Turkish people
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For other uses of "Turkish", see Turkish (disambiguation).
For all peoples of Turkey, see Demographics of Turkey.
For the Turkic-speaking peoples of Eurasia see Turkic peoples.
The Turkish people (Turkish: Türk Halkı), also known as "Turks" (Türkler) are a nation (Millet) defined mainly as being speakers of Turkish as a first language. In the Republic of Turkey, an early history text provided the definition of being a Turk as "any individual within the Republic of Turkey, whatever his faith who speaks Turkish, grows up with Turkish culture and adopts the Turkish ideal is a Turk." This ideal came from the beliefs of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.[33] In a historic context the word Turk or Turkish has also a wider meaning, because there are Turks in many other countries, in the Balkans and elsewhere in Europe, and in other continents. Today the word is primarily used for the inhabitants of Turkey, but may also refer to the members of sizeable Turkish-speaking populations in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Republic of Macedonia, Greece (in particular in Thrace), Kosovo (Serbia),[34] Romania (in Northern Dobruja), Bulgaria, Cyprus and other lands of the former Ottoman Empire. Large Turkish communities have also been established in Western Europe (particularly in Germany, France, and the Netherlands), North America, and Australia.
HistoryAnatolia, the landmass that is now Turkey, was a cradle for a wide variety of civilizations and kingdoms during antiquity. Major civilizations and kingdoms that have settled in or invaded Anatolia include the Arabs[35] Assyrians, Armenians, Celts, Cimmerians, Etruscans, Galatians, Goths, Hattians, Hittites, Greeks, Ionians, Lydians, Mongols, Pelasgians, Persians, Kurds, Phrygians, Romans, Scythians, Thracians, Trojans, Urartians, Byzantines, Seljuk Turks and Ottoman Turks. The word "Turk" was first documented in the 6th century in Central Asia[36][37] The Oghuz Turks were the main Turkic people[38] that moved into Anatolia.[39] Many Turks began their migration after the victory of the Seljuks against the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert. The victory, led by Alp Arslan, paved the way for Turkish hegemony in Anatolia.[40][41] In the centuries after Manzikert local populations began to assimilate to the emerging Turkish population.[42] Over time, as word spread regarding the victory of the Turks in Anatolia, more Turkic ghazis arrived from the Caucasus, Persia, and Central Asia. Turkish migrants began to intermingle with the local inhabitants, which helped to bolster the Turkish-speaking population. The Ottoman Empire, originally based in the Söğüt region of western Anatolia, was also founded by the Oghuz Turks. Following the Balkan Wars and the Russian conquest of the Caucasus and annexation of Crimea many Turkic speaking Muslims in the North Caucasus, Balkans and Crimea emigrated to the territory of present-day Turkey. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire and formation of the Republic of Turkey these various cultures and languages melded into one supra identity and culture. The modern Turks of Turkey thus are composed of various Turkic groups from various regions. By the late 19th century Turks were evenly spread throughout Eastern Europe and most noticeably the Balkans; however, territorial losses in the Balkans sparked a large scale exodus from that region. This was finalized by a population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923. Image:Seljuk Empire locator map.svg
The Seljuq Empire at its zenith upon the death of Malik Shah I in 1092.
