Turks in general are peoples living or originating from Turkestan, the vast region between the eastern shore of the Caspian sea and the Altai Mountains, which from the sixth century onward is also called Turan. From the end of the eleventh century the term Turks meant only those Turks living in the region of Anatolia. From the early Middle Ages several Turkish peoples migrated as nomads or advanced as warriors, reaching the east European and the Mediterranean regions, and came into contact with the Byzantines.
The term Turkoman first appeared in Islamic texts during the tenth century and was used alternatively with Oghuz, the Turkic nomadic people that one century later and after a long migration invaded Asia Minor. More precisely, Turkoman came to mean the Muslim Oghuz in contrast to the pagan, shaminist or the Christian Oghuz, a minority group. The term had already passed into Greek in the first half of the twelfth century.
The Turks practiced a variety of religions, being Buddhists, Manicheas, Christians (mainly Nestorians), even Zoroastrians; but initially the most popular religion was shamanism, the religion of the steppe. With the Arab conquest of Transoxiana (705-15), Islam spread successfully among the Turks.
Most probably the earliest Turks known to history are the Huns. The first people whom the Byzantines called Tourkoi, however, were governed by a Khagan, who in 568 sent ambassadors to Constantinople, seeking alliance with Justin II against the Persians. In the following year a Byzantine ambassador, Zemarcos, reached the khagan's nomadic court; the account of his mission still survives.
The northern Black Sea regions attracted several Turkic peoples such as the Avars, the Bulgars, the Khazars, etc., while the lower Danube remained an area of confrontation between the Byzantines and Turks. In the twelfth century, this area was occupied by the Cumans.
Around 960, the first Turco-Islamic state appeared, that of the Karakhanids or Ilek-khanids. Established in the cities of Balasagun and Kashgar (eastern Turkestan), they soon conquered the region of Transoxiana.
Shortly after the Karakhanids, another Turco-Islamic dynasty appeared in Ghazna. The Ghaznavid sultan Mahmud (998-1030) was glorified for his long and victorious war against India. The end of his campaigns left the warriors of the faith, the ghazis, unemployed and seems to be one of the reasons for the great migration of the Oghuz Turks in the eleventh century.
The Oghuz people living around the year 1000 south of Lake Aral included twenty-two of 24 tribes; Byzantine sources mention some of these (e.g., the Avshar or the Cepni). The first Oghuz tribe that headed toward the west and reached the Danube regions was the Pechenegs. A second wave of Oghuz reached the territories of the Rus'; the Byzantines mention them by their real ethnic name, Ouzoi. For the Byzantine Empire, the most significant Oghuz migration was that guided by the family (later dynasty) of the Seljuks. The Seljukid Tughrul Beg, sultan of Baghdad from 1055, unable to control the Oghuz nomads, dispatched them as ghazid against the Christians. This policy led his successor Alp Arslan to open confrontation with the Byzantines and the victory at Mantzikert.
During the twelfth century the Turks of Asia Minor were divided and established several states, the most important of which, after the Seljuks, was that of the Danismendids. After the Seljuks defeated the army of Manuel I in 1176 near Myriokephalon, the Byzantines were obliged to regard the Turkish occupation of Asia Minor as permanent.
Turk in Byzantine Service. From the eleventh century onward, the Byzantines hired Turkish peoples (Pechenegs, Cumans, Seljuks) as mercenaries, and some groups of Turks settled on Byzantine territory. According to the chroniclers of the First Crusade, the Tourkopouli formed a substantial and effective contingent of the Byzantine army. Eustathios of Thessalonike praises Manuel I's tolerance toward foreigners and relates that significant "Persian" colonies were established within the empire. Several Turkish families (Axouch, Samouch, Prosuch) reached high ranks and supplied the empire with generals. After the twelfth century, however, the Turks appeared in the empire as allies rather than settlers, and finally as overlords and conquerors.
) if somehow the Ottomans did invade Turkmenistan (which would take plowing straight through Persia) why wouldn't they have a pretty easy time of relating to people with the same customs, language, and religion? Turkmenistan is where Oghuz Turks come from. In fact, Turkmenistan had only been disconnected from Anatolia culturally for about 100 years, and this connection was reestablished twice (once by Tamerlane and again by the Qara Koyunlu) and Oghuz tribes were constantly moving back and forth, usually forth into Anatolia from Turkmenistan.
