Uysyn - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Uysyn is the name of one of the largest tribes of the Senior Juz

Senior juz

Great jüz is one of three traditional unions of the pastoral tribes of the Central Asian steppe area within the territories of modern Southeastern and southern Kazakhstan, parts of Northwestern China and parts of Uzbekistan. In contemporary Kazakhstan, the Great jüz is regarded as one of the...

in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...

. Uysyn history can be traced from the 3rd century BC. P.Pelliot

Paul Pelliot

Paul Pelliot was a French sinologist and explorer of Central Asia. Initially intending to enter the foreign service, Pelliot took up the study of Chinese and became a pupil of Sylvain Lévi and Édouard Chavannes....

and L.Ηambis determined a common origin of the ancient Wusun
Wusun
The Wūsūn were a nomadic steppe people who, according to the Chinese histories, originally lived in western Gansu in northwest China west of the Yuezhi people...

with the Sary-Uysuns, between the Kirgiz and Uzbek

Uzbeks

The Uzbeks are a Turkic ethnic group in Central Asia. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, and large populations can also be found in Afghanistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Pakistan, Mongolia and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China...

Ushuns and Uyshuns, and with the Uysuns of the Kazakh

Kazakhs

The Kazakhs are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia ....

Senior Juz

Senior juz

.

The modern Uysyn consist of two divisions, the Dulat (Dulu, Dogolat) and the Sary Uysyn ('"Yellow Uysyn").

The Dulat, numbering 250,000 people, is the larger subdivision, formally a tribe or a tribal confederation, in the Kazakh Senior Juz. It consists of the Botbai, Shymyr, Sikym, Yanys, Alban and Suan clans. The Suan clan is mentioned in Chinese dynastic chronicles under the name of the major Hunnish

Huns

The Huns were a group of nomadic people who, appearing from east of the Volga River, migrated into Europe c. AD 370 and established the vast Hunnic Empire there. Since de Guignes linked them with the Xiongnu, who had been northern neighbours of China 300 years prior to the emergence of the Huns,...

tribal subdivision, the Chuban (Chinese Yueban). The Dulat clan tamga is

and

. Numerous Eurasian royal dynasties were known by the names Dulat and Dulu, the most prominent being the royal dynasty of Kubrat

Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans

The Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans is a short manuscript containing the names of some early Bulgar rulers, their clans, the year of their ascending to the throne according to the cyclic Bulgar calendar and the length of their rule, including the times of joint rule and civil war...

(Kubrat
Kubrat
Kubrat or Kurt was a Bulgar ruler credited with establishing the confederation of Old Great Bulgaria in 632. He is said to have achieved this by conquering the Avars and uniting all the Bulgar tribes under one rule....

) and Asparukh

Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans

of Late Antique Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

, rivals of 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...

dynasty of Khazaria.

The Sary Uysyn, numbering 10,000 people, also belong to the Kazakh Senior Juz. It consists of the Kuttymbet, Janai, Jolai, Talai, Jandosai, Kuleke and Kyryk clans. The Sary Uysyn clan tamga is

. The Sary Uysyn occupy the upper course of the Ili River

Ili River

thumb|right|300px|Map of the Lake Balkhash drainage basin showing the Ili River and its tributariesThe Ili River is a river in northwestern China and southeastern Kazakhstan .It is long, of which is in Kazakhstan...

.

An Uysyn diaspora

Diaspora

A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...

also exists in modern Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....

and Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...

The ancient Usun or Wusun

Chinese records first mention the "Ushi" in Andin and Pinlian (modern Pinlian and Guüan in the Peoples Republic of China), between the Lu-hun and Kuyan

Huyan

The Huyan was a noble house that led the last remnants of the Northern Xiongnu, to Dzungaria during the 2nd century, after the Battle of Ikh Bayan...

tribes. The transcription of Ushi means "raven generation", and is semantically identical with U-sun - "raven descendants". The presence of a raven as clan totem among the ancient Usuns is beyond doubt. In Usun legend, the ancestors of the Usuns were a raven and a wolf. This is reflected in the Usun-Ashina (Oshin) tamga with an image of raven.