Seljuk eraThe Seljuks were a Turkic tribe from Central Asia. In 1037, they entered Persia and established their first powerful state, called by historians the Empire of the Great Seljuks. They captured Baghdad in 1055 and a relatively small contingent of warriors (around 5000 by some estimates) moved into eastern Anatolia. In 1071, the Seljuks engaged the armies of the Byzantine Empire at Manzikert, north of Lake Van. The Byzantines experienced minor casualties despite the fact that Emperor Romanus IV Diogenes was captured. With no potent Byzantine force to stop them, the Seljuks took control of most of Eastern and Central Anatolia. They established their capital at Konya (ca. 1150) and ruled what would be known as the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum. The success of the Seljuk Turks stimulated a response from Latin Europe in the form of the First Crusade. A counteroffensive launched in 1097 by the Byzantines with the aid of the Crusaders dealt the Seljuks a decisive defeat. Konya fell to the Crusaders, and after a few years of campaigning, Byzantine rule was restored in the western third of Anatolia. Although a Turkish revival in the 1140s nullified much of the Christian gains, greater damage was done to Byzantine security by dynastic strife in Constantinople in which the largely French contingents of the Fourth Crusade and their Venetian allies intervened. In 1204, these Crusaders conquered Constantinople and installed Count Baldwin of Flanders in the Byzantine capital as emperor of the so-called Latin Empire of Constantinople, dismembering the old realm into tributary states where West European feudal institutions were transplanted intact. Independent Greek kingdoms were established at Nicaea (present-day Iznik), Trebizond (present-day Trabzon), and Epirus from remnant Byzantine provinces. Turks allied with Greeks in Anatolia against the Latins, and Greeks with Turks against the Mongols. In 1261, Michael Palaeologus of Nicaea drove the Latins from Constantinople and restored the Byzantine Empire. Seljuk Rum survived in the late 13th century as a vassal state of the Mongols, who had already subjugated the Great Seljuk sultanate at Baghdad. Mongol influence in the region had disappeared by the 1330s, leaving behind gazi emirates competing for supremacy. From the chaotic conditions that prevailed throughout the Middle East, however, a new power was to emerge in Anatolia, the Ottoman Turks. Beyliks eraPolitical unity in Anatolia was disrupted from the time of the collapse of the Anatolia Seljuk State at the beginning of the 14th century (1308), when until the beginning of the 16th century each of the regions in the country fell under the domination of beyliks (principalities). Eventually, the Ottoman principality, which subjugated the other principalities and restored political unity in the larger part of Anatolia, was established in the Eskişehir, Bilecik and Bursa areas. On the other hand, the area in central Anatolia east of the Ankara-Aksaray line as far as the area of Erzurum remained under the administration of the Ilhani General Governor until 1336. The infighting in Ilhan gave the principalities in Anatolia their complete independence. In addition to this, new Turkish principalities were formed in the localities previously under Ilhan occupation. During the 14th century, the Turkomans, who made up the western Turks, started to re-establish their previous political sovereignty in the Islamic world. Rapid developments in the Turkish language and culture took place during the time of the Anatolian principalities. In this period, the Turkish language began to be used in the sciences and in literature, and became the official language of the principalities. New medreses were established and progress was made in the medical sciences during this period. Ottoman eraImage:Sultan Mahmud II.jpg
Mahmud II started the modernization of the Ottoman Empire
Starting as a small tribe whose territory bordered on the Byzantine frontier, the Ottoman Turks built an empire that would eventually stretch from Morocco to Iran, from the deserts of Iraq and Arabia to the gates of Vienna. As the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum weakened in the late 1200s, warrior chieftains claimed the lands of Northwestern Anatolia, along the Byzantine Empire's borders. Ertuğrul Gazi ruled the lands around Söğüt, a town between Bursa and Eskisehir. Upon his death in 1281, his son, Osman, from whom the Ottoman dynasty and the Empire took its name, expanded the territory to 16,000 square kilometers. Osman's son, Orhan, conquered Iznik (Nicaea) and took his armies across the Dardanelles and into Thrace and Europe by 1362. By 1452 the Ottomans controlled almost all of the former Byzantine lands except Constantinople. In 1453, Mehmet the Conqueror took the city and made it his capital, extinguishing the 1100-year-old Byzantine Empire forever. As an isolated military action, the taking of Constantinople did not have a critical effect on European security, but to the Ottoman Dynasty the capture of the imperial capital