The Turco-Mongol or Turko-Mongol tradition was an ethnocultural synthesis that arose in Asia during the 13-14th century among the ruling elites of the Golden Horde and the Chagatai Khanate. The ruling Mongol elites of these khanates eventually assimilated into the Turkic populations that they conquered and ruled over, thus becoming known as Turco-Mongols. These elites gradually adopted Islam, as well as Turkic languages, while retaining Mongol political and legal institutions.

The Chinggisid uluses included the Kazakhs, the Shaybanid Uzbeks, the Crimean Tatars, the Manghits/Noghays, and the Chaghatays (including the Moghuls, the Timurids and the Mughals). These groups shared a common language (Turkic), a political ideology based on Mongol traditions, dynastic descent from Genghis Khan, an ethnic identity described as Turco-Mongols or “Mongol Turks” (Türk-i Mughūl), and adherence to Sunni Islam. In the post-Mongol period, these politico-ethnic formations continued to dominate a vast territory stretching from Crimea in the west to the Tian Shan mountains in the east, and from Southern Siberia in the north to Northern India in the south.: "Seen from a broader perspective, the Kazakhs belonged to the Chinggisid uluses, others being the Shibanid Uzbeks, Crimean Tatars, Manghits/Noghays, and Chaghatays (Moghuls and Timurids), who shared a common language (Turkic), political ideology (based on Mongol traditions), royal lineage (Chinggisid related), ethnic identity (“Mongol Turks” [Turk-i mughūl]), and religion (Sunni Islam), and who still dominated much of the vast region stretching from the Crimea in the west to the Tien Shan Mountains in the east, and from southern Siberia in the north to northern India in the south during the post-Mongol period"

The Turco-Mongols founded many Islamic successor states after the collapse of the Mongol khanates, such as the Kazakh Khanate, the Tatar khanates that succeeded the Golden Horde (e.g., Crimean Khanate, Astrakhan Khanate, Khanate of Kazan), and the Timurid Empire, which succeeded the Chagatai Khanate in Central Asia. Babur (1483–1530), a Turco-Mongol prince and a descendant of Timur, founded the Mughal Empire, which ruled much of the Indian subcontinent."The Cambridge History of Egypt", Volume 1, (1998) P. 250

Especially among the successors of Chagatai Khanate, these Turco-Mongol elites became patrons of the Turco-Persian tradition, which was the predominant culture amongst the Muslims of Central Asia at the time. In subsequent centuries, the Turco-Persian culture was carried on further by the conquering Turco-Mongols to neighbouring regions, eventually becoming the predominant culture of a good part of the ruling and elite classes of South Asia (Indian subcontinent), specifically North India (Mughal Empire), Central Asia and the Tarim Basin (Northwest China) and large parts of West Asia (Middle East).

Self-identification

The formation of "Mongol Turks" and their identity

The Mongol Empire, created by Genghis Khan and his successors in the 13th century, had a profound influence on the Turkic peoples. Before the conquest of the settled societies of outer Eurasia, the Mongol Empire unified the Eurasian steppe by successively incorporating the nomadic groups of Inner Eurasia into its structure. Initially, the Mongols proper-tribes related to Genghis Khan such as the Barlas, Qongirat, Manghud, Dughlat, and Ushin (the Nirun Mongols) united with Mongolic-speaking peoples (Kereits, Jalairs, Oirats, Tatars), as well as with Turkic-speaking groups (Naimans, Onguts, and the Uyghurs), who inhabited the Mongolian Plateau and adjacent regions. This multilingual union formed a new Mongol ulus, established at the kurultai of 1206 following Genghis Khan’s unification of the steppe. Although in modern literature it is referred to as the “Mongol Empire,” in its nature the state of Genghis Khan was a “Turko-Mongol” or “Inner Eurasian” empire.

In The Secret History of the Mongols, a 13th-century monument of Mongolian historiography, the new Mongol ulus is called the “people of the felt tents.” In the work Jami' al-tawarikh by Rashid al-Din universal history compiled under the Ilkhanids of Iran—this population is classified as consisting of two new and one original Mongol components. The emerging Mongol ulus subsequently incorporated other peoples as well Turkic (Kangly, Kipchaks) and Mongolic (Kara-Khitai) groups living in the Kipchak steppe and by the mid-13th century it split into four major Chinggisid uluses: Yuan dynasty of the Mongols, Ilkhanate, Ulus of Jochi (Golden Horde), and Ulus of Chagatai. Thus, the Mongol (Chinggisid) uluses of the 13th century arose from the fusion of the Mongols proper with various Mongolic and Turkic-speaking groups of the steppes of Mongolia and the Desht-i Kipchak.

After the death of the fourth khan Möngke in 1259, the Mongol Empire effectively split into four separate states, which existed until the mid-14th century. Two sedentary Chinggisid states the Yuan Empire and Ilkhanate ceased to exist in the second half of the 14th century. The Mongols of China returned to the Mongolian steppes in 1368 following the overthrow of the Yuan dynasty by the Ming Empire in the 1360s, while the Ilkhanid Mongols were assimilated by the Turkmen tribes of Iran and Anatolia, and later by the Timurid Empire in the late 14th to early 15th centuries. At the same time, the Golden Horde and the Chagatai Khanate, as well as their successor states, continued to rule vast territories of the Kipchak Steppe and Central Asia, preserving a Mongol identity for approximately four more centuries until their conquest by the Russian Empire.

