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Morin khuur

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The morin khuur ( Mongolian : морин хуур , romanized :  morin khuur ), also known as the horsehead fiddle , is a traditional Mongolian bowed stringed instrument . It is one of the most important musical instruments of the Mongol people , and is considered a symbol of the nation of Mongolia. The morin khuur is one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity identified by UNESCO .

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92-458: In Mongolian, the instrument is usually called morin khuur [mɔrin xʊːr] or "horse fiddle". The full Classical Mongolian name for the morin khuur is morin toloğay’ta quğur , (which in modern Khalkh cyrillic is Морин толгойтой хуур) meaning fiddle with a horse's head . Usually it is abbreviated as "Морин хуур", Latin transcription "Morin huur". In western Mongolia it is known as ikil ( Mongolian : икил —not to be confused with

184-426: A Mongolic language or related topic is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Mongolia -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Turkic peoples The Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West , Central , East , and North Asia as well as parts of Europe , who speak Turkic languages . According to historians and linguists,

276-553: A language family of some 30 languages, spoken across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean , to Siberia and Manchuria and through to the Middle East. Some 170 million people have a Turkic language as their native language; an additional 20 million people speak a Turkic language as a second language . The Turkic language with the greatest number of speakers is Turkish proper , or Anatolian Turkish,

368-508: A Turkic language. Some scholars believe they were probably a confederation of various ethnic and linguistic groups. According to a study by Alexander Savelyev and Choongwon Jeong, published in 2020 in the journal Evolutionary Human Sciences by Cambridge University Press, "the predominant part of the Xiongnu population is likely to have spoken Turkic". However, genetic studies found a mixture of western and eastern Eurasian ancestries, suggesting

460-405: A depth of 8–9 cm (3.1–3.5 in); the width of the soundbox is about 20 cm (7.9 in) at the top and 25 cm (9.8 in) at the bottom. Good quality instruments can achieve a strength of 85 dBA, which allows it to be played (if desired) even in mezzoforte or crescendo . When horsehair is used, the luthiers prefer to use the hair of white stallions. In general the quality of

552-694: A fruit) 'just fully ripe'; (of a human being) 'in the prime of life, young, and vigorous'". Hakan Aydemir (2022) also contends that Türk originally did not mean "strong, powerful" but "gathered; united, allied, confederated" and was derived from Pre- Proto-Turkic verb * türü "heap up, collect, gather, assemble". The earliest Turkic-speaking peoples identifiable in Chinese sources are the Yenisei Kyrgyz and Xinli , located in South Siberia. Another example of an early Turkic population would be

644-596: A generic name for Inner Asians (whether Turkic- or Mongolic-speaking). Only in modern era do modern historians use Turks to refer to all peoples speaking Turkic languages , differentiated from non-Turkic speakers. According to some researchers (Duan, Xue, Tang, Lung, Onogawa, etc.) the later Ashina tribe descended from the Tiele confederation . The Tiele however were probably one of many early Turkic groups, ancestral to later Turkic populations. However, according to Lee & Kuang (2017), Chinese histories do not describe

736-619: A horse hair string depends on its preparation, the climate conditions and the nutrition of the animals. That gives a wide area of quality differences. Quality nylon strings (Khalkh Mongolian: сатуркан хялгас ) last for up to 2 years, but only if prepared and placed properly on the instrument. Most beginners don't comb the strings, then the sound quality worsens quickly. Good strings nearly sound like steel strings, and in spectrograms they show about 7-8 harmonics. Morin khuur vary in form depending on region. Instruments from central Mongolia tend to have larger bodies and thus possess more volume than

828-508: A large genetic diversity within the Xiongnu. The Turkic-related component may be brought by eastern Eurasian genetic substratum. Using the only extant possibly Xiongnu writings, the rock art of the Yinshan and Helan Mountains , some scholars argue that the older Xiongnu writings are precursors to the earliest known Turkic alphabet, the Orkhon script . Petroglyphs of this region dates from

920-513: A lower frequency of the Baikal component (c. 22%) and a lack of the Han-like component, being closer to other Indo-Iranian groups. A subsequent study in 2022 also found that the spread of Turkic-speaking populations into Central Asia happened after the spread of Indo-European speakers into the area. Another 2022 study found that all Altaic‐speaking (Turkic, Tungusic, and Mongolic) populations "were

1012-575: A mixture of dominant Siberian Neolithic ancestry and non-negligible YRB ancestry", suggesting their origins were somewhere in Northeast Asia, most likely the Amur river basin . Except Eastern and Southern Mongolic-speakers, all "possessed a high proportion of West Eurasian-related ancestry, in accordance with the linguistically documented language borrowing in Turkic languages". A 2023 study analyzed

