Great Seljuk : 1194 – Toghrul III was killed in battle with Tekish
113-447: Syrian Turkmen ( Arabic : تركمان سوريا , romanized : Turkumān Sūriyā ; Turkish : Suriye Türkmenleri ) are Syrian citizens of Turkish origin who mainly trace their roots to Anatolia (i.e. modern Turkey ). Turkish -speaking Syrian Turkmen make up the third largest ethnic group in the country, after the Arabs and Kurds respectively. The majority of Syrian Turkmen are
226-716: A Kilis and Antep dialect; in Tell Abyad and Raqqa they speak an Urfa dialect; and in Bayırbucak they speak a Hatay / Yayladağı dialect of the Turkish language . Some Syrian Turkmen living far from the Turkish border , such as in Homs , have managed to preserve their national identity but are more competent in speaking the Arabic language . In Damascus Syrian Turkmen speak the Turkish language of
339-464: A Yörük dialect. In 2018 Dr. Eldad J. Pardo and Maya Jacobi reported that they did not identify any Turkish (nor Kurdish or Aramaic ) teaching, either as a first or second language, in the Syrian national curriculum . The majority of Syrian Turkmen are Sunni Muslims , but there is also a small minority of Turkmen who are Shia Muslims (particularly Alevis and Bektashis ). Ali Öztürkmen claims that
452-537: A Syrian Turkmen village in the northern countryside of Homs . In the same month Russian warplanes had staged 600 strikes on Syrian Turkmen villages, displacing approximately 10,000 people. There have also been reports that there had been forced displacement of Arabs, Syrian Turkmen and Kurdish civilians at the hands of the YPG from their homes in areas in the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria . In June 2015 there
565-562: A collection of related dialects that constitute the precursor of Arabic, first emerged during the Iron Age . Previously, the earliest attestation of Old Arabic was thought to be a single 1st century CE inscription in Sabaic script at Qaryat al-Faw , in southern present-day Saudi Arabia. However, this inscription does not participate in several of the key innovations of the Arabic language group, such as
678-435: A corpus of poetic texts, in addition to Qur'an usage and Bedouin informants whom he considered to be reliable speakers of the ʿarabiyya . Arabic spread with the spread of Islam . Following the early Muslim conquests , Arabic gained vocabulary from Middle Persian and Turkish . In the early Abbasid period , many Classical Greek terms entered Arabic through translations carried out at Baghdad's House of Wisdom . By
791-1077: A dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages, including Albanian, Greek , Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian , have also acquired many words of Arabic origin, mainly through direct contact with Ottoman Turkish . Arabic has influenced languages across the globe throughout its history, especially languages where Islam is the predominant religion and in countries that were conquered by Muslims. The most markedly influenced languages are Persian , Turkish , Hindustani ( Hindi and Urdu ), Kashmiri , Kurdish , Bosnian , Kazakh , Bengali , Malay ( Indonesian and Malaysian ), Maldivian , Pashto , Punjabi , Albanian , Armenian , Azerbaijani , Sicilian, Spanish, Greek, Bulgarian, Tagalog , Sindhi , Odia , Hebrew and African languages such as Hausa , Amharic , Tigrinya , Somali , Tamazight , and Swahili . Conversely, Arabic has borrowed some words (mostly nouns) from other languages, including its sister-language Aramaic, Persian, Greek, and Latin and to
904-483: A lesser extent and more recently from Turkish, English, French, and Italian. Arabic is spoken by as many as 380 million speakers, both native and non-native, in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world, and the fourth most used language on the internet in terms of users. It also serves as the liturgical language of more than 2 billion Muslims . In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Arabic
1017-677: A millennium before the modern period . Early lexicographers ( لُغَوِيُّون lughawiyyūn ) sought to explain words in the Quran that were unfamiliar or had a particular contextual meaning, and to identify words of non-Arabic origin that appear in the Quran. They gathered shawāhid ( شَوَاهِد 'instances of attested usage') from poetry and the speech of the Arabs—particularly the Bedouin ʾaʿrāb [ ar ] ( أَعْراب ) who were perceived to speak
1130-576: A result, many European languages have borrowed words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary, is seen in European languages (mainly Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese , Catalan , and Sicilian ) owing to the proximity of Europe and the long-lasting Arabic cultural and linguistic presence, mainly in Southern Iberia, during the Al-Andalus era. Maltese is a Semitic language developed from
1243-462: A script derived from ASA attest to a language known as Hasaitic . On the northwestern frontier of Arabia, various languages known to scholars as Thamudic B , Thamudic D, Safaitic , and Hismaic are attested. The last two share important isoglosses with later forms of Arabic, leading scholars to theorize that Safaitic and Hismaic are early forms of Arabic and that they should be considered Old Arabic . Linguists generally believe that "Old Arabic",
SECTION 10
#17328587735941356-465: A single language, despite mutual incomprehensibility among differing spoken versions. From a linguistic standpoint, it is often said that the various spoken varieties of Arabic differ among each other collectively about as much as the Romance languages . This is an apt comparison in a number of ways. The period of divergence from a single spoken form is similar—perhaps 1500 years for Arabic, 2000 years for
1469-573: A strong level of influence in the region, such as the Eldiguzids . In 1194, Toghrul III was killed in battle with the Khwarezm Shah , who annexed Hamadan. Kerman was a province in southern Persia. Between 1053 and 1154, the territory also included Umman . or 1074 (before Sultan Shah) Muhammad abandoned Kerman, which fell into the hands of the Oghuz chief Malik Dinar . Kerman was eventually annexed by
1582-503: A type of Arabic. Cypriot Arabic is recognized as a minority language in Cyprus. The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of diglossia , which is the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations. Tawleed is the process of giving a new shade of meaning to an old classical word. For example, al-hatif lexicographically means
