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Turan is the ancient Iranian name for the northern nomads. In modern discourse, it is primarily an ideological term designating Turkic , Mongolic and Finno-Ugric languages and people more or less indiscriminately, implying a common ancestry and common culture of the various ethnicities in question. TURAN IN IRANIAN LITERATURE Avesta In the hymns of the , but 20 times in the later parts of the Avesta. Apparently there is no ethnic difference between the ''Tūrya'' and the '' Ārya '' in the Avesta, both having Iranian names and being related genealogically.
Shahnameh In the Middle Persian epic Shahnameh , the term ''Tūrān'' ("land of the Tūrya" like '' Ērān, Īrān '' = "land of the Ārya ") refers to the inhabitants of Central Asia in general, pointing to a time when those areas where inhabited by mostly Iranian nomadic tribes such as Scythian s. According to the foundation myth given in the Shahnameh, King Farēdōn (= Avestan was given to Salm, Central Asia to Tūr and Iran to Ēraj. The older brothers killed the younger brother, but he was revenged by his grand-son, and the Iranians became the rulers of the world. However, the war continued for generations. TURAN IN MODERN LITERATURE Geography The word ''Turan'' was borrowed by the western languages as a the general word for Central Asia . Accordingly, the phrase ''Turan Plain'' or '' Turan Depression '' is a geographical term referring to a part of Central Asia. Linguistics See Also: Turanian languages The term ''Turanian'' was formerly used by European (especially German , Hungarian and Slovak ) Ethnologists , Linguists and Romantics to designate populations speaking Uralic or Altaic languages (and the languages themselves). Even though the linguistic usage of the word Turanian is hardly accepted in the scholarly community anymore, it is still rather vivid outside of the academia, especially in the internet. Thus, there is a wide-spread popular theory, which one may call the Turanian theory, that ascribes a common origin to the Turkic , Mongolic , Ugric and Sumerian languages and people, normally including the extinct Scythian , Sarmatian and Median languages as well (which are traditionally classed with the Iranian Language Group ). The proponents of the Turanian theory are rather sceptical of the methodology of traditional Comparative Linguistics , which they describe as "Indo-European-centric". Ideology In European discourse, the words ''Turan'' and ''Turanian'' designate a certain mentality, i.e. the Nomad ic contrast of the Urbanized Agricultural civilizations. This usage is probably in accordance with the Zoroastrian concept of the ''Tūrya'', which is not primarily a linguistic or ethnic designation, but rather a name of the infidels that oppose civilization based on the preaching of Zoroaster . Combined with physical anthropology, the concept of the Turanian mentality has a clear racist potential. Thus, the scholar J.W. Clackson described the ''Turanid'' or ''Turanian'' Race in the following words ("The Iran and Turan", ''Anthropological Review'' 6:22 (1868), p. 286): : "The Turanian is the impersonation of material power. he is the merely muscular man at his maximum of collective development. He is not inherently a savage, but he is radically a barbarian. He does not live from hand to mouth, like a beast, but neither has he in full measure the moral and intellectual endowments of the true man. He can labour and he can accumulate, but he cannot think and aspire like a Caucasian. Of the two grand elements of superior human life, he is more deficient in the sentiments than in the faculties. And of the latter, he is better provided with those which conduce to the acquisition of knowledge than the origination of ideas." Politics In the declining days of the Ottoman Empire , the word ''Turanian'' was adopted by some Turkish nationalists to express a pan-Turkic ideology, also called Turanism . Presently, Turanism forms an important aspect of the Ideology of the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party (''MHP''), whose members are also known as Grey Wolves . In recent times, the word ''Turanian'' is sometimes used to express a pan- Altaic nationalism (theoretically including Manchuria ns and Mongols in addition to Turks - and potentially Japan ese and Korea ns), though no political organization seems to have adopted such an ambitious platform. Fiction The name "Turan" also appears in the fictional geography of the Conan The Barbarian Novels . SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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