The Dingling were an ancient people who appear in Chinese historiography in the context of the 1st century BCE.
141-525: The Dingling are considered to have been an early Turkic-speaking people . They were also proposed to be the ancestors of Tungusic speakers among the later Shiwei people , or are related to Na-Dené and Yeniseian speakers. Modern archaeologists have identified the Dingling as belonging to the eastern Scythian horizon , namely the Tagar culture . The ethnonym 'Dingling' is regarded by modern scholars in
282-553: A language family of some 30 languages, spoken across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean , to Siberia and Manchuria and through to the Middle East. Some 170 million people have a Turkic language as their native language; an additional 20 million people speak a Turkic language as a second language . The Turkic language with the greatest number of speakers is Turkish proper , or Anatolian Turkish,
423-508: A Turkic language. Some scholars believe they were probably a confederation of various ethnic and linguistic groups. According to a study by Alexander Savelyev and Choongwon Jeong, published in 2020 in the journal Evolutionary Human Sciences by Cambridge University Press, "the predominant part of the Xiongnu population is likely to have spoken Turkic". However, genetic studies found a mixture of western and eastern Eurasian ancestries, suggesting
564-735: A delegation to the Han rather than moving their capital further west. Some time after the Han-Wusun negotiations had ended, the Han inflicted several blows to the Xiongnu. The Han then threatened war upon the Wusun, after which Liejiaomi finally agreed to an alliance, sending tributary horses and accepting Princess Xijun as his wife. Along with the Yuezhi and the Kangju of the Ferghana Valley ,
705-423: A doctor to attend to Nimi was punished by castration by the Han dynasty when he returned to China for treating the mad king's illness instead of killing him which the Han court ordered them to do. In 64 BC another Han princess was sent to Kunmi Wengguimi, but he died before her arrival. Han emperor Xuan then permitted the princess to return, since Jieyou had married the new Kunmi, Nimi ( Chinese : 尼靡 ),
846-477: A fierce raid against the Yuezhi. Around 173 BC, the Yuezhi subsequently attacked the Wusun, at that time a small nation, killing their king (Kunmi Chinese : 昆彌 or Kunmo Chinese : 昆莫 ) Nandoumi ( Chinese : 難兜靡 ). According to legend Nandoumi's infant son Liejiaomi was left in the wild. He was miraculously saved from hunger being suckled by a she-wolf, and fed meat by ravens. The Wusun ancestor myth shares striking similarities with those of
987-694: A fruit) 'just fully ripe'; (of a human being) 'in the prime of life, young, and vigorous'". Hakan Aydemir (2022) also contends that Türk originally did not mean "strong, powerful" but "gathered; united, allied, confederated" and was derived from Pre- Proto-Turkic verb * türü "heap up, collect, gather, assemble". The earliest Turkic-speaking peoples identifiable in Chinese sources are the Yenisei Kyrgyz and Xinli , located in South Siberia. Another example of an early Turkic population would be
1128-596: A generic name for Inner Asians (whether Turkic- or Mongolic-speaking). Only in modern era do modern historians use Turks to refer to all peoples speaking Turkic languages , differentiated from non-Turkic speakers. According to some researchers (Duan, Xue, Tang, Lung, Onogawa, etc.) the later Ashina tribe descended from the Tiele confederation . The Tiele however were probably one of many early Turkic groups, ancestral to later Turkic populations. However, according to Lee & Kuang (2017), Chinese histories do not describe
1269-400: A hostage. The forceful intervention of the Chinese usurper Wang Mang and internal strife brought disorder, and in 2 BC one of the Wusun chieftains brought 80,000 Wusun to Kangju, asking for help against the Chinese. In a vain attempt to reconcile with China, he was duped and killed in 3 AD. In 2 AD, Wang Mang issued a list of four regulations to the allied Xiongnu that
1410-679: A huge independent horde for centuries, but were later defeated and temporarily became subject of the Xiongnu Empire, and thus presumably related to the invaders known as Huns in the west. One group, known as the West Dingling, remained in an area that would become Kazakhstan , while others – expelled from Mongolia by the Rouran – settled in the Tarim Basin during the 5th century and took control of Turpan . The Dingling had
1551-481: A language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch . They are thought to be Iranian -speaking by the archaeologist Elena Kuzmina , linguist János Harmatta , Joseph Kitagawa , David Durand-Guédy, Turkologist Peter B. Golden and Central Asian scholar Denis Sinor. Yan Shigu (581–645) described the Wusun's descendants with the exonym 胡人 Húrén "foreigners, barbarians", which had been used since
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#17327656423481692-508: A large genetic diversity within the Xiongnu. The Turkic-related component may be brought by eastern Eurasian genetic substratum. Using the only extant possibly Xiongnu writings, the rock art of the Yinshan and Helan Mountains , some scholars argue that the older Xiongnu writings are precursors to the earliest known Turkic alphabet, the Orkhon script . Petroglyphs of this region dates from
1833-602: A linguistically and culturally unified community. The name Dingling resembles both: Although the Dené–Yeniseian language family is now a widely known proposal, his inclusion of the Dingling is not widely accepted. There is some evidence that the Dingling looked similar to European people, based on their identification with the Tagar culture of the Altai region in Siberia. In the 20th century, several historians proposed that
1974-513: A lower frequency of the Baikal component (c. 22%) and a lack of the Han-like component, being closer to other Indo-Iranian groups. A subsequent study in 2022 also found that the spread of Turkic-speaking populations into Central Asia happened after the spread of Indo-European speakers into the area. Another 2022 study found that all Altaic‐speaking (Turkic, Tungusic, and Mongolic) populations "were
2115-575: A mixture of dominant Siberian Neolithic ancestry and non-negligible YRB ancestry", suggesting their origins were somewhere in Northeast Asia, most likely the Amur river basin . Except Eastern and Southern Mongolic-speakers, all "possessed a high proportion of West Eurasian-related ancestry, in accordance with the linguistically documented language borrowing in Turkic languages". A 2023 study analyzed
2256-518: A native Chinese /s/ standing for a foreign dental fricative . Therefore, Vaissière reconstructs Wusun's endonym as * Wəθan "[People of the] Tent(s)". The Wusun were first mentioned by Chinese sources as living together with the Yuezhi between the Qilian Mountains and Dunhuang ( Gansu ). although different locations have been suggested for these toponyms. Beckwith suggests that
2397-666: A northern tribe that appears in the oracle bone inscriptions from Yinxu . According to the History of the Gaoche of Wei Shou (6th century), the origin of the Dingling can be traced to the Chidi (赤狄) (lit. Red Di), who lived in northern China during the Spring and Autumn period . The Mozi mentions a total of eight related Di groups, of whom only "Red Di" (赤狄, Chidi), the "White Di" (白狄, Baidi), and "Tall Di" (長狄, Changdi) are known. To
2538-473: A population of over 2.5 million, composed of many different ethnic groups. Wusun The Wusun ( / ˈ w uː s ʌ n / WOO-sun ) were an ancient semi- nomadic steppe people mentioned in Chinese records from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD. The Wusun originally lived between the Qilian Mountains and Dunhuang ( Gansu ) near the Yuezhi . Around 176 BC