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1104-820: A possible source for this folk etymology, yet Golden thinks this connection requires more data. It is generally accepted that the name Türk is ultimately derived from the Old-Turkic migration-term 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰 Türük / Törük , which means 'created, born' or 'strong'. Turkologist Peter B. Golden agrees that the term Turk has roots in Old Turkic , yet is not convinced by attempts to link Dili , Dingling , Chile , Tele , and Tiele , which possibly transcribed * tegrek (probably meaning ' cart '), to Tujue , which transliterated to Türküt . Scholars, including Toru Haneda, Onogawa Hidemi, and Geng Shimin believed that Di , Dili , Dingling , Chile and Tujue all came from

1196-619: A powerful faction of northern China. They created two other dynasties, including the Later Jin and Later Han and Northern Han (Later Han and Northern Han were ruled by the same family, with the latter being a rump state of the former). The Shatuo Liu Zhiyuan was a Buddhist and he worshipped the Mengshan Giant Buddha in 945. The Shatuo dynasties were replaced by the Han Chinese Song dynasty . The Shatuo became

1288-510: A professional contest is held and an instrument making competition. During June, the "Roaring Hooves" festival is held. This is a small festival for professional skilled players - but unfortunately a closed festival. These recordings are often shown in TV reports later. On the national festival "Naadam" praise songs are played for the most magnificent horse and for the highest ranked wrestler and archer. The songs are called "Magtaal" and accompanied by

1380-527: A shared "Neolithic Hongshan ancestry", but in contrary primary Ancient Northeast Asian (ANA) Neolithic ancestry from the Amur region , supporting an origin from Northeast Asia rather than Manchuria. Around 2,200 BC, the (agricultural) ancestors of the Turkic peoples probably migrated westwards into Mongolia , where they adopted a pastoral lifestyle, in part borrowed from Iranian peoples . Given nomadic peoples such as Xiongnu , Rouran and Xianbei share underlying genetic ancestry "that falls into or close to

1472-596: A significant portion of the Uyghur population abandoned their nomadic lifestyle for a sedentary one. The Uyghur Khaganate produced extensive literature, and a relatively high number of its inhabitants were literate. The official state religion of the early Uyghur Khaganate was Manichaeism , which was introduced through the conversion of Bögü Qaghan by the Sogdians after the An Lushan rebellion . The Uyghur Khaganate

1564-463: A syncretic religion. The Göktürks were the first Turkic people to write Old Turkic in a runic script, the Orkhon script . The Khaganate was also the first state known as "Turk". It eventually collapsed due to a series of dynastic conflicts, but many states and peoples later used the name "Turk". The Göktürks ( First Turkic Kaganate ) quickly spread west to the Caspian Sea. Between 581 and 603

1656-565: A unique style of praise and morin khuur. Many Mongolians have the instrument in their home because it is a symbol for peace and happiness. During the winter time, but also at the beginning of the spring time, a morin khuur player is called in for the "жавар үргээх", the "ceremony for scaring away the frost". In general, many traditional pieces are played, divided in the different styles: "уртын дуу", "urtiin duu" (long song), "магтаал", "magtaal" (praise songs) and "татлага", "tatlaga" (solo pieces, mostly imitating horses or camels). The fourth style,

1748-428: A wicked lord slew the boy's prized white horse, the horse's spirit came to Sükhe in a dream and instructed him to make an instrument from the horse's body, so the two could still be together and neither would be lonely. So the first morin khuur was assembled, with horse bones as its neck, horsehair strings, horse skin covering its wooden soundbox, and its scroll carved into the shape of a horse head. The fact that most of

1840-600: Is a very similar instrument, and may indicate this is an extremely ancient instrument perhaps even dating back to the outward migration of people out of the Middle East and Central Asia some 40,000 years ago. Often these instruments are depicted with a goat head instead of a horse in Europe. The modern style Morin Khuur is played with nearly natural finger positions . That means, the distance between two fingers usually make

1932-499: Is crafted from higher quality tonewoods, such as spruce for the top and birch for the back and sides. Some instruments, particularly those intended for classical music, use maple for the back and sides to produce a brighter sound. The modern standard height is 1.15 m (3 ft 9 in); the distance between the upper bridge and the lower bridge is about 60 cm (24 in), but the upper bridge especially can be adapted to match smaller player's fingers. The sound box usually has

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2024-662: Is the national instrument in Mongolia. Many festivals are held for celebrating the importance of this instrument on the Mongolian culture, like the biannual "International Morin Huur Festival and Competition", which is organized by the "World Morinhuur Association". First held in 2008, second in 2010 - with 8 participating countries (Mongolia, Korea, China, Russia, USA, Germany, France, Japan) - and planned for May 2012. Here, many amateurs come and play freestyle pieces, but also

2116-650: Is to be associated with the Xinglongwa culture and the succeeding Hongshan culture , based on varying degrees of specific East Asian genetic substratum among modern Turkic speakers. According to historians, "the Proto-Turkic subsistence strategy included an agricultural component, a tradition that ultimately went back to the origin of millet agriculture in Northeast China". This view is however questioned by other geneticists, who found no evidence for

