Qarluq
Encyclopedia
The Karluks were a prominent nomadic Turkic
tribe residing in the regions of Kara-Irtysh (Black Irtysh
) and the Tarbagatai Mountains
west of the Altay Mountains
in Central Asia
.
They were closely related to the Uyghurs
. Karluks gave their name to the distinct Karluk group of the Turkic languages
, which also includes the Uyghur
, Uzbek
and Ili Turki language
s. The Karluk language is also known as Chagatai
.
Karluks were known as a coherent ethnic group with autonomous status within the Göktürk kaganate
and the independent states of the Karluk Yabgu
and Karakhanids, before being absorbed in the Chagatai Khanate
of the Mongol empire
.
, which names Karluks as Ko-lo-lu and traces the name to the word Karlik (Turkic "snow piles"). Kar is "snow", as in the name of the Kar Sea. N. Aristov
noted the river Kerlyk, a tributary of the Charysh River, proposing the tribal name originating from the toponym with a Turkic meaning of "wild millet".
The reverse is equally possible; the toponyms named after an ethnonym of the native people. Another version cites the homonym of the Karluk valley in Altai. The derivation of Karluk from Kara (Turkic "Great", "Northern", "black") is considered to be philologically impossible, and incompatible with the well documented Arabic form of the ethnonym Halluh.
The Karluks were a branch of the Turgesh
or aboriginal Altaians.
The first Chinese reference to the Karluks (644 AD) labels them with a Manichaean
attribute: Lion Karluks (Shi-Gelolu, shi stands for Sogdian
"lion"). The "lion" Karluks persisted up to the time of the Mongols.
In the Early Middle Age, organized as the Uch-Karluks (Three Karluks) union, composed of Karluks, Chigils
, and Yagma
tribes, they were members of the Göktürk Kaganate. After the split of the Kaganate around 600 into the Western and Eastern Kaganates, the Uch-Karluks remained in the Western Turkic Kaganate under a non-autonomous home rule, as the members of the five Tele (Ch. Tiele
) tribes that did not receive autonomy: the Karluk, Yagma, Kipchak, Basmyl
and Chuban.
In 630 AD the Aru-Kagan (Chinese Helu) of the Eastern Turkic Kaganate was captured by the Chinese. His heir apparent, the "lesser Khan" Khubo, escaped to Altai with a major part of the people and 30,000 soldiers. He conquered the Karluks in the west, the Kyrgyz in the north, and took the title Ichju Chebi Khan. The Karluks allied with the Tiele and their leaders the Uyghurs against the Turkic Kaganate, and participated in enthroning the victorious head of the Uyghur (Toquz Oghuz). After that, a smaller part of the Karluks joined the Uyghurs and settled in the Bogdo-Ola
mountains in Mongolia
, the larger part settled in the area between Altai and the eastern Tien Shan.
In 650 AD, at the time of their submission to the Chinese, the Karluks had three tribes: Meulo, Chjisy (Popou), and Tashili. On paper, the Karluk divisions received Chinese names as Chinese provinces, and their leaders received Chinese state titles. Later, the Karluks spread from the valley of the river Kerlyk along the Irtysh River in the western part of the Altay to beyond the Black Irtysh, Tarbagatai
, and towards the Tien Shan.
By the year 665 The Karluk union was led by a former Uch-Karluk bey
with the title Kül-Erkin, now titled "Yabgu
" (prince), who had a powerful army. The Karluk vanguard left the Altay region and at the beginning of the 8th century reached the banks of the Amu Darya
.
Famed for their woven carpets in the pre-Muslim era, they were considered a vassal state by the Tang Dynasty
after the final conquest of the Transoxania regions by the Chinese around 744. The Karluk rose in rebellion against the Göktürk, then the dominant tribal confederation in the region, in about 745, and established a new tribal confederation with the Uygur and Basmyl tribes. They remained in the Chinese sphere of influence and an active participant in fighting the Muslim expansion into the area, up until their split from the Tang
in 751. Chinese intervention in the affairs of Western Turkestan ceased after their defeat at the Battle of Talas
in 751 by the Arab general Ziyad ibn Salih. The Arabs dislodged the Karluks from Fergana
.
In 766, after they overran the Turgesh
in Zhetysu, the Karluk tribes formed a Khanate under the rule of a Yabgu, occupied Suyab
and transferred their capital there. By that time the bulk of the tribe had left the Altai, and the supremacy in Zhetysu passed to the Karluks. Their ruler with the title Yabgu is often mentioned in the Orkhon
inscriptions. In Pahlavi
texts one of the Karluk rulers of Tocharistan was called Yabbu-Hakan (Yabgu-Kagan). The fall of the Western Turkic Kaganate left Zhetysu in the possession of Turkic peoples, independent of either Arabs or Chinese.
In 822 the Uyghurs sent four Karluks as tribute to Tang dynasty
China.
, who were divided into two tribes, the Tukhshi
and the Azes
mentioned in the Orkhon inscriptions, the remnants of the Oghuz Turks
whose main body had moved to the west, becoming the Shato Turks (i.e. "Steppe Turks"), and interspersed with the Sogdian
colonies. The southern part of Zhetysu was occupied by the Yagma
people (a branch of the Toquz Oghuz, the later Uyghur) who also held Kashgar
. In the north and west lived the Kankalis
. A separate significant division of the Karluks were the Chigils
, a tribe that had detached from the Karluk. They resided around Issyk Kul
.
The diverse population adhered to a spectrum of religious beliefs. The Karluks and the majority of the Turkic population professed Tengrianism, considered as shamanism
and heathen by the Christians and Muslims. Chigils were Christians of the Nestorian denomination. The majority of the Toquz Oghuz, with their khan, were Manicheans, but there were also Christians, Buddhists and Muslims among them. The peaceful penetration of Muslim culture through commercial relations played a far more important role in their conversion than Muslim arms. The merchants were followed by missionaries of various creeds, including Nestorian Christians. Many Turkestan towns had Christian churches. The Turks held sacred the Qastek pass mountains, believing to be an abode of the deity. Each creed carried its script, resulting in a variety of used scripts, including Türkic runiform, Sogdian
, Syriac
, and later the Uygur
. The Karluks had adopted and developed the Turkic literary language of Khoresm, established in Bukhara
and Samarkand
, which after Mongol conquest became known as the Chagatai language
.
Of all Turkic peoples, the Karluk were most open to the influence of Muslim culture. Yaqubi
reported the conversion of the Karluk-yabgu to Islam under Caliph Mahdi (775-785), and by the tenth century several towns to the east of Talas had mosques. Muslim culture had affected the general way of life of the Karluks.
