The Identity of Scythian and Turk: In the Base of Cultural History

THE IDENTITY OF SCYTHIAN AND TURK territory of Tartaria about a century later, writes that women as well as men wore dress of a similar mode; thus nobody could distinguish them. Besides it, the representatives of both genders preferred trousers in the rider style.190 III. c. Felt Along with the woven fabric trousers, another element of the ScythianTurkic traditional garment was clothing made of felt. As is seen below, felt, which is produced from sheep or goat wool, and the garments made of felt such as jackets and hats, have always been associated first, with Scythians, and then, with Turks throughout history. In this context, Scythian “tall caps, erect and stiff and tapering to a point” mentioned by Herodotus (above) as well as the “pointed hat” described by al-Birunî could have been felt items. Al-Birunî also writes that according to their beliefs, Barhemkîn (= ‫)برهمكين‬, the first leader of the people who lived in Kabul, was the first monarch of the Turks in that area. Barhemkin was born in Bagbara (= ‫ )بغبرة‬which meant “cave” in al-Birunî time, and exited from the cave with a pointed hat on his head.191 Along with this, Laonikos Chalkokondyles (ca. 1430-1470), a medieval Byzantine historian, recorded that “the Scythians of Horde” (Golden Horde Empire) “usually wear felt hats.”192 Thus, it is not impossible to suggest that there should be a cultural continuity between the tall caps of the Scythians and the tall caps made of felt of the Janissaries in the Ottoman Empire. Indeed, archaeological and written evidence suggests that the ScythiansTurks, who lived in Asia, Europe and Anatolia, from the millennia BC and even to modern times, should produce felt. It is known that some fabrics and items made of felt were found with the mummies in Tarim basin, and in the kurgan of Pazyryk aforementioned above; additionally, in the Kurgan of Noin-Ula (1st century AD), on the north of Mongolia.193 190 The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, Macmillan and Co. Limited, London 1900, p. 162. Ebu Rayhân al-Birunî, Kıymetli Taşlar ve Metaller Kitabı, Translated by E. Sonnur Özcan, TTK Yayınları, Ankara 2017, p. 47. 192 Laonikos Chalkokondyles, The Histories, Translated by Anthony Kaldellis, Harvard Univ. Press, London 2014, p. 222. 193 Cavidan Başar Ergenekon, “Hunlar Döneminde Tepme Keçecilik”, Tepme Keçelerin Tarihi Gelişimi, Renk, Desen, Teknik ve Kullanım Özellikleri, KültürBakanlığı, Ankara 1999, Available at: 191 77 Emine Sonnur Özcan On the other hand, when describing the burial ceremony of the Scythians, Herodotus mentions felt as an object used by them:194 After the burial those engaged in it have to purify themselves, which they do in the following way. First they well soap and wash their heads; then, in order to cleanse their bodies, they act as follows: they make a booth by fixing in the ground three sticks inclined towards one another, and stretching around them woollen felts, which they arrange so as to fit as close as possible: inside the booth a dish is placed upon the ground, into which they put a number of redhot stones, and then add some hemp-seed. Another Greek writer, Hippocrates, notes that the wagon-houses the Scythians lived in “are made close and tight with thick woollen cloths or felts”195 When Priscus of Panium (ca.410-472), a citizen of Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire, went to the Emperor of Attila the Hun’s country with the envoy group, in a round wooden house constructed for Kreka (Hereka), one of Attila’s wives, he noticed felt carpets on the floor.196 Zachariah of Mitylene, an ecclesiastical historian (ca. 465-536) mentions that the country of Bazgun (Abasgia) “extends to Caspian Gates and sea” and its gates are “in the land of the Huns”. Additionally, he writes that “beyond the Gates” there lived Bulgarians and Alans in their cities. Beside this, there were “thirteen people dwelling in tents”. Aforementioned peoples were the following: “the Unnogur [On-Ogur/Oghuz?], the Ogor [Ogur/Oghuz?], the Sabir, The Bulgarian [maybe nomad one?], Khorthrigor [Kotrigur197, DokuzOghuz?], the Avar, the Khasar [Hazar?], the Dirmar (?), the Sarurgur [BeyazOgur198?], the Bagarsik (?), the Khulas (?), the Abdel, the Ephthalite”.199 The tents of these people, could have been made of felt. https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/TR-78806/orta-asyadan-gunumuze-tepmekeceler.html (Accessed: 2 October 2020); Noin Ula, State Hermitage Museum, Available at: https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/museums/shm/shmnoinula.html (Accessed: 2 October 2020). 194 Herodotus, ibid, 4.73, vol. 2, p. 232. 195 Hippocrates, ibid, p. 26. 196 “Priscus, Text and Translation”, The Fragmentary classicising historian of the later Roman Empire…, p. 275. 197 A community of the Huns, who lived in Southern Russia between the Don and the Dniester, during the reign of Justinian I (527-565). John Bagnel Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire from the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian, volume 2, Dover Publication, New York 1958, p. 302. 