GREAT SILK ROAD : THE CULTURE OF CONNECTION OF THE TURKIC PEOPLES AND CONTRIBUTION TO THE CIVILIZATIONS

The road has been a way for the developments, economic exchanges throughout history of nations. Historical and archaeological studies show that the main pillars of progress were the culture of the society that connected the cities and centers of civilizations especially in the Turkic world. The role of the Turkic civilization as one of the oldest means in cultural communication and development is undeniable. The movement of culture in such beautiful and necessary regions of the planet was the result of the intelligent policy of the Turkic states, which we aspire to today.

Great Silk Road and Caravansaries are a commemoration during several thousand years’ history of road construction. In the meantime, humans could not care for the road that was hard, unsafe and uneven. They were breaking through hard deserts and walking in harsh mountains, but they were overcome all these problems to survive. Europe and Asia are magnificent regions with very interesting natures such as glorious mountains of Caucasus and Alps in Europe, the Gobi and Indus deserts, countless rivers and other natural beauties. Despite the fact that villages and cities on the area are far from each other, administrative rules and determination of Turkic tribes had overcame all the problems. 

In this paper, attempted to briefly investigate the importance of the Turks on the development of statehood issues and culture of development its peripheral areas, especially on the Eurasia.

Keywords: Silk Road, Art and Crafts, Contacts, Culture , Economy

The ancient Turks had an undeniable contribution to the historical development of human civilization. The world's most prominent scientists and researchers have unequivocally considered the Turks to be "nations that made history."

It is a fact that our great ancestors not only signed the glorious pages of history, but also created the traditions of progressive statehood, monuments of high material and spiritual culture. In addition to preserving the shades of ancient culture, the Turks endowed mankind with the most perfect inventions of the time, courage, martial arts, and chivalry. However, the villains of the Turks, especially the Armenians, who are our neighbors, have always tried to humiliate the services of the great Turkic nation to human history. But fortunately did not succeed.

The great Kyrgyz poet Oljas Suleymenov proudly writes that "Turks have always been distinguished by their courage, fearlessness and justice." Unfortunately, the attempts of the Turks to downplay the great contributions to world civilization, to describe them as "savages", "nomadic tribes" continue. We should appreciate the role of Lev Gumilyov, Ziya Bunyadov, Murad Adji, and other world-famous scientists and researchers in resolutely preventing such baseless and unjust attempts.

Suleiman the Magnificent, who has been known as the most powerful sultan in the history of Turkey, is remembered for his numerous and most important various services in the field of justice. The role of the Turkic peoples in world history is irreplaceable. Thus, the contributions of Turkish history to world history, culture and science are historical monuments, proved themselves with world-famous personalities and patriotic personalities. The Turks, who are constantly rising in scientific, religious, social, economic and political terms, have rendered invaluable services to the creation of a universal culture by mixing the peoples of Asia and Europe.

Turks are a nation that has died millions in the cause of truth and justice. Historically, many peoples, especially Christians, who were oppressed and persecuted by the Arab Caliphate and the Byzantine Empire, took refuge in the Turks in the Middle Ages to preserve their national identity and religion, considered the Turks as their savior, and voluntarily accepted Turkish rule. Christian sources themselves confirmed that the Turks were saviors. As a result of the Turks' reliance on justice, humanism, and the aspirations of the peoples they ruled, they ruled India for nine hundred years, during which the British ruled for a hundred years, and for a thousand years in the Arab countries, where Western Europeans held for fifty or sixty years.

Because, unlike others, the Turks did not consider the indigenous peoples as a second-class people, nor did they force them to accept their language or the religion to which they belonged. These feelings and emotions were further strengthened by the Turks' mastery of Islamic religion and culture. Turks succeeded in forming a republic out of a crumbling empire, a prominent historian has said, adding that while the new country had shrunk geographically, it had restored the economic and political might of Turkey.(Ortayli,2012)

Roads and settlements among the Turkic, both in ancient times and subsequent periods, have always been deemed an inevitable necessity.. Caravansaries are a remembrance of Asia's several thousand years’ history of road construction. In the olden days, humans could not care for roads that were hard, unsafe, and unequal. They were passing through hard deserts and walking in harsh mountains, but they were defeating all problems to survive. Villages and cities in the Turkic area are far from each other. Caravans, people moving them, clothes, caravanserais, trading cities, goods, currencies, languages of communication, officials controlling trade routes, palaces, empires were changed and replaced with new ones. However, one "golden rule" of the culture of trade has not changed: people in all historical times have reached a higher level of relations, a wider scale, to know each other better, to share the best material and spiritual blessings with each other. All these matters have been the main stimuli that shape universal values. Thus, the Great Silk Road culture is also the main universal achievements of global civilization in our modern world, today.

