[RARE MAP OF THE RUSSIAN TURKESTAN / CENTRAL ASIA] Türkili haritasi ve ona ait izahlar. [i.e., Map of Turkestan with relevant explanations]. Cartographer: Behçet Begit

A[HMED] ZEKI VELIDI TOGAN (1890-1970), Alâeddin Kiral Basimevi, Istanbul, 1943.

Color lithographed map in original wrappers. Roy. 8vo. (24 x 17 cm). In Turkish. 32, [1] p., 1 folding huge -double elephant folio- color lithographed map, (64 x 79 cm) with explanatory text. Occasionally foxing on the covers and some pages, several period marginal notes in pencil in the booklet; the map is very clean. Otherwise, a very good and complete set.

A scarce map in an explanatory booklet on Turkestan, published in Early Republican Turkey. It’s very detailed on Turkish / Turkic peoples, autonomous states, and states' borders from the Caspian Sea and Caucasus to Eurasia; Turkestan, Central, and Siberia; China and its environment. The map is translated from a Russian military map with a 1:4.200.000 scale prepared by Zeki Velidi Togan, and mapped by Behçet Begit, who was an official cartographer of the Map Directory of Turkey.

The map shows in detail mostly the east of the Caspian Sea, the area between the northern borders of Iran, Afghanistan, and India on the south; the South Siberia on the north; the Taklamakan Desert and East Turkestan on the west. It includes attractive details on the railways, rivers, lakes, and mountains. Cities and railways as of 1941, provincial divisions and borders as of 1918. All toponyms are Turkishized by Togan including Aral and Isiq Lakes, the regions of Turkic peoples such as Ural, Syr Darya, Qaraqalpaqstan, Khorezmia, and many others in Southern Russia. 

Togan was a Bashkir historian, Turkologist, and leader of the Bashkir revolutionary and liberation movement against Russia, Doctor of Philosophy (1935), professor, and honorary doctor of the University of Manchester (1967).

From 1912 to 1915 Velidi taught in the madrasa in Kazan (Qasímiä), and from 1915 to 1917, he was a member of the bureau, supporting Muslim deputies at the State Duma. In 1917, he was elected to the Millät Mäclese, and with Şerif Manatov, he organized the Bashkir Shuro (Council). During the Bashkir Congress in Orenburg in December 1917, he declared autonomous Bashkiria. However, he was arrested on 3 February 1918 by the Soviet forces. In April 1918 he managed to escape and joined the forces confronting the Bolsheviks. In 1918 and 1919 Velidi's Bashkir troops first fought under Ataman Alexander Dutov, then under Admiral Kolchak against Bolshevik forces. After the RSFSR promised autonomy to Bashkirs, Velidi switched allegiance, fighting with the Bolsheviks. From February 1919 to June 1920, he was chairman of the Bashrevkom (Bashkir Revolutionary Committee). He attended the Congress of the Peoples of the East held in Baku in September 1920, where he became involved in drawing up the statutes of ERK, a Muslim Socialist organization. However, feeling the Bolsheviks had broken their promises, he became more critical of them when he moved to Central Asia. In Turkistan, Velidi became a leader of the Basmachi Movement. From 1920 to 1923, he was chairman of the "National Union of Turkistan". In 1923 Validi emigrated, after discovering the original manuscripts of Ahmad ibn Fadlan in Iran. (Wikipedia).

Provenance: From the collection of Turkish philologist and publisher Sâmân Helvacioglu (1930-2014).

As of 2023 September, OCLC locates seven institutional copies in the American libraries (13040799): Harvard Library, Princeton University Library, Center for Research Libraries, University of California NRLF, UC Berkeley Libraries, Stanford University Libraries, UCLA.