Turkestan, spelled also as Turkistan, literally means "Land of the Turks".
The term Turkestan is of Persian origin and was believed to have never been in use to denote a single nation although it was at one time ruled by an Emperor. It was first used by Persian geographers to describe the place of Turkish peoples. After Persia had been considerably weakened by its defeat in 1857, Imperial Russia stepped up its campaign to wrest full control over the Central Asian region from Persian dominance and on their way southward, the Russians took the city of Turkestan (in present day Kazakhstan) in 1864. Mistaking its name for that of the entire region, they adopted the appellation of "Turkestan" for their new territory. Today the term is used to describe a region which is inhabited mainly by Turkic peoples in Central Asia. It includes present-day Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Xinjiang. Many would also include Turkic regions of Russia (Tatarstan & parts of Siberia) as well.
Turkestan was at one time ruled by Emperor Gustasp. Gustap reigned at the time of Zoroaster's birth, which is prior to 583 B.C. Additional documents indicate that Turkestan's history dates back to at least the third millennium BC. Many artifacts were produced in that period, and much trade was conducted. The region was a focal point for cultural diffusion, as the Silk Road traversed it. Turkestan covers the area of Central Asia and acquired its "Turkic" character from the 4th to 6th centuries AD with the incipient Turkic expansion.
Turkic sagas, such as the Ergenekon legend, and written sources such as the Orkhon Inscriptions state that Turkic peoples originated in the nearby Altay Mountains, and, through nomadic settlement, started their long journey westwards. Huns conquered the area after they conquered Kashgaria in the early 2nd century BC. With the dissolution of the Huns' empire, Chinese rulers took over Eastern Turkestan. Arab forces captured it in the 8th century. The Persian Samanid dynasty subsequently conquered it and the area experienced economic success. The entire territory was held at various times by Turkic forces, such as the Göktürks until the conquest by Genghis Khan and the Mongols in 1220. Genghis Khan gave the territory to his son, Chagatai and the area became the Chagatai Khanate. Timur took over the area in 1369 and the area became the Timurid Empire.
Known as Turan to Iranians, western Turkestan has also been known historically as Sogdiana, Ma wara'u'n-nahr (by its Arab conquerors), and Transoxiana by Western travellers. The latter two names refer to its position beyond the River Oxus when approached from the south, emphasizing Turkestan's long-standing relationship with Iran, the Persian Empires and the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates.
The regions of Central Asia lying between Siberia on the north; Tibet, British India (now Pakistan), Afghanistan, and Iran on the south; the Gobi Desert on the east; and the Caspian Sea on the west. It has been referenced in many Turkic and Persian sagas and is an integral part of Turan. Oghuz Turks (also known as Turkmens), Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Khazars, Kyrgyz, Hazara and Uyghurs are some of the Turkic inhabitants of the region who, as history progressed, have spread further into Eurasia forming such Turkic nations as Turkey and Azerbaijan, and subnational regions like Tatarstan in Russia and Crimea in Ukraine. Tajiks and Russians form sizable non-Turkic minorities.
It is subdivided into Afghan Turkestan and Russian Turkestan in the West, and Xinjiang (previously Chinese Turkestan) in the East. The Tian Shan and Pamir ranges form a rough division between the latter two.'
The region became part of the Russian Empire in the 1860s, and is thus sometimes called Russian Turkestan or the Туркестанский Край (Turkestanskii Krai).
After the Russian Revolution, a Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union was created, which was eventually split into the Kazakh SSR (Kazakhstan), Kyrgyz SSR (Kyrgyzstan), Tajik SSR (Tajikistan), Turkmen SSR (Turkmenistan) and Uzbek SSR (Uzbekistan).
During the course of their World War II attempts to occupy much of the western USSR, the government of Nazi Germany intended to establish a German-ruled civil regime in Soviet-held Central Asia. Captured soldiers of Turkestani and/or Muslim backgrounds were drafted in large numbers into the Ostlegionen of the Wehrmacht, but aside from several air attacks on some industrial and military targets in the western parts of the region German forces never even approached the area, having been stopped at the Battle of Stalingrad.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Central Asian republics gained their independence.
Eastern Turkestan was called the Western Regions in Chinese historic records. Turkestan has been experiencing Chinese influence largely due to Silk Road trading way. The first Chinese military campaigns in Turkestan dates to the Battle of Loulan in the 2nd century BC, and were largely successful. Nomadic empires that have held power in the region since are chronologically, the Xiongnu tribes, Uighur Empire, Turkic Kaganate, Kara-Khanid Khanate, Great Seljuk Empire, Mongol Empire, Golden Horde, and the Kazakh Khanate. Uighur tribes started to settle in the most east of Turkestan from the 8th century on after the collapse of Uighur Empire.
A summary of Classical sources on the Seres (Greek and Roman name of China) (essentially Pliny and Ptolemy) gives the following account:
The region of the Seres is a vast and populous country, touching on the east the Ocean and the limits of the habitable world, and extending west nearly to Imaus and the confines of Bactria. The people are civilised men, of mild, just, and frugal temper, eschewing collisions with their neighbours, and even shy of close intercourse, but not averse to dispose of their own products, of which raw silk is the staple, but which include also silk stuffs, furs, and iron of remarkable quality.
- Henry Yule, Cathay and the Way Thither
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