The first historical records concerning the Wusun

Wusun

The Wūsūn were a nomadic steppe people who, according to the Chinese histories, originally lived in western Gansu in northwest China west of the Yuezhi people...

name them as a separate and distinct tribe of the Xiongnu

Xiongnu

The Xiongnu were ancient nomadic-based people that formed a state or confederation north of the agriculture-based empire of the Han Dynasty. Most of the information on the Xiongnu comes from Chinese sources...

confederacy, living on the territory of the modern province of Gansu

Gansu

' is a province located in the northwest of the People's Republic of China.It lies between the Tibetan and Huangtu plateaus, and borders Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia to the north, Xinjiang and Qinghai to the west, Sichuan to the south, and Shaanxi to the east...

, in the valley of the Ushui-he (Chinese Raven river). It is not clear whether the river was named after the Usun tribe or vice versa.

To the west the Usuns bordered Kangju

Kangju

Kangju was the name of an ancient people and kingdom in Central Asia. It was a nomadic federation of unknown ethnic and linguistic origin which became for a couple of centuries the second greatest power in Transoxiana after the Yuezhi....

, located in modern Kazakhstan. It was twice as weak as the Usuns, and served as a buffer between the Xiongnu and the Yuezhi. To the south of the Usuns was Sogdiana

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...

, which then consisted of 70 sovereign mini-states. East of the Usuns towered the Xiongnu state.

Early in their history, the Usuns migrated in three stages, lasting near two hundred years. The first exodus from Shaanxi

Shaanxi

' is a province in the central part of Mainland China, and it includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River in addition to the Qinling Mountains across the southern part of this province...

to Tsilyan-shan in around 410 BC was forced by the Yuezhi

Yuezhi

The Yuezhi, or Rouzhi , also known as the Da Yuezhi or Da Rouzhi , were an ancient Central Asian people....

. Between 410 BC and 177 BC, the Usuns were vassals of the Tocharic

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...

Yuezhi coalition.

The second migration in about 178 BC, was connected with the Xiongnu prince Modu Chanyu's campaign against the Yuezhi, and resulted in the reconquest by the Usuns of their Sichen homeland.

The third migration in c.160 BC was a deliberate displacement by the Usuns of the defeated Asii

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....

from their temporary residence in Zhetysu. In 160 BC, after the death of the Hun's supreme Chanyu Laoshan (173-161), the Usuns separated from the Xiongnu and migrated to the region of the Ili River

Ili River

and 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...

(Lake Issyk), established their independence, and formed a powerful state in the Zhetysu area. Chinese historical annals offer a demographic description of the Usuns at that time, stating that they numbered 630,000 people and 120,000 families.

In 5 BC, during the reign of Uchjulü-Chanyu

Noin-Ula kurgans

The Noin-Ula kurgans consist of more than 200 large burial mounds, approximately square in plan, some 2 m in height, covering timber burial chambers. They are located by the Selenga River in the hills of northern Mongolia north of Ulan Bator...

(8 BC – AD 13), the Usuns attempted to raid Chuban pastures, but Uchjulü-Chanyu repulsed them, and the Usun commander had to send his son to the Chuban court as a hostage. The forceful intervention of the Chinese usurper Wan Man and internal strife brought disorder, and in 2 BC one of the Usun chietains brought 80,000 Usuns to Kangju

Kangju

, asking for 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...

help against Chinese. In a vain attempt to reconcile with China, he was duped and killed in AD 3.

The Usuns left multiple diaspora islands along their centuries-old trek. As a rule, part of a tribe remained in the old habitats and later on participated in new ethnic unions. Usun principalities are known in the Ordos Desert

Ordos Desert

The Ordos Desert is a desert and steppe region lying on a plateau in the south of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China . The soil of the Ordos is a mixture of clay and sand and, as a result, is poorly suited for agriculture. It extends over an area of...

. Separate Usun princedoms existed for a long time in the Khangai Mountains and along the Bogdoshan ridge.

