The Yenisei Kyrgyz () were an ancient Turkic people who dwelled along the upper Yenisei in the southern portion of the Minusinsk Hollow from the 3rd century BCE to the 13th century CE. The heart of their homeland was the forested Tannu-Ola mountain range (known in ancient times as the Lao or Kogmen mountains), in modern-day Tuva, just north of Mongolia. The Sayan Mountains were also included in their territory at different times.
Origins The Yenisei Kyrgyz were a nomadic people who inhabited the Upper Yenisei. According to the Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang, written by Duan Chengshi in the 9th century, the Kyrgyz considered themselves descendants of a god and a cow that had mated in a cave: The Jiankun (堅昆) [Qirghiz] tribe, [unlike the Türks], is not of wolf descent. Their ancestors were born in a cave located to the north of the Quman Mountain. They themselves say that in the ancient times there was a god who mated with a cow in that cave. The people's hair is yellow, eyes are green, and beards are red.
In Chinese historical sources, the Kyrgyz are distinguished from the Uyghurs and other Tiele tribes. The Xin Tangshu, which contains detailed information about the Kyrgyz, describes their distinctive physical appearance: "The people are all tall and big and have red hair, white faces, and green eyes" (人皆長大，赤髮、皙面、綠瞳).
According to the Xin Tangshu, a neighboring tribe known as the Boma (駁馬) or Bila (弊剌) resembled the