2679-820: A possible source for this folk etymology, yet Golden thinks this connection requires more data. It is generally accepted that the name Türk is ultimately derived from the Old-Turkic migration-term 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰 Türük / Törük , which means 'created, born' or 'strong'. Turkologist Peter B. Golden agrees that the term Turk has roots in Old Turkic , yet is not convinced by attempts to link Dili , Dingling , Chile , Tele , and Tiele , which possibly transcribed * tegrek (probably meaning ' cart '), to Tujue , which transliterated to Türküt . Scholars, including Toru Haneda, Onogawa Hidemi, and Geng Shimin believed that Di , Dili , Dingling , Chile and Tujue all came from
2820-619: A powerful faction of northern China. They created two other dynasties, including the Later Jin and Later Han and Northern Han (Later Han and Northern Han were ruled by the same family, with the latter being a rump state of the former). The Shatuo Liu Zhiyuan was a Buddhist and he worshipped the Mengshan Giant Buddha in 945. The Shatuo dynasties were replaced by the Han Chinese Song dynasty . The Shatuo became
2961-655: A raid against the Xiongnu. Wusun slaves mainly laboured as servants and craftsmen, although the freemen formed the core of the Wusun economy. Numerous sites belonging to the Wusun period in Zhetysu and the Tian Shan have been excavated. Most of the cemeteries are burial grounds with the dead interred in pit-graves, referred to as the Chil-pek group, which probably belong the local Saka population. A second group of kurgans with burials in lined "catacomb" chamber graves, of
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#17327656423483102-479: A semi-nomadic pastoral economy. The social structure of the Wusun resembled that of the Xiongnu. They were governed by the Great Kunmi, whose power was hereditary . The Great Kunmi and his two sons, who commanded the east and left flanks of the Wusun realm, each commanded a force of 10,000 men. The Wusun also fielded a regular army, with each freeman being considered a warrior. Their administrative apparatus
3243-527: A shared "Neolithic Hongshan ancestry", but in contrary primary Ancient Northeast Asian (ANA) Neolithic ancestry from the Amur region , supporting an origin from Northeast Asia rather than Manchuria. Around 2,200 BC, the (agricultural) ancestors of the Turkic peoples probably migrated westwards into Mongolia , where they adopted a pastoral lifestyle, in part borrowed from Iranian peoples . Given nomadic peoples such as Xiongnu , Rouran and Xianbei share underlying genetic ancestry "that falls into or close to
3384-596: A significant portion of the Uyghur population abandoned their nomadic lifestyle for a sedentary one. The Uyghur Khaganate produced extensive literature, and a relatively high number of its inhabitants were literate. The official state religion of the early Uyghur Khaganate was Manichaeism , which was introduced through the conversion of Bögü Qaghan by the Sogdians after the An Lushan rebellion . The Uyghur Khaganate
3525-562: A split within the Xiongnu ruling clan of Luanti (挛鞮), the Dingling attacked the Xiongnu, together with the Wusun from the west, supported by the Chinese from the south and the Wuhuan from the southeast. In 51 BCE, the Dingling, together with the Hujie and Gekun, were defeated by the Xiongnu under Zhizhi Chanyu , on his way to Kangju . Over the next century there may have been more uprisings, but
3666-463: A syncretic religion. The Göktürks were the first Turkic people to write Old Turkic in a runic script, the Orkhon script . The Khaganate was also the first state known as "Turk". It eventually collapsed due to a series of dynastic conflicts, but many states and peoples later used the name "Turk". The Göktürks ( First Turkic Kaganate ) quickly spread west to the Caspian Sea. Between 581 and 603
3807-517: A warlike society, formed by traders, hunters, fishers, and gatherers, living a semi-nomadic life in the southern Siberian mountain taiga region from Lake Baikal to northern Mongolia. Some ancient sources claims that Di or Zhai (翟) was adopted as the group name because the Zhai family had been the ruling house for centuries. Other sources claim that they might have been correlated with the Guifang ,
3948-514: Is evidence pointing to privileged use of certain pastures . Typical of early patriarchal stratified societies, Wusun widows were obliged to remain within the family of their late husband by marrying one of his relatives, a concept known as levirate marriage . Y. A. Zadneprovskiy writes that the social inequality among the Wusun created social unrest among the lower strata. Wusun society also included many slaves , mostly prisoners of war. The Wusun are reported as having captured 10,000 slaves in
4089-551: Is mythological in nature. A similar description is also echoed in a Wusun account, recorded in the Weilüe (compiled 239-265 CE), which describes the men of Majing ("Horse Shanks"), located north of the Dingling, as possessing horse legs and hooves. Turkic peoples The Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West , Central , East , and North Asia as well as parts of Europe , who speak Turkic languages . According to historians and linguists,
4230-525: Is possibly derived from *Tägräg, meaning "circle, hoop". The Weilüe mentioned three Dingling groups: Murphy (2003) proposes that the Dingling's country had been in the Minusinsk Basin on the Yenisey river , thus close to the location of the Dingling group who neighbored the Kangju, Wusun, and Horse-Shanked people. Dingling gradually moved southward to Mongolia and northern China . They were
4371-589: Is proposed to be from Proto-Turkic * qïrsaq ~ * karsak . Chinese historians linked the Tungusic speakers among the later Shiwei people to the Dingling, considering them as descendants of the Dingling owing to linguistic similarities. In Zur jenissejisch-indianischen Urverwandtschaft (Concerning Yeniseian- Indian Primal Relationship) , the German scholar Heinrich Werner developed a new language family which he termed Baikal–Siberic . By extension, he groups together
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4512-399: Is rejected by Classical Chinese Literature expert Francis K. H. So, Professor at National Sun Yat-sen University . Other words listed by these scholars include the title bag , beg 'lord'. This theory has been criticized by modern Turkologists, including Peter B. Golden and Carter V. Findley , who explain that none of the mentioned words are actually Turkic in origin. Findley notes that
4653-493: Is still disputed, though it is mostly agreed that it is a loan-word. Two principal etymologies have been proposed. The first etymology is from a Middle Iranian form of Old Iranian baga ; though the meaning would fit since the Middle Persian forms of the word often mean 'lord,' used of the king or others. The second etymology is from Chinese 伯 ( MC pˠæk̚ > bó ) 'eldest (brother), (feudal) lord'. Gerhard Doerfer on
4794-650: Is to be associated with the Xinglongwa culture and the succeeding Hongshan culture , based on varying degrees of specific East Asian genetic substratum among modern Turkic speakers. According to historians, "the Proto-Turkic subsistence strategy included an agricultural component, a tradition that ultimately went back to the origin of millet agriculture in Northeast China". This view is however questioned by other geneticists, who found no evidence for
4935-492: Is unknown. During the 2nd century BCE, the Dingling became subjects of Modu Chanyu along with 26 other tribes, including the Yuezhi and Wusun . The Dingling were first subjugated by the Xiongnu , but the latter gradually weakened. In 71 BCE, after numerous conflicts between the Chinese and the Xiongnu, the Dingling, led by Zhai Jin, with help from neighboring tribes, took the opportunity to revolt. From 63 to 60 BCE, during
5076-814: Is unknown. The Issedones are "placed by some in Western Siberia and by others in Chinese Turkestan," according to E. D. Phillips. French historian Iaroslav Lebedynsky suggests that the Wusun may have been the Asii of Geographica . A genetic study published in Nature in May 2018 examined the remains of four Wusun buried between c. 300 BC and 100 BC. The sample of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup R1 . The samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to C4a1 , HV6 , J1c5a and U5b2c . The authors of