The article tells about the beneficial role of the Silk Road in the history of the urban Turkic cultures. The Silk Road was the first experience of world globalization, the source of the blooming of many civilizations. The value and humanistic aspects of the Turkic statehood culture as well as antiquity and classical medieval Islam are comparatively considered in the article. It is not surprising that due to contacts with the richest cultures of the silk road, during the time of its classical flourishing, the whole formally contented nature of the Turkic text, primarily possessing a traditional and ritual-and-ceremonial nature, was changed. But under the Arab-Persian poetics powerful influence, gained the forms of high classics, with new ideological and thematic content, corresponding to own time. The value world of the silk road was reflected in the turkic texts of the 8th century and in the Turkic-speaking poems of urban culture during the flourishing of Islamic classics, as well as in dastans of the north caucasus, middle and central Asia and south Siberia, in the lyric and epic heritage of Oguz and Seljuk heritage from 11th century. The idea of the suitable role of outstanding representatives of the Turkic history of culture in the formation of the academic and spiritual and moral environment of the Silk Road runs like a golden course.

This work became the answer to many stereotypes that were formed in modern science and culture in relation to the role of Turks in building of the human culture. In order to investigate the role of Turks in the great Silk Road objectively, it is important to expose their cultural and historical specifics, nature of change of their historical, spiritual and economical life in the context of special historical flourishing of classical culture of the Silk Road. To study the evolution process of the Silk Road in the context of the participation of its protectors, the Turks, in this process means to more objectively clarify the historical reality and general regularities of the events of trans-civilization in Eurasia. In the situation of the integration of Turkish civilization into the Silk Road process, it is impossible to study the historical and geopolitical nature of Eurasia without knowing the transformational qualities of international political and cultural relations here. This is also necessary because in a number of studies the "Turkish factor" has been wrongly attributed to the destructive-barbaric position in the activities of the Great Silk Road; on the contrary, in this process the "Indo-European factor" has been exaggerated, and exaggerated. But history reveals a completely different reality: if the Turks had obstructed the Great Silk Road, which passes through the homeland of thousands of Turkic peoples and whose main junctions are called Turkic toponyms, if they had been engaged in raids and looting on these roads, it would never have worked. On the contrary, in many periods of history, it was the Turks who neutralized those who obstructed the Great Silk Road, and created conditions for the resumption of this road. We talk about contacts and typological relations that shaped the specifics and dynamics of the Silk Road. Analyzing the structure and connotation of the old poetry, we note the indissoluble connection of the Turkic oral and poetic musical tradition with folklore, ceremony, ritual, with the oral folk atmosphere, with the warrior epos and the primary foundations of the culture.

The Silk Road emerged as an environment of global trade and economic interaction, as a critical need for the harmony of different peoples in the process of centuries-old contacts between them. On the one hand, the Turkic empires such as Seljuk, Safavy, Ottoman, Timurid  dominated as the militarily, on the other hand, because of the inevitable contacts with the more culturally rich traditions of the Caucasus, north India, Iran, middle east, they came to unprecedented flourishing in their science. The focus of advanced sciences, cultures and arts in the field of intellectual space of the great silk road became the result of a significant need for joint cultural and economic coexistence.

 Today in the 21st century, when we see a complete misunderstanding between the Christian west and Buddhist, Muslim east, when there is no constructive dialogue between civilizations, a new actual content is given to the idea of universal spiritualization and tolerance, but when we take attention to countries such as Turkey and Azerbaijan , that is the peacekeeping bridge, the actual dialogue of cultures of the west and east, which is necessity for all humankind.