1695-499: A variety of regional vernacular Arabic dialects , which are not necessarily mutually intelligible. Classical Arabic is the language found in the Quran , used from the period of Pre-Islamic Arabia to that of the Abbasid Caliphate . Classical Arabic is prescriptive, according to the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh ) and the vocabulary defined in classical dictionaries (such as
1808-470: A wider audience." In the wake of the industrial revolution and European hegemony and colonialism , pioneering Arabic presses, such as the Amiri Press established by Muhammad Ali (1819), dramatically changed the diffusion and consumption of Arabic literature and publications. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi proposed the establishment of Madrasat al-Alsun in 1836 and led a translation campaign that highlighted
1921-727: Is a Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world . The ISO assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic , including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic , which is derived from Classical Arabic . This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā ( اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ "the eloquent Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā ( اَلْفُصْحَىٰ ). Arabic
2034-585: Is a minimum level of comprehension between all Arabic dialects, this level can increase or decrease based on geographic proximity: for example, Levantine and Gulf speakers understand each other much better than they do speakers from the Maghreb. The issue of diglossia between spoken and written language is a complicating factor: A single written form, differing sharply from any of the spoken varieties learned natively, unites several sometimes divergent spoken forms. For political reasons, Arabs mostly assert that they all speak
2147-542: Is a sister language rather than their direct ancestor. Arabia had a wide variety of Semitic languages in antiquity. The term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the Arabian Peninsula , as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece . In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside the Ancient South Arabian family (e.g. Southern Thamudic) were spoken. It
2260-469: Is believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages (non-Central Semitic languages) were spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hejaz , Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages. In Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested. In eastern Arabia, inscriptions in
2373-408: Is credited with establishing the rules of Arabic prosody . Al-Jahiz (776–868) proposed to Al-Akhfash al-Akbar an overhaul of the grammar of Arabic, but it would not come to pass for two centuries. The standardization of Arabic reached completion around the end of the 8th century. The first comprehensive description of the ʿarabiyya "Arabic", Sībawayhi's al - Kitāb , is based first of all upon
SECTION 20
#17328587735942486-468: Is credited with standardizing Arabic grammar , or an-naḥw ( النَّحو "the way" ), and pioneering a system of diacritics to differentiate consonants ( نقط الإعجام nuqaṭu‿l-i'jām "pointing for non-Arabs") and indicate vocalization ( التشكيل at-tashkīl ). Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (718–786) compiled the first Arabic dictionary, Kitāb al-'Ayn ( كتاب العين "The Book of the Letter ع "), and
2599-566: Is not present in the spoken varieties, but deletes Classical words that sound obsolete in MSA. In addition, MSA has borrowed or coined many terms for concepts that did not exist in Quranic times, and MSA continues to evolve. Some words have been borrowed from other languages—notice that transliteration mainly indicates spelling and not real pronunciation (e.g., فِلْم film 'film' or ديمقراطية dīmuqrāṭiyyah 'democracy'). The current preference
2712-836: Is official in Mali and recognized as a minority language in Morocco, while the Senegalese government adopted the Latin script to write it. Maltese is official in (predominantly Catholic ) Malta and written with the Latin script . Linguists agree that it is a variety of spoken Arabic, descended from Siculo-Arabic , though it has experienced extensive changes as a result of sustained and intensive contact with Italo-Romance varieties, and more recently also with English. Due to "a mix of social, cultural, historical, political, and indeed linguistic factors", many Maltese people today consider their language Semitic but not
2825-559: Is the third most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of the United Nations , and the liturgical language of Islam . Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments and the media. During the Middle Ages , Arabic was a major vehicle of culture and learning, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As
2938-584: Is the variety used in most current, printed Arabic publications, spoken by some of the Arabic media across North Africa and the Middle East, and understood by most educated Arabic speakers. "Literary Arabic" and "Standard Arabic" ( فُصْحَى fuṣḥá ) are less strictly defined terms that may refer to Modern Standard Arabic or Classical Arabic. Some of the differences between Classical Arabic (CA) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) are as follows: MSA uses much Classical vocabulary (e.g., dhahaba 'to go') that
3051-413: Is to avoid direct borrowings, preferring to either use loan translations (e.g., فرع farʻ 'branch', also used for the branch of a company or organization; جناح janāḥ 'wing', is also used for the wing of an airplane, building, air force, etc.), or to coin new words using forms within existing roots ( استماتة istimātah ' apoptosis ', using the root موت m/w/t 'death' put into
3164-516: Is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the industrial and post-industrial era , especially in modern times. Due to its grounding in Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic is removed over a millennium from everyday speech, which is construed as a multitude of dialects of this language. These dialects and Modern Standard Arabic are described by some scholars as not mutually comprehensible. The former are usually acquired in families, while
3277-445: The Lisān al-ʻArab ). Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) largely follows the grammatical standards of Classical Arabic and uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpart in the spoken varieties and has adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties. Much of the new vocabulary
