Turanism - Origins of Pan-Turanianism

Origins of Pan-Turanianism

The idea of a Turanic family of languages and Turanic people was put forward and promoted by the German linguist Max Müller. In his lectures on the “Science of Language”, he applied the name Turanian to the "nomadic races of Asia as opposed to the agricultural or Aryan races". Traditional history cites its early origins amongst Ottoman officers and intelligentsia studying and residing in 1870s Imperial Germany. The fact that many Ottoman Turkish officials were becoming aware of their sense of "Turkishness" is beyond doubt of course, and the role of subsequent nationalists, such as Ziya Gökalp is fully established historically.

…they (the Turks) could form a political entity stretching from the Altai Mountains in Eastern Asia to the Bosphorus. —

Ármin Vámbéry contributed in the spreading of Turanian ideas among Turkish people. Originally the orientalist Vámbéry was in the employ of Lord Palmerston of the British Foreign office. Vámbéry’s mission was to create an anti-Slavic racialist movement among the Turks that would divert the Russians from “The Great Game” which they were playing against Britain in Persia and Central Asia.