The Turkmen of the Middle East
Most folks when they think of the Middle East, they think Jew or Arab. They do not realize that there are multiple nationalities that exist in the Middle East / North African region. Not only are there many different nationalities, but there are also different languages.
One of these groups are the Turkmen. They are spread out throughout, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Iraq and Turkey. Their origins vary. These are not people from Turkmenistan, but rather a specific group from Turkey.
After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, there were many “Turks” that remained outside of the country that became Turkey. These different Turkish groups, continued on in their culture and language. However, back in mainland Turkey there was a major change in language.
Michele Ataturk, whated to see things move more westward. In many ways you can see a funny thing that happened there.
Prior to Islam, the nation was Byzantine. The people read with a Latin alphabet. When, Islam invaded and took over, things were changed to an Arabic Alphabet. Now that the Ottoman Empire has fallen, the people reverted back to the Latin alphabet.
“Thousands of words, and some grammatical devices, from the Arabic and Persian, held a tight grip over Ottoman Turkish. In the early 1930s, Atatürk spearheaded the movement to eliminate these borrowings. To replace the loan words from foreign languages, large number of original words, which had been in use in the earlier centuries, where revived, and provincial expressions and new coinages were introduced. The transformation met with unparalleled success: In the 1920s, the written language consisted of more than 80 percent Arabic, Persian, and French words; by the early 1980s the ratio had declined to a mere 10 percent. ” A new language
Now the Turkmen, Azeri’s and other Turkic groups that remained outside of Turkey did not undergo this change. How then should we reach them with the Gospel?
For the Turkmen there has not been another Bible made that is similar to their language since the 1920’s when the last translation was made prior to the language changes.
Turkish is similar, but it is very difficult for Turkmen to understand entirely what is being said when presenting the Gospel to them in modern Turkish. Many of them watch Turkish television but still it remains difficult for them as this is not their spoken language.
Arabs for Christ, is working at reviving the old Ottoman Turkish Bible. Recently we purchased two ninety year old manuscripts from Istanbul to begin the process of resurrecting this dead translation. If you live in a country where there are Turkmen and would like a copy you can now download a copy or buy a copy off the net.
1857 Ali Bey Translation
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Osmanli Incil Here you can find more info about our project among the Turkmen of Lebanon and also find more media.
Filed under: evangelism