Oghuz Turks

The Oghuz Turks (Oguz Turks) were one of the major branches of Turks from the 8th until the 11th centuries. During the Turkish migration in the 10th, 11th and 12th century the Oghuz were among those Turks in the area of the Caspian Sea who migrated south and west towards western Asia and eastern Europe instead of east towards Siberia.

The Oguz Turks are regarded as the ancestors of today's western Turks: Azerbaijanis, Turks of Turkey, Turkmens, Qashqay Turks, Khorasani Turks and Gauguz (Gok-Oguz) Turks who number more than 100 million.

The name of "Oguz" which is derived from "Arrow" and "Tribe" was first written in the Turkic Orhun inscriptions (as the six Oghuz tribal union) in the banks of the Yenisey River in Mongolia. It is said that six tribes had integrated and formed a Turkic "tribal union" called Oghuz. However, earlier sources such as that of the Chinese mention a tribe called "O-kut" dating back to the 2nd century BC in the central Asian area of Tabargatay-Kobdo in Kazakstan. The original homeland of the Oghuz, like the other Turks during the Gok-Turk era, seems to have been the Altay mountain region and southern Siberia.

They were the main rulers of the Gok-Turk empire of the 6th and 7th centuries, and also established the Oguz Yabgu state which collapsed in central Asia in the year 1,000. They soon founded the Seljuk empire in the 10th century which was the second Turkic-Islamic empire (the Gaznavids of the 9th century were the first Turkic-Muslim rulers) in central Asia and the Middle East.

From the 8th until the 11th centuries, they inhabited the area between the Caspian Sea and Aral Sea in central Asia. Ibnul Asir, an Arab historian, declared that the Oguz people had come to this region (Transoxiana) in the perod of the Caliph Al-Mehdi (775-785.) They were composed of 24 tribes:

Bok-ok tribes: Kayı, Bayat, Alka-evli, Kara-evli, Yazır, Doger, Dodurga, Yaparlı, Afshar, Kızır, Begdili and Karkın.

Uch-Ok tribes: Bayındır, Pechene, Chavuldur, Chepni, Salur, Eymur, Alayuntlu, Yuregir, İgdir, Bugduz, Yiva and Kınık.

In the 10th and 11th centuries under Seljuk leadership, these tribes spread into Azerbaijan and Anatolia and got mixed with the local population forming the modern nations of Azerbaijanis and Turks of Turkey as well as the Gauguz-Christian nation of Moldova in eastern Europe. In central Asia they became known as the Turkmens who live in present-day Turkmenistan, northeastern Iran and northwestern Afghanistan, although the name "Turkmen" once applied to Azerbaijanis and the Turks of Turkey which was a term designated for Muslim Turks.

Oguz Turkish literature includes the famous "Book of Dede Korkut" which was UNESCO's 2000 literacy work of the year, as well as the "Oguznama" and "Koroglu" epics which are part of the literacy history of Azerbaijanis, Turks of Turkey and Turkmens. According to Lev Gumilev in his accredited work entitled "1,000 years around the Caspian," the Oguz Turks, in the anthropological (racial) category were Caucasoid.

Oguz Turk dynasties include: Seljuks, Atabeks, Aq-Qoyonlus, Qara-Qoyonlus, Safavis, Afshars and Qajars (Gajars) and in Anatolia (Turkey) the Oguz Turks founded the Ottoman empire.

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