2208-409: Is to learn the scales, to train the ear for achieving the " muscle memory ", the ability to automatically adapt the finger position when a note wasn't hit properly. The main goal is to achieve a "clear" sound, that means no change in volume or frequency is desired. That depends on three main facts: As variation are usually used the " accent " and the " vibrato ". Other techniques like the " Col legno ",

2300-840: The Tongdian , they were "mixed barbarians" ( 雜胡 ; záhú ) who migrated from Pingliang (now in modern Gansu province , China ) to the Rourans seeking inclusion in their confederacy and protection from the prevailing dynasty. Alternatively, according to the Book of Zhou , History of the Northern Dynasties , and New Book of Tang , the Ashina clan was a component of the Xiongnu confederation. Göktürks were also posited as having originated from an obscure Suo state (索國), north of

2392-604: The 9th millennium BCE to the 19th century, and consists mainly of engraved signs (petroglyphs) and few painted images. Excavations done during 1924–1925 in Noin-Ula kurgans located in the Selenga River in the northern Mongolian hills north of Ulaanbaatar produced objects with over 20 carved characters, which were either identical or very similar to the runic letters of the Turkic Orkhon script discovered in

2484-473: The Caucasus , China, and northern Iraq. The Turkic language family was traditionally considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family . Howeover since the 1950s, a majority of linguists have rejected the proposal, after supposed cognates were found not to be valid, hypothesized sound shifts were not found, and Turkic and Mongolic languages were found to be converging rather than diverging over

2576-708: The Dingling . In Late Antiquity itself, as well as in and the Middle Ages , the name "Scythians" was used in Greco-Roman and Byzantine literature for various groups of nomadic " barbarians " living on the Pontic-Caspian Steppe who were not related to the actual Scythians. Medieval European chroniclers subsumed various Turkic peoples of the Eurasian steppe as "Scythians". Between 400 CE and

2668-618: The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period starting with Later Tang. The Shatuo chief Zhuye Chixin's family was adopted by the Tang dynasty and given the title prince of Jin and the Tang dynasty imperial surname of Li, which is why the Shatuo of Later Tang claimed to be restoring the Tang dynasty and not founding a new one. The official language of these dynasties was Chinese and they used Chinese titles and names. Some Shaotuo Turk emperors (of

2760-780: The Jin in the Spring and Autumn period . Historically they were established after the 6th century BCE. The Tiele were first mentioned in Chinese literature from the 6th to 8th centuries. Some scholars (Haneda, Onogawa, Geng, etc.) proposed that Tiele , Dili , Dingling , Chile , Tele , & Tujue all transliterated underlying Türk ; however, Golden proposed that Dili , Dingling , Chile , Tele , & Tiele transliterated Tegrek while Tujue transliterated Türküt , plural of Türk . The appellation Türük ( Old Turkic : 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰) ~ Türk (OT: 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰚) (whence Middle Chinese 突厥 * dwət-kuɑt > * tɦut-kyat > standard Chinese : Tūjué )

2852-908: The Ongud Turks living in Inner Mongolia after the Song dynasty conquered the last Shatuo dynasty of Northern Han. The Ongud assimilated to the Mongols. The Yenisei Kyrgyz allied with China to destroy the Uyghur Khaganate in the year 840 AD. From the Yenisei River , the Kyrgyz pushed south and eastward in to Xinjiang and the Orkhon Valley in central Mongolia, leaving much of the Uyghur civilization in ruins. Much of

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2944-628: The Orkhon Valley . The earliest certain mentioning of the politonym "Turk" was in the Chinese Book of Zhou . In the 540s AD, this text mentions that the Turks came to China's border seeking silk goods and a trade relationship. A Sogdian diplomat represented China in a series of embassies between the Western Wei dynasty and the Turks in the years 545 and 546. According to the Book of Sui and

3036-793: The Proto-Turkic language originated in Central-East Asia, potentially in Altai-Sayan region , Mongolia or Tuva . Initially, Proto-Turkic speakers were potentially both hunter-gatherers and farmers; they later became nomadic pastoralists . Early and medieval Turkic groups exhibited a wide range of both East Asian and West-Eurasian physical appearances and genetic origins, in part through long-term contact with neighboring peoples such as Iranic , Mongolic , Tocharian , Uralic and Yeniseian peoples. Many vastly differing ethnic groups have throughout history become part of

3128-783: The Western Turkic Khaganate in Kazakhstan separated from the Eastern Turkic Khaganate in Mongolia and Manchuria during a civil war. The Han-Chinese successfully overthrew the Eastern Turks in 630 and created a military Protectorate until 682. After that time the Second Turkic Khaganate ruled large parts of the former Göktürk area. After several wars between Turks, Chinese and Tibetans, the weakened Second Turkic Khaganate

