Turkey: The Sixteen Great Turkish Empires

Last modified: 2005-01-22 by ivan sache
Keywords: turkish empires (the sixteen great) |
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• Presentation of the Sixteen Great Turkish Empires
• Flags of the Sixteen Great Turkish Empires

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• Turkey

Presentation of the Sixteen Great Turkish Empires

The Sixteen Great Turkish Empires (16 büyük Türk imparatorluğunu) are introduced on the website of the Turkish Presidency as follows:

The 16 Great Turkish Empires before the Republic - The Turkish Presidential seal is composed of a sun (16 points/rays) surrounded by 16 stars. The sun represents the present Turkish Republic and the stars represent the 16 independent Turkish Empires that have been founded throughout history.

The 16 Great Turkish Empires are listed on several Turkish sources, such as the websites of the Research Centre for Turkestan and Azerbaijan and the Australian-Turkish Media Group. All sources give an identical presentation of the Empires, which probably comes from some official document. The Empires are listed in chronological order:

• The Great Hun Empire (Büyük Hün İmparatorluğu); 204 BC - 216 AD
• The Western Hun Empire (Batı Hün İmparatorluğu); 48 - 216 AD
• The European Hun Empire (Avrupa Hün İmparatorluğu); 375 - 454
• The White Hun Empire (Ak Hün İmparatorluğu); 420 - 552
• The Göktürk Empire (Göktürk İmparatorluğu); 552 - 743
• The Avar Empire (Avar İmparatorluğu); 562 - 796
• The Hazar Empire (Hazar İmparatorluğu); 602 - 1016
• The Uygur State (Uygur Devleti); 740 - 1335
• The Karahan (Karahanlılar); 932 - 1212
• The Gazneli (Gazneliler); 962 - 1183
• The Great Seljuk Empire (Büyük Selçuk İmparatorluğu); 1040 - 1157
• The Harzemshah (Harzemşahlar); 1077 - 1231
• The Golden Horde (Altınordu Devleti); 1224 - 1502
• The Great Timur Empire (Büyük Timur İmparatorluğu); 1369 - 1501
• The Babür Empire (Babür İmparatorluğu); 1526 - 1858
• The Ottoman Empire (Osmanlı İmparatorluğu); 1299 - 1922

Ivan Sache, 4 July 2004

Similarly, the eight-pointed star of Azerbaijan refers to eight major Turkish nations.

António Martins, 12 June 2003

Flags of the Sixteen Great Turkish Empires

The Presidential seal is shown on the website of the Turkish Presidency surrounded by the flags of the 16 Great Turkish Empires. Starting from the top of the emblem, the flags are arranged clockwise in the chronological order given above.

These flags are also shown on a series of postage stamps released by the Turkish Postal administration.

To the best of our knowledge, the historical existence of most of these flags is not proven and we are not aware of their origin and designer. Any information on these questions would be greatly appreciated.

The flags are shown on four different pages of this website, which can be reached from the list of the Empires given above.

Ivan Sache, 27 November 2003