In the following three centuries the Karluk Yabgu state occupied a key position on the choice international trade route, fighting off mostly Turkic competitors to retain their prime position. Their biggest adversaries were Kangars in the north-west and Toquz Oghuz in the south-east, with a period of Samanid raids to Zhetysu in 840-894. But even in the heyday of the Karluk Yabgu state, parts of its domains were in the hands of the Toquz Oghuz, and later under Kyrgyz and Khitan
control, increasing the ethnical, religious, and political diversity.
lived in the upper basin of the Yenisei River
. Linguistically their language, together with the Altai language, belongs to a separate Kirghiz group of the Turkic language family. At that time they had an estimated population of 250,000 and an army of 50,000. Kirghiz victory in the war brought them to the Karluk door. They captured Tuva
, Altai
, a part of Dzungaria
, and reached Kashgar
. Allied with the Karluks against the Uygurs, in the 840s the Kirghiz started the occupation of that part of Zhetysu which is their present home. Karluk independence ended around 840. They fell from dominating the tribal association to a subordinate position. The Kirghiz remained a power in Zhetysu until their destruction by the Kara-Khitans
in 924, when most of them evacuated from their center in Tuva back to the Minusinsk Depression, leaving the Karluks to predominate again in Zhetysu.
The position of the Karluk state, based on the rich Zhetysu cities, remained strong, despite the failures in wars in the beginning of the 9th century. Yabgu was enriched by profitable trade in slaves on the Syr-Darya slave markets, selling guards for the Abbasid Caliphs, and control over the transit road to China in the sector from Taraz
to Issyk Kul. The Karluk position in Fergana, despite Arab attempts to expel them, became stronger.
The fall of the last Kagan with its capital in Ötüken
, which dominated for three centuries, created a completely new geopolitical situation in all Central Asia. For the first time in three hundred years, the powerful center of authority that created opportunities for expansion or even existence of any state in Turkestan
had finally disappeared. Henceforth, the Turkic tribes recognized only the high status of the clan that inherited the Kagan title, but never again his unifying authority. Several Muslim historians state that after the loss by the Uygurs of their power (840), the supreme authority among the Turkic tribes passed to the Karluk leaders. Connection with the Ashina
clan, the ruling clan of the Turkic Kaganate, allowed the Karluk dynasty to dress their authority with legitimate attire, and, abandoning the old title Yabgu, to take on the new title of Kagan.
from the southern border seized the Chu
valley and the Karluk capital Balasagun
. The Yagma ruler bore the title Bogra-khan (Camel Khan), very common among Karakhanids. The Yagma quickly proceeded to take control of all Karluk lands. In the tenth and twelfth centuries, the lands on both sides of the principal chain of the Tian Shan were united under the rule of the Karakhanid Ilek-khans (Khans of the Land) or simply Karakhanids (Great Khans). The Karakhanid state was divided into fiefs which soon became independent.
The Kara-Khanid Khanate was founded in the 10th century by Satuk, a Turkic convert to Islam. His son Musa made Islam a state religion in 960. The empire occupied modern northern Iran
and parts of Central Asia. This region remained under Karakhanid (and for varying periods Seljuk
and Kara-Khitan
) control until 1206, when it became a Mongol vassal state. It remained an independent vassal until the Mongol invasion of 1221.
, founded a vast empire, stretching from the Pacific to Lake Baikal
and the Tian Shan, displacing the Turkic population and replacing it with a Mongol population. The Khitan language
is taken nowadays to be a strongly palatalized Mongolian dialect. Reportedly, the first Gurkhan
professed the Manichaean religion.
Owing to its long sway over China, the ruling dynasty, which Chinese dynastic histories
call Liao
(916-1125), was strongly influenced by Chinese culture.
In the year 1125 a Tungus
people, the Jurchen, allied with Southern Chinese Sung Dynasty, ended the domination of the Khitan. The Khitan exiles, headed by Ye-lü Ta-shih, a member of the Khitan royal family, migrated to the West. The Khitan settled in the Tarbagatai
area east of Zhetysu, and their number grew to 40,000 tents. Around 1130 the local Karakhanid ruler of Balasagun
asked for their aid against the hostile Kangly and Karluks. The Khitan occupied Balasaghun, expelled the weak Karakhanid ruler, and founded their own state which stretched from the Yenisei to Talas
. They then conquered Kangly and subdued Eastern Turkestan. In 1137 near Khujand
they defeated the Transoxanian Turkestan ruler Mahmud Khan, and in 1141 defeated the army of the Seljuk
Sultan Sanjar.
The western Khitan state became known under its Turkic name Kara-Khitay (Black, Western, or Great Khitay), and their ruler bore the Turkic title of Gurkhan (Khan’s son-in law). The original Uch-Karluk confederation became split between the Karakhanid state in the west and the Karakhitay state in the east, which lasted until the Mongol time. Both in the west and east, Karluk principalities retained their autonomous status and indigenous rulers, though in Karakhitay the Karluk khan, like the ruler of Samarkand, was forced to accept the presence of a permanent representative of the Gurkhan.
Directly, the Gurkhans administered limited territories, populated in 1170 by 84,500 families under direct rule. The Gurkhan's headquarters was called Khosun-ordu (lit. "Strong Ordu"), or Khoto ("House"). The Karluk capital was Kayalik. The Karakhanids continued to rule over Transoxania and Eastern Turkestan. Juvayni
stresses the oppression of the Karakhitay in comparison with Karluk times. Islam was forced out of its dominant position to equal the other religions, which took advantage of the new freedom to increase the number of their adherents. The Nestorian
Patriarch
Elias III (1176–1190) founded a metropoly in Kashghar. The Karakhitay metropolitan bore the title of "Metropolitan of Kashghar and Navakat", showing that the see of Kashghar also controlled the southern part of Zhetysu. The oldest Nestorian tombs in the Tokmak and Pishpek cemeteries go back to the epoch of Karakhitay domination.
The Karakhitay Muslim vassals rebelled, initially successfully quashed by the government. The situation changed when the most powerful Western Mongolian Nayman tribe, headed by Küchlük (lit. “Little”), a son of the last Nayman khan east of the Karakhitay empire, were ousted (towards 1209) from Mongolia by Genghis Khan
. The Nayman Nestorian Christian Küchlük seized the power in the name of Gurkhan, but soon, in the 1211, a Mongol detachment under the command of Khubilai noyon, one of Genghis Khan's generals, appeared in the northern part of Zhetysu. Arslan-khan Karluk killed the Karakhitay governor of Kayalik and proclaimed his loyalty to Genghis Khan. The Zhetysu, together with Eastern Turkestan, voluntarily surrendered to the Mongols.
