of Barkiaruk. Death of the Abbasid
Caliph Al Muqtadi, accession of Mustahzir.
1096 Beginning of the Crusader campaigns. The First Crusade gave
Syria the choice of siding with the Christians to repel the Fatamids,
who were again attacking from the south, or siding with the hated
Fatamids against the Christians, who captured one of the holiest
cities in Islam, Jerusalem, in 1099.
1097 Foundation of the Anatolian Seljuk Sultanate in 1097, Konya was
made the capital.
1099 Jerusalem fell to the Christians 15 Jul 1099. A short truce
with the Christians ended when the armies of Damascus allied with
Iraqi forces under Sharif al-Din Mawdud of Mosul to defeat Baldwin I
near Lake Tiberias in 1113.
1105 Death of the Seljuk Sultan Barkiaruk, accession of Muhammad
1146-1176 Rule of Nur al-Din (Atabeg) in Damascus
1174-1260 The Ayyubid Dynasty, founded by Salah al-Din (Saladin),
rules Damascus - known for his historical and decisive victory over
the Crusaders in Syria and Jerusalem.
The Turks were defeated at Dorylaeum (1097), Antioch (1098), Ascalon
and Jerusalem (1099). During these campaigns a Seljuk Emir Hayraddin
Saladin was captured by French Crusaders. Count Raimund IV of
Toulouse (Raymond of St.Giles) sent the emir to France, where he was
knighted and admitted into the nobility as Arnulph le Turque. He
bore on his shield as well as on his helmet a lion holding the sun,
the sun signifying the deity of the Turks, the lion valor or
strength.
History and tradition identify Arnulph le Turque as the progenitor
of the Turk family, which in France became known first as "le Turk"
and later as "de Turk". King Francis I renewed the grant of arms to
Reginald le Turk. The copy of this grant at Nismes in 1529 is still
to be found in the archives of Paris. Reginald was then the only one
of the family. He married Louison de Foix. He was the mayor of
Nismes and at his death in 1554 he was survived by two sons. Their
names were Victor and Hugo le Turk. The descendants of Victor
remained in the province of Languedoc, where the name finally died
out. Hugo on the other hand settled at Rochelle in the northwestern
part of France, where he became a master mechanic. He married Margat
de Privas. He died in 1601 and was survived by four sons: Michael,
Harman, Robert and Sancred de Turk. The family name spread itself to
other parts of Alsace and Lorraine [ref. European Heraldic and
Family Data in the library at Versailles and Paris, VIII, 192, cited
in History and Genealogy of the DeTurk, DeTurck Family, Eugene Peter
DeTurk, Kutztown, PA: DeTurk Family Association, 1934 {GS film #
1321165 item 1}].
The account of Hayraddin Saladin derives from the referenced 1934
account. Michael Foss's People of the First Crusade records that
Raymond of St. Giles made a treaty with the emir of Tripoli (between
Damascus and Allepo) that if he were to defeat the emir of Cairo and
take Jerusalem that the emir of Tripoli would be christened. The
emir of Tripoli was Jalal al-Mulk of the famous and learned Banu
Ammar family. Raymond of St. Giles later established himself over
the principality of Tripoli and personally never returned to France.
Was a christened Jalal al-Mulk supplanted by Raymond of St. Giles
and returned in his stead to France? Could he have been one and the
same as Hayraddin Saladin?
Hans Bahlow's book on German surnames for Türck has a "see
reference" to Thürck. He says it is a "young name as the Turks
became known only in the 16th century". In Germany this line seems
to have originated with French Huguenot refugee descendants of Hugo
de Turk, who died in northern France in 1601. His grandson, Jacob de
Turk, crossed the border from France into Germany in 1609 and joined
the Huguenot congregation in Frankenthal. After the Revocation of
the Edict of Nantes in 1688 the Huguenot scattered into various
nations. The French army pursued the refugees into the Palatinate
where they burned Frankenthal and other Huguenot communities to the
ground in 1689. Emigres fled east as well as west. In Berlin there
is a Huguenot museum at the Französisher Dom (French Cathedral) at
the north end of Gendarmenmarkt. It was once the main church of the
French Huguenots, who settled in Berlin in the late 17th century.
Built between 1701 and 1705, the cathedral was, modeled after the
main Huguenot church in Charenton, France, which had been destroyed
in 1688. Since 1935 the Huguenot museum has been located here. It
traces the history of these French Protestants in France and in
Berlin-Brandenburg from the 17th to the 20th century.
Huguenots began arriving in Prussia in 1683. The Brandenburg Elector
held them in high esteem and issued the Edict of Potsdam in 1685,
which welcomed the persecuted Huguenots to Prussia. Fifteen thousand
accepted the invitation and made a tremendous contribution to the
economy and to education. Probably this is the source of the Turk
lineage that spread from the region of Berlin into the Neumark.
Christian Friedrich Türk - a tailor, who appears in the 1719 census
of Landsberg an der Warthe is presumed to be the progenitor of the
family in this region.
Most of the maps of northeast Germany drawn in the early 1800s
(before railroads) show major rivers and cities and, in some cases,
roads. A highway connected Berlin, Kustrin, Landsberg, Friedeberg
and on to Elbing and Königsburg. Modern road maps of Germany show it
as Highway #1 to Kustrin and in Poland as #22/50. Presumably the
migration to Landsberg would have followed this road from Berlin.
The Heritage of Central Asia: >From Antiquity to the Turkish
Expansion, Richard N. Frye & Bernard Lewis, eds.
"Huns", Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia, Microsoft Corporation,
1993-1997.
New Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical Manual,
Clifford E. Bosworth. New York, Columbia University Press, 1996.
People of the First Cruade, Michael Foss. New York: Arcade
Publishing, 1997.
Scattered to All the Winds, 1685-1720: 1685-1720, Migrations of the
Dauphine
French Huguenots into Italy, Switzerland, & Germany, Willis L.
Scallioli, ed.; West Lafayette, IN: Belle Publications, 1983.
Hugenottenmuseum, Gendarmenmarkt 6/im Französischen Dom (Mitte),
tel. 2 29 17 60, Di-Sa 12-17 Uhr, So 13-17 Uhr.
Ruth G. Galon, Oak Terrace Apts., 355 North St., Apt. A-10,
Doylestown, PA 18901-3839. |
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