5217-635: The Jiaoshi Yilin , which describes the women of the Wusun as "with deep eyesockets, dark, ugly: their preferences are different, past their prime [still] without spouse." A later 7th century commentary to the Hanshu by Yan Shigu says: Among the barbarians (戎; Róng ) in the Western Regions, the look of the Wusun is the most unusual. The present barbarians (胡人; húrén ) who have green eyes and red hair, and look like macaque monkeys, are
5358-786: The Tongdian , they were "mixed barbarians" ( 雜胡 ; záhú ) who migrated from Pingliang (now in modern Gansu province , China ) to the Rourans seeking inclusion in their confederacy and protection from the prevailing dynasty. Alternatively, according to the Book of Zhou , History of the Northern Dynasties , and New Book of Tang , the Ashina clan was a component of the Xiongnu confederation. Göktürks were also posited as having originated from an obscure Suo state (索國), north of
5499-604: The 9th millennium BCE to the 19th century, and consists mainly of engraved signs (petroglyphs) and few painted images. Excavations done during 1924–1925 in Noin-Ula kurgans located in the Selenga River in the northern Mongolian hills north of Ulaanbaatar produced objects with over 20 carved characters, which were either identical or very similar to the runic letters of the Turkic Orkhon script discovered in
5640-473: The Caucasus , China, and northern Iraq. The Turkic language family was traditionally considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family . Howeover since the 1950s, a majority of linguists have rejected the proposal, after supposed cognates were found not to be valid, hypothesized sound shifts were not found, and Turkic and Mongolic languages were found to be converging rather than diverging over
5781-708: The Dingling . In Late Antiquity itself, as well as in and the Middle Ages , the name "Scythians" was used in Greco-Roman and Byzantine literature for various groups of nomadic " barbarians " living on the Pontic-Caspian Steppe who were not related to the actual Scythians. Medieval European chroniclers subsumed various Turkic peoples of the Eurasian steppe as "Scythians". Between 400 CE and
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5922-618: The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period starting with Later Tang. The Shatuo chief Zhuye Chixin's family was adopted by the Tang dynasty and given the title prince of Jin and the Tang dynasty imperial surname of Li, which is why the Shatuo of Later Tang claimed to be restoring the Tang dynasty and not founding a new one. The official language of these dynasties was Chinese and they used Chinese titles and names. Some Shaotuo Turk emperors (of
6063-701: The Hittites , the Zhou Chinese , the Scythians , the Romans , the Goguryeo , Turks , Mongols and Dzungars . Based on the similarities between the ancestor myth of the Wusun and later Turkic peoples , Denis Sinor has suggested that the Wusun, Sogdians , or both could represent an Indo-Aryan influence, or even the origin of the royal Ashina Türks . In 162 BC, the Yuezhi were finally defeated by
6204-728: The Jin in the Spring and Autumn period . Historically they were established after the 6th century BCE. The Tiele were first mentioned in Chinese literature from the 6th to 8th centuries. Some scholars (Haneda, Onogawa, Geng, etc.) proposed that Tiele , Dili , Dingling , Chile , Tele , & Tujue all transliterated underlying Türk ; however, Golden proposed that Dili , Dingling , Chile , Tele , & Tiele transliterated Tegrek while Tujue transliterated Türküt , plural of Türk . The appellation Türük ( Old Turkic : 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰) ~ Türk (OT: 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰚) (whence Middle Chinese 突厥 * dwət-kuɑt > * tɦut-kyat > standard Chinese : Tūjué )
6345-908: The Ongud Turks living in Inner Mongolia after the Song dynasty conquered the last Shatuo dynasty of Northern Han. The Ongud assimilated to the Mongols. The Yenisei Kyrgyz allied with China to destroy the Uyghur Khaganate in the year 840 AD. From the Yenisei River , the Kyrgyz pushed south and eastward in to Xinjiang and the Orkhon Valley in central Mongolia, leaving much of the Uyghur civilization in ruins. Much of
6486-406: The Orkhon Valley . The earliest certain mentioning of the politonym "Turk" was in the Chinese Book of Zhou . In the 540s AD, this text mentions that the Turks came to China's border seeking silk goods and a trade relationship. A Sogdian diplomat represented China in a series of embassies between the Western Wei dynasty and the Turks in the years 545 and 546. According to the Book of Sui and
6627-606: The Proto-Turkic language originated in Central-East Asia, potentially in Altai-Sayan region , Mongolia or Tuva . Initially, Proto-Turkic speakers were potentially both hunter-gatherers and farmers; they later became nomadic pastoralists . Early and medieval Turkic groups exhibited a wide range of both East Asian and West-Eurasian physical appearances and genetic origins, in part through long-term contact with neighboring peoples such as Iranic , Mongolic , Tocharian , Uralic and Yeniseian peoples. Many vastly differing ethnic groups have throughout history become part of
6768-418: The Tarim Basin to Pataliputra on the Gangetic plain and played an important role in the development of the Silk Road and the transmission of Buddhism to China. The Wusun subsequently took over the Ili Valley, expanding over a large area and trying to keep away from the Xiongnu. According to Shiji , Wusun was a state located west of the Xiongnu. When the Xiongnu ruler died, Liejiaomi refused to serve
6909-434: The Western Turkic Khaganate in Kazakhstan separated from the Eastern Turkic Khaganate in Mongolia and Manchuria during a civil war. The Han-Chinese successfully overthrew the Eastern Turks in 630 and created a military Protectorate until 682. After that time the Second Turkic Khaganate ruled large parts of the former Göktürk area. After several wars between Turks, Chinese and Tibetans, the weakened Second Turkic Khaganate
7050-446: The Xiongnu raided the lands of the Yuezhi , who subsequently attacked the Wusun, killing their king and seizing their land. The Xiongnu adopted the surviving Wusun prince and made him one of their generals and leader of the Wusun. Around 162 BC the Yuezhi were driven into the Ili River valley in Zhetysu , Dzungaria and Tian Shan , which had formerly been inhabited by the Saka . The Wusun then resettled in Gansu as vassals of
7191-505: The Yeniseian peoples ( Arin , Assan , Yugh , Ket , Kott , and Pumpokol ), the Na-Dene Indigenous peoples of the Americas, and the Dingling of Chinese chronicles to Proto-Dingling . The linguistic comparison of Na-Dene and Yeniseian shows that the quantity and character of the correspondences points to a possible common origin. According to Russian linguistic experts, they likely spoke a polysynthetic or synthetic language with an active form of morphosyntactic alignment , exhibiting
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#17327656423487332-552: The "western Eurasian origin and multiple origin hypotheses". However, they also noted that "Central Steppe and early Medieval Türk exhibited a high but variable degree of West Eurasian ancestry, indicating there was a genetic substructure of the Türkic empire." The early medieval Türk samples were modelled as having 37.8% West Eurasian ancestry and 62.2% Ancient Northeast Asian ancestry and historic Central Steppe Türk samples were also an admixture of West Eurasian and Ancient Northeast Asian ancestry, while historic Karakhanid, Kipchak and