, said the sovereign.
After the absorption of the Karakhanid state by the Chagatai Khanate
, the ethnonym Karluk became rarely used. The Karluk language was the primary basis for the later lingua-franca of the Chagatai Khanate and Central Asia under the Timurid Khanate. It is therefore designated by linguists and historians as the Chagatai language
, but its contemporaries such as Timur-Lenk
or Babur
, simply called it Turki.
which could turn out 20,000 warriors, among other districts the town of Begliligh had 10,000 warriors, Panjikat could turn out 8,000 warriors, Barskhan 6,000 warriors, Yar 3,000 warriors. The titles of the petty rulers were Qutegin of the Karluk Laban clan in Karminkat, Taksin in Jil, Tabin-Barskhan in Barskhan, Turkic Yindl-Tegin and Sogdian Badan-Sangu in Beglilig. The prince of the capital Suyab, situated north of the Chu river in the Turgesh land, was a brother of one of the Göktürk khans, but bore the Persian title Yalan-shah, i.e. "King of Heroes".
Muslim authors describe in detail the trade route from Western Asia to China across Zhetysu, mentioning many cities. Some bore double names, Turkic and Sogdian. In addition to the capital cities of Balasagun, Suyab, and Kayalik, in which William of Rubruck
for the first time saw three Buddhist temples in the Muslim town, the geographers mention Taraz (Talas, Auliya-ata), Navakat (now Kara-bulak), Atbash (now Koshoy-Kurgan ruins), Issyk-kul, Barskhan, Panjikat, Akhsikat, Beglilig, Almalik, Jul, Yar, Ton, Panchul, and others.
and Uyghur
became the two major divisions among speakers of modern variants of the Chagatai language. Under these two modern nationalities are subgroups like the Uyghur Dolan
, Aynur
and several regional populations of Uzbeks, some of which share more similarities with Kipchak groups like the Karakalpak and Kazakhs
, or with the Iranic Tajiks, than with fellow Uzbeks who speak a descendant of the Karluk language.
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
tribe residing in the regions of Kara-Irtysh (Black Irtysh
Irtysh
The Irtysh River is a river in Siberia and is the chief tributary of the Ob River. Its name means White River. Irtysh's main affluent is the Tobol River...
) and the Tarbagatai Mountains
Tarbagatai Mountains
Tarbagatai Mountains is a range of mountains located in the north-western parts of Xinjiang, China and East Kazakhstan....
west of the Altay Mountains
Altay Mountains
The Altai Mountains are a mountain range in East-Central Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan come together, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob have their sources. The Altai Mountains are known as the original locus of the speakers of Turkic as well as other members of the proposed...
in Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
.
They were closely related to the Uyghurs
Uyghur people
The Uyghur are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China...
. Karluks gave their name to the distinct Karluk group of the Turkic languages
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages constitute a language family of at least thirty five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken...
, which also includes the Uyghur
Uyghur language
Uyghur , formerly known as Eastern Turk, is a Turkic language with 8 to 11 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western China. Significant communities of Uyghur-speakers are located in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and various other...
, Uzbek
Uzbek language
Uzbek is a Turkic language and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 25.5 million native speakers, and it is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia...
and Ili Turki language
Ili Turki language
Ili Turki is a Turkic language spoken primarily in China. There were approximately 120 speakers of this language as of 1982.-Classification:...
s. The Karluk language is also known as Chagatai
Chagatai language
The Chagatai language is an extinct Turkic language which was once widely spoken in Central Asia, and remained the shared literary language there until the early twentieth century...
.
Karluks were known as a coherent ethnic group with autonomous status within the Göktürk kaganate
Göktürks
The Göktürks or Kök Türks, were a nomadic confederation of peoples in medieval Inner Asia. Known in Chinese sources as 突厥 , the Göktürks under the leadership of Bumin Qaghan The Göktürks or Kök Türks, (Old Turkic: Türük or Kök Türük or Türük; Celestial Turks) were a nomadic confederation of...
and the independent states of the Karluk Yabgu
Yabgu
Yabgu was a state office in the early Turkic states, roughly equivalent to viceroy...
and Karakhanids, before being absorbed in the Chagatai Khanate
Chagatai Khanate
The Chagatai Khanate was a Turko-Mongol khanate that comprised the lands ruled by Chagatai Khan , second son of the Great Khan Genghis Khan, and his descendents and successors...
of the Mongol empire
Mongol Empire
The Mongol Empire , initially named as Greater Mongol State was a great empire during the 13th and 14th centuries...
.
Etymology
The most ancient reference to the etymology of the Karluk name is recorded in the Chinese dynastic history Book of TangBook of Tang
The Book of Tang , Jiu Tangshu or the Old Book of Tang is the first classic work about the Tang Dynasty. The book began when Gaozu of Later Jin ordered its commencement in 941...
, which names Karluks as Ko-lo-lu and traces the name to the word Karlik (Turkic "snow piles"). Kar is "snow", as in the name of the Kar Sea. N. Aristov
Turkology
Turkology is a complex of humanities sciences studying languages, history, literature, folklore, culture, and ethnology of people speaking Turkic languages and Turkic peoples in chronological and comparative context...
noted the river Kerlyk, a tributary of the Charysh River, proposing the tribal name originating from the toponym with a Turkic meaning of "wild millet".
The reverse is equally possible; the toponyms named after an ethnonym of the native people. Another version cites the homonym of the Karluk valley in Altai. The derivation of Karluk from Kara (Turkic "Great", "Northern", "black") is considered to be philologically impossible, and incompatible with the well documented Arabic form of the ethnonym Halluh.
Early history
Turgesh
The Türgesh, Turgish or Türgish were a Turkic tribal confederation who emerged from the ruins of the Western Turkic Kaganate...
or aboriginal Altaians.
The first Chinese reference to the Karluks (644 AD) labels them with a Manichaean
Mani (prophet)
Mani , of Iranian origin was the prophet and the founder of Manichaeism, a gnostic religion of Late Antiquity which was once widespread but is now extinct...
attribute: Lion Karluks (Shi-Gelolu, shi stands for Sogdian
Sogdian language
The Sogdian language is a Middle Iranian language that was spoken in Sogdiana , located in modern day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan ....
