The Toquz Oghuz ( otk, 𐱃𐰸𐰆𐰔:𐰆𐰍𐰔, Toquz Oγuz; ; "Turks of Nine

Bones A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, an ...

") was a political alliance of nine Turkic-speaking Tiele

tribes The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to conflic ...

Inner Asia Inner Asia refers to the northern and landlocked regions spanning North, Central and East Asia. It includes parts of western and northeast China, as well as southern Siberia. The area overlaps with some definitions of 'Central Asia', mostly the h ...

, during the

early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...

. The Toquz Oghuz was consolidated and subordinated within the

First Turkic Khaganate The First Turkic Khaganate, also referred to as the First Turkic Empire, the Turkic Khaganate or the Göktürk Khaganate, was a Turkic khaganate established by the Ashina clan of the Göktürks in medieval Inner Asia under the leadership of Bumin ...

(552–743) and remained as a nine-tribe alliance after the Khaganate fragmented. Oghuz is a Turkic word meaning "community" and ''toquz'' means "nine". Similarly the

Karluks The Karluks (also Qarluqs, Qarluks, Karluqs, otk, 𐰴𐰺𐰞𐰸, Qarluq, Para-Mongol: Harluut, zh, s=葛逻禄, t=葛邏祿 ''Géluólù'' ; customary phonetic: ''Gelu, Khololo, Khorlo'', fa, خَلُّخ, ''Khallokh'', ar, قارلوق ...

were possibly known as the ''Üç-Oğuz'' – ''üç'' meaning "three". The root of the generalized ethnic term "oghuz" is ''og''-, meaning "clan, tribe"; which in turn, according to Kononov, descends from the ancient Turkic word ''ög'' meaning "mother" (however, Golden considered such a further derivation impossible). Initially the ''oguz'' designated "tribes" or "tribal union", and eventually became an ethnonym. The Toquz Oghuz were perhaps first mentioned in the

Orkhon inscriptions The Orkhon inscriptions (also known as the Orhon inscriptions, Orhun inscriptions, Khöshöö Tsaidam monuments (also spelled ''Khoshoo Tsaidam'', ''Koshu-Tsaidam'' or ''Höshöö Caidam''), or Kul Tigin steles ( zh, t=闕特勤碑, s=阙特勤� ...

written in the 730s. The nine tribes were named in Chinese histories as the ''Huihe''/Uyghur (回纥), ''Pugu'' (仆骨), ''Hun'' (浑), ''Bayegu'' (拔野古), ''Tongluo'' (同罗), ''Sijie'' (思结), ''Qibi'' (契苾), ''A-Busi'' (阿布思) and ''Gulunwugusi'' (骨仑屋骨思). The first seven named – who lived north of the

Gobi Desert The Gobi Desert (Chinese: 戈壁 (沙漠), Mongolian: Говь (ᠭᠣᠪᠢ)) () is a large desert or brushland region in East Asia, and is the sixth largest desert in the world. Geography The Gobi measures from southwest to northeast an ...

– were dominant, whereas the ''A-Busi'' and ''Gulunwugu(si)'' emerged later and were accepted on an equal footing with the others some time after 743. The ''A-Busi'' apparently originated as a sub-tribal group within the ''Sijie'' and the ''Gulunwugu(si)'' as a combination of two other tribes. Latter Gōktürk Khagan

Bilge The bilge of a ship or boat is the part of the hull that would rest on the ground if the vessel were unsupported by water. The "turn of the bilge" is the transition from the bottom of a hull to the sides of a hull. Internally, the bilges (us ...

considered the Toquz Oghuz " isown people". It is also mentioned in Kul Tigin inscriptions that the Göktürks and Toquz Oghuz were fighting five times in a year.

𐱃𐰸𐰆𐰕:𐰆𐰍𐰕:𐰉𐰆𐰑𐰣:𐰚𐰤𐱅𐰃:𐰉𐰆𐰑𐰣𐰢:𐰼𐱅𐰃:𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃:𐰘𐰃𐰼:𐰉𐰆𐰞𐰍𐰴𐰃𐰤:𐰇𐰲𐰇𐰤:𐰖𐰍𐰃:𐰉𐰆𐰡𐰃 Toquz Oγuz budun kentü budunïm erti Teŋіri jer bolγaqïn üčün yaγï boltï. "Nine Oguzes were my people. As Tengri and the earth came to disorder, they rose against us."

Likewise, foreign sources suggested the political association of some Toquz Oghuz tribes to Göktürks. A Khotanese Saka text about Turks in

Ganzhou Ganzhou (), alternately romanized as Kanchow, is a prefecture-level city in the south of Jiangxi province, China, bordering Fujian to the east, Guangdong to the south, and Hunan to the west. Its administrative seat is at Zhanggong District. Hist ...

mentioned ''saikairä ttūrkä chārä'' (< OTrk. *''sïqïr türk çor''). The Sïqïr Türks were identified with the ''Sikāri'' in Sogdian documents as well as the ''Sijie'', who were mentioned as ''Tujue Sijie'' 突厥思結 in

Zizhi Tongjian ''Zizhi Tongjian'' () is a pioneering reference work in Chinese historiography, published in 1084 AD during the Northern Song dynasty in the form of a chronicle recording Chinese history from 403 BC to 959 AD, covering 16 dynast ...

