Etymology
The term Turkestan is of Turkish origin and was believed to have never been in use to denote a single nation although it was at one time ruled by an Emperor. It was first used by Persian geographers to describe the place of Turkish peoples. After Persia had been considerably weakened by its defeat in 1860, Imperial Russia stepped up its campaign to wrest full control over the Central Asian region from Persian dominance and on their way southward, the Russians took the city of Turkestan (in present day Kazakhstan) in 1864. Mistaking its name for that of the entire region, they adopted the appellation of "Turkestan" for their new territory. Today the term is used to describe a region which is inhabited mainly by Turkic peoples in Central Asia. It includes present-day Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Xinjiang.Many would also include Turkic regions of Russia (Tatarstan & parts of Siberia) as well.
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Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
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