"lion"). The "lion" Karluks persisted up to the time of the Mongols.
In the Early Middle Age, organized as the Uch-Karluks (Three Karluks) union, composed of Karluks, Chigils
Chigils
The Chigil were a Turkic tribe known from the 7th century CE as living around Issyk Kul lake area. They were considered to be descended from two of the "Six Chuy tribes" of the Chuban, the Chuyue and Chumi. They are known to have been speakers of the Oghuz group of the Turkic...
, and Yagma
Yagma
The Yagma were a medieval tribe of Turks whose members are among the ancestors of modern Uigurs and Uzbeks. Yagma is one of the Turkic tribes that came to the forefront of history after the disintegration of the Western Turkic Kaganate. They were one component of a three-member confederation known...
tribes, they were members of the Göktürk Kaganate. After the split of the Kaganate around 600 into the Western and Eastern Kaganates, the Uch-Karluks remained in the Western Turkic Kaganate under a non-autonomous home rule, as the members of the five Tele (Ch. Tiele
Tiele people
The Tiele or Tele , were a confederation of nine Turkic peoples living to the north of China and in Central Asia, emerging after the disintegration of the Xiongnu confederacy...
) tribes that did not receive autonomy: the Karluk, Yagma, Kipchak, Basmyl
Basmyl
The Basmyls were a 7–8th century Türkic nomadic tribe who mostly inhabited the Dzungaria region in the northwest of the modern day People's Republic of China. According to literary sources, the terms Basmyls and Basmals are readily interchangeable...
and Chuban.
In 630 AD the Aru-Kagan (Chinese Helu) of the Eastern Turkic Kaganate was captured by the Chinese. His heir apparent, the "lesser Khan" Khubo, escaped to Altai with a major part of the people and 30,000 soldiers. He conquered the Karluks in the west, the Kyrgyz in the north, and took the title Ichju Chebi Khan. The Karluks allied with the Tiele and their leaders the Uyghurs against the Turkic Kaganate, and participated in enthroning the victorious head of the Uyghur (Toquz Oghuz). After that, a smaller part of the Karluks joined the Uyghurs and settled in the Bogdo-Ola
Bogd Khan Uul
The Bogd Khan Mountain is a mountain in Mongolia that overlooks the nation's capital, Ulaanbaatar, from a height of 3000 feet above and to the south of the city.- World Heritage Status :...
mountains in Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
, the larger part settled in the area between Altai and the eastern Tien Shan.
In 650 AD, at the time of their submission to the Chinese, the Karluks had three tribes: Meulo, Chjisy (Popou), and Tashili. On paper, the Karluk divisions received Chinese names as Chinese provinces, and their leaders received Chinese state titles. Later, the Karluks spread from the valley of the river Kerlyk along the Irtysh River in the western part of the Altay to beyond the Black Irtysh, Tarbagatai
Tarbagatai
Tarbagatai or Tarbagatay may refer to:Mountain ranges:*The Tarbagatai Mountains between Xinjiang, China and Kazakhstan*In Mongolia, a part of the Khangai range along the border of Zavkhan, Arkhangai, and Khövsgöl Province aimags is called Tarvagatai...
, and towards the Tien Shan.
By the year 665 The Karluk union was led by a former Uch-Karluk bey
Bey
Bey is a title for chieftain, traditionally applied to the leaders of small tribal groups. Accoding to some sources, the word "Bey" is of Turkish language In historical accounts, many Turkish, other Turkic and Persian leaders are titled Bey, Beg, Bek, Bay, Baig or Beigh. They are all the same word...
with the title Kül-Erkin, now titled "Yabgu
Yabgu
Yabgu was a state office in the early Turkic states, roughly equivalent to viceroy...
" (prince), who had a powerful army. The Karluk vanguard left the Altay region and at the beginning of the 8th century reached the banks of the Amu Darya
Amu Darya
The Amu Darya , also called Oxus and Amu River, is a major river in Central Asia. It is formed by the junction of the Vakhsh and Panj rivers...
.
Famed for their woven carpets in the pre-Muslim era, they were considered a vassal state by the Tang Dynasty
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
after the final conquest of the Transoxania regions by the Chinese around 744. The Karluk rose in rebellion against the Göktürk, then the dominant tribal confederation in the region, in about 745, and established a new tribal confederation with the Uygur and Basmyl tribes. They remained in the Chinese sphere of influence and an active participant in fighting the Muslim expansion into the area, up until their split from the Tang
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
in 751. Chinese intervention in the affairs of Western Turkestan ceased after their defeat at the Battle of Talas
Battle of Talas
The Battle of Talas in 751 AD was an especially notable conflict between the Arab Abbasid Caliphate and the Chinese Tang Dynasty for control not only of the Syr Darya region, but even more...
in 751 by the Arab general Ziyad ibn Salih. The Arabs dislodged the Karluks from Fergana
Fergana
Fergana is a city , the capital of Fergana Province in eastern Uzbekistan, at the southern edge of the Fergana Valley in southern Central Asia, cutting across the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan...
.
In 766, after they overran the Turgesh
Turgesh
The Türgesh, Turgish or Türgish were a Turkic tribal confederation who emerged from the ruins of the Western Turkic Kaganate...
in Zhetysu, the Karluk tribes formed a Khanate under the rule of a Yabgu, occupied Suyab
Suyab
Suyab was an ancient Silk Road city located some 50 km east from Bishkek, and 8 km west southwest from Tokmok, in the Chui River valley, present-day Kyrgyzstan.- History :...
and transferred their capital there. By that time the bulk of the tribe had left the Altai, and the supremacy in Zhetysu passed to the Karluks. Their ruler with the title Yabgu is often mentioned in the Orkhon
Orkhon script
The Old Turkic script is the alphabet used by the Göktürk and other early Turkic Khanates from at least the 7th century to record the Old Turkic language. It was later used by the Uyghur Empire...
inscriptions. In Pahlavi
Pahlavi scripts
Pahlavi or Pahlevi denotes a particular and exclusively written form of various Middle Iranian languages. The essential characteristics of Pahlavi are*the use of a specific Aramaic-derived script, the Pahlavi script;...
texts one of the Karluk rulers of Tocharistan was called Yabbu-Hakan (Yabgu-Kagan). The fall of the Western Turkic Kaganate left Zhetysu in the possession of Turkic peoples, independent of either Arabs or Chinese.
In 822 the Uyghurs sent four Karluks as tribute to Tang dynasty
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
China.
