Tatars (Kimek)

Further information: Tatars and Tartary

The Tatar were one of the seven original Turkic tribes that made up the Kimek confederation, along with the Imur, Yemek, Bayandur, Kipchak, Lanikaz and Ajlad. The Tatār were the third in order.[1] The Kimek tribes originated in the Central Asian steppes, and had migrated to the territory of present-day Kazakhstan.[2] The Tatar, as part of the Kimek, were mentioned by Gardizi (d. 1061).[3]

According to R. Fakhroutdinov, these Tatars 'were a branch of the ancient Tatar population that went to the west after the collapse of the Eastern Turkic kaganate'.[4] Mahmud al-Kashgari noted that the Tatars are bilingual, speaking in Turkic alongside their own language.[5] Golden proposed that Tatars were Turkified Mongolic speakers.[6]

Mahmut Kashgari, an 11th-century historian, lists the Tatārs as one of ten prominent Turkic tribes and enumerates the locations of the Turkic polities from the borders of the Eastern Roman Empire to the borders of China in the following sequence:[7]

  1. Bäčänäk;
  2. Qifčāk;
  3. Oğuz;
  4. Yemēk;
  5. Bašğirt;
  6. Basmyl;
  7. Qāi;
  8. Yabāqu;
  9. Tatār;
  10. Qirqiz.

Kashgari also noted that "Among the nomadic peoples are the Čömül - they have a gibberish (raṭāna [رَطَانَة]) of their own, but also know Turkic; also Qāy, Yabāqu, Tatār and Basmil - each of these groups has its own language, but they also know Turkic well".[5]

The Shine Usu inscription mentioned that the Toquz Tatars, in alliance with the Sekiz-Oghuz (i.e. "Eight Oghuzes", denoting the eight tribes who revolted against the leading Uyghur tribe[8]), unsuccessfully revolted against Uyghur Khagan Bayanchur, who was consolidating power between 744 and 750 CE.[9][10] After being defeated three times, half of the Oghuz & Tatar rebels rejoined the Uyghurs, while the other half fled to an unknown people, who were identified as Khitans[11] or Karluks.[12] According to Senga and Klyashtorny, part of the Toquz-Tatar rebels fled westwards from the Uyghurs to the Irtysh river basin, where they later organized the Kipchaks and other tribal groupings (either already there or also newly arrived) into the Kimek tribal union.[13][14]

  1. ^ V. V. Minorsky; C. E. Bosworth (31 January 2015). Hudud al-'Alam 'The Regions of the World' - A Persian Geography 372 A.H. (982 AD). Gibb Memorial Trust. pp. 378–. ISBN 978-1-909724-73-0.
  2. ^ Agajanov 1992, p. 69.
  3. ^ Bosworth & Clauson 1965.
  4. ^ Fakhroutdinov 2004, p. 37.
  5. ^ a b Maħmūd al-Kašğari. "Dīwān Luğāt al-Turk". Edited & translated by Robert Dankoff in collaboration with James Kelly. In Sources of Oriental Languages and Literature. Part I. (1982). p. 82-83
  6. ^ Peter B. Golden (1992). An Introduction to the History of the Turkic People. O. Harrassowitz. pp. 184–185.
  7. ^ Central Asian Review Volumes 13-14. Central Asian Research Centre. 1965. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  8. ^ Czeglédy, Karoly (1972) "On the Numerical Composition of the Ancient Turkish Trial Confederations" in Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae Akadémiai Kiadó
  9. ^ "Moghon Shine Usu Inscription" text at Türik Bitig
  10. ^ Kamalov, A. (2003) "The Moghon Shine Usu Inscription as the Earliest Uighur Historical Annals", Central Asiatic Journal. 47 (1). p. 77-90
  11. ^ Ramstedt, G.I. (1913) "Zwei Uighurischen Runeinschriften", p. 52. cited in Kamalov (2003), p. 86
  12. ^ Czegledy, K. (1973) "Gardizi on the History of Central Asia", p. 265. cited in Kamalov (2003), p. 86
  13. ^ Senga cited in Golden (2002) “Notes on the Qïpchaq Tribes: Kimeks and Yemeks”, in The Turks, I, p. 662
  14. ^ Klyashtorny, S.G. (1997) "The Oguzs of the Central Asia and The Guzs of the Aral Region" in International Journal of Eurasian Studies 2