The Toquz Oghuz (; ; Tibetan Drugu Rus Dgu "Turks of Nine Bones")Kultegin's Memorial Complex, TÜRK BITIGVenturi, Federica (2008).
"An Old Tibetan document on the Uighurs: A new translation and interpretation".
Journal of Asian History.
1 (42): p. 24 of pp.
1-35 was a political alliance of nine Turkic-speaking Tiele tribes in Inner Asia, during the early Middle Ages.
Toquz Oghuz was consolidated and subordinated within the First Turkic Kaganate (552–743) and remained as a nine-tribe alliance after the Khaganate fragmented.
Oghuz is a Turkic word meaning "community" and toquz means "nine".
Similarly the Karluks were possibly known as the Üç-Oğuz – üç meaning "three".Gumilev L.N. Ancient Turks, Moscow, 'Science', 1967, Ch.5 http://gumilevica.kulichki.net/OT/ot5.htm The root of the generalized ethnic term "oghuz" is og-, meaning "clan, tribe"; which in turn, according to Kononov, descends from the ancient Turkic word ög meaning "mother" (however, Golden considered such a further derivation impossible).Golden, B. P. "Oq and Oğur ~ Oğuz", Turkic Languages, 16/2 (2012), p. 183–188 Initially the oguz designated "tribes" or "tribal union", and eventually became an ethnonym.
The Toquz Oghuz were perhaps first mentioned in the Orkhon inscriptions written in the 730s.
The nine tribes were named in Chinese histories as the Huihe (回纥), Pugu (仆骨), Hun (浑), Bayegu (拔野古), Tongluo (同罗), Sijie (思结), Qibi (契苾), A-Busi (阿布思) and Gulunwugusi (骨仑屋骨思).Theobald, U. "Huihe 回紇, Huihu 回鶻, Weiwur 維吾爾, Uyghurs" in ChinaKnowledge.de - An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History, Literature and Art The first seven named – who lived north of the Gobi DesertJiu Tangshu Vol. 199 lower txt.
"自突厥強盛，鐵勒諸郡分散，衆漸寡弱。至武德初，有 [...] 契苾、回紇、[...] 僕骨、拔野古、同羅、渾部、思結、[...] 等，散在磧北。" tr.
"As Tujue are strong and prosperous, all Tiele districts are divided and scattered, the masses gradually dwindled and weakened.
At the beginning of Wude [era], there are [...]
Qibi, Huihe, [...]
Pugu, Bayegu, Tongluo, Hun, Sijie, [...]
etc. scattered north of the desert."
– were dominant, whereas the A-Busi and Gulunwugu(si) emerged later and were accepted on an equal footing with the others some time after 743.
The A-Busi apparently originated as a sub-tribal group within the SijieOld Book of Tang (Volume 199b "Tiele") and Tang Huiyao vol. 73 mentioned that the Dailin province (蹛林州) was founded in the territory of the splinter tribe of Sijie (思結別部)Old Book of Tang (Vol. 195 "Huihe") mentioned that the Guilin province (歸林州) was founded in the territory of the tribe A-Busi (阿布思) and the Gulunwugu(si) as a combination of two other tribes.
Latter Gōktürk Khagan Bilge considered the Toquz Oghuz "[his] own people".
It is also mentioned in Kul Tigin inscriptions that the Göktürks and Toquz Oghuz were fighting five times in a year.Ergin 1970:81Gündüz 2002/2:263Bilge Khagan Inscription at Türik Bitig  𐱃𐰸𐰆𐰕:𐰆𐰍𐰕:𐰉𐰆𐰑𐰣:𐰚𐰤𐱅𐰃:𐰉𐰆𐰑𐰣𐰢:𐰼𐱅𐰃:𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃:𐰘𐰃𐰼:𐰉𐰆𐰞𐰍𐰴𐰃𐰤:𐰇𐰲𐰇𐰤:𐰖𐰍𐰃:𐰉𐰆𐰡𐰃 Toquz Oγuz budun kentü budunïm erti Teŋіri jer bolγaqïn üčün yaγï boltï.
"Nine Oguzes were my people.
As Tengri and the earth came to disorder, they rose against us."
Likewise, foreign sources suggested the political association of some Toquz Oghuz tribes to Göktürks.
A Khotanese Saka text about Turks in Ganzhou mentioned saikairä ttūrkä chārä (< OTrk. *sïqïr türk çor).
The Sïqïr Türks were identified with the Sikāri in Sogdian documents as well as the Sijie,Bailey, H.W. (1949) "A Khotanese texts concerning the Turks in Kanṭṣou" in Asia Major New Series 1.1, p. 50 of pp.
28-52Bailey, H.W.
"The Staël-Holstein Miscellany" (1951) in Asia Major New Series 2.1, p. 19 of pp.
