Name of Turkey

The English name Turkey, now applied to the modern Republic of Turkey, is historically derived (via Old French Turquie) from the Medieval Latin Turchia, Turquia; and Greek Τουρκία. It is first recorded in Middle English (as Turkye, Torke, later Turkie, Turky), attested in Chaucer, ca. 1369. The Ottoman Empire was commonly referred to as Turkey or the Turkish Empire among its contemporaries.

Etymology

The name of Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye) can be divided into two components: the ethnonym Türk and the abstract suffix –iye meaning "owner", "land of" or "related to" (originally derived from the Greek and Latin suffixes –ia in Tourkia (Τουρκία) and Turchia; and later from the corresponding Arabic suffix –iyya in Turkiyya (تركيا).)

Turkic sources

The first recorded use of the term "Türk" or "Türük" as an autonym is contained in the Old Turkic inscriptions of the Göktürks (Celestial Turks) of Central Asia (c. 8th century). The Turkic self-designation Türk is first attested in reference to the Göktürks in the 6th century. A letter by Ishbara Qaghan to Emperor Wen of Sui in 585 described him as "the Great Turk Khan." The Orhun inscriptions (735 CE) use the terms Turk and Turuk. The first recorded direct use of the term "Türk" or "Türük" as an autonym is attested in the Orkhon inscriptions of the Köktürks (Blue Turks) of Central Asia (early 8th century).

Chinese sources

An early form of the same name may be reflected in the form of "tie-le" (铁勒) or "tu-jue" (突厥), name given by the Chinese to the people living south of the Altay Mountains of Central Asia as early as 177 BC.

Greek and Latin sources

The Greek name, Tourkia (Greek: Τουρκία) was used by the Byzantine emperor and scholar Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus in his book De Administrando Imperio, though in his use, "Turks" always referred to Magyars. Similarly, the medieval Khazar Empire, a Turkic state on the northern shores of the Black and Caspian seas, was referred to as Tourkia (Land of the Turks) in Byzantine sources. However, the Byzantines later began using this name to define the Seljuk-controlled parts of Anatolia in the centuries that followed the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. The medieval Greek and Latin terms did not designate the same geographic area now known as Turkey. Instead, they were mostly synonymous with Tartary, a term including Khazaria and the other khaganates of the Central Asian steppe, until the appearance of the Seljuks and the rise of the Ottoman Empire in the 14th century, reflecting the progress of the Turkic expansion.

Persian sources

By contrast, the Persian derivation Turkestan remains mostly applied to Central Asia. The name is derived from the ethnic self-designation Türk, as Turkestan is a Persian or Persianate term meaning "abode of the Turks". The Modern Persian word ترکیه is a derivation with the Arabic nisba suffix. The name for Turkey in the Turkish language, Türkiye, also contains the nisba suffix –iye.

Arabic sources

The Arabic cognate Turkiyya (Arabic: تركيا) in the form Dawla al-Turkiyya (State of the Turks) was historically used as an official name for the medieval Mamluk Sultanate which covered Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Hejaz and Cyrenaica.

In other languages

The Icelandic word Tyrkland, and the Hungarian word Törökország, i.e. "Turk-land", use native forms of derivation.

See also

• Turkestan
• Turkic expansion
• Turan
• Turki
• Names of Anatolia