Culture
The Karluks were hunters, nomadic herdsmen, and agriculturists. They settled in the countryside and in the cities, which were centered around trading posts along the caravan roads. The Karluks inherited a vast multi-ethnic region, whose diverse population was not much different from its rulers. Zhetysu was populated by the TurgeshTurgesh
The Türgesh, Turgish or Türgish were a Turkic tribal confederation who emerged from the ruins of the Western Turkic Kaganate...
, who were divided into two tribes, the Tukhshi
Tocharians
The Tocharians were the Tocharian-speaking inhabitants of the Tarim Basin, making them the easternmost speakers of Indo-European languages in antiquity. They were known as, or at least closely related to, the Yuezhi of Chinese sources...
and the Azes
Asii
Asii, also written Asioi, were one of the nomadic tribes mentioned in Roman and Greek accounts as responsible for the downfall of the state of Bactria circa 140 BCE. These tribes are usually identified as "Scythian" or "Saka" peoples....
mentioned in the Orkhon inscriptions, the remnants of the Oghuz Turks
Oghuz Turks
The Turkomen also known as Oghuz Turks were a historical Turkic tribal confederation in Central Asia during the early medieval Turkic expansion....
whose main body had moved to the west, becoming the Shato Turks (i.e. "Steppe Turks"), and interspersed with the Sogdian
Sogdiana
Sogdiana or Sogdia was the ancient civilization of an Iranian people and a province of the Achaemenid Empire, eighteenth in the list on the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great . Sogdiana is "listed" as the second of the "good lands and countries" that Ahura Mazda created...
colonies. The southern part of Zhetysu was occupied by the Yagma
Yagma
The Yagma were a medieval tribe of Turks whose members are among the ancestors of modern Uigurs and Uzbeks. Yagma is one of the Turkic tribes that came to the forefront of history after the disintegration of the Western Turkic Kaganate. They were one component of a three-member confederation known...
people (a branch of the Toquz Oghuz, the later Uyghur) who also held Kashgar
Kashgar
Kashgar or Kashi is an oasis city with approximately 350,000 residents in the western part of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Kashgar is the administrative centre of Kashgar Prefecture which has an area of 162,000 km² and a population of approximately...
. In the north and west lived the Kankalis
Kankalis
Kankalis or Qanqlis or Kangly were a Turkic people of Eurasia. They were three ruling clans of Pechenegs. They first appear on history as minor branch of ancient Oghuz Turks. They formed one of the five sections which Oghuz khan divided his subjects. After the fall of Pecheneg Khanate in early...
. A separate significant division of the Karluks were the Chigils
Chigils
The Chigil were a Turkic tribe known from the 7th century CE as living around Issyk Kul lake area. They were considered to be descended from two of the "Six Chuy tribes" of the Chuban, the Chuyue and Chumi. They are known to have been speakers of the Oghuz group of the Turkic...
, a tribe that had detached from the Karluk. They resided around Issyk Kul
Issyk Kul
Issyk Kul is an endorheic lake in the northern Tian Shan mountains in eastern Kyrgyzstan. It is the tenth largest lake in the world by volume and the second largest saline lake after the Caspian Sea. Although it is surrounded by snow-capped peaks, it never freezes; hence its name, which means "hot...
.
The diverse population adhered to a spectrum of religious beliefs. The Karluks and the majority of the Turkic population professed Tengrianism, considered as shamanism
Shamanism
Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...
and heathen by the Christians and Muslims. Chigils were Christians of the Nestorian denomination. The majority of the Toquz Oghuz, with their khan, were Manicheans, but there were also Christians, Buddhists and Muslims among them. The peaceful penetration of Muslim culture through commercial relations played a far more important role in their conversion than Muslim arms. The merchants were followed by missionaries of various creeds, including Nestorian Christians. Many Turkestan towns had Christian churches. The Turks held sacred the Qastek pass mountains, believing to be an abode of the deity. Each creed carried its script, resulting in a variety of used scripts, including Türkic runiform, Sogdian
Sogdian alphabet
The Sogdian alphabet was originally used for the Sogdian language, a language in the Iranian family used by the people of Sogdiana. The alphabet is derived from Syriac, the descendant script of the Aramaic alphabet. The Sogdian alphabet is one of three scripts used to write the Sogdian language,...
, Syriac
Syriac alphabet
The Syriac alphabet is a writing system primarily used to write the Syriac language from around the 2nd century BC . It is one of the Semitic abjads directly descending from the Aramaic alphabet and shares similarities with the Phoenician, Hebrew, Arabic, and the traditional Mongolian alphabets.-...
, and later the Uygur
Uyghur alphabet
Uyghur is a Turkic language spoken in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, administered by China, by the Uyghur people. It is a language with a long literary tradition, and has been written using numerous writing systems through time...
. The Karluks had adopted and developed the Turkic literary language of Khoresm, established in Bukhara
Bukhara
Bukhara , from the Soghdian βuxārak , is the capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 263,400 . The region around Bukhara has been inhabited for at least five millennia, and the city has existed for half that time...
and Samarkand
Samarkand
Although a Persian-speaking region, it was not united politically with Iran most of the times between the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire and the Arab conquest . In the 6th century it was within the domain of the Turkic kingdom of the Göktürks.At the start of the 8th century Samarkand came...
, which after Mongol conquest became known as the Chagatai language
Chagatai language
The Chagatai language is an extinct Turkic language which was once widely spoken in Central Asia, and remained the shared literary language there until the early twentieth century...
.
Of all Turkic peoples, the Karluk were most open to the influence of Muslim culture. Yaqubi
Tarikh al-Yaqubi
Ta'rikh ibn Wadih or popularly Tarikh Yaqubi is a well known classical Islamic history book, written by Ya'qubi .-Overview:Like his contemporary Al-Dinawari, Ya'qubi's histories, unlike those of their predecessors, aimed to entertain as well as instruct; they are "literary" productions...
reported the conversion of the Karluk-yabgu to Islam under Caliph Mahdi (775-785), and by the tenth century several towns to the east of Talas had mosques. Muslim culture had affected the general way of life of the Karluks.