was of supreme symbolic importance. Mehmet II regarded himself as the direct successor to the Byzantine emperors. He made Constantinople the imperial capital, as it had been under the Byzantine emperors, and set about rebuilding the city. The cathedral of Hagia Sophia was converted to a mosque, and Constantinople--which the Turks called Istanbul (from the Greek phrase eis tin polin , "to the city")--replaced Baghdad as the center of Sunni Islam. The city also remained the ecclesiastical center of the Greek Orthodox Church, of which Mehmet II proclaimed himself the protector and for which he appointed a new patriarch after the custom of the Byzantine emperors. Selim I (r. 1512-20) extended Ottoman sovereignty southward, conquering Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. He also gained recognition as guardian of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Selim I's son, Süleyman I (r. 1520-66), was called the "lawgiver" (kanuni ) by his Muslim subjects because of a new codification of seriat undertaken during his reign. In Europe, however, he was known as Süleyman the Magnificent, a recognition of his prowess by those who had most to fear from it. The reign of Süleyman the Magnificent (1520-1566) is known as the Ottoman golden age. The brilliance of the Sultan's court and the might of his armies outshone those of England's Henry VIII, France's François I, and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. After Süleyman, however, the empire declined rapidly due, in part, to poor leadership; many successive Sultans largely depended upon their Grand Viziers to run the empire. When Süleyman died in 1566, the Ottoman Empire was a world power. Most of the great cities of Islam--Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, Damascus, Cairo, Tunis, and Baghdad were under the sultan's crescent flag. The Porte exercised direct control over Anatolia, the sub-Danubian Balkan provinces, Syria, Palestine, and Mesopotamia. Egypt, Mecca, and the North African provinces were governed under special regulations, as were satellite domains in Arabia and the Caucasus, and among the Crimean Tartars. In addition, the native rulers of Wallachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, and Ragusa (Dubrovnik) were vassals of the sultan. The Ottoman sultanate lasted for over 600 years, but its last three centuries were marked by stagnation and eventual decline. By the 19th century, the Ottomans had fallen well behind the rest of Europe in science, technology, industry, education, commerce and military might. Reformist Sultans such as Selim III (1789-1807) and Mahmud II (1808-1839) succeeded in pushing Ottoman bureaucracy, society and culture ahead, but were unable to cure all of the empire's ills. Despite its collapse, the Ottoman empire has left an indelible mark on Turkish culture and architecture. Ottoman culture has given the Turkish people a splendid legacy of art, architecture and domestic refinement, as a visit to Istanbul's Topkapi Palace readily shows. The Republic of TurkeyThe Republic of Turkey was born from the disastrous World War I defeat of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman war hero, Mustafa Kemal Pasha (later called Atatürk), fled Istanbul to Anatolia in 1919; he organized the remnants of the Ottoman army into an effective fighting force, and rallied the people to the nationalist cause. By 1923 the nationalist government had driven out the invading armies, abolished the Ottoman Empire, promulgated a republican constitution, and established Turkey's new capital in Ankara. The new government passed drastic reforms in order to reconstruct Ottoman social structure and politics. Polygamy was abolished, women were granted suffrage and equal legal rights, secularism was institutionalized, the Arabic alphabet was replaced by the Latin alphabet for written Turkish. The Fez and veil were outlawed, and European dress was encouraged. Upon the founder's death, his place at the head of the party and the nation was taken by his comrade-in-arms General Ismet Inönü, another hero of the War of Independence. Following Atatürk's advice, Inönü preserved Turkey's precarious neutrality during World War II, figuring that the war could only end in disaster for Turkey. Chronology of Major Kemalist Reforms:
Geographic distribution
Turks primarily live in Turkey. Significant minorities of Turks live in neighboring Bulgaria (see Turks in Bulgaria), Cyprus (see Turkish Cypriots), the Western Thrace region of Greece, Republic of Macedonia, the Dobruja region of Romania and Kosovo (especially in Prizren). Immigration in the 20th century has resulted in large Turkish communities in Germany, America and Australia. Sizable populations are (note that these are figures for Turkish nationals) also found in France (400,000),[43] the Netherlands (350,000),[44] the United Kingdom (300,000),[45] Austria (250,000),[46] Belgium (120,000)[citation needed], Saudi Arabia (120,000),[47] Switzerland (80,000)[citation needed], Denmark (35,000-50,000),[48][49][50] Sweden (40,000)[51][52] Italy (11.077)[53] and Liechtenstein (884).[54] Turks in EuropeImage:Turkisch-day-in-Berlin.jpg
