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{{Short description|Medieval Turkic tribal confederacy of Central Asia}}{{Other uses|Karluk (disambiguation)}}

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The Karluks (also Qarluqs, Qarluks, Karluqs, , Qarluq,Ethno Cultureerral Dictionary, TÃœRIK BITIG Para-Mongol: Harluut, Géluólù ; customary phonetic: Gelu, Khololo, Khorlo, , Khallokh, Qarluq) were a prominent nomadic Turkic tribal confederacy residing in the regions of Kara-Irtysh (Black Irtysh) and the Tarbagatai Mountains west of the Altay Mountains in Central Asia. Karluks gave their name to the distinct Karluk group of the Turkic languages, which also includes the Uzbek, Uyghur and Ili Turki languages.Karluks were known as a coherent ethnic group with autonomous status within the Göktürk khaganate and the independent states of the Karluk yabghu, Karakhanids and Qarlughids before being absorbed in the Chagatai Khanate of the Mongol Empire.{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}}They were also called Uch-Oghuz meaning “Three Oghuz”.Gumilev L.N, 1967, Ancient Turks, p. 61-62. Despite the similarity of names, Mahmud al-Kashgari’s DÄ«wān Lughāt al-Turk wrote: “Karluks is a division of nomadic Turks. They are separate from Oghuz, but they are Turkmens like Oghuz.“Divanü Lûgat-it-Türk, translation Besim Atalay, Turkish Language Association, {{ISBN|975-16-0405-2}}, book: 1, page: 473 Ilhanate’s Rashid al-Din Hamadani in his Jami’ al-Tawarikh mentions Karluks as one of the Oghuz (Turkmen) tribes.WEB, Hamadani, Rashid-al-Din, 1952, Джами ат-Таварих (Jami’ al-Tawarikh),www.vostlit.info/Texts/rus16/Rasidaddin_2/kniga1/framepred2.html, USSR Academy of Sciences, Over time, these peoples were divided into numerous clans, [and indeed] in every era [new] subdivisions arose from each division, and each for a specific reason and occasion received its name and nickname, like the Oghuz, who are now generally called the Turkmens [Turkman], they are also divided into Kipchaks, Kalach, Kangly, Karluk and other tribes related to them..., KafesoÄŸlu (1958) proposes that Türkmen might be the Karluks’ equivalent of the Göktürks’ political term Kök Türk.KafesoÄŸlu, Ä°brahim. (1958) “Türkmen Adı, Manası ve Mahiyeti,” in Jean Deny ArmaÄŸanı in Eckmann et al. (eds.), pp. 121-133. cited in Golden, Peter B. (1992) An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples. p 347-348

Etymology

Nikolai Aristov noted that a tributary of the Charysh River was Kerlyk and proposed that the tribal name originated from the toponym with a Turkic meaning of “wild Siberian millet”.N. Aristov, “Usuns and Kyrgyzes, or Kara-Kyrgyzes”, Bishkek, 2001, pp. 142, 245.Peter Golden, citing Németh, suggests that qarluÄŸ/qarluq possibly means “snowy“Golden. Peter B. (1992) An Introduction to the History of Turkic People. Wiesbaden. (from Proto-Turkic *qar “snow“snow (Doerfer List no. 262), at Turkic Database compiled by Christopher A. Straughn, PhD, MSLIS). However, Marcel Erdal critiques this as a folk etymology, as “[i]n Old Turkic the suffix +lXk, which is implied in this account, had fourfold vowel harmony, and the +lXk derivate from kar would in Old Turkic be *karlık and not karluk”.Erdal, M. (2016) “Helitbär and some other early Turkic names and titles” Turkic Languages 20, 1+2. page 2 of 6Having noted that the majority of Chinese transcriptions 歌邏祿, 歌羅祿, 葛邏祿, 葛羅祿 and 哥邏祿 (all romanized as Geluolu) are trisyllabic, while only one form 葛祿 (Gelu) is disyllabic, Erdal contends that although the latter one transcribed Qarluq, the former four transcribed *Qaraluq, which should be the preferred reading. Thus, Erdal concluded that “the name is likely to be an exonym, formed as an -(O)k derivate from the verb kar-ıl- ‘to mingle (intr.)’ discussed in Erdal (1991: 662); it would thus have signified ‘the mingled ones’, presumably because the tribe evolved from the mingling of discrete groups,” as already suggested by Doerfer.Erdal, M. (2016) “Helitbär and some other early Turkic names and titles” Turkic Languages 20, 1+2. page 1-2 of 6

