Turkic history is the systematic documentation and study of events involving the Turkic peoples.
Origins Turks are an important political identity of Eurasia. They first appeared at Inner Eurasian steppes and migrated to many various regions (such as Central Asia, West Asia, North Asia, and Eastern Europe.) and participated in many local civilizations there. It is not yet known when, where, and how the Turks formed as a collective identity. However, it is believed that Proto-Turkic people inhabited regions that supported a lifestyle consistent with the Eurasian equestrian pastoral nomadic culture.
Türk was first used as a political identity in history during the Göktürk Khaganate period. The old Turkic script was invented by Göktürks as well.Sigfried J. de Laet, Joachim Herrmann, (1996), History of Humanity: From the seventh century B.C. to the seventh century A.D., p. 478 The ruling Ashina clan origins are disputed.
Although there are debates about its inception, the history of the Turks is an important part of world history. The history of all people that emerged in Eurasia and North Africa has been affected by the movements of the Turks to some degree. Turks also played an important role in bringing Eastern cultures to the West and Western cultures to the East. Their own religion became the pioneer and defender of the foreign religions they adopted after Tengrism, and they helped their spread and development (Manichaeism, Judaism, Buddhism, Orthodox, Nestorian Christianity and Islam).
The beginning of Turkic history 4th century 395: Migration Period
5th century 461: Sabir people around Siberia 480: Pre-Bulgarians between the Caspian Sea and the Danube
Middle Ages/Turks
6th century
540: The re-emergence of the lost Central Asian Turks mentioned in the Ergenekon epic 540: Sasanian King of Iran, Hormizd IV, born to a Khazar princess mother who married Khosrow I 551: Establishment of the First Turkic Khaganate. 552: Göktürks revolt against Rouran domination. 565: Defeat of the Hephthalites on their war with Göktürks. 567 : Western Turkic Khaganate ambassador Maniakh sent by Istämi to Constantinople. 567 : Establishment of the Pannonian Avars. 568: Zemarchus, a Byzantine diplomat, sent to the Göktürk Empire. 582: Division of the First Turkic Khaganate.
7th century
Central Asia 625 : Establishment of Tokhara Yabghus. 630: Eastern Turkic Khaganate came under the Chinese dominance, while the Western Turkic Khaganate was heavily influenced by the Tang. 639: Turkic prince Ashina Jiesheshuai's attempt on a Turkic revolt in the Tang emperor's palace. 659: Western Turkic Khaganate came under Chinese rule. 665: Establishment of Turk Shahis. 674: The recruitment of Turkic mercenaries (Mamluks) in Arab armies. 681: Second Turkic Khaganate established. 699: The establishment of the Turgesh Khanate (in present-day Kyrgyzstan).
Eastern Europe 626–627: Eastern Roman Emperor Heraclius' request for help from the Khazars, the Khazars' invasion of the Caucasus by defeating the Sassanids after the Sassanids and Pannonian Avars besieged Constantinople. 630: Khazars' settlement in the Don-Volga basin, which was affiliated to the Western Turkic Khaganate, and the establishment of the Great Bulgarian Khanate in the north of the Black Sea. 651–652: War of the Arab Empire and the Khazars, who overthrew the Sassanids and captured all of Iran. 678: The division of the Great Bulgarian Khanate by the westward pressure of the Khazars.
8th century Inner Asia
705–715: Arabs take Transoxiana. 720–735: Orkhon Monuments in Ötüken. 721–737: Turgesh attack against Arabs. 744: The destruction of the Second Turkic Khanate by the rebellious Uyghurs, Karluks and Basmyls; Establishment of the Uyghur Khaganate. 745: Independent khanate of Kimeks in what is today Kazakhstan. 750: The strengthening of Arab-Turkic relations after the Abbasids came to rule the Arab Empire. 751: The entry of the Chinese into Central Asia, the defeat of the Chinese by the Arabs with the help of the Karluks in the Battle of Talas, the conversion of the Karluks to Islam. 762: Uyghur Khaganate aided Tang dynasty in China in suppressing the An-Lu-Shan uprising. 765: Adoption of the Mani religion by the Uyghur Khan Bögü. 766: The dissolution of the Türgesh Khanate by the Karluks of the Uyghur Khanate, the establishment of the autonomous Karluk Khanate, the laying of the foundations of the Oghuz Yabgu State by the Oghuzes who escaped from the Karluks and migrated to the vicinity of the Caspian and Aral lakes. 789–795: Fight for the throne and decline in the Uyghur Khaganate.