Middle Ages

In the 2nd century AD, after disintegration of the Xiongnu confederacy, the hegemony over the nomads of Zhetysu and Eastern Turkestan passed to the Xianbei

Xianbei

The Xianbei were a significant Mongolic nomadic people residing in Manchuria, Inner Mongolia and eastern Mongolia. The title “Khan” was first used among the Xianbei.-Origins:...

people. Before 160 CE the Xianbei, linguistically Tungus

Tungusic languages

The Tungusic languages form a language family spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria by Tungusic peoples. Many Tungusic languages are endangered, and the long-term future of the family is uncertain...

or Mongolian

Mongolian language

The Mongolian language is the official language of Mongolia and the best-known member of the Mongolic language family. The number of speakers across all its dialects may be 5.2 million, including the vast majority of the residents of Mongolia and many of the Mongolian residents of the Inner...

with strong Turkic admixture, were politically amorphous, and for centuries were controlled by the Xiongnu. Between 155 and 165 CE, the Xyanbei chieftain Tanshihai took over the Xiongnu empire. Resisting Xiongnu were displaced to beyond Tarbagatai, the Dingling

Dingling

The Dingling were an ancient Siberian people. They originally lived on the bank of the Lena River in the area west of Lake Baikal, gradually moving southward to Mongolia and northern China...

were displaced to beyond the Sayans, and the Usun and Chuban in Zhetysu were brought under Xianbei control. This lasted through the 2nd-4th century CE.

In the 4th-6th century CE the Rouran

Rouran

Rouran , Mongolia name Jujan or Nirun Ruanruan/Ruru , Tan Tan , Juan-Juan or Zhu-Zhuwas the name of a confederation of nomadic tribes on the northern borders of Inner China from the late 4th century until the middle 6th century...

took over control of the Eurasian steppes. In 436 CE the Rouran dislodged the Usun to the Tian-Shan mountains

With the rise of the First Turkic Kaganate in 552 CE, the Usun fell into the newly formed state, ruled by the same royal Ashina clan on the male side, and by the Ediz Katun clan on the female side.

After the Turkic Kaganate split into the Western Turkic Khaganate

Western Turkic Khaganate

The Western Turkic Khaganate was formed as a result of the internecine wars in the beginning of the 7th century after the Göktürk Khaganate had splintered into two politiesEastern and Western.The Western Turks initially sought friendly relations with the Byzantine Empire in order to expand their...

and Eastern Turkic Khaganate in 603 CE, the Usun remained in the Western Turkic Khaganate, ruled by the Kagans from the Ashina clan. At the beginning of the 7th century CE the peoples of the Western Turkic Kaganate separated into two groups, divided by the river Chu: to the west lived the Dulu, and to the east lived the Nushibi
Nushibi
Nushibi was a Chinese collective name for five tribes of the right wing in the Western Turkic Kaganate, and members of On oq confederation found in the literature about the Western Turkic Kaganate as Ten arrows Türks...

. See Ili river treaty

Ili river treaty

The Ili River Treaty was a treaty between the warring eastern and western parts of the Western Turkic Kaganate that concluded the civil war between warring parties...

. ‎The Dulu were the ancestors of the Dulat, nowadays the most numerous and strongest clan of the Uysyns. Next to the Dulu, the Chinese chronicles mention the Chuban, in which name another clan of the modern Uysyns, the Suan is recognized.

The kaganate was overrun by Chinese forces under Su Dingfang

Su Dingfang

Su Dingfang , formal name Su Lie but went by the courtesy name of Dingfang, formally Duke Zhuang of Xing , was a general of the Chinese dynasty Tang Dynasty who succeeded in destroying the Western Tujue in 657. He was born in Wuyi...

in 658-659, bringing the Usun under direct Chinese control for nearly half a century, amassing detailed information in the Chinese annals.

Centuries after the migration of the main masses of the Usun population west to Zhetysu, the name Usun appeared again in the east in the text of the monument to the Trkic prince Tonyukuk

Tonyukuk

Tonyukuk Tonyukuk Tonyukuk (Old Turkic: , Bilge Tuňuquq, died c. 724 AD, (暾欲穀/暾欲谷, Pinyin: tūnyùgǔ, personal name: Ashide Yuanzhen 阿史德元珍, āshǐdé yuánzhēn, a-shih-te yüan-chen) was the yabgu and commander-in-chief of four Göktürk khagans, the best known of whom is Bilge Khan. He played a major role...

