Turks and Mongolians which placed together on the scene of Central Asian History lived  for  thousands  of  years  side  by  side  and  sometimes  together.  This  togetherness, with otherwords, brotherhood continued sometimes with friendship and sometimes with struggles. The linguistic  proximity  of  this  two  community  is  already  known.  The togetherness  in  Central  Asia  that  started  from  the  very  early  stages  of  the  history continued  till  the  past  centuries.  In  the  analysis  of  this  togetherness  there  are  two dimensions; political relations and cultural relations. Political relations include relations
of  war  and  peace  rather,  a multidimensional  struggle  which  is  a  result  of  sharing  the same territory. The cultural relations includes the proximity of maintaning the similar life styles with minimal differences which is the result of living together. Although some differences occured as a result of Turkish communities moved firstly to Western Central Asia and than to the front Asia in the second part of 10th  century, relations with Turkish origin communities like “Kipchak”, Kirghiz and “Uyghur” continued for centuries.

 In  this  paper  we  will  make  a  general  evaluation  about  the  political  and  cultural relations  between  the  Mongolian  origin  clans  and  Turkish  origin  clans  in  the  early period which is the period before Genghis Khan (Jenghiz Khan- Jinghis Khan).

The Political Dimension of the Relations


 The difficulties of the life in steppes forced the tribes always to move to different locations  where  they  could  continue  their  lives.  Therefore,  this  mobility  and  the dynamism lead to a very strong tribal structure. This situation, the strong tribal structure became the immutable reality of the Central Asian History. A system of big and little tribes  from  the  Pacific  Ocean  to  the  Ural  Mountains,  even  to  the  large  plains  of Blacksea  Region  is  the  point  at  issue¹.  This  situation  is  the  same  in  the  beginning  of 20th century as it was in the early periods².

 This  large  area  of  steppes  was  shared  by  Turkish,  Mongolian  and  Manchurian originated tribes. The history of the Manchurian originated tribes which situated more eastern and majorly shared the same destiny of Northern China and Korea developed a bit  diferently³.  However,  the  history  of  Turkish  and  Mongolian  tribes  developed  on
within the other.

 This proximity is so clear that, sometimes it is difficult to understand which tribe is Turkish  or  which  tribe  is  Mongolian4.  Especially  in  the  very  early  stages  of  history, which is periods B.C., there are some tribes that very little sources can be found about. Chinese  sources  tell  about  their  Northern  neighbours  majorly  by  using  mythological terms instead of historical terms. For example, the term Ti (Di) used to point northern tribes  includes  the  Turkish,  Mongolian  and  Tungusian  tribes.  Sometimes  the  term “Jung” is used⁵. In the period of the Huns, to point the same Northerns, the term “Hu” is used and, the term “Jung” is used to point the tribes in the directions of West and Tibet. After  a  few  centuries,  the  term  “Hu”  is  used  for  the  Sogds  that  lived  in  the  Western regions. As a result, we can say that the Chinese have confused in geographical means in denominating the Northern and Western regions⁶.

On the other hand, about the ancestors of the Huns, again the mythological terms find place. Names which are not very clear are mentioned with very short informations. In 318 B.C., we see the name Hsiung- nu ( Hun). However, after 225 B.C., there are names  like  Kuei-fang,  Yen-yün,  Hsien-yün  to  be  told  as  the  ancestors  of  the  Huns7. Here Turkish and Mongolian originated tribes must be mentioned together. After 209 B.C., the Great Hun Empire that gained power with the leadership of Mo-tun is actually a confederation. The eastern flank of the confederation was established by Mongolian and Tungusian originated tribes⁸.