Eastern Europe 705: Theodora of Khazaria, a Khazar princess and Byzantine empress as the second wife of Justinian II 713–737: Khazar-Arab War, Khazar loss of Caucasus. 716: The first written agreement of the Danube Bulgarian Khanate with the Byzantine Empire and the start of taxation. 717–718: Aid of the Bulgarians to Byzantium against the Arab Siege of Constantinople. 740: Adoption of Judaism as the official religion of the Khazars. 741: Tzitzak, a Khazar princess, Empress of the Byzantine Empire by marriage to Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine V. Mother of Byzantine emperor, Leo IV the Khazar. 745–775: Bulgarian-Byzantine relations tense. 764: Invasion of the Caucasus and western Iran by the Khazars, defeating the Abbasids. 780: Founding of Volga Bulgaria. 792: After the Battle of Markeli, Byzantium began to pay taxes to the Bulgarians again. 795: Bardanes Tourkos, a Byzantine general of Khazar-Armenian descent who launched an unsuccessful rebellion against Emperor Nikephoros I.
9th century
Central Asia 821: Uighurs repulse Tibetans. 832: The Uighur Khaganate plunged into turmoil. 840: The collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate as a result of the attack of the Kyrgyz people, the establishment of the Kyrgyz Khaganate, the escape of the Uyghurs to the southwest, the Karluks, who did not recognize the Kyrgyz sovereignty, declared their independence and laid the foundation of the Karakhanid State. 848: The establishment of the Ganzhou Uyghur Kingdom of the Uyghurs who migrated to the South West. 856: The establishment of the Karahoca Uyghur Kingdom by another Uyghur branch that migrated to the southwest.
Eastern Europe 860: The Russians, who expanded to the south, reached Kiev in the Khazar Khaganate. 861: Migration of Pechenegs around Syr Darya to the north of the Black Sea under the pressure of Oghuzes, Kimeks and Karluks. 880: The formation of the Kimek–Kipchak confederation. 889: The advance of the Pechenegs in the north of the Black Sea to the west under the pressure of the Khazars and Kipchaks. 892: The Pechenegs advancing to the west forced the Hungarians from the Dnieper to migrate beyond the Carpathians, forming an agreement with the Byzantine Empire.
Asia and Africa 833–842: The increasing influence of Turkic slave soldiers in the Abbasid palace during Caliph Mutasim's reign. 836: The relocation of the Abbasid capital from Baghdad to Samarra, where the Turkic slave garrison was located. 868: Tulunid sovereignty over Egypt, Syria, Palestine and the north of Iraq, but it still remained nominally within the Abbasid Caliphate.
10th century Central Asia 923: The establishment of the Later Tang dynasty by the Shatuo Turks, descended from the Göktürks, in the north of China. 924: The destruction of the Kyrgyz State by the Mongol Khitai, the end of the Turkic rule in Ötüken, the migration of the Kyrgyz to their present homeland. 934: With Satuk Buğra Khan's acceptance of Islam, the Karakhanid State adopt the religion of Islam, becoming one of the first Turkic states to do so. 979: The Shatuo Turks came under the domination of the Han Chinese Northern Song dynasty, the Shatuo flee to Inner Mongolia where they come the Ongud Turks.Song Lian et al., History of Yuan, "Vol. 118" "阿剌兀思剔吉忽里，汪古部人，係出沙陀雁門之後。" Alawusi Tijihuli, a man of the Ongud tribe, descendant(s) of the Wild Goose Pass's ShatuoPaulillo, Mauricio. "White Tatars: The Problem of the Öngũt conversion to Jingjiao and the Uighur Connection" in From the Oxus River to the Chinese Shores: Studies on East Syriac Christianity in China and Central Asia (orientalia - patristica - oecumenica) Ed. Tang, Winkler. (2013) pp. 237-252 The Ongud assimilated to the Mongols.Ozkan Izgi, "The ancient cultures of Central Asia and the relations with the Chinese civilization" The Turks, Ankara, 2002, p. 98, Paulillo, Mauricio. "White Tatars: The Problem of the Öngũt conversion to Jingjiao and the Uighur Connection" in From the Oxus River to the Chinese Shores: Studies on East Syriac Christianity in China and Central Asia (orientalia - patristica - oecumenica) Ed. Tang, Winkler. (2013) pp. 237-252 990–999: The Karakhanid State destroyed the Samanid Empire, Transoxiana came under Turkic rule after 300 years.