, in the description of the new pastoral routes of the eastern Turks: "I brought troops to the cities of Shantung ("Mountainous East") and to the sea river (Huang He). They destroyed twenty three cities and remained to live in the land of the Usyn union ("Usun bundatu yurt")". The text allows to locate the "Usun bundatu yurt" on the northern branch of the Huang He in the Sichen area, and another group in Ordos, noted by many medieval and modern authors. Remains of the ancient Usuns of northern and northwestern China continued their existence for a long time in separate Usun princedoms in Khangai and in Beitin-Bishbalyk.

After restoration of the Turkic Kaganate in the 682-745 period, usually referred to as the Second Turkic 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...

, the Usuns again were incorporated into the kaganate. At its dismemberment the Usuns fell under the Uyghur Khaganate (745-840 CE). After the fall of the Uyghur Khaganate at the arms of the Kyrgyz in 840 CE, the Usun were squeezed out of Zhetysu by the victorious Kirgiz, and were incorporated into the Kyrgyz Kaganate. The Kyrgyz Kaganate maintained its dominance for about 200 years.

In the 12th century, as a result of the rising Mongol expansion, the Kyrgyz domination shrunk, and with the rise 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...

early in the 13th century the Usun fell under Chingisid rule.

In their westward advance in the 1253-1254, the Hulagu army passed through Zhetysu, and the Persian historian Rashid-ad-din (1247–1318) wrote his "History of the Mongols" from the words of the Mongols who in 1255 came to Persia with the Hulagu-Khan, indicating that at that time the Uysyn lived in the mountains near the river Chu. Rashid-ad-din calls the Uysyn Uyshun, they were Chagataid

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...

subjects. Nowadays one kishlak
Kishlak
Kishlak or qishlaq is a rural settlement of semi-nomadis Turkic peoples of Central Asia , in Afghanistan, and in other places...

in Tashkent

Tashkent

Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.-Early Islamic History:...

province is called Uyshun, as Uzbeks

Uzbeks

and Karakirgizes pronounce Uysyn, its inhabitants claim they are Uysyns.

The author of the "Tarihi-Rashidi" historian Muhamed-Haydar came from the Dulat clan and was a kuregen (i.e. he was married to a Chingisid princess). Muhamed-Haydar's 6th ancestor Emir Bolatchi-Dulat in 1348 brought Tokluk-Temyr from the Kuldja region to the Issyk-Kul region, where lived Dulats or Dogolats, and proclaimed him a Khan of the Chagatai Ulus. After the death of Tokluk and Balatchi, Balatchi brother Kamareddin, a famous opponent of Timur

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...

, was a factual ruler of the Chagatai Ulus. Further, the history mentioned ethnically Dulat rulers Hudaydat, a nephew of Kamareddin, a son of Hudaydat Mir Muhamed, and his grandson Seid-Ali (1440). The historian Muhamed Haydar was a cousin of both 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...

and Chagataid's Seidkhan, he took part in their wars against the Uzbeks

Uzbeks

and Kirgiz. After the death of Seidkhan, Muhamed Haydar led a part of Dulats to Babur in Laghor, then he seized Kashmir

Kashmir

Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...

, annexed Tibet

Tibet

Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...

, and died there as an independent sovereign. After the expulsion of Seidkhan from Zhetysu (1527–1545), the remaining Dulats and other Uysyns joined the Kirghiz during the time of Tairkhan and his successors.

In the 1650s, under a pressure of the Oirats (Djungars
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...

, Kalmyks, Kalmuks), the Uysyn migrated to the west, and in 1690-1790 they lived in the Tashkent province of modern Uzbekistan.

In Late Middle Age, the Central Asian steppes were divided between the Nogai Ulus

Nogai Horde

The Nogai Horde was a confederation of about eighteen Turkic and Mongol tribes that occupied the Pontic-Caspian steppe from about 1500 until they were pushed west by the Kalmyks and south by the Russians in the 17th century. The Mongol tribe called the Manghits constituted a core of the Horde...