Turkish parade in Berlin featuring a recreated Ottoman military band
The largest number of Turkish immigrant workers is found in Germany, followed by the Benelux countries, France, Austria, and Switzerland. Germany took in an influx of men alone between 1961 and 1973. This was followed by the massive arrival of their families up until about 1981. Elsewhere in Europe the purely male migration took place from 1965 to 1974. Family reunifications were likewise spread over the period up until and including the first half of the '80s. As a result, Europe's Turkish population consists of a majority of families, with almost total male/female parity. The Turkish diaspora in Europe is growing steadily. For Western Europe as a whole it rose from 1.988 million in 1985 to 3.034 million in 1996 (2.944 million in the EU countries). This is a 52.6% increase over one decade. Germany hosts 2/5 of the Turkish immigrants. It is followed by importance by the Benelux countries, France, United Kingdom and Austria. Between 1961-1973 there was a big influx of Turkish men alone in Germany, which was followed by the arrival of their families up until 1981. Five years later, the same phenomenon took also place in the rest of the countries. 35% of the Turkish living in Germany live in North Rhineland-Westphalia. Berlin, with 136.400 Turkish hosts, by its own 5% of the Turkish immigrants in Europe. The Turkish immigration to Europe rose from 1.988 million in 1985 to 3.034 in 1996. This increase is explained by the continuation of migration through marriages and by the high birth rate of Turkish population. This high rate has as a consequence that Turkish migrant population is very young (1/3 is under 18 years old). More than 80% of these young people have been born and schooled in Europe. Turks in North AmericaIn the United States, the largest Turkish communities are found in Paterson, New York City, Chicago, Miami, and Los Angeles. Since the 1970s, the number of Turkish immigrants has risen to more than 2,000 per year. Little Arabia is a neighborhood in Paterson, New Jersey which is sometimes called Little İstanbul because of its large number of Turks. Paterson has always been home to immigrants looking to make a start in the new world. There is also a growing Turkish population in Canada, Turkish immigrants have settled mainly in Montreal and Toronto, although there are small Turkish communities in Calgary, Edmonton, London, Ottawa, and Vancouver. The population of Turkish Canadians in Metropolitan Toronto may be as large as 5,000. CultureImage:Turkishcoffee.jpg
Traditional Turkish coffee is ubiquitous in Turkish homes
The culture of Turkish people is a diverse one, derived from various elements of the Ottoman Empire, European, and the Islamic traditions. Turkish culture is an immense mixture partly produced by the rich history. The original lands of Turks is Central Asia, bordering China. From this location, they were forced to move west for various reasons more than a thousand years ago. On the way to Anatolia they have interacted with Chinese, Indian, middle eastern, European and Anatolian civilizations, and today's Turkish culture carries motives from each one of these diverse cultures. Because of the different historical factors playing an important role in defining a Turkish identity, the culture of Turkey is an interesting combination of clear efforts to be "modern" and Western, alongside a desire to maintain traditional religious and historical values. LanguageTurkish is a very ancient language going back 5500 to 8500 years.[citation needed] It has a phonetic, morphological and syntactic structure, and at the same time it possesses a rich vocabulary. The fundamental features, which distinguish the Ural-Altaic languages from the Indo-European, are as follows; vowel harmony's are used which is a feature of all Ural-Altaic tongues, the absence of gender, agglutination, adjectives precede nouns, and verbs come at the end of the sentence. Image:MapOfTurkishSpeakers.png
Countries with significant Turkish-speaking populations
The Turkish language is a member of the ancient Oghuz subdivision of Turkic languages, which in turn is a branch of the proposed Altaic language family.[55][56][57] Turkish is for the most part, mutually intelligible with other Oghuz languages like Azeri, Crimean Tatar, Gagauz, Turkmen and Urum, and to a lesser extent with other Turkic languages. Modern Turkish differs greatly from the Ottoman Turkish language, the administrative and literary language of the Ottoman Empire, which was influenced by Arabic and Persian. During the Ottoman period, the language was essentially a mixture of Turkish, Persian, and Arabic, differing considerably from the everyday language spoken by the empire's Turkish subjects, to the point that they had to hire arzıhâlcis (request-writers) to communicate with the state. After the proclamation of the Turkish Republic in early 20th century, many of the foreign borrowings in the language were replaced with Turkic equivalents in a language reform by the newly founded Turkish Language Association. Almost all government documents and literature from the Ottoman period and the early years of the Republic are thus unintelligible to today's Turkish-speaker without translation. Historically, there were many dialects of Turkish that were spoken throughout Anatolia and the Balkans that differed significantly from each other. After the proclamation of the Republic, the Istanbul dialect was adopted as the standard. There is no official effort to protect regional dialects, and some are currently under threat of disappearing as they face the standard language used in the media and educational system. Turkish heritageImage:Map-TurkicLanguages.png
