Editing Turan (section)

== History ==
=== Ancient literature ===
==== Avesta ====
{{Main|Turya (Avesta)}}
The oldest existing mention of Turan is in the Farvardin ''[[yasht]]s'', which are in the [[Avestan#Forms and stages of development|Young Avestan]] language and have been dated by linguists to about 2500 years ago.<ref>Prods Oktor Skjærvø, "Avestan Quotations in Old Persian?" in S. Shaked and A. Netzer, eds., ''Irano-Judaica IV'', Jerusalem, 1999, pp. 1–64</ref> According to [[Gherardo Gnoli]], the ''Avesta'' contains the names of various tribes who lived in proximity to each other: "the [[Iranian peoples#Name|Airyas]] [Aryans], Tuiryas [Turanians], [[Sarmatians|Sairimas]] [Sarmatians], [[Sakas|Sainus]] [Sacae] and [[Dahae|Dahis]] [Dahae]".<ref name="ReferenceA">G. Gnoli, ''Zoroaster's time and homeland'', Naples 1980</ref> In the hymns of the ''[[Avesta]]'', the adjective ''Tūrya'' is attached to various enemies of [[Zoroastrism]] like Fraŋrasyan (Shahnameh: [[Afrasiab|Afrāsīāb]]). The word occurs only once in the ''[[Gathas]]'', but 20 times in the later parts of the ''Avesta''. The Tuiryas as they were called in Avesta play a more important role in the ''Avesta'' than the Sairimas, Sainus and Dahis. Zoroaster himself hailed from the Airya people but he also preached his message to other neighboring tribes.<ref name="ReferenceA" /><ref>M. Boyce, ''History of Zoroastrianism''. 3V. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1991. (Handbuch Der Orientalistik/B. Spuler)</ref>

According to [[Mary Boyce]], in the Farvardin Yasht, "In it (verses 143–144) are praised the fravashis of righteous men and women not only among the Aryas (as the "Avestan" people called themselves), but also among the Turiyas, Sairimas, Sainus and Dahis; and the personal names, like those of the people, all seem Iranian in character".<ref>M. Boyce, ''History of Zoroastrianism''. 3V. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1991. (''Handbuch Der Orientalistik''/B. Spuler)., pg 250</ref> Hostility between Tuirya and Airya is indicated also in the Farvardtn Yast (vv. 37-8), where the Fravashis of the Just are said to have provided support in battle against the Danus, who appear to be a clan of the Tura people.<ref>G. Gnoli, ''Zoroaster's time and homeland'', Naples 1980, pg 107</ref> Thus in the ''Avesta'', some of the Tuiryas believed in the message of Zoroaster while others rejected the religion.

Similar to the ancient homeland of Zoroaster, the precise geography and location of Turan is unknown.<ref>G. Gnoli, ''Zoroaster's time and homeland'', Naples 1980, pg 99–130</ref> In post-Avestan traditions they were thought to inhabit the region north of the [[Amu Darya|Oxus]], the river separating them from the Iranians. Their presence accompanied by incessant wars with the Iranians, helped to define the latter as a distinct nation, proud of their land and ready to spill their blood in its defense.<ref name="Ehsan Yarshater 1983">Ehsan Yarshater, "Iranian National History," in ''The Cambridge History of Iran'' 3(1)(1983), 408–409</ref> The common names of Turanians in Avesta and ''[[Shahnameh]]'' include Frarasyan,{{r|Yarshater1984_EI}} Aghraethra,{{r|Khaleghi1984_EI}} Biderafsh,{{r|Tafazzoli1989_EI}} Arjaspa{{r|Tafazzoli1986_EI}} Namkhwast.{{r|Tafazzoli1989_EI}} The names of Iranian tribes including those of the Turanians that appear in [[Avesta]] have been studied by [[Manfred Mayrhofer]] in his comprehensive book on Avesta personal name etymologies.<ref>{{cite book |author=Mayrhofer, Manfred |year=1977 |title=Iranisches Personennamenbuch |volume=I/1 – Die altiranischen Namen/Die Avestischen Namen |location=Vienna |publisher=Austrian Academy of Sciences Press |language=de |pages=74f}} Reviewed in {{cite journal |author=Dresden, Mark J. |title=Iranisches Personennamenbuch |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |year=1981 |volume=101 |issue=4 |pages=466 |doi=10.2307/601282 |jstor=601282}}</ref>