(Ulus-Nogai), a splinter of the Kipchak Khanate-Juchi Ulus

Golden Horde

The Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that formed the north-western sector of the Mongol Empire...

, and the Kazakh Khanate

Kazakh Khanate

Kazakh Khanate was a Kazakh state that existed in 1456-1847, located roughly on the territory of present-day Republic of Kazakhstan.-History:...

, a splinter of the Chagatai Ulus

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...

. In the 16th century, the Nogai Ulus extended from the Volga to the Irtysh, and from the Kama to Syr-darya, with its capital in Saraichik. Among the 120 tribes (called "Ils" = "lands"), and among its 8 largest tribes were Uyshuns. A drawn-out period of disintegration of the Nogai Ulus resulted in its population switching allegiance to the Kazakh Khanate, and by the 1730^s most of the Nogai Ulus Uysyns were in the orbit of the Kazakh Khanate. In spite of centuries-old conflicts between Nogai Ulus and the Kazakh Khanate, the people felt that the fights were solely between the rulers, and continued to relate themselves as one contigious entity, not divided by political borders. All constituent tribes, including Uysyns, retained their tamgas, battle cries (uran), and exogamic traditions.

One of the most famous Biys of the Kirgiz people, Tolebiy Alibek, a Dulat of the Djanys branch, was factual ruler of the Senior Horde

Senior juz

. Sabalak, a drifter boy at the time, and later a famous Ablay Khan, in 1725 was shepherding Tolebiy's camels.

Modern period

Uysyn appellations in Late Middle Ages and Modern Times
Desht-i-Kipchak Uzbek Horde Uzbeg Khan Sultan Mohammed Öz-Beg, better known as Uzbeg or Ozbeg , was the longest-reigning khan of the Golden Horde, under whose rule the state reached its zenith... 1400-1500	Ulus Nogai Nogai Horde The Nogai Horde was a confederation of about eighteen Turkic and Mongol tribes that occupied the Pontic-Caspian steppe from about 1500 until they were pushed west by the Kalmyks and south by the Russians in the 17th century. The Mongol tribe called the Manghits constituted a core of the Horde... 1500-1630	Tribes and clans in genealogical and ethnographical sources of 19th – 20th centuries
		Nogais Nogais The Nogai people are a Turkic ethnic group in Southern Russia: northern Dagestan and Stavropol Krai, as well as in Karachay-Cherkessia and the Astrakhan Oblast; undefined number live in Chechnya...	Kazakhs Kazakhs The Kazakhs are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia ....	Karakalpaks Karakalpaks The Karakalpaks are a Turkic speaking people. They mainly live in the lower reaches of the Amu Darya and in the delta of Amu Darya on the southern shore of the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan. The name "Karakalpak" comes from two words: "qara" meaning black, and "qalpaq" meaning hat...	Kipchaks Kipchaks Kipchaks were a Turkic tribal confederation...	Bashkorts Bashkortostan The Republic of Bashkortostan , also known as Bashkiria is a federal subject of Russia . It is located between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains. Its capital is the city of Ufa...
Uysun	Uyshun	Uysin	Uysyn, Sary-Uysyn	Uyshun	Uyshun	Uyshin

In 1723 the Kirgiz fled from the Dzungars

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...

, settling near lake Alka-Kol. The hungry crowd then headed to Samarkand and Bukhara, casting the settled population of 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...

into a famine. In 1725-26 the Uysyn actively participated in a victorious attack on the Dzungars, managing to expel them to beyond the Ili River

Ili River

. But after half of the Kirgiz people left the campaign, the Uysyns had to submit to the Dzungars, until they freed themselves in 1757-1758. After that, the Dulat controlled Tashkent until they were expelled in the 1798 by a coalition of the townspeople and the Kirgiz clans Kanly, Chanshkly and Ramadan, whose descendants continue to live in Tashkent province. In Tashkent province still live remnants of the Uysyns, called Uyshuns by the Uzbeks and Karakirgizes.