3220-491: The " Pizzicato " or the " Martellato " are generally not used on the Morin Huur. Because of its standard tune to Bb and F mostly western music is transposed for being played in one of the four most common scales: F major, F minor, B ♭ Major, E ♭ major. When used as a solo instrument the Morin Huur is often tuned a half tone higher or lower. Nearly all of the Mongolian style pieces are in F minor, and often

3312-605: The "western Eurasian origin and multiple origin hypotheses". However, they also noted that "Central Steppe and early Medieval Türk exhibited a high but variable degree of West Eurasian ancestry, indicating there was a genetic substructure of the Türkic empire." The early medieval Türk samples were modelled as having 37.8% West Eurasian ancestry and 62.2% Ancient Northeast Asian ancestry and historic Central Steppe Türk samples were also an admixture of West Eurasian and Ancient Northeast Asian ancestry, while historic Karakhanid, Kipchak and

3404-441: The "биелгее" is rarely played in these ceremonies, but in western Mongolia it is common for accompanying "tatlaga dancing" in 3 times - like a waltz, but with dance movements imitating daily tasks of a nomad's family. A number of folk metal and folk rock bands from Mongolia and the Chinese autonomous region of Inner Mongolia have combined heavy metal and rock music with traditional Mongolian lyrical themes and instruments, including

3496-704: The 13th century; in the 14th century, Islam became the official religion under Uzbeg Khan where the general population (Turks) as well as the aristocracy (Mongols) came to speak the Kipchak language and were collectively known as " Tatars " by Russians and Westerners. This country was also known as the Kipchak Khanate and covered most of what is today Ukraine , as well as the entirety of modern-day southern and eastern Russia (the European section). The Golden Horde disintegrated into several khanates and hordes in

3588-615: The 15th and 16th century including the Crimean Khanate , Khanate of Kazan , and Kazakh Khanate (among others), which were one by one conquered and annexed by the Russian Empire in the 16th through 19th centuries. In Siberia, the Siberian Khanate was established in the 1490s by fleeing Tatar aristocrats of the disintegrating Golden Horde who established Islam as the official religion in western Siberia over

3680-488: The 16th century, Byzantine sources use the name Σκύθαι ( Skuthai ) in reference to twelve different Turkic peoples. In the modern Turkish language as used in the Republic of Turkey, a distinction is made between "Turks" and the "Turkic peoples" in loosely speaking: the term Türk corresponds specifically to the "Turkish-speaking" people (in this context, "Turkish-speaking" is considered the same as "Turkic-speaking"), while

3772-631: The 5th–16th centuries, partially overlapping with the Mongol Empire period. Based on single-path IBD tracts, the common Turkic ancestral population lived prior to these migration events, and likely stem from a similar source population as Mongolic peoples further East. Historical data suggests that the Mongol Empire period acted as secondary force of "turkification", as the Mongol conquest "did not involve massive re-settlements of Mongols over

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3864-775: The 8th century, and the alphabets were generally replaced by the Old Uyghur alphabet in the East and Central Asia , Arabic script in the Middle and Western Asia, Cyrillic in Eastern Europe and in the Balkans, and Latin alphabet in Central Europe. The latest recorded use of Turkic alphabet was recorded in Central Europe's Hungary in 1699 CE. The Turkic runiform scripts, unlike other typologically close scripts of

3956-634: The Ashina and the Göktürks as descending from the Dingling or the Tiele confederation. It has even been suggested that the Xiongnu themselves, who were mentioned in Han dynasty records, were Proto-Turkic speakers. The Turks may ultimately have been of Xiongnu descent. Although little is known for certain about the Xiongnu language(s), it seems likely that at least a considerable part of Xiongnu tribes spoke

4048-417: The B ♭ strings several harmonics are available: B ♭ ', F", B", also often players accompanying the F' on the F string with an F" overtone at the F' position on the B ♭ string. Some parts of the bowing technique is unique - the little and the ring finger of the right hand usually touch the bow hair, which is used for setting accents. The other two fingers maintain a slight pressure on

4140-431: The B string is used to play C, D, E ♭ , then moves a little bit for hitting the F' with the little finger, then without moving the G position can be reached with the 1st finger. It is also possible to touch the B ♭ string with the thumb to get a C, and use the ring finger under the F string to achieve the D ♯ . On the F strings only the first harmonic is used, so the scale ranges from F to F'. On

4232-598: The DNA of Empress Ashina (568–578 AD), a Royal Göktürk, whose remains were recovered from a mausoleum in Xianyang , China . The authors determined that Empress Ashina belonged to the North-East Asian mtDNA haplogroup F1d , and that approximately 96-98% of her autosomal ancestry was of Ancient Northeast Asian origin, while roughly 2-4% was of West Eurasian origin, indicating ancient admixture. This study weakened