Countries and autonomous subdivisions where a Turkic language has official status
Some 180 million people have a Turkic language as their native language; an additional 20 million people speak a Turkic language as a second language. The Turkic language with the greatest number of speakers is Turkish proper, or Anatolian Turkish, the speakers of which account for about 40% of all Turkic speakers, dwelling predominantly in Turkey proper and formerly Ottoman-dominated areas of Eastern Europe and West Asia; as well as in Western Europe, Australia and the Americas as a result of immigration. The remainder of the Turkic peoples are concentrated in Central Asia, Russia, the Caucasus, China, and northern and northwestern Iran. ArtsA transition from Islamic artistic traditions under the Ottoman Empire to a more secular , Western orientation has taken place in Turkey. Turkish painters today are striving to find their own art forms, free from Western influence. Sculpture is less developed, and public monuments are usually heroic representations of Ataturk and events from the war of independence. Literature is considered the most advanced of contemporary Turkish arts. Many critics regard Kemal Tahir as the greatest modern Turkish novelist. Among authors translated into English is Yasar Kemal. ArchitectureImage:Meczet Ortaköy Istambuł RB1.jpg
Ortaköy mosque, Istanbul
Turkish architecture reached its peak during the Ottoman period. Ottoman architecture, influenced by Seljuk, Byzantine and Islamic architecture, came to develop a style all of its own. The years 1300-1453 constitute the early or first Ottoman period, when Ottoman art was in search of new ideas. During this period we encounter three types of mosque: tiered single-domed and sub line-angled mosques. The Junior Haci Özbek Mosque (1333) in Iznik, the first important centre of Ottoman art, is the first example of Ottoman single-domed mosques. The architectural style which was to take on classical form after the conquest of Istanbul, was born in Bursa and in Edirne. The Great Mosque (Ulu Cami) in Bursa was the first Seljuk mosque to be converted into a domed one. Edirne was the last Ottoman capital before Istanbul, and it is here that we witness the final stages in the architectural development that culminated in the construction of the great mosques of Istanbul. The buildings constructed in Istanbul between the capture of the city and the construction of the mosque of Sultan Bayezit are also considered works of the early period. Among these are the mosques of Fatih (1470), the mosque of Mahmutpasa, Tiled Pavilion and Topkapi Palace. In Ottoman times the mosque did not exist by itself. It was looked on by society as being very much interconnected with city planning and communal life. Beside the mosque there were soup kitchens, theological schools, hospitals, Turkish baths and tombs. Examples of Ottoman architecture of the classical period, aside from Istanbul and Edirne, can also be seen in Egypt, Tunisia, Algiers, the Balkans and Hungary, where mosques, bridges, fountains and schools were built. During the years 1720-1890, Ottoman art deviated from the principles of classical times. In the 18th century, during the Lale (Tulip) period, Ottoman art came under the influence of the excessive decorations of the west; Baroque, Rococo, Ampir and other styles intermingled with Ottoman art. Fountains became the characteristic structures of this period. An eclecticism set in. The Aksaray Valide mosque in Istanbul is an example of the mixture of Turkish art and Gothic style. Music
Image:Sertab Erener-eurovision.jpg
Sertab Erener at the ESC in 2003