7473-530: The 13th century; in the 14th century, Islam became the official religion under Uzbeg Khan where the general population (Turks) as well as the aristocracy (Mongols) came to speak the Kipchak language and were collectively known as " Tatars " by Russians and Westerners. This country was also known as the Kipchak Khanate and covered most of what is today Ukraine , as well as the entirety of modern-day southern and eastern Russia (the European section). The Golden Horde disintegrated into several khanates and hordes in
7614-421: The 15th and 16th century including the Crimean Khanate , Khanate of Kazan , and Kazakh Khanate (among others), which were one by one conquered and annexed by the Russian Empire in the 16th through 19th centuries. In Siberia, the Siberian Khanate was established in the 1490s by fleeing Tatar aristocrats of the disintegrating Golden Horde who established Islam as the official religion in western Siberia over
7755-432: The 16th century, Byzantine sources use the name Σκύθαι ( Skuthai ) in reference to twelve different Turkic peoples. In the modern Turkish language as used in the Republic of Turkey, a distinction is made between "Turks" and the "Turkic peoples" in loosely speaking: the term Türk corresponds specifically to the "Turkish-speaking" people (in this context, "Turkish-speaking" is considered the same as "Turkic-speaking"), while
7896-406: The 2nd century AD the Wusun continued their decline in political importance. In the 5th century AD the Wusun were pressured by the Rouran and may have migrated to the Pamir Mountains . They are last mentioned in Chinese historical sources in 436 AD, when a Chinese envoy was sent to their country and the Wusun reciprocated. It is possible that they became subsumed into
8037-453: The 5th–16th centuries, partially overlapping with the Mongol Empire period. Based on single-path IBD tracts, the common Turkic ancestral population lived prior to these migration events, and likely stem from a similar source population as Mongolic peoples further East. Historical data suggests that the Mongol Empire period acted as secondary force of "turkification", as the Mongol conquest "did not involve massive re-settlements of Mongols over
8178-430: The 6th century to denote Iranian peoples , especially Sogdians , in Central Asia , besides other non-Chinese peoples. Archaeological evidence also supports the idea that Wusuns were Iranian speakers. Edwin G. Pulleyblank has suggested that the Wusun, along with the Yuezhi, the Dayuan, the Kangju and the people of Yanqi , could have been Tocharian -speaking. Colin Masica and David Keightley also suggest that
8319-431: The 8th century, and the alphabets were generally replaced by the Old Uyghur alphabet in the East and Central Asia , Arabic script in the Middle and Western Asia, Cyrillic in Eastern Europe and in the Balkans, and Latin alphabet in Central Europe. The latest recorded use of Turkic alphabet was recorded in Central Europe's Hungary in 1699 CE. The Turkic runiform scripts, unlike other typologically close scripts of
8460-421: The Ashina and the Göktürks as descending from the Dingling or the Tiele confederation. It has even been suggested that the Xiongnu themselves, who were mentioned in Han dynasty records, were Proto-Turkic speakers. The Turks may ultimately have been of Xiongnu descent. Although little is known for certain about the Xiongnu language(s), it seems likely that at least a considerable part of Xiongnu tribes spoke
8601-462: The Bayegu, who had a somewhat different language than the Tiele according to the New Book of Tang . The New Book also relates that the Kyrgyz intermixed with the Dingling. The Book of Sui states that the Tiele had similar customs to the Göktürks but different marriage and burial traditions. The Classic of Mountains and Seas described the Dingling as human beings with horses' legs and hooves and excellent at running. However, this description
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#17327656423488742-430: The Chinese all derive from Altaic exonyms describing wheeled vehicles, with 'Dingling' perhaps being an earlier rendering of a Tuoba word (*tegreg), meaning "wagon". Peter Golden also wrote that "Gaoche" or "high carts" may be a translation of " Dingling et al.". Edwin Pulleyblank writes that "High Cart" is just one of several variations of exonyms that ultimately reflect the original Turkic meaning of 'Dingling', which
8883-427: The DNA of Empress Ashina (568–578 AD), a Royal Göktürk, whose remains were recovered from a mausoleum in Xianyang , China . The authors determined that Empress Ashina belonged to the North-East Asian mtDNA haplogroup F1d , and that approximately 96-98% of her autosomal ancestry was of Ancient Northeast Asian origin, while roughly 2-4% was of West Eurasian origin, indicating ancient admixture. This study weakened
9024-448: The Dingling as "red-haired, blue-eyed giants" while M.V. Dorina called the Dingling "European-looking." The Chinese sources do not differentiate the Dingling's appearance from the Han Chinese. Chinese histories unanimously depict the Dingling as the ancestors of the Tiele, whose physical appearance is also not described, but seem to have included non-Turkic speaking peoples. The Alans , an Iranic people, are included among them, as well as
9165-530: The First Turkic Khaganate. The original Old Turkic name Kök Türk derives from kök ~ kö:k , "sky, sky-coloured, blue, blue-grey". Unlike its Xiongnu predecessor, the Göktürk Khaganate had its temporary Khagans from the Ashina clan, who were subordinate to a sovereign authority controlled by a council of tribal chiefs. The Khaganate retained elements of its original animistic- shamanistic religion, that later evolved into Tengriism , although it received missionaries of Buddhist monks and practiced
9306-413: The Kangar union was located in the Ulytau mountains. Among the Pechenegs, the Kangar formed the elite of the Pecheneg tribes. After being defeated by the Kipchaks , Oghuz Turks , and the Khazars , they migrated west and defeated Magyars , and after forming an alliance with the Bulgars , they defeated the Byzantine Army. The Pecheneg state was established by the 11th century and at its peak carried
9447-536: The Kargali burial attest to the artistic skill of these ancient jewellers. Another find at Tenlik in eastern Zhetysu contained the grave of a high-ranking warrior, whose clothing had been decorated with around 100 golden bosses. Some scholars such as Peter B. Golden have proposed that the Wusun may have been identical with the people described by Herodotus (IV. 16–25) and in Ptolemy 's Geography as Issedones (also Issedoni , Issedoi or Essedoni ). Their exact location of their country in Central Asia
9588-425: The Kunmi became the ruler of Yarkand , while his daughter became the wife of the lord of Kucha . They came to play a role as a third force between the Han and the Xiongnu. Around 64 BC, according to Hanshu , Chinese agents were involved in a plot with a Wusun kunmi known as Wengguimi ("Fat King"), to kill a Wusun kunmi known to the Chinese as Nimi ("Mad King"). A Chinese deputy envoy called Chi Tu who brought
9729-416: The Later Jin, Later Han and Northern Han) also claimed patrilineal Han Chinese ancestry. After the fall of the Tang dynasty in 907, the Shatuo Turks replaced them and created the Later Tang dynasty in 923. The Shatuo Turks ruled over a large part of northern China, including Beijing . They adopted Chinese names and united Turkic and Chinese traditions. Later Tang fell in 937 but the Shatuo rose to become
9870-667: The Proto-Turkic Urheimat: the southern Altai-Sayan region, and in Southern Siberia , from Lake Baikal to eastern Mongolia . Other studies suggested an early presence of Turkic peoples in Mongolia, or Tuva . A possible genealogical link of the Turkic languages to Mongolic and Tungusic languages, specifically a hypothetical homeland in Manchuria , such as proposed in the Transeurasian hypothesis , by Martine Robbeets , has received support but also criticism, with opponents attributing similarities to long-term contact. The proto-Turkic-speakers may be linked to Neolithic East Asian agricultural societies in Northeastern China , which