4324-725: The First Turkic Khaganate. The original Old Turkic name Kök Türk derives from kök ~ kö:k , "sky, sky-coloured, blue, blue-grey". Unlike its Xiongnu predecessor, the Göktürk Khaganate had its temporary Khagans from the Ashina clan, who were subordinate to a sovereign authority controlled by a council of tribal chiefs. The Khaganate retained elements of its original animistic- shamanistic religion, that later evolved into Tengriism , although it received missionaries of Buddhist monks and practiced

4416-413: The Kangar union was located in the Ulytau mountains. Among the Pechenegs, the Kangar formed the elite of the Pecheneg tribes. After being defeated by the Kipchaks , Oghuz Turks , and the Khazars , they migrated west and defeated Magyars , and after forming an alliance with the Bulgars , they defeated the Byzantine Army. The Pecheneg state was established by the 11th century and at its peak carried

4508-416: The Later Jin, Later Han and Northern Han) also claimed patrilineal Han Chinese ancestry. After the fall of the Tang dynasty in 907, the Shatuo Turks replaced them and created the Later Tang dynasty in 923. The Shatuo Turks ruled over a large part of northern China, including Beijing . They adopted Chinese names and united Turkic and Chinese traditions. Later Tang fell in 937 but the Shatuo rose to become

4600-667: The Proto-Turkic Urheimat: the southern Altai-Sayan region, and in Southern Siberia , from Lake Baikal to eastern Mongolia . Other studies suggested an early presence of Turkic peoples in Mongolia, or Tuva . A possible genealogical link of the Turkic languages to Mongolic and Tungusic languages, specifically a hypothetical homeland in Manchuria , such as proposed in the Transeurasian hypothesis , by Martine Robbeets , has received support but also criticism, with opponents attributing similarities to long-term contact. The proto-Turkic-speakers may be linked to Neolithic East Asian agricultural societies in Northeastern China , which

4692-415: The Tang dynasty in fighting against their fellow Turkic people in the Uyghur Khaganate . In 839, when the Uyghur khaganate (Huigu) general Jueluowu (掘羅勿) rose against the rule of then-reigning Zhangxin Khan , he elicited the help from Zhuye Chixin by giving Zhuye 300 horses, and together, they defeated Zhangxin Khan, who then committed suicide, precipitating the subsequent collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate. In

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4784-400: The Turkic Karluk samples had 50.6%-61.1% West Eurasian ancestry and 38.9%–49.4% Iron Age Yellow River farmer ancestry. A 2020 study also found "high genetic heterogeneity and diversity during the Türkic and Uyghur periods" in the early medieval period in Eastern Eurasian Steppe . The earliest separate Turkic peoples, such as the Gekun (鬲昆) and Xinli (薪犁), appeared on the peripheries of

4876-567: The Turkic peoples through language shift , acculturation , conquest , intermixing , adoption , and religious conversion . Nevertheless, Turkic peoples share, to varying degrees, non-linguistic characteristics like cultural traits, ancestry from a common gene pool , and historical experiences. Some of the most notable modern Turkic ethnic groups include the Altai people , Azerbaijanis , Chuvash people , Gagauz people , Kazakhs , Kyrgyz people , Turkmens , Turkish people , Tuvans , Uyghurs , Uzbeks , and Yakuts . The first known mention of

4968-457: The Turkic word Türk , which means 'powerful' and 'strength', and its plural form is Türküt . Even though Gerhard Doerfer supports the proposal that türk means 'strong' in general, Gerard Clauson points out that "the word türk is never used in the generalized sense of 'strong'" and that türk was originally a noun and meant "'the culminating point of maturity' (of a fruit, human being, etc.), but more often used as an [adjective] meaning (of

5060-403: The Uyghur population relocated to the southwest of Mongolia, establishing the Ganzhou Uyghur Kingdom in Gansu where their descendants are the modern day Yugurs and Qocho Kingdom in Turpan, Xinjiang. The Kangar Union ( Qanghar Odaghu ) was a Turkic state in the former territory of the Western Turkic Khaganate (the entire present-day state of Kazakhstan , without Zhetysu ). The capital of

5152-445: The Volga region and mixed with local Volga Finns to become the Volga Bulgars in what is today Tatarstan . These Bulgars were conquered by the Mongols following their westward sweep under Ogedei Khan in the 13th century. Other Bulgars settled in Southeastern Europe in the 7th and 8th centuries, and mixed with the Slavic population, adopting what eventually became the Slavic Bulgarian language . Everywhere, Turkic groups mixed with

5244-438: The Xiongnu. The Ashina tribe were famed metalsmiths and were granted land south of the Altai Mountains (金山 Jinshan ), which looked like a helmet , from which they were said to have gotten their name 突厥 ( Tūjué ), the first recorded use of "Turk" as a political name. In the 6th-century, Ashina's power had increased such that they conquered the Tiele on their Rouran overlords' behalf and even overthrew Rourans and established

