Editing History of Turkmenistan (section)

== Oghuz tribes ==
The origins of the [[Turkmens|Turkmen]] may be traced back to the [[Turkic tribal confederations|Oghuz]] confederation of nomadic pastoral tribes of the early Middle Ages, who lived in present-day Mongolia and around [[Lake Baikal]] in present-day southern Siberia. This confederation was composed of Turkic-speaking peoples who formed the basis of powerful steppe empires in Inner Asia. In the second half of the 8th century, Oghuz components migrated through Jungaria into Central Asia, and Arabic sources located them under the term Guzz in the area of the middle and lower Syrdariya in the 8th century. By the 10th century, the Oghuz had expanded west and north of the [[Aral Sea]] and into the steppe of present-day Kazakhstan, absorbing not only Iranians but also Turks from the Kipchak and Karluk ethnolinguistic groups. In the 11th century, the Muslim Turk scholar [[Mahmud al-Kashgari]] described the language of the Oghuz and Turkmen as distinct from that of other Turks and identified twenty-two Oghuz clans or sub-tribes, some of which appear in later Turkmen genealogies and legends as the core of the early Turkmen.<ref name=lcweb>{{Loccs|country=Turkmenistan|abbr=tm|editor=Curtis, Glen E.|date=1996}}</ref>
[[File:AD_750OguzYabgu.png|thumb|Oghuz Yabgu State, 750–1055]]
In [[Old Turkic]] inscriptions, there are references to several Oghuz groups like simply ''Oghuz'', ''Üç-Oghuz'' ("three-Oghuz"; possibly [[Karluks]]),<ref>Gumilyov, L.N. "Ancient Turks". [http://gumilevica.kulichki.net/OT/ot05.htm ch. 5] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200708155812/http://gumilevica.kulichki.net/OT/ot05.htm |date=July 8, 2020 }} (in Russian)</ref> ''Altı-Oghuz'' ("six-Oghuz"), ''Sekiz-Oghuz'' ("eight-Oghuz"), possibly *''Otuz Oghuz'' ("Thirty Oghuz"), and the [[Tiele people|Tiele]]-affiliated [[Toquz Oghuz]] ("nine-Oghuz") ([[Chinese language|Chinese]]: 九姓 Jiu Xing "Nine Surnames")<ref name="Golden2015">Golden, Peter B. (2015) [https://www.academia.edu/12226908/The_Turkic_World_in_Mahmud_Kashghari The Turkic Word in Mahmud al-Kashgari] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191223004450/https://www.academia.edu/12226908/The_Turkic_World_in_Mahmud_Kashghari |date=December 23, 2019 }}, p. 507-511</ref><ref>Golden, Peter B. (1972) [https://www.academia.edu/763468/The_Migrations_of_the_Oghuz "The Migrations of the Oğuz"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161008172201/http://www.academia.edu/763468/The_Migrations_of_the_Oghuz |date=October 8, 2016 }} in ''Archivum Ottomanicum'' 4, p. 48</ref> in different areas in the vicinity of the [[Altai Mountains]]. Despite, the similarity of names, the [[Toquz Oghuz]] confederation, from whom emerged the founders of the [[Uyghur Khaganate]], was distinct from the [[Transoxiana]]n Oghuz Turks who'd later found the [[Oghuz Yabgu State]]: for instances, [[Istakhri]] and Muhammad ibn Muhmad al-Tusi kept the Toquz Oghuz and Oghuz distinct<ref name="Golden2015"/> and Ibn al-Faqih mentioned "the infidel Turk-Oghuz, the Toquz-Oghuz, and the Qarluq"<ref>Golden, Peter B. (1992). ''An Introduction to the History of the Turkic People''. Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden. p. 197-198</ref> Even so, [[Peter Benjamin Golden|Golden]] notes the confusion in [[Second Turkic Khaganate|Latter Göktürks]]' and [[Uyghur Khaganate|Uyghurs]]' [[Orkhon inscriptions|inscriptions]], where Oghuz apparently referred to Toquz Oghuz or another tribal grouping, who were also named Oghuz without a prefixed numeral; this confusion is also reflected in [[Sharaf al-Zaman al-Marwazi]], who listed 12 Oghuz tribes, who were ruled by a "Toquz Khaqan" and some of whom were Toquz-Oghuz, on the border of Transoxiana and Khwarazm. At most, the Oghuz were possibly led by a core group of Toquz Oghuz clans or tribes.<ref>Golden (1992) p. 206-207</ref> Likewise, Karluks and Oghuz Turks were distinct even though both were known as [[Turkmens]] in the 11th century;<ref>Divanü Lûgat-it-Türk, translation Besim Atalay, Turkish Language Association, {{ISBN|975-16-0405-2}}, book: 1, page: 473. quote: "Karluks is a division of nomadic Turks. They are separate from [[Oghuz Turks|Oghuz]], but they are [[Turkmens]] like Oghuz."</ref><ref>Kafesoğlu, İbrahim. (1958) "Türkmen Adı, Manası ve Mahiyeti," in ''Jean Deny Armağanı: Mélanges Jean Deny'', eds., János Eckmann, Agâh Sırrı Levend and Mecdut Mansuroğlu (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi) p. 131</ref> yet much later, [[Ilkhanate]] politician [[Rashid al-Din Hamadani]] in his ''[[Jami' al-tawarikh]]'' mentions Karluks as of the [[Oghuz Turks|Oghuz]] ([[Turkmens|Turkmen]]) tribes.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Hamadani|first=Rashid-al-Din|year=1952|title=Джами ат-Таварих (Jami' al-Tawarikh)|url=http://www.vostlit.info/Texts/rus16/Rasidaddin_2/kniga1/framepred2.html|publisher=USSR Academy of Sciences|quote=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...|access-date=December 20, 2020|archive-date=July 23, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210723190142/http://www.vostlit.info/Texts/rus16/Rasidaddin_2/kniga1/framepred2.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Oghuz expansion by means of military campaigns went at least as far as the [[Volga|Volga River]] and [[Ural Mountains]], but the geographic limits of their dominance fluctuated in the steppe areas extending north and west from the Aral Sea. Accounts of Arab geographers and travelers portray the Oghuz ethnic group as lacking centralized authority and being governed by a number of "kings" and "chieftains." Because of their disparate nature as a polity and the vastness of their domains, Oghuz tribes rarely acted in concert. Hence, by the late 10th century, the bonds of their confederation began to loosen. At that time, a clan leader named Seljuk founded a dynasty and the empire that bore his name on the basis of those Oghuz elements that had migrated southward into present-day Turkmenistan and Iran. The Seljuk Empire was centered in Persia, from which Oghuz groups spread into Azerbaijan and Anatolia.<ref name=lcweb />