Golden Horde and Chagatai Khanate

From the mid-14th century, the population of the Golden Horde and the Chagatai Ulus began to adopt Islam and use Turkic languages (of the Kipchak or Karluk groups) as a lingua franca. By the 15th century, these Muslim Turkic-speaking communities gradually developed into distinct ethnopolitical identities — Chaghatays, Moghuls, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, and Tatars. In academic literature, these peoples are often referred to as “Turks” or “Turkicized Mongols,” although in many respects they remained close to the Mongols of the 13th century.

Like other Chinggisid uluses of the 13th century, they were ruled by leaders descended from Genghis Khan or from the Mongol tribal aristocracy. The Uzbeks, Kazakhs, and Tatars were led by descendants of Jochi, the eldest son of Genghis Khan; the Moghuls were ruled by descendants of Chagatai, his second son; while the Chaghatays of the Timurid states and the Mughals of India were governed by descendants of Timur, a representative of the Mongol Barlas tribe. Their tribal composition was also similar: it included tribes of Mongol origin (Barlas, Barin, Dughlat, Manghit, Qongirat, Ushin, and others), tribes of non-Mongol but Mongolic- or Turkic-speaking origin (Jalair, Kereit, Tatar, Naiman, Ongut, Uyghur, and others), groups of Kipchak origin (Kipchaks, Kangly), as well as new tribal formations that emerged within the Mongol (Chinggisid) states (Shirin and Ming).

The Chaghatays, Moghuls, Shaybanid Uzbeks, Kazakhs, and Tatars identified themselves as belonging to or descending from the Mongol ulus. None of these peoples traced their origins to pre-Mongol Turkic states or peoples such as the Qarakhanids, Kipchaks, or Seljuks (Turkmens).: "Not surprisingly, the Chaghatays, Moghuls, Uzbeks, Qazaqs, and Tatars identified themselves as belonging to or descending from the Mongol ulus. None of them claimed descent from the pre-Mongol Turkic peoples, such as the Qarakhanid Türks, or Qipchaqs, or Seljuks/Turkmens Contemporaries (including the Ottomans and the Russians) also regarded them as descendants of the Mongols. In particular, the 16th-century Ottoman historian Seyfi Çelebi, in his work on the history of the peoples of Inner Eurasia, divided the descendants of Genghis Khan of his time into the following groups: the Tatars of Crimea, the Uzbeks of Bukhara, the Kazakhs of the steppe, the Moghuls of Kashgaria, and the Qalmaqs (the Northern Yuan Mongols) beyond Kashgar.: "Their contemporary neighbors including the Ottomans and the Russians also viewed them as Mongol descendants. Notably, in his history of inner Eurasian peoples, the sixteenth-century Ottoman historian Seyfī Çelebī divides Chinggis Khan’s descendants of his time into the following groups: the Tatars in the Crimea, the Uzbeks in Bukhara, the Qazaqs in the steppes, the Moghuls in Kashgaria, and the Qalmaqs (the Northern Yuan Mongols) beyond Kashghar

Antecedents Before the time of Genghis Khan, Turkic and Mongolic peoples exchanged words with each other, with Turkic languages being more active than Mongolic. Extensive lexical borrowings from Proto-Turkic into the Proto-Mongolic language occurred from at latest the first millennium BCE. Due to these exchanges, Turkic and Mongolic languages share extensive similarities in their personal pronouns, among other lexical similarities; however, they seem to date to before this era as they already existed before the breakup of the Turkic people around 500 BCE. A still more ancient period of prolonged language contact between Turkic and Mongolic languages is indicated by further and more fundamental phonotactic, grammatical, and typological similarities (e.g. synchronic vowel harmony, lack of grammatical gender, extensive agglutination, highly similar phonotactic rules and phonology).

In the past, these similarities were attributed to a genetic relationship and led to the widespread acceptance of an Altaic language family. More recently, due to the lack of a definitive demonstration of a genetic relationship, these similarities have been divided into these three known periods of language contact. The similarities have led to the proposal of a Northeast Asian sprachbund instead, which also includes the Tungusic, Koreanic, and Japonic language families, although Turkic and Mongolic display the most extensive similarities. According to recent aggregation and research, there are doublets, which are considered to be the same in terms of their roots, found in the vocabulary in Mongolian language and Turkic loanwords. Also, words of Turkic origin are the most common loanwords in Mongolian vocabulary.Nakashima, Y. (n.d.). 語彙借用に見るモンゴル語とチュルク語の言語接触: 特にカザフ語及びトゥヴァ語との比較を中心として(Rep.). Retrieved from PDF (ir.library.osaka-u.ac.jp). .

Language

Kipchak Following the Mongol conquests, the ruling Mongol elites of the Mongol successor states began a process of assimilation with the non-Mongol populations that they ruled over. The population of the Golden Horde was largely a mixture of Turks and Mongols who adopted Islam later, as well as smaller numbers of Finno-Ugric peoples, Alans, Slavs, and people from the Caucasus, among others (whether Muslim or not).

Most of the Horde's population was Turkic: Kipchaks, Cumans, Volga Bulgars, Khwarezmians, and others. The Horde was gradually Turkified and lost its Mongol identity, while the descendants of Batu's original Mongol warriors constituted the upper class. They were commonly called Tatars by Russians and other Europeans. Russians preserved this common name for this group down to the 20th century. Whereas most members of this group identified themselves by their ethnic or tribal names, most also considered themselves to be Muslims. Most of the population, both sedentary and nomadic, adopted the Kypchak language, which developed into the regional languages of Kypchak groups after the Horde disintegrated.

Karluk