History

{{See also|Timeline of the Karluks}}

Early history

File:East-Hem 600ad.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Asia in 600, showing the location of the Karluk tribes (modern-day east KazakhstanKazakhstanThe first Chinese reference to the Karluks (644) labels them with a Manichaean attribute: Lion Karluks (“Shi-Geluolu”, “shi” stands for Sogdian “lion“). The “lion” () Karluks persisted up to the time of the Mongols.Yu.Zuev, “Early Türks: sketches of history and ideology”, Almaty, Dayk-Press, 2002, p. 215, {{Listed Invalid ISBN|9985-4-4152-9}}In the Early Middle Age, three member tribes of the Göktürk Kaganate formed the Uch-Karluk (Three Karluks) union; initially, the union’s leader bore the title Elteber, later elevated to Yabgu.“Karluk Djabghu State (756-940)” Qazaqstan Tarihy After the split of the Khaganate around 600 into the Western and Eastern Khaganates, the Uch-Karluks (三姓葛邏祿), along with Chuyue (處月; later as Shatuo 沙陀), Chumi (處蜜), Gusu (姑蘇), and Beishi (卑失) became subordinate to the Western Turkic Khaganate. After the Göktürks’ downfall, the Karluk confederation would later incorporate other Turkic tribes like the Chigils, Tuhsi,Golden, Peter B. (1992). An Introduction to the History of the Turkic People. Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden. p. 197 Azkishi, Türgesh, Khalajes, ÄŒaruk, Barsqan, as well as Iranian Sogdians and West Asian and Central Asian migrants.File:Anikova, two horsemen (grey background).jpg|thumb|Armoured horsemen on the Anikova dish, (Semirechye]], {{c.|800}}.BOOK, Karamian, Gholamreza, Maksymiuk, Katarzyna, Crowns, hats, turbans and helmets: the headgear in Iranian history, 2017, Institute of history and international relations, Faculty of Humanities, Siedlce University Department of archaeology and history, central Tehran branch, Tehran Azad University, Siedlce Tehran, 978-83-62447-19-0, 251, Fig. 37,www.researchgate.net/figure/Silver-gilt-plate-showing-a-siege-found-in-Siberia-and-thought-to-have-be-made-in_fig153_323545452, )In 630, Ashina Helu, the Ishbara Qaghan of the Eastern Turkic Kaganate, was captured by the Chinese. His heir apparent, the “lesser Khan” Hubo, escaped to Altai with a major part of the people and 30,000 soldiers. He conquered the Karluks in the west, the Kyrgyz in the north, and took the title Yizhuchebi Khagan. The Karluks allied with the Tiele and their leaders the Uyghurs against the Turkic Kaganate, and participated in enthroning the victorious head of the Uyghur (Toquz Oghuz). After that, a smaller part of the Karluks joined the Uyghurs and settled in the Bogdo-Ola mountains in Mongolia, the larger part settled in the area between Altai and the eastern Tien Shan.N.Aristov, “Usuns and Kyrgyzes, or Kara-Kyrgyzes”, Bishkek, 2001, pp. 246–247In 650, at the time of their submission to the Chinese, the Karluks had three tribes: Mouluo 謀落/Moula 謀剌 (*Bulaq), Chisi 熾俟{{efn|Golden (1992) hesitantly identifies Chisi with Chuyue; Atwood (2010: 600-601) identified Chisi 熾俟 with Zhusi 朱斯, also mentioned in Xiu Tangshu. Atwood does not link Chisi 熾俟 ~ Zhusi 朱斯 to Chuyue 處月, but instead to Zhuxie 朱邪, the original tribal surname of the Shatuo ruling house}}JOURNAL, Christopher P., Atwood, The Notion of Tribe in Medieval China: Ouyang Xiu and the Shatuo Dynastic Myth, Miscellanea Asiatica, 2010, 593–621,repository.upenn.edu/ealc/16/, or Suofu 娑匐{{efn|also attested as Pofu 婆匐 & Posuo 婆娑. Ecsedy (1980) contended that 娑 (Suo), not 婆 (Po), was correct}}Ecsedy, Ildikó “A Contribution to the History of Karluks in the T’ang Period” in Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, Vol. 34, No. 1/3 (1980), p. 29-32 (*Sebeg), and Tashili 踏實力 (*TaÅŸlïq).Golden, Peter B. (1992). An Introduction to the History of the Turkic People. Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden. p. 197 On paper, the Karluk divisions received Chinese names as Chinese provinces, and their leaders received Chinese state titles. Later, the Karluks spread from the valley of the river Kerlyk along the Irtysh River in the western part of the Altay to beyond the Black Irtysh, Tarbagatai, and towards the Tien Shan.N.Aristov, “Usuns and Kyryzes, or Kara-Kyryzes”, Bishkek, 2001, p. 246By the year 665 the Karluk union was led by a former Uch-Karluk bey with the title Kül-Erkin, now titled “Yabgu” (prince), who had a powerful army. The Karluk vanguard left the Altay region and at the beginning of the 8th century reached the banks of the Amu Darya.W. Barthold, “Four Studies In History Of Central Asia”, Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1962, pp. 87–92They were considered a vassal state by the Tang dynasty after the final conquest of the Transoxania regions by the Chinese in 739. The Karluk rose in rebellion against the Göktürk, then the dominant tribal confederation in the region, in about 745, and established a new tribal confederation with the Uygur and Basmyl tribes.Encyclopædia Britannica However, Karluks and Basmyls were defeated and forcibly incorporated into the Toquz Oghuz tribal confederation, led by the Uyghur Yaglakar clan.Old Book of Tang vol. 195 “有十一都督，[...] 每一部落一都督。破拔悉密，收一部落，破葛邏祿，收一部落，各置都督五人，統號十一部落” tr. “There are eleven tutuqs. The original Nine-Surnames’ Tribes, [...] each tribe having one tutuq. They defeated the Basmyls, whom they incorporated as another tribe; they defeated the Karluks, whom they incorporated as another tribe. They named and appointed, as tutuqs, five men, who united and commanded eleven tribes“Xu Elina-Qian, Historical Development of the Pre-Dynastic Khitan, University of Helsinki, 2005. p. 199 They remained in the Chinese sphere of influence and an active participant in fighting the Muslim expansion into the area, up until their split from the Tang in 751. Chinese intervention in the affairs of Western Turkestan ceased after their defeat at the Battle of Talas in 751 by the Arab general Ziyad ibn Salih. The Arabs dislodged the Karluks from Fergana.In 766, after they overran the Turgesh in Zhetysu, the Karluk tribes formed a Khanate under the rule of a Yabgu, occupied Suyab and transferred their capital there. By that time the bulk of the tribe had left the Altai, and the supremacy in Zhetysu passed to the Karluks. Their ruler with the title Yabgu is often mentioned in the Orkhon inscriptions. In Pahlavi texts one of the Karluk rulers of Tocharistan was called Yabbu-Hakan (Yabgu-Kagan).Marquart J., “Provincial Capitals”, Rome, 1931, p. 10 The fall of the Western Turkic Kaganate left Zhetysu in the possession of Turkic peoples, independent of either Arabs or Chinese.In 822, the Uyghurs sent four Karluks as tribute to Tang dynasty China.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=jqAGIL02BWQC&pg=PA44, The golden peaches of Samarkand: a study of TÊ»ang exotics, Edward H. Schafer, 1963, University of California Press, 0-520-05462-8, 50, 2011-01-09,

