Manavs

Manavs (Turkish: Manavlar) or Manav Turks (Manav Türkleri) are a subgroup of Turkish people living in northwest Anatolia, especially in Sakarya, Bilecik, Balıkesir, Bursa, Çanakkale, Kocaeli, Eskişehir, Bolu and Düzce provinces. It is proposed that Manavs descend from Cumans and Kipchaks who settled in the Byzantine Empire.^[1][2][3][4]

Manavs

Manavlar
Traditional Manav clothes from Kandıra, Kocaeli
Total population
Turkey; East Marmara Region, Marmara Region, Aegean Region
Languages
Turkish Old Anatolian Turkish (historical)
Religion
Sunni Islam (Hanafism)
Related ethnic groups
Turkic peoples

Origin

A group of Cuman-Kipchaks who headed to the Balkans as a result of the Mongol incursions into the Desht-i Qipchaq lands; it is known that he entered the service of the Latin and Nicaea Empires. The Empire of Nicea used this Cuman group against the Seljuk and Mongol threats from the East and settled it in their lands. This Cuman-Kipchak group, interbred with the Oghuz Turks and formed the people called Manav.^[1][2][3][5]

Manav couple from a village near Kandıra (circa 1950)

Language

Manavs speak Turkish with a dialects bear traces of Kipchak and Oghuric to varying degrees, in relation to their origins.^{[6][7][2][8][9][10]}