3390-549: The Arab Reform Initiative ) Assistant Professor Sebastian Maisel, focusing on the Yezidis , claimed that Syrian Turkmen numbered 250,000 (or approx 1% of the population). However, Professor Pierre Beckouche stated that Sunni Muslim Turkmen alone formed 4% of the country's population before 2011 (i.e. approximately 1 million). Professor John Shoup has said that in 2018 the Turkish -speaking Syrian Turkmen formed around 4-5% of
3503-631: The European regions of the Ottoman Empire (particularly in the Balkans ) settled in Ottoman Syria between 1878 and 1906 and were provided with new lands by the Ottoman state. According to Dawn Chatty , these Turkmen settlers (alongside Circassian and Chechen refugees) became loyal subjects to the sultan and were "driven to succeed in agriculture and ready to defend themselves against any Bedouin claims to
Syrian Turkmen - Misplaced Pages Continue
3616-1108: The Free Syrian Army (FSA). Another Syrian Turkmen unit – the Seljuk Brigade and the Manbij Turkmen Brigade – have sided with the Kurdish-led People's Protection Units (YPG) and joined the US -backed Kurdish-led opposition coalition called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war many Syrian refugees (including Syrian Turkmen) have sought asylum in Turkey , Jordan , Lebanon and northern Iraq , as well as several Western European countries and Australia . Moreover, many Syrian Turkmen have also been internally displaced from their homes, forcing them to settle in other parts of Syria. In 2012
3729-671: The French mandate era to the Assad regime, the Turkish culture and language have perished for a section of the Syrian Turkmen community. Many Syrian Turkmen have become Arabized and indistinguishable from the Arabs in areas where they form a minority. Consequently, Arabization is mainly an exception in areas where the Syrian Turkmen live in areas where they form a significant population, where they have continued to maintain their Turkish identity and language despite discriminative state policies. Under
3842-853: The Hama Governorate , the Latakia Governorate and the Quneitra Governorate . There are also smaller Turkmen communities living in the Daraa Governorate ; as well as in Tartous , Raqqa , and Idlib governorates. In the Aleppo governorate, the main locales in which the Turkmen live include the city of Aleppo (with Bustan al-Basha, Haydariyah, Hllok, Sheikh Hizir, Sheikh Feriz, Saladdin, Owaijah being neighborhoods with ethnic Turkmen populations) and
3955-713: The Kinik branch of the Oghuz Turks , who in the 8th century lived on the periphery of the Muslim world; north of the Caspian Sea and Aral Sea in their Oghuz Yabgu State in the Kazakh Steppe of Turkestan . During the 10th century, Oghuz had come into close contact with Muslim cities. When Seljuk , the leader of the Seljuk clan, had a falling out with Yabghu , the supreme chieftain of
4068-561: The Norwegian Church Aid and the World Council of Churches (compiled by various academics), stated that the Turkmen number anywhere from 500,000 to 3 million. Professor Pierre Piccinin claims that whilst 1.5 million Syrian Turkmen are Turkish-speaking, the total population of the minority is between 3.5 and 6 million (or 15% to 20% of the population), including those who have adopted Arabic as their mother tongue. In December 2016
4181-623: The Raqqa Governorate . Others reside in the Turkmen Mountain near Latakia , the city of Homs and its vicinity until Hama , Damascus , and the southwestern governorates of Daraa (bordering Jordan ) and Quneitra (bordering Israel ). During the ongoing Syrian Civil War , many Syrian Turkmen have been involved in military actions against both the Syrian Armed Forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and have looked to
4294-701: The Saljuqids , was an Oghuz Turkic , Sunni Muslim dynasty that gradually became Persianate and contributed to Turco-Persian culture in West Asia and Central Asia . The Seljuks established the Seljuk Empire (1037–1194), the Sultanate of Kermân (1041–1186) and the Sultanate of Rum (1074–1308), which stretched from Iran to Anatolia and were the prime targets of the First Crusade . The Seljuks originated from
4407-654: The Turkish Armed Forces for support and protection. Many united under an official governing body, the Syrian Turkmen Assembly , and established the military wing of the assembly, the Syrian Turkmen Brigades . However, not all Turkmen support the Turkish occupation of northern Syria , and some have sided with the SDF, forming the Seljuk Brigade . Turkic migration to Syria began in the 11th century during
4520-960: The Turkish language is the third most widely used language in Syria (after Arabic and Kurdish ). It is spoken by the Turkmen minority mostly in villages east of the Euphrates , north of Aleppo , and on the northern coast of the country, along the Syrian-Turkish border . In addition, there are Turkish language islands in the Qalamun area and the Homs area. Moreover, Syrian Arabic dialects have also borrowed many loanwords from Turkish. Mustafa Khalifa claims that, Turkmen are divided into two groups: Rural Turkish-speaking Turkmen, constituting 30% of Syrian Turkmen, and Urban Arabic -speaking Turkmen. Various dialects of Turkish are spoken throughout Syria: in Aleppo they speak
4633-705: The UN Refugee Agency had stated that Syrian Turkmen formed a significant number of the first wave of refugees who entered Turkey . An article published by Reuters in 2015, reporting the Russian raids hitting Syrian Turkmen areas (after a Russian plane was shot down on the Turkey-Syria border ), said that "Officials estimate 300,000 Turkmen used to live in northern Latakia " before the Russians "heavily targeted ethnic Turkmen areas." Al Jazeera English has also reported that
Syrian Turkmen - Misplaced Pages Continue
4746-467: The Xth form , or جامعة jāmiʻah 'university', based on جمع jamaʻa 'to gather, unite'; جمهورية jumhūriyyah 'republic', based on جمهور jumhūr 'multitude'). An earlier tendency was to redefine an older word although this has fallen into disuse (e.g., هاتف hātif 'telephone' < 'invisible caller (in Sufism)'; جريدة jarīdah 'newspaper' < 'palm-leaf stalk'). Colloquial or dialectal Arabic refers to
4859-593: The al-Atassi 's (Atasi's), Bey Kanj Pasha Zadeh (Genç Yussef Pasha 1807–1811), Al-Azm , Qawuqji's, Quwwatli's (Kuvvetli's) and Shishakli's (Çiçekçi's), continued to rule Syria as Prime Ministers or Presidents. However, by the 1960s the pan-Arab Baathist movement of the Al-Assad family sidelined non-Arabs from politics. Arabic language Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized : al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] )
