Az people

The Az or As were a Turkic people from the Eastern and Southern Altai and are associated with the Türkic period Kudyrge culture in the Altai.

Mentions

The Az people's existence is confirmed by the Tannu-Ola mountains inscriptions of Mugur-Sargol and Bayan-Kol and certain verses of the Göktürks, while describing the battles between the Göktürks and the Kyrgyz. According to the Bayan-Kol inscriptions, the Az were divided to many clans living in the region of Mugur west of the Tannu-Ola mountains. There are also writings from the 8th century (around 714 AD) in Uyghur sources about the uprising of the Az against the Göktürks.

Origins

The Az left the runic Kalbak-Tash II inscription which was written in a Turkic language. According to L.P. Potapov, the names of the Telengit seoks (Tёrtas – “four As”, Djeti-as – “seven As”, Baylangas – “numerous As”) suggest that the As tribe was a part of the Turkic Tiele.: 166–167 

However, many researchers (e.g. Golden, Kyzlasov [ru], etc.) dispute the Az's Turkic origin and propose that the Az had been a people of non-Turkic origin who were influenced by neighboring Turkic people and became Turkophones: Russian linguist experts, who research the Az people, trace them as close ethnically to Ket people of Yenisei basin in Siberia due to similarities in name between 𐰔:𐰉𐰆𐰑𐰣 az budïn and the Assans, who spoke an extinct Yeniseic Kott dialect. The primary information on their language was collected by Matthias Castrén in 1845, with further research and information added later by the anthropologist Dmitry Anuchin. Meanwhile, Az were also hypothesized to be Turkicized descendants of the Iranian-speakers, particularly Asiani-Wusun.: 53  Kubarev (2016) proposes the Az's inscription proves either that the Az were Turkic speakers, or they used the Turkic language only for writing, not for speaking, or that they were adapting Turkic culture.

Legacy

The name Az has been suggested to live on in the names of several other peoples of southern Siberia: the Kamas ("Mountain Az"), the Karagas ("Black Az" or "Plains Az"), and the Khakas ("White Az"). However, Khakas is in fact an exonym constructed by the Soviets for Yenisei Kyrgyz' descendants, based on Chinese 黠戛斯; Xiajiasi, which actually transcribes the ancient endonym Kyrgyz.

Similar names of genealogical nature are ascertainable among modern and historical Turkic tribes: Old Bulgars, Nogais, Altaians, Turkmens, Uzbeks, Kazan Tatars and Kazakhs.

According Potapov, the Az is certainly connected with the modern-day Altai population.: 166–167 

A wide toponymic distribution of the name As, Az and Ash is found in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Central Asia and Altai region.

Notes

  1. ↑ If true, this would parallel the fact that the Siberian-Turkic-speaking Göktürks left early official inscriptions in Sogdian language and Rouran language before the invention of the Old Turkic script.

References

  1. 1 2 Hajiyeva Galiba, "Toponimys with ancient Turk origins in the Balkans", Nakhchivan State University, IBAC 2012 vol.2, pp.270-272
  2. ↑ Nikita Konstantinov, Vasilii Soenov, Synaru Trifanova, Svetlana Svyatko, "History and culture of the early Türkic period: A review of archaeological monuments in the Russian Altai from the 4th–6th century AD", Archaeological Research in Asia, Volume 16, 2018, Pages 103-115, ISSN 2352-2267, doi:10.1016/j.ara.2018.06.002. (PDF)
  3. ↑ Ciro Lo Muzio, "Archaeological Traces of Early Turks in Transoxiana: An Overview", 2010, in: Coins, Art and Chronology II. The First Millennium CE in the Indo-Iranian Borderlands, edited by M. Alram, D. Klimburg-Salter, M. Inaba, M. Pfisterer, Vienna, pp. 429-442. doi:10.1553/0x00250de0 ISBN 978-3-7001-6885-0
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Kubarev, G.V. "A Runic Inscription at Kalbak-Tash II, Central Altai, with Reference to the Location of the Az Tribe" in Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia 44/4 (2016). pp. 96-99 of 92–101.
  5. 1 2 Potapov L.P. (1969) Etnicheskiy sostav i proiskhozhdeniye altaitsev: Ist.-etnogr. ocherk. Leningrad: Nauka.
  6. ↑ BARTHOLD Wilhelm, 12 Vorlesungen über die Geschichte der Türken Mittelasiens, Berlin, Arthur Collignon, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Islamkunde, 1935, p37
  7. ↑ Golden, P.B. (1992) "An Introduction to the History of the Turkic peoples" Turcologica 9.
  8. ↑ Roux, Jean-Paul (2000). Histoire des Turcs (in French). Fayard. p. 79
  9. ↑ Baratova, Larissa (2005). "Turko-Sogdian Coinage". Encyclopedia Iranica.
  10. ↑ Vovin, Alexander (2019). "A Sketch of the Earliest Mongolic Language: the Brāhmī Bugut and Khüis Tolgoi Inscriptions". International Journal of Eurasian Linguistics. 1 (1): 162–197. doi:10.1163/25898833-12340008. ISSN 2589-8825. S2CID 198833565 – via BRILL.
  11. ↑ Joki, Aulis J. (1952). Die Lehnwörter des Sajansamojedischen. Helsinki. pp. 34–35.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  12. ↑ Simoncsics, Péter. 1998. "Kamassian". The Uralic Languages, ed. Daniel Abondolo, pp. 580–601.
  13. ↑ Kara, Dávid Somfai (2018). "The Formation of Modern Turkic 'Ethnic' Groups in Central and Inner Asia". The Hungarian Historical Review. 7 (1): 98–110. ISSN 2063-8647. JSTOR 26571579. The remaining Turkic clans (Yenisei Kyrgyz) were called the Tatars of Minusinsk by the Russians, and soon this became their autonym (tadarlar). In Soviet times, their official name (exonym) changed. They became Khakas after their Chinese name "xiajiasi," or Kyrgyz.
  14. ↑ Ismail Miziulu, Adilhan Appa, "Tarih Halkin Zenginliğidir", bilig-7/Güz 1998, p.27

Sources

Saadettin Gömeç: İslâm Öncesi Türk Tarihinin Kaynakları Üzerine. In: AÜ Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Tarih Bölümü Tarih Araştırmaları Dergisi, Bd. 20, Nr. 31, 2000, S. 51–92 (72f.)