==== Sassanian Empire ====
From the 5th century CE, the [[Sasanian Empire]] defined "Turan" in opposition to "Iran", as the land where lay its enemies to the northeast.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Attila |first=Michael |last=Maas |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |date=2014 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e0dcBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA284 |pages=284|isbn=9781316060858 }}</ref>

The continuation of nomadic invasions on the north-eastern borders in historical times kept the memory of the Turanians alive.<ref name="Ehsan Yarshater 1983" /> After the 6th century the Turks, who had been pushed westward by other tribes, became neighbours of Iran and were identified with the Turanians.<ref name="Ehsan Yarshater 1983" /><ref>{{cite book|first=R. |last=Frye |title=The Heritage of Persia: The pre-Islamic History of One of the World's Great Civilizations |publisher=World Publishing Company |location=New York |date=1963 |pages=41}}</ref> The identification of the Turanians with the Turks was a late development, possibly made in the early 7th century; the Turks first came into contact with the Iranians only in the 6th century.{{r|Yarshater1984_EI}}

=== Middle literature ===
==== Early Islamic era ====
According to Clifford E. Bosworth:{{r|Bosworth1990_EI}}

{{blockquote|In early Islamic times Persians tended to identify all the lands to the northeast of Khorasan and lying beyond the Oxus with the region of Turan, which in the ''Shahnama'' of Ferdowsi is regarded as the land allotted to Fereydun's son Tur. The denizens of Turan were held to include the Turks, in the first four centuries of Islam essentially those nomadizing beyond the Jaxartes, and behind them the Chinese (see Kowalski; Minorsky, "Turan"). Turan thus became both an ethnic and a geographical term, but always containing ambiguities and contradictions, arising from the fact that all through Islamic times the lands immediately beyond the Oxus and along its lower reaches were the homes not of Turks but of Iranian peoples, such as the Sogdians and Khwarezmians.}}

The terms "Turk" and "Turanian" became used interchangeably during the Islamic era. ''The Shahnameh'', or the Book of Kings, the compilation of Iranian mythical heritage, uses the two terms equivalently. Other authors, including Tabari, Hakim Iranshah and many other texts follow like. A notable exception is the Abl-Hasan Ali ibn Masudi, an Arab historian who writes: "The birth of Afrasiyab was in the land of Turks and the error that historians and non-historians have made about him being a Turk is due to this reason".<ref>{{cite book|author=Abi al-Ḥasan Ali ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Ali al-Masudi |title=Muruj al-dhahab wa-maadin al-jawhar |location=Beirut, Lebanon |publisher=Dar al-Marifah |date=2005}}</ref> By the 10th century, the myth of Afrasiyab was adopted by the Qarakhanid dynasty.{{r|Yarshater1984_EI}} During the [[Safavid Iran|Safavid]] era, following the common geographical convention of the ''Shahnameh'', the term Turan was used to refer to the domain of the Uzbek empire in conflict with the Safavids.{{Citation needed|date=February 2021}}

Some linguists derive the word from the Indo-Iranian root *''tura-'' "strong, quick, sword(Pashto)", [[Pashto]] ''turan (thuran)'' "swordsman". Others link it to old Iranian *''tor'' "dark, black", related to the New Persian ''tār(ik)'', Pashto ''tor (thor)'', and possibly English ''dark''. In this case, it is a reference to the "dark civilization" of Central Asian nomads in contrast to the "illuminated" [[Zoroastrianism|Zoroastrian]] civilization of the settled Ārya.{{Citation needed|date=February 2021}}

==== Shahnameh ====
{{Main|Shahnameh|Tur (Shahnameh)}}
{{Unreferenced section|date=February 2021}}
In the Persian epic ''Shahnameh'', the term ''Tūrān'' ("land of the Tūrya" like ''[[Iran|Ērān, Īrān]]'' = "land of the [[Arya (Iran)|Ārya]]") refers to the inhabitants of the eastern-Iranian border and beyond the [[Amu Darya|Oxus]]. According to the foundation myth given in the ''Shahnameh'', King Firēdūn (= Avestan [[Fereydun|Θraētaona]]) had three sons, [[Salm (Shahnameh)|Salm]], [[Tur (Shahnameh)|Tūr]] and ''[[Iraj]]'', among whom he divided the world: [[Anatolia|Asia Minor]] was given to Salm, Turan to Tur and Iran to Īraj. The older brothers killed the younger, but he was avenged by his grandson, and the Iranians became the rulers of the world. However, the war continued for generations. In the ''Shahnameh'', the word Turan appears nearly 150 times and that of Iran nearly 750 times.