Turkey is a country in western Asia and Southeast Europe and on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, and is a crossroads of cultures from across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, the Caucasus and South and Central Asia. The music of Turkey includes elements of Central Asian folk music, Arabic, Persian classical music, ancient Greco-Roman music and modern European and American popular music. Turkey, rich in musical heritage, has developed this art in two areas, Turkish classical music (similar to Greco- Roman) and Turkish folk music (Similar to Central Asian). The biggest Turkish pop star of the 20th century was probably Sezen Aksu, known for overseeing the Turkish contribution to the Eurovision Song Contest and was known for her light pop music. European classical composers in the 18th century were fascinated by Turkish music, particularly the strong role given to the brass and percussion instruments in Ottoman Janissary bands called Mehter who were the fist marching military band in History. Joseph Haydn wrote his Military Symphony to include Turkish instruments, as well as some of his operas. Turkish instruments were also included in Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony Number 9. Mozart wrote the "Ronda alla turca" in his Sonata in A major and also used Turkish themes in his operas. Although this Turkish influence was a fad, it introduced the cymbals, bass drum, and bells into the symphony orchestra, where they remain. For details, see Turkish music (style). Jazz musician Dave Brubeck wrote his "Blue Rondo à la Turk" as a tribute to Mozart and Turkish music. Turkish pop music boasts numerous mainstream artists with large followings since the 1960s like Ajda Pekkan and Sezen Aksu, and younger pop stars like Sertab Erener, Tarkan, Serdar Ortac and Mustafa Sandal. Underground music and the genres of electronica, hip-hop, rap and dance music saw an increased demand and activity following the 1990s. Turkish rock music, sometimes referred to as Anatolian rock, initiated during the 1960s by individuals like Cem Karaca, Barış Manço, and Erkin Koray, has seen wide-range success and has grown a considerable fan base. A few of the more mainstream Turkish rock bands include Mor ve Ötesi, Kurban, Duman, and maNga. Individual rock performers like Şebnem Ferah, Özlem Tekin, Teoman and Emre Aydın have substantial fan-bases. Turkey also boasts numerous large-scale rock festivals and events. Annually held rock festivals include Barışarock, Rock'n Coke, during many of which internationally renowned bands / artists frequently take the stage together with Turkish artists. In 2003, a Turkish singer Sertab Erener won the Eurovision Song Contest with her song Everyway That I Can. Image:Tevfik Fikret2.jpg
Tevfik Fikret (1867–1915), a prominent poet of the late Ottoman era.
Literature
Before the adoption of Islam, the Seljuqs had a mainly oral tradition. With the adoption of Islam, Turks were influenced with Persian culture and they developed literature using the Persian structures, such as mesnevi, gazel etc. With the 19th century and the tanzimat period, artists began to use western structures. The republican period is dominated with western forms of literature. Turkish belongs to the Altay branch of the Uralo-Altay linguistic family. Through the span of history, Turks have spread over a wide geographical area, taking their language with them. Turkish speaking people have lived in a wide area stretching from today's Mongolia to the north coast of the Black Sea, the Balkans, East Europe, Anatolia, Iraq and a wide area of northern Africa. Due to the distances involved, various dialects and accents have emerged. The history of the language is divided into three main groups, old Turkish (from the 7th to the 13th centuries), mid-Turkish (from the 13th to the 20th) and new Turkish from the 20th century onwards. During the Ottoman Empire period Arabic and Persian words invaded the Turkish language and it consequently became mixed with three different languages. During the Ottoman period which spanned five centuries, the natural development of Turkish was severely hampered. Then there was the "new language" movement. In 1928, five years after the proclamation of the Republic, the Arabic alphabet was replaced by the Latin one, which in turn speeded up the movement to rid the language of foreign words. The Turkish Language Institute was established in 1932 to carry out linguistic research and contribute to the natural development of the language. As a consequence of these efforts, modern Turkish is a literary and cultural language developing naturally and free of foreign influences. Turkish literature was the joint product of the Turkish clans and was mostly oral. The oldest known examples of Turkish writings are on obelisks dating from the late 7th and early 8th centuries. The Orhun monumental inscriptions written in 720 for Tonyukuk, in 732 for Kültigin and in 735 for Bilge Kagan are masterpieces of Turkish literature with their subject matter and perfect style. Turkish epics dating from those times include the Yaratilis, Saka, Oguz-Kagan, Göktürk, Uygur and Manas. The "Book of Dede Korkut", put down in writing in the 14th century, is an extremely valuable work that preserves the memory of that epic era in beautiful language. Following Turkish migrations into Anatolia in the wake of the Malazgirt victory in 1071, the establishment of various Beyliks in Anatolia and the eventual founding of the Seljuk and Ottoman Empires set the scene for Turkish literature to develop along two distinct lines, with "divan" or classical literature drawing its inspiration from the Arabic and Persian languages and Turkish folk literature still remaining deeply rooted in Central Asian traditions. Divan poets did not have independent