What race were the invading Turkish armies of Anatolia?
score:4
First of all, the name of the Muslim-Turkish state that defeated Byzantine army in the 11th century at Manzikert was Great Seljuk Empire. As its name mentioned, though a relatively short lived one, it was indeed a great empire that extends from Central Asia to Egypt. Their Sultans, most governors and a significant part of their population were Oghuz Turks, also called as Turkmens-same people who founded Ottoman Empire.
Secondly, The Empire represented an advanced civilization of its time and its army was not a mere raiding force that only seeks plunder. They were trying to find a new land to settle, and to serve Islam while doing so. For these reasons they wisely chose Anatolia and achieved their goal by implementing a sound grand strategy after years of struggle. That's the main reason behind migration of many tribes of Oghuz Turks, which were not too few in numbers, to Anatolia. As experienced by all other empires, Seljuks eventually had been mixed up with many other people they conquered, though generally in small numbers, including other Turkic people, Arabs, Byzantines, Kurds... and especially Persians. This might had been caused a shift in internal power balance as we know that in their last years the langauge that was spoken among the elite was Persian. Returning to the point, most of them were still considering themselves as Oghuz Turks and were slightly slanted eyed like Asian people. Also there was a population boom in Anatolia following the Mongol invasion of 13th century, bringing many (millions?) people to Anatolia and many of them were Oghuz Turks. There were also other Turkish and smaller number of non Turkish tribes and eventually they were all merged together in one pot.
About genetics, I am not an expert but as far as I know, some genes that cause someone having Asian appearance are not of dominant type. Additionally, environmental factors have some effects over genes (depression for example) to some extent, but I cannot prove whether these factors played a major role on the issue we are discussing or not. Also, until today (especially in Ottoman era) there have been many more mixings with other nations' gene pools including European ones. As a last note, no single race has just one fenotype-it is true both for today and for the past. Even in small portions, there are people in a race that express a different fenotype than remaining majority. This internal differences might also have contributed in appearance of the today's Turks. So, there is little wonder about the appearance of modern day Turkish people.
More post
- 📝 Did any major European country stay neutral during the Napoleonic Wars?
- 📝 Has any real-world culture actually included a "Life Debt" tradition?
- 📝 Alexander, Olympias, and Zeus in Giulio Romano's painting
- 📝 What attributes did Yahweh have before becoming a monotheistic deity?
- 📝 Is it possible to estimate a "Gini Index" from the Roman Empire?
- 📝 In British heraldry, what happens when a woman with a coat of arms marries someone without?
- 📝 Early reasons to bury the dead
- 📝 Which Commiphora species produces the Biblical Myrrh?
- 📝 Is Josephus a legitimate historical text?
- 📝 Why did the Royal Society in 1771 believe that a continent further south than Australia should exist?
- 📝 Why did not the Byzantines attempt to recapture the holy land from the Arabs?
- 📝 Was the assassination of Kirov really that significant in consolidating Stalin's power?
- 📝 Earlier U.S. law enforcement raids on lawyers' communications
- 📝 What kind of missile flew with such speed in 1st century BCE?
- 📝 Was Heinrich Himmler's death a suicide?
- 📝 Was it customary for young upper-middle class women to chew gum in public in German-speaking Europe?
- 📝 Why would some nations want to force Japan to end their isolation?
- 📝 How to find out if this sword is real or just a souvenir?
- 📝 Did the Red Army and German Army clash in Poland in 1939?
- 📝 Did the Olympics make the Star Spangled Banner the US national anthem?
- 📝 Is there a Soviet equivalent to foundational Cold War documents such as the Long Telegram and NSC-68?
- 📝 Did the Ptolemaic Egyptians know how old the Pyramids were?
- 📝 What is the origin of "With an iron fist, we will drive humanity to happiness?"
- 📝 When did Americans become safe from highway robbery?
- 📝 Fatality Rate, in Andrew Carnegie's Steel Mills?
- 📝 Given the concern about Soviet oil in World War II, why is so little mention made of captured Soviet coal reserves?
- 📝 What was the average height in Classical Greece?
- 📝 Why exactly did telegraphs have to use "STOP" instead of a period and "QUOTE" instead of a quotation mark? (Or special codes.)
- 📝 Were the ancient Greeks very poor compared to the ancient Persians?
- 📝 Was the use of imperial nicknames in ancient Rome meant as an insult?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What race were the invading Turkish armies of Anatolia?
- 📝 What were the American-equipped armies of Nationalist China equipped with?
- 📝 What drugs were used in England during the High Middle Ages?
- 📝 What were the reasons for the Renaissance / scientific revolution in Europe?
- 📝 What were the acceptance criteria in universities of medieval Europe?
- 📝 What language(s) were spoken within the Holy Roman Empire?
- 📝 What were the reasons for making Prohibition a constitutional amendment?
- 📝 What were the main causes of successful take over of India by Britain?
- 📝 What disruptions were brought about by Islam that the Arabians saw so many victories?
- 📝 Were there any Germans in Japan after the surrender of Germany in May, 1945 and if so, what happened to them?
- 📝 Are there any documented examples of wooden ships which were in active service for 100 years or more? If not, what is the longest?
- 📝 What were the logistics of whaling in the 1800s?
- 📝 What were the reasons that the British colonies in North America rebelled but not others?
- 📝 In WWII, what were the major differences in tank combat on the eastern and western fronts?
- 📝 Third Reich? What were the other two?
- 📝 What were the Allies' plans if they caught Hitler alive?
- 📝 What were the EMP effects, if any, of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
- 📝 What made the Russian Navy suspect Japanese torpedo boats were in North Sea in 1904?
- 📝 What were the post World War 2 effects on Germany?
- 📝 What East German laws and regulations were extended to the West after unification?
- 📝 What were the 52 kinds of victims persecuted by the Nazis?
- 📝 What were the effects of the Black Death in the Muslim world?
- 📝 What were the criteria for class ranking at West Point prior to the Civil War?
- 📝 What were the first local currency systems in history?
- 📝 What were the demographics and economics of South-East Asian islands around year 1400?
- 📝 What were the Nazi racial views on Hungarians and the Japanese?
- 📝 What were the key factors to the fall of domestic socialism in the USA?
- 📝 What were the “passports” that diplomats requested when declaring war?
- 📝 What crops were part of the medieval spring harvest?
- 📝 At what point were the most current and former US Presidents alive?