A tamga or tamgha (from ) was an abstract seal or

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

used by

Eurasian nomads Eurasian nomads form groups of nomad, nomadic peoples who have lived in various areas of the Eurasian Steppe. History largely knows them via frontier historical sources from Europe and Asia. The steppe nomads had no permanent abode, but travelle ...

initially as a livestock branding, and by cultures influenced by them. The tamga was used as a livestock branding for a particular tribe, clan or family. They were common among the Eurasian nomads throughout Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages. As clan and family identifiers, the collection and systematic comparison of tamgas is regarded to provide insights into relations between families, individuals and ethnic groups in the steppe territory. Similar tamga-like symbols were sometimes adopted by sedentary peoples adjacent to the

Pontic–Caspian steppe The Pontic–Caspian Steppe is a steppe extending across Eastern Europe to Central Asia, formed by the Caspian and Pontic steppes. It stretches from the northern shores of the Black Sea (the ''Pontus Euxinus'' of antiquity) to the northern a ...

both in

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

and

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

. Branding of livestock was a common practice across most sedentary populations, as far back as the ancient Egyptians. It has been speculated that Turkic tamgas represent one of the sources of the

Old Turkic script The Old Turkic script (also known variously as Göktürk script, Orkhon script, Orkhon-Yenisey script, Turkic runes) was the alphabet used by the Göktürks and other early Turkic peoples, Turkic khanates from the 8th to 10th centuries to recor ...

of the 6th–10th centuries, but since the mid-20th century, this hypothesis is widely rejected as being unverifiable.

Tamgas in the steppe tradition

Ancient origins

Tamgas originate in pre-historic times, but their exact usage and development cannot be continuously traced over time. There are, however, symbols represented in rock art that are referred to as tamgas or tamga-like. If they serve to record the presence of individuals at a particular place, they may be functionally equivalent with medieval tamgas. In the later phases of the Bosporan Kingdom, the ruling dynasty applied personal tamgas, composed of a fragment representing the family and a fragment representing the individual king, apparently in continuation of steppe traditions and in an attempt to consolidate seditary and nomadic factions within the kingdom.

Turkic peoples

According to Clauson (1972, p.504f.), Common Turkic ''tamga'' means "originally a `brand' or mark of ownership placed on horses, cattle, and other livestock; it became at a very early date something like a European coat of arms or crest, and as such appears at the head of several Türkü and many O dKir izfunary monuments". Among modern

Turkic peoples Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West Asia, West, Central Asia, Central, East Asia, East, and North Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages.. "Turkic peoples, any of various peoples whose members ...

, the tamga is a design identifying

property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, re ...

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

belonging to a specific Turkic clan, usually as a cattle brand or stamp. In Turkestan, it has remained what it originally was: a cattle brand and clan identifier. The Turks who remained pastoral nomad kings in eastern Anatolia and Iran, continued to use their clan tamgas and in fact, they became high-strung nationalistic imagery. The

Aq Qoyunlu The Aq Qoyunlu or the White Sheep Turkomans (, ; ) was a culturally Persianate society, Persianate,Kaushik Roy, ''Military Transition in Early Modern Asia, 1400–1750'', (Bloomsbury, 2014), 38; "Post-Mongol Persia and Iraq were ruled by two trib ...

and Qara Qoyunlu, like many other royal dynasties in Eurasia, put their tamga on their flags and stamped their coinage with it. When Turkish clans took over more urban or

rural area In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically desc ...

s, tamgas dropped out of use as

pastoral The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target au ...

ways of life became forgotten. That is most evident in the Turkish clans that took over western and eastern

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

after the

Battle of Manzikert The Battle of Manzikert or Malazgirt was fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Empire on 26 August 1071 near Manzikert, Iberia (theme), Iberia (modern Malazgirt in Muş Province, Turkey). The decisive defeat of the Byzantine army ...

. The Turks who took over western Anatolia founded the Sultanate of Rûm and became Roman-style aristocrats. Most of them adopted the then-Muslim symbol of the Seal of Solomon after the Sultanate disintegrated into a mass of feuding ghazi states (see Isfendiyarids,

Karamanids The Karamanids ( or ), also known as the Emirate of Karaman and Beylik of Karaman (), was a Turkish people, Turkish Anatolian beyliks, Anatolian beylik (principality) of Salur tribe origin, descended from Oghuz Turks, centered in South-Centra ...

