Uokil, or Vokil, was a name of

Bulgar Bulgar may refer to: *Bulgars, extinct people of Central Asia *Bulgar language, the extinct language of the Bulgars * Oghur languages Bulgar may also refer to: *Bolghar, the capital city of Volga Bulgaria *Bulgur, a wheat product * Bulgar, an Ash ...

dynastic A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A d ...

clan listed in the '' Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans''. The first listed in Nominalia was

Kormisosh Kormisosh ( bg, Кормисош) was a ruler of Bulgaria during the 8th century. The Namelist of Bulgarian Rulers states that he belonged to the Ukil (or Vokil) clan and ruled for 17 years. According to the chronology developed by Moskov, Kormi ...

(r. 737–754) and the last was Umor (r. 766).

Theories regarding origins

Kazakh Turkologist

Yury Zuev Yuri Alexeyevich Zuev or Zuyev (russian: Юрий Алексеевич Зуев; 8 December 1932 – 5 December 2006) was a Russian-born Kazakh sinologist and turkologist. Biography Zuev was born in the Siberian city of Tümen in a whit ...

had drawn attention to circumstantial evidence suggesting links between the Vokil and various

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

n peoples, during antiquity and 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 peoples concerned include: * the ''Hūjiē'' (呼揭) or ''Wūjiē'' (烏揭), whom Zuev believed to have been an offshoot of the

Yuezhi The Yuezhi (;) were an ancient people first described in Chinese histories as nomadic pastoralists living in an arid grassland area in the western part of the modern Chinese province of Gansu, during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defeat ...

Wusun The Wusun (; Eastern Han Chinese *''ʔɑ-suən'' <

Old Chinese

(140 BCE < 436 BCE): *''Ɂâ-sûn'') were an ancient semi-

; * the ''Xījiē'' (奚結), a Tiele tribe. * the ''Augaloi'' of the

Transoxiana Transoxiana or Transoxania (Land beyond the Oxus) is the Latin name for a region and civilization located in lower Central Asia roughly corresponding to modern-day eastern Uzbekistan, western Tajikistan, parts of southern Kazakhstan, parts of Tu ...

region beyond the

Oxus The Amu Darya, tk, Amyderýa/ uz, Amudaryo// tg, Амударё, Amudaryo ps, , tr, Ceyhun / Amu Derya grc, Ὦξος, Ôxos (also called the Amu, Amo River and historically known by its Latin name or Greek ) is a major river in Central Asi ...

, among the Indo-European-speaking '' Tocharii''; However, such theories are controversial and cannot be all true. Conclusive evidence proving or disproving them has never been presented and there is no consensus amongst scholars on whether or not such links exist.

Yuezhi and Wusun

and

Wusun The Wusun (; Eastern Han Chinese *''ʔɑ-suən'' <

Old Chinese

(140 BCE < 436 BCE): *''Ɂâ-sûn'') were an ancient semi-

are Chinese

exonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...

s for two separate Indo-European peoples, who lived 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 autonomous re ...

and

, during ancient times. Before the end of the 4th Century BCE, the Yuezhi and Wusun were located in areas that were later part of the Chinese provinces of Gansu and

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

. There was substantial interaction between the Yuezhi, the Wusun and a neighbouring people, the

Xiongnu The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, the supreme leader after 20 ...

, whom many scholars have suggested were precursors of the

Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...

. In about 200 BCE, the Xiongnu leader Modu Chanyu attacked the Yuezhi, and subjugated several other peoples. The Yuezhi subsequently attacked the Wusun, in about 173 BC, and killing their king, Nandoumi (). According to a Wusun legend, Nandoumi's infant son Liejiaomi was left in the wild, but was miraculously saved by a she-wolf, which allowed him to suckle, and ravens, which fed him meat. This pivotal myth shared similarities with the founding myths of many other peoples in Central Asia. It has been, in particular, the basis of theories that the Ashina – the royal clan of the Göktürk Turks – originated amongst the Wusun. In 162 BC, the Yuezhi suffered a further, more decisive defeat at the hands of the Xiongnu and retreated from Gansu. According to

Zhang Qian Zhang Qian (; died c. 114) was a Chinese official and diplomat who served as an imperial envoy to the world outside of China in the late 2nd century BC during the Han dynasty. He was one of the first official diplomats to bring back valuable inf ...

, the Yuezhi fragmented and most fled westward into the Ili river valley. The Wusun and Xiongnu later drove the main body of the Yuezhi southward, through Sogdia, into Bactria. The Wusun settled afterwards in Gansu, in the Wushui-he (Chinese: "Raven

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

Water River") valley, as vassals of the Xiongnu. According to the Chinese chronicle ''

Hanshu The ''Book of Han'' or ''History of the Former Han'' (Qián Hàn Shū,《前汉书》) is a history of China finished in 111AD, covering the Western, or Former Han dynasty from the first emperor in 206 BCE to the fall of Wang Mang in 23 CE. I ...