Some examples from the ''Shahnameh'':

{{blockquote|نه خاکست پیدا نه دریا نه کوه

ز بس تیغداران توران گروه

No earth is visible, no sea, no mountain,

From the many blade-wielders of the Turan horde}}

{{blockquote|تهمتن به توران سپه شد به جنگ

بدانسان که نخجیر بیند پلنگ

Tahamtan (Powerful-Bodied) [[Rostam]] took the fight to the Turan army

Just as a leopard sights its prey.}}

=== Modern literature ===
==== Geography ====
[[File:Stielers Handatlas 1891 59.jpg|thumb|Another 19th-century "Map of [[Iran]] and Turan", drawn by [[Adolf Stieler]]]]
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Western languages borrowed the word ''Turan'' as a general designation for modern [[Central Asia]], although this expression has now fallen into disuse. Turan appears next to [[Iran]] on numerous maps of the 19th century<ref>[[:File:Iran Turan map 1843.jpg]]</ref> to designate a region encompassing modern [[Uzbekistan]], [[Kazakhstan]], [[Kyrgyzstan]], [[Tajikistan]], [[Turkmenistan]] and northern parts of [[Afghanistan]] and [[Pakistan]]. This area roughly corresponds to what is called [[Central Asia]] today.

The phrase ''Turan Plain'' or ''[[Turan Depression]]'' became a geographical term referring to a part of Central Asia.

==== Linguistics ====
{{Main|Turanian languages}}

The term ''Turanian'', now obsolete, formerly{{When|date=June 2013}} occurred in the classifications used by European (especially [[Germany|German]], [[Hungary|Hungarian]], and [[Slovakia|Slovak]]) [[Ethnology|ethnologists]], [[Linguistics|linguists]], and [[Romanticism|Romantics]] to designate populations speaking non-[[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]], non-[[Semitic languages|Semitic]], and non-[[Hamites|Hamitic languages]]<ref>[[Abel Hovelacque]], ''The Science of Language: Linguistics, Philology, Etymology'', pg 144, [https://archive.org/details/sciencelanguage01hovegoog/page/n160 <!-- quote=neither aryan, nor hamitic, uralo or semitic. -->]</ref> and specially speakers of [[Altaic languages|Altaic]], [[Dravidian languages|Dravidian]], [[Uralic languages|Uralic]], [[Japanese language|Japanese]], [[Korean language|Korean]] and other languages.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Elisabeth |last1=Chevallier |first2=François |last2=Lenormant |title=A Manual of the Ancient History of the East |publisher=J. B. Lippincott & co. |date=1871 |pages=68 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zqQYvJBoLjwC&dq=turanian+dravidian&pg=PA68}}</ref>

[[Max Müller]] (1823–1900) identified different sub-branches within the Turanian language family:
* the Middle [[Altaic languages|Altaic]] division branch, comprising Tungusic, Mongolic, Turkic.
* The Northern [[Uralic languages|Ural]] Samoyedic, Ugriche and Finnic.
* the Southern branch consisted of Dravidian languages such as Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, and other Dravidian languages.
* the [[languages of the Caucasus]] which Müller classified as the ''scattered languages of the Turanian family''.

Müller also began to muse whether [[Chinese language|Chinese]] belonged to the Northern branch or Southern branch.<ref>{{cite book|first=George |last=van Driem |title=Handbuch Der Orientalistik |language=de |trans-title=Handbook of Oriental Studies |publisher=[[Brill Academic Publishers]] |date=2001 |pages=335–336 |isbn=9004120629 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fiavPYCz4dYC&dq=that+the+turanian+language+was+%27named+after+the+descendants+of+tur%27&pg=PA335}}</ref>