1-45 who were mentioned as Tujue Sijie 突厥思結 in Zizhi Tongjian.Sima Guang et al. Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 196Zuev, Yu.
"Horse Tamgas from Vassal Princedoms" (Translation of Chinese composition "Tanghuiyao" of 8-10th centuries), Kazakh SSR Academy of Sciences, Alma-Ata, 1960, p. 114 (in Russian) Among the Eastern Turkic tribes who dwelt south the Gobi desert, Tang Huiyao listed the Sijie (erroneously rendered as Enjie 恩結), who dwelt in the Lushan military governorate 盧山都督府,Jiu Tangshu, Vol. 199b Tiele and Fuli, who dwelt in the same jimi province of Dailin as the Sijie's splinter tribe A-Busi.Tang Huiyao, vol. 72 txt.
"匐利羽馬。磧南突厥馬也。剛摩利施山北。今蹛林州。印勿" tr.
"Horses of the Fuli wing, i.e. horses of Tujue south of the desert. [They dwelt] north of Gangmolishi mountains, in present-day Dailin province.
Tamga [resembles] [character] 勿"Dobrovits, M.
"The Thirty Tribes of the Turks" in Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hung.
Volume 57 (3), p. 259 of pp.
257–262 (2004) The Fuli(-yu) (匐利[羽]), or Fuli(-ju) (伏利[具]),Suishu Vol. 51 were identifiable as the Fuluo (覆羅) in other Chinese sourcesTongdian vol. 199 TieleZuev, (1960) p. 110 and the Bökli-Çöligil (OTrk. 𐰋𐰇𐰚𐰲𐰃:𐰲𐰇𐰠𐰏𐰠), who appeared on Kül-tegin inscription and were proposed to have originated from Tungusic Mohe,Yıldırım, Kurşat. (2019)
"Some Opinions on the Role of the Mohe 靺鞨 People in the Cultural and Ethnical Relationships between Tungusic, Turkic and Mongolian Peoples" in "Competing Narratives between Nomadic People and their Sedentary Neighbours" Studia Uralo-altaica, 53 , Ed.
Chen Hao, Szeged, pp.
327-332."
Koreans,Kül-tegin inscription Note 139 at Türik BitigHenning, W. (1948).
The Date of the Sogdian Ancient Letters.
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 12(3/4), p. 611 of pp.
601-615.
or ethnic Turkic peoples.
Kenzheakhmet (2014:297-299) links the Sijie's splinter-tribe Abusi (< OTrk. *Abïz) to the Fuli (< OTrk. *Bükeli < büke "snake, dragon" + coordinating conjunctive suffix -li, possibly).Kenzheakhmet, Nurlan(2014). "
"Ethnonyms and Toponyms of the Old Turkic Inscriptions in Chinese sources".
Studia et Documenta Turcologica.
II: p. 297-299 of pp.
287-216
Another list of nine names - Yaoluoge (藥羅葛) (< OTrk. 𐰖𐰍𐰞𐰴𐰺‎ Yaglaqar), Huduoge (胡咄葛), Guluowu (啒羅勿), Mogexiqi (貊歌息訖), A-Wudi (阿勿嘀), Gesa (葛薩), Huwasu (斛嗢素), Yaowuge (藥勿葛), & Xiyawu (奚牙勿)- appeared in the Old Book of TangJiu Tangshu Vol. 195 and New Book of Tang.Xin Tangshu Vol. 217a According to Haneda (1957), Toquz Oğuz were the Yaglaqar-led group of nine clans included in the Uighur tribe.Haneda Tōru 羽田亨,「九姓回鶻とToquz Oγuz との関係を論ず」, 1957:341.
In contrast, Golden (1992) proposed that Toquz Oğuz were the Tang Huiyao's nine-tribe group led by the Uyghur, which in turn comprised the nine subtribes led by Yaglaqar.Golden, P.B. (1992)
An Introduction the History of Turkic Peoples p. 156-157 The Shine Usu inscription mentioned that the Yağlaqar ruled over the On-Uyğur "Ten[-Tribes] Uyghur" and Toquz Oğuz "Nine[-Tribes] Oghuz".Golden, P.B. "’Eternal Stones’: Historical Memory and Notions of History Among the Early Turkic Peoples" ed. I. Poonawala, Turks in the Indian subcontinent, Central and West Asia (New Delhi: Oxford University Press-Delhi, 2017): p. 16, 51 of 3-63.
Meanwhile, Hashimoto, Katayama, and Senga propose that the Tang Huiyao's list (led by Uyghur) contained the names of the Toquz Oghuz tribes proper, while each name in the two lists (led by Yağlaqar) in the Books of Tang recorded each surname of each of nine subtribal chiefs (e.g. Uyghur chief's surname is Yağlaqar; Sijie chief's surname is Gesa, etc.).
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