Teke is a major and politically influential
tribe of Turkmens in
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...
.
History
The
Oghuz forebears of the Teke
migrated to Transoxiana in the 8th century.
The tribe is called the Turka by explorer
Alexander Burnes
Captain Sir Alexander Burnes (16 May 1805 – 2 November 1841) was a Scottish explorer, military officer and diplomat associated with the Great Game. He was nicknamed Bokhara Burnes for his role in establishing contact with and expl ...
in his 1834 book ''Travels into Bokhara''.
Lieutenant Colonel C.E. Stuart reported that in the 1830s the Teke tribe began to settle in the lower
Murghab River delta near
Merv
Merv (, ', ; ), also known as the Merve Oasis, was a major Iranian peoples, Iranian city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, near today's Mary, Turkmenistan. Human settlements on the site of Merv existed from the 3rd millennium& ...
, which, he said, they destroyed around 1855. From here the Teke extended their reach to Kizil-Arvat (the present-day city of
Gyzylarbat
Serdar (also known as Gyzylarbat and formerly Kyzyl-Arvat or Gyzylarbat and Farāva) is a city subordinate to a district in Turkmenistan, located north-west of the capital, Ashgabat on the M37 highway to the Caspian Sea. The population of Gyzylar ...
), ultimately splitting into the Ahal Teke, located between Kizil-Arvat and
Gäwers (an area Stuart called "Daman-i-Kuh"), and the
Merv
Merv (, ', ; ), also known as the Merve Oasis, was a major Iranian peoples, Iranian city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, near today's Mary, Turkmenistan. Human settlements on the site of Merv existed from the 3rd millennium& ...
(today Mary) Teke, mainly between the Tejen and Murghab Rivers.
Edmund O'Donovan described Merv as of 1881 as
:...a heap of melancholy ruins. There are remains of baths, and palaces, and ramparts crumbling around, with nothing living but snakes and jackals to be seen, or perhaps some wandering Turkoman looking out for his sheep...This is all that remains of Merv...
O'Donovan also asserted that as of 1881
: The Turkomans of Merv have only been twenty-six years in the oasis. They formerly inhabited the district around
Sarakhs on the upper part of the Tejend river. They were driven from there twenty-seven years ago by
the Persians, who objected to the neighbourhood of persons so disagreeable as to insist in carrying off Persian men, their wives, and daughters, and selling them at 5''L'' per head in
Bokhara
Bukhara ( ) is the seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents . It is the capital of Bukhara Region.
People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and the city has existed for half ...
.
The Ahal and Mary Teke were separated by a Persian-controlled zone north of the
Kopetdag Mountains called Deregez.
[This is a reference to the Iranian city ]Dargaz
Dargaz () is a city in the Central District of Dargaz County, Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district.
History
For the period before the advent of the Safavids (r. 1501–1722), the histori ...
, which was the capital of the region described, and was called Mahometabad at that time. Though technically under Persian suzerainty, the Teke were ''de facto'' autonomous, and as O'Donovan remarked, were noted for raids to capture slaves for sale in the markets of
Khiva
Khiva ( uz-Latn-Cyrl, Xiva, Хива, ; other names) is a district-level city of approximately 93,000 people in Khorazm Region, Uzbekistan. According to archaeological data, the city was established around 2,500 years ago.
In 1997, Khiva celebr ...
and
Bukhara
Bukhara ( ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents . It is the capital of Bukhara Region.
People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and t ...
. At one point the shah of Persia offered a reward of five tomans "for the head of each Turkoman killed raiding within his frontier."
O'Donovan described to the
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
Mary Teke inhabitants of Mäne, a village in Deregez, as "nominally paying tribute to Persia, but who are really independent."
Sir Henry Rawlinson
Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, 1st Baronet, KLS (5 April 1810 – 5 March 1895) was a British East India Company army officer, politician, and Orientalist, sometimes described as the Father of Assyriology. His son, also Henry, was to become ...
wrote of the Akhal Teke in 1879,
:"The original settlement of the Akhal Tekeh, on the borders of Persia, was contemporaneous with that of the Merv Tekeh, of whom they are an integral portion. The whole tribe was brought from the '
Labáb', or banks of the Oxus...
:"The name 'Akhal'...is borrowed from one of their chief 'obahs,' or camps, near which are the ruins of a large Persian town and mounds of fire temples...the country occupied by the 'Akhal' consists of a strip of fertile land, varying from two or three to sixteen miles in width, and extending from Kizil-Arvat, about 160 miles...to
Gawars, the most easterly settlement...