5336-431: The body up a long neck, past a second smaller bridge, to the two tuning pegs in the scroll, which is usually carved into the form of a horse's head. The bow is loosely strung with horse hair coated with larch or cedar wood resin, and is held from underneath with the right hand. The underhand grip enables the hand to tighten the loose hair of the bow, allowing very fine control of the instrument's timbre . The larger of

5428-499: The centuries. Opponents of the theory proposed that the similarities are due to mutual linguistic influences between the groups concerned. The Turkic alphabets are sets of related alphabets with letters (formerly known as runes ), used for writing mostly Turkic languages . Inscriptions in Turkic alphabets were found in Mongolia . Most of the preserved inscriptions were dated to between 8th and 10th centuries CE. The earliest positively dated and read Turkic inscriptions date from

5520-513: The conquered territories. Instead, the Mongol war machine was progressively augmented by various Turkic tribes as they expanded, and in this way Turkic peoples eventually reinforced their expansion over the Eurasian steppe and beyond." A 2018 autosomal single-nucleotide polymorphism study suggested that the Eurasian Steppe slowly transitioned from Indo European and Iranian -speaking groups with largely western Eurasian ancestry to increasing East Asian ancestry with Turkic and Mongolian groups in

5612-416: The distance of a half tone on the lower section of the instrument. On the tune F / B ♭ the index finger hits on the low (F) string the G, the middle finger hits the G ♯ , the ring finger hits the A, the little finger the B flat. Identical positions are on the high strings - C, C ♯ , D, D ♯ . The little finger tips the B strings under the F string, while all other fingers touch

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5704-434: The eastern Turkic neighbors of the Mongols possess similar horse hair instruments (such as the Tuvan igil , the Kazakh kobyz , or the Kyrgyz Kyl kyyak ), though not western Turkic , may point to a possible origin amongst peoples that once inhabited the Mongolian Steppe , and migrated to what is now Tuva , Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan . The gusle/lahuta from Southeastern Europe (Serbia, Croatia & Albania)

5796-418: The gift of a flying horse; he would mount it at night and fly to meet his beloved. A jealous woman had the horse's wings cut off so that the horse fell from the air and died. The grieving shepherd made a horsehead fiddle from the now-wingless horse's skin and tail hair and used it to play poignant songs about his horse. Another legend credits the invention of the morin khuur to a boy named Sükhe (or Suho). After

5888-471: The information gap is so substantial that any connection of these ancient people to the modern Turks is not possible. The Chinese Book of Zhou (7th century) presents an etymology of the name Turk as derived from 'helmet', explaining that this name comes from the shape of a mountain where they worked in the Altai Mountains . Hungarian scholar András Róna-Tas (1991) pointed to a Khotanese-Saka word, tturakä 'lid', semantically stretchable to 'helmet', as

5980-406: The instrument is tuned 1-2 notes lower for coming closer to the tunes used in the deep past. The instruments in the pre-socialist era of Mongolia were usually covered with skin, which mostly doesn't allow the Bb and F tune - usually tuned 2-4 notes deeper. On the contemporary Morin Khuur the deep string is placed at the right side and the high string is placed at the left side, seen from the front of

6072-421: The instrument. The Igil has the opposite placement of strings, so a player has to adapt in order to play pieces made for the other one. For contemporary teaching the modern style is in use. In Mongolia, the morin khuur can be learned at three schools: Also many amateur players acquired reasonable skills by taking lessons from private teachers, or being taught by their parents or other relatives. The morin khuur

6164-417: The late Xiongnu confederation about 200 BCE (contemporaneous with the Chinese Han dynasty ) and later among the Turkic-speaking Tiele as Hegu (紇骨) and Xue (薛). The Tiele (also known as Gaoche 高車, lit. "High Carts"), may be related to the Xiongnu and the Dingling . According to the Book of Wei , the Tiele people were the remnants of the Chidi (赤狄), the red Di people competing with

6256-417: The local populations to varying degrees. The Volga Bulgaria became an Islamic state in 922 and influenced the region as it controlled many trade routes. In the 13th century, Mongols invaded Europe and established the Golden Horde in Eastern Europe, western & northern Central Asia, and even western Siberia. The Cuman-Kipchak Confederation and Islamic Volga Bulgaria were absorbed by the Golden Horde in

6348-458: The morin khuur; some of these bands include Altan Urag , Nine Treasures , Tengger Cavalry , Hanggai , the Hu , and Uuhai. In the Mongolian Gobi herder's daily life, the Morin Khuur has another important use. When a mother camel gives birth to a calf, sometimes she rejects her calf due to various natural stress situations. Mongolian camel herders use Morin Khuur-based melodies alongside special low-harmonic types of songs called "Khoosloh" to heal

6440-443: The mother camel's stress and encourage her to re-adopt her calf. While re-adoption in animal husbandry practice is widely used in various nomadic civilizations worldwide, uniquely for Mongolian Gobi herders, only this instrument is used with camels. If a mother camel dies after giving birth to a calf, the herder would use this Khoosloh technique alongside Morin Khuur melodies to encourage another mother camel who has her own calf to adopt