. Among the

Eastern Turkic Chagatai (چغتای, ''Čaġatāy''), also known as ''Turki'', Eastern Turkic, or Chagatai Turkic (''Čaġatāy türkīsi''), is an extinct Turkic literary language that was once widely spoken across Central Asia and remained the shared literar ...

tribes who dwelt south the Gobi desert,

Tang Huiyao The ''Tang Huiyao'' () is an institutional history of Tang dynasty compiled by Wang Pu and presented it to Emperor Taizu of Song in 961. The book contains 100 volumes and 514 sections, it has an abundant content for the period before 846, and scar ...

listed the ''Sijie'' (erroneously rendered as ''Enjie'' 恩結), who dwelt in the Lushan military governorate 盧山都督府, and ''Fuli'', who dwelt in the same

jimi Jimi may refer to: * Jimi language (Cameroon) * Jimi language (Nigeria) * Jimi languages * Jimi system, the administration system of ancient China * Jimi River, in Papua New Guinea * Jimi Valley, in Papua New Guinea * Jimi District, in Papua New G ...

province of Dailin as the Sijie's splinter tribe A-Busi. The ''Fuli(-yu)'' (匐利 ��, or ''Fuli(-ju)'' (伏利 ��, were identifiable as the ''Fuluo'' (覆羅) in other Chinese sources and the ''Bökli-Çöligil'' (OTrk. 𐰋𐰇𐰚𐰲𐰃:𐰲𐰇𐰠𐰏𐰠), who appeared on Kül-tegin inscription and were proposed to have originated from Tungusic Mohe,

Koreans Koreans ( South Korean: , , North Korean: , ; see names of Korea) are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Korean Peninsula. Koreans mainly live in the two Korean nation states: North Korea and South Korea (collectively and simply refe ...

, or ethnic

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.. "Turkic peoples, any of various peoples whose members speak languages belonging t ...

. Kenzheakhmet (2014:297-299) links the ''Sijies splinter-tribe ''Abusi'' (< OTrk. *''Abïz'') to the ''Fuli'' (< OTrk. *''Bükeli'' < ''büke'' "snake, dragon" + coordinating conjunctive suffix ''-li'', possibly). Another list of nine names - '' Yaoluoge'' (藥羅葛) (< OTrk. 𐰖𐰍𐰞𐰴𐰺‎ ''Yaglaqar''), ''Huduoge'' (胡咄葛), ''Guluowu'' (啒羅勿), ''Mogexiqi'' (貊歌息訖), ''A-Wudi'' (阿勿嘀), ''Gesa'' (葛薩), ''Huwasu'' (斛嗢素), ''Yaowuge'' (藥勿葛), & ''Xiyawu'' (奚牙勿)- appeared in the

Old Book of Tang The ''Old Book of Tang'', or simply the ''Book of Tang'', is the first classic historical work about the Tang dynasty, comprising 200 chapters, and is one of the Twenty-Four Histories. Originally compiled during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdo ...

and

New Book of Tang The ''New Book of Tang'', generally translated as the "New History of the Tang" or "New Tang History", is a work of official history covering the Tang dynasty in ten volumes and 225 chapters. The work was compiled by a team of scholars of the So ...

. According to Haneda (1957), Toquz Oğuz were the Yaglaqar-led group of nine clans included in the Uighur tribe. In contrast,

Golden Golden means made of, or relating to gold. Golden may also refer to: Places United Kingdom *Golden, in the parish of Probus, Cornwall *Golden Cap, Dorset *Golden Square, Soho, London *Golden Valley, a valley on the River Frome in Gloucestershir ...

(1992) proposed that Toquz Oğuz were the Tang Huiyao's nine-tribe group led by the Uyghur, which in turn comprised the nine subtribes led by Yaglaqar. The Shine Usu inscription mentioned that the Yağlaqar ruled over the ''On-Uyğur'' "Ten

Tribes The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to conflic ...

Uyghur" and ''Toquz Oğuz'' "Nine

Oghuz". Meanwhile, Hashimoto, Katayama, and Senga propose that the Tang Huiyao's list (led by Uyghur) contained the names of the Toquz Oghuz tribes proper, while each name in the two lists (led by Yağlaqar) in the Books of Tang recorded each surname of each of nine subtribal chiefs (e.g. ''Uyghur'' chief's surname is ''Yağlaqar''; ''Sijie'' chief's surname is ''Gesa'', etc.).

Notes

References

{{Turkic peoples Turkic peoples of Asia Uyghurs History of China Nomadic groups in Eurasia Extinct Turkic peoples Tribes of the Göktürks