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Yu. A. Zuev
EARLY TÜRKS: ESSAYS on HISTORY and IDEOLOGY
Oriental Studies Institute, Almaty, “Daik-Press”,2002, ISBN 9985-441-52-9

  <= Previous Contents Continued =>   
Section 1 (cont.) Kangju (cont.)

110

Kimeks of the Inner Mongolia

In the cited historical news about the eastern area of Kangju are actively present the Yama, Djam and Kimeks.

In connotation of these concepts lays the most ancient universal cult of divine twins. The progenitors of humans in ancient India were considered a primogenitor pair Yama and his twin sister and beloved beauty wife Yami. Yama was mortal, because he was a simple progenitor man. But Yami belonged to a class of gods and consequently she was immortal. Female feelings were not alien to her. In a hymn "Yama and Yami" (Rigveda 10, 10), which represent their dialogue, the sister tries to entice her brother to incest and marriage, calling as witnesses the Sky and Earth that comprise the same twin relationship: ”...In fact, the primogenitor has created us as two spouses still in the womb! " [Ivanov, Toporov, 1974, p. 229-230]. "The time came, and Yama has died. Yami was shedding tears all day long. And during those remote times was one continuous day, and the night did not exist. "This can't last, she will flood us with the rivers of her tears! - said the gods." And they created night. Night has passed, Yami has forgotten her beloved twin the brother spouse" [Erman, Temkin, 1975, p. 23]. Yama left to the other world, but for his numerous virtues he too was elevated to the rank of gods, the inhabitants of heaven. He became a master of the Empire of ancestors in the south. His weapon is a noose or a lasso, which in due time he throws on everyone living.
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Two four-eyed dogs are helping him, on the border of his possessions flows a river that separates from the world of live [Grintser, 1992, p. 682-683]. The mother of twins Yama and Yami was Water goddess Apya Yosha. Their Persian parallel is the pair of twins Yama and Yimak, but unlike the Vedia Yama the Persian Yima was considered a “king of Golden Age" in Persian mythological antiquity. In ancient Greece it was held that the mother of Dioskur twins was a daughter of the sea godGlavk; mother of Romul and Rem was a wife of a river deity; the beautiful Europe, who bore the twins Minos and Radamantis, was known as a daughter of Ocean [SHternberg, 1936, p. 83, 86]. In the legends of Ulches on the Lower Amur the woman of the Water Tiger (Temu duse) bore twins, a boy and a girl. She threw them into a river. In the waters of the river they grew as people, and after maturing and coming ashore, they become a husband and wife [Smolyak, 1991, p. 78-79]. The twins and water is a main motive in the Ossetic Nart epos. In it, the twins Uryzmag and Hamyts, born by a daughter of a sea king, address their mother with a question: ”...Whence are we from, disclose! Why we live with you under water? “[Narty, 1957, p. 84]. In a Karakalpak national poem “Shariyar" the newborn twins, brother and sister, are thrown into the water. They safely stay underwater, grow up underwater, and come out into the world of the people. The eeriness of this plot also remained a mystery and for the storyteller:

Would you like to know, my friends,
How they could survive,
How they grew under water,
What forces protected them?
Do not try to understand, my friends,
To explain this's impossible
Many invisible great mysteries
Hid in the sea of eternal life.

[Shariyar, 1971, p. 135].

112

The image of Yama/Yima was known in the east of the Central Asia and in Siberia. From the throne, he said words, the Almighty god did not like: “I should be called a creator of the world”.Then the symbol of his royal charisma flew away as a bird, and the sinner had to flee to distant lands.

Hundred years nobody in the world did not see him,
He was invisible for the eyes of people.
In the 100th year at the sea of the Chin (China)
Appeared this king of unholy beliefs.
When Zohhak suddenly captured him,
He at once, not hesitating at all,
Had sawn him into two halfs.

[Bertels, 1960, p. 59-60].

These words are from a version of the myth in "Shahname". In the "Avesta" his brother Yima Spitiura saws him in half. The “sawing him in two" episode emphasizes the dual-unity of Yima person, his double-nature. E.N.Shirokogorovaya re-tells the Tungus story about a Tungus builder of fortress Kankati, who coached away beyond lake Baikal. The story with "sawing " Yama was really circulating in the Tungus environs. A cossack in service, through whom the Tungus story reached us, confused the name the Yama with an ordinary pit (Russian “yama" - Translator's Note) and relayed the duality of the image in a bizarre fasion. In a report dated 1685 to the Siberian commandery, the Enisei area commander prince K.O.Shcherbaty tells about wordless barter of Tunguses with "wild people Chülükdeys”,living in a pit (yama - Translator's Note). "Bogdashchko (proper name) heard from Bratsk surtaxed Tunguses, who live on Angara river in the Bratsk district, that Tunguses were installing animal traps and a Tungus of the same Tunguses pulled from the trap a shot wild man, dressed in a leather coat with white goat pelt trim, and in hands he had an iron saw, but what type of leather coat, warm or cold, and how the saw was made, about that he, Bogdashko have not heard, and which side does not have an eye, that side is all black like coal, and is that blackness inborn or painted, about that he have not heard, and the other side, the face and the side are like human..." [Anuchin, 1890, p. 87].

In Altai this character was known under the names Nama (~Yama) and Yime (in combination Shal-Yime, where the Tibetan loan Shal means “lord of the deceased”). In one of the Altai parables recorded by V.V.Radlov is stated a request to Shal-Yime to take under his protection the people who use intoxicating drinks, small children, colts, calves and lambs, and deceased. U.Harva concludes “Thus, Shal-Yime it is a guardian angel (spirit protector) not only of the deceased, but also of the small children" [Harva, 1938, p. 135].

In the work of the greatest scientist of the East Horezmian al-Biruni (973-1048) “Monuments of the past generations" the news about the Kimek country are extraordinary brief, they are given in passing, as illustration to his concept that nothing is insignificant, and even a small unknown pond can store a large secret. He writes “And like that small lake [Sabzarud], a source [or a well] of fresh water in the Kimeks' country, in the mountain called M.nkur. No more than a shield in size, its water surface was level with the sides. When a whole army drinks from it, the level does not drop even a finger. Near that spring there is a rock with a sole print, print of palms with fingers and knees of a man who prayed there, print of child feet, and a print of donkey hoofs. The Guz Türks worship these prints when they see them" [Biruni, 1957, p. 290; Kumekov, 1972, p. 27; 1990, p. 123].