Culture

File:Piatto con decorazione di castello assediato, arg, samirechye, da bolshoe-anikovskaya, IX-X sec su orig del l’VIII sec.JPG|thumb|upright=1.25|The Anikova dish: a Nestorian Christian plate with decoration of a besieged Jericho, by Sogdian artists under Karluk dominion,BOOK, Sims, Eleanor, Peerless images : Persian painting and its sources, 2002, New Haven : Yale University Press, 978-0-300-09038-3, 293–294,archive.org/details/peerlessimagespe0000sims/page/294/mode/1up, Semirechye. 9th-10th century, copied from an 8th century plate with designs and military equipement related to (Penjikent]].WEB, Hermitage Museum,www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/digital-collection/08.+applied+arts/97259, BOOK, Gorelik, Michael, “Oriental Armour of the Near and Middle East from the Eighth to the Fifteenth Centuries as Shown in Works of Art”, by Michael Gorelik, in: Islamic Arms and Armour, ed. Robert Elgood, London 1979., 1979, Robert Elgood,warfare.tk/Gorelik-Oriental_Armour.htm, )File:Dish with biblical scenes, Church of the East, line drawing.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|The Grigorovskoye Plate: a Nestorian Christian dish with Syriac inscriptions, from SemirechyeSemirechye The Karluks were hunters, nomadic herdsmen, and agriculturists. They settled in the countryside and in the cities, which were centered on trading posts along the caravan roads. The Karluks inherited a vast multi-ethnic region, whose diverse population was not much different from its rulers. Zhetysu was populated by several tribes: the Azes (mentioned in the Orkhon inscriptions) and the Tuhsi, remnants of the Türgesh;Gumilyov, L. Searches for an Imaginary Kingdom: The trefoil of the Bird’s Eye View’ Ch. 5: The Shattered Silence (961-1100)Pylypchuk, Ya. “Turks and Muslims: From Confrontation to Conversion to Islam (End of VII century - Beginning of XI Century)” in UDK’’ 94 (4): 95 (4). In Ukrainian as well as the Shatuo Turks (沙陀突厥) (lit. “Sandy Slope Turks”, i.e. “Desert Turks“) of Western Turkic, specifically Chigil origins,Ouyang Xiu. Xin Wudaishi. [Vol. 4]JOURNAL, Christopher P., Atwood, The Notion of Tribe in Medieval China: Ouyang Xiu and the Shatup Dynastic Myth, Miscellanea Asiatica, 2010,repository.upenn.edu/ealc/16/, 600–604, and the interspersing Sogdian colonies. The southern part of Zhetysu was occupied by the Yagma people, who also held Kashgar. In the north and west lived the Kankalis. Chigils, who had joined and been a significant division of the Three-Karluks, then detached and resided around Issyk Kul.The diverse population adhered to a spectrum of religious beliefs. The Karluks and the majority of the Turkic population professed Tengrianism, considered as shamanism and by the Christians and Muslims. The Karluks converted to Nestorian Christianity at the end of the 8th century CE, about 15 years after they established themselves in the Semerich’e region. This was the first time the Church of the East received such major sponsorship by an eastern power.JOURNAL, O’Daly, Briton (Yale University), An Israel of the Seven Rivers, Sino-Platonic Papers, 2021, 3,sino-platonic.org/complete/spp308_Zhetysu_Karluk_Turks_Sogdians.pdf, The conversion of the Karluk Turks by the Church of the East in the eighth century marked an important moment of self-determination for Christians living in early medieval Central Asia: never before had Christianity enjoyed the official backing of such a significant power in the region as the Karluks, who established their kingdom in Zhetysu, the “Land of the Seven Rivers” beneath Lake Balkhash. The Karluks most likely converted to Christianity about fifteen years after they conquered Zhetysu from the Türgesh Khaganate, bridging the identity of the new Karluk state to a religion that had rarely, if ever, been formally associated with the rulers who controlled Central Asia., Particularly, the Chigils were Christians of the Nestorian denomination. The majority of the Toquz Oghuz, with their khan, were Manicheans, but there were also Christians, Buddhists, and Muslims among them. The peaceful penetration of Muslim culture through commercial relations played a far more important role in their conversion than Muslim arms. The merchants were followed by missionaries of various creeds, including Nestorian Christians. Many Turkestan towns had Christian churches. The Turks held sacred the Qastek pass mountains, believing to be an abode of the deity. Each creed carried its script, resulting in a variety of used scripts, including Türkic runiform, Sogdian, Syriac, and later the Uygur. The Karluks had adopted and developed the Turkic literary language of Khoresm, established in Bukhara and Samarkand, which after Mongol conquest became known as the Chagatai language.{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}}Of all Turkic peoples, the Karluk were most open to the influence of Muslim culture. Yaqubi reported the conversion of the Karluk-yabgu to Islam under Caliph Mahdi (775–785), and by the 10th century, several towns to the east of Talas had mosques. Muslim culture had affected the general way of life of the Karluks.W. Barthold, “Four Studies In History Of Central Asia”, Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1962, p.91During the next three centuries, the Karluk Yabgu state occupied a key position on the choice international trade route, fighting off mostly Turkic competitors to retain their prime position. Their biggest adversaries were Kangars in the north-west and Toquz Oghuz in the south-east, with a period of Samanid raids to Zhetysu in 840–894. But even in the heyday of the Karluk Yabgu state, parts of its domains were in the hands of the Toquz Oghuz, and later under Kyrgyz and Khitan control, increasing the ethnical, religious, and political diversity.W. Barthold, “Four Studies In History Of Central Asia”, Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1962, pp. 92–102

