Az were Turkophone people from present-day

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

whose origins are still vague. Their existence is confirmed by the Tannu-Ola mountains inscriptions of Mugur-Sargol and Bayan-Kol and certain verses of the

Göktürks The Göktürks, Celestial Turks or Blue Turks ( otk, 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰:𐰉𐰆𐰑𐰣, Türük Bodun; ; ) were a nomadic confederation of Turkic peoples in medieval Inner Asia. The Göktürks, under the leadership of Bumin Qaghan (d. 552) a ...

, while describing the battles between the Göktürks and the

Kyrgyz Kyrgyz, Kirghiz or Kyrgyzstani may refer to: * Someone or something related to Kyrgyzstan *Kyrgyz people *Kyrgyz national games *Kyrgyz language *Kyrgyz culture *Kyrgyz cuisine *Yenisei Kirghiz *The Fuyü Gïrgïs language in Northeastern China ...

. According to the Bayan-Kol inscriptions, the Az were divided to many clans living in the region of Mugur west of the Tannu-Ola mountains. There are also writings from the 8th century (around 714 AD) in Uyghur sources about the uprising of the Az against the Göktürks. The origin of the Az is disputed; but most researchers agree that they are without much doubt a people of non-Turkic origin who were influenced by neighboring Turkic people and became Turkophones. Most research has been done by Russian linguist experts who trace them as close ethnically to

Ket people Kets (russian: Кеты; Ket: Ostygan) are a tribe of Yeniseian speaking people in Siberia. During the Russian Empire, they were known as Ostyaks, without differentiating them from several other Siberian people. Later, they became known as ''Ye ...

Yenisei The Yenisey (russian: Енисе́й, ''Yeniséy''; mn, Горлог мөрөн, ''Gorlog mörön''; Buryat: Горлог мүрэн, ''Gorlog müren''; Tuvan: Улуг-Хем, ''Uluğ-Hem''; Khakas: Ким суғ, ''Kim suğ''; Ket: Ӄук, ...

basin in

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part ...

due to similarities in name between otk, 𐰔:𐰉𐰆𐰑𐰣, az budïn and the ''Assans'', who spoke an extinct Yeniseic Kott dialect. The primary information on their language was collected by Matthias Castrén in 1845, with further research and information added later by the anthropologist Dmitry Anuchin. Meanwhile, Az were also hypothesized to be Turkicized descendants of the Iranian-speakers, particularly Asiani- Wusun. The name ''Az'' has been suggested to live on in the names of several other peoples of southern Siberia: the

Kamas Kamas may mean * Kamas, Utah * Kamas (raga), a ragam in Carnatic music * KAMAS (program), an acronym for ''Knowledge and Mind Amplification System'', an outline processor * Kamasins, a Samoyedic people * Kamassian language, an extinct Samoyedic l ...

("Mountain Az"), the Karagas ("Black Az" or "Plains Az"), and the

Khakas The Khakas (also spelled Khakass; Khakas: , ''khakas'', , ''tadar'', , ''khakastar'', , ''tadarlar'') are a Turkic indigenous people of Siberia, who live in the republic of Khakassia, Russia. They speak the Khakas language. The Khakhassi ...

("White Az").Simoncsics, Péter. 1998. "Kamassian". ''The Uralic Languages'', ed. Daniel Abondolo, pp. 580–601.

Sources

Saadettin Gömeç: ''İslâm Öncesi Türk Tarihinin Kaynakları Üzerine''. In: AÜ Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Tarih Bölümü Tarih Araştırmaları Dergisi, Bd. 20, Nr. 31, 2000, S. 51–92 (72f.

References

{{Turkic peoples Ethnic groups in Siberia Extinct Turkic peoples