The Argyn ( kz, Арғын) tribe (or clan) is a constituent of the Kazakh ethnicity. The Argyn are a component, of the ''Orta jüz'' (Орта жүз; "

Middle Horde A ''zhuz'' ( kz, ٴجۇز , Жүз, translit=Jüz, , also translated as " horde") is one of the three main territorial and tribal divisions in the Kypchak Plain area that covers much of the contemporary Kazakhstan. It represents the main tribal d ...

" or "Middle Hundred"). Kazakhs historically consisted of three tribal federations: the Great ''jüz'' (or Senior ''jüz''), Middle jüz, and Little ''jüz'' (or Junior ''jüz''). Karakhanid scholar

Mahmud al-Kashgari Mahmud ibn Husayn ibn Muhammed al-Kashgari, ''Maḥmūd ibnu 'l-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Kāšġarī'', , tr, Kaşgarlı Mahmûd, ug, مەھمۇد قەشقىرى, ''Mehmud Qeshqiri'' / Мәһмуд Қәшқири uz, Mahmud Qashg'ariy / М ...

glossed ''Arghu'' as "ravine between two mountains", because the Arghu country was located between Tiraz and Balasagun. Argyns are of mixed origins. A historical bilingual, yet steadily Turkicizing, people,

Basmyl The Basmyls (''Basmyl''; Basmals, Basmils, otk, 𐰉𐰽𐰢𐰞, Basmïl, , Middle Chinese ZS: *''bˠɛt̚-siɪt̚-miɪt̚/mˠiɪt̚/miᴇ''; also 弊剌 ''Bìlà'', MC *''bjiejH-lat'')Golden, Peter B. ''An Introduction to the History of Turki ...

s,Maħmūd al-Kašğari. "Dīwān Luğāt al-Turk". Edited & translated by Robert Dankoff in collaboration with James Kelly. In Sources of Oriental Languages and Literature. Part I. (1982). p. 82-83 likely contributed to the ethnogenesis of Argyns because both Basmyls and Argyns occupied roughly the same geographic location, in

Beiting Protectorate The Beiting Protectorate-General, initially the Beiting Protectorate, was a Chinese protectorate established by the Tang dynasty in 702 to control the Beiting region north of Gaochang in contemporary Xinjiang. Wu Zetian set up the Beiting ...

, where Basmyls made their first recorded appearance and which is now in

western China Western China (, or rarely ) is the west of China. In the definition of the Chinese government, Western China covers one municipality ( Chongqing), six provinces (Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Qinghai), and three autonomou ...

, and still home to a Kazakh minority.

Kara-Khanid The Kara-Khanid Khanate (; ), also known as the Karakhanids, Qarakhanids, Ilek Khanids or the Afrasiabids (), was a Turkic khanate that ruled Central Asia in the 9th through the early 13th century. The dynastic names of Karakhanids and Ilek K ...

scholar

wrote that Basmyls spoke their own language besides Turkic. The name of the Argyns probably corresponds to that of the "Argons" mentioned by

Marco Polo Marco Polo (, , ; 8 January 1324) was a Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in '' The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known as ''Book of the Marv ...

in a country called "Tenduc" (around modern-day

Hohhot Hohhot,; abbreviated zh, c=呼市, p=Hūshì, labels=no formerly known as Kweisui, is the capital of Inner Mongolia in the north of the People's Republic of China, serving as the region's administrative, economic and cultural center.''The N ...

) during the 13th century. () Polo reported that this clan who had "sprung from two different races: to wit, of the race of the Idolaters of Tenduc and ... the worshippers of Mahommet. They are handsomer men than the other natives of the country, and having more ability, they come to have authority; and they are also capital merchants." Kashgari mentioned an urban ''Argu'' people who spoke

Middle Turkic Middle Turkic (''Türki'' or ''Türkçe'') refers to a phase in the development of the Turkic language family, covering much of the Middle Ages (c. 900–1500 CE). In particular the term is used by linguists to refer to a group of Karluk and O ...

with "a certain slurring (''rikka'')", like people of Sogdak and Kenchek; Golden proposes that the Arghu were Iranian speakers undergoing Turkicization. A 2013 study on Argyns genetics identifies twenty Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups: of these, G1a-P20 constitutes 71% of 2186 samples; R1a*-M198(xM458) 6%, C3c-M48 5%, C3* - M217(xM48) 3%; and other haplogroups represent less than three percent. The authors noted that "Tribe Argyn took on graph an isolated position, demonstrating the absence of genetic links with other Kazakh tribes."Zhabagin, M. et al
"J16.78 - The gene pool of Argyn in the context of generic structure of Kazakhs according to data on SNP-Y-Chromosome markers."
presented at ''European Human Genetics Conference 2013''. Paris, France. (2013)

References

Ethnic groups in Kazakhstan Ethnic groups in China Turkic peoples of Asia {{Asia-ethno-group-stub

See also

References