    The primary aim of this article is to learn the role and place of the Silk Road as a symbol of intercultural dialogue, the integration of ethnicities, and the deepening of the cultural and economic context in accomplishing the idea of the Islamic people in the era of Globalization, and initiating the historical, cultural and geographic potentiality of its renewal. The main subject to cover the topic, in addition to historical ones, was the texts of ancient Turks of the Turkic khanate period, classical examples of the golden age period, as well as studies and monographs of various Muslim scientists: philosophers, culture experts, and medieval literary scholars as Nizami Gandjavi, Al-Biruni, Nasreddin Tusi, Ulugh Beg, Piri Reis.

Al-Fârâbî was a celebrated philosopher, the greatest indeed that the Muslims ever had; he composed a number of works on logic, music, and other sciences. No Muslim ever reached in the philosophical sciences the same rank as he; and it was through the imitation of his style that Ibn-Sînâ attained proficiency and rendered his own work so useful.(Aydin,1986)

The role of the environment is shown: owing to contacts with various cultures of the Silk Road, and under the powerful influence of Arab- Persian poetics, the Turkic poetry was greatly fortified with new genre forms, obtained the features and pathos of high classics, genuine world poetic art. All the poetic, formally gratified nature of the Turkic text, which originally had only a traditional and ritual aspect, changed. The environment of the Silk Road is marked with a brilliant group of outstanding Turkic scientists, poets, humanists, who worked in accordance with new requests, ideological and aesthetic demands of the time. New social and economic, religious, linguistic and other factors formed a new Turkic literary language, and, accordingly, a new thinking of Turks of the classical medieval era. In order to analyze the contacts, we used information on culture of ancient and medieval cities, as well as on literature and art, philosophy and aesthetics. 

And, according to Nurzhanov, the famous Kazakh philosopher, the great Silk Road was the experience of the world globalization. Therefore, the value humanistic aspects of the Turkic poetic culture, as an epoch of antiquity and the time of the classical middle ages are comparatively regarded, the nature of their changes is shown, their aspiration world is presented in detail. Also, all resources used in this research are o kind of written sources and due to the importance of discussing less oral sources.

 

In terms of the research methods presented above, it is quite obvious that the comparable method is coming to the fore. It helped to present not only the details of the pre-islamic nomadic culture in its comparison with the urban classical culture, but also to see its positive role in formation of the culture of Islamic classics, uncover its unique features in comparison with the Persian and Arab traditions. Historical and functional method helped to take a fresh look at the substance of the Turkic archaic culture, the poetic text, its original connection not only with myth, ceremony and ritual, but also with specific social functions. In the old days, the Turkic poetic text acquired new public functions in relation to the new religious and ideological content. 

The statehood always possessed; it was modified, transformed in its various specific military and nomadic forms, but it never faded away. The same can be said about the Oghuz (Turkic) language, which has not been changed practically since the days of appearing  and reached the twentieth century, retaining its own main base, which allowed some scientists to draw unreasonable conclusions about the underdevelopment of Oghuz language, which is one of the richest languages of the world today. The gist of the complex and concentric method is correctly that the object of research is the general “relation” core, around which all the structural points of a single whole are clustered, which must also be subject to analysis in their solidarity and system. Among them we can list the great Turkic writers, poets and commanders Shah Ismail and Sultan Suleiman. They had many abilities and were also very close to the people, folk art, scientists. There are several works by Sultan Suleiman that have survived to this day as well as some scholars were invited to Palace and good condition had been created by Suleiman the Magnificent. And we know that Shah Ismail, along with the writing of the poems, he organized the “Divan” for poets and scholars. As we know, Safavy and Ottoman empires were two great states between East and West, and they have been instructive examples to all humans, especially who has lived in the region.