This quotation presents a compressed mnemonic formula of more a larger information plot about Kimeks. Judging by the presence of an animal in it, this is a myth. In it a man near a perennial spring prays for posterity, therefore there is a child, so it is a genealogic myth. The whole ensemble of its characters or one of them was the object of Türks-Oguzes' worship, and that supposes a sacral, divine importance of the genealogical ancestor.

The composition presented in the al-Biruni work can be viewed as registration several mutually connected key elements of the Kimek myth which is geographically oriented on a place near a mountain with yet unclear name M.nkur. The myth has four components: 1) perennial spring; 2) praying man on his knees; 3) child; 4) donkey. Their common rhythm is a trace print.

113

Fig. 5. Tamgas with four prongs on coins from Bactria.

 

114

From a formal point of view the myth is not enigmatic, it can be unfolded with a Kirghiz legend about the origin of lake Issyk Kul as recorded by Ch.Ch.Valihanov [Zuev, 1991, p. 90-91]. “Once, a long time ago, in the place where now roll the waves of Issyk Kul was a plain, in itwas a well and a city, ruled by an old childless khan. The grief of the ailing old man was inconsolable, and appealed to the god Kok-Tanry with a prayerful plea to grant him any successor, even a donkey. The god has heard the prayer of old man. Once his young wife met a handsome donkey, and rendered him such close attention that after a proper number of months she brought a baby - son to the khan. Heeding the pray of the old man, the Almighty in its inexhaustible kindness endowed the baby with a long, like a pipe, “jaw" and donkey ears. The child has grown, and after a death of the old man he became a khan. He was clever and fair, but his tendency to hide from people his donkey origin was very costly to the locals. Every time when the khan needed to shave his noble head, he called a new barber, because all previous were sent to the afterworld right after completion of shaving procedure, and carried with them the secret of the donkey ears.

Many years have passed, many people were already executed, when the lot fell on one young man. That has instantly shaved the head of the master, and the khan liked him so much that he spared the barber life and even appointed him a vizier under condition of nondisclosure of the secret entrusted to him. They grew friends, and became brothers, they ate and drank from the same dishes. But in irrepressible pridefulness of his exclusive position, the stupid fratboy vizier once publicly blazoned out that the khan has donkey ears, for which he was immediately sentenced to death, but saved himself by a hasty flight to the mountains.
115

People at once realized the reason for the disappearance of the former barbers, and nicknamed the khan “Donkey head”.Meanwhile, the exile was wandering in the mountains, longing strongly for former life, for the well with a golden cover, from which he once was drinking sweet water. Once at night he secretly crept to the well, removed the cover, and prayed: “Send a curse on these culprits! “The water from the well began running in a column to the sky, and in one night flooded the whole valley. The population left to other places, and in clear weather the ruins of that city till now are visible at the bottom of Issyk Kul" [Valihanov, 1985, vol. 2, p. 26-271].

Folklore of other peoples has variations of this legend. G.N.Potanin recorded other versions from the words of a Barg solon (Barg? solon?- Translator's Note) from Inner Mongolia, who migrated to the land of Darhats (Northwest Mongolia). In the Barg version Eldjigen-khan ("Donkey - khan”)lived on the lake before there were neither the lake, nor a forest, and the water was taken from the well in the middle of the settlement. Under a false pretext, the Donkey-khan, who was inclined to travels, led people from there, and then the water from well flooded the whole valley. When he coached away and went to the highest Khan-Taiga mountain, he looked back and saw that the valley is filled with water. He exclaimed: “Look, Heavenly lake!”.Since then this lake began to be called Ter-Nor ("Heavenly lake”), even now in it are visible the remains of the former settlement of the Donkey-khan, who coached a lot in his life.

In the Buryat and Mongol legends (two from Eldjigen, one from Durbüt, and one from Darkhat) the Donkey - murderer involuntarily becomes a foster brother of the young barber, who being unable to contain the fatal secret of donkey ears, wispered it to the mouse hole, or a tree, or a cane, after which it becomes a common knowledge.
116

In different cycles of the “Geseriada”,the main hero rises to the Mongotu ("Silver”)mountain, where has gathered an assembly of gods led by Hormus-khan. Hormus-khan offered one of the hero wives to drink from a vessel in which floats his severed “finger”.She obeys his will and gives birth to a bogatyr (mighty man - Translator's Note). Organizing a cohorts of thirty three men, the bogatyr ventures to a struggle with Mangyt (or monster Mangu) and, turning into two boys, kills him.

In another version Mangu transforms the hero into a donkey, and puts a saddle on him, and the mother of the hero dies from insult. Then the Donkey, turning into a sacred bird Garuda, descends into Hell and restores the mother to life. The Mongolian Donkey (Eldjigen) is sometimes mentioned in a context of intimate relations with female deities Tsagan-darihu and a lascivious Nogon-darihu. In the G.N.Potanin opinion, their names connected with the legends about the first Kidan (Khitan - Translator's Note)rulers. In a book version (Shiddekur, 12) the name of the khan with donkey ears is Daibang-Khagan of Karakhitan [Potanin, 1883, p. 254-255, 293-298, 818, 851].

The donkey belongs to the oldest domesticated animals, Northeast Africa is viewed as the original area of its domestication. The mytho-poetic image of the Donkey apparently developed in ancient Egypt already in the 4th millennium BC There the Donkey was one of the forms of a Sun deity (as a growing, rising sun), but at the same time it was connected with an image of "god of foreign countries" (Deserts) Set, for whom it served as a main sacred animal. In the ancient Hett traditions the Donkey acts as a symbol of fertility, with which is compared with the prolificacy of the Queen-Woman who produced many children.

