Islam gave a new civilization to the Turks who were always great admirers of sciences. The last words of Sultan Osman to his son Orhan -"Be the supporter of the faith and the protector of the sciences"- was religiously observed. Turks also became faithful of those nations who had contributed in various fields of sciences and like the Arabs they have distinguished themselves in the science of geography. They have a definite stage in the history of this branch of knowledge and their contents are amazingly vast. Their effects are also far-reaching but their contributions are not well known to scholars as it should be.

Interchange between India and Turkish world is older than Islam and there is little doubt that Indians and Turks during the Hittite period have several common religious concepts and even political contacts. It is generally believed that the first contact of the Turks took place with the compaigns of Mahmud Ghaznavi in India in the first decades of the II th. century A. D. but in fact India came into direct contact with the Turks through Turkish states first established on Indian soil in the first century B. C. long before the advent of Muslims in India. This was the first phase of Indo-Turkish relations which ended with the fail of the Turk Shahi dynasty. Later on in the second century of Christian era a famous Turk ruler emerged in India and made his way to the glory and renown. He is known as Kanishka (120-162 A. D.). Warahmehra, in his well-known Sanskrit work of Rajtrangi, describes the emperor Kanishka and his successors as belonging to Turushka family. The details of description of this emperor available to us, positively point to the fact that Kanishka belonged to Turkish race and not to Mongols. His coins bears the title of "Shaunanushah" which is a Turkish word.