Eastern Europe 920: Russo-Pecheneg War. 922: Visit of Ibn Fadlan as ambassador to the Bulgarian Khanate of İdil, which converted to Islam. 940: Russian-Byzantine alliance against Khazars, Khazars lose Crimea. 943: Pechenegs allied with the Russians against the Byzantine Empire. 965: Oghuz Yabgu State's alliance with the Russians against the Khazars. 968–972: Pechenegs' attacks on the Russians. 969: The capture of the Khazar capital by the prince of Kievan Rus' Svyatoslav I, the withdrawal of the Khazars to the north of the Caucasus. 985: Oghuz Yabgu State's alliance with the Russians against the Volga Bulgarian State. 986: Settlements of the Seljuks emerge in the south of Kazakhstan by breaking away from the Oghuz Yabgu State.
Asia and Africa 905: The end of the Tulunid dynasty in Egypt by the Abbasids. 935: Another Turkic dynasty, the Ikhshidid dynasty, seized power in Egypt and dominated Syria, Palestine, Hejaz and northern Sudan. 977: Sabuktigin establishes Ghaznavid dynasty in Khorasan (modern-day Afghanistan) 969: Termination of the rule of the Ikhshidid dynasty by the Fatimid Caliphate. 999: Mahmud of Ghazni, son of Sabuktigin becomes the first to title himself Sultan.
11th century
Central Asia 1030: Ghaznavid Empire reaches to its greatest extent under Mahmud of Ghazni. 1036: The Kansu Uyghur Kingdom came under the rule of the Mongolian Tangut Kingdom. 1042: The division of the Karakhanid State into East and West. 1050: The destruction of the Kimek Khanate by the invasion of the Kipchaks. 1089: Samarkand-centered Western Karakhanid State became Seljuk vassals. 1091: The Eastern Karakhanid State, based in Kashgar, became subject to the Seljuks. 1092: As a result of the Great Seljuk State being dragged into internal turmoil, the two Karakhanid states became independent again.
Eastern Europe 1016: The destruction of the Khazar Khaganate by the Russians and the Byzantine Empire 1037: Settlement of Pechenegs defeated by the Russians in Romania. 1061–1068: The Kipchaks, who defeated the Russians, captured the north of the Black Sea and Ukraine 1091: After the Battle of Manzikert, the Pechenegs, who attacked the Byzantine Empire, which was in turmoil, were destroyed by the Byzantine-Kipchak alliance around Enez. 1093: Cuman–Kipchak Confederation decisive defeat of the Kievan Rus' at the Battle of the Stuhna River.
Asia 1038: Establishment of the Seljuk State in Khorasan. 1040: In the Battle of Dandanaqan, the Seljuks defeated the Ghaznavids and spread towards Persia. 1048: The Seljuks, who defeated the Byzantine-Georgian alliance at the Battle of Kapetron, entered Eastern Anatolia. 1055: Seljuks conquer Baghdad and seize the Abbasid Caliphate. 1056: Sejuk princess, Khadija Arslan Khatun, married to the Abbasid Caliph, Al-Qaim. 1063: Abbasid princess, Sayida Khatun, daughter of Abbasid Caliph Al-Qaim married to the Seljuk Sultan, Tughril I. 1064: Seljuks conquer Ani Castle and break the Armenian-Georgian resistance.