Society

The Usuns and Yuezhi formed one state with two ethnically different and opposing halves. It was a Matriarchal

Matriarchy

A matriarchy is a society in which females, especially mothers, have the central roles of political leadership and moral authority. It is also sometimes called a gynocratic or gynocentric society....

state of a lunar clan "As" (Uti, Ati, Asi, Yuezhi), with a Matrilinear principle of inheritance, including dynastic succession. This caused their separation from the Usuns (initially called in the Chinese annals As-mans) in the transition to a patriarchal

Patriarchy

Patriarchy is a social system in which the role of the male as the primary authority figure is central to social organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege, and entails female subordination...

form. The matrilinear form of community was a "brotherly family" with the inheritance principle "senior brother - younger brother (from the same mother) - nephew (from a female line, the son of the senior brother)", combining male and female lines.

After 160 BCE, the Usun state in Zhetysu incorporated the remains of the Saka

Saka

The Saka were a Scythian tribe or group of tribes....

and Yuezhi

Yuezhi

The Yuezhi, or Rouzhi , also known as the Da Yuezhi or Da Rouzhi , were an ancient Central Asian people....

. Usun growth created conditions for a state independent from the Chuban. Political hierarchy was simple, the army of 188,800 men had only 16 officers. The Usun family was small, and unlike the Chuban, women did not have an equal status anymore. Social inequality became accepted, rich owners had herds with thousands of horses.

References to the Usuns in the Chinese annals allude to the tri-partite division of the state. This was typical for the Turkic nomadic states, based on a military principle of attacking with left (tolos) and right (tardush) wings or flanks, led by the center, as in multi-group encircling hunts. Members of the tribes belonging to each wing were positioned in exact hierarchical order, depending on their place in the traditional structure. The left (eastern) wing had a privileged status, with a successor to the throne, and the queen's residence. Two dominant (royal) tribes are known from the Chinese annals, 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...

(Oshin) and Ashide (Ashtak, tamga

‎ ).

In the 7th century a ten-arrow (Ten tribes, On-ok) Western Turkic Kaganate was located "on the lands of the former Usun state". The Kaganate backbone consisted of ten tribes, five in each wing. The first tribe in the list of the left (eastern) wing tribes is Ulug-ok, a conjugal tribe of the Kagans who belonged to the western branch of the "celestial-blue" Ashina tribe. The term ulug belongs to the Ashide tribe, of the co-ruler chancellor and katun queen, a spouse of the Kagan from the Ashina tribe. Only offspring of Ashina on the paternal side and Ashtak on the maternal side could inherit the Kagan throne. Succession to the throne followed the established "brotherly family" along the avuncular

Avunculism

The avunculate is a feature of some societies whereby men have a special role in relation to their sisters' children.-General:...

line "senior brother - younger brother - nephew (son of the senior brother)", with compulsory participation of the queen's Ashtaks at each succession.

The Queen and chancellor held a decisive vote in the election of the Kagan, performed in accordance with the norms of the "brotherly family". The Queen tribe Ashtak represented lands and people of the state. The bearers of the title Ulug had a position of "chancellor", "vizier", "state elder" in the later times too, like in the archaic text of the "Turkmen’s Family Tree" (17th century), the "ruler of the state" was Il Ulugy, or the Ulug Beg of the Timurids. In the old Usun state, the second man after the supreme ruler was called chancellor (Ch. syan), the combination Da lu "Great Lu" is a Chinese translation of the Turkic Ulug.

In the old Usun state a son could not inherit from his father. When Hunmo ostensibly "out of pity for the dying successor to the throne" agreed to transfer this post to his son, it caused a fury of the Great Ulug, his relatives, and people, who took to arms. The arbitrary decision of the supreme ruler to institute a new principle of inheriting the throne by the line "father - son", bypassing the queen (maternal) Ulug tribe did not gain support and was rejected at that time.