10011-405: The Tagar people were characterized by a high frequency of light hair and light eyes, and that the associated Dingling were blond-haired. Genetic testing of fossils from the Tagar culture has confirmed the theory that they were often blue eyed and light-haired. Twenty-first century scholars continue to describe the Dingling in a similar manner. Adrienne Mayor repeated N. Ishjants' description (1994) of
10152-532: The Tang dynasty in fighting against their fellow Turkic people in the Uyghur Khaganate . In 839, when the Uyghur khaganate (Huigu) general Jueluowu (掘羅勿) rose against the rule of then-reigning Zhangxin Khan , he elicited the help from Zhuye Chixin by giving Zhuye 300 horses, and together, they defeated Zhangxin Khan, who then committed suicide, precipitating the subsequent collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate. In
10293-642: The Turkic Karluk samples had 50.6%-61.1% West Eurasian ancestry and 38.9%–49.4% Iron Age Yellow River farmer ancestry. A 2020 study also found "high genetic heterogeneity and diversity during the Türkic and Uyghur periods" in the early medieval period in Eastern Eurasian Steppe . The earliest separate Turkic peoples, such as the Gekun (鬲昆) and Xinli (薪犁), appeared on the peripheries of
10434-618: The Turkic peoples through language shift , acculturation , conquest , intermixing , adoption , and religious conversion . Nevertheless, Turkic peoples share, to varying degrees, non-linguistic characteristics like cultural traits, ancestry from a common gene pool , and historical experiences. Some of the most notable modern Turkic ethnic groups include the Altai people , Azerbaijanis , Chuvash people , Gagauz people , Kazakhs , Kyrgyz people , Turkmens , Turkish people , Tuvans , Uyghurs , Uzbeks , and Yakuts . The first known mention of
10575-457: The Turkic word Türk , which means 'powerful' and 'strength', and its plural form is Türküt . Even though Gerhard Doerfer supports the proposal that türk means 'strong' in general, Gerard Clauson points out that "the word türk is never used in the generalized sense of 'strong'" and that türk was originally a noun and meant "'the culminating point of maturity' (of a fruit, human being, etc.), but more often used as an [adjective] meaning (of
10716-659: The Uyghur population relocated to the southwest of Mongolia, establishing the Ganzhou Uyghur Kingdom in Gansu where their descendants are the modern day Yugurs and Qocho Kingdom in Turpan, Xinjiang. The Kangar Union ( Qanghar Odaghu ) was a Turkic state in the former territory of the Western Turkic Khaganate (the entire present-day state of Kazakhstan , without Zhetysu ). The capital of
10857-749: The Volga region and mixed with local Volga Finns to become the Volga Bulgars in what is today Tatarstan . These Bulgars were conquered by the Mongols following their westward sweep under Ogedei Khan in the 13th century. Other Bulgars settled in Southeastern Europe in the 7th and 8th centuries, and mixed with the Slavic population, adopting what eventually became the Slavic Bulgarian language . Everywhere, Turkic groups mixed with
10998-678: The West Dingling Khan Zhai Bin (翟斌) lead his hordes, migrate from Kazakhstan into Central China, served under the Former Qin , after series of plotting, Zhai Bin was betrayed by Former Qin, to avoid Qin nobles further attempts, he revolted against the Former Qin Dynasty. Murong Chui (慕容垂), the Xianbei leader under Former Qin court, got appointed as the high command of Former Qin army, was expected to take down
11139-482: The Western world as being interchangeable with the ethnonym 'Tiele' , who are believed to be the descendants of the Dingling. Chinese historiographers believed that 'Tiele' was a mistaken transcription, related them to the ancient Red Di (狄翟), and recorded various names like Dili (狄历), Gaoche (高車) or Chile (敕勒). Several modern scholars, including Peter B. Golden , now believe that all of these ethnonyms described by
11280-419: The Wusun a daughter but died soon afterward, at which point the Han court sent Princess Jieyou ( Chinese : 解憂公主 ) to succeed her. After the death of Cenzou, Jieyou married Wengguimi ( Chinese : 翁歸靡 ), Cenzou's cousin and successor. Jieyou lived for fifty years among the Wusun and bore five children, including the oldest Yuanguimi ( Chinese : 元貴靡 ), whose half-brother Wujiutu ( Chinese : 烏就屠 )
11421-519: The Wusun became the main suppliers of horses for the Han. The Xiongnu had however also sent a princess to marry Liejiaomi, and the Xiongnu princess was declared his senior consort, with Xijun becoming his junior wife. Since Liejiaomi was already an old man, Xijun was however married to his successor Cenzou ( Chinese : 岑陬 ), to which Wu agreed. Xijun wrote a famous poem, the Beichouge ( Chinese : 悲愁歌 ), in which she complains about her exile in
11562-466: The Wusun between 110 BC and 105 BC. She describes them as nomads who lived in felt tents , ate raw meat and drank fermented mare's milk . Some early Chinese descriptions of the people were pejorative, describing them as "bad, greedy and unreliable, and much given to robbery", but their state was also described as very strong. However, the Wusun were also noted for their harmony towards their neighbours, even though they were constantly raided by
11703-444: The Wusun population is admixed with Sakas and Yuezhi peoples. The Wusun approved of a possible alliance, and Zhang Qian was sent as ambassador in 115 BC. According to the agreement the Wusun would jointly attack the Xiongnu with the Han, while they were offered a Han princess in marriage and the return of their original Gansu homeland ( heqin ). Due to fear of the Xiongnu, the Wusun however had second thoughts and suggested sending
11844-530: The Wusun to number 630,000, with 120,000 families and 188,000 men capable of bearing arms. Hanshu described them as occupying land that previously belonged to the Saka (Sai). To their north-west the Wusun bordered Kangju , located in modern Kazakhstan. To the west was Dayuan ( Ferghana ), and to the south were various city states. The Royal Court of the Wusun, the walled city of Chigu ( Chinese : 赤谷 ; pinyin : chìgǔ ; lit. 'Red Valley'),
11985-516: The Wusun to the Άσμίραιοι Asmiraioi , who inhabited modern Issyk-Kul and Semirechiye and were mentioned in Ptolemy 's Geography (VI.16.3). Another theory links them to the Issedones . Sinologist Victor H. Mair compared Wusun with Sanskrit áśva 'horse', aśvin 'mare' and Lithuanian ašvà 'mare'. The name would thus mean 'the horse people'. Hence he put forward the hypothesis that
12126-539: The Wusun used a satem -like language within the Indo-European languages . However, the latter hypothesis is not supported by Edwin G. Pulleyblank . Christopher I. Beckwith 's analysis is similar to Mair's, reconstructing the Chinese term Wusun as Old Chinese * âswin , which he compares to Old Indic aśvin 'the horsemen', the name of the Rigvedic twin equestrian gods . Étienne de la Vaissière identifies
12267-456: The Wusun were Tocharian-speaking. Sinor finds it difficult to include the Wusun within the Tocharian category of Indo-European until further research. J. P. Mallory has suggested that the Wusun contained both Tocharian and Iranian elements. Central Asian scholar Christopher I. Beckwith suggests that the Wusun were Indo-Aryan -speaking. The first syllable of the Wusun royal title Kunmi
12408-713: The Wusun were an eastern remnant of the Indo-Aryans , who had been suddenly pushed to the extremities of the Eurasian Steppe by the Iranian peoples in the 2nd millennium BC. Around 210–200 BC, prince Modu Chanyu , a former hostage of the Yuezhi and prince of the Xiongnu , who were also vassals of the Yuezhi, became leader of the Xiongnu and conquered the Mongolian Plain , subjugating several peoples. Around 176 BC Modu Chanyu launched
12549-548: The Wusun with the wδ'nn'p , mentioned on Kultobe inscriptions as enemies of the Sogdian-speaking Kangju confederation. Wδ'nn'p contains two morphemes n'p "people" and * wδ'n [wiðan], which is cognate with Manichaean Parthian wd'n and means "tent". Vaissière hypothesized that the Wusun likely spoke an Iranian language closely related to Sogdian , permitting Sogdians to translate their endonym as * wδ'n [wiðan] and Chinese to transcribe their endonym with
