User:Vamsi20/Turkification of Anatolia
The Turkification of Anatolia (Turkish: Anadolu'nun Türkleşmesi) was a process in which the diverse and largely Greek-speaking region of Anatolia (also known as Asia Minor) was Turkified. This happened largely during the time of the Seljuk Empire and the Sultanate of Rum.[1][2][3]
Background[edit]
Anatolia was inhabited by many peoples before Turkification, including Armenians, Persians[4], Greeks, Arabs, Arameans, and Assyrians.
Persian Anatolia[edit]
After the Median Empire fell in a Persian rebellion in 553 BC, the area was subject to the rule of the Achaemenid Persian Empire.[5] Most of the peninsula would remain that way until the fall of the Persian Empire.
Greek Anatolia[edit]
Greek Anatolia[edit]
The Macedonian Empire under the rule of Alexander the Great would conquer the entirety of Persia by 330 BC,[6]and Anatolia's population would largely remain Greek until the 11th century. The peninsula would mostly fall under the rule of the Seleucid Empire after the death of Alexander and the partition of Macedonia,[7] [8]and the Ptolemaic Kingdom would also establish a presence in the region. This led to multiple wars between the Ptolemaics and Seleucids, collectively known as the Syrian Wars.[9] The last of these wars stripped the former of its territories in Anatolia. During this period following Alexander's death, Anatolia was Hellenized[3], with much of the population influenced by or being Greek.
Seljuk Empire[edit]
Founding and Battle of Manzikert[edit]
Turks began appearing at the fringes of Anatolia in the 11th century, then controlled mostly by the Byzantine Empire and Armenia. These Turks founded the Seljuk Empire in 1037 in Central Asia.[10] The new state would expand through the Middle East and bordered the Byzantine Empire at the edge of Anatolia by the 1060s. Meanwhile, the Byzantines conquered Armenia in 1045. The Seljuks frequently raided across the border. In 1071, Byzantine Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes moved 40,000 troops to the border, which led to the Battle of Manzikert. The Byzantines would be defeated decisively, and it would lead to the establishment of Turkish power in Anatolia. After this battle, much of the local population converted to Islam, and major migrations and ethnic changes commenced.[11][1]
Expansion into Anatolia and Mongol invasion[edit]
During the Battle of Manzikert, Emperor Diogenes was captured, offered generous peace terms, and sent back home. However, a civil war began in the Byzantine Empire shortly after. Anatolia was left undefended, and the Seljuks occupied it. The Byzantines along with Crusaders would go on to recapture some territories, but most of the peninsula would remain under the rule of the Turks.[12][citation needed]
References[edit]
- ^ a b Lambton, Ann; Lewis, Bernard, eds. (1977). "3". The Cambridge history of Islam (Reprint. ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. pp. 231–233. ISBN 0521291356. Archived from the original on 2016-09-01. Retrieved 2016-09-22.:"Anatolia had been the homeland of many peoples, the scene of many civilizations, and had served them as a bridge between three continents" "After the battle of Manzikert, there were swift and sudden changes in the ethnic features of Anatolia. Because the great Turkish migration and colonization were neither studied nor understood, the process of Turkification in Anatolia remained an enigma, and some historians ascribed these changes to the annihilation or mass conversion to Islam of the local population. While there were indeed conversions and losses of population on both sides, the inaccuracy of such conjectures, which fail to take about of migration and ethnic changes, is shown even by a general picture of events as drawn above."
- ^ Davison, Roderic H. (2013). Essays in Ottoman and Turkish History, 1774-1923: The Impact of the West. University of Texas Press. pp. 3–4. ISBN 978-0292758940. Archived from the original on 2018-08-06. Retrieved 2016-09-22.
So the Seljuk sultanate was a successor state ruling part of the medieval Greek empire, and within it the process of Turkification of a previously Hellenized Anatolian population continued. That population must already have been of very mixed ancestry, deriving from ancient Hittite, Phrygian, Cappadocian, and other civilizations as well as Roman and Greek.
- ^ a b Leonard, Thomas M. (2006). "Turkey". Encyclopedia of the Developing World, Volume 3. Routledge. p. 1576. ISBN 9781579583880.
Subsequently, hellenization of the elites transformed Anatolia into a largely Greek-speaking region
- ^ Raditsa, Leo (1983). "Iranians in Asia Minor". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 3 (1): The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian periods. Cambridge University Press. pp. 100–115. ISBN 978-1139054942.
- ^ Briant, Pierre (2006). From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire. Eisenbrauns. p. 31.
- ^ Ulrich Wilcken (1967). Alexander the Great. W.W. Norton & Company. p. 146. ISBN 978-0-393-00381-9.
- ^ Rawlinson, George (1900). Ancient History: From the Earliest Times to the Fall of the Western Empire. The Colonial Press.
- ^ Strootman, Rolf. "Seleucid Empire". iranicaonline.org. Retrieved 2023-04-03.
- ^ Glomb, Tomáš; Mertel, Adam; Pospíšil, Zdeněk; Chalupa, Aleš (2020-04-01). "Ptolemaic political activities on the west coast of Hellenistic Asia Minor had a significant impact on the local spread of the Isiac cults: A spatial network analysis". PLOS ONE. 15 (4): e0230733. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0230733. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 7112169. PMID 32236131.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: PMC format (link) CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link) - ^ "Turks Before the Ottomans - the Seljuk Empire". ThoughtCo. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
- ^ Pillalamarri, Akhilesh. "The Epic Story of How the Turks Migrated From Central Asia to Turkey". thediplomat.com. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
- ^ Pillalamarri, Akhilesh. "The Epic Story of How the Turks Migrated From Central Asia to Turkey". thediplomat.com. Retrieved 2023-04-06.