In the following three centuries the Karluk Yabgu state occupied a key position on the choice international trade route, fighting off mostly Turkic competitors to retain their prime position. Their biggest adversaries were Kangars in the north-west and Toquz Oghuz in the south-east, with a period of Samanid raids to Zhetysu in 840-894. But even in the heyday of the Karluk Yabgu state, parts of its domains were in the hands of the Toquz Oghuz, and later under Kyrgyz and Khitan
Khitan people
thumb|250px|Khitans [[Eagle hunting|using eagles to hunt]], painted during the Chinese [[Song Dynasty]].The Khitan people , or Khitai, Kitan, or Kidan, were a nomadic Mongolic people, originally located at Mongolia and Manchuria from the 4th century...
control, increasing the ethnical, religious, and political diversity.
Kirghiz period
Prior to the Kirghiz-Uyghur war of 829-840, the KirghizYenisei Kirghiz
The Yenisei Kirghiz, also known as the Khyagas or Khakas, were an ancient people that dwelled along the upper Yenisei River in the southern portion of the Minusinsk Depression from the 3rd century BCE to the 13th century CE...
lived in the upper basin of the Yenisei River
Yenisei River
Yenisei , also written as Yenisey, is the largest river system flowing to the Arctic Ocean. It is the central of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean...
. Linguistically their language, together with the Altai language, belongs to a separate Kirghiz group of the Turkic language family. At that time they had an estimated population of 250,000 and an army of 50,000. Kirghiz victory in the war brought them to the Karluk door. They captured Tuva
Tuva
The Tyva Republic , or Tuva , is a federal subject of Russia . It lies in the geographical center of Asia, in southern Siberia. The republic borders with the Altai Republic, the Republic of Khakassia, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Irkutsk Oblast, and the Republic of Buryatia in Russia and with Mongolia to the...
, Altai
Altai Republic
Altai Republic is a federal subject of Russia . Its capital is the town of Gorno-Altaysk. The area of the republic is . Population: -Geography:...
, a part of Dzungaria
Dzungaria
Dzungaria, also called Zungaria, is a geographical region in northwest China corresponding to the northern half of Xinjiang. It covers approximately , lying mostly within Xinjiang, and extending into western Mongolia and eastern Kazakhstan...
, and reached Kashgar
Kashgar
Kashgar or Kashi is an oasis city with approximately 350,000 residents in the western part of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Kashgar is the administrative centre of Kashgar Prefecture which has an area of 162,000 km² and a population of approximately...
. Allied with the Karluks against the Uygurs, in the 840s the Kirghiz started the occupation of that part of Zhetysu which is their present home. Karluk independence ended around 840. They fell from dominating the tribal association to a subordinate position. The Kirghiz remained a power in Zhetysu until their destruction by the Kara-Khitans
Kara-Khitan Khanate
The Kara-Khitan Khanate, or Western Liao was a Khitan empire in Central Asia. The dynasty was founded by Yelü Dashi, who led the remnants of the Liao Dynasty to Central Asia after fleeing from the Jurchen conquest of their homeland in North and Northeast of modern day China...
in 924, when most of them evacuated from their center in Tuva back to the Minusinsk Depression, leaving the Karluks to predominate again in Zhetysu.
The position of the Karluk state, based on the rich Zhetysu cities, remained strong, despite the failures in wars in the beginning of the 9th century. Yabgu was enriched by profitable trade in slaves on the Syr-Darya slave markets, selling guards for the Abbasid Caliphs, and control over the transit road to China in the sector from Taraz
Taraz
Taraz , is a city and a center of the Jambyl Province in Kazakhstan. It is located in the south of Kazakhstan, near the border with Kyrgyzstan, on the Talas River...
to Issyk Kul. The Karluk position in Fergana, despite Arab attempts to expel them, became stronger.
The fall of the last Kagan with its capital in Ötüken
Ötüken
Ötüken Old Turkic: , Ötüken yïš, , Mount Ötüken, 於都斤山, Linghu Defen, Book of Zhou, Vol. 50, Li Dashi, Li Yanshou, History of Northern Dynasties, Vol. 9, 都尉揵山, Liu Xu etc, Book of Tang, Vol. 199-II, 烏德鞬山/乌德鞬山, Ouyang Xiu etc, New Book of Tang, Vol. 93, 都斤山, Yan Shigu, Kong Yingda etc, Book of Sui,...
, which dominated for three centuries, created a completely new geopolitical situation in all Central Asia. For the first time in three hundred years, the powerful center of authority that created opportunities for expansion or even existence of any state in Turkestan
Turkestan
Turkestan, spelled also as Turkistan, literally means "Land of the Turks".The term Turkestan is of Persian origin and has never been in use to denote a single nation. It was first used by Persian geographers to describe the place of Turkish peoples...
had finally disappeared. Henceforth, the Turkic tribes recognized only the high status of the clan that inherited the Kagan title, but never again his unifying authority. Several Muslim historians state that after the loss by the Uygurs of their power (840), the supreme authority among the Turkic tribes passed to the Karluk leaders. Connection with the Ashina
Ashina
Ashina was a tribe and the ruling dynasty of the ancient Turks who rose to prominence in the mid-6th century when their leader, Bumin Khan, revolted against the Rouran...
clan, the ruling clan of the Turkic Kaganate, allowed the Karluk dynasty to dress their authority with legitimate attire, and, abandoning the old title Yabgu, to take on the new title of Kagan.
Karakhanid period
Towards 940 the "heathen” YagmaYagma
The Yagma were a medieval tribe of Turks whose members are among the ancestors of modern Uigurs and Uzbeks. Yagma is one of the Turkic tribes that came to the forefront of history after the disintegration of the Western Turkic Kaganate. They were one component of a three-member confederation known...
from the southern border seized the Chu
Chu
Chu or CHU may refer to:Surname:* Chu , a common Chinese surname for 朱 , but it can also refer to any Chinese surname whose pinyin is "chu", such as 楚, 储, 褚, 初, 除 and other possible surnames....
valley and the Karluk capital Balasagun
Balasagun
Balasagun was an ancient Soghdian city in modern-day Kyrgyzstan, located in the Chui River valley between Bishkek and Issyk-Kul Lake....
. The Yagma ruler bore the title Bogra-khan (Camel Khan), very common among Karakhanids. The Yagma quickly proceeded to take control of all Karluk lands. In the tenth and twelfth centuries, the lands on both sides of the principal chain of the Tian Shan were united under the rule of the Karakhanid Ilek-khans (Khans of the Land) or simply Karakhanids (Great Khans). The Karakhanid state was divided into fiefs which soon became independent.
