Merv, the Queen of the
World;
and the Scourge of the Man-stealing Turcomans. With an
Exposition of the Khorassan Question:
By Charles Thomas Marvin, Published by W.H. Allen, 1881
CHAPTER III. THE ORIGIN OF THE Turkmen.
WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE MINOR TRIBES.
Page 39
- Page
40 - Page 41 - Page 42
- Page
43 - Page 44
- Page
45 - Page 46
- Page
47 - Page 48
- Page
49 - Page 50
- Page
51 - Page 52
- Page
53 - Page 54
- Page
55 - Page 56
- Page
57 - Page 58
- Page
59 - Page 60
- Page
61 - Page 62
- Page
63 - Page 64
Page 41
THE TUBCOMAN MIGRATION. 41
details ; for even the notions which have been handed
down to us by mediaeval writers on the supposed ancestors
of the Turkmen
are so confused, that it would be almost impossible to
form a definite idea upon the relationship of the Ghuz
and certain present fractions of the nomads of the
Hyrcanian steppe. There cannot be any doubt, however, as
to the identity of the name Ghuz and Turcoman, and
whether the Turkish people, known under the former name,
constituted only one single tribe or branch, we may,
nevertheless, assume that the Turkish nomads who caused
so much trouble to the Samanides and others were,
strictly speaking, Turkmen,
who, coming down from the north-eastern shores of the
Caspian, from the Mangishlak of today, had already
endeavored, at that time, to get possession of that
fertile tract of country which, lying to the north of
Persia, along the Kopet mountains of to-day, richly
irrigated, must have early attracted the cupidity of the
naked children of the desert. The contest which ensued
between the Turkmen
and the settled Iranians was a protracted one, but in the
end the barbarians got the upper hand, and, towards the
end of the middle ages, places formerly flourishing in
the Khorasan mountains were mere ruins, and haunted by
the different tribes and branches of Turkmen
bent upon war and pillage, partly in the adjacent
country, partly amongst themselves." In the
course of these continual fights and struggles, we see a
few fractions of the Turcoman nation emerge into
individual notoriety; for example, the Salor and Sarik,
during the conquest
Page 39
- Page
40 - Page 41 - Page 42
- Page
43 - Page 44
- Page
45 - Page 46
- Page
47 - Page 48
- Page
49 - Page 50
- Page
51 - Page 52
- Page
53 - Page 54
- Page
55 - Page 56
- Page
57 - Page 58
- Page
59 - Page 60
- Page
61 - Page 62
- Page
63 - Page 64
|