In ancient Phrygia the donkey was considered a sacred animal. On this account is known a historical joke told by an ancient writer. For the unjust court the God gave Phrygian king Midas donkey ears, which he had to hide under Phrygian cap (which happen to be identical to a Scythian cap and a Türkic cap - Translator's Note). Midas barber, having seen the ears and being tormented by a secret which on pain of death he was forbidden to disclose, has dug a pit in the ground, and whispered there: “King Midas has donkey ears!”,and filled in the pit. In that place grew reeds, which whispered the secret to the whole world. Maybe Midas, viewed as a lover of Phrygian Mother of Gods, the goddesses of fertility Cybele, initially also himself was perceived in an image of a Donkey. In ancient Greek and Roman rituals the Donkey played the same cult function . In ancient India it was a deity of death, in that capacity the old Indian Donkey was close to the image of the God of diseased ancestors Yama, and in competitions the Donkey appeared even stronger than Yama [Toporov, 1992, p. 264-265; Botvinik, 1992, p. 149-150; Gamkrelidze, Ivanov, 1984, p. 562-564].
117

In ancient Middle Asia existed a motive of “Saint Donkey”,"three-legged king of donkeys" with six sharp-sighted eyes and a gold horn, with which he was exterminating obnoxious critters. The ancient Persian “Avesta" (Yasna 12, 14) eulogized the sacred donkey Khara dwelling in the Vourukasha sea and with his waterjet cleaning all waters of the world. When Khara shouts, all female useful animals become pregnant, when he immerses his head in the water, begin storms, and harmful female animals have abortions. The concept about a sacred “three-legged donkey”,preserved in the “Menog-e khrad" is considered to be an echo of the ancient cults (Yasna 12, 14) [Bertels, 1960, p. 38; Braginsky, 1984, p. 16; Chunakova, 1997, p. 21-24]. To the Persian word khara “donkey" corresponds the New Persian khar “donkey”.In the Türkic translation of the Persian text “Tarih-i Rashidi" of Muhammad Haidar, the Persian combination gor-khar “onager" is translated by a Türkic word kulan [Elias, Ross, 1898, p. 347, note] . Probably, as a reminiscence of the past existence of the sacred “three-legged donkey" in the Central Asian folklore and beliefs should be viewed the sentimental Kazakh fairy tale Ikui Kurmangazy “Aksak kulan" ("Lame kulan”).

Researchers note the ancient Türkic the term eshgeg (with regular transition of the Türkic -sh- into Mong.-1-: eljig, eljigen) "donkey" ascends to the ancient Egypt form shk "donkey" [Gamkrelidze, Ivanov, 1984, p. 564].
118

The presence in Türkic languages of this word, similar in form and identical in meaning with the ancient Egyptian word, suggests its migration, together with an animal designated by it, and the attributes connected with it, from the ancient Asia Minor area to the areas in the Central and Eastern Asia where, by paleozoological data, a donkey is quite a late innovation. This connection with the same obviousness is evidenced by direct coincidence of the ancient Phrygian myth about donkey-eared king Midas with almost modern stories from the Issyk-Kul valley and Mongolia. When at the beginning of the mythogenealogical time the ancient Syanbi were leaving the valley of mountain lake (probably, in the Great Khingan system), and were heading south, their leader was a sacred animal about which was stated only a description “In form a horse, but bellows like a bull”.During migration the Syanbinians succeeded to eject the Drought goddess, and then the daughter of the Sky descended to them in a magic chariot and blessed them with fertility [Wei Show, ch. 1, p. 18-19, ff. 2à-3b]. Re-telling a myth about the origin of Kongrat (i.e. traditional Khatun's) tribe Eldjigen ("donkey"), Rashid ad-Din connects it to the maiden by the name Rose-on-donkey, who arrived from Khatai in hope to marry [Rashid ad Din, 1965, p. 411-412].

The long migration from Asia Minor area to the eastern edge of the continent did not strip the mythopoetic image of a sacred Donkey of its functional duality. His solar, impregnating essence found in the clay figurines of the ancient Egypt, survived in the religious concepts of the East Asia peoples up to the late Middle Ages. In this solar embodiment is most significant its connection with providing origin of the new life with the Sea/Lake~Spring/Well~Woman/Queen, i.e. with the Goddess of water elements and fertility/childbearing. The Well of the Kimek myth is a perennial waters spring symbolizing a unity of all waters of the world. In the Medieval Middle- and Central Asian imagery it is also a vessel as a source of child fertility. Rashid ad-Din wrote “It is told that the Kongrat origin is this: three sons came from a Golden Vessel [bastu-i zarrin], this word should be a hint and a pointer”.Alittle later in his text he explains that the Persian designation bastau-i zarrin is a translation of the Mongolian Altan kuduke “Golden Well" [Rashid ad Din, 1965, p. 389; 1952, vol. 1, p. 160].
119

The Sacred Vessel mythologem is in enough detail developed in the world ideological systems of many peoples. In the initial mythological sense, the vessel is identified with a body of the woman, giver of heavenly moisture, life and fertility, inside of which is a child [Antonova, 1984, p. 132]. In that sense becomes clear the tamga symbol on the Türgesh coins of the Jeti-su Halach-horde (or Alach-horde; an ethnically conglomerate hamlet of “Kagan's second wives" ) depicting a vessel [Smirnova, 1981, Sect. 786-789]. Therefore the record of the Kimek myth about the Donkey and the Well/Spring can be construed as pointing to the sacred marriage of the Sun and Water, similar for example to the cosmic marriage of god Zeus and the daughter of Boristhen (Dnepr) in a legend about the origin of the Scythians, or to the marriage of the White Deer Gold Horns (i.e. the Sun) and the daughter of the Sea/Lake God in a legend about the origin of ancient Türks-Tutszüe (Pyn. Tukue).

The other side of this image is directly opposite with the first side. In the ancient Egypt tradition the Donkey was a main animal and a symbol of the God of "Foreign Countries" Seth, who in sculptures and drawings was depicted with a long thin body and a donkey head, i.e. he apparently was considered to be a donkey. In that capacity Seth rescued the solar god Ra from the dragon Apop, but he also became a killer of the Osiris deity, standing for the dying and resurrecting nature [Rubinshtein, 1992, p. 429]. In ancient India the Donkey held a glory of the lord of Kingdom of the Dead, Yama.
120

The trace in the Kimek myth in the al-Biruni statement as refrain for each trope is inherent as a “trace of the deity"cult element in the majority of the East Asian religions [Stratanovich, 1978, p. 149]. The infantile age of the divine personality (compare the trace of a foot of a child) pressumes his future might on cosmic scale, and the trace left by him can be interpreted as the mythological center of the world, correlated with idea of the World Tree, "axis of the world" around which are grouped the events of the Creation epoch [Evsukov, Kommissarov, 1984, p. 58-59, Outlook (Ru. Mirovozrenie - Translator's Note), 1989, p. 111-112].