). Only the Ottoman ghazi state (later to become the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

) kept its tamga, which was so highly stylized that the bow was stylized down eventually to a crescent moon. Tamgas of the 21 Oghuz tribes (as Charuklug had none) according to Mahmud al-Kashgari in '' Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk'': File:Kinik.svg,

File:Kayi.svg,

File:Bayundur.svg,

File:Yiva.svg,

File:Salur.svg,

File:Avsar.svg,

File:Begdili.svg,

File:Bugduz.svg,

File:Bayat.svg,

File:Yazir.svg,

File:Eymur.svg,

File:Karaevli.svg,

File:Akevli.svg,

File:Igdir.svg,

Taşburun (Iğdır)

File:Yuregir.svg,

Uregir (''Yüregir'')

File:Dodurga.svg,

File:Alayuntlu.svg,

File:Doger.svg,

File:Pecenek.svg,

File:Cavuldur.svg,

File:Cepni.svg,

List of Kazakh tamga symbols that were used by clans

Mongolian

"Tamga", or "tamag'a", literally means "stamp" or "seal" in Mongolian and designates emblematic symbols which were historically used by various Mongolic tribes or clans in Central Asia. According to Clauson (1972, p.504), it was originally a Turkic word also "used for a Chinese 'seal' and passed into Mong lianin this meaning as ''tamaga''". In the

Mongol Empire The Mongol Empire was the List of largest empires, largest contiguous empire in human history, history. Originating in present-day Mongolia in East Asia, the Mongol Empire at its height stretched from the Sea of Japan to parts of Eastern Euro ...

, a tamgha was a seal placed on taxed items and, by extension, a tax on commerce (see Eastern Europe below). Over a hundred different Mongolian tamga are known. Certain tamga were adopted by individual medieval Mongolic and Turkic rulers, and were consequently used on coins and seals issued by these rulers. Tamga are most widely found on Islamic coins issued by the descendants of Chinggis Khan in the various khanates of Central Asia during the 13th and 14th centuries, in particular the Chaghatai Khanate. Tamga are of immense interest to numismatists, and are discussed in many academic works relating to the medieval Islamic coins of Central Asia. However, numismatists and historians currently have limited options for representing tamga symbols in text, and cannot reliably interchange text including tamga symbols because they are either represented as images, or are handdrawn, or use an ad hoc font. Doctor Nyamaa identifies nearly a hundred tamga signs used on coins, although only about half of them can be assigned to a specific ruler, and some of them are variant forms or presentation forms of the same tamga. File:Naran Tamga.svg, alt=, Naran Tamga or Ongin Tamga File:Chinggis khan tamga.svg, alt=, Tamga of Chinggis khan File:Tului khan tamga.svg, alt=, Tamga of Tului khan File:Ugudei khan tamga.svg, alt=, Tamga of

Ögedei Khan Ögedei Khan (also Ögedei Khagan or Ogodei; 11 December 1241) was the second Khan (title), khan of the Mongol Empire. The third son of Genghis Khan, he continued the expansion of the empire that his father had begun. Born in 1186 AD, Öged ...

File:Tsagadai khan Tamga.svg, alt=, Tamga of Tsagadai khan File:Zuchi khan tamga.svg, alt=, Tamga of Juchi khan File:Guyug khan tamga.svg, alt=, Tamga of Guyug khan Mongolian State Seal Monument

Tamgas are also stamped using hot irons on domesticated animals such as horses in present-day

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

and others to identify that the livestock belongs to a certain family, since livestock is allowed to roam during the day. Each family has their own tamga markings for easier identification. Tamga marks are not very elaborate, since they are made from curved pieces of iron by the individual families. A ''tamag'a'' is also used as the "state seal" of

, which is handed over by the President of Mongolia as part of the transition to a new president. In the presidential case, the tamag'a is a little more elaborate and is contained in a wooden box.

