Descriptions of Turkic Peoples.

[Marmara]

I've found no real physical descriptions of Turks from medieval European, Byzantine and Arab sources except Cumans and Karluks. One being blonde and other tibetian-looking. Cumans were from Eastern Europe and Karluks from South-Central Asia. In between there were many Turkic peoples (Sabirs, Pechenegs, Oghuzes, Bulgars) but I've found absolutely no physical description of these people over internet. Since Cumans and Karluks were described so differently, I wonder the others. Are there any chronicles describing Turks or are there any excavations of Turkic burials so we can look up their genetic makeup?

[Yaglakar]

I've found no real physical descriptions of Turks from medieval European, Byzantine and Arab sources except Cumans and Karluks. One being blonde and other tibetian-looking. Cumans were from Eastern Europe and Karluks from South-Central Asia. In between there were many Turkic peoples (Sabirs, Pechenegs, Oghuzes, Bulgars) but I've found absolutely no physical description of these people over internet. Since Cumans and Karluks were described so differently, I wonder the others. Are there any chronicles describing Turks or are there any excavations of Turkic burials so we can look up their genetic makeup?

Michael Drompp. The Yenisei Kyrgyz from Early Times to the Mongol Conquest



Found this Russian translation of a 14th century Ming Chronicle:

Uighurs have curly hair and large noses, Kipchaks have yellow hair and blue eyes. Their appearances are hideous and ugly different from ours.



"Allah's Messenger said, "The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Turks; people with small eyes, red faces, and flat noses. Their faces will look like shields coated with leather. The Hour will not be established till you fight with people whose shoes are made of hair." Sahih al-Bukhari 9th ecntury

Will be adding more in the future if I come across bits and pieces in the literature.

[ButlerKing]

Michael Drompp. The Yenisei Kyrgyz from Early Times to the Mongol Conquest



Found this Russian translation of a 14th century Ming Chronicle:

Uighurs have curly hair and large noses, Kipchaks have yellow hair and blue eyes. Their appearances are hideous and ugly different from ours.



"Allah's Messenger said, "The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Turks; people with small eyes, red faces, and flat noses. Their faces will look like shields coated with leather. The Hour will not be established till you fight with people whose shoes are made of hair." Sahih al-Bukhari 9th ecntury

Will be adding more in the future if I come across bits and pieces in the literature.

14th century Uyghurs are already long mixed with Tocharians so their description would be irrevant however the Kyrgyz one is important. They were Yenesei Kyrgyz from Siberia not from modern day Kyrgyzstan.

Only possibility to my opinion
1) They were a combination of Uralic, Indo-European, Turkic
2) They were Turkified red hair people
3) They were red hair Turks
4) They were Yenesian Turks ?


I have no idea why the Chinese mention Kyrgyz are red hair unless they were a vareity of brown that looked red. There isn't a Turkic ethnicity today that have enough red hair to be described like this.

Yenesei Kyrgyz live in a historical area of Minusinsk and the only existing tribes that live next to them today are the Uralic, Yenesians people who like these. Only a few have red hair, most of them have brown or blonde, light black hair.

[ovidiu]

I wonder if Kipchaks looked like these people







or earlier like

[Turul Karom]

Although this is not from our time as part of the Göktürk Khaganate, one of the most important sources on our people early in our history is written by Muslim scholars a century or two later (and further).

The Appearance of the Magyars
Gardīzī: The Magyars are handsome and pleasant looking, their bodies are bulky.
Ḥudūd al-ʿālam: The (people) are good-looking and awe-inspiring.
Al-Marwazī: The Magyars are handsome and very comely, their bodies are bulky.

"There are several parallel descriptions of the physical character and appearances of various peoples in the Jayhānī tradition.The Burtas had a similar character to Ibn Rusta,and al-Marwazī noted:“They are handsome and comely and have a fine physique.” The two nouns ruwāʾ and manẓar in the description of al-Marwazī in the Magyar chapter are the same as those applied to the Burtas by Ibn Rusta and al-Marwazī.

The Magyars as Turks

Ibn Rusta: The Magyars are a Turkic people.
Gardīzī: These Magyars are a Turkic people.
Ḥudūd al-ʿālam: And all these whom we have mentioned are the different categories of Turks (existing in the) world. Now we shall mention all the lands of Islam, and then the rest of the lands of the infidels, lying in the western parts.
Abūʾl-Fidāʾ: They are a Turkic people.
al-Marwazī: The Magyars are a Turkic people.
ʿAwfī: The M.ḥr.f.h [Magyars] are a Turkic people.
Shukrallāh: The seventh tribe of the Turks is called M.ḥr.q.h
Shükrallāh: The seventh people are called M.ḥr.q.h. They are of the Turks.
Muḥammad Kātib: The seventh tribe are of the Turks, and they are known by the name M.ḥr.q.h
Ḥājjī Khalīfa: One (of them) is the M.ḥr.q.h. too.

"The designation of the Magyars is m.jf.r in the Jayhānī tradition. The Hungarians were mentioned under different ethnonyms in Muslim sources, among them “Turk," which also occurred in connection with the Magyars in Greek and Latin sources. In the Muslim geographical literature the name Turk was applied to the Magyars in two different ways. On the one hand, it was used as an ethnic name for the Hungarian tribal confederation, and on the other, the Hungarian people, under various ethnic names, were regarded as belonging to the Turkic peoples."

Do read this if you have the time to glance, it has a lot of great original sources and requires no long-in or pay.

https://www.academia.edu/17517905/Mu...en_Boston_2015