But in some cases the trace of a foot of the divine hero walking on the ground predicts his terrestrial vulnerability and mortality. In the old Indian "Mahabharata" the expression “touching ground with foot" is equivalent to a concept of "mortal" [Evsukov, Kommissarov, 1984, p. 59]. In an ancient Oguz myth one of the sons of the solar Kün-khan, Deb-Yakui, falls from a horse to the ground and breaks his hip, causing his death [Shukürova, 1987, p. 69]. In a Kazakh heroic epos “Koblandy-batyr" an injury at a mature age received a magic horse Buryl, who accidentally touched the ground with a hoof right after his birth. “My death will come from under my hoofs”,tells to the solar hero Soslan his magic horse in the Nart epos. “And my death can only come from my feet”,- answers him his owner [Dumezil, 1976 , p. 80; Abaev, 1990, p. 25]. “A claw got caught - and the birdy is finished”,says known proverb. Such material suggests the existence of mythological connection between the concept of a foot or a hoof that touched the land and left a trace, and a death. In this second embodiment the Donkey of the Kimek myth is an emanation of the god Yama and Yama himself.

In ancient India it is Yama with his twin sister and beloved spause Yami. In ancient Persian and Pehlevi traditions to Yama/Yami correspond the ruler of the Golden Age empire Yima/Yim and his twin sister Yimak. The Veda Yami by convincing, and the Mazdaist Yimak by artful intrigues managed involve the brothers into incest. The same role has played a strong will of their Nart reflection the Satana in luring her brother Uryzmag, and a symbol of this blood-mixed marriage became a donkey in a silver harness [Dumezil, 1976, p. 80; Abaev, 1990, p. 25].
121

It is obvious, that the ancient Indian god of death Yama and the Iranian Yima/Yim are only two antagonizing sides of once single prototype, the late reminiscences of which are registered in Altai. The duality of the mythopoetic image of the Donkey, identified with Yama/Yima/Yim, naturally assumes his contrasting two-sided unity, and accordingly, a marriage of twin brother and sister, and after a general interdiction of blood-related liason-incest, a motive of conflicting twin brothers. The last inevitably contains a predisposed death or exile of one of them, which is just confirmed by the existing Late Middle Age versions of the legend about Donkey ears khan.

The same motive of two conflicting brothers was dominating in the legend about the origin of Kobyok and Yabak seoks (compare: Kimek and Imek) (seok = clan, tribe, division - Translator's Note) within Telengit Altaians in the valley of the river Chu. Their eponymic ancestors were considered to be two brothers. The name of one of them, "Yabak [or: Djabak] on a hungry skewbald stallion”,was contacted with distant travels in different locations in search for betteer life [Potanin, 1883, p. 7]. The Yabak shamans could not kam (kam = interdict by direct contact with divine world - Translator's Note) with the Deity of the Upper World Ulgen, but only with the owners of local mountains and the Deity of the Lower World Erlik-Kairakan, Kairakan and Eren [Potanin, 1883, p. 62]. In the ancient Uigur Buddhist texts the name Erlik designated the judge and the lord of the next world Yama [Mihailov, 1980, p. 168]. About the Telengit Kairakan was said that he was a shaman (kam) and a magician-diyadachi (i.e. bringer of rain by means of a stone yada), he could command the rivers. This kam was crossing the river at a crossing like it was a land: “The crossing would dry up, and as he would pass, the water was flowing again after him" [Potanin, 1893, p. 61-62, 328].
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The Kimek myth in the coded form by al-Biruni contains a unique geographical reference point, the "mountain M.nkur in the Kimeks' country”."Mountain M.nkur" is a real, and not just a mythological object. In the same graphic presentation form M.nkur the Arab writers Ahmed at-Tini, ad-Dimashki and al-Varrak also wrote the name of one of Kypchak tribes [Marquat, 1914, p. 157, Kumekov, 1990, p. 123].

An attempt of geographical interpretation of the Kimek myth is contained in the work of a Balh encyclopedist scientist of the 17th century Mahmud Ibn Vali “Bahr al-asrar" [Ibn Vali, 1977, p. 100]. It does not have really revealing details, and therefore its value does not exceed bibliographic one. J.Marquart knew the message in al-Biruni “Cosmographia" from ad-Dimashki. J.Marquart offered to read the mysterious name M.nkur as Min-kol [Maquart, 1914, p. 101], it has been dissented by V.F.Minorsky, who compared M.nkur with mountains *Kundavar near the sources of Irtysh “on the border between Kimeks and Khirkhizes" [Minorsky, 1937, p. 202]. Without stating his opinion on localization of this district, W.W.Bartold noted the opinion of a Nestorian Zakari Kazvini (13th century), who considered the Guz Türks to be Christians because they revered these traces, connected with the legend about the flight of Jesus to Egypt [Bartold, 1964, p. 285]. Modern researchers À. X. Margulan and B.E.Kumekov speculate about this district location in the Argan mountains of the Central Kazakhstan [Margulan, 1966, p. 9-10; Kumekov, 1972, p. 111].

With all incompatibility of the opinions based on the al-Biruni news, there is a positive beginning, and is equally promising a precisely not presently formulated thesis about a possibility of existence of several “Mankurs”,caused by migrating Kimeks who accordingly transferred the sacral name on new geographical objects. It is possible to think, for example, that one more “Mankur" (Mongur) is inthe system of Utuken (Odugen) mountains in Tuva.
123

The researcher Weinstein observed “Todjinians held some mountains with forestless flat tops sacred. Especially popular were the Odugen hills in the headwaters of the the rivers Kham-Syry and Azas, a significant part of which was flat and forestless. In the Odugen six mountains were considered sacred: Deerbi-taiga, which was the most revered, Kara-taiga, Ova-taiga, Koshke-taiga, Shivit-Mongur, Dobuler-taiga. In revered places under direction of shamans were established ova-shalashes (shalash = temporary cover made from branches with leaves and needles - Translator's Note)from sticks and wooden boards, in which were placed sacrificial gifts to the “Master of mountains”,and animal figurines from wood or bark. Figurines probably had a magic purpose, to help multiply the animals which they represented" [Weinstein, 1961, p. 174-175].

Probably, the Tuva form mongur (from Mong. Shivet Mönür "Silver Fortress") can be a key to fill with concrete contents not only the understanding of the term, additionally considering that in the Gardizi travel guide the river Azas (in the text Asus) was a main reference point on the way to Kimeks [Bartold, 1973, p. 54]. Thus, it is possible to count in written sources one more early Kimeks area. But the problem is much more complex.

