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The Turks are likewise owners of tent-poles, residents of deserts, and masters of flocks. They are the Bedouins of the non-Arabs...They are not preoccupied by crafts, business, medicine, agriculture, or architecture, nor by planting, building, river irrigation, or collecting crop revenues. They are concerned solely with raid and foray, hunting riding horses, duelling heroes, the search for booty, and subduing countries...That became their craft and their commerce, their pleasure and their pride, their daytime conversation and their evening's entertainment.

- Al-Jahiz (776-869) The Virtues of the Turks-