Turanians

Turanian is a controversial term^[1] that has been used in reference to diverse groups of people. It has had currency in Turanism, Pan-Turkism, and historic Turkish nationalism.

Many of the uses of the word are obsolete. It may refer to:

• The Turanid race
• An Iranian ethnic group mentioned in the Avesta; see Turan
• Any historical people of Transoxiana or present-day Turkistan
• Obsolete term for any historical Ural–Altaic people, in particular:
  • The Turkic peoples during Turkic expansion
  • The Huns described by the Europeans and Chinese
  • The Mongols, who are distantly related to the Turks
  • Some sources have mentioned the Japanese and Korean peoples
• The Sami or Lapps of northern Scandinavia
• Finno-Ugric peoples like the Finns, Estonians, and Hungarians
• The Dravidian people of southern India and Pakistan were theorized to have Turanian ancestors
• Speakers of Caucasian languages
• Non-Semitic and non-Indo-European peoples of the Late Bronze Age were theorized to have Turanian ancestors; see Hurro-Urartian and Etruscans
• The term formerly used for the Caucasian Avars

Notes

1. Tomoko Masuzawa The Invention of World Religions. Or, How European Universalism was Preserved in the Language of Pluralism, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2005, p. 228

See also

• Turanid race
• Altaic peoples
• Hungarian Turanism
• Turan
• Turanism
• Turkic peoples
• Uralic peoples