4972-494: The northern Hejaz . These features are evidence of common descent from a hypothetical ancestor , Proto-Arabic . The following features of Proto-Arabic can be reconstructed with confidence: On the other hand, several Arabic varieties are closer to other Semitic languages and maintain features not found in Classical Arabic, indicating that these varieties cannot have developed from Classical Arabic. Thus, Arabic vernaculars do not descend from Classical Arabic: Classical Arabic
5085-422: The tomb of Suleyman Shah , grandfather of the first Ottoman ruler Osman I , "shall remain, with its appurtenances, the property of Turkey." In September 1936, France announced that it would grant full independence to Syria, which would also include Alexandretta. The President of the Republic of Turkey , Mustafa Kemal Atatürk , responded with a demand that Alexandretta be given its own independence. The issue
5198-403: The "Russian escalation of attacks on Turkmen areas" displaced "300,000 Turkmen from northern Latakia alone." The Syrian Government of president Bashar al-Assad , backed by Russia since 2015, have targeted several areas populated by Syrian Turkmen, as they were largely involved in anti-government attacks. On 2 February 2016, at least seven women and children were killed by Russian air strikes in
5311-566: The "Suriye Türkmen Kültür ve Yardımlaşma Derneği – Avrupa",or " STKYDA ", ("Syrian Turkmen Culture and Solidarity Association – Europe") was the first Syrian Turkmen association to be launched in Europe. It was established in order to help the growing Syrian Turkmen community which arrived in the country since the European migrant crisis which started in 2014 and saw its peak in 2015. The association includes Syrian Turkmen youth activists originating from all Syrian cities and who are now living across Western European cities. Most Syrian Turkmen live in
5424-419: The "learned" tradition (Classical Arabic). This variety and both its classicizing and "lay" iterations have been termed Middle Arabic in the past, but they are thought to continue an Old Higazi register. It is clear that the orthography of the Quran was not developed for the standardized form of Classical Arabic; rather, it shows the attempt on the part of writers to record an archaic form of Old Higazi. In
5537-939: The "purest," most eloquent form of Arabic—initiating a process of jamʿu‿l-luɣah ( جمع اللغة 'compiling the language') which took place over the 8th and early 9th centuries. Kitāb al-'Ayn ( c. 8th century ), attributed to Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi , is considered the first lexicon to include all Arabic roots ; it sought to exhaust all possible root permutations —later called taqālīb ( تقاليب ) — calling those that are actually used mustaʿmal ( مستعمَل ) and those that are not used muhmal ( مُهمَل ). Lisān al-ʿArab (1290) by Ibn Manzur gives 9,273 roots, while Tāj al-ʿArūs (1774) by Murtada az-Zabidi gives 11,978 roots. Seljuk Turks The Seljuk dynasty , or Seljukids ( / ˈ s ɛ l dʒ ʊ k / SEL -juuk ; Persian : سلجوقیان Saljuqian , alternatively spelled as Seljuqs or Saljuqs), Seljuqs , also known as Seljuk Turks , Seljuk Turkomans or
5650-454: The 11th and 12th centuries in al-Andalus , the zajal and muwashah poetry forms developed in the dialectical Arabic of Cordoba and the Maghreb. The Nahda was a cultural and especially literary renaissance of the 19th century in which writers sought "to fuse Arabic and European forms of expression." According to James L. Gelvin , " Nahda writers attempted to simplify the Arabic language and script so that it might be accessible to
5763-444: The 12tn century the Turkic Zengid dynasty (a vassal of the Seljuk Empire) continued to settle Turkmes in the wilayah of Aleppo to confront attacks from the Crusaders . In return for their military service, the Turkic rulers distributed fiefs in the area to the Turkmen. In 1260, the Mamluk Sultanate – ruled by a line of Turkish and Circassian sultans – entered Syria in response to the Mongol invasions. Whilst Cairo remained
SECTION 50
#17328587735945876-462: The 4th to the 6th centuries, the Nabataean script evolved into the Arabic script recognizable from the early Islamic era. There are inscriptions in an undotted, 17-letter Arabic script dating to the 6th century CE, found at four locations in Syria ( Zabad , Jebel Usays , Harran , Umm el-Jimal ). The oldest surviving papyrus in Arabic dates to 643 CE, and it uses dots to produce the modern 28-letter Arabic alphabet. The language of that papyrus and of
5989-603: The 8th century, knowledge of Classical Arabic had become an essential prerequisite for rising into the higher classes throughout the Islamic world, both for Muslims and non-Muslims. For example, Maimonides , the Andalusi Jewish philosopher, authored works in Judeo-Arabic —Arabic written in Hebrew script . Ibn Jinni of Mosul , a pioneer in phonology , wrote prolifically in the 10th century on Arabic morphology and phonology in works such as Kitāb Al-Munṣif , Kitāb Al-Muḥtasab , and Kitāb Al-Khaṣāʾiṣ [ ar ] . Ibn Mada' of Cordoba (1116–1196) realized
6102-412: The Middle East and North Africa have become a badge of sophistication and modernity and ... feigning, or asserting, weakness or lack of facility in Arabic is sometimes paraded as a sign of status, class, and perversely, even education through a mélange of code-switching practises." Arabic has been taught worldwide in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around
6215-459: The Oghuz, he split his clan from the bulk of the Oghuz Turks and set up camp on the west bank of the lower Syr Darya . Around 985, Seljuk converted to Islam. In the 11th century, the Seljuks migrated from their ancestral homelands into mainland Persia , in the province of Khurasan , where they encountered the Ghaznavids . The Seljuks defeated the Ghaznavids at the Battle of Nasa Plains in 1035. Seljuk's grandsons, Tughril and Chaghri, received
6328-474: The Qur'an is referred to by linguists as "Quranic Arabic", as distinct from its codification soon thereafter into " Classical Arabic ". In late pre-Islamic times, a transdialectal and transcommunal variety of Arabic emerged in the Hejaz , which continued living its parallel life after literary Arabic had been institutionally standardized in the 2nd and 3rd century of the Hijra , most strongly in Judeo-Christian texts, keeping alive ancient features eliminated from
6441-451: The Republic of Turkey. France finally agreed to the Turkish annexation on 23 July 1939. Today, the Bayırbucak region, the coastal and rural section covering the northern Latakia area, has a considerable Turkmen presence and is considered by some Turks as a "stretch of the modern Turkish Hatay Province". After the Sanjak of Alexandretta became the province of Hatay in the Republic of Turkey , in 1939, some Turkish families immigrated into
