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Yu. A. Zuev Ethnic History of Usuns
Yu. A. Zuev The Strongest Tribe - Ezgil
Yu. A. Zuev Tamgas of vassal princedoms
Yu. A. Zuev Ancient Türkic social terms
Ogur and Oguz Alan Dateline
Avar Dateline
Besenyo Dateline
Bulgar Dateline
Huns Dateline
Karluk Dateline
Khazar Dateline
Kimak Dateline
Kipchak Dateline
Kyrgyz Dateline
Sabir Dateline
Seyanto Dateline

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

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Section 1 (cont.) Heichetszes ("Black Wagoneers")

136

Almost all references about "Black Wagoneers"-Heichetszy tribe during the period of the Kidan state Liao (907-1125) in Manchuria and Inner Mongolia characterize them as a part of poli-ethnic confederation Shivei, and in the sources they more frequently appear under the name Heichetszy-Shivei. During the rise of the Kidan state the Heichetszy were one of the Kidan nearest and main objects of foreign policy expansion. Only in the 907 the Kidan court undertook three times the military ("retaliatory”)actions against Heichetszy, and succeded to “bring under rule" dependent on them “eight surnames" [Toto, ch. 1, p. 16, f. 2à]. In a year Kidans again were at war with Heichetszy [Ibid, f. 3b], and in 939 Heichetszy presented Kidan court with “famous horses" [Ibid, ch. 4, p. 31, f. 1b]. Similar gifts came from them in 940, 944 and 945 [Ibid, ff. 5b, 10b, 12à]. The “History of Liao dynasty" recorded a name Princely seat Heichetszy-Shivei [Ibid, ch. 46, p. 254, f. 26b]. Another place of the same annals dives their characteristics: “Heichetszy is a possession, and they received their name because they skillfully made yurts on the carts. Kidan's ancestors always sent to them people to study this craft" [Ibid, ch. 116, p. 514, f. 3a]. Probably, this abbreviated characteristic came from somewhat more detailed text in the notes of Chinese Hu Tsiao, who was in Kidan captivity in 947-953: “North from Kidans live Heichetszy, skilful in manufacturing yurts on carts. Those people know how to revere the parents. Their land is poor and produce nothing. It is said that Kidan ancestors used to guard the lands of Uigurs, but then abandoned them and fled to Heichetszy. From them they learned to make yurts on carts" [Ouyan Sü, 1958, ch. 73, p. 450, f. 96].

These statements also testify to the borrowing of this type of a cart from their Kangju neighbors. For them this vehicle was Kangjuan. The initial sound d- in the word dih could sound as Greek -δ (compare the name Κανδίχ of a leader in Northern Caucasus) and depict -l. Therefore Kang-dih/Kanga-dih on Türkic language base, except for the above noted *Kankatu, was Kanholi < Khang-at-yi < Qanγaly ~ Kangaly, Kangly. the Chinese “Kangju" in Türkic was called Kangly. So also was called a wagon. In the Sanskrit-Türkic texts Sanskrit words s'akata "vehicle" and rath "chariot" were always translated with a word qanγli [Clauson, 1965, p. 164, Gabain, 1952, p. 8].
137

Chronologically first record about Kangly tribe (in the form Qara Qanγliγ) belongs to the area beyond Khingan. It is contained in one of the reports of the quoted above Uiguro-Tibetan document 1283 from the P.Pelliot's Tibetan collection. It says that north from the tribe of the king Za-ma kha-gan (Yama-Kagan) lives a giant three sajen (3.5 m - Translator's Note) tall. The solar (i.e. southern, compare with “possession of god Yama in the south”)slope of his valley is like those of the neighboring sovereigns. Enemies do not dare to attack him, because he does not fall under to the laws of death. For that reason he does not have neither monuments, nor burial places. In that country are many wild animals. When Kyrgyzes (Hir-ris) sent to him the envoy, they found the giant chasing a dog, which he tied to a tree, intending to hang it (compare an arkan lasso and a noose as main accessories of god Yama). On a baffled question, why he is doing it, the giant responded: “If I, Kara Kanglyg (Ga-ra-gang-lig), have to pasture my bulls and rams myself, why do I need its service?" [Bacot, 1956, p. 146, 152].