The main relationships between Dravidian, Uralic, and Altaic languages were considered [[Linguistic typology|typological]]. According to Crystal & Robins, "Language families, as conceived in the historical study of languages, should not be confused with the quite separate classifications of languages by reference to their sharing certain predominant features of grammatical structure."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Crystal |first1=David |last2=Robins |first2=Robert Henry |title=Language |at=5 – Linguistic change / Language typology |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/language/Linguistic-change#ref27199}}</ref>
{{As of | 2013}} linguists classify languages according to the method of [[comparative linguistics]] rather than using their typological features. According to ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', Max's Müller's "efforts were most successful in the case of the Semites, whose affinities are easy to demonstrate, and probably least successful in the case of the Turanian peoples, whose early origins are hypothetical".<ref>"religions, classification of." ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.</ref> {{As of | 2014}} the scholarly community no longer uses the word ''Turanian'' to denote a classification of language families. The relationship between Uralic and Altaic, whose speakers were also designated as Turanian people in 19th-century European literature, remains uncertain.<ref>"Ural–Altaic languages." ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. 2007</ref>

==== Ideology ====
{{Main|Turanid race}}

In European discourse, the words ''Turan'' and ''Turanian'' can designate a certain mentality, i.e. the [[nomad]]ic in contrast to the [[Urbanization|urbanized]] [[Agriculture|agricultural]] civilizations. This usage probably{{original research inline|date=June 2013}} matches the Zoroastrian concept of the ''Tūrya'', which is not primarily a linguistic or ethnic designation, but rather a name of the infidels who opposed the civilization based on the preaching of [[Zoroaster]].

Combined with physical anthropology, the concept of the Turanian mentality has a clear potential for cultural polemic. Thus in 1838 the scholar J.W. Jackson described the ''Turanid'' or ''Turanian'' race in the following words:<ref>"The Iran and Turan", ''Anthropological Review'' 6:22 (1868), p. 286</ref>

{{blockquote|The Turanian is the impersonation of material power. He is the merely muscular man at his maximum of collective development. He is not inherently a savage, but he is radically a barbarian. He does not live from hand to mouth, like a beast, but neither has he in full measure the moral and intellectual endowments of the true man. He can labour and he can accumulate, but he cannot think and aspire like a Caucasian. Of the two grand elements of superior human life, he is more deficient in the sentiments than in the faculties. And of the latter, he is better provided with those that conduce to the acquisition of knowledge than the origination of ideas.}}

Polish philosopher [[Feliks Koneczny]] claimed the existence of a distinctive '''Turanian civilization''', encompassing both Turkic and some [[Slavs]], such as [[Russians]]. This alleged civilization's hallmark would be militarism, [[anti-intellectualism]] and an absolute obedience to the ruler. Koneczny saw this civilization as inherently inferior to Latin (Western European) civilization.{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}}

==== Politics ====
{{Unreferenced section|date=February 2021}}
In the declining days of the [[Ottoman Empire]], some Turkish nationalists adopted the word ''Turanian'' to express a pan-Turkic ideology, also called [[Turanism]]. {{As of | 2013}} Turanism forms an important aspect of the [[ideology]] of the Turkish [[Nationalist Movement Party]] (''MHP''), whose members are also known as [[Grey Wolves (organization)|Grey Wolves]].

In recent times{{When|date=June 2013}}, the word ''Turanian'' has sometimes expressed a pan-Altaic nationalism (theoretically including [[Manchu people|Manchus]] and [[Mongols]] in addition to [[Turkic peoples|Turks]]), though no political organization seems to have adopted such an ambitious platform.

==== Names ====
[[File:Poster Turandot.jpg|thumb|Poster of the opera by [[Giacomo Puccini]], ''[[Turandot]]'' (1926)]]
''Turandot'' – or ''Turandokht'' – is a female name in Iran and it means ''"Turan's Daughter"'' in [[Persian language|Persian]] (it is best known in the West through [[Giacomo Puccini|Puccini]]'s famous opera ''[[Turandot]]'' (1921–24)).

[[Turan (name)|Turan]] is also a common name in the [[Middle East]], and as family surnames in some countries including [[Bahrain]], Iran, [[Bosnia and Herzegovina|Bosnia]] and [[Turkey]].

The [[Ayyubid dynasty|Ayyubid]] ruler [[Saladin]] had an older brother with the name [[Turan-Shah]].

Turaj, whom ancient Iranian myths depict as the ancestor of the Turanians, is also a popular name and means ''Son of Darkness''. The name Turan according to Iranian myths derives from the homeland of Turaj. The Pahlavi pronunciation of Turaj is Tuzh, according to the Dehkhoda dictionary. Similarly, [[Iraj]], which is also a popular name, is the brother of Turaj in the ''Shahnameh''. An altered version of Turaj is ''Zaraj'', which means ''son of gold''.