After the fall of Göktürk kingdom, Oghuz tribes migrated to the area of [[Transoxiana]], in western Turkestan, in modern Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. This land became known as the "Oghuz steppe" which is an area between the Caspian and Aral seas. Ibn al-Athir, an Arab historian, stated that the Oghuz Turks had come to Transoxiana in the period of the caliph [[Al-Mahdi]] in the years between 775 and 785. In the period of the [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid]] caliph [[Al-Ma'mun]] (813–833), the name Oghuz starts to appear in the Islamic historiography. By 780 AD, the eastern parts of the Syr Darya were ruled by the [[Karluks|Karluk]] Turks and the western region (Oghuz steppe) was ruled by the [[Oghuz Turks]].

The name Turkmen first appears in written sources of the 10th century to distinguish those Oghuz groups who migrated south into the Seljuk domains and accepted Islam from those that had remained in the steppe. Gradually, the term took on the properties of an ethnonym and was used exclusively to designate Muslim Oghuz, especially those who migrated away from the [[Syr Darya|Syrdariya Basin]]. By the 13th century, the term Turkmen supplanted the designation Oghuz altogether. The origin of the word Turkmen remains unclear. According to popular etymologies as old as the 11th century, the word derives from Turk plus the Iranian element [[manand]], and means "resembling a Turk." Modern scholars, on the other hand, have proposed that the element man /men acts as an intensifier and have translated the word as "pure Turk" or "most Turk-like of the Turks."<ref name=lcweb />