Oghuz Turks
Nation | Active
500 CE to 2057 CE
The Ghuzz or Turkmen also known as Oguzes (a linguistic term designating the Western Turkic or Oghuz languages from the Oghur languages) are a historical Turkic tribal confederation in Central Asia during the early medieval period.
The name Oguz is a Common Turkic word for "tribe".
The Oguz confederation migrates westward from the Jeti-su area after a conflict with Karluks.
The founders of the Ottoman Empire are descendants of the Oguz Yabgu State.In the 9th century, the Oguzes from the Aral steppes drive Bechens from the Emba and Ural River region toward the west.
In the 10th century they inhabit the steppe of the rivers Sari-su, Turgai, and Emba to the north of Lake Balkhash of modern day Kazakhstan.
A clan of this nation, the Seljuks, embraces Islam and in the 11th century and enters Persia, where they found the Great Seljuk Empire.
Similarly, in the 11th century a Tengriist Oghuz clan—referred to as Uzes or Torks in the Russian chronicles—overthrows Pecheneg supremacy in the Russian steppe.
Harried by another Turkic horde, the Kipchaks —these Oghuz penetrate as far as the lower Danube, cross it and invade he Balkans, where they are either crushed or struck down by an outbreak of plague, causing the survivors either to flee or to join the Byzantine imperial forces as mercenaries (1065).
The Oghuz seem to have been related to the Pechenegs, some of whom were clean-shaven and others of whom had small 'goatee' beards In later centuries, they adapted and applied their own traditions and institutions to the ends of the Islamic world and emerged as empire-builders with a constructive sense of statecraft.Linguistically, the Oghuz are listed together with the old Kimaks of the middle Yenisei of the Ob, the old Kipchaks who later emigrated to southern Russia, and the modern Kirghiz in one particular Turkic group, distinguished from the rest by the mutation of the initial y sound to j (dj).
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From 629 to 648, a reunited China—under the Tang Dynasty (618-906)—destroys the power of the Eastern Turk north of the Gobi; establishes suzerainty over the Khitan, a semi-nomadic Mongol people who live in areas that will become the modern Chinese provinces of Heilongjiang and Jilin; and forms an alliance with the Tiele (proto-Uyghurs), who inhabit the region between the Altai Mountains and Lake Balkash.
Between 641 and 648, the Tang conquer the Western Turk, reestablishing Chinese sovereignty over Xinjiang and exacting tribute from west of the Pamir Mountains.
The Turk empire will finally end in 744.
Northern Wei is disintegrating rapidly because of revolts of semi-tribal Tuoba military forces that are opposed to being sinicized, when disaster strikes the flourishing Rouran empire.
The Turk, a vassal people, known as Tujue to Chinese chroniclers, revolt against their Rouran rulers.
The uprising begins in the Altai Mountains, where many of the Turk are serfs working the iron mines.
Thus, from the outset of their revolt, they have the advantage of controlling what had been one of the major bases of Rouran power.
Between 546 and 553, the Turk overthrow the Rouran and establish themselves as the most powerful force in North Asia and Inner Asia.
This is the beginning of a pattern of conquest that is to have a significant effect upon Eurasian history for more than a thousand years.
The Turk are the first people to use this later widespread name.
They are also the earliest Inner Asian people whose language is known, because they leave behind Orkhon inscriptions in a runic-like script, which will be deciphered in 1896.
The tribes in the region north of the Gobi—the Eastern Turk—are soon following invasion routes into China used in previous centuries by Xiongnu, Xianbei, Toba, and Rouran.
Like their predecessors who had inhabited the mountains and the steppes, the attention of the Turk is quickly attracted by the wealth of China.
At first these new raiders encounter little resistance, but toward the end of the sixth century, as China slowly begins to recover from centuries of disunity, border defenses stiffen.
The original Turk state splits into eastern and western parts, with some of the Eastern Turk acknowledging Chinese overlordship.
A new consolidation of the Turk, under the Western Turk ruler Tardu, again threatens China for a brief period at the beginning of the seventh century.
In 601 Tardu's army besieges Chang' an (modern Xi'an), at this time the capital of China.
Tardu is turned back, however, and, upon his death two years later, the Turk state again fragments. The Eastern Turk nonetheless continue their depredations, occasionally threatening Chang'an.
Thrace and Greece have been inundated by the Slavs during the four-year reign of Tiberius II.
The emperor, mortally ill, possibly from purposefully poisoned food, recognizes Maurice as his successor, betroths him to Tiberius' daughter Constantina, and crowns him emperor on August 13, one day before his own death.
Magnus had died shortly before Tiberius's own death in August 582, and with Maurice's accession to the throne, Mundhir’s son Nu'man journeys to Constantinople to achieve a reconciliation with the empire.
Instead, he too is arrested, tried, and sentenced to death, quickly commuted to house arrest.
The Western Turks meanwhile begin inroads across the Danube that will take them, within fifty years, into Macedonia, Thrace, and Greece.
Ishbara raids Apa Khagan's territory in 584 and kills the latter's mother.
Apa takes refuge in the west and allies himself with its powerful ruler Tardush.
Both Tardush and his brother Tamgan, the ruler of the Volga river area, supply him with troops.
As Ishbara is unable to compete with this force, he accepts the suzerainty of Sui China to protect himself.
With Chinese support, he is able to capture Apa Khagan's family members.
Apa Khagan once again escapes west and settles in the Paykend near Bukhara.
However, in his new territory, the former alliance breaks up and he loses the support of Tardush because of the disagreement over control of the Silk Road.
Internal rebellion had begun to be widespread throughout the Sassanid Persian empire, concurrent with its war against the Romans, following the ascension of Hormizd IV, the son and successor of Khosrau I, in 579.
Turkic invaders have overrun most of Khorasan, but, by the mid 580s, Persian general Bahram Chobin has regained much of the lost territory.
Hormizd tyrannizes the Jews, forcing many to flee, including the leaders of the academies.
However, when the Zoroastrian priests demand a similar persecution of the Christians, Hormizd refuses for the reason that the throne and government can be safe only with the goodwill of both religions.
Although negotiations for peace had begun with the emperor Maurice, Hormizd declines to cede any of his father's conquests.
Khosrau I, Shah of Sassanid Persia, had in 558 allied with the Göktürks to defeat the Hephthalites.
The campaign was successful and the region north of the Oxus had gone to the Turks and the south had come under Sassanid rule.
However, in the 580's, the Turks had once again commenced their raids on the Silk Road and in 588, the Hephthalites, who are now part of the Western Turkic Khaganate, invade the empire once more.
Bahram Chobin, descended from the House of Mihran, one of the Seven Parthian clans, is chosen to lead an army against them.
According to Shahbazi, Bahram's army consisted of twelve thousand hand picked Savaran, Persia's elite soldiers.
His army ambushes a large army of Turks and Hephthalites in April 588, at the battle of Hyrcanian rock in Herat in 589, over a large Göktürk army reported to have outnumbered his troops five to one.
Relying on the discipline and superior training of his Persian cataphract cavalry, Bahram traps and defeats the Turks.
Bahram Chobin defeats the Turks and Hephthalites again in 589, capturing Balkh.
He proceeds to cross the Oxus River and manages to repulse the Turkic Invasion and take over Hephthalite territory that had been occupied by the Turks.
It is reported that an arrow shot by Bahram killed the Eastern Turkic Khagan, Bagha Qaghan, known as Ch'u-lo-hou by the Chinese.