Caucasus

From Turkic, the term "tamga" has also been loaned into Caucasian languages, e.g., ; . Among the

Circassians The Circassians or Circassian people, also called Cherkess or Adyghe (Adyghe language, Adyghe and ), are a Northwest Caucasian languages, Northwest Caucasian ethnic group and nation who originated in Circassia, a region and former country in t ...

, almost every family has a tamga to this day.

Secondary usage

Eastern Europe

Throughout the early Middle Ages, the Rurikid nobles of Rus' used Tamga-like symbols to denote property rights over various items ( Rurikid symbols). Very likely, these are of Khazar (Turkic) origin and have been adopted along with the expansion of the Rus into steppe territory.Noonan, T. S. (2001)
The Khazar qaghanate and its impact on the early Rus’ state: The translatio imperii from Itil to Kiev
In: A.M. Khazanov and A. Wink (eds.), ''Nomads in the Sedentary World'', Routledge, London and New York, p. 76-102. A similar process of acculturation of steppe elements can also be suspected for (or before) the

Second Bulgarian Empire The Second Bulgarian Empire (; ) was a medieval Bulgarians, Bulgarian state that existed between 1185 and 1422. A successor to the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Tsars Kaloyan of Bulgaria, Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II ...

(1185–1396), as its flags closely resemble the Rurikid symbols in taking the shape of a trident. Lesser Coat of Arms of Ukraine

In East Slavic languages, the term ''tamga'' (Russian тамга) survived in state institution of border customs, with associated cluster of terms: ''rastamozhit'' (Russian растаможить, Belarusian растаможыць, pay customs duties), ''tamozhnya'' (Russian таможня, customs), ''tamozhennik'' (Russian таможенник, customs officer), derived from the use of tamga as a certificate of

State State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

. In East Slavic, the steppe term competes with forms assumed to originate from Germanic (Old Church Slavonic мꙑто toll, Russian (historical) мы́то "customs duty", Ukrainian мито "toll, customs duty", and Belarusian мытня, Ukrainian митниця "customs"; cf. German ''Maut'' "street toll" and Medieval Latin ''mūta'' "toll"). In the 20th century, the Rurikid trident, colloquially called '' tryzub'' (тризуб), has been adopted as

national symbol A national symbol is a manifestation of a nation or community, serving as a representation of their National identity, identity and values. National symbols may be not only applied to sovereign states but also nations and countries in a state of ...

and the coat of arms of Ukraine. The modern version has been designed by Vasyl Krychevsky (1918) and Andriy Grechylo, Oleksii Kokhan, and Ivan Turetskyi (1992).

Islamic empires

In the late medieval Turco-Mongol states, the term ''tamga'' was used for any kind of official stamp or seal. This usage persisted in the early modern Islamic Empires (

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an Early modern period, early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to ...

), and in some of their modern successor states. In the

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

language (which absorbed Turkic vocabulary), ''Tamgha'' is used as

medal A medal or medallion is a small portable artistic object, a thin disc, normally of metal, carrying a design, usually on both sides. They typically have a commemorative purpose of some kind, and many are presented as awards. They may be in ...

. Tamgha-i-Jurat is the fourth highest Military medal of

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. It is admissible to all ranks for gallantry and distinguished services in combat. Tamgha-i-Imtiaz or Tamgha-e-Imtiaz (), which translates as "medal of excellence", is fourth highest honour given by the Government of Pakistan to both the military and civilians. Tamgha-i-Khidmat or Tamgha-e-Khidmat (), which translates as "medal of services", is seventh highest honour given by the Government of Pakistan to both the military and civilians. It is admissible to non-commissioned officers and other ranks for long meritorious or distinguished services of a non-operational nature. In

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, the term ''damgha'' () or ''tamgha'' () is still used in two contexts. One is a tax or fee when dealing with the government. It is normally in the form of stamps that have to be purchased and affixed to government forms, such as a driver license or a registration deed for a contract. The term is derived from the Ottoman damga resmi. Another is a stamp put on every piece of jewelry made from gold or silver to indicate it is genuine, and not made of baser metals.

Tamgas in the steppe tradition

Ancient origins

Turkic peoples

List of Kazakh tamga symbols that were used by clans

Mongolian

Caucasus

Secondary usage

Eastern Europe

Islamic empires

See also

Notes

References

Further reading