The majority of reviewed above versions of the myth about Donkey ears khan are projected on the territory of modern and Inner Mongolia, they are connected with early Mongolian, Kidan and even Syanbi-Tabgach antiquity. Not without a reason in the Kidan time the lower reaches of the river Kerulen before its confluence to Dalai Nor were called Donkey-river (Lüytszüyhe) [Van Govej, 1959, p. 640, E Lun-li, 1979, p. 301]. In the opinion of S.G.Agadjanov, writing sections of the work on the Far East, Baikal area and Eastern Siberia, al-Biruni used questionnaire data received in particular during a stay in Gazna of the Kidan embassy in the beginning of the 11th century [Agadjanov, 1969, p. 23].

Without any allowances the name M.nkur is read and understood in Mongolian (in Kidanian): müngür/möngür "Silver". In the Kidan time this name was written Ñ9583, 5973 məngu < mung-kuət < münggür/mönggür mönkür [E Lun-li, 1979, p. 301].
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Over these Mungurs/Mengu (and also over Tatars - Dadan and Tirets - Dile) was carried out Kidan military inspection with a seat on Donkey-river (Lüytszüyhe). The “Notes about Mongolian Pastures" cite the words of an ancient legend that Tatars-Dada, “because the fought with Chjurchjens-Tszintses, have adopted for their house the name Mengu that means “silver" [Man-gu-ü-mu-tszi, 1895, p. 325].

Suggested semantic archetype for the Kidan words münggür/mönggür is the term from a language such as “Western Tocharian" (for example, Kucha) arkwi “silver”,"white”.It is also found in ancient Türkic environment (Ton, 53: arquy qaraγu “white patrol”). During the Türkic time the Tian-Shan spurs between former Tocharian princedoms Kucha and Agni (Yantsi, Karashar) in Eastern Turkestan continued to carry the name Arkuy or Argu “Silver”,but were simultaneously called in Türkic Kumush-tag “Silver mountains”,Aykumush-tag “Silver-Moon Mmountains”,and in Chinese In-shan “Silver mountains”.In these mountains was a miracle spring Arkuy-bulak (Arkay-bulak) known still from the beginning of the 7th century [Hui-li, 1959, p. 36-37; Hamilton, 1955, p. 140-142; Man-gu-ü-mu-tszi, 1895, p. 460-463].

For the subject Argun area in light of the Kimek myth in the al-Biruni story about a sacred Silver source Arkuy-bulak (Ch. Alehuy-bulahe), identical to the spring /well “in the Kimeks' country" in the Silver mountain Möngür, should attributed to the first place at a later time (end of the 12th century). It was a certain cult center of the Djadarans (compare: Türkic jeti-eren in the Ongin inscription, Tibetian Ye-dre < *yedi-eri “seven tribes”;compare above “seven tribes" of Kimeks). The “Secret legend of Mongols" (Sect. 129, 141) particularly says that in the 1201 there gathred a kurultai of anti-Chingiz coalition of the Djadaran tribes of the “white rank”,among which for example is mentioned Kongrat leader from the valley of river Orshiun Emel-Terge-Arkuy.
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Swearing an oath of allegiance to the Djadaran leader, they passed Ala'ut Torka Ut ("Motley Guards”)pass, “coached down the river Ergune [Argun] and at the top of the mountain overgrown with forest at a confluence of the rivers Kan-muren and Ergune they performed a ceremony of elevation of the Djadaran Djamuka to Gurkhanship”.

Due to the efforts of the Chinese researcher Chen Dechji who reconstructed a number of unclear readings of the ethnonyms in Rashid ad-Din, in the section about Tatars, and in the list of the Tatar tribes where translators usually see the name Barkui, was made a lapsus calami, in the manuscript of the Persian writer should be read Arkuy. The Mongolian phonetic rendering of the term Arkuy was Arkay [Chen Dechji, 1986, p. 27-28, Rashid ad-Din, 1965, p. 164].

The tribe Arkay (Ch. Alahay) was in possession of the younger brother of Chingiz-khan, Kasar [Kozin, 1940, Sect. 191, 209]. Rashid ad-Din knew him under a name Djuchi-Kasar. He described his possessions and probably the borders of the tribe Arkuy/Arkay: “The yurt and court of Djuchi-Kasar are inside Mongolia (i.e. in the Inner Mongolia) in the northeast, in the limits of Ergune and Kule-naur (Kolen-nor, Dalai Nor) and Kailar (river Khailar, the headwaters of Argun)" [Rashid ad-Din, vol. 1, book 2, p. 52].

Is also known the real ancient Türkic equivalent of the Kimek's mountain name and the tribe. In the Persian Geography of 982 and in the Arabian work of 1120 a tribe Kumush (in manuscript “--”, Türkic. kümüs “silver”)is named second in the defective list of tribes in the Khingan belt ("left of Chin-China in the direction of summer sunrise”,i.e. in the northeast, “between the Chin and Khirkhizes”)[Minorsky, 1937, p. 84, 228; 1942, p. 26, 85]. In the 10th century the Chinese chroniclers also knew the “dependent" [from Kidans] tribes of Tszubu-Tatars in the Kumus (Ch. Humusy) mountains in the Argun basin, who were attacked in the 924 [Toto, ch. 2, p. 23, f. 5à]. In the “Liao History" they are mentioned among the troops of the dependent countries as “vassals of Kumus mountain" [Toto, ch. 36, p. 164, f. 10b] and a “tribe of Kumus mountain" [Toto, ch. 46, p. 257, f. 31b].
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In the 1124 “Kumus tribe" took part in a congress of the nomadic tribes supporting Karakitai Elüy Dashi in his self-exile in Jeti-su [Toto, ch. 30, p. 136, f. 5à]. Judging by the personified ethnonym Kamos, this tribe in the 12th century was a part of Kipchaks in the N.Pontic steppes. Under 1146 is recorded that Kamos was a brother of “wild" Kipchak Tyarnyko (Tünrako) Osolukovich, who was an uncle on the female line to the Prince Vsevolod [Ipatiev annals, 1962, column 334].

