Yagma
Nation | Defunct
532 CE to 1000 CE
The Yagmas, or Yaghmas, are a medieval tribe of Turkic people that comesto the forefront of history after the disintegration of the Western Turkic Kaganate.
They are one component of a confederation that consists of Yagma, the Karluks, the Chigils and other tribes that found the Kara-Khanid Khanate.
From the seventh century until the Karakhanid period, the Yagma are recorded in Arabic, Muslim, and Chinese accounts as a prominent and powerful political entity in the Tarim Basin, Dzungaria, and Jeti-su.
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The Yagma people (a branch of the Toquz Oghuz, the later Uyghur) occupy the southern part of Zhetysu; they also hold Kashgar.
…the region known historically as Zhetysu (Kazakh: meaning "seven waters"), which corresponds to the southeastern part of modern Kazakhstan, owes its name, to the rivers that flow from the southeast into Lake Balkhash.
The Karluk tribes, after overrunning the Turgesh in Zhetysu, in 766 form a Khanate under the rule of a Yabgu, occupy Suyab, and transfer their capital there.
The bulk of the tribe has left the Altai by this time, and the supremacy in Zhetysu passes to the Karluks.
Most of Turkestan (former Onuq territory) comes under Karluk rule, except in the region west of the Aral Sea, where the Oghuz Turks will soon form a loose confederation.
The Karluks, who are hunters, nomadic herdsmen, and agriculturists, settle in the countryside and in the cities, which are centered around trading posts along the caravan roads.
The Karluks have inherited a vast multiethnic region, whose diverse population is not much different from its rulers.
Zhetysu is populated by the Turgesh, who are divided into two tribes, the Tukhshi and the Azes mentioned in the Orkhon inscriptions, the remnants of the Oghuz Turks whose main body had moved to the west, becoming the Shato Turks (i.e.
"Steppe Turks"), and interspersed with the Sogdian colonies.
In the north and west live the Kankalis.
A separate significant division of the Karluks are the Chigils, a tribe that had detached from the Karluk.
They reside around Issyk Kul.
The diverse population adheres to a spectrum of religious beliefs.
The Karluks and the majority of the Turkic population profess Tengrianism, considered as shamanism and heathen by the Christians and Muslims.
Chigils are Christians of the Nestorian denomination.
The majority of the Toquz Oghuz, with their khan, are Manicheans, but there are also Christians, Buddhists, and Muslims among them.
The peaceful penetration of Muslim culture through commercial relations plays a far more important role in their conversion than Muslim arms.
The merchants are followed by missionaries of various creeds, including Nestorian Christians.
Many Turkestan towns have Christian churches.
The Turks hold sacred the Qastek pass mountains, believing to be an abode of the deity.
Each creed carries its script, including Türkic runiform, Sogdian, Syriac, and later the Uyghur.