:"The number of tents of families of the Akhal are variously computed, some estimates giving as high as 20,000. A comparison of Persian and Turcoman estimates...gives an average of about 8,000 tents, or 40,000 souls, which is probably very near the truth. One-fifth of this number must be adult males.
:

"The principal settlements of the 'Akhal' are at Akhal, a permanent camp of 500 tents often increased to 1000 of various sections; Goombali, 1000 tents; Kariz, occupied only temporarily; Harrik-Kileh, Askabad, and Annau."
[ The 19th-century villages of Kizil-Arvat, Gawars, Harrik-Kileh, Askabad, and Annau cited in Sir Henry's lecture certainly correspond to the contemporary city of Serdar, village of Gäwers, Ashgabat neighborhood of Herrikgala, and cities of Ashgabat and Änew, respectively. On the map Sir Henry provided to accompany his lecture (pages 266-267), "Goombali" and "Kariz" are shown as roughly halfway between "Doran" (Durun) and "Yengi-Kileh" (Yangala), and "Akhal" as just east of Yangala, but their exact locations are uncertain.]
The Teke had militarily resisted
Persia
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 ...
n incursions in the 19th century intended to pacify them.
The Teke came under
Russian
Russian(s) may refer to:
*Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*A citizen of Russia
*Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages
*''The Russians'', a b ...
colonial rule in the 1880s. Though the Turkmen tribes defeated Russian troops during the
first incursion in 1879, a subsequent invasion between 1880 and 1881, culminating in the second
Battle of Gökdepe, resulted in imposition of Russian Imperial authority. Following surrender, the Teke commander,
Ovezmurat Dykma-Serdar Ovezmurat Dykma-Serdar (Russian: Овезмурад Дыкма Сердар; 1825–1882/84?, Turkmen: Öwezmyrat Dykma Serdar, عوضمراد دیقمهسردار) was a Teke Turkmen tribal leader in the second half of the 19th century. Ori ...
, was commissioned a major in the Russian Imperial Army. Russia's conquest of the Teke was completed in 1884 with the taking of Merv.
Following this conquest, the Teke were largely pacified and reverted from slave-trading to sheep-raising as the main source of income. A Russian diplomat, P.M. Lessar, reported that between December 1881 and April 1882, "a great change had taken place" and "it became possible to travel between Askhabad and Sarakhs without escort, accompanied by only a few labourers armed with guns against chance robbers."
[
]
Culture
Historically each Turkmen tribe has had its own unique carpet pattern, clothing, headgear and dialect.
Teke Turkmen carpets often feature a standard Teke rosette (), called the ''guşly göl'', which in the words of O'Bannon "has the least variation of all Turkoman guls
'sic''and has apparently changed least through time. This is the design which is also called Royal Bokhara...It is almost always connected by intersecting blue or black lines. It is an oval-shaped octagon, usually not more than four inches high and eight inches wide. The secondary gul is a diamond-shaped form and is sometimes referred to as a 'tarantula'."

The design of this rosette is reproduced in the layout of the
Altyn Asyr bazaar in Ashgabat, and is the topmost rosette on Turkmenistan's national flag.
Demographics
The Teke tribe can be subdivided in two, the Ahal Teke and Mary Teke. Lt. Col. Stuart noted as well subdivision into four clans, the Wakil (variant Wekil), Beg, Suchmuz, and Bukshi:
:"The Wakil and Beg clans are collectively called Toctamish, as they are descended from a person of that name. The Suchmuz and Bukshi clans are collectively called Otamish..."
As of 1879 Russian military officers estimated the Ahal Teke population at "30,000 yurts", and that the Teke "were capable of fielding 50,000 armed men, of whom 20,000 were cavalry and the rest were infantry."
The main body of Teke were located between
Geok-Tepe and
"Askhabad", with two villages east of that,
Anau and
Gäwers. Combined population of the main body was estimated at 40,000 to 50,000 people, and the Russian commander believed "capture of this area meant the mastery of the entire Ahal-Teke oasis."
Stuart estimated in 1881 the number of "Akhal Tekke" at "25,000 tents" and of "Merv Tekke" at "40,000 tents", which latter number included "Salor (5000 tents)". He estimated five people per tent, implying a total Teke tribal population of about 325,000 in that year.
Today members of Teke tribe are predominantly found in the southeastern regions of Turkmenistan.
They represent over a third of Turkmenistan's population (more than 1.6 million, ).
Major tribes of Turkmenistan have mainly settled different parts of the country.
Soviet
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
policy on nationalities managed to diminish tribal identities in
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...