6532-483: The nail of the little finger and the pad of the ring finger. Traditionally, the frame is covered with camel , goat , or sheep skin, in which case a small opening would be left in the back. However, since the 1970s, new completely wooden sound box instruments have appeared, with carved f-holes similar to European stringed instruments. A beginner-grade morin khuur typically features a pine top with birch or laminated back and sides. In contrast, player-grade morin khuur

6624-465: The new one. The practice is well documented in the documentary called Ingen Egshig directed by Badraa J. in 1986 and was also remade in 2003 by director Byambasuren Davaa with a different title of The Story of the Weeping Camel which was nominated in 2005 Academy Award for Best Documentary. Classical Mongolian Classical Mongolian was the literary language of Mongolian that

6716-590: The next few years, when Uyghur Khaganate remnants tried to raid Tang borders, the Shatuo participated extensively in counterattacking the Uyghur Khaganate with other tribes loyal to Tang. In 843, Zhuye Chixin, under the command of the Han Chinese officer Shi Xiong with Tuyuhun, Tangut and Han Chinese troops, participated in a raid against the Uyghur khaganate that led to the slaughter of Uyghur forces at Shahu mountain. The Shatuo Turks had founded several short-lived sinicized dynasties in northern China during

6808-512: The northeast Asian gene pool", the proto-Turkic language likely originated in northeastern Asia. Genetic data found that almost all modern Turkic peoples retained at least some shared ancestry associated with populations in "South Siberia and Mongolia" (SSM), supporting this region as the "Inner Asian Homeland (IAH) of the pioneer carriers of Turkic languages" which subsequently expanded into Central Asia. The main Turkic expansion took place during

6900-428: The partly Islamized native Siberian Tatars and indigenous Uralic peoples. It was the northernmost Islamic state in recorded history and it survived up until 1598 when it was conquered by Russia. The Uyghur Khaganate had established itself by the year 744 AD. Through trade relations established with China, its capital city of Ordu Baliq in central Mongolia's Orkhon Valley became a wealthy center of commerce, and

6992-558: The past 4000 years, including extensive Turkic migrations out of Mongolia and slow assimilation of local populations. A 2022 report suggested that Turkic and Mongolic populations in Central Asia formed via admixture events during the Iron Age between "local Indo-Iranian and a South-Siberian or Mongolian group with a high East-Asian ancestry (around 60%)". Modern day Turkmens form an outlier among Central Asian Turkic-speakers with

7084-411: The similar Tuvan igil )—while in eastern Mongolia it is known as shoor ( Mongolian : Шоор ). The instrument consists of a trapeziform wooden-framed sound box to which two strings are attached. It is held nearly upright with the sound box in the musician's lap or between the musician's legs. The strings are made from hairs from nylon or horses' tails, strung parallel, and run over a wooden bridge on

7176-552: The smaller-bodied instruments of Inner Mongolia . In addition, the Inner Mongolian instruments have mostly mechanics for tightening the strings, where Mongolian luthiers mostly use traditional ebony or rosewood pegs in a slightly conic shape. In Tuva , the morin khuur is sometimes used in place of the igil . One legend about the origin of the morin khuur is that a shepherd named Namjil the Cuckoo (or Khuhuu Namjil) received

7268-589: The speakers of which account for about 40% of all Turkic speakers. More than one third of these are ethnic Turks of Turkey , dwelling predominantly in Turkey proper and formerly Ottoman -dominated areas of Southern and Eastern Europe and West Asia ; as well as in Western Europe, Australia and the Americas as a result of immigration. The remainder of the Turkic people are concentrated in Central Asia, Russia,

7360-400: The strings from the top. Melodies are usually played from F to F' on the F string, then the player switches to the B ♭ string and continues with G, A, B ♭ . There are 3 hand positions on the F string, and 2 positions on the B ♭ strings a musician must memorize. The idea is that without moving the string hand too much the sound quality improves. The 2nd hand position on

7452-523: The strings. A common technique with other string instruments is the "Kist". When the bow direction changes, the right hand moves a little bit in advance to the opposite direction to avoid scratchy sounds and for achieving a better voice. When pushing the bow the hand closes a little bit in direction of a fist, when pulling it the hand opens - nearly to a right angle between the arm and the fingers. The instrument can be used for playing western style classical music, or Mongolian style pieces. The primary education

7544-811: The term Türki refers generally to the people of modern "Turkic Republics" ( Türki Cumhuriyetler or Türk Cumhuriyetleri ). However, the proper usage of the term is based on the linguistic classification in order to avoid any political sense. In short, the term Türki can be used for Türk or vice versa. [REDACTED]   Crimea ( disputed by Ukraine and Russia) [REDACTED] Sunan Yugur Autonomous County [REDACTED] Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky District (Russian Federation) Possible Proto-Turkic ancestry, at least partial, has been posited for Xiongnu , Huns and Pannonian Avars , as well as Tuoba and Rouran , who were of Proto-Mongolic Donghu ancestry. as well as Tatars , Rourans' supposed descendants. The Turkic languages constitute