 As any other political organisation, the Hun Empire first became weaker (Mid 1st century B.C.) and then came to an end in the 2nd century A.C. and was split to 2 or 3. The Mongolian and Manchurian originated tribes became stronger and established their own state by using the advantage of this situation. Here, maybe because of the close relations between Hsein-pi and Wu-huan tribes the relations and proximity between Mongolians and  Tungus  (Manchurians)  may  be  discussed⁹.  We  see  that  many  Hun  tribes  migrated firstly to Western Central Asia, and from there to Middle and Western Europe.
On  the  other  hand,  after  the  dissolvation  of  the  Hun  empire,  many  Hun  and Mongolian  tribes  moved  to  Northern  China  and  established  new  states¹⁰. While  these states were able to protect their steppe culture caharacteristics in the beginning, later on they Chinesesized and gained different cultural caharacteristics. Also, in such sitiuation, the Turkish and Mongolian originated tribes shared the same destiny¹¹.

 Following the Huns, in the East of Central Asia, the Juan-juan state took place on the history stage. Currently it is discussed whether the origin of this state is Mongolian or  Tungus.  Actually,  this  state  became  dominant  in  this  part  of  Central  Asia  for approximately 250 years. Tungus, Turkish and Mongolian originated tribes joined the Juan-juan state, which was organized as a confederation like the Hun empire. In other words, this time Turkish tribes were attached to a Mongolian originated state.

 In 552, Juan-juan state was destroyed by the “Gök-Türk”s under the leadership of Bumin. Bumin, who earned the titel İl (İllig) Khan, established the Gök-Türk state the same year¹². The following years the Gök-Türk state took over the control of Central Asia and became a confederation spread from Black Sea to Korea. Later Mongolian and
Tungus tribes joined this political organisation¹³. Most important tribes were Ch’i-tan, Shih-wei,  Hsi  and  K’u-mo-hsi’s.  By  the  way,  we  have  to  add  that,  Chinese  sources between   6-8’th   centuries   provide   more   detailed   informations.   That   makes   our knowledge  of  history  and  culture  about  the  Turkish  and  Mongolian  originated  tribes clearer. These Mongolian tribes were placed in the Gök-Türk federation. We see that when  Gök-Türk  state  became  weaker  after  582,  the  Mongolian  tribes  began  to  act individually or sometimes they were attached  to China. This situation  continued until the Gök-Türk state collapsed in 744. In the following Uyghur state the situation is the same. There were Mongolian tribes in the Uyghur confederation¹⁴.

After  the  Great  State  of  Uyghurs  (established  745)  collapsed  by  Kyrgizs,  the sovereignty in the Orhun area passed to the Kyrgizs¹⁵. However, they couldn’t establish an absolute sovereignty over the area. Rather, this couldn’t be for long-term. After the Mongolian  originated  Kytans  which  came  from  the  East  in  920’s  occupied  the  area completely, in Mongolia, Turks never have been able to win the sovereignty over this area. As it is known, the Kytans moved to West and established a country called Kitay ( known as Karahitay by Islamic sources) on Eastern Kazakhstan vicinity. Turkish tribes like  “Kipchak”,  “Uyghur”  and  “Karluk”  were  attached  to  this  state¹⁶.  Actually,  the Karahitay  country  replaced  “Karahanli”  state.  Eastern  Turkestan  gained  control  over southern and eastern Kazakhstan lands.

 The  real  change  occured  during  the  reign  of  Genghis  Khan.  Many  Turkish originated tribes were attached to Genghis who developed his country in a very short period time from a state to an empire. Here the important point is that until the period of Genghis Khan, Turkish and Mongolian originated tribes lived together¹⁷. Turkish tribes like  “Kipchak”s  and  Kyrgizs  became  a  part  of  the  Mongolian  empire  and  formed  an important component of the state. The contributions in the cultural area of the Uyghurs who  live  majorly  in  the  center  and  eastern  regions  of  the  Mongolian  empire  is  very significant. This togetherness is very clear especially during the reign of Kubilay Khan in China.

