Paper long abstract:

By the late 14th century, the Mongol descendants in Central Asia and the Qipchaq Steppe had become speakers of Turkic languages. Historians accordingly refer to them as "Turks" or "Turkicized Mongols." However, we hear of no Turkic amīrs or tribal leaders of the Mongol successor states seeking to revive the pre-Mongol Turkic states or looking to the latter for political legitimation during the post-Mongol period. The Turkic nomad elites of the Mongol successor states, most notably, Temür, instead continued to honour the charisma and traditions of the Mongol Empire, not the ancient Kök Türk Khagahanate or the pre-Mongol Muslim Turkic dynasties such as the Seljuqs or the Qarakhanids.

We may then wonder why the Turkic nomads of the Mongol successor states in Central Asia and the Qipchaq Steppe looked to the Mongol Empire for political legitimation and even retained a Mongol identity instead of reverting to the pre-Mongol Turkic identities. In this paper, I attempt to answer this question by challenging the widely held view that the Mongols were assimilated by "the majority Turks." More specifically, I will demonstrate that the Turkic nomads of the Mongol successor states in Central Asia and the Qipchaq Steppe arose from the merging of various Turkic groups (consisting of heterogeneous elements that did not coalesce into a single entity sharing a common identity and historical consciousness) and the more cohesive Mongols. The former did not constitute a uniform majority in relation to the latter. In terms of tribal and genetic compositions, the Turkic nomads of the Mongol successor states were closer to the Mongols than to the pre-Mongol Turkic groups. Naturally, they held on to a predominantly Mongol orientation rather than reverting to pre-Mongol identities.