CEDRUS Cedrus II (2014) 467-495 the Journal of MCRI DOI: 10.13113/CEDRUS.201406472
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cedrus.akdeniz.edu.tr CEDRUS Cedrus II (2014) 467-495 The Journal of MCRI DOI: 10.13113/CEDRUS.201406472 THE YÖRÜKS: THEIR ORIGINS, EXPANSION AND ECONOMIC ROLE YÖRÜKLER: KÖKENLERİ, YAYILMALARI VE EKONOMİK ROLLERİ ∗ HALİL İNALCIK Abstract: Yorüks, are historically known as Türkmen Öz: Tarihsel anlamda Tükmenler ya da El-Etrak olarak da (Turcoman), or Al-Atrâk, being a branch of the Oguz bilinen Yörükler, 1020 yılından sonra Küçük Asya’yı group of peoples who invaded Asia Minor from the 1020's fethetmiş olan Oğuz Boyu’nun bir koludur. Selçuklu onwards. The Seljuk/Selcukid central government used to Merkezi Yönetimi bu gurubu Doğu Roma sınır bölgesinde settle them on the East Roman borders-marches. Due to ikamet ettirmekteydi. Bu gurubun hayvan besiciliği ile the nature of animal husbandry and seasonal migrations, uğraşması ve sezonluk göçmenlik gibi özelliklerinden conflict with the central government, Seljuk or Ottoman, dolayı Selçuklu ve Osmanlı gibi merkezi güçlerle çekişmesi was at times inevitable. Due to their activities against the o dönemler için kaçınılmaz bir durumdu. Doğu Roma East Roman Empire a heavy concentration of Türkmen İmparatorluğu’na karşı eylemlerinden dolayı Batı Anado- lu’da da yoğun bir Türkmen nüfusu oluştu. Batı Anadolu formed in western Anatolia. In a census of 1520-1530 eyaletlerindeki kırsal göçebeler 1520-1530 yılları arasın- pastoral nomads in the provinces of Western Anatolia daki nüfus sayımına göre 77.368’dir ve bunların 52.148’i numbered 77,368 and those on military service 52.148. askeri hizmet dâhilindedir. Türkmen nüfusunun oldukça The regions where a sizeable Türkmen population formed yoğun bir rakam oluşturduğu bölgeler yaylakların da were the mountainous areas with yaylak, summer içinde yer aldığı dağlık alanlar ve yazlık otlaklardı ve söz pastures, along the Toros mountain chain from western konusu bu bölgeler Toros Dağları zinciri boyunca Batı Anatolia to the coasts of the Mediterranean and in the Anadolu’dan Akdeniz kıyılarına doğru uzanan şeridi ve de Lake District in the Isparta-Eğirdir region. Practising the Isparta-Eğirdir Gölü’ne doğru olan alanı kapsıyordu. İslam heterodox doctrines of Shii’ite Islam, the Türkmen often Dini’ndeki Şii Mezhebi’nin heterodoks doktrinini uygula- came in conflict with the central government. The term yan Türkmenler, sıklıkla merkezi hükümetle de karşı yörük or yörük was the descriptive term preferred by the karşıya gelmişlerdir. Yörük ya da yörük sözcüğü resmi official chancery. The central government employed mahkeme tarafından kabul edilen tanımlayıcı bir kelimey- yörüks in military service. The contribution of the Yörüks di. Merkezi hükümet yörükleri askeri hizmet amaçlı to the economy of the Ottoman state was important for istihdam etmekteydi. Yörüklerin Osmanlı Devleti’ne eko- transportation as, before the railways, transport overland nomik katkısı ulaşım açısından oldukça önemliydi, zira between the regions depended entirely upon yorük camel raylı sistemden önce bölgeler arasındaki ulaşım tamamen caravans. Main items of trade were yorük carpets and rugs: Yörüklerin deve kervanları aracılığıyla sağlanıyordu. Tica- halı, kilim, seccade, örtü etc. Tribal and regional designs retlerinin temel malları halı ve kilimdi: halı, kilim, seccade distinguished local productions. Turkmen carpets were ve örtü vb. Kabilelere ait ve yöresel tasarımlar yerel üretim- lerde ayırt ediliyordu. Türkmen halıları oldukça kıymetli- very valuable and had been exported to the West and to ydi ve XIII. yüzyıldan itibaren de Batı’ya ve de Müslüman Moslem countries from the XIIIth century onwards. ülkelere ihraç ediliyordu. Keywords: Yörük, Türkmen • Oguz • Tribes • Ghaza • Anahtar Kelimeler: Yörük • Türkmen • Oğuz • Boy • Nomadism • Camel • Transportation • Carpet Trade Gaza • Göçebelik • Deve • Taşımacılık • Halı Ticareti ∗ Prof. Dr., Bilkent Üniversitesi, Tarih Bölümü, Ankara. halil@inalcık.com This is the ammended and latest updated version of my article which was published in 1993, "The Yörüks: Their Origins, Expansion and Economic Role." in the Middle East and the Balkans under the Ottoman Empire: Essays on Economy and Society, 97-136. Bloomington: Indiana University Turkish Studies. 