The traces of a tribe with this name survived in Altai for a long time. According to one of the censuses of the 19th century, in the Kuznets district was a Kumysh ulus (seok Kumysh?), also called Kongdosh (seok Kongdosh). About seok Kongdosh was a legend. “One girl from seok Kongdosh gave birth to a child whose father was difficult to name. The child was given a name after his mother's seok Kongdosh" [Potapov, 1953, p. 251; 1969, p. 174].

The study material shows how wide is the informative resolution possibility, and how deep is the historicity of the Kimek genealogic legend in the coded version of al-Biruni. Contained in it inherently binary mythopoetic image of the Sacred Donkey, comparable with twin deities Yama~Yami, Yima/Yim~Yimak, Imi~Imek, allows to posit that early Kimeks in the Central Asian historical and cultural arena were as bearers of tradition of extraordinary chronological depth. Their “Khingan" (Pre-Irtysh) period is closely connected with the history of Türkic Oguzes-Tatars.
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Kimeks on Irtysh. Society

In the winter of 656, after a lost battle with the Tang army, the Western Türkic Aru-Kagan (Ch. Helu) left his plundered court-horde in Altai, and fled to the one of the cities in the Stone empire. Together with him was his son-in-law by the name Yanchjo [Van Tsinjo, ch. 986, p. 11577, f. 5à-6, Chavannes, 1904, p. 20].

The name Ñ5714, 10167 Yanchjo (< iam-tsuar < yam-chor) is similar to the name Yam Chur Tu of the Uigur texts [Ancient Türkic Dictionary, p. 230]. Chor is a widespread title. The term Yam (~Djam) is Yama [Bang, Gabain, 1931, p. 54]. First information about the tribe Ñ1088, 8428 Yanmo (<iam-mak < yemek), Yemeks showed up a few years prior to these events. It is said that in their country are not bred neither bulls, nor rams, nor other domestic cattle. Their wedding customs are identical with Türkic ones. There it is plenty of pine and birch. Their leader's name is Yemek Nem-Turug-Kül-irkin [Du Ü, ch. 200, f. 11b, Zuev, 1962, p. 105-106]. In accordance with Makdisi, Kimeks (Yemeks) lived on the Black and White (Blue) Irtysh [Golden, 1972, p. 71]. In the Chinese sources the river Irtysh is called Ñ11804, 419 Ede (< iai-d'iet < edil) Edil. The Persian geography of the 10th century said about this area “Another river is Atil, which originates in the mountain north from Artush, it is a mighty and wide river flowing through the Kimek country. Another river is Artush (Irtysh), which originates in the mountain. The river is large. Water in it is black, it is good for drinking. The river flows between Guzes and Kimeks until it reaches the city of Chubin, and then runs into the river Atil" [Minorsky, 1937, p. 75]. In their sources Irtysh (or both Irtyshes?) were called Ebin, Emin [Potanin, 1893, p. 876].

In view of the above are considered some written testaments about this tribe. Its mythical ancestors were brothers Imi and Imek. With these eponyms were named the first two tribes of the seven-tribe Kimeks. The story about them is contained in the work of the Persian author of the 11th century Gardizi, but it is projected on the events of the middle of the 7th century. There are Russian and English translations. “The origin of Kimeks is such. The chief (mihtar) of Tatars has died and left two sons, a senior son seized the kingdom, the younger began envying his brother, the younger name was Shad. He made an attempt at the life of the senior brother, but it was unsuccessful, being afraid, he took a slave-lover, escaped from his brother, and came to a place where was a big river,a lot of trees and an abundance of game, he has put a tent there and settled.
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Every day he and the slave-girl left together for hunting, they ate the game meat, and made clothes of sable furs, fiber and ermines. After that to them came 7 men from Tatar relatives: Imi, Imek, Tatars, Bayandar, Kipchak, Lanikaz and Adjlad. These people grazed the herds of their masters; in those places where [before] were herds, no pastures remained, looking for grass, they came to that side where was Shad. Upon seeing them, the slave-girl left and said: “Irtysh”,i.e. “Stop”;from there the river received the name Irtysh. Seeing that slave-girl, they all stopped and set the tents. Shad, on return, brought with him a large piece from hunting, and treated them with it, they remained there till winter. When the snow fell, they could not return, there was plenty of grass, and they spent there all winter. When the land came about, and snow thaw, they sent one man to the Tatar camp to bring the news about that tribe. He came there, and saw that all district was pillaged, is empty of the population, an enemy came there, plundered and killed all people. The rest of the tribe descended to this man from the mountains, he told to his friends about the location of the Shad, all of them went to Irtysh... 700 people gathered .... Once the Shad with his people stood on the bank of Irtysh, a voice was heard: “Shad, did you see me in the water?" Shad has seen nothing except for a hair floating on the surface of the water, he tied his horse, came into the water and caught hair, it was his wife Khatun. He has asked her “How did you fall?" She answered: “A crocodile grabbed me from the bank of the river”.Kimeks render respect to this river, revere it, worship it, and say: “River is a god of Kimeks”.The Shad was nicknamed Tutuk, which means: “He heard a voice, came into the water and was not frightened" [Bartold, 1973, p. 43-44; Martinez, 1982, p. 120-121].
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The echoes of this myth survived in Altai down to new time. A similar story was is written down in the 18th century by P.S.Pallas in the settlement Naushir near river Iüs in Altai. “The Tatars which live in this place do not recognize people from which they descended as their ancestors. They tell that in this country lived two brothers, from which one with his people has dug a lot of gold and silver from the mountains, the other was a man rich with people and cattle. The last frequently took away found by the first treasures, and bothered him, so that he has at last resorted to ask for the help from the Chinese ruler, who gave him and his people the land, laying to the east" [Pallas, 1788, p. 452-453].

A similar motive of hair and water was noted by V.P.Yudin in the analysis of historical roots of the widespread Uigur fairy tale about Chin Tyomür-batur and Mahtum-sula in East Turkestan. In one version of the tale the lady-beauty Mahtum-sula intends to wash her hair in warm water, and unexpectedly fell under control of an old devil-woman seven-eyed Yalmüngüz. In another version she washes her hair in aryk (aryk = canal, mostly artificial along a road - Translator's Note). One her hair is floating downstream, it is caught by a Kalmak prince, she becomes his wife and gives birth to two sons. Noting that in the Uigur tale, and in the Kimek myth the hair is a herald of a wife, V.P.Yudin continues: “In this legend alongside with the statement that Shad's wife turned out a floating on the surface of the water hair, notable is the statement about Kimek's deification of the river “[Yudin, 2001à, p. 222-250].