198 Osman Karatay, In Search of the Lost Tribe, Karam, Çorum 2003, p. 21. 199 Zachariah of Mitylene, The Syriac Chronicle, Translated by F. J. Hamilton ve E. W. Brooks, Methuen & CO., London 1899, p. 328. 78 THE IDENTITY OF SCYTHIAN AND TURK Additionally, Maurice (582-602), an emperor of Eastern Roma, gives an information concerning the use of felt to decorate some Scythians’ horses: “Not only do they wear armour themselves, but in addition the horses of their illustrious men are covered in front with iron or felt.”200 Along with this, Arab geographers also give some important information on the role of felt in the Scythian-Turkic life. For instance, al-Ya’qubî (d. 897), a geographer of the Early Islamic Era, argues that the Turks, who did not have houses and castles, were the most skilful people in producing felt. According to al-Ya’qubî, the tent covers and clothing fabrics of the Turks were made of felt.201 Iranian geographer Abu Sa'id Gardezî (XI. century) points to using felt by Scythians-Turks based on the information that he had received observing the life of people in the Dokuz-Oghuz community. The chief of the DokuzOghuz lived in a pavilion with low walls covered with felt. According to Gardezî, “the people of Great Turkic Country”, who inhabited the territory bounded by the Northern Sea on the north and the Dokuz-Oghuz land on the east, “were the best in the world in producing felt”, as the Turks wore clothes made of felt.202 The records of al-Idrisî (ca. 1099-1165), an Andalusian geographer, say about beautiful big tents made of felt in the city of Qârûqiyâ of “Turkic Isqûtyâ” (Scythia)203. Plano Carpini, the voyager, also notes that the door and the walls of tents of the Tartarians were covered with felt, as they were masters in making felt of camel wool. Carpini also states that Tartarians’ clothing, which they produced using felt, protected them from wind. 204 The travel notes of Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan voyager (ca. 1304-1396) also highlight the importance of using felt in the Turkic way of life. Describing their wagons in detail, Ibn Battuta explains that the wooden structure of houses over wagons was covered with felt including one of those wagons hired by Ibn Battuta for a travel in the steppe. Additionally, the traveller writes that the merchants who kept horse herd and lived in the Azov region had a custom to mount on an angle a pole on the wagon where their women stayed and attach a piece of felt fabric to the upper end of the pole. 205 Maurice’s Strategikon, ibid, p. 116. Ramazan Şeşen, İslâm Coğrafyacılarına Göre Türkler, p. 189. 202 Ramazan Şeşen, ibid, pp. 80, 90. 203 Mr. Şeşen, who translated al-Idrisî’s text –probably by mistake– translates the ‫ر‬ word “Isqûtyâ” as “Eskonya (Estonya)” into Turkish. Yet, the term is (= ‫اليكر‬ ‫ )إسقوطيا‬originally. Ramazan Şeşen, İslâm Coğrafyacılarına Göre Türkler, pp. 122-123; alIdrîsî, Nuzhetu’l-Muştak fî İhtiraki’l-Âfak, ‘Âlemu’l-Kutub, Beirut 1988., vol. 2, pp. 923-924. 204 The Texts and Versions of John de Plano Carpini, p. 115. 205 Rıhletu İbn Batûta, vol. 1, p. 210. 200 201 79 Emine Sonnur Özcan Finally, as well as other elements of culture, felt is present in ScythianTurkic epics too. For instance, it is referred to in the Epic of Manas which belongs to the Kirghiz/Kyrgyz Turks:206 Oh my dear, Kül-choro, Was that black horse The horse, you said I should ride? Was that black coat with felt lining The clothing, you said I should wear? In the Book of Dede Korkut, felt is mentioned as a sort of mat, which was put on the ground of the tent: 207 Who hasn’t got any son or daughter, settle him a black tent, laid under him black felt, and serve him the stew from black sheep. As already mentioned above, felt is a distinctive element of the ScythianTurkic culture for millennia, a natural component of their way of life based on herding, and an important constituent of Scythians-Turks’ economy which was used for making most clothing and home furnishing. III. d. Scythians-Turks’ dwelling: wagons-houses Archaeological excavations in past decades showed that the tradition of using the chariot and wagon by Scythians-Turks is older in comparison with the Mesopotamians and Egyptians. Some chariots dating to 2000’s BC, unearthed during the excavations of the Sintasha-Petrova Culture sites that extend from the Don river to the Ural mountains, in 1994, have brought into question –at least for now– the theory which says that a chariot or wagon started to be used not in the steppes but in the cities of Mesopotamia and Egypt.208 206 255. 207 Manas Destanı, Wilhelm Radloff, Prepared by Emine Gürsoy, Ankara 1995, p. Dede Korkut Kitabı, Haz. Muharrem Ergin, Hisar Yayınları, Istanbul 2003, p. 11. 208 Nomads of Euroasian Steppes in the Early Iron Age, Edited by J.D. Kimball, Zinat Press, Berkeley, CA 1995, p. 22; S. A. Grigoryev, “The Sintashta Culture and Some Questions of Indo-Europeans Origins”, The Russian Academy of Science, The Chelyabinsk Scientific Center, Available at: http://csc.ac.ru/news/1998_2/2-11-1.pdf (Accessed: 12 October 2020); John Noble Wilford, “Remaking the Wheel: Evolution of the Chariot”, The New York Times, 22 February 1994, Available at: 80