7636-671: The term Turk ( Old Turkic : 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰 Türük or 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰:𐰜𐰇𐰛 Kök Türük , Chinese : 突厥 , Pinyin : Tūjué < Middle Chinese * tɦut-kyat < * dwət-kuɑt , Old Tibetan : drugu ) applied to only one Turkic group, namely, the Göktürks , who were also mentioned, as türüg ~ török , in the 6th-century Khüis Tolgoi inscription , most likely not later than 587 AD. A letter by Ishbara Qaghan to Emperor Wen of Sui in 585 described him as "the Great Turk Khan". The Bugut (584 CE) and Orkhon inscriptions (735 CE) use

7728-947: The terms Türküt , Türk and Türük . During the first century CE, Pomponius Mela refers to the Turcae in the forests north of the Sea of Azov , and Pliny the Elder lists the Tyrcae among the people of the same area. However, English archaeologist Ellis Minns contended that Tyrcae Τῦρκαι is "a false correction" for Iyrcae Ἱύρκαι, a people who dwelt beyond the Thyssagetae , according to Herodotus ( Histories , iv. 22), and were likely Ugric ancestors of Magyars . There are references to certain groups in antiquity whose names might have been foreign transcriptions of Tür(ü)k , such as Togarma , Turukha / Turuška , Turukku and so on; but

7820-447: The two strings (the "male" string) has 130 hairs from a stallion 's tail, while the "female" string has 105 hairs from a mare 's tail. Nowadays the strings are made of nylon. Traditionally, the strings were tuned a fifth apart, though in modern music they are more often tuned a fourth apart, usually to B-flat and F. The strings are stopped either by pinching them in the joints of the index and middle fingers, or by pinching them between

7912-510: The world, do not have a uniform palaeography as do, for example, the Gothic runiform scripts, noted for their exceptional uniformity of language and paleography. The Turkic alphabets are divided into four groups, the best known of which is the Orkhon version of the Enisei group. The Orkhon script is the alphabet used by the Göktürks from the 8th century to record the Old Turkic language . It

8004-588: Was first introduced shortly after 1600, when Ligdan Khan set his clergy the task of translating the whole of the Tibetan Buddhist canon , consisting of the Kangyur and Tengyur , into Mongolian. This script then became the established literary language used for all Mongolian literature since its introduction, until the 1930s when the Mongolian Latin alphabet was introduced, which then in 1941

8096-492: Was initially reserved exclusively for the Göktürks by Chinese, Tibetans, and even the Turkic-speaking Uyghurs . In contrast, medieval Muslim writers, including Turkic speakers like Ottoman historian Mustafa Âlî and explorer Evliya Çelebi as well as Timurid scientist Ulugh Beg , often viewed Inner Asian tribes, "as forming a single entity regardless of their linguistic affiliation" commonly used Turk as

8188-771: Was later used by the Uyghur Empire ; a Yenisei variant is known from 9th-century Kyrgyz inscriptions, and it has likely cousins in the Talas Valley of Turkestan and the Old Hungarian script of the 10th century. Irk Bitig is the only known complete manuscript text written in the Old Turkic script. ( Tokhara Yabghus , Turk Shahis ) The origins of the Turkic peoples has been a topic of much discussion. Peter Benjamin Golden proposes two locations for

8280-615: Was replaced by the Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet . Classical Mongolian was formerly used in Mongolia , China , and Russia . It is a standardized written language used in the 18th century and 20th centuries. Classical Mongolian sometimes refers to any language documents in Mongolian script that are neither Pre-classical (i.e. Middle Mongol in the Mongolian script ) nor modern Mongolian . This article about

8372-764: Was replaced by the Uyghur Khaganate in the year 744. The Bulgars established themselves in between the Caspian and Black Seas in the 5th and 6th centuries, followed by their conquerors, the Khazars who converted to Judaism in the 8th or 9th century. After them came the Pechenegs who created a large confederacy, which was subsequently taken over by the Cumans and the Kipchaks . One group of Bulgars settled in

8464-838: Was tolerant of religious diversity and practiced variety of religions including Buddhism, Christianity, shamanism and Manichaeism. During the same time period, the Shatuo Turks emerged as power factor in Northern and Central China and were recognized by the Tang Empire as allied power. In 808, 30,000 Shatuo under Zhuye Jinzhong defected from the Tibetans to Tang China and the Tibetans punished them by killing Zhuye Jinzhong as they were chasing them. The Uyghurs also fought against an alliance of Shatuo and Tibetans at Beshbalik. The Shatuo Turks under Zhuye Chixin ( Li Guochang ) served

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