Turks

Turks, family to Turkic-speaking, chiefly Muslim people extending from Sinkiang (west China) and Siberia to Turkey, Iran, and former East European USSR. They include the Tatars, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Kirghiz, Turkmens, Vighurs, Azerbaijanis, and many others. The Turks spread through Asia from the 6th century onward and were converted to Islam in the 10th century. In the west they controlled vast lands under the Seljuks (1000s–1200s) and the Ottoman Empire (1300s–1923).