@zebratron2084 Uighirs still exist - they're an ethnic group in the northwest part of China. I don't know much about them other than supposedly the PRC is really harshing them right now, and Zheng He was Uighir, not Han - that's why he led all those voyages, he was Muslim and hoping to make hajj.

Tatars still exist too - the term gets used to talk about any Turkic speaking northeast Asians who weren't Mongols but were part of the Mongol invasions, so that's way way later than 13th Warrior. There are little pockets all through Ukraine and it's entirely possible *I* count as Tatar ethnically.

But there were Turkic speakers in the area before that happened. The Khazars are notable because their nobility converted to Judaism, figuring it let them treat with Orthodox Christians and Muslims without being obliged to take sides (again it's entirely possible some of my ancestors were). Pechenegs get demonized especially because they'd raid Scandinavians/Rus portaging their boats to avoid the rapids heading south (this shows up in Turisas' awesome The Varangian Way album).

@Leucrotta Oh, I know about the Uighurs -- partly for culinary reasons (blush) and partly for the tragic ones you mention. But do please continue if you like. 😻​THIS was the kind of shit I'd always hoped to get taught as a history major, but nobody ever wanted to talk about anything but the "Great Empires." >__< Especially the various Turkic people's, I felt like they didn't get NEARLY the shrift their actual role in history deserved...

And yeah, equally tragically, I know about the Khazars mostly due to anti-Semitic shitheads and their conspiracy theories. >__<

@zebratron2084 oh YEAH right their cooking uses lamb and I'm pretty much always willing to eat lamb in any form. I dunno. There's a ton I don't know about Turkic peoples. These guys seem to consistently change the face of both Europe and China over the centuries but because they're neither European nor Chinese they get downplayed a lot.

But yeah, Jewish history anything is a whole batch of horrible shit you never hear about, relatively successful kingdoms you never hear about and brilliant individuals whose ethnicity gets whitewashed, and the frequent use of anything as an excuse for anti-semites to do their thing.

@Leucrotta @zebratron2084 FWIW, many of those culture-reshaping waves of migration seem to have been driven by cyclic droughts that force 'em out of central Eurasia towards the periphery.