philosophies, they were content to express the same ideas in different ways. The magnificence of the poet came from his artistry in finding original and beautiful forms of expression. The most famous of the Divan poets were Baki, Fuzuli, Nedim and Nef'i. Initially based on two foreign literary traditions, Arab and Persian, literature gradually stopped being merely imitative and took on Ottoman national characteristics. To a certain extent, the Turkish folk literature which has survived till our day, reflects the influence of Islam and the new life style and form of the traditional literature of Central Asia after the adoption of Islam. Turkish folk literature comprised anonymous works of bard poems and Tekke (mystical religious retreats) literature. Yunus Emre who lived in the second half of the 13th and early 14th centuries was an epoch making poet and sufi (mystical philosopher) expert in all three areas of folk literature as well as divan poetry. Important figures of poetic literature were Karacaoglan, Atik Ömer, Erzurumlu Emrah and Kayserili Seyrani. Ottoman Shadow PlaysThe Turkish tradition of shadow play called Karagöz and Hacivat was performed by a single puppet master, who voiced all of the characters, and accompanied by a classical Ottoman music ensemble. Some believe that the first Karagöz-Hacivat play was performed for sultan Selim I in Egypt after his conquest of the Mamluks, but 17th century writer Evliya Çelebi stated that it had been performed in the Ottoman palace as early as the reign of Bayezid I. The tradition of Shadow plays are still famous today, mainly in Turkey, however is also used in celebrations throughout the Turkish diaspora Shadow Theater gained great popularity among the people and the Turkish puppeteers much improved the techniques they had inherited from others. The colorless and motionless presentations of the Egyptian shadow play gained much rich coloring and mobility in the Turkish form of the art. PoetryProse
The backgrounds of current novelists can be traced back to "Young Pens" (Genç Kalemler) journal in Ottoman period. Young Pens was published in Selanik under the Ömer Seyfettin, Ziya Gökalp ve Ali Canip Yontem. They covered the social and political concepts of their time with the nationalistic perspective. They became the core of a movement which will be called national literature. With the declaration of republic, Turkish literature becomes interested in folkloric styles. This was also the first time the literature was escaping from the western influence and begin to mix western forms with others. During the 1930s Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoglu and Vedat Nedim Tor begin to publish KADRO. KADRO was revolutionary in its look at the life. Orhan Pamuk is a Turkish novelist of post-modern literature. He is hugely popular in his homeland, but also with a growing readership around the globe. As one of Europe's most prominent novelists, his work has been translated into more than twenty languages. He is the recipient of major Turkish and international literary awards. His most recent novel is "Snow". Pamuk won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006, with his melancholic point of view to various cultures in Istanbul. However, a big debate is going on in Turkey about Pamuk winning; many Turks think that he won the prize because of his political ideas. Religion
Contacts between the Turks and Islam commenced at the beginning of the 8th century and some of the Turks began to favour Islam. However the pro-Arab policies of the Umayyads (661-750 A.D.) restricted these relations somewhat. Later, many Muslem Turks took office in the Abbside government and because of this, great interest in the Islamic world spread among the Turks beyond the River Ceyhun. The Turks became fully Muslem by the 10th century, and this resulted in the achievement to political unity. Following these developments, the first Muslem Turkish state was formed by the Karahans.[58] The vast majority of Turks are, at least in a nominal sense, Muslim. The most popular sect is the Hanafite school of Sunni Islam, which was officially espoused by the Ottoman Empire. There is, however, a significant number that adheres to the Alevi belief. The presence of Alevis is estimated at 25-35% of the population,[59] though some reports indicate only 10%.[60] Religion has taken a shift towards more of a cultural identity amongst Turks rather than a set of fixed, theological beliefs due to secularization. In addition, there are small groups that adhere to Christianity. Although they are primarily Eastern Orthodox, there are Roman Catholics and Protestants as well. SymbolsThe most widely used symbol by Turkish people is the crescent moon and a star. The crescent and star, while generally regarded as Islamic symbols today, have long been used in Asia Minor and by the ancient Turks, earlier than the advent of Islam. The Turkish flag is also widely used by the Turkish Cypriot community in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Turkish Timeline
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