Kyrgyzes

The Kyrgyz people (also spelled Kyrghyz, Kirgiz, and Kirghiz; ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is the nation state of the Kyrgyz people and significant diaspora can be found in China, Russia, and Uzbekistan. They speak the Kyrgyz language, the official language of Kyrgyzstan.

The earliest Kyrgyz people were the descendants of several central Asian tribes, first emerging in western Mongolia around 201 BC. Modern Kyrgyz people are descended from the Yenisei Kyrgyz that lived in the Yenisey river valley in Siberia. The Kyrgyz people were constituents of the Tiele people, the Göktürks, and the Uyghur Khaganate before spreading throughout Central Asia and establishing their own Kyrgyz Khanate in the 15th century.

Etymology

There are several theories on the origin of ethnonym ''Kyrgyz''. It is often said to be derived from the Turkic word ''kyrk'' ("forty"), with -''iz'' being an old plural suffix, so ''Kyrgyz'' literally means "a collection of forty tribes". It also means "imperishable", "inextinguishable", "immortal", "unconquerable" or "unbeatable", as well as its association with the epic hero Manas, who – according to a founding myth – unified the 40 tribes against the Khitans. A rival myth, recorded in 1370 in the ''History of Yuan'', concerns 40 women born on a steppe motherland.

The earliest records of the ethnonym appear to have been the Chinese transcriptions ''Gekun'' (, LH *''kek-kuən'' < Old Chinese: *''krêk-kûn'') and ''Jiankun'' (, LH *''ken-kuən'' < OC: *''kên-kûn''). Those suggest that the original ethnonym was *''kirkur ~ kirgur'' and/or *''kirkün'', and another transcription ''Jiegu'' (, EMC: *''kέt-kwət'') suggests *''kirkut / kirgut''. Yury Zuev proposed that the ethnonym possibly means 'field people, field Huns' (cf. Tiele tribal name 渾 ''Hún'' < MC *''ɣuən''). Peter Golden reconstructs *''Qïrğïz'' < *''Qïrqïz''< *''Qïrqïŕ'' and suggests a derivation from Old Turkic ''qır'' 'gray' (horse color) plus suffix ''-q(X)r/ğ(X)r'' ~ ''k(X)z/g(X)z''.Golden, Peter B. (August 2018). "The Ethnogonic Tales of the Türks". ''The Medieval History Journal'', 21(2): 302. Besides, Chinese scholars later used a number of different transcriptions for the Kyrgyz people: these include ''Gegu'' (紇骨), ''Jiegu'' (結骨), ''Hegu'' (紇骨), ''Hegusi'' (紇扢斯), ''Hejiasi'' (紇戛斯), ''Hugu'' (護骨), ''Qigu'' (契骨), or ''Juwu'' (居勿), and then, during the reign of Tang Emperor Wuzong, ''Xiajiasi'' (黠戛斯), said to mean "red face". Edwin G. Pulleyblank surmises that "red face" was possibly a folk etymology provided by an interpreter who explained the ethnonym based on Turkic ''qïzïl'' ~ ''qizqil'', meaning 'red'. By the time of the Mongol Empire, the ethnonym's original meaning had apparently been forgotten – as was shown by variations in readings of it across different reductions of the ''History of Yuan''. This may have led to the adoption of ''Kyrgyz'' and its mythical explanation.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, European writers used the early Romanized form ''Kirghiz'' – from the contemporary Russian – to refer not only to the modern Kyrgyz, but also to their more numerous northern relatives, the Kazakhs. When distinction had to be made, more specific terms were used:
the Kyrgyz proper were known as the '' Kara-Kirghiz'' ("Black Kirghiz", from the colour of their tents),
and the Kazakhs were named the ''Kaisaks''. or "Kirghiz-Kazaks".

