Middle Turkic is a term used by linguists to refer to a group of Karluk, Oghuz and Kipchak languages spoken during much of the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

(c. 900–1500 CE) in

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

, and parts of the

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controlled by

Seljuk Turks The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; , ''Saljuqian'',) alternatively spelled as Saljuqids or Seljuk Turks, was an Oghuz Turks, Oghuz Turkic, Sunni Muslim dynasty that gradually became Persianate society, Persianate and contributed to Turco-Persi ...

Classification

Middle Turkic can be divided into eastern and western branches. Eastern Middle Turkic consists of

Karakhanid The Kara-Khanid Khanate (; zh, t=喀喇汗國, p=Kālā Hánguó), also known as the Karakhanids, Qarakhanids, Ilek Khanids or the Afrasiabids (), was a Karluk Turkic khanate that ruled Central Asia from the 9th to the early 13th century. Th ...

(also called Khaqani Turkic), a

literary language Literary language is the Register (sociolinguistics), register of a language used when writing in a formal, academic writing, academic, or particularly polite tone; when speaking or writing in such a tone, it can also be known as formal language. ...

which was spoken in

Kashgar Kashgar () or Kashi ( zh, c=喀什) is a city in the Tarim Basin region of southern Xinjiang, China. It is one of the westernmost cities of China, located near the country's border with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. For over 2,000 years, Kashgar ...

, Balasaghun and other cities along the

Silk Road The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...

and its later descendants such as Khorezmian Turkic and Chagatai. The western branch consists of

Kipchak languages The Kipchak languages (also known as the Kypchak, Qypchaq, Qypshaq or the Northwestern Turkic languages) are a sub-branch of the Turkic language family spoken by approximately 30 million people in much of Central Asia and Eastern Europe, spanni ...

documented in '' Codex Cumanicus'' and various Mamluk Kipchak texts from

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

, and

Oghuz Turkic The Oghuz languages are a sub-branch of the Turkic language family, spoken by approximately 108 million people. The three languages with the largest number of speakers are Turkish, Azerbaijani and Turkmen, which, combined, account for more ...

represented by

Old Anatolian Turkish Old Anatolian Turkish or Old Turkish, also referred to as Old Anatolian Turkic, (, Perso-Arabic script: اسکی انادولو تورکچه‌سی), was the form of the Turkish language spoken in Anatolia from the 11th to 15th centuries. It dev ...

. Old Anatolian Turkish was noted to be initially influenced by Eastern Middle Turkic traditions. Karluk and Oghuz "Middle Turkic" period overlaps with the East Old Turkic period, which covers the 8th to 13th centuries, thus sometimes Karakhanid language is categorized under the "Old Turkic" period.

Literary works

*Book of Wisdom (ديوان حكمت) (Dīvān-i Ḥikmet) by Khoja Akhmet Yassawi. (in Karakhanid) * Mahmud al-Kashgari's '' Divânü Lügati't-Türk'' (in Karakhanid and Arabic) * Yusuf Balasaghuni's '' Kutadgu Bilig'' (in Karakhanid) *Ahmad bin Mahmud Yukenaki (Ahmed bin Mahmud Yükneki) (Ahmet ibn Mahmut Yükneki) (Yazan Edib Ahmed b. Mahmud Yükneki) ( w:tr:Edip Ahmet Yükneki) wrote the ''Hibet-ül hakayik'' (Hibet ül-hakayık) (Hibbetü'l-Hakaik) (Atebetüʼl-hakayik) (Hibat al-ḥaqāyiq) (هبة الحقايق) ( w:tr:Atabetü'l-Hakayık) *The works of Ali-Shir Nava'i (in Chagatai), including (titles in Arabic) **''Gharā’ib al-Ṣighār'' ("Wonders of Childhood") **''Nawādir al-Shabāb'' ("Witticisms of Youth") **''Badā’i‘ al-Wasaṭ'' ("Marvels of Middle Age") **''Fawā’id al-Kibār'' ("Advantages of Old Age") **''Muḥākamat al-Lughatayn'' ("Judgment between the Two Languages") *The Mughal Emperor Babur's ''

Baburnama The ''Bāburnāma'' (; ) is the memoirs of Babur, Ẓahīr-ud-Dīn Muhammad Bābur (1483–1530), founder of the Mughal Empire and a great-great-great-grandson of Timur. It is written in the Chagatai language, known to Babur as ''Türki'' "Turkic ...

'' (in Chagatai) *The ‘Pagan’ Oɣuz-namä — date and place of composition is unknown.

References

*Sinor, Dennis. "Old Turkic and Middle Turkic Languages." ''History of the Civilizations of Central Asia'', vol. IV, 2 (2000), pp. 331–334. *Boeschoten, Hendrik. "A Dictionary of Early Middle Turkic." ''Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1 The Near and Middle East,'' Volume: 169 {{DEFAULTSORT:Turkish Language Agglutinative languages Turkic languages Languages attested from the 9th century Languages extinct in the 15th century

Classification

Literary works

See also

References