European Turcology scholars reconstructed the pre-Islamic Turkish past

Evidence

One of the most important sources of these ideas was the new European science of Turcology. From the 18th century onwards a series of scholars, working from Chinese, Islamic, and later Turkish sources, had studied the history and languages of the eastern and pre-Islamic Turks. From the work of scholars like Joseph de Guignes (1721–1800), Abel-Remusat (1788–1832), Stanislas Julien (1799–1873), Heinrich Julius Klaproth (1783–1835), Edouard Chavannes (1865–1918), Vilhelm Thomsen (1842–1927), Wilhelm Radloff (1837–1918) and others, a new picture emerged of the role of the Turkish peoples in the history of Asia and Europe, and new light was thrown on the hitherto obscure history of the Turks before they entered Islam. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 2011

One of the most important sources of these ideas was the new European science of Turcology. From the 18th century onwards a series of scholars, working from Chinese, Islamic, and later Turkish sources, had studied the history and languages of the eastern and pre-Islamic Turks. From the work of scholars like Joseph de Guignes (1721-1800), Abel-Remusat (1788-1832), Stanislas Julien (1799-1873), Heinrich Julius Klaproth (1783-1835), Edouard Chavannes (1865-1918), Vilhelm Thomsen (1842-1927), Wilhelm Radloff (1837-1918) and others, a new picture emerged of the role of the Turkish peoples in the history of Asia and Europe, and new light was thrown on the hitherto obscure history of the Turks before they entered Islam. This new science was especially cultivated in Hungary, where the belief was held by some authorities in the common origin of the Turks and Magyars. National and racial ideas were in­ troduced to the Turks by Hungarian and other European exiles who settled in Turkey after the unsuccessful revolutions of 1848, and were also communicated to the Turkish students who began to go to Europe. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 2011

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the theme of Westerners teaching colonized/subjugated peoples their own history — echoes of Western rediscovery of Egyptology, Sanskrit studies, etc.
• QUESTION: Did the Hungarian-Magyar kinship thesis that some Turcologists held actually shape Turkish national ideology later — and how persistent was it?
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 2011