The Kara-Khanid Khanate was founded in the 10th century by Satuk, a Turkic convert to Islam. His son Musa made Islam a state religion in 960. The empire occupied modern northern Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
and parts of Central Asia. This region remained under Karakhanid (and for varying periods Seljuk
Great Seljuq Empire
The Great Seljuq Empire was a medieval Persianate, Turko-Persian Sunni Muslim empire, originating from the Qynyq branch of Oghuz Turks. The Seljuq Empire controlled a vast area stretching from the Hindu Kush to eastern Anatolia and from Central Asia to the Persian Gulf...
and Kara-Khitan
Kara-Khitan Khanate
The Kara-Khitan Khanate, or Western Liao was a Khitan empire in Central Asia. The dynasty was founded by Yelü Dashi, who led the remnants of the Liao Dynasty to Central Asia after fleeing from the Jurchen conquest of their homeland in North and Northeast of modern day China...
) control until 1206, when it became a Mongol vassal state. It remained an independent vassal until the Mongol invasion of 1221.
Khitan period
In the beginning of the tenth century AD a Mongolic tribe, the Khitan (also spelled Khitay, Kidan, Kitan, Qidan, etc.), with an admixture of MongolsMongols
Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...
, founded a vast empire, stretching from the Pacific to Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal is the world's oldest at 30 million years old and deepest lake with an average depth of 744.4 metres.Located in the south of the Russian region of Siberia, between Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast, it is the most voluminous freshwater lake in the...
and the Tian Shan, displacing the Turkic population and replacing it with a Mongol population. The Khitan language
Khitan language
The Khitan language is a now-extinct language once spoken by the Khitan people . Khitan is generally deemed to be genetically linked to the Mongolic languages. It was written using two mutually exclusive writing systems known as the Khitan large script and the Khitan small script...
is taken nowadays to be a strongly palatalized Mongolian dialect. Reportedly, the first Gurkhan
Gurkhan
Gurkhan was a Mongol title meaning "chief of Khans" and roughly equivalent to the older word khagan. It was held by the rulers of the Kara-Khitai in the 13th century. It comes from the Mongol Gür / Kür, meaning "wide" or "general"...
professed the Manichaean religion.
Owing to its long sway over China, the ruling dynasty, which Chinese dynastic histories
Twenty-Four Histories
The Twenty-Four Histories is a collection of Chinese historical books covering a period from 3000 BC to the Ming Dynasty in the 17th century. The whole set contains 3213 volumes and about 40 million words...
call Liao
Liao Dynasty
The Liao Dynasty , also known as the Khitan Empire was an empire in East Asia that ruled over the regions of Manchuria, Mongolia, and parts of northern China proper between 9071125...
(916-1125), was strongly influenced by Chinese culture.
In the year 1125 a Tungus
Tungusic peoples
Tungusic peoples are the peoples who speak Tungusic languages. The word originated in Tunguska, an ill-defined region of Siberia.-Peoples:Tungusic peoples are:*Evenks*Evens*Jurchens *Manchu*Negidals...
people, the Jurchen, allied with Southern Chinese Sung Dynasty, ended the domination of the Khitan. The Khitan exiles, headed by Ye-lü Ta-shih, a member of the Khitan royal family, migrated to the West. The Khitan settled in the Tarbagatai
Tarbagatai
Tarbagatai or Tarbagatay may refer to:Mountain ranges:*The Tarbagatai Mountains between Xinjiang, China and Kazakhstan*In Mongolia, a part of the Khangai range along the border of Zavkhan, Arkhangai, and Khövsgöl Province aimags is called Tarvagatai...
area east of Zhetysu, and their number grew to 40,000 tents. Around 1130 the local Karakhanid ruler of Balasagun
Balasagun
Balasagun was an ancient Soghdian city in modern-day Kyrgyzstan, located in the Chui River valley between Bishkek and Issyk-Kul Lake....
asked for their aid against the hostile Kangly and Karluks. The Khitan occupied Balasaghun, expelled the weak Karakhanid ruler, and founded their own state which stretched from the Yenisei to Talas
Taraz
Taraz , is a city and a center of the Jambyl Province in Kazakhstan. It is located in the south of Kazakhstan, near the border with Kyrgyzstan, on the Talas River...
. They then conquered Kangly and subdued Eastern Turkestan. In 1137 near Khujand
Khujand
Khujand , also transliterated as Khudzhand, , formerly Khodjend or Khodzhent until 1936 and Leninabad until 1991, is the second-largest city of Tajikistan. It is situated on the Syr Darya River at the mouth of the Fergana Valley...
they defeated the Transoxanian Turkestan ruler Mahmud Khan, and in 1141 defeated the army of the Seljuk
Great Seljuq Empire
The Great Seljuq Empire was a medieval Persianate, Turko-Persian Sunni Muslim empire, originating from the Qynyq branch of Oghuz Turks. The Seljuq Empire controlled a vast area stretching from the Hindu Kush to eastern Anatolia and from Central Asia to the Persian Gulf...
Sultan Sanjar.
The western Khitan state became known under its Turkic name Kara-Khitay (Black, Western, or Great Khitay), and their ruler bore the Turkic title of Gurkhan (Khan’s son-in law). The original Uch-Karluk confederation became split between the Karakhanid state in the west and the Karakhitay state in the east, which lasted until the Mongol time. Both in the west and east, Karluk principalities retained their autonomous status and indigenous rulers, though in Karakhitay the Karluk khan, like the ruler of Samarkand, was forced to accept the presence of a permanent representative of the Gurkhan.
Directly, the Gurkhans administered limited territories, populated in 1170 by 84,500 families under direct rule. The Gurkhan's headquarters was called Khosun-ordu (lit. "Strong Ordu"), or Khoto ("House"). The Karluk capital was Kayalik. The Karakhanids continued to rule over Transoxania and Eastern Turkestan. Juvayni
Ata al-Mulk Juvayni
Atâ-Malek Jovayni was a Persian historian who wrote an account of the Mongol Empire entitled Ta' rīkh-i jahān-gushā .He was born in Juvain, a city in Khorasan in northeastern Iran...
stresses the oppression of the Karakhitay in comparison with Karluk times. Islam was forced out of its dominant position to equal the other religions, which took advantage of the new freedom to increase the number of their adherents. The Nestorian
Nestorianism
Nestorianism is a Christological doctrine advanced by Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople from 428–431. The doctrine, which was informed by Nestorius's studies under Theodore of Mopsuestia at the School of Antioch, emphasizes the disunion between the human and divine natures of Jesus...
Patriarch
Patriarch
Originally a patriarch was a man who exercised autocratic authority as a pater familias over an extended family. The system of such rule of families by senior males is called patriarchy. This is a Greek word, a compound of πατριά , "lineage, descent", esp...