Social organization

The state of Karluk Yabgu was an association of semi-independent districts and cities, each equipped with its own militia. The biggest was the capital Suyab, which could turn out 20,000 warriors, and among other districts, the town of Beglilig (known as “Samakna” before Karluk ruleW. Barthold, “Four Studies In History Of Central Asia”, Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1962, pp. 88–89) had 10,000 warriors, Panjikat could turn out 8,000 warriors, Barskhan 6,000 warriors, and Yar 3,000 warriors. The titles of the petty rulers were Qutegin of the Karluk Laban clan in Karminkat, Taksin in Jil, Tabin-Barskhan in Barskhan, Turkic Yindl-Tegin and Sogdian Badan-Sangu in Beglilig. The prince of Suyab, situated north of the Chu river in the Turgesh land, was a brother of one of the Göktürk khans, but bore the Persian title Yalan-shah, i.e. “King of Heroes”.Muslim authors describe in detail the trade route from Western Asia to China across Zhetysu, mentioning many cities. Some bore double names, both Turkic and Sogdian. They wrote about the capital cities of Balasagun, Suyab, and Kayalik, in which William of Rubruck saw three Buddhist temples in the Muslim town for the first time. The geographers also mentioned Taraz (Talas, Auliya-ata), Navekat (now Karabulak{{Clarify|date=August 2016}}), Atbash (now Koshoy-Kurgan ruins), Issyk-kul, Barskhan, Panjikat, Akhsikat, Beglilig, Almalik, Jul, Yar, Ton, Panchul, and others.BOOK, W., Barthold, Four Studies in History of Central Asia, Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1962, 50, 88,