Approach To Cultural Relations:

 There are many Mongolian tribes which walk away in the historical stage during the early periods. Their number is at least 118¹⁸. The history of these tribes is important for both Mongolian and Turkish history. Lets have a look at the most important ones:

Hsi’s: Hsi’s living on the Wu-huan mountains have been called K’u-mo-hsi during Wei’s (385-549) reign and Hsi during the reign of T’ang. It’s mentioned that this tribe was a part of the Tung-hu’s and their life style and customs’s were the same of Gök- Turks.  On  the  other  hand  it  is  interesting  that  they  were  migrating,  living  in  the  fell tents. Also their hunting skills, cultivation of a kind of millet , the presence of wooden mortars,  tripod  pots  of  clay,  their  good  race  horses  and  black  sheeps  are  interesting. They’re seen as a tribe of the Kıtans when they were powerfull¹⁹.

Kıtan’s: We see them for the firts time in the second half of the 4th century A.C, in  East  Mongolia  and  South-west  Manchuria.  They  seperated  from  the  K’u-mo-shi’s during the reign of Wei ( 385-549). Later a part of them went to Korea. Their graves are on trees. After the dead is kept here for three years, it is scorched. They look like the Shih-wei’s. They consist of 72 tribes. They belong to Tung-hus. They have horse cart wagons.  They’re  customs  are  similar  to  the  ones  of  the  Gök-Türks.  In  spring  and autumn, before wars, they sacrifice a white horse and a black ox’s. Some reaserchers say that this tribe is a mixture of Mongolian- Tunguz²⁰.

K’u-mo-hsi’s: Normally they take place on the history scene as a mountain tribe which is situated on the North. In the second half of the 4th century they are seen in Western Manchuria anmd Eastern Mongolia. Tung-pu, are another clan of the Yü-wens. They live by hunting and looting. Later they are seperated to five differnet groups; the Ju-ho-chu, Mo-ho-fu, Ch’i-ku, Mu-kun, Shih-te.

 They migrate like the Gök-Turks.  Their  clerical  titels  are  the  same  of  the  Gök- Türks. They are experienced hunters. They cook pap with millet. They made assaults on Wei’s ( Tabgaç) after 480²¹.

Meng-wu: They’re  seen  as  a  branch  of  Shih-wei’s  during  the  reign  of  T’ang dynasty (618-905). It’s clearly known that the name “Mongolian” is originated from this tribe. Later on their name is Meng-ku in many sources.

Shih-wei’s: The Shih-wei’s took place on the scene of history as a continuation of the Hsien-pi’s. They majorly cultivated millet, wheat at wild cereals on their lands. They have many Sable fur sources. Summers they reside in the villages, and winter they migrate. The men have bun hairs. They use bows and arrows made of horns. Hair of women is tied. They always  wear  jacket  and  trousers  made  of  white  deer  feather.  They  produce  wine.  They make necklace of red fig and wear them. This is the indicator of richness.

 They  use  ox-carts.  Their  residences  look  like  Gök-Türk’s  fell  tented  wagons, however theirs are of cane. The Shih-wei’s of the north cover their houses with the shell of beech tree. In the winters they live in caves. Their language is similar to the language of  Ch’i-tans.  Their  graves  are  the  trees.  They  marry  by  abduction.  They  labour  with
hunting and fishery.

 They’re also called Hei-ch’e-tze Shih-wei’s ( Black wagon Shih-wei’s). During the Uyghur reign they have floats and caique’s made of pelt²².

Chu: Chu’s live at the north east of the Bayırku’s. They only cultivated deers and hitch up them to their wagons. Their houses is made of tree pelts.

Wa-chie-tse: They  live  to  the  nort  east  of  Ch’i-tan’s  and  are  known  as  wildly horsemen. They ride horses without saddle. They have long bows and arrows.

Wu-liang-hsia: They  live  to  the  north  of  Yü-yang  and  to  the  south  of  the  river Amur. They’re presumed to be the ancestors of the Urenhay’s of present day ²³.