Burial traditions

Zhetysu is one of the richest and most studied centers of the Kurgan

Kurgan

Kurgan is the Turkic term for a tumulus; mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves, originating with its use in Soviet archaeology, now widely used for tumuli in the context of Eastern European and Central Asian archaeology....

tradition, spanning from 3,050 BC to recent times. This includes dozens of studied Usun and Chuban burials. Archeological finds include plenty of ceramics, gold, bronze mirrors, wooden boxes, silk, pots with charred grain, and millstones, evidencing affluent lifestile and complex pastoral-agricultural economy. Of especial note are numerous glazed flasks, an altar with 25 winged snow leopards, and the Kargala diadem, dated 2nd century BCE. Timber log burial chambers in the kurgans show that the Zhetysu people had winter log houses. Most kurgans are 6–20 m in diameter and 0.5-1.5 m height, dirt and stone filled. Typical burial chambers are earthen with a catacomb without wooden cover. Kurgan burials dated by the 1st century BCE to the 1st century CE include Utegen, Taigak, Karlak, Altyn-Emel, and 2nd-3rd century CE include Kapchagai, Chupak-Didj, Gur-Kara, etc.,. Numerous archeological artifacts are now in the Hermitage Museum

Hermitage Museum

The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been opened to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display,...

Linguistic affiliation

For some time it was theorized that the Wusun spoke a Proto-Turkic

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...

language. In 1896, after examining a mass of historical-ethnographical material, the outstanding historian and Türkic ethnographer N.A. Aristov posited that the ancient Usun were Türkic-speakers, and erroneously identified them as a western branch of the Enisei Kirgizes. In 1902 Aristov's theory was confirmed by a Japanese Turkologist K.Shiratori

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...

, who deciphered a number of Usun titles and names recorded in the Chinese dynastic history, the Hanshu. Other Sinologists – F. Hirt, O. Franke, J. Marquart, Yu. Zuev and in part P. Pelliot – concurred with this conclusion. All Usun words that could be deciphered by now seemed to have obviously Turkic character. This threw in doubt the popular theory on the Turkification of the Usuns at the end of the 1st century BC by the Chuban.

The Ancient Chinese transmitted the title of the leader of the Usun tribal union by means of the hieroglyphs kunmo, kunmi, and kunbyan. An equivalent of the term Kunmo (Kün-bag, "Kün Prince") was the title of Ushan-mu (Ushin-Bag, "Usun Prince") assumed in 53 BC by the separatist Usun prince, Utszutu (Ujutu). K.Siratori

Turkology

determined that the term kunmo was a Chinese transmission of the title Khan-beg (or Khan-biy). J.Marquart

Turkology

offered a form Kun-beg. This confirmed with P.Pelliot

Paul Pelliot

's study of dialectal specifics of the language of the ancient Usuns. With the help of B.Karlgren

Turkology

's works and L.Bazen

Turkology

research in the Tungusic

Tungusic languages

Xianbei language the reading: Kun-mo = Kün-bag is decoded as Prince of Kün (people, tribe). Several scholars, including the Chinese student Han Rulin and also G. Vambery, A. Scherbak, P. Budberg, L. Bazin and V.P. Yudin, noted that the Usun king's name Fu-li, as reported in Chinese sources and translated as "wolf", resembles the Proto-Turkic böri = 'wolf'.

This theory is, however, contradicted by several leading Turkologists, including Peter B. Golden and Carter Vaughn Findley, who point out that none of the specified words are actually Turkic in origin. Findley notes that the term böri is more likely derived from one of the Indo-European

Indo-European

Indo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages** Aryan race, a 19th century and early 20th century term for those peoples who are the native speakers of Indo-European languages...

Iranian languages

The Iranian languages form a subfamily of the Indo-Iranian languages which in turn is a subgroup of Indo-European language family. They have been and are spoken by Iranian peoples....

of Central Asia, while the title beg is certainly derived from the Sogdian

Sogdian language

The Sogdian language is a Middle Iranian language that was spoken in Sogdiana , located in modern day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan ....

baga ("lord"), a cognate of Middle Persian

Middle Persian

Middle Persian , indigenously known as "Pârsig" sometimes referred to as Pahlavi or Pehlevi, is the Middle Iranian language/ethnolect of Southwestern Iran that during Sassanid times became a prestige dialect and so came to be spoken in other regions as well. Middle Persian is classified as a...

baγ (as used by the rulers of the Sassanid Empire

Sassanid Empire

The Sassanid Empire , known to its inhabitants as Ērānshahr and Ērān in Middle Persian and resulting in the New Persian terms Iranshahr and Iran , was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty from 224 to 651...