12690-405: The Xiongnu and Kangju. The principal activity of the Wusun was cattle-raising, but they also practiced agriculture . Since the climate of Zhetysu and Dzungaria did not allow constant wandering, they probably wandered with each change of season in the search of pasture and water. Numerous archaeological finds have found querns and agricultural implements and bones of domesticated animals, suggesting
12831-566: The Xiongnu and the Wusun became powerful. Liejiaomi constantly requested the Xiongnu ruler for permission to avenge his father, and around 133–132 BC, he successfully attacked the Yuezhi in the Ili Valley. The Yuezhi then migrated to Sogdia and then Bactria , where they became unified under Kujula Kadphises and expanded into South Asia, founding the Kushan Empire , which at its peak under Kanishka stretched from Turpan in
12972-565: The Xiongnu, after which they fled Gansu . According to Zhang Qian , the Yuezhi were defeated by the rising Xiongnu empire and fled westward, driving away the Sai (Scythians) from the Ili Valley in the Zhetysu and Dzungaria area. The Sai would subsequently migrate into South Asia , where they founded various Indo-Scythian kingdoms. After the Yuezhi retreat the Wusun subsequently settled
13113-554: The Xiongnu. The Ashina tribe were famed metalsmiths and were granted land south of the Altai Mountains (金山 Jinshan ), which looked like a helmet , from which they were said to have gotten their name 突厥 ( Tūjué ), the first recorded use of "Turk" as a political name. In the 6th-century, Ashina's power had increased such that they conquered the Tiele on their Rouran overlords' behalf and even overthrew Rourans and established
13254-499: The Xiongnu. The Xiongnu then sent a force against the Wusun but were defeated, after which the Xiongnu even more than before considered Liejiaomi a supernatural being, avoiding conflict with him. After settling in the Ili Valley the Wusun became so strong that the Han was compelled to win their friendship in alliance. Chinese sources name the Scythian Sai (Saka), and the Yuezhi who are often identified as Tocharians , among
13395-529: The Xiongnu. In 133–132 BC, the Wusun drove the Yuezhi out of the Ili Valley and settled the area. The Wusun then became close allies of the Han dynasty and remained a powerful force in the region for several centuries. The Wusun are last mentioned by the Chinese as having settled in the Pamir Mountains in the 5th century AD due to pressure from the Rouran . They possibly became subsumed into
13536-536: The Xiongnu. The nation has plenty of horses... and its people violent, greedy and not trustworthy. There are abundant bandits and thieves. Its territories originally belonged to the Sakas , the latter king went south to Bolor ( Baltistan ) whereby the Yuezhi took over and settled on the land. (...) Later, when the Yuezhi moved west to subjugate Bactria , the Wusun Kunmo replaced them and lived there. For that reason,
13677-547: The alliance with the leagues, murdered Zhai Bin and his three sons in an ambush. His nephew Zhai Zhen (翟真) inherited the horde, was elected be the new Leader of the leagues, seeking for revenge, but later assassinated by his military advisor Xianyu Qi (鲜于乞), Xian did not escape far, were caught by the Dingling soldiers and got executed, the leagues elected Zhai Zhen's cousin Zhai Cheng (翟成) as the new Leader, but later also been assassinated by Yan spy, then Zhai Liao (翟辽), became
13818-484: The campaign the Han captured the Tarim Basin city-state of Cheshi ( Turpan region), a previous ally of the Xiongnu, giving them direct contact with the Wusun. Afterwards the Wusun allied with the Dingling and Wuhuan to counter Xiongnu attacks. After their crushing victory against the Xiongnu the Wusun increased in strength, achieving significant influence over the city-states of the Tarim Basin. The son of
13959-554: The centuries. Opponents of the theory proposed that the similarities are due to mutual linguistic influences between the groups concerned. The Turkic alphabets are sets of related alphabets with letters (formerly known as runes ), used for writing mostly Turkic languages . Inscriptions in Turkic alphabets were found in Mongolia . Most of the preserved inscriptions were dated to between 8th and 10th centuries CE. The earliest positively dated and read Turkic inscriptions date from
14100-566: The conquered territories. Instead, the Mongol war machine was progressively augmented by various Turkic tribes as they expanded, and in this way Turkic peoples eventually reinforced their expansion over the Eurasian steppe and beyond." A 2018 autosomal single-nucleotide polymorphism study suggested that the Eurasian Steppe slowly transitioned from Indo European and Iranian -speaking groups with largely western Eurasian ancestry to increasing East Asian ancestry with Turkic and Mongolian groups in
14241-471: The information gap is so substantial that any connection of these ancient people to the modern Turks is not possible. The Chinese Book of Zhou (7th century) presents an etymology of the name Turk as derived from 'helmet', explaining that this name comes from the shape of a mountain where they worked in the Altai Mountains . Hungarian scholar András Róna-Tas (1991) pointed to a Khotanese-Saka word, tturakä 'lid', semantically stretchable to 'helmet', as
14382-414: The land of the " barbarians ": My family sent me off to be married on the other side of heaven. They sent me a long way to a strange land, to the king of Wusun. A domed lodging is my dwelling place with walls of felt. Meat is my food, with fermented milk as the sauce. I live with constant thoughts of my home, my heart is full of sorrow. I wish I were a golden swan, returning to my home country. Xijun bore
14523-550: The late Xiongnu confederation about 200 BCE (contemporaneous with the Chinese Han dynasty ) and later among the Turkic-speaking Tiele as Hegu (紇骨) and Xue (薛). The Tiele (also known as Gaoche 高車, lit. "High Carts"), may be related to the Xiongnu and the Dingling . According to the Book of Wei , the Tiele people were the remnants of the Chidi (赤狄), the red Di people competing with
14664-606: The later Hephthalites . Wusun is a modern pronunciation of the Chinese Characters '烏孫'. The Chinese name '烏孫' (Wūsūn) literally means wū 'crow, raven' + sūn 'grandson, descendant'. There are several theories about the origin of the name. Canadian Sinologist Edwin Pulleyblank reconstructed the pronunciation of 烏孫' Wūsūn as in Middle Chinese as ou-suən , from Old Chinese aĥ-smən and linked
14805-476: The later Hephthalites . After this event the Wusun seem to disappear from Chinese records: Wusun were last mentioned in 938 AD alongsides Tuyuhun and Mohe, as tributary states to the Khitan Liao . The Hanshu and Shiji do not make any special note of the physical appearance of the Wusun. The first description of the Wusun's physical appearance is found in a Western Han dynasty book of divination ,
14946-602: The local populations to varying degrees. The Volga Bulgaria became an Islamic state in 922 and influenced the region as it controlled many trade routes. In the 13th century, Mongols invaded Europe and established the Golden Horde in Eastern Europe, western & northern Central Asia, and even western Siberia. The Cuman-Kipchak Confederation and Islamic Volga Bulgaria were absorbed by the Golden Horde in
15087-529: The modern province of Gansu, in the valley of the Wushui-he (lit. "Raven-Water River"), as vassals of the Xiongnu. It is not clear whether the river was named after the tribe or vice versa. The Xiongnu ruler was impressed with Liejiaomi , considering him a supernatural being, and adopted the child. When the child grew up the Chanyu made him leader of the Wusun and a Xiongnu general. He won many victories for