Kirghiz period

Prior to the Kirghiz-Uyghur war of 829–840, the Kirghiz lived in the upper basin of the Yenisei River. Linguistically their language, together with the Altai language, belongs to a separate Kirghiz group of the Turkic language family. At that time they had an estimated population of 250,000 and an army of 50,000. Kirghiz victory in the war brought them to the Karluk door. They captured Tuva, Altai, a part of Dzungaria, and reached Kashgar. Allied with the Karluks against the Uygurs, in the 840s the Kirghiz started the occupation of that part of Zhetysu which is their present home. Karluk independence ended around 840. They fell from dominating the tribal association to a subordinate position. The Kirghiz remained a power in Zhetysu until their destruction by the Kara-Khitans in 1124, when most of them evacuated from their center in Tuva back to the Minusinsk Depression, leaving the Karluks to predominate again in Zhetysu.The position of the Karluk state, based on the rich Zhetysu cities, remained strong, despite the failures in wars in the beginning of the 9th century. Yabgu was enriched by profitable trade in slaves on the Syr-Darya slave markets, selling guards for the Abbasid Caliphs, and control over the transit road to China in the sector from Taraz to Issyk Kul. The Karluk position in Fergana, despite Arab attempts to expel them, became stronger.S. G. Klyashtorny, T. I. Sultanov, “States And Peoples Of The Eurasian Steppe”, St. Petersburg , 2004, p.116, {{ISBN|5-85803-255-9}}The fall of the last Kagan with its capital in Ötüken, which dominated for three centuries, created a completely new geopolitical situation in all Central Asia. For the first time in three hundred years, the powerful center of authority that created opportunities for expansion or even existence of any state in Turkestan had finally disappeared. Henceforth, the Turkic tribes recognized only the high status of the clan that inherited the Kagan title, but never again his unifying authority. Several Muslim historians state that after the loss by the Uygurs of their power (840), the supreme authority among the Turkic tribes passed to the Karluk leaders. Connection with the Ashina clan, the ruling clan of the Turkic Kaganate, allowed the Karluk dynasty to dress their authority with legitimate attire, and, abandoning the old title Yabgu, to take on the new title of Kagan.S. G. Klyashtorny, T. I. Sultanov, “States And Peoples Of The Eurasian Steppe”, St. Petersburg , 2004, p.117, {{ISBN|5-85803-255-9}}

Karakhanid period

File:The Kara-Khanid ruler Ilig Khan on horse submitting to Mahmud of Ghazni riding an elephant, Persian painting, 1306-14.jpg|thumb|350px|The Kara-Khanid ruler “Ilig Khan” on horse, submitting to Ghaznavid ruler Mahmud of Ghazni, who is riding an elephant, in 1017. They agreed to partition former Samanid territory along the Oxus river. Jami’ al-tawarikh, circa 1306–14. BOOK, Bosworth, C. E., History of Civilizations of Central Asia, 1998, UNESCO, 978-92-3-103467-1, 106,books.google.com/books?id=18eABeokpjEC&pg=PA99, en, “An agreement was reached at this point with the Karakhanid Ilig Nasr Ali Arslan Khan, b. AliAli Arslan Khan, b. AliTowards 940 the “heathen” Yagma from the southern border seized the Chu valley and the Karluk capital Balasagun. The Yagma ruler bore the title Bogra-khan (Camel Khan), very common among Karakhanids. The Yagma quickly proceeded to take control of all Karluk lands. In the 10th and 12th centuries, the lands on both sides of the principal chain of the Tian Shan were united under the rule of the Karakhanid Ilek-khans (Khans of the Land) or simply Karakhanids (Great Khans). The Karakhanid state was divided into fiefs which soon became independent.W. Barthold, “Four Studies In History Of Central Asia”, Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1962, pp. 22, 93–102The Kara-Khanid Khanate was founded in the 9th century from a confederation of Karluks, Chigils, Yagmas, and other tribes.{{citation|last = Golden|first = Peter. B.|contribution = The Karakhanids and Early Islam|year = 1990|title = The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia|editor-last = Sinor|editor-first = Denis|pages = 354–358 |publisher = Cambridge University Press|isbn = 0-521-24304-1}} Later in the 10th century a Karakhanid Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan converted to Islam. His son Musa made Islam a state religion in 960. The empire occupied modern northern Iran and parts of Central Asia. This region remained under Karakhanid, and for varying periods it remained an independent vassal of Seljuk and Kara-Khitan. The Karakhanid khanate ended when the last ruler of its western Khanate was killed by the Khwarezmids in 1212. Both the Kara-Khitans and the Khwarezmids were later destroyed by the Mongol invasion.The name Khāqāniyya was given to the Qarluks who inhabited Kāshghar and BālāsāghÅ«n, the inhabitants were not Uighur however their language has been retroactively labelled as Uighur by scholars.BOOK, Mehmet Fuat Köprülü, Gary Leiser, Robert Dankoff, Robert Dankoff, Early Mystics in Turkish Literature,books.google.com/books?id=_v6IWkCLnEwC&pg=PA158, 2006, Psychology Press, 978-0-415-36686-1, 158–,