Elias III (1176–1190) founded a metropoly in Kashghar. The Karakhitay metropolitan bore the title of "Metropolitan of Kashghar and Navakat", showing that the see of Kashghar also controlled the southern part of Zhetysu. The oldest Nestorian tombs in the Tokmak and Pishpek cemeteries go back to the epoch of Karakhitay domination.
The Karakhitay Muslim vassals rebelled, initially successfully quashed by the government. The situation changed when the most powerful Western Mongolian Nayman tribe, headed by Küchlük (lit. “Little”), a son of the last Nayman khan east of the Karakhitay empire, were ousted (towards 1209) from Mongolia by Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan , born Temujin and occasionally known by his temple name Taizu , was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death....
. The Nayman Nestorian Christian Küchlük seized the power in the name of Gurkhan, but soon, in the 1211, a Mongol detachment under the command of Khubilai noyon, one of Genghis Khan's generals, appeared in the northern part of Zhetysu. Arslan-khan Karluk killed the Karakhitay governor of Kayalik and proclaimed his loyalty to Genghis Khan. The Zhetysu, together with Eastern Turkestan, voluntarily surrendered to the Mongols.
Mongol era
In the 1211 a Mongol detachment under command of Khubilai noyon, one of Genghis Khan's generals, appeared in the northern part of Zhetysu. Arslan (Tr. "lion") Khan Karluk (probably the son of Arslan-khan and brother of Mamdu-khan) killed the Khitan governor of Kayalik and proclaimed his loyalty to Genghis Khan. The "Collection of Annals" records that Genghis Khan removed his title from Karluk Arslan Khan: "Let your name be Sartaktai", i.e. SartSart
Sart is a name for the settled inhabitants of Central Asia which has had shifting meanings over the centuries. Sarts, known sometimes as Ak-Sart in ancient times, did not have any particular ethnic identification, and were usually town-dwellers.-Origin:There are several theories about the origin...
, said the sovereign.
After the absorption of the Karakhanid state by the Chagatai Khanate
Chagatai Khanate
The Chagatai Khanate was a Turko-Mongol khanate that comprised the lands ruled by Chagatai Khan , second son of the Great Khan Genghis Khan, and his descendents and successors...
, the ethnonym Karluk became rarely used. The Karluk language was the primary basis for the later lingua-franca of the Chagatai Khanate and Central Asia under the Timurid Khanate. It is therefore designated by linguists and historians as the Chagatai language
Chagatai language
The Chagatai language is an extinct Turkic language which was once widely spoken in Central Asia, and remained the shared literary language there until the early twentieth century...
, but its contemporaries such as Timur-Lenk
Timur
Timur , historically known as Tamerlane in English , was a 14th-century conqueror of West, South and Central Asia, and the founder of the Timurid dynasty in Central Asia, and great-great-grandfather of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty, which survived as the Mughal Empire in India until...
or Babur
Babur
Babur was a Muslim conqueror from Central Asia who, following a series of setbacks, finally succeeded in laying the basis for the Mughal dynasty of South Asia. He was a direct descendant of Timur through his father, and a descendant also of Genghis Khan through his mother...
, simply called it Turki.
Social organization
The state of Karluk Yabgu was an association of semi-independent districts and cities, each equipped with its own militia. The biggest was the capital SuyabSuyab
Suyab was an ancient Silk Road city located some 50 km east from Bishkek, and 8 km west southwest from Tokmok, in the Chui River valley, present-day Kyrgyzstan.- History :...
which could turn out 20,000 warriors, among other districts the town of Begliligh had 10,000 warriors, Panjikat could turn out 8,000 warriors, Barskhan 6,000 warriors, Yar 3,000 warriors. The titles of the petty rulers were Qutegin of the Karluk Laban clan in Karminkat, Taksin in Jil, Tabin-Barskhan in Barskhan, Turkic Yindl-Tegin and Sogdian Badan-Sangu in Beglilig. The prince of the capital Suyab, situated north of the Chu river in the Turgesh land, was a brother of one of the Göktürk khans, but bore the Persian title Yalan-shah, i.e. "King of Heroes".
Muslim authors describe in detail the trade route from Western Asia to China across Zhetysu, mentioning many cities. Some bore double names, Turkic and Sogdian. In addition to the capital cities of Balasagun, Suyab, and Kayalik, in which William of Rubruck
William of Rubruck
William of Rubruck was a Flemish Franciscan missionary and explorer. His account is one of the masterpieces of medieval geographical literature comparable to that of Marco Polo....
for the first time saw three Buddhist temples in the Muslim town, the geographers mention Taraz (Talas, Auliya-ata), Navakat (now Kara-bulak), Atbash (now Koshoy-Kurgan ruins), Issyk-kul, Barskhan, Panjikat, Akhsikat, Beglilig, Almalik, Jul, Yar, Ton, Panchul, and others.
- See also: Karlugh TurksKarlugh TurksThe Karlugh Turks are a prominent Karluk Turkic tribe that resides mainly in the Hazara region of current Pakistan. These Karlugh Turks formed a Turki Shahi dynasty and ruled the state of Pakhli Sarkar for over 200 years from 1472 to 1703.- Arrival:...
of Pakistan
Modern period
In the 20th century, the geopolitical Great Game among great powers demanded the creation of modern nationalities among Central Asian Turks. The ethnonym Karluk was not revived. Instead, UzbekUzbek language
Uzbek is a Turkic language and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 25.5 million native speakers, and it is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia...
and Uyghur
Uyghur language
Uyghur , formerly known as Eastern Turk, is a Turkic language with 8 to 11 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western China. Significant communities of Uyghur-speakers are located in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and various other...
became the two major divisions among speakers of modern variants of the Chagatai language. Under these two modern nationalities are subgroups like the Uyghur Dolan
Dolan people
Dolan refers to a people or region of what is now Xinjiang Province, China. People who call themselves Dolan can be found in the Yarkand River valley, the Tarim River valley and the Lop Nur region of present-day Xinjiang...
, Aynur
Aynur
Aynur is a Turkish given name for females. People named Aynur include:* Aynur Doğan, Kurdish singer and musician* Aynur Saygili, Turkish refugee...
and several regional populations of Uzbeks, some of which share more similarities with Kipchak groups like the Karakalpak and Kazakhs
Kazakhs
The Kazakhs are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia ....
, or with the Iranic Tajiks, than with fellow Uzbeks who speak a descendant of the Karluk language.