Traits and valued elements of Turks

European historian authorities have used a term called ‘horse culture’ to describe communities with a horse-centred lifestyle such as nomads. These communities had spent most of their daily time riding horses and were busy with raising horses. These authorities considered the horse culture noteworthy in determining human history and to our attention, the Turks were the strongest horse culture in the East along with German in the West. Due to being a horse culture, one of the most valued characteristics of a person whether they are a man or woman unlike their neighbouring states at the time, was bravery and quick thinking. This even evolved into a saying in that time which goes as: Every Turk is a soldier.

Turks were nomads, the Turkic tribes had two main locations where they could accommodate depending on the season, climate conditions, etc. One of them was for warm seasons, and the other was for cold times. This regular location change has given Turks the tendency to have a great grasp of nature’s hard conditions and to be skilled at problem-solving. Being a nomad nation has also given them a strong sense of central organization. Because if you were alone in the middle of nowhere with no houses and enough food supply, it meant you were already dead in the nomad culture.

The tendency in Turkic culture to the central organization resulted in the foundation of a great number of countries ruled by Turks. However, since bravery and strength are highly valued, there were many who craved power and strength and they had to face serious fights and struggles with those others who had their eyes on the throne. This did not only affect inner strength balances in a Turkic state but also the balances between two or more Turkic states. Even to be the head of an honorable family, blood was shed often. In such a competitive atmosphere one must possess a specialty to collect people and persuade them for their support. At this point, a very important element comes near: religion.

Clerics were not considered privileged unlike they were in other communities. The society valued clerics, who were called Kam and later on Shaman, but they did not place a governor value in them.

However, it doesn't mean that religion did not have a strong role in establishing authority and claiming the throne among Turks. There is a phenomenon called "kut" which is the sign of God's will on who is worthy of ruling. They believed the kut was given to a person, and the person passed it on to the next generations in their family. Kut was the proof that a man or a woman was brave, smart, loyal to the Turkic land, and good at politics enough to be on the throne. Yet, as it has always been in each corner of planet Earth, there were rulers who got corrupted by power. At this exact point, the concept of Kut gets involved again.

Once a ruler is no longer a good ruler for their people, it is believed God no longer wills them to rule and that the ruler is not worthy of staying on the throne. Since Turks have always been a warrior nation, there were already those others who possessed the required characteristics to be worthy of the throne as well. If the most suitable person for the throne is not from the family that possesses kut, then it means the kut is now given to the most suitable person's family. Therefore kut is not a stable phenomenon and its possessor might change in no time once the ruler has drifted away from God's teachings of governing. Knowing this, Turkic emperors paid great attention to educating their children on different matters regarding how to rule a country, to avoid losing the kut.

Yet, the threat to the throne was not always from outsiders. Brothers or cousins of the current throne beholder have threatened the throne more commonly than outsiders, actually. Not needing to persuade people that the kut possessor family had changed, it was much easier for brothers of the Turkic ruler to take the power from their ruler sibling. Knowing this, there were always people to manipulated siblings of rulers to use them for their personal or political gains.