6554-413: The Romance languages. Also, while it is comprehensible to people from the Maghreb , a linguistically innovative variety such as Moroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to Arabs from the Mashriq , much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers but relatively easily learned by them. This suggests that the spoken varieties may linguistically be considered separate languages. With
6667-406: The Seljuks adopted the Persian culture and used the Persian language as the official language of the government, and played an important role in the development of the Turko-Persian tradition which features "Persian culture patronized by Turkic rulers". Today, they are remembered as great patrons of Persian culture , art , literature , and language . The "Great Seljuks" were heads of
6780-565: The Syrian independent newspaper Zaman Al Wasl reported that 120,000 to 150,000 Syrian Turkmen refugees arrived in Lebanon , and hence they now outnumber the Turkish minority of Lebanon . By 2018 the number of Syrian Turkmen in Lebanon had increased to approximately 200,000. A substantial number of Syrian Turkmen refugees also fled to Jordan . Outside the Middle East , Syrian Turkmen refugees have mainly fled to Western Europe (particularly Germany ), but some have also been given refuge in countries as far as Australia . Established in Germany,
6893-417: The Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ümit Yalçın stated that Turkey opened its borders to 500,000 Syrian Turkmen. Most Syrian Turkmen settled in Istanbul , Gaziantep , Osmaniye , Hatay , Izmir , Malatya , and Konya . In 2020 the Voice of America reported that 1,000,000 Syrian Turkmen (including descendants) who are living in Turkey are requesting to become Turkish citizens. In October 2015,
SECTION 60
#17328587735947006-430: The Turkish-speaking Syrian Turkmen as the third largest ethnic group in the country (after Arabs and Kurds respectively). Yet, a report published by the Arab Reform Initiative suggests that they may form the second largest ethnic group if Arabized Turkmen are also taken into account: "Turkmen are the third largest ethnic group in Syria, making up around 4-5% of the population. Some estimations indicate that they are
7119-432: The Turkmen community is 99% Sunni whilst the remainder (1%) practice Shia Islam. There are also some Syrian " Nawar people " (a derogatory term for people who live a mobile lifestyle – often described as "gypsies") who speak Turkish , some of whom self-identify as Turkmen; those practicing Islam belong to the Sunni , Shiite , and Alevi / Bektashi religious groups. There are also some who practice Christianity . From
7232-402: The Turkmen live in the city of Damascus , and Harret Al Turkman is a Turkmen district where Turkish is predominantly spoken. In the Homs governorate the Turkmen mostly live in the city of Homs and the surrounding villages, such as Kara Avshar, Inallu, and Kapushak. They also live in Gharnatah , Al-Krad , Burj Qa'i , al-Sam'lil , and in villages in the Houla plain. In the Hama governorate
7345-580: The Turkmen live in the city of Hama and are also scattered in numerous villages around the district. For example, Baba Amir Haras is a prominent Turkmen district. There are also Turkmen living in Aqrab and Talaf . In the Quneitra governorate the Turkmen are scattered in numerous villages in the districts of Quneitra . They predominantly reside in the villages of Dababiye, Rezaniye, Sindiyane, Aynul Kara, Aynul Simsim, Ulayka, Aynul Alak, Ahmediye, Kafer Nafah, Mugir, Hafir, Hüseyniye, and Ayn Ayse. According to The Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics ,
7458-412: The YPG had accused the locals of collaborating with ISIL. There are no reliable estimates on the total number of ethnic minorities living in Syria because official censuses have only asked citizens about their religion, therefore, Syrian citizens have not been allowed to declare their ethnic origin or mother tongue. Dr Abdelwahed Mekki-Berrada, et al., in a report published by the UNHCR , points out that
7571-416: The area around the northern Euphrates , near the Syrian-Turkish border ; however, they are also scattered throughout several governorates, stretching towards central Syria and the southern region near the Golan Heights . In particular, the Turkmen are concentrated in the urban centers and countryside of six governorates of Syria: in the Aleppo Governorate , the Damascus Governorate , the Homs Governorate ,
7684-478: The beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011, large numbers of Syrian Turkmen have been displaced from their homes and many have been killed due to attacks by President Bashar al-Assad 's government, as well as the terrorist attacks carried out by " Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant " (ISIL). Whilst Turkmen villages in Hama , Homs , and Latakia have been destroyed by the Syrian government, Turkmen villages in Aleppo were occupied by ISIL. Syrian Turkmen, with
7797-474: The capture of Margat by the Muslim commander of the Krak des Chevaliers in 1280. The late Mamluk-era writer Ahmad al-Qalqashandi noted that Turkmen formed contingents in the regular armies of greater Syria. By the 15th century, the Muslim writer Khalil az-Zahiri recorded 180,000 Turkmen soldiers and 20,000 Kurdish soldiers in Syria. The Turkmen mainly lived in the provinces of Aleppo and were settled in suburbs such as al-Hadir al-Sulaymani; they also live near
7910-493: The coast and the Jawlan (i.e. Golan Heights). Mamluk rule of Syria ended once the Ottoman Sultan Selim I conquered the region in 1516–17. Thereafter, the Ottoman administration encouraged Turkish nomads from Anatolia to settle in strategic areas of the region. By the sixteenth century the Ottomans continued to settle Turkmen in the rural areas around Homs and Hama to keep the Bedouin in check and serve as mütesellim . Turkish migration from Anatolia to Ottoman Syria
8023-509: The conversion of Semitic mimation to nunation in the singular. It is best reassessed as a separate language on the Central Semitic dialect continuum. It was also thought that Old Arabic coexisted alongside—and then gradually displaced— epigraphic Ancient North Arabian (ANA), which was theorized to have been the regional tongue for many centuries. ANA, despite its name, was considered a very distinct language, and mutually unintelligible, from "Arabic". Scholars named its variant dialects after