 As a result, we can say that, the tribes we described above are mainly the ancestors of who  live  now  in  Mongolia.  Although  they’re  mentioned  by  different  names,  Chinese sources wrote them by putting them together. This writing process began with the “Han” dynasty  and  came  to  an  end  with  the  T’ang  dynasty.  Most  of  the  clans  are  nomads, however undoubtly some of them were busy with aggriculture. As to stockbreeding, sheep feeding is the most common and beef and horse feeding is also widespread²⁴.

 As  a  point  of  view,  the  Shih-wei  culture  could  be  seen  as the base of the Mongolian  culture  developed  since  the  10th  century.  There  is  culturally  a  solid development  relation between the Turkish and Mongolian  tribes.  Therefore,  by  the sources it is offenly said that the culture of the pro-Mongolian tribes ressemble to Hun and Gök-Türk culture. As in the Huns, we see that they use wagon houses, bows made of horns, and flat ski’s. From many points, the similarity of titles shows the closeness of Turks- Mongolians, and sometimes the identity. However it is not the same situation for the small Tunghus (Manchurian) groups.

 The cultural registers about the Shih-wei’s is various in means of content. There are many  tribes  gathered  under  the  same  name  who  live  seperated  from  each  other  in seperated geographic regions. The one’s who live to the north are hunters related to the Siberian  culture.  The  southerns  were  majorly  herdsmen.  The  ones  to  north  had  tents covered with beech trees, wagon houses, clothes  made of  leather, clothes  made of fish skin, flat ski’s, caiques made of pelt and houses put on poles named nest houses to be used as summer residences. They were occupied with stockfarming. The main difference from the Turkish tribes was that they were feeding pigs and they had graves on trees.

 As  mentioned  above,  Turks  and  Mongolian  originated  societies  who  appeared together on the scene of history on the steppes of Center Asia, lived together until the 10th  century.  They  developed  all  kind  of  cultural  and  political  relations.  This  relation was so close that sometimes Turkish tribes Mongolianised, and sometimes Mongolian
tribes Turkisized. As a result of this situation, many times the sources couldn’t decide which tribe is Turkish or Mongolian, they accepted them both Turkish and Mongolian. As a result, it became difficult to put a tick and certain line between the Turks and the Mongolians.   Whenever   on   of   the   Turkish   tribes   established a   great   state, the Mongolians  tribes  were  attached  to  them.  Whenever  on  of  the  Mongolian  tribes established a great state, this time the Turkish tribes were attached to them. Originated Turkish or Mongolian,  when  these  great  states  were  dissolved,  all  the  tribes  moved independently on the east and west. And the one’s that went to China shared the same destiny and Chinesesized.


Dipnotes:

1   Ahmet  Taşağıl,  Çin  Kaynaklarına  Göre  Eski  Türk  Boyları,  Ankara  2004;  Wolfram
Eberhard, Çin’in Şimal Komşuları, Ankara 1942.
2   Owen  Lattimore,  İnner  Asian  Frontiers  of  China,  New  York  American  Geographical
Society, 1940.
3  Thomas J.Barfield, The Perilous Frontier, Blackwell, Massachusetts 1992, pp.85-124.
4  Eberhard, Çin’in Şimal Komşuları, s.35-40
5  Shih Chi 110(Hsiung-nu chapter).
6 E.G.Pulleyblank, “ A Sogdian Colony in İnner Mongolia”, T’oung-pao,1951, XLI, p.323 so end.
7  Shih Chi 110; Han Shu 94,A,B(Hsiung-nu chapter).
8  W.Macgovern, Early Empires of Central Asia, Chapell Hill-North Carolina 1939, pp.35-
150; B. Ögel, Büyük Hun İmparatorluğu, Ankara 1982, I, pp. 15 so end.
9  Hou Han Shu 90; Barfield, pp.85-124.
10  Wei Shu 30; Chin Shu 113
11   Wei  Shu  100;  P.A.  Boodberg,  The  Language  of  the  T’o-ba  Wei,  HJAS,  I,1936,  p.179;
Eberhard, Çin Tarihi, Ankara 1987, p.166; Otto Franke, Geschichte de Chinesichen Reiches, II, pp.182-
205. Eberhard, Conquerors and Rulers, Social Forces in Medival China, Leiden, 1952, p.68 so end.
12  Ahmet Taşağıl, Gök-Türkler I, Ankara 2002, pp.16-18.
13  Taşağıl, ibid.,pp.19-59.
14  Colin Mackerras, The Uighur Empire According to T’ang Dynastic Histories, Canberra
1968;  J.R.Hamilton,  Les  Ouighours  à  L’  epoque  des  Cinq  Dynasties  D’apres  les  Documents
Chinois, Paris 1955, p.27.
15  Taşağıl, Çin Kaynaklarına Göre Eski Türk Boyları, pp.78-81.
16  Ahmet Taşağıl, Karahıtay, Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslam Ansiklopedisi, 24, pp.415-416.
17  Moğolların Gizli Tarihi(terc. Ahmet Temir), Ankara 1986; Erdoğan Merçil, İlk Müslüman
Türk Devletleri, Ankara 2000, p.29.
18  Eberhard, Çinin Şimal Komşuları, pp.181-186.
19  Wei Shu 113; Hsin T’ang Shu 219; Wen-hsien T’ung-k’ao, 2717c.
20  Pei Shih 94, Suei Shu 83; T’ung Chih 200; Chin Shu 24
21  Wei Shu 2; Wei Shu 100; Pei Shih 94; Hsin T’ang Shu 217B.
22  Pei Shih 94; T’ung Chih 200, Suei Shu 84; Hsin T’ang Shu 219B.
23  T’ai-p’ing Yü-lan 1000; Hsin T’ang Shu 219B.
24  Eberhard, Çinin Şimal Komşuları, pp.55-61.

 nice information but you know some historian saying different think.But i believe what you write...

There could have been relationships between Turks and Mongols. However, Mongols aren't Turk. They have Mongoloïd skulls, we have brachycephalic skull. They often are considered as "yellow Turks", but they aren't Turk; they are Mongol.
Admixture with Mongols is true for Turks, especially Eastern Turks, such as Tatars or Uzbeks, and in the East of Kazakhistan, you've Turkized Mongol population. They are our nearest neighbors, but They aren't Turk.

They are considered as the ancestors of the Koreans and Japanese. Mongols' roots are also discussed, some say that current genetic searchs show they are Chinese-Turk hybrid. I don't know how true this piece of information could be.

Anda birde bu yazının Türkçe cevirisini bırakabilirseniz memnun olurum .

Hereunder, you've the English translation of my above post, I proceed to that according to the request of my Ilteris10 Anda:

Anda, konu eski çaglarda Türk Mogol iliskileri;
"Türk'lerle Mogollar arasinda iliskiler olmus olabilir. Fakat, Mogol'lar Türk degildir. Onlar'in kafatasi Mongoloïd, bizimki Brakisefal. Onlar "sari Türk" olarak nitelendirilebilirler, ama Türk degildirler, Mogol'durlar.
Mogol'larla karisma Türk'ler için söz konusu'dur, özellikle Dogu Türk'leri için dogru'dur, tipki Özbek'ler ve Tatar'lar gibi, ve Kazakistan'in Dogu'sunda, Kazak nüfusun bir bölümü Türk'lesmis Mogol'dur. Bizim en yakin komsu'larimizdirlar, fakat Türk degil'dirler.

Mogol'lar, Kore'lilerin ve Japon'larin atalari olarak nitelendirilirler. Mogol'larin kökeni sürekli tartisma konusu olarak süre gelmistir, bazi genetik arastirmalar, onlarin, Türk-çin karisimindan meydana geldiklerini söylemektedirler. Bu bilgi'nin ne kadar dogru olabilecegini bilmiyorum".

Saygilar - Greetings ...

The most closer relatives of Hungary the : Turks, Mongols.

Mongols are relatives, but not Turks. Magyars are closer than Mongols. Don't take it bad, I love Mongols, I just point out that we're different from each other, by being, sometimes and for some Turks, mixed.