According to Halil Inalcik, in Turkish states in the Islamic world, törü (türe, tüzük), yasa or kanun, that is, a body of laws and regulations, existed independently from Islamic Law and led public life in the highest interests of the state and society, giving elasticity in preparing state policies and interpreting the requirements of Islamic Law in the most liberal method.(Inalcik,1998)

 

17-century Ottoman miniature depicting astronomers studying the moon and stars

Some historical research shows that the Silk Road is the most important historical communication pathway between ancient civilizations of the world, which is a factor in the harmonization of the variety of human beings in forming various civilizations of history. Throughout history, nations and tribes exchanged over this road of material goods and on their cultural fabric in this longest potential way, and as a result, they created the largest and most extensive cultural dissemination programs. The road evolved as a result of trade and economic interaction, and as a critical need for the cohabitation of different nations in the process of cultural contacts between them for centuries. Its main spiritual content in the middle ages - literary Persian language and Arabic classical culture also became the result of useful contacts in the field of science, art and the economy. The focus of sciences, cultures in the field of a single spirituality arose in the intellectual space of the Silk Road as a historical model and as a meaningful demand for mutual cultural coexistence. As a result of contacts with various cultures, and mainly under the mighty impact of Arab - Persian poetics, the Turkic poetry was greatly spiked with new genre forms, gathered features and pathos of high classics, reached the level of the world poetic art. The poetic and formally meaningful nature of the Turkic text has changed, which originally had only a traditional and ritual and ceremonial aspect. Under the impact of the Arab-Persian classics, it got new, classical forms and received new, thematic content. Works such as “Dede Korkut”, “Shikayyetname” by Fuzuli “Tarihi Ali Selcuk” had fundamental role among them. The love and Sufi lyrics, to which heed is not paid in heroic aesthetics, flourish along with the educational poem. Because of the influence of Persian-Arabian poetics on the genre-style structure of the Turks and their medievalism. The Silk Road has been the origin of many of the most affluent cities that were built around this strategic and commercial way. With the boom of this road, massive masses of space were swamping and decayed. The civilizations in the global network on the roads have taken many of the cultural elements that today's native Turkish elements are from other tribes, with whom they have had commercial ties along the road. The road, linking the Mediterranean through south part of Caspian sea to China, was not only the pathway of merchant traders, but also the only way to exchange authorities of states and messages of peace and friendship between neighbors. 

The re-actualization of the Great Silk Road in modern international life is a historical regularity of world development: it means that the role of the Turkic world, returning to the Great Politics, in the political, economic and cultural life of modern Eurasia. Today, the Turks, the historical protectors of the Great Silk Road, are on the mission of its founders. Independent Turkic states: Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan,

Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus confirm the concept of the Turkic world. The world of the Turkic peoples and their role in history is irreplaceable. Thus, the contributions of Turkish history to world history, culture, science, i.e., historical monuments, world-renowned personalities, patriotic personalities proved themselves with. There cannot be a Western-style recipe for Islam or Judaism, because there is no clergy, there is no church hierarchy.(Ortayli,2012)

In modern Turkey, history has referred to only the official state history, which is taught to the masses from textbooks. (Ortayli,2015).In the  history and present, the scholars of the Turkic world have proved themselves all over the world with their works in the field of literature and exact sciences. Also, among them is Selcuk Bayraktar, who works in the field of military engineering.

 

To conclude, TAP, TANAP and Zangazur projects will also strengthen legal, economic, cultural ties and mutual understanding among the countries involved, introducing new platforms for regional cooperation and security. As the main segment of Southern Gas Corridor, TANAP will deliver gas from the Shah Deniz-2 gas condensate field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea to European consumers. TANAP connects to Europe, TAP from the route of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and continues onward to involve Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Albania, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. (Museyibov ,2019) Thereby, Great Silk Road will be fully restored and all mankind will  benefit from it.

1.    Inalcik, Halil (1998), “TURKEY BETWEEN EUROPE AND THE MIDDLE EAST”. PERCEPTION: Journal of International Affairs, 3(1): 0-0, Chicago

2.    Ortayli, Ilber (2012), “Turkey built its own model with the republic”. Report to Hurriyet Daily News, Istanbul

3.    Ortayli, Ilber (2015), “İlber Ortaylı: The man who introduced history to popular culture”. Report to Daily Sabah, Istanbul

4.    Museyibov, Ayaz (2019), “The Energy Silk Road' launched. The ball is now in Europe”.Report to Daily Sabah, Baku

5.    Aydin, Mehmet (1986), “TURKİSH CONTRIBUTIONS TO PHILOSOPHICAL CULTURE”. Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi, 1st page, Ankara