, but the identities are still important in contemporary social contexts. Teke, and especially its subdivision Ahal Teke, have traditionally dominated Turkmenistan's political structure. Former Presidents
Saparmurat Niyazov
Saparmurat Atayevich Niyazov (19 February 1940 – 21 December 2006) was a Turkmenistani politician who led Turkmenistan from 1985 until his death in 2006. He was the Secretary (title), first secretary of the Communist Party of Turkmenist ...
and
Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow
Gurbanguly Mälikgulyýewiç Berdimuhamedow (born 29 June 1957) is a Turkmen politician and former dentist who is currently the chairman of the People's Council of Turkmenistan. He previously served as the second president of Turkmenistan from ...
and current President
Serdar Berdimuhamedow
Serdar Gurbangulyýewiç Berdimuhamedow (born 22 September 1981) is a Turkmenistani politician who is currently serving as the third and current president of Turkmenistan since 2022. Berdimuhamedow had previously served in several other position ...
were or are of the Ahal Teke tribe.
Linguistics
The linguist Larry Clark wrote,
:"Teke dialect
sspoken by members of the Teke tribe settled in the southern regions of Turkmenistan and along the northern skirt of the Köpetdag mountains, from
Gizilarbat to the banks of the Murgap and Tejen rivers. This dialect has two subdialects:
::(a) Ahal: Tejen and Ashgabat districts up to Gizilarbat, including Büzmeyin, Gökdepe, Bäherdin, Bami and Goch districts.
::(b) Mari: Mari, Türkmengala, Sakarchäge, Murgap and Bayramali districts."
The official
Turkmen language
Turkmen (, , , or , , , ) is a Turkic language of the Oghuz branch spoken by the Turkmens of Central Asia. It has an estimated 4.7 million native speakers in Turkmenistan (where it is the official language), and a further 359,000 speakers i ...
is based on the Ahal Teke and Mary Teke dialects.
Stuart wrote in 1881, "The Turkomans speak a variety of Turki differing very little from the Turki spoken all over Northern Persia, and the Turks of Persia understand it, though there are some differences. The Persians call the Turki spoken by the Turkmans, Jagatai."
The common use of
Chagatay as the Turkic ''lingua franca'' of Central Asia, however, changed under
Soviet
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
rule in 1924 when
Russian
Russian(s) may refer to:
*Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*A citizen of Russia
*Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages
*''The Russians'', a b ...
became the common literary language of Central Asia and local dialects of Turkic languages were allowed to be used in publications.
Initial efforts in the late 1920s and early 1930s to create a common literary Turkmen language incorporating elements of all major dialects failed when
Joseph Stalin's purges resulted in death of the intellectuals involved.
Following independence the political dominance of the Teke tribe led to ''de facto'' adoption of the Teke dialect as the standard for literary Turkmen speech and writing.
As Clark put it,
:"Standard Turkmen is regarded as their national language by all Turkmen living within Turkmenistan and, according to many Turkmen, by at least some of those living in nearby countries as well. This partly abstract standard language stands closest to the real language of the Teke dialect, and specifically of its Ahal subdialect spoken in the Ashgabat region, because many of the specialists who formulated the standard language in the 1930s were Ahal Teke, and the majority of officials, businessmen and intellectuals who routinely use the standard language, are Ahal Teke or live in Ashgabat."
Etymology
Stuart asserted, "Tekke means wild goat. The word Tekke also is applied to the old he-goat that leads a flock of goats."
The modern definition of the word is "billy goat".
See also
*
Akhal-Teke
The Akhal-Teke ( or ; from Turkmen language, Turkmen ''Ahalteke'', ) is a Turkmen horse breed. They have a reputation for speed and endurance, intelligence, thin manes and a distinctive metallic sheen. The shiny coat of the breed led to their ...
*
Kibitka
A kibitka (, from the Arabic , 'dome') is a pastoralism , pastoralist yurt of late-19th-century Kyrgyz and Kazakh nomads.
The word is also used in reference to a Russian type of carriage or sleigh. This kind of kibitka uses the same equipage ...
*
Teke Peninsula
Teke Peninsula (), also known as Teke Region (), is a peninsula located in southwestern Turkey between the gulfs of Antalya and Fethiye extending into the Mediterranean Sea. It is bordered to the Turkish Lakes Region in the north.
It was known ...
*
Beylik of Teke
The Anatolian beylik of Teke (, 1321–1423), with its capital at Antalya, was one of the frontier principalities established by Oghuz Turkish clans after the decline of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm.
History
The Teke dynasty started with a s ...
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
Tekke Bokhara: History and evolution of modern Bokhara rugs{{Turkmen tribes
Turkmen tribes
Ethnic Turkmen people
Ethnic groups in Turkmenistan
Ethnic groups in Central Asia
Oghuz tribes