8136-411: The countryside in the northern part of the governorate. They also live in the villages next to the cities of Azaz , Al-Bab , and Jarabulus . Al-Rai is also a Turkmen-dominated town. There are 16 Turkmen-dominated villages south of Mount Simeon , 17 Turkmen villages in the district of Azaz, 29 villages to the east of that region, 3 villages connected to Aleppo, 69 villages around Al-Rai, 26 villages in
8249-574: The demographic structure of the Sanjak was as follows: In 1921, the Treaty of Ankara established Alexandretta (present-day Hatay ) under an autonomous regime under French Mandate of Syria . The Turks were initially satisfied with this agreement, because Article 7 declared that "The Turkish inhabitants of this district shall enjoy every facility for their cultural development. The Turkish language shall have official recognition." Moreover, Article 9 stated that
8362-450: The descendants of migrants who arrived in Syria during Ottoman rule (1516–1918); however, there are also many Syrian Turkmen who are the descendants of earlier Turkish settlers that arrived during the Seljuk (1037–1194) and Mamluk (1250–1517) periods. Some estimates indicate that if Arabized Turkmen (those who no longer speak Turkish as their main language) are taken into account, they form
8475-473: The dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in 1918; nonetheless, Syrian Turkmen community continued to reside in the region during the French Mandate and the formation of Syrian Republics . Syrian Turkmen have had a presence in Syria since the 11th century. The first recorded entry of free Turkmen troops into Syria was in 1064 when the Turkmen prince Ibn Khan and 1,000 of his archers entered Aleppo . He came at
8588-635: The emergence of Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include: There are several features which Classical Arabic, the modern Arabic varieties, as well as the Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions share which are unattested in any other Central Semitic language variety, including the Dadanitic and Taymanitic languages of
8701-728: The eve of the conquests: Northern and Central (Al-Jallad 2009). The modern dialects emerged from a new contact situation produced following the conquests. Instead of the emergence of a single or multiple koines, the dialects contain several sedimentary layers of borrowed and areal features, which they absorbed at different points in their linguistic histories. According to Veersteegh and Bickerton, colloquial Arabic dialects arose from pidginized Arabic formed from contact between Arabs and conquered peoples. Pidginization and subsequent creolization among Arabs and arabized peoples could explain relative morphological and phonological simplicity of vernacular Arabic compared to Classical and MSA. In around
8814-593: The fact that they participate in the innovations common to all forms of Arabic. The earliest attestation of continuous Arabic text in an ancestor of the modern Arabic script are three lines of poetry by a man named Garm(')allāhe found in En Avdat, Israel , and dated to around 125 CE. This is followed by the Namara inscription , an epitaph of the Lakhmid king Imru' al-Qays bar 'Amro, dating to 328 CE, found at Namaraa, Syria. From
8927-521: The family; in theory their authority extended over all the other Seljuk lines, although in practice this often was not the case. Turkic custom called for the senior member of the family to be the Great Seljuk, although usually the position was associated with the ruler of western Persia. The rulers of western Persia, who maintained a very loose grip on the Abbasids of Baghdad . Several Turkic emirs gained
9040-453: The fourth most useful language for business, after English, Mandarin Chinese , and French. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet , an abjad script that is written from right to left . Arabic is usually classified as a Central Semitic language . Linguists still differ as to the best classification of Semitic language sub-groups. The Semitic languages changed between Proto-Semitic and
9153-579: The inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts. In 1997, a bureau of Arabization standardization was added to the Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization of the Arab League . These academies and organizations have worked toward the Arabization of the sciences, creating terms in Arabic to describe new concepts, toward
9266-621: The insignias of governor, grants of land, and were given the title of dehqan . At the Battle of Dandanaqan , they defeated a Ghaznavid army, and after a successful siege of Isfahan by Tughril in 1050/51, established the Great Seljuk Empire . The Seljuks mixed with the local population and adopted the Persian culture and Persian language in the following decades. After arriving in Persia ,
9379-622: The land on which they had built their villages". According to the French geographer Vital Cuinet (1833–96), the Ottoman Turks (excluding Turkmen nomads) formed the second largest ethnic group, after the Syrian Arabs , in the Aleppo Sanjak . In his best known work La Turquie d'Asie, géographie administrative: statistique, descriptive et raisonnée de chaque province de l'Asie Mineure he stated that
9492-608: The language. Software and books with tapes are an important part of Arabic learning, as many of Arabic learners may live in places where there are no academic or Arabic language school classes available. Radio series of Arabic language classes are also provided from some radio stations. A number of websites on the Internet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education; most teach Modern Standard Arabic, but some teach regional varieties from numerous countries. The tradition of Arabic lexicography extended for about
9605-428: The largest port city in Syria, and many Syrian Turkmen living in rural villages joined the Turkmen community already established there. Consequently, there is now a total of 265 Turkish villages in and around Latakia center. In addition to urban migrations, under the name of "land reform", lands owned by the Turkmen were nationalized and Arabs were resettled in areas near the Turkish border. Arabization policies also saw
9718-599: The late 6th century AD, a relatively uniform intertribal "poetic koine" distinct from the spoken vernaculars developed based on the Bedouin dialects of Najd , probably in connection with the court of al-Ḥīra . During the first Islamic century, the majority of Arabic poets and Arabic-writing persons spoke Arabic as their mother tongue. Their texts, although mainly preserved in far later manuscripts, contain traces of non-standardized Classical Arabic elements in morphology and syntax. Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali ( c. 603 –689)
