Kayı (tribe)

The Kayı or Kayi tribe ( Middle Turkic: قَيِغْ ''qayïγ'' or simply ''qayig''; tr, Kayı boyu, tk, Gaýy taýpasy) were an Oghuz Turkic people and a sub-branch of the Bozok tribal federation. In his ''Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk,'' the 11th century Kara-Khanid scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari cited as of one of 22 Oghuz tribes, saying that Oghuz were also called Turkomans. The name ''Kayı'' means "''the one who has might and power by relationship''" and the Turkmen proverb says that "''people shall be led by Kayi and Bayat tribes" ( tk, Il başy - gaýy-baýat)''.

Origin

In his history work '' Shajara-i Tarākima'', the Khan of Khiva and historian, Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur, mentions among the 24 ancient Turkmen (Oghuz Turkic) tribes, direct descendants of Oghuz Khagan. Oghuz Khagan is a semi-legendary figure thought to be the ancient progenitor of Oghuz Turks. translates as "strong". In his extensive history work “ Jami' al-tawarikh” (Collection of Chronicles), the statesman and historian of the Ilkhanate Rashid-al-Din Hamadani also says that the tribe comes from the oldest of Oghuz Khan's 24 grandchildren who were the patriarchs of the ancient Oghuz tribes, and the name ''Kayı'' means "powerful".

Soviet Sinologist and Turkologist Yury Zuev based on the analysis of tribal names and tamgas from Tang Huiyao, identifies a number of ancient Central Asian Turkic tribes as Oghuz-Turkmen tribes, one of them is the Kay tribe, whom Chinese knew as Xí 奚 (< MC *''γiei''). After examining Chinese sources & consulting the works of other scholars ( Pelliot, Minorsky), Zuev proposes that the Kay had belonged to the proto-Mongolic Xianbei tribal union Yuwen Xiongnu and that Kay had been ethnic and linguistic relatives of the Mongolic-speaking Khitans, prior to being known as an Oghuz-Turkmen tribe by the 9th century. Likewise, Hungarian scholar Gyula Németh (1969) links ''Kayı(ğ)'' to the (para-)Mongolic ''Qay''/''Xí'', whom Tibetans knew as ''Dad-pyi'' and Göktürks knew as ''Tatabï''; however, Németh's thesis is rejected by Mehmet Fuat Köprülü among others. Later on, Németh (1991) proposes that Mg. ''Qay'' is derived from Tk. root ''qað-'' "snowstorm, blizzard"; nevertheless, Golden points out that ''Qay'' has several Mongolic etymologies: ''ɣai'' "misfortune", ''χai'' "interjection of grief", ''χai'' "to seek", ''χai'' "to hew".

Even so, Köprülü rejects scholarly attempts to link the formerly Mongolic Qay/Xi to the Oghuz Turkic tribe Qayı(ğ); he points out that Kashgari's Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk distinguished the Qay tribe from the Qayığ branch/sub-tribe of the Oghuz-Turkmen tribe.

History

According to Ottoman tradition, Osman I, the founder of Ottoman Empire, was a descendant of the Kayı tribe. This claim has, however, been called into serious question by many modern historians. The only evidence for the Ottomans' Kayı descent came from genealogies written during the fifteenth century, several centuries after the life of Osman. More significantly, the earliest genealogies written by the Ottomans did not include any reference to Kayı descent at all, indicating that it may have been fabricated at a later date.

The famous Oghuz- Turkic folk narrator, soothsayer and bard Gorkut-ata (Dede Korkut) belonged to the Kayı tribe. In the 10th century, the Central Asian Oghuz Yabgu State was headed by supreme leaders (or Yabghu

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