Many questions in the early history of Kimeks and their statehood, with a broad collection of the sources are covered in the B.E.Kumekov special monographic study [Kumekov, 1972]. The specifics of the research object, and its historiographical base is such that it leaves much room for contemplations, which in this case are determined by the purpose stated in the foreword of this work. The previous and following lines are written in view of materials and conclusions contained in this book.
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To the history of the text.

In the Gardizi composition the chapter about Türks in its greater part is a translation from Persian of the corresponding places in a lost work of the founder of the Arabic scientific prose Ibn al-Muqaffa (720-757), ascending in the news about the peoples of the Central Asia to also lost sources in the Middle Persian. Based that in two chapters about the Türks in the Gardizi composition the subject is about Karluks, led by yabgu, whose relations with the Western Türks become tense in the middle of the 8th century, K.Ecsedy dates the time of the recording those messages by that time [Ecsedy, 1984, p. 260-261, 267]. Probably, that is not entirely correct. In a spelling of the term “--" (khalukhi'an “Karluks”)in the Oxford (W.W.Bartold's edition) and Teheran (published by Habibi, 1968; A.P.Martinets used it for his English translation) manuscripts was made a mistake: diacritical point was marked above a third letter, instead of under it. It should be written and read “--" Khaladji'an “Halachi”.The Türkic halach/alach goes back to ala “multicolored”,"pied”.The propriety of this correction is immediately demonstrated by the homonymic explanation with a flavor of a folk etymology: “The Khalach's mother was sitting on a horse (sutur)”,i.e. on the back of (any) animal tamed to a saddle and saddle bag. In Türkic languages the word “back" and “horse" are designated by the words alacha, alasha [Sevortian, 1974, p. 136]. A similar manner was used by Mahmud Kashgari explaining the word kalach. In particular he wrote: “Came two men from among Kalaches, with cargo on their backs" [MKM, 3, p. 421-422].

The term “--" yabagu is only co-sonorous with the title of Karluk rulers yabgu “leader”.Türkic-speaking informant homonymically explains this term by the method shown above. He writes: “One of Khakan people found him on the hunting grounds, in a grievous place, covered with two felt rugs; he named him a name Yabagu”.Judging by such explanation, the folksy-etymological word yabagu simultaneously ascends to yapyk (with variations) “wide raincoat from felt”,and to the *yabaku “hair matted into felt" [ESTYA, 1989, p. 128, 129]. Yabaku is a name of a Türkic tribe designating “worshipping the god Yaba/Yama”.
131

Thus, the reasons in favor of dating the text about Kimeks by the eighth century considerably weaken: Karluks are not mentioned in at all.

Meanwhile, the cited above Chinese news about Yemeks belong to the middle of the 7th century. To the same time belongs the introduction into the Steppe of the Tang's title Tutuk “main chief" (Chinese Ñ3498, 2777 dudu < tuo-tuok < Türkic tutuq), caused by the defeat of the Se-yanto Kaganate in the 647 as a result of a long-term drought, mass death of the people, and advance of the Tang's army. It was followed by a division of all Steppe into districts by Tang's model, and anointing the leaders of significant tribes or groups related to them with a post title Tutuk.

Two more examples: In the beginning of the 7th century Karluks moved to areas southwest from Altai, in the Doda mountains, in the valley of the river Puguchjen. These were the former lands of Se-yanto (?), who left to the east. In the I.Ecsedy's opinion, Doda mountains is Tarbagatai [Ecsedy, 1980, p. 26]. Transcription Ñ7029 doda < ta-tat definitely reflects the initial Tatar. In the east the main location area of Se-yanto were the fertile lands to the south from the river Tszüilun (Külün, Kerulen), flowing into the homophonic lake-sea (Dalai-Nor). These were the traditionally Tatar lands. If these facts are really veritable, there is aa chance to compare the “Chief of Tatars" with the last Se-yanto Kagan and to date the Kimek relocation from the east to the Irtysh valley by the time immidiately after the fall of the Se-yanto Kaganate. It is especially viable because the post title Shad (it not a name!) “commander of the army”,"sü-bashi" [Ogel, 1963] belongs isolely to the associations of a state level.

The names of the tribes Imi and Imek ascend to the eponyms Imi and Imek and are parallel to the pairs Yama and his spouse Yami in India, and Yima and his spouse Yimak in Persia. In this case the blood-related marriage is supplanted with two brothers with obligatory for the twins' myth enmity between them [Shternberg, 1936].
132

Imek is a Shad. But Imek is not completely a brother and a man. Next to him in the Kimek legend is actively present another character, the kanizak "favourite young maid", who in the main episodes eclipses him, and becomes his spouse, a Khatun. He as like the sister-spouse in a male embodiment.

In an Uigur fairy tale a seven-headed female dragon Yalmüngüz drinks blood from the heel of Mahtum Sule, they become consanguineous. In the Kimek legend nehang is not simply a crocodile, though this is a main meaning in the Persian language. He is a water dragon, a lord of the river. He captures khatun, carries her to his environs, and she becomes a hair. But the hair is not only a herald of a wife, it is a symbol of a water dragon, a hairy master of underwater kingdom. There are many examples, below follow a few Türkic examples. A number of peoples have the creature that rules the waters has an image of a monster overgrown with hair (seaweed!) . In pre-Musim beliefs of Khoresm Uzbeks he is called Sochli-ata (or Chochli-ata “Hairy guardian”), in Southern Kazakhstan he is called Ubü, among the Osmanli Turks the water spirit looks “frightful, overgrown from head to feet with hair" [Snesarev, 1969, p. 327]. One version of the Nogai epos “Edigei" includes Shashly Aziz “Hairy Saint”,connected with water sources [Zhirmunsky, 1973, p. 148, 182; I960, p. 42, 107, 170; Tursunov, 1973, p. 176].

He could have a shape of a large fish (for example, whiskered catfish) and had totem (ongon) features, about which Rashid ad-Din wrote: “Custom is that if a tribe makes something their ongon, because ongon is appointed for a good omen and well-being, he is not assaulted, is not repressed, and his meat is not eaten" [Rashid ad-Din, 1965, p. 115]. Apparently, al-Idrisi meant interdiction to use for food as a warning and a prohibition, when he told that in the Kimeks' river is a fish sandja, which poison kills in a flash [Kumekov, 1972, p. 25]. Chinese author of the Yuan epoch Chjou Chjichjun wrote in the “Description of foreign territories" about Tatars, that they have a custom not to eat the fish lüy [Iüy Chji, ch. 1, p. 7].
133

Lüy/lu is an ancient Türkic name for a dragon. The Avestan word aji “Snake”,"Dragon" with Türkic plural form is ajilar “Snakes”,"Dragons" became a name of the Kimek tribe in the Gardizi list “--" > A (in the text “--”)adjilar. Its Mongolian calque in the estuary of Kerulen in the 13th century was the name Usutu Mangut “River Manguts”,and the Mangut is also a plural form of a word mangus “dragon”.It is a cannibal-monster. Sometimes it is drawn as a seven-headed vampire (compare the image of seven-headed Yalmüngüz sucking the blood of Mahtum Sule in the Uigur fairy tale). One of medieval Arabian compositions says that Arabs call a dragon tinnii, the Türks lu, and the Mongols mogur. Researchers unanimously correct the last name, and read it maγus [Serruys, 1982, p. 480]. They are likened with rakshasalsh monsters of old Indian mythology [Serruys, 1982, p. 481]. These cannibal demons were created by the Primogenitor, they were born from his soles, terrible and invincible creations whom Brahma predestined to be the keepers of primordial waters [Erman, Temkin, 1975, p. 76].

Imi is a name of a Kimek tribe, eponym and a name of a god. The tribe Imi is mentioned only in the Gardizi list, and solely to name Imi in pair with Imek, and by that to emphasize their connection with the divine twins. The name of the god Imi lays in the name of the Irtysh/Emin headwaters. In the east, beyond the Great Khingan, Kimeks lived in a valley of the river Argun, its headwaters is called Khaylar. Main tributary of Khaylar is called Emin (and also Ebin, Iben), and its primary name was Imi [Van Govej, 1959, p. 682, 683, 707, 709, Pozdneev, 1897, p. 95]. Kimek is a common appellation for Imi and Imeks, no independent, stand-alone Kimek tribe existed. J.Marquart offered a Türkic etymology of this term (Kimak < *iki Imak "two Imeks"), was rejected in one of W.W.Bartold's works [Marquart, 1920, p. 293-296]. Nevertheless, it is a step in clarifying the semantics of the term. The Indian term Yama and Avesta Yəma ascend to the Indo-European *q'emo "twins", "a pair of twins" [Gamkrelidze, Ivanov, 1984, p. 778]. Above were noted toponyms Kyma (Kime?) and *Kime (Ch. Tszinwei < kiəm-mywei) in places of probable residence of the eastern Kimeks/Imeks. This word with the Türkic formant of collective declension -k (<kimäk?) could be a Türkic equivalent of this sequence.
134

The two ancestor brothers were already discussed. Information about eastern Kimeks constantly has the idea of paired relationship. We shall cite a fragment from the Persian version of “Oguz-name" in the phrasing of Rashid ad-Din: “After Dib-Yavkuy-khan was a padishah for some years, Ad.n.i.k. mam (Laktan? - Yu.Z.) began to quarrel with him, and the inhabitants of that country rebelled. That vilayet was in the eastern side and it was called Yemekan (Yemeks). They were people of such remarkable might that two men of theirs could be staged against ten men from other tribes. This tribe had a custom of playing drums during sunrise" [Shukürova, 1987, p. 69]. One of five official reports in the document 1283 of the P.Pelliot Tibetan collection is a mythologized story about a travel of two men (from Imeks). It tells that beyond a deserted chain of sand (i.e. mountains) in Yama-Kagan (Ja-ma-kha-gan) kingdom lived two tribes. When his state began to prosper, he led an army to that country, but two men got lost and came to a herd of camels (Ch. Ñ2280, 12032 loto < lak-ta “camel”;compare: the name of a tribe Lakta, Laktan) at a place rich with water. There they saw a girl who became their guide and talk with them in Türkic (drugu) and gestures. She brought them to a pack of dogs and bowed to them in greeting. They loaded on camels all supplies. These two returned to the Türks (drugu). And these were not simple dogs, but the Red dog Kyzyl-kushu (Ge-zir-gu-chu) and the Black dog Kara-kushu (Ga-ra-gu-chu) (compare proper name and title Qushu-tutuq: KTb, 41), who descended from the sky [Bacot, 1956, p. 147].
135

The obviously distorted name of the Kimek tribe in the Gardizi list “--" finds analogy in the above noted “--" Lakt.an [alt.: Minorsky, 1937, p. 304, note]. Its transcriptonal Chinese equivalents are: Ñ2288, 18 lotan <lak-tan; Ñ2280, 12032 loto < lak-ta. A distorted version of the last spelling is externally similar with Ñ2280, 973 lotszu. Mentioned by Rashid ad-Din area (vilayet) Laktan was east from the Dalai-Nor on the left bank of the river Argun: “River (Shitszyan, Argun) outflowing from the Tszüilun (Külün, Dalai-Nor) lake and flows to the east. To the south from the river lives a tribe Ñ9583, 13300 Menva (should be Ñ9583, 12508 Men'u < mung-nguət Münggüt), and north from them a tribe Lotan “[Ouyan Sü, ch. 219, p. 1540, f. 7à]. There are a number of messages about congratulatory visits of Kimeks-Laktans to Chanan, attesting to the political importance of this tribe. They do not contain any other information.

The name Münggüt is Mongolian (Kidanian) Münggü/Müngü "silver" + Mongolian plural formant -t. These are Müngües "silver-men". The word Münggü/Müngü is a calque of the Türkic kümüsh/khümüsh (Ch. khumusy) and Tocharian arki (dialect À) and arkώi (dialect B, "silver", compare the Tocharian-Türkic Arkui-Tatar, arkai-bulak, Argun/Ergene ~ Tocharian "arkinna "silver" (Adj.)," white"). These forms with reference to the same objects coexisted down to the 13th century and are explained by the ethno-linguistical situation in this region, discussed in the paragraph about Kypchaks. Rashid ad-Din characterized this region : “Everywhere there is silver”.During his time and probably long before him it was called Münggü. The “Secret legend of Mongols" mentions among the men related to this area a figure by the name Münggür [Poucha, 1956, p. 93].
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