Sons of the Conquerors
Hugh Pope
413 pages including index
published in 2005
When I got this book from the library I thought it would be more of a history book than it turned out to be. Instead what I got was the traveloque of a Turcophile American journalist through the Turkic world and his impressions of the history of the Turcic peoples and the contemporary politics shaping their countries. Despite this misunderstanding sons of the Conquerors was well worth reading, perhaps lighter on history than I would’ve liked it to be, but good at giving a contemporary snapshot of the Turkic world.
Which is of course far bigger than just present day Turkey, bigger even than the band of countries in Africa, Europe and Asia that formed the old Ottoman Empire. In fact the Turkic people stretch in an unbroken band around the middle of the world, from western China through Iran, the various Central Asian states that once were part of the USSR, the Middle East into Turkey itself and the Balkans. The Turkish diaspora reaches even further, into Europe, Holland and Germany especially and across the Atlantic Ocean into the USA. Pope attempts to travel through all parts of this world, meeting with Ugyur in China, the Turan people of Iran, the various peoples of the ex-USSR struggling with keeping their new states going and so on. He himself has been living in Turkey, in Istanbul for years, speaks the language or at least the Istanbul dialect of Turkish and more or less understands the Turks if perhaps not the other Turkic people.
Sons of the Conquerors is divided into six parts. The first four parts highlight supposed essential characteristics of the Turkic people: their warrior mentality (“Soldier Nation”), their need for a strong leader (“Save us, Father!”), the isolation from their neigbours (“A Lonely History”), the Turkic variations on Islam (“Islam Allaturca”), while the last two parts look to the future rather than the past, focusing on the Turkic world’s great resources: oil, water and its own people.
Hugh Pope has been livign and working in Turkey for decades, speaks the language and is intrigued by its people. His fascination for the Turkish people comes through in his writing. He’s not uncritical, but his sympathies are clearly with them. Sons of the Conquerors is not an in depth look at Turkish history, but as a combination of travelogue and broad overview of this history it works well.