15228-703: The new leader of Dingling horde, with the support from the Leagues, he founded the Wei state , a DingLing Dynasty in China in modern Henan Province. About one-quarter of the Tuoba clans show similar names as found among the later Gaoche and Tiele tribes. Among them, the Hegu (紇骨) and Yizhan (乙旃) clans kept their high status. Between the 4th and 7th centuries, the name "Dingling" slowly disappeared from Chinese records, coinciding with
15369-593: The next decades the institution of Greater and Lesser Kunmi continued, with the Lesser Kunmi being married to a Xiongnu princess and the Greater Kunmi married to a Han princess. In 5 BC, during the reign of Wuzhuliu Chanyu (8 BC – AD 13), the Wusun attempted to raid Yueban pastures, but Wuzhuliu repulsed them, and the Wusun commander had to send his son to the Yueban court as
15510-590: The next few years, when Uyghur Khaganate remnants tried to raid Tang borders, the Shatuo participated extensively in counterattacking the Uyghur Khaganate with other tribes loyal to Tang. In 843, Zhuye Chixin, under the command of the Han Chinese officer Shi Xiong with Tuyuhun, Tangut and Han Chinese troops, participated in a raid against the Uyghur khaganate that led to the slaughter of Uyghur forces at Shahu mountain. The Shatuo Turks had founded several short-lived sinicized dynasties in northern China during
15651-647: The north of the Xiongnu empire and Dingling territories, at the headwaters of the Yenisei around Tannu Uriankhai , lived the Gekun (鬲昆), also known as the Yenisei Kirghiz in later records. Further to the west near the Irtysh river lived the Hujie (呼揭). Other tribes living of the Xiongnu, such as the Hunyu (浑庾), Qushe (屈射), and Xinli (薪犁), were only mentioned once in Chinese records, and their exact location
15792-512: The northeast Asian gene pool", the proto-Turkic language likely originated in northeastern Asia. Genetic data found that almost all modern Turkic peoples retained at least some shared ancestry associated with populations in "South Siberia and Mongolia" (SSM), supporting this region as the "Inner Asian Homeland (IAH) of the pioneer carriers of Turkic languages" which subsequently expanded into Central Asia. The main Turkic expansion took place during
15933-462: The offspring of this people. Initially, when only a few number of skulls from Wusun territory were known, the Wusun were recognized as a Caucasoid people with slight Mongoloid admixture. Later, in a more thorough study by Soviet archaeologists of eighty-seven skulls of Zhetysu , the six skulls of the Wusun period were determined to be purely Caucasoid or close to it. The Wusun are generally believed to be an Indo-European people and speak
16074-509: The only recorded one was in the year 85, when together with the Xianbei they made their final attack on the Xiongnu, and Dingling regained its power under Zhai Ying. After that, under the Dingling pressure, the remaining of northern Xiongnu and the Tuoba formed the confederacy by Xianbei chief Tanshihuai (檀石槐). After his death in 181, the Xianbei moved south and the Dingling took their place on
16215-512: The other hand seriously considers the possibility that the word is genuinely Turkish. Whatever the truth may be, there is no connection with Turkish berk , Mongolian berke 'strong' or Turkish bögü , Mongolian böge 'wizard, shaman.'" According to the Shiji (c. 123) and the Hanshu (c. 96), Liu Xijun , a daughter of the Han prince Liu Jian , was sent to the ruler (Kunmi or Kunmo) of
16356-428: The partly Islamized native Siberian Tatars and indigenous Uralic peoples. It was the northernmost Islamic state in recorded history and it survived up until 1598 when it was conquered by Russia. The Uyghur Khaganate had established itself by the year 744 AD. Through trade relations established with China, its capital city of Ordu Baliq in central Mongolia's Orkhon Valley became a wealthy center of commerce, and
16497-558: The past 4000 years, including extensive Turkic migrations out of Mongolia and slow assimilation of local populations. A 2022 report suggested that Turkic and Mongolic populations in Central Asia formed via admixture events during the Iron Age between "local Indo-Iranian and a South-Siberian or Mongolian group with a high East-Asian ancestry (around 60%)". Modern day Turkmens form an outlier among Central Asian Turkic-speakers with
16638-554: The people of the Wusun state in the Zhetysu and Dzungaria area. The Wusun realm probably included both Yuezhi and Saka. It is clear that the majority of the population consisted of linguistically Iranian Saka tribes. In 125 BC, under the Han Emperor Wu of Han (156–87 BC), the Chinese traveller and diplomat Zhang Qian was sent to establish an alliance with the Wusun Against the Xiongnu. Qian estimated
16779-487: The revolt, but convinced by Zhai Bin, joined his mutiny to against Former Qin. Their mutiny were also joined by several other Xianbei tribes which formed the Anti-Qin leagues, with the suggestion by Zhai Bin, Murong Chui was elected to be the leader of the leagues. Near end of the same year, Murong Chui styled himself King of Yan (燕王), left Zhai Bin the new leader of the league and a dilemma of the war, later Murong Chui broke
16920-517: The rise of the Uyghur Khaganate . Several theories have been proposed about the relationship between the Dingling and both ancient and living cultures, based on linguistic, historical and archaeological evidence. The Dingling are considered to have been an early Turkic-speaking people . Weilüe records the Dingling word for the arctic fox (vulpes lagopus) as 昆子 kūnzǐ ( Middle Chinese (ZS): * kuən-t͡sɨ < Early Middle Chinese: * kwən-tsɨ’/tsi’ < Eastern Han Chinese : * kûn-tsəʔ ), which
17061-647: The so-called Aygîrdzhal group, are found together with the Chil-pek tombs from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD, and have been attributed to the Yuezhi. Graves of the Wusun period typically contain personal belongings, with the burials of the Aygîrdzhal group often containing weapons. A famous find is the Kargali burial of a female Shaman discovered at an altitude of 2,300 m, near Almaty , containing jewellery, clothing, head-dress and nearly 300 gold objects. A beautiful diadem of
17202-461: The son of Cenzou. Jieyou bore Nimi the son Chimi ( Chinese : 鴟靡 ). Prince Wujiutu later killed Nimi, his half-brother. Fearing the wrath of the Han, Wujiutu adopted the title of Lesser Kunmi, while Yuanguimi was given the title Greater Kunmi. The Han accepted this system and bestowed both of them with the imperial seal . After both Yuanguimi and Chimi were dead, Jieyou asked Emperor Xuan for permission to return to China. She died in 49 BC. Over
17343-589: The speakers of which account for about 40% of all Turkic speakers. More than one third of these are ethnic Turks of Turkey , dwelling predominantly in Turkey proper and formerly Ottoman -dominated areas of Southern and Eastern Europe and West Asia ; as well as in Western Europe, Australia and the Americas as a result of immigration. The remainder of the Turkic people are concentrated in Central Asia, Russia,
17484-534: The steppe. Some groups of Dingling, called the West Dingling by the ancient Chinese, started to migrate into western Asia, but settled in Kangju (康居), modern day Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan . There is no specific source to tell where exactly they settled, but some claim Lake Zaysan (宰桑 or 斋桑). Between the short-lived Xianbei confederacy in 181 and the foundation of the Rouran Qaghanate in 402, there
17625-653: The study found that the Wusun and Kangju had less East Asian admixture than the Xiongnu and the Saka . Both the Wusun and Kangju were suggested to be descended from Western Steppe Herders (WSHs) of the Late Bronze Age who admixed with Siberian hunter-gatherers and peoples related to the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex . One theory has suggested that the Uissun tribe of Kazakhstan
