Imagine you are a Turkic nomad, sitting by the evening fire in front of your felt tent in the Altai mountains north of Afghanistan. At dawn, many of your tribe will travel to the market at Turfan, where you will trade the cows you have captured from a rival tribe for horses, knives and lengths of silk. Through trading with merchants from east and west, you speak some Arabic and Chinese.
Little are you to know that in the space of a thousand years your descendants will, in the name of Allah, capture great swathes of land in Central Asia and beyond. Their leaders will use their enormous wealth to glorify themselves and their God; imagine how you, a simple man, would be dazzled by the opulence of their tents, the intricacy of their exquisite carpets and embroideries, the solemn grandeur of their calligraphy and terrible beauty of their weapons!
In the ninth century, the author al-Jahiz from Basra commented that if one counted a Turk’s days at the end of his life, one would find that he had spent more time in the saddle than on the ground. He said that the Turks were such expert archers that the arrows they shot backwards when retreating were as deadly as those shot forwards. In fact, a Turkish cavalryman could shoot in all four directions while riding at full speed.
Much of the land that was inhabited by the Turks is barren. The main landscapes are deserts, treeless mountains and infinite plains. Fierce sun and hot winds punished the traveller by day, while at night he endured bitter cold. Towns and villages built of clay blended with the surrounding areas. So imagine a traveller’s delight when, approaching his destination after a long, arduous journey, he first saw glorious turquoise-tiles adorning the city’s domes, above the dun-coloured expanse!
Excerpt from Turks Illustrated Guide, written by Fiona McHardy, illustrated by Ilya (edilya@hotmail.com). Free to teachers and students with an exhibition ticket at the Education Desk and available to other visitors from the RA Shop at a cost of £1.95 (while stocks last).