Khitan period

At the beginning of the 10th century, a tribe related to the Mongols, the Khitans with an admixture of Mongols, founded a vast empire, stretching from the Pacific to Lake Baikal and the Tian Shan, displacing the Turkic population. The Khitan language has been classified as para-Mongolic: distantly related to the Mongolic languages of the Mongols.BOOK, Juha Janhunen, The Mongolic Languages,books.google.com/books?id=DuCRAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA364, 2006, Routledge, 978-1-135-79690-7, 393, Reportedly, the first Gurkhan was a Manichaean.Owing to its long sway over China, the ruling dynasty, which the Twenty-Four Histories call the Liao dynasty (916–1125), was strongly influenced by Chinese culture. In 1125, a Tungusic people, the Jurchen, allied with the Southern Song, ending the domination of the Khitan. The Khitan exiles, headed by Yelü Dashi, a member of the Khitan royal family, migrated to the West.BOOK, W., Barthold, Four Studies in History of Central Asia, Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1962, 22, 99, The Khitan settled in the Tarbagatai Mountains east of Zhetysu, and their number grew to 40,000 tents.Around 1130 the local Karakhanid ruler of Balasagun asked for their aid against the hostile Kankalis and Karluks. The Khitan occupied Balasaghun, expelled the weak Karakhanid ruler, and founded their own state, which stretched from the Yenisei to Taraz. They then conquered Kankali and subdued Xinjiang. In 1137 near Khujand they defeated the Transoxanian Karakhanid ruler Mahmud Khan, who then appealed to their suzerain the Seljuks for help. The Kara-Khitans, who were also invited by the Khwarazmians (then also a vassal of the Seljuks) to conquer the lands of the Seljuks as well as in response to an appeal to intervene by the Karluks who were involved in a conflict with the Karakhanids, then advanced to Samarkand. In 1141, the Seljuks under Ahmad Sanjar also arrived in Samarkand with his army, but was defeated by the Kara-Khitans in the Battle of Qatwan, after which the Kara-Khitans became dominant in Transoxania.BOOK, Biran, Michal., The Empire of the Qara Khitai in Eurasian History: Between China and the Islamic World, Cambridge University Press, Chapter 3 - The Fall: between the Khwarazm Shah and the Mongols, 2005, 41–43, 0521842263, The western Khitan state became known under its Turkic name, the Kara-Khitan Khanate and their ruler bore the Turkic title Gurkhan “Khan’s son-in law”.BOOK, W., Barthold, Four Studies in History of Central Asia, Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1962, 28, 102, The original Uch-Karluk confederation became split between the Karakhanid state in the west and the Karakhitay state in the east, lasting until the Mongol invasion. Both in the west and east, Karluk principalities retained their autonomous status and indigenous rulers, though in Karakhitay the Karluk khan, like the ruler of Samarkand, was forced to accept the presence of a permanent representative of the Gurkhan.BOOK, W., Barthold, Four Studies in History of Central Asia, Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1962, 104, The Gurkhans administered limited territories, populated in 1170 by 84,500 families under direct rule. The Gurkhan’s headquarters was called Khosun-ordu (lit. “Strong Ordu“), or Khoto (“House“). The Karluk capital was Kayalik. The Karakhanids continued to rule over Transoxania and western Xinjiang. The Kara-khitans did not interfere with the religion of the people, but Islam became less dominant as the other religions took advantage of the new freedom to increase the number of their adherents. The Nestorian Patriarch Elias III (1176–1190) founded a religious metropole in Kashgar. The Karakhitay metropolitan bore the title Metropolitan of Kashghar and Navakat, showing that the see of Kashghar also controlled the southern part of Zhetysu. The oldest Nestorian tombs in the Tokmak and Pishpek cemeteries go back to the epoch of Karakhitay domination. Ata-Malik Juvayni however stressed the oppression of Muslims by Kuchlug, a son of the last Nayman khan who was ousted (towards 1204) by Mongolia by Genghis Khan. The Nayman Nestorian Christian Küchlük usurped the throne of the Kara-Khitans. In 1211, a Mongol detachment under the command of Khubilai Noyon, one of Genghis Khan’s generals, appeared in the northern part of Zhetysu. Arslan-khan Karluk killed the Karakhitay governor of Kayalik and proclaimed his loyalty to Genghis Khan. The Zhetysu, together with Eastern Turkestan, voluntarily surrendered to the Mongols.BOOK, W., Barthold, Four Studies in History of Central Asia, Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1962, 103–104, Kuchlug was killed by the invading Mongols in 1218.BOOK, Biran, Michal., The Empire of the Qara Khitai in Eurasian History: Between China and the Islamic World, Cambridge University Press, Chapter 3 - The Fall: between the Khwarazm Shah and the Mongols, 2005, 60–90, 0521842263,