17766-577: The taking of any hostages from Chinese vassals, i.e. Wusun, Wuhuan and the statelets of the Western Regions , would not be tolerated. In 74 AD the Wusun are recorded as having sent tribute to the Han military commanders in Cheshi. In 80 AD Ban Chao requested assistance from the Wusun against the city-state Quchi (Kucha) in the Tarim Basin. The Wusun were subsequently rewarded with silks, while diplomatic exchanges were resumed. During
17907-811: The term Türki refers generally to the people of modern "Turkic Republics" ( Türki Cumhuriyetler or Türk Cumhuriyetleri ). However, the proper usage of the term is based on the linguistic classification in order to avoid any political sense. In short, the term Türki can be used for Türk or vice versa. [REDACTED] Crimea ( disputed by Ukraine and Russia) [REDACTED] Sunan Yugur Autonomous County [REDACTED] Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky District (Russian Federation) Possible Proto-Turkic ancestry, at least partial, has been posited for Xiongnu , Huns and Pannonian Avars , as well as Tuoba and Rouran , who were of Proto-Mongolic Donghu ancestry. as well as Tatars , Rourans' supposed descendants. The Turkic languages constitute
18048-671: The term Turk ( Old Turkic : 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰 Türük or 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰:𐰜𐰇𐰛 Kök Türük , Chinese : 突厥 , Pinyin : Tūjué < Middle Chinese * tɦut-kyat < * dwət-kuɑt , Old Tibetan : drugu ) applied to only one Turkic group, namely, the Göktürks , who were also mentioned, as türüg ~ török , in the 6th-century Khüis Tolgoi inscription , most likely not later than 587 AD. A letter by Ishbara Qaghan to Emperor Wen of Sui in 585 described him as "the Great Turk Khan". The Bugut (584 CE) and Orkhon inscriptions (735 CE) use
18189-586: The term böri is probably derived from one of the Iranian languages of Central Asia (cf. Khotanese birgga- ). Meanwhile, Findley considers the title beg as certainly derived from the Sogdian baga 'lord', a cognate of Middle Persian baγ (as used by the rulers of the Sassanid Empire ), as well as Sanskrit bhaga and Russian bog . According to Encyclopædia Iranica : "The origin of beg
18330-684: The terms Türküt , Türk and Türük . During the first century CE, Pomponius Mela refers to the Turcae in the forests north of the Sea of Azov , and Pliny the Elder lists the Tyrcae among the people of the same area. However, English archaeologist Ellis Minns contended that Tyrcae Τῦρκαι is "a false correction" for Iyrcae Ἱύρκαι, a people who dwelt beyond the Thyssagetae , according to Herodotus ( Histories , iv. 22), and were likely Ugric ancestors of Magyars . There are references to certain groups in antiquity whose names might have been foreign transcriptions of Tür(ü)k , such as Togarma , Turukha / Turuška , Turukku and so on; but
18471-399: The western steppe in Kazakhstan, which has been called the West Dingling. Around the 3rd century, Dinglings living in China began to adopt family names such as Zhai or Di (翟), Xianyu (鲜于), Luo (洛) and Yan (严). These Dingling became part of the southern Xiongnu tribes known as Chile (赤勒) during the 3rd century, from which the name Chile (敕勒) originated. During the Sixteen Kingdoms period,
18612-405: The world, do not have a uniform palaeography as do, for example, the Gothic runiform scripts, noted for their exceptional uniformity of language and paleography. The Turkic alphabets are divided into four groups, the best known of which is the Orkhon version of the Enisei group. The Orkhon script is the alphabet used by the Göktürks from the 8th century to record the Old Turkic language . It
18753-419: Was a long period without a tribal confederacy on the steppe. During this period, a part of the Dingling were assimilated to the northern Xiongnu by permanently settling further to the south. Another group, documented as about 450,000, moved southeast and merged into the Xianbei. Some groups of Dingling settled in China during Wang Mang 's reign. According to the Weilüe , another group of Dingling escaped to
18894-449: Was born to a Xiongnu mother. She sent numerous letters to the Han requesting assistance against the Xiongnu. Around 80 BC, the Wusun were attacked by the Xiongnu, who inflicted a devastating defeat upon them. In 72 BC, Kunmi, chief of the Wusun requested assistance from the Han against the Xiongnu. The Han sent an army of 160,000 men, inflicting a crushing defeat upon the Xiongnu, capturing much booty and many slaves. In
19035-642: Was fairly sophisticated, consisting of sixteen officials. The Great Kunmi was assisted by a council of elders, which limited his power to some degree. The Wusun elite maintained itself through tribute from conquered tribes, war booty and trading profits. The booty acquired by the Wusun in their frequent conflicts enabled the administrative elite and members of the Kunmi's guard to amass enormous riches. Wusun society seems to have been highly stratified . The main source of this stratification seems to have been property ownership . The wealthiest Wusuns are believed to have owned as many as 4,000 to 5,000 horses, and there
19176-416: Was initially reserved exclusively for the Göktürks by Chinese, Tibetans, and even the Turkic-speaking Uyghurs . In contrast, medieval Muslim writers, including Turkic speakers like Ottoman historian Mustafa Âlî and explorer Evliya Çelebi as well as Timurid scientist Ulugh Beg , often viewed Inner Asian tribes, "as forming a single entity regardless of their linguistic affiliation" commonly used Turk as
19317-475: Was later used by the Uyghur Empire ; a Yenisei variant is known from 9th-century Kyrgyz inscriptions, and it has likely cousins in the Talas Valley of Turkestan and the Old Hungarian script of the 10th century. Irk Bitig is the only known complete manuscript text written in the Old Turkic script. ( Tokhara Yabghus , Turk Shahis ) The origins of the Turkic peoples has been a topic of much discussion. Peter Benjamin Golden proposes two locations for
19458-572: Was located in a side valley leading to Issyk Kul. Lying on one of the branches of the Silk Road Chigu was an important trading centre, but its exact location has not been established. According to Sima Qian in the Shiji : Wusun as a nation, has its great Kunmi [monarch] presiding at Chigu City which is 8900 li [3700km] away from Chang'an (...) It land is bare and flat, rainy and chilly. Its hills are covered with pines. Its people do not plow of plant but follow their flocks to where water and grass are found. Its customs are similar to those of
19599-597: Was probably the royal title while the second syllable referred to the royal family name. Beckwith specifically suggests an Indo-Aryan etymology of the title Kunmi. In the past, some scholars suggested that the Wusun spoke a Turkic language. Chinese scholar Han Rulin, as well as G. Vambery , A. Scherbak, P. Budberg, L. Bazin and V.P. Yudin, noted that the Wusun king's name Fu-li 拊離 ( OC (20 BC) * phoʔ-rai > LHC * pʰuoᴮ-liai ~ *pʰuoᴮ-lie ), as reported in Chinese sources and translated as 'wolf', resembles Proto-Turkic * bȫrü 'wolf'. This suggestion however
19740-426: Was replaced by the Uyghur Khaganate in the year 744. The Bulgars established themselves in between the Caspian and Black Seas in the 5th and 6th centuries, followed by their conquerors, the Khazars who converted to Judaism in the 8th or 9th century. After them came the Pechenegs who created a large confederacy, which was subsequently taken over by the Cumans and the Kipchaks . One group of Bulgars settled in
19881-606: Was tolerant of religious diversity and practiced variety of religions including Buddhism, Christianity, shamanism and Manichaeism. During the same time period, the Shatuo Turks emerged as power factor in Northern and Central China and were recognized by the Tang Empire as allied power. In 808, 30,000 Shatuo under Zhuye Jinzhong defected from the Tibetans to Tang China and the Tibetans punished them by killing Zhuye Jinzhong as they were chasing them. The Uyghurs also fought against an alliance of Shatuo and Tibetans at Beshbalik. The Shatuo Turks under Zhuye Chixin ( Li Guochang ) served
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