Origins

The Kyrgyz are a Turkic ethnic group. Recent linguistic, genetic and archaeological evidence suggests that the earliest Turkic peoples descended from agricultural communities in Northeast China who moved westwards into Mongolia in the late 3rd millennium BC, where they adopted a pastoral lifestyle. By the early 1st millennium BC, these peoples had become equestrian nomads. In subsequent centuries, the steppe populations of Central Asia appear to have been progressively Turkified by a East Asian dominant minority moving out of Mongolia.. "These results suggest that Turkic cultural customs were imposed by an East Asian minority elite onto central steppe nomad populations... The wide distribution of the Turkic languages from Northwest China, Mongolia and Siberia in the east to Turkey and Bulgaria in the west implies large-scale migrations out of the homeland in Mongolia.. "Both Chinese histories and modern dna studies indicate that the early and medieval Turkic peoples were made up of heterogeneous populations. The Turkicisation of central and western Eurasia was not the product of migrations involving a homogeneous entity, but that of language diffusion."

The early Kyrgyz people, known as Yenisei Kyrgyz, have their origins in the western parts of modern-day Mongolia and first appear in written records in the Chinese annals of the Sima Qian's ''Records of the Grand Historian'' (compiled 109 BC to 91 BC), as ''Gekun'' (, ) or ''Jiankun'' (). The Middle Age Chinese composition ''Tanghuiyao'' of the 8–10th century transcribed the name "Kyrgyz" as ''Jiegu'' (Kirgut), and their tamga was depicted as identical to the tamga of present-day Kyrgyz tribes Azyk, Bugu, Cherik, Sary Bagysh and few others.

According to recent historical findings, Kyrgyz history dates back to 201 BC. The Yenisei Kyrgyz lived in the upper Yenisey River valley, central Siberia. In Late Antiquity the Yenisei Kyrgyz were a part of the Tiele people. Later, in the Early Middle Ages, the Yenisei Kyrgyz were a part of the confederations of the Göktürk and Uyghur Khaganates.

In 840, a revolt led by the Yenisei Kyrgyz brought down the Uyghur Khaganate, and brought the Yenisei Kyrgyz to a dominating position in the former Second Turkic Khaganate. With the rise to power, the center of the Kyrgyz Khaganate moved to Jeti-su, and brought about a spread south of the Kyrgyz people, to reach Tian Shan mountains and Xinjiang, bringing them into contact with the existing peoples of western China, especially Tibet.

The Kirghiz khagans of the Yenisei Kirghiz Khaganate claimed descent from the Han Chinese general Li Ling, which was mentioned in the diplomatic correspondence between the Kirghiz khagan and the Tang Dynasty emperor, since the Tang imperial Li family claimed descent from Li Ling's grandfather, Li Guang. The Kirghiz qaghan assisted the Tang dynasty in destroying the Uyghur Khaganate and rescuing the Princess Taihe from the Uyghurs. They also killed a Uyghur khagan in the process.

Then Kyrgyz quickly moved as far as the Tian Shan range and maintained their dominance over this territory for about 200 years. In the 12th century, however, Kyrgyz domination had shrunk to the Altai and Sayan Mountains as a result of Mongol expansion. With the rise of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century, the Kyrgyz migrated south. In 1207, after the establishment of ''Yekhe Mongol Ulus'' (Mongol empire), Genghis Khan's oldest son Jochi occupied Kyrgyzstan without resistance. The state remained a Mongol vassal until the late 14th century. Various Turkic peoples ruled them until 1685, when they came under the control of the Oirats (Dzungars).

By the 16th century, the carriers of the ethnonym ''Kirgiz'' lived in South Siberia, Xinjiang, Tian Shan, Pamir-Alay, Middle Asia, Urals (among Bashkirs), in Kazakhstan. In the Tian Shan and Xinjiang area, the term ''Kyrgyz'' retained its unifying political designation, and became a general ethnonym for the Yenisei Kirgizes and aboriginal Turkic tribes that presently constitute the Kyrgyz population. Though it is obviously impossible to directly identify the Yenisei and Tien Shan Kyrgyz, a trace of their ethnogenetical connections is apparent in archaeology, history, language and ethnography. A majority of modern researchers came to the conclusion that the ancestors of Kyrgyz tribes had their origin in the most ancient tribal unions of Sakas/Scythians, Wusun

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