468 Halil İNALCIK Sources from the first half of the fourteenth century call the Turkish tribes of Asia Minor both al- Atrāk (plural of Türk) and Turkmān (Türkmen). Al-‘Umarī (d. 1349) in the phrase “al-Akrād wa awlād Karamān wa Türkmān al-Rūm” obviously meant by the latter the Türkmen tribal population. In another instance he mentions “alTürkmān” together with “al-Mughāl” among the forces of the ruler of Germiyan whom he in turn calls “Şāhib Germiyan min al-umerā' il Atrāk” and the tribal forces who resisted the Mongols were called “ṭawā'if al-Atrāk” i.e., Turkish tribes1. The native Anatolian historian Aksarāyī2 writing around 1310 also refers to the Turkish tribes on the East Roman (Byzantine)-Seljuk frontier as Atrāk and Türkmen. The term “Türkmen” or “Turkmān” comprises the word Türk and the suffix men or man3. Thus, Türkmen is interpreted to mean “the real Turks,” “the Turks of pure blood,” or “those Turks who kept their original way of life.” On the other hand, Sharaf al-Zamān Marwazī’s definition (ca.1120) of Türkmen as “those Oghuz people who adopted Islam” or Islamicized Turks, is generally accepted4. As an ethnic name it is found in the historical sources by the second half of the tenth century (al-Muḳaddasī). Ibrahim Kafesoğlu5 suggested that “the real Türkmen” were the Karluk Turks living to the east of the Oghuz. But he adds the name was borne by both the Oghuz and the Karluk because they both were part of the Kök- Türk Empire (550-745), and kept this political appellation of “Türk” for themselves after the fall of the Empire. The founders of the great Turkish-Islamic SultanatesSeljuks, Ottomans, and Akkoyunlus-were all of Türkmen (Oghuz) origin6. The rise of the Seljuk Sultanate (1038-1194) was accompanied by continuing immigration of the Türkmen tribes, which took the form of an exodus into Asia Minor on the collapse of East Roman resistance after the battle of Manzikerd in 1071. A similar mass migration of the Oghuz occurred with the Mongol invasions in the period 1221-60. It has been demonstrated7 that the Türkmen tribes constituted an overwhelming majority of the pastoral nomads in Asia Minor from 1071 onwards. Speros Vryonis suggests8 that during the period 1071-1300, as a result of the influx of the Türkmen tribes and the flight and enslavement of non-Muslim populations, there occurred an extensive nomadization of the Anatolian population. He finds concentrations of Türkmen in the areas of Konya and Ankara in the early twelfth century, who had vigorously expanded westward during that century9. In the second half of the twelfth century, they appeared in Bythinia and parts of Mysia, but their heaviest concentration was in the south-westerly regions, that is, in the areas of Dorylaeum (Eskişehir) and Cotyaeum (Kütahya) and 1 Taeschner 1929, 2, 19, 28, 31, 49; Wittek 1943, 2. 2 Turan 1944, 171-172. 3 Atalay 1940. 4 Kafesoğlu 1958, 128; the earliest Ottoman traditions speaking of the forefathers of Osman Ghāzī, the founder of the Ottoman state, say: “Those Oghuz groups who were nomadic Yörüks”. Ertaylan 1946, 7; also see note 46. 5 Kafesoğlu 1958, 129-130. 6 In the Ottoman sources of the mid-fifteenth century (Turan 1954, 40, 58) the peoples of Kādī Burhān al-Dīn (Sivas region); Zulkadriyye (Dulkadır), Karakoyunlu and Akkoyunlu (eastern Asia Minor) were all called Türkmen or ulus. In Āşık Paşa-zāde, writing around 1476, the word Türkmen is employed for the central and eastern Anatolian nomads. In the Karamanid epic history by Şikārī (see Lindner 1983, 145-150), the nomads under the Karamanids are called Oghuz, not Türkmen. 7 Turan 1965, 109-134, 195-219; Cahen 1968a, 55-91; Vryonis 1971, 145-288; Cahen 2001, 15-33, 75-85. 8 Vryonis 1971, 184. 9 Vryonis 1971, 146-187. The Yörüks: Their Origins, Expansion and Economic Role 469 the Upper Meander (BüyükMenderes) region. The great numbers of Türkmen (100,000 according to a Latin source) were mentioned during Frederick Barbarossa’s march through the district of Laodicea (Denizli) and in the region of the Lakes (around Isparta) in 120010. In contemporary sources they are described as living all under one chieftain, possessing livestock, and moving about from one place to another in search of pasturage and pillage. The hectic period of conquest was followed by a gradual settling down of these Türkmen bands and the withdrawal of the East Roman populations. The Türkmen pastoral nomads were concentrated in the border lands, mostly rugged mountainous regions. This situation was due to the fact that the central governments in both Iran and in Asia Minor pursued a systematic policy of sending nomads into those regions in order to prevent the depredation of cultivated areas by these nomads11, which were a main source of state revenue. However, it should be noted that in general, uncritically repeating what East Roman sources say about the Türkmen, we may exaggerate the destruction by Türkmen of agricultural and urban life in Asia Minor12 as we have only to be reminded of the fact that many of the towns and cities that are listed as destroyed by Speros Vryonis13 were in the thirteenth century thriving urban centres, with agriculture and commerce being the main sources of state revenue. The Seljuk cadastral surveys for agrarian taxation, largely completed in the 1230’s14 were prior to and have been seen at times as a contributory cause to the significant Baba Işak-Baba Rasul Türkmen uprising against Seljuk state authority from 1240-4315. The Seljuk state appears to have been in a position to control the movement of the Türkmen so that they were concentrated primarily on such marginal lands as the mountain pasturelands, the steppes, and the marshy plains. In fact, the late thirteenth and fourteenth century sources present us with the image of Asia Minor with a prosperous agricultural and commercial life16.