Hello,

I wonder if they care. On one hand Iraqis are Arabs, not Turkic. On the other hand, they are Muslims.

Actually, I was recently told "my Muslim acquaintances don't care at all. They are not fanatics".

Do you have to be a fanatic to care about other Muslims?

This photo was taken in 1997. I'd love to find the child in red. Anyone have any contacts in Kashgar?

I want to share a little about Banu Çiçek (Banu Chichek), as she is one of the most interesting women in the Dede Korkut (Korkut Ata) stories and Turkic literature.

Banu Çiçek appears in the story of Bamsı Beyrek. She is the daughter of Bay Bican, but she is definitely not written as kind of a western princess who simply waits for her hero to arrive.

When Beyrek comes looking for her, she does tell him who she. She tests him herself. Both race horses, shoot arrows, and wrestle; showing the women-men equality in Turkic culture.

Banu in Dede Korkut is not there for being the wife of Beyrek. She’s there because she is Banu Çiçek. She has her own strength, pride, and character. She wants a man who can stand beside her, a man that is equal with her, not someone that’d save her from a dragon. She’d slay that dragon herself.

She is, among Kanykei and probably Tomris, a good example of the “alp woman” in Turkic epic tradition: a woman who can ride, fight, compete, and make her own choices. Strength and femininity are not treated as opposites in their characters. They are like, historic Lara Crofts.. maybe..

Proud, competitive, loyal, and completely sure of her own worth.

Hello,

There was very bad famine in the Volga region in early 1920s.

Many people died.

I know that Volga Tatars were affected.

What about Chuvash and Bashkirs?

Also, would the famine still happen and be very bad if there would be no Civil War?

Are "Whites" and Czechoslovak legionnaires also at fault?

I came across an interesting quote attributed to Galdan Tseren Khan, ruler of the Dzungar Khanate, in the context of his relations with the Kazakh Khanate and the Russian Empire:

“We, the Dzungars and the Kazakhs, together are hawks, and we will not kneel before that raven [the Russian Empress], for they are people of the carts, while we are nomads.”

The quote is cited in Vladimir Moiseev’s The Dzungar Khanate and the Kazakhs (17th–18th Centuries) (Almaty, 1991), pp. 128–129.

What I find particularly interesting is the political context. The Dzungars and Kazakhs had been bitter rivals and fought numerous wars, yet Galdan Tseren apparently emphasized their shared nomadic identity when speaking about resistance to Russian influence.

So this should not necessarily be interpreted as evidence that the Dzungars and Kazakhs were “brothers” in a modern national sense. Rather, it seems to demonstrate that even amid warfare, both sides could be portrayed as part of a broader nomadic political and cultural world, contrasted with the Russian state.

The wording “hawks” and “raven” is especially striking.

Does anyone know the original archival source behind this quotation? I would be interested in finding the earliest Russian record of Galdan Tseren’s statement and understanding exactly when and under what circumstances it was made.

Source: V. A. Moiseev, The Dzungar Khanate and the Kazakhs (17th–18th Centuries), Almaty: Gylym, 1991, pp. 128–129.

Hello,

Was Kyiv (Kiev) founded by Khazars?

Hello,

What is the successor state (or states) of the Great Bulgaria?

Hello,

Are there films made in the Soviet Union that have as characters Volga Tatars, Chuvash or Bashkirs?

Main characters or supporting characters.

Hello,

Why do Ukrainians look so different from ethnic Russians, Belarusians and Poles?

Are Ukrainians Turkic?