9831-420: The latter is taught in formal education settings. However, there have been studies reporting some degree of comprehension of stories told in the standard variety among preschool-aged children. The relation between Modern Standard Arabic and these dialects is sometimes compared to that of Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin vernaculars (which became Romance languages ) in medieval and early modern Europe. MSA
9944-722: The majority of Syrians are considered "Arab", however, this is a term based on spoken language ( Arabic ) not ethnic affiliation. Consequently, this has created difficulties in estimating the total Syrian Turkmen population (i.e. including the Turkish-speaking and the Arabized Turkmen). According to Professor Taef El-Azhari, the Syrian Turkmen have "always been the forgotten minority in the area despite their large population". Dr Abdelwahed Mekki-Berrada, et al., as well as Professor Pierre Beckouche, Professor John Shoup, Professor Pierre Piccinin , and Dr Peter Behnstedt, have all placed
10057-883: The many national or regional varieties which constitute the everyday spoken language. Colloquial Arabic has many regional variants; geographically distant varieties usually differ enough to be mutually unintelligible , and some linguists consider them distinct languages. However, research indicates a high degree of mutual intelligibility between closely related Arabic variants for native speakers listening to words, sentences, and texts; and between more distantly related dialects in interactional situations. The varieties are typically unwritten. They are often used in informal spoken media, such as soap operas and talk shows , as well as occasionally in certain forms of written media such as poetry and printed advertising. Hassaniya Arabic , Maltese , and Cypriot Arabic are only varieties of modern Arabic to have acquired official recognition. Hassaniya
10170-722: The minority had no rights to open Turkish schools or associations. By the late 20th century, Dr. Larry Clark stated there was "more than 200,000" Turkmen in Syria whilst the German Orient-Institute [ de ] stated that estimates ranged between 800,000 and 1 million. Numerous academics placed the Turkish -speaking Sunni Muslim population (i.e. not including Arabized or Alevi/Shia Turkmen) at approximately 3% of Syria's population, including Professor Daniel Pipes Professor Itamar Rabinovich , Professor Moshe Ma'oz, Dr. Nikolaos van Dam , Dr Henry Munson, Professor Alasdair Drysdale and Professor Raymond Hinnebusch. Since
10283-590: The names of Turkish villages renamed with Arabic names. Thus, a mass exodus of Syrian Turkmen migration to Turkey took place between 1945 and 1953, many of which settled in Kirikhan , Alexandretta and Adana , in southern Turkey. The cultural and political rights of the Turkish-speaking minority remaining in Syrian territories was not guaranteed under any legal constitution. Those living in large groups managed to protect their cultural identity, however, Turkmen living in smaller groups were significantly Arabized. In any case,
10396-768: The need for a lexical injection in Arabic, to suit concepts of the industrial and post-industrial age (such as sayyārah سَيَّارَة 'automobile' or bākhirah باخِرة 'steamship'). In response, a number of Arabic academies modeled after the Académie française were established with the aim of developing standardized additions to the Arabic lexicon to suit these transformations, first in Damascus (1919), then in Cairo (1932), Baghdad (1948), Rabat (1960), Amman (1977), Khartum [ ar ] (1993), and Tunis (1993). They review language development, monitor new words and approve
10509-458: The new borders of Syria, settling in the provinces of Aleppo and Damascus . Hence, new "Turkish streets" began to emerge, such as in the al-Salihia district in Damascus . Family unifications of Turkmen families living on both sides of the Syrian-Turkish border continued for more than 70 years until the outbreak of the Syrian revolution. By 1950, Latakia showed great economic potential as
10622-424: The one whose sound is heard but whose person remains unseen. Now the term al-hatif is used for a telephone. Therefore, the process of tawleed can express the needs of modern civilization in a manner that would appear to be originally Arabic. In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of any nationality can be assumed to speak both their school-taught Standard Arabic as well as their native dialects, which depending on
10735-599: The overhaul of Arabic grammar first proposed by Al-Jahiz 200 years prior. The Maghrebi lexicographer Ibn Manzur compiled Lisān al-ʿArab ( لسان العرب , "Tongue of Arabs"), a major reference dictionary of Arabic, in 1290. Charles Ferguson 's koine theory claims that the modern Arabic dialects collectively descend from a single military koine that sprang up during the Islamic conquests; this view has been challenged in recent times. Ahmad al-Jallad proposes that there were at least two considerably distinct types of Arabic on
10848-428: The population. Professor Taef El-Azhari, Dr. Sebastien Peyrouse, and Dr. Paul Antonopoulos have all stated that there is around 1 million Turkish-speaking Syrian Turkmen. In addition, Dr. Eldad J. Pardo and Maya Jacobi have cited an estimate of 750,000 to 1.5 million. Professor David Aikman has said that there is "about 1.7 million Turks in Syria". Dr. Jonathan Spyer , as well as a report published in cooperation between
10961-410: The region may be mutually unintelligible. Some of these dialects can be considered to constitute separate languages which may have "sub-dialects" of their own. When educated Arabs of different dialects engage in conversation (for example, a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), many speakers code-switch back and forth between the dialectal and standard varieties of the language, sometimes even within
11074-466: The request of the Arab Mirdasid emir Atiyya ibn Salih to assist him against his own Banu Kilab tribesmen who backed a rival Mirdasid emir, Mahmud ibn Nasr . Turkmen rule in the region began with the Seljuk conquests in the Middle East. The Seljuk Turks opened the way for mass migration of Turkish nomads once they entered northern Syria in 1071, and took Damascus in 1078 and Aleppo in 1086. By