Mongol era

In the 1211 a Mongol detachment under the command of Khubilai Noyon appeared in the northern part of Zhetysu. Arslan Khan Karluk, probably the son of Arslan khan and brother of Mamdu khan, killed the Khitan governor of Kayalik and proclaimed his loyalty to Genghis Khan.BOOK, W., Barthold, Four Studies in History of Central Asia, Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1962, 108, The Collection of Annals records that Genghis Khan removed his title from Karluk Arslan Khan: “Let your name be Sartaktai”, i.e. Sart, said the sovereign.After the absorption of the Kara-Khanid Khanate by the Chagatai Khanate, the ethnonym Karluk became rarely used. The Karluk language was the primary basis for the later lingua-franca of the Chagatai Khanate and Central Asia under the Timurid dynasty. It is therefore designated by linguists and historians as the Chagatai language, but its contemporaries, such as Timur and Babur, simply called it Turki.

Genetics

{{See also|Göktürks#Genetics|Kara-Khanid Khanate#Genetics|Kimek tribe#Genetics|Kipchaks#Genetics|Golden Horde#Genetics}}A genetic study published in Nature in May 2018 examined the remains of two Karluk males buried at Butakty in the Tian Shan between 800 AD and 1000 AD.{{sfn|Damgaard et al.|2018|loc=Supplementary Table 2, Rows 125, 132}} One male carried the paternal haplogroup J2a{{sfn|Damgaard et al.|2018|loc=Supplementary Table 9, Row 85}} and the maternal haplogroup A,{{sfn|Damgaard et al.|2018|loc=Supplementary Table 8, Row 75}} while the other carried the maternal haplogroup F1b1e.{{sfn|Damgaard et al.|2018|loc=Supplementary Table 8, Row 76}}

Physical appearance

Arab historian Al Masudi stated that, among Turkic peoples, the Karluks were “the most beautiful in form, the tallest in stature and the most lordly in appearance”.al-Masudi, Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems, ed. Pellat, p. 155; cited in Golden, P. B. (1992) An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples. Series: Turcologica, Vol. 9. Wiesbaden: Otto-Harrassowitz. p. 198

See also

• Bulaqs
• Qarlugh

Notes

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References

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Sources

• JOURNAL, Damgaard, P. B., Marchi, N., 1, May 9, 2018, 137 ancient human genomes from across the Eurasian steppes,www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0094-2, April 11, 2020, Nature (journal), Nature, Nature Research, 557, 7705, 369–373, 2018Natur.557..369D, 10.1038/s41586-018-0094-2, 29743675, 13670282, {{harvid, Damgaard et al., 2018, |hdl=1887/3202709 |hdl-access=free }}
• Z. V. Togan: The Origins of the Kazaks and the ôzbeks, H.B. Paksoy, IUE.it, webpage: IUE-5.

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