), as well as Sanskrit

Sanskrit

Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

bhaga
Bhaga
Sanskrit is a term for "lord, patron", but also for "wealth, prosperity". The cognate term in Avestan and Old Persian is , of uncertain meaning but used in a sense in which "lord, patron" might also apply. A Slavic cognate is "god"...

and Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

bog.

It is evident from Chinese sources that the Indo-European Sai (Saka

Saka

The Saka were a Scythian tribe or group of tribes....

) and Yuezhi
Yuezhi
The Yuezhi, or Rouzhi , also known as the Da Yuezhi or Da Rouzhi , were an ancient Central Asian people....

(Tokharians) were among the people of the Usun state Zhetysu, Most likely the Usun formed a multi-lingual confederation of nomadic steppe tribes, very similar to other steppe confederacies such as the Chuban and the Scythians.

Usun-related scholarship

The Usun-Wusun problem has attracted extensive attention from historians and Sinologists. Major contributions to linguistic, historical, and ethnological studies have been made by the historians and ethnographers Aristov and Bartold; the historians and linguists Altheim

Franz Altheim

Franz Altheim was a German historian, best known for his trip with Erika Trautmann funded by the Ahnenerbe and Hermann Göring.-Early life:...

, Bacot

Jacques Bacot

Jacques Bacot was an explorer and pioneering French Tibetologist. He travelled extensively in India, western China, and the Tibetan border regions. He worked at the École pratique des hautes études. Bacot was the first western scholar to study the Tibetan grammatical tradition, and along with F. W...

, Bailey

Harold Walter Bailey

Sir Harold Walter Bailey , who published as H. W. Bailey, was an eminent English scholar of Khotanese, Sanskrit, and the comparative study of Iranian languages....

, Chavannes

Édouard Chavannes

Édouard Chavannes was a French sinologist.He is best known for his translations from Sima Qian's Shiji , sections of the Hou Hanshu relating to the 'Western Regions', the Weilüe, his studies of Han dynasty stone carvings Édouard Chavannes (Chinese: ) (1865–1918) was a French sinologist.He is best...

, Harmatta, Maenchen-Helfen; Sinologists Bazen, Franke, Haloun

Gustav Haloun

Gustav Haloun was a Czech Sinologist. He taught at Prague University , Halle University , and Göttingen University , before becoming Professor of Chinese at Cambridge University.He researched about the Hundred Schools of Thought, Bactria, Da Yuezhi, and...

, Hamilton, Hirth

Friedrich Hirth

Friedrich Hirth, Ph.D. was a German-American sinologist.-Biography:He was educated at the universities of Leipzig, Berlin, and Greifswald . He was in the Chinese maritime customs service from 1870 to 1897...

, Marquart

Turkology

, Pelliot

Paul Pelliot

, Pulleyblank

Turkology

, Shiratori

Turkology

, Zuev

Yury Zuev

Yury Zuev was a Kazakh sinologist and turkologist of Russian origin.Zuev was born on in the Siberian city of Tümen in a white-collar family. Zuev studied in Leningrad State University to major in the historical studies of the Eastern countries, successfully learning ancient Chinese, Middle...

; ethnologists Levi-Stros, Kosven.

G. Haloun, and later Η.W. Bailey, Otto Maenchen-Helfen, J. Harmatta, F. Altheim and others, objected to the theory identifying the Usun with the Asii

Asii

. The present consensus is that such an identification is no longer tenable. The works of these researchers separated the question about the ancient Usuns from the Alano-Tocharian problems of Eastern Iranism.

The ancient Usun or Wusun

Middle Ages

Modern period

Society

Burial traditions

Linguistic affiliation

Usun-related scholarship

See also