11187-505: The rule of Hafez al-Assad , there has been a ban on Syrian Turkmen communities from publishing works in Turkish . Syrian Turkmen occupied a low rung on the societal ladder, as reported by Al Bawaba , it was stated that Assad always sought to benefit his politically dominant Alawite religious minority. The report quoted Bayırbucak Turkmen as highlighting, "They would take Alawites first no matter what, even if they had degrees, Turkmen couldn't find jobs". Several Turkish families, such as
11300-585: The rule of the Seljuk Empire . However, most Turkmen settled in the region after the Ottoman sultan Selim I conquered Syria in 1516. The Ottoman administration encouraged Turcoman families from Anatolia to establish villages throughout the rural hinterlands of several cities in Ottoman Syria (and later the Syria Vilayet ). Migration from Anatolia to Syria was continuous for over 400 years of Ottoman rule, until
11413-458: The same sentence. The issue of whether Arabic is one language or many languages is politically charged, in the same way it is for the varieties of Chinese , Hindi and Urdu , Serbian and Croatian , Scots and English, etc. In contrast to speakers of Hindi and Urdu who claim they cannot understand each other even when they can, speakers of the varieties of Arabic will claim they can all understand each other even when they cannot. While there
11526-605: The seat of the Mamluk Sultanate, Damascus became their second capital. Hence, by the thirteenth century, the Turkmen formed a part of the armies of Damascus and Aleppo , and permanently settled in these regions. After the Bahri sultan of the Mamluks , Baibars , destroyed Qara he settled Turkmen in the town in 1265. Two years later, he settled more Turkmen in the Syrian coast to protect the region. The Turkmen were called on to assist in
11639-479: The second biggest group, outnumbering Kurds, drawing on the fact that Turkmen are divided into two groups: the rural Turkmen who make up 30% of the Turkmen in Syria and who have kept their mother tongue, and the urban Turkmen who have become Arabised and no longer speak their mother language. Turkmen are mostly found in the urban centres and countryside of six governorates of Syria: Aleppo, Damascus, Homs, Hama, Latakia and Quneitra." – Mustafa Khalifa (2013, published by
11752-524: The second-largest group in the country. The majority of Syrian Turkmen are Sunni Muslims . Syrian Turkmen share common genealogical and linguistic ties with the Turkish people in Turkey and Iraqi Turkmen , but do not identify themselves with the Turkmen of Turkmenistan and Central Asia . Most live near the Syrian-Turkish border , in an area that runs from the northwestern governorates of Idlib and Aleppo to
11865-458: The sole example of Medieval linguist Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati – who, while a scholar of the Arabic language, was not ethnically Arab – Medieval scholars of the Arabic language made no efforts at studying comparative linguistics, considering all other languages inferior. In modern times, the educated upper classes in the Arab world have taken a nearly opposite view. Yasir Suleiman wrote in 2011 that "studying and knowing English or French in most of
11978-556: The standardization of these new terms throughout the Arabic-speaking world, and toward the development of Arabic as a world language . This gave rise to what Western scholars call Modern Standard Arabic. From the 1950s, Arabization became a postcolonial nationalist policy in countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Sudan. Arabic usually refers to Standard Arabic, which Western linguists divide into Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. It could also refer to any of
12091-517: The support of the Republic of Turkey , have taken up arms against the Syrian government. Several Syrian Turkmen parties united under the Syrian Turkmen Assembly , which is affiliated with the National Coalition opposition group. A Second Coastal Division was formed in 2015 and along with another extensive Turkmen militia group Sultan Murad Division , the Turkmen brigades are closely affiliated with
12204-501: The towns where the inscriptions were discovered (Dadanitic, Taymanitic, Hismaic, Safaitic). However, most arguments for a single ANA language or language family were based on the shape of the definite article, a prefixed h-. It has been argued that the h- is an archaism and not a shared innovation, and thus unsuitable for language classification, rendering the hypothesis of an ANA language family untenable. Safaitic and Hismaic, previously considered ANA, should be considered Old Arabic due to
12317-574: The vicinity of Jarabulus, and 23 villages south of Sajur River . In the Latakia governorate the Turkmen live mostly in the Turkmen Mountains (Jabal al-Turkman), Al-Badrusiyah , Umm al-Tuyour , and in various villages near the Syrian-Turkish border . There is also a number of Turkmen districts, including Bayırbucak and Jimmel Harresi where there are many Turkmen villages. In the Damascus governorate
12430-451: The world have classes that teach Arabic as part of their foreign languages , Middle Eastern studies , and religious studies courses. Arabic language schools exist to assist students to learn Arabic outside the academic world. There are many Arabic language schools in the Arab world and other Muslim countries. Because the Quran is written in Arabic and all Islamic terms are in Arabic, millions of Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) study
12543-600: Was brought before the League of Nations , which sent a mission to the district in January 1937. The mission concluded that the Turks constituted a majority and by July 1938 elections were held in the province; the Turks formed a majority of 22 seats in a 40-seat parliament of the newly established Hatay State , which remained a joint Franco-Turkish protectorate. The Hatay State began using Turkish flags , and petitioned Ankara to unify Hatay to
12656-524: Was concern expressed by the UN Human Rights Council regarding displacement of Syrian Turkmen from their homes in villages south of Hasakah and Tal Abyad during fighting with ISIL. Approximately 200 Syrian Turkmen refugees fled to Urfa , in southern Turkey, while 700 more fled to the eastern areas of Tal Abyad, once the YPG seized the town of Tell Hammam al-Turkman from ISIL , and there were claims that
12769-475: Was continuous for almost 400 years, until Ottoman rule ended in 1918. The Turkish settlement throughout the rural hinterlands of several Syrian cities was a state-organized population transfer which was used to counter the demographic weight and influence of other ethnic groups in the region. Furthermore, the Turkmen served as the local gendarmes to help assert Ottoman authority. By the late nineteenth century, many Turkish refugees who lost their lands to Russia in
#593406