Editing Turan (section)

=== 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''.