Tengri is the god of the old Turkic, Mongolian and Altaic religion named Tengriism. The Mongols called him Tengri, (depicted as Blue Sky) was the highest God of Turks and Mongols. The name "Tengri" (Tana-Gra) means "Ruler, Master of the Land"; there might be some connection with the Sumerian word for god Dingir.

In the pre-islamic Turkish worship of celestial objects, lies the usage of Turkish Muslims of the crescent Moon as their symbol. Incidentally, the crescent moon, was borrowed by other non-Arab Muslims from the Turks. We may note that the Arabs never use the crescent moon as their symbol.

How the Turks shed their blood, fighting the Jihad for Four Hundred years and finally gave up and embraced Islam, and later became the tormentors themselves to carry the bloodied tradition of Jihad into Anatolia (modern Turkey) and the Balkans up to Austria.
The Turks in Pre-Islamic times

Today we read in history that the Ottoman Turks carried the Jihad into Europe. The Turks besieged and sacked Constantinople. To many of us, the Turks before Ataturk reformed Turkey into becoming the Muslim world's first secular republic, were ruthless Jihadis, whose king was the Caliph till 1924, when Ataturk abolished the Caliphate. But we know little of the bloodied struggle that the Turks waged against Islam for 'four hundred years from 650 up to 1050. The first clash of the Turks with the Islamic Jihad took place when the Muslims in their surge through Persia reached the borders of the Sassanid Empire in Khorasan, near Central Asia. In those days the Turks ruled Central Asia. They have been referred to as Turanians by the ancient Persians of Zoroaster's time.

The Turks were so to say a multi-ethnic tribal cluster who were united with the bonds of language. Since ancient times, apart from grazing cattle, the Turks also used to attack settled people in Persia and live off the booty.

Deep in history neither the Mongols nor the Turks were Muslims, but in fact had waged a bloodied struggle against Islam. The Turks and Mongols were neighbors and had mixed ancestry since antiquity. Both held Central Asia between them when the Arab Muslim invaders appeared on the scene, after over-running the Persian Sassanid Empire in the year 651. Ironically the Turks had to struggle with Islam which came to them through the medium of the Islamized Persians who had been newly converted to Islam at the point of the sword by the Arabs.

http://www.historyofjihad.org/turkey.html

Roswitha....I really wish you would provide a link to the article. You do this many many times. It is only fair that the authors get credit, and the credibility of the authors be possible by knowing who they are.

Very interesting article Roswitha! Thank you for posting.

(Amazing how alameda starts to question the sources when she sees something that rattles her fur : islam wasn't sent by god, but by cruel jihadists.)

Istanbul was never sacked, except for a seremonic 1 day.

Mehmet II had the illusion (he had good reasons for it) that he had become the East Roman Emperor by capturing Istanbul. He would not let his future capital be sacked.

There were attempts not to disturb the the balance of population in the city. The Turks to live in Istanbul were carefully chosen from a certain group (a certain town) in Anatolia. No one else was allowed to move in for a considerable time.

Alfa - didn't you promise something!!!!!

Yeah, I know very well what you're talking about, don't bother researching this for me. I told Roswitha many times to include links with the sources. I pointed out to a different issue alameda...

Ladies fighting again .........

my two cents...
has anyone realized that most of the posts here in TC are being started by Roswitha? I wonder if not her, who will post many of these interesting topics? I respect the time she takes to find something to bring to the table!! this is just my opinion.

....but if ONLY she would post them in the right place!!! Turkish poetry and literature????!!!!

It does really...if you are interested in literature and poetry or searching for a particular poem you go to this section, if you are interested in language topics, you go to that section, if you want to find out about living and working in Turkey, you go to that section....

Otherwise, what is the point in having these separate forums?

The poetry and literature forum used to be wonderful - it is now crammed with YouTube music links (for some reason I am unable to fathom...)

While people are busy complaining that I spoil their threads, they might want to think about how they are spoiling this Poetry and Literature Forum. I counted TWO threads in the last THIRTY post here which were actually about poetry or literature - I then got bored

Most of these "threads" are single posts consisting of youtube links with titles like "song for the wee hours" .... Great!

Alameda, I had my reasons for not mentioning the link, here it is:

http://www.historyofjihad.org/turkey.html

o.k. so be it, I won't post anything in the future anymore.

Several here will have a sigh of relief, I am sure of it.
Chapter closed.

Ros thanks for the text.

I think that sometimes it's hard to decide which topic to post in. A far worse offender is Aenigma's partner - AlfF.

Thank you Roswitha for your contributions, but don't let this be your last. Even though people tend to talk off topic, but that's their evolutionary weakness...as they claim.

Is it so difficult for computer savvy people to trace the author, if they really wanted to? Afterall, she didn't claim it was her work.

People, this is not an academic site and if you require references, just ask, but politely.

Thanks Waseem!

There is one thing that many of us (myself included, of course ) could learn from Roswitha, and that is to keep a dignified silence. In my short time on this site I've never seen her criticise anyone. She spends her time looking for topics that may interest other people, not just herself. This site is a better place for having Roswitha's contributions. Thanks again Roswitha .

See Ros? Everyone is begging you to stay, so you can go to bed tonight knowing how loved you are

Job done!

Roswitha, I really enjoy your posts and very much hope you will continue with them.

...by the way nobody ever seems to mess with the Language Forum - is it more sacred?

More links? I am outta here!
I agree with you to a certain extent Alameda, but can't we sometimes just write the name of the author and it's source at the bottom of the text? Or "extract from" at the top?

This site is becoming Turkish Link Class lately

Talk no more...until you have tested the intelligence level of your right foot...)))))))))))

It is all under POETRY AND LITERATURE...

To err is human, to forgive is divine

(Alexander Pope)

So much commotion over nothing. Roswitha is always providing interesting articles that can be of use to all of us; obviously a very selfless act. She deserves credit for it.

When you want to find the link you can use google.

For example I randomly picked some part from the first post, it effectively located the link later given.

"Turks and Mongols were neighbors"

The other link found is also interesting it talks about how Turks were converted to Islam (unwilingly).

http://newsonterror.com/china.html

Here's a comprehensive information about Ancient Turkic Deities.

http://www.hunmagyar.org/turan/tatar/turk.html

I am proud of them all. Kök kirsin kızıl çıksın.

Turks used the adjective tengri which means "heavenly, divine", to label everything that seemed grandiose, such as a tree or a mountain, and they stooped to such entities.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengri#Turkic_version


...in the heartland of the Hittite kingdom, within a day's journey of the capital.) Her name in Hattic was Wurusemu, but the Hittites worshiped her under the epithet Arinnitti. She is always called a sun goddess, and sun disks appear as emblems in her cult, but there are indications that she may originally have had chthonic, or underworld, characteristics.
Traditional Natchez religion venerated the Sun, which was represented by a perpetual fire kept burning in a temple. All fires in a village, including the sacred fire, were allowed to die once a year on the eve of the midsummer Green Corn ceremony, or Busk. The sacred fire was remade at dawn of the festival day, and all the village hearths were then lit anew from the sacred flames.

Aztec religion centred around the fierce sun god Huitzilopochtli. After battling his way across the sky each day, he returned to the bosom of the earth, his mother (Coatlicue), where he renewed his strength in order to take up the fight against darkness. In order to guarantee human existence, the Aztecs, as “people of the sun,” had to nourish Huitzilopochtli with human blood.