'', in 49 BCE the Xiongnu ruler,

Zhizhi Zhizhi or Chi-Chi (, from Old Chinese (58 BCE): *''tśit-kie'' < *''tit-ke'';Schuessler 2014, p. 277 died 36 BCE), also known as Jzh-jzh, was a

Kyrghyz) and ''

Dingling The Dingling ( (174 BCE); (200 BCE); Eastern Han Chinese: *''teŋ-leŋ'' <

Old Chinese

: *''têŋ-rêŋ'') were ancient peopl ...

'' (丁零). While other scholars have regarded the Hujie ~ Wujie as most likely an offshoot of the Wusun, Zuev considers it possible that they were a remnant of the Yuezhi. The ''Hanshu'' recorded that the Hujie'' retreated to the Lake Baikal area and the Great Khingan slopes (next to the Dingling).Yu. Zuev, ''"Early Türks: Sketches of history and ideology"'', p. 56 According to Zuev, the ''Hujie'' emigrated further westward, initially to the Aral Sea area, and may have joined the Yuezhi in their migration to Sogdia and Bactria.

Augaloi

In the 2nd century CE,

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...

(VI, 12, 4) wrote of the Lower Syr-Darya that near a northern section of the Amu Darya were the Iatioi and '' Tokharoi'' (Tukharas, i.e. Bactrians), and south of them were a people known as the ''Augaloi''. Yury Zuev postulated that the ''Augaloi'' mentioned by Ptolemy with the Ukil. However, a majority of scholars regard ''Augaloi'' as a misrendering of Sacaraucae.

Xijie

This name may be a

sinicisation Sinicization, sinofication, sinification, or sinonization (from the prefix , 'Chinese, relating to China') is the process by which non-Chinese societies come under the influence of Chinese culture, particularly the language, societal norms, cul ...

of ''igil'', a Turkic root meaning "many" (''Xijie'' < 奚結 ''γiei-kiet'' < ''igil''). In the middle of the 7th century, the Xijie were reported to be located on the northern bank of the

Kherlen River Kherlen River (also known as Kern or Kerülen; ; ) is a 1,254 km river in Mongolia and China. Course The river originates in the south slopes of the Khentii mountains, near the Burkhan Khaldun mountain in the Khan Khentii Strictly Protec ...

. The text of an Old Uyghur funeral monument for Eletmish-Kagan (d. 759), referred to the ''Qara Igil bodun'': a combination of the determinative ''qara'' ("blackness") and ''igil'' ("people"). (This name may also have suggested the influence of Manichaeanism, which had a "black and white" dualistic cosmology.) In a 9th-century

Yugur The Yugurs, Yughurs, Yugu (; Western Yugur: ''Sarïg Yogïr''; Eastern Yugur: ''Šera Yogor''), traditionally known as Yellow Uyghurs, are a Turko- Mongolic ethnic group and one of China's 56 officially recognized ethnic groups, consisting ...

text, the ''Xijie'' were mentioned as having a strong leader named Igil kül-irkin (

Old Tibetan Old Tibetan refers to the period of Tibetan language reflected in documents from the adoption of writing by the Tibetan Empire in the mid-7th century to works of the early 11th century. In 816 CE, during the reign of Sadnalegs, literary Tibetan ...

''Hi-kil-rkor-hir-kin''), and were located next to the ''Iduq-kas'', ''Iduq-qash'', or ''Iduk- Az'' ( OTib ''Hi-dog-kas''), who may have been offshoot or successor of the Yuezhi or

Alans The Alans (Latin: ''Alani'') were an ancient and medieval Iranian nomadic pastoral people of the North Caucasus – generally regarded as part of the Sarmatians, and possibly related to the Massagetae. Modern historians have connected the A ...

or Turkicized

Yeniseian The Yeniseian languages (sometimes known as Yeniseic or Yenisei-Ostyak;"Ostyak" is a concept of areal rather than genetic linguistics. In addition to the Yeniseian languages it also includes the Uralic languages Khanty and Selkup. occasionally ...

speakers.

Oghuz connection

A circumstantial link between the Oghuz and the Bulgar Vokil is the naming of Verkil, a

hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ''actor''), ''her ...

of the epic ''Kitab-i dedem Korkut''.Yu. Zuev, ''"Early Türks: Sketches of history and ideology"'', p. 57

References

Sources * {{cite book , last=Beckwith , first=Christopher I. , author-link=Christopher I. Beckwith , date=16 March 2009 , title=Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present , publisher=

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financia ...

, isbn=978-1-4008-2994-1 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Ue8BxLEMt4C , access-date=30 December 2014

Theories regarding origins

Yuezhi and Wusun

Augaloi

Xijie

Oghuz connection

References

See also