• Early Turkish empires (500s–900s)
• Words to Know: The Turks
• The Seljuks (900s–1243)
• The Mamluks (1252–1517)
• The Assassins
• The Ottomans
• The Janissaries
• For More Information

The name of Turkey, a country that forms a land bridge between Europe and Asia, reflects the Turkish heritage of its majority population. Yet the region was inhabited for thousands of years before the Turks arrived, during which time it was known variously as Asia Minor or Anatolia. Its ancient civilization and culture were much more closely tied to Greece than they were to the Turks, a Central Asian people who arrived only in the...