In the Kidan language the dog was designated by a word hyon [Kvaerne, 1980], and in the Chinese transcription siven (< γiei-uən). Siven were a fourth tribe in the eight-tribe Kidan state. The quoted document reflects an episode of strained relations with Kidans. In the Uigur variation of the “Oguz-name" the origin of the term kangly is connected with a victory over the Djurdjit state, i.e. over Chjurchjens (aka Jurchens, Tunguses known as the Manchus - Translator's Note) [Scherbak, 1959, pp. 52-53].
138

To the same conclusion leads the compositional analysis of the tribes participating in the creation of a cart- kangly-wagon in one of the ethnogenetic legends of the Karakalpaks:

... Kongrat found one shaft,
Mangyt found the other shaft.
All other wooden parts
Was assigned for others to find;
Then Kangly began to tinker.
Hammering, fastening, he made an arba,
And Shuiyt tucked in linchpin (shui),
And began to be called Shuiyt...

[Jdanko, 1960, p. 80].

This legend provides important etnonymic composition (Kongrat, Mangyt, Shuiyt) and early information about location of the listed tribes.

The name Mangyt~Mangut ascends to Mangus, or Usutu Mangus. They are direct heirs of the Imek-Tatar Adjilars, also called Külün-Oguzes (Ch. Kulun Ugu). They coached in basin of lake Külün/Kyolün (Dalai Nor) discussed above.

Kongrats

The term Kongart (early versions: Ongyrat, Kongurat) is understood as a Mongolian form (plural affix -t) of the Türkic word qonγur “red”,"reddish”.Alongside with Tatar, the etnonim Qonγur is recorded in the Khotan document of the 10th century in the Ganchjou Uigurs state as a part of a title Qonγur Ara Ügä [Bailey, 1949, p. 49]. In the “Kidan" form Ongyrat (Ch. vantszila) this tribe is mentioned under the year1125 among the participants in the kurultai of the representatives of nomadic tribes which rendered support to the Karakytai gurkhan Elüi Dashi in his self-exile in Jeti-su [Toto, ch. 30, p. 135, f. 4b; Ch. 69, p. 375, f. 24b]. In contrast to the early actual Mongols, considered in the steppe hierarchy a “tribe of a black rank”,the Kongrats (Ch. Guanzila) were called a “tribe of a white rank" [Toto, 1958, ch. 55, p. 505]. In other words, as highlighted Van Govej, they were not related to Mongols [Van Govej, 1959, t. 3, p. 708].
139

Meanwhile, Kongrats also entered in the Mongolian (Kiyan!) genealogic tradition as "Queen tribe”.It was believed that from the Kongyrats of the branch Kuralas descended the mythical Foremother of Mongols, seated in the covered wagon of Alan-Goa [Kozin, 1941, para. 6, Rashid ad-Din, 1952, vol. 1, book 1, p. 154-155]. A Kongyrat (Ongyrat) was Borte-udjin, the spouse of Temuchin (Chingiz-khan). The words of her father in the episode of courtship are of note:

We, Ungyrats,
From ancient times are famous
For beauty and noblesse of our daughters
From the Ungyrat royal wife...
On your royal  place we shall sit her.
Not looking for (military) glory, we only,
Bring up nice maidens,
In covered wagon we carry them,
In a send-off to marriage...

[Kozin, 1940, para. 64].

The same source [para. 129, 141] gives a name of Ongyrat leader Terge-emel (Mong. terge “cart”,Türkic ämäl “quiet "). The Kongyrats of the early Mongolian time lived on the banks of the Khalkhin-gol, and also "beyond the mountains Karaun-chidun" ("Black Vehicle") [Kozin, 1940, para. 176, Rashid ad-Din, 1965, vol. 1, ch. 1, p. 388], or Terge in the Great Khingan system [Van Govej, p. 708-709].

Early Kongrats had one more distinctive ethnographic feature. Rashid-ad-Din writes “It is said that their origin is this: three sons came out from a Gold vessel (bastu-i zarrin), and this word should be a hint and a ponter... " [Rashid ad-Din, 1952, p. 160]. In Old Persian language the word bastu means a clay pot for oil, and also a beater for churning butter. Similar description is found, for example, in the old Indian mythology, where each of hundred kauravs, descendants of the king of the Lunar dynasty Kuru, was grown in a pot vessel filled with drawn butter [Mahabharata, p. 316-317]. The object is a mythological vessel identical to the body of a woman, giver of life, fertility and pullulation, inside of which is a child.
140

The main stages in the history of the early Kongyrats can be reconstructed. Their historical ancestors are *Olku/Olkun (Ch. ulohou, ulohun; subsequently Kongyrat-Olkunut) in the fifth century (AD) and later lived directly southeast from the “cave of ancestors" of the ancient Syanbi-Toba (Gaosyan cave in the valley of the river Gan, a tributary of Nonni, on the east slopes of the northern part of the Great Hingan, Inner Mongolia) [Liu Yingsheng, 1989, p. 96]. In the beginning of the seventh century (AD) they were marriage partners of the ancient Uigur eltebers [Ouyan Sü, ch. 217à, p. 1520, f. la; Liu Mau-tsai, 1958, p. 351, p. 719]. Probably, in the Uigur princedom of Ganzhou in the social ranking hierarchy system the position of the tribe Kongur was identical. From 906 Kongyrats of the Inner Mongolia were a part of the Kidan state Liao, and after 1125 without a struggle have accepted suzerainty of the Chjurchjen (Djurdjit) (aka Jurchens, Tunguses known as the Manchus - Translator's Note) state Tszin, where they became famous as a “tribe of white rank”.From that time the term Ongyrat (Ch. vantszila) also entered the Chjurchjen ethnonymics. At that time they were not considered to be “Mongols”;they were absorbed in ancient Mongol genealogical myth as “strangers”.In the version of the myth in the “Djami at-tavarih”,the ancient Kongrats did not participate in conflagrating the fires intended to melt an exit from the mountain valley Ergene-Kon, considered to be an ancestral home of ancient Mongolic Kiyans. After stomping the hearths of the other tribes, they "without advice and permission “left the valley. By grandiose efforts the ancestors of Mongols have melted a passage in the mountains and came out from the gulch onto the open space of steppe, but the sin for that crime fell on the legs of Kongyrats. Since then they became known for their sick legs [Rashid ad-Din, 1952, p. 154].
141

In that part the Mongolian myth repeats entirely the elementary act of Creation in, for example, Indo-European main myth where the god of the Thunder-storm dissects a rock and, thus overcoming the Snake or the Dragon guarding the exit from the cave, releases from the Sun's descendents [Ivanov, Toporov, 1974, p. 73-103]. In turn, the mythological illness of legs, “lameness" or “single-legged" hero universally point to his Snake/Dragon chthonic essence [Levi-Stros, 1970, p. 157, Laushkin, 1970, p. 181-186]. This explanation is needed considering that Kongyrats were traditionally a "Khatun hamlet" of the Mongolian emperors. And the symbol of the Katun-queen fraternity (for example, in the Türkic Kaganate) was a Snake/Dragon, as an incarnation of a deity of Waters and Fertility.

Shuiytü

Interpretation of the name Shuiyt (from shui "linchpin") is a fruit of the national etymology, perceived to justify participation of the Shuiyt tribe in the creation of the mythical arba-wagon Kangly, and thus ideologically to prove the existence of certain special connection between Shuiyts and Kangly. The Karakalpak term ascends to the Mongolian form Chjuiyt~Chjuin. In "Secret legend of Mongols" Chjuins are listed as a vassal tribe of the Mongolian rulers, previously dependent from "Kitad's Altan-khan" (Tszin dynasty, Chjurchjens) and "Karakitads" (Liao dynasty, actually Kidans). Addressing his commanders, Chingiz-khan says: “Divide 50-50 between yourselves the Kitad's Chjuins. Take their noble youngsters as falconers and retinue. And accustom the noble maidens to be attender girls (i.e. attending the entrance) at your wives. Because the Karakitad Chjuins were favorite and trusted people at Karakitad Altan-khan" [Kozin, 1940, para. 266]. Messages about Chjuins and Chjun-irgen people are also contained in other paragraphs of this monument (para. 53, 247, 248). In addition to the above Chjuins, are also noted Chjuin-Tatars [Poucha, 1956, p. 65]. As a matter of fact, all written references to Chjuins are known in thr “Tatar context”.Analyzing them, the Chinese scientist Van Govej came to an important conclusion that adopted by the Mongols Chjurchjen designation for Chjuin-Tatars corresponds to the Kuin-Tatars of other written sources, in particular “Djami at-tavarih" by Rashid-ad-Din [Van Govej, vol. 3, p. 794-796; Pilliot, 1929, p. 128-129, 167].

142

Kuin-Tatars appear in the list of the Tatar tribes in the work of Rashid-ad-Din [Rashid ad-Din, 1952, vol. 1, book 1, p. 164, 165] (prof. Chen Dechji offers a reading Kuiten-Tatars [Chen Dechji, 1958, p. 27], however compare the name of a clan Kuiyn of the tribe Ktai of the Karakalpaks [Jdanko, I960, p. 165]). Variations of this ethnonym are numerous, also numerous are the fates of the separate branches of the Kuin/Kuyan tribe or confederation.

This review is far from exhausting all the areas in the east with the name Kang. A Türkic tribe Kangaz (Ch. Ñ5064, 11570, 10406 geechji < Ka-nga-tsie), headed by an Erkin leader, was known In the 8th century. They were part of the “three wooden-horsed (i.e. using skis) Tutszüe-Türk tribes”,their homes were covered with birch bark, they bred horses. Chinese text writes all three names together: dubomiligeechji [Ouyan Sü, ch. 2176, p. 1531, f. 11b]. The separation of the name Ñ3438, 2890 Dubo (< tuo-puâ) from that compound, and its identification with Tuba~Tuva, was not questioned by any researcher. N.Ya.Bichurin read the other hieroglyphs of this compound Milige, Echji [Bichurin, 1, p. 354]. F.Hirth viewed their reading identically, he offered Balig and Atsch respectively [Hirth, 1899, p. 40]. Tsen Chünmian in the publication "Assembly of materials for the history of Türks-Tutszüe" parsed this combination as Dubo, Mili, Geechji [Tsen Chünmian, 1958, p. 732]. The text of “Secret legend of Mongols" confirmed the accuracy of the identification of Geechji (Kangaz) [Kozin, 1940, para. 439], a tribe Kanggas is named among the “forest peoples" north of Mongolia [Poucha, 1956, p. 67, 75]. The term Kangaz/Kangas is a binary compound: Kang+Az/As, i.e. "Azes/Ases from Kang", "Kang's Azes/Ases". The tribe of Ases in the lower course of the Kang (Syr-Darya) was discussed above.
143

As believes S.I.Weinstein, the Tuba tribe of that document extended over very large territory, from Baikal to Enisei Kyrgyzes [Weinstein, 1961, p. 27]. As to the tribe Az/As (further in the text Us), in the 13th century they definitely lived in the valley of the river the Us (tributary of the Upper Yenisei) and were in conjugal relationship with Kyrgyzes. The text says: “[Tribe] Us received its name from the river. They live east from Kyrgyzes and north from the river Kem. Their custom is to slaughter a white horse, a bull, and a ram in the first decade of the sixth Moon, pore koumiss on the ground, and bathe everyone in the Us-muren river. This is their sacrifice to the river god. They explain that from the river came their ancestor" [Sun Lyan, ch. 63, p. 675, ff. 34á-35à]. During ethnographically modern time, the Tatars of the Volga region made the same sacrifice of a horse, a bull and a ram to the river deity [Ageeva, 1985, p. 105] (and they all keep bathing together in a river or in a bathhouse - Translator's Note).
143

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Home
Back
In Russian => PDF
Contents Huns
Contents Alans
Contents Scythians
Sources
Roots
Tamgas
Alphabet
Writing
Language
Genetics
Geography
Archeology
Religion
Coins
Wikipedia
Yu. A. Zuev Ethnic History of Usuns
Yu. A. Zuev The Strongest Tribe - Ezgil
Yu. A. Zuev Tamgas of vassal princedoms
Yu. A. Zuev Ancient Türkic social terms
Ogur and Oguz Alan Dateline
Avar Dateline
Besenyo Dateline
Bulgar Dateline
Huns Dateline
Karluk Dateline
Khazar Dateline
Kimak Dateline
Kipchak Dateline
Kyrgyz Dateline
Sabir Dateline
Seyanto Dateline
© Yu.Zuev 2002
7/29/08 ©TürkicWorld