The First Turkish States


With another neighbor, Turkey, the historical fate of Ukraine in the Middle Ages was closely linked.

Around 1000, the nomadic tribes of the Seljuk Turks swept over Europe from the plains of Kazakhstan. They conquered Central Asia, Persia, Syria and Iraq, and soon – Armenia and Byzantium. In 1071, in battle near the fortress of Manzikert, the Byzantines suffered a crushing defeat from them. The Byzantine emperor was captured. The Turks rejoiced because they had hoped for a colossal ransom. But the Byzantine throne quickly occupied another emperor. Disappointed Seljuks attacked Byzantine Asia Minor and soon were already carnivorous looking at impregnable Constantinople. They called their possessions in Asia Minor Rome, historians the Seljuk sultanate. The Sultan proclaimed himself “the ruler of the world.”

In Asia Minor, the conquerors, who gradually merged with the local population into a single Turkish people, brought ruin and tyranny. There began a cultural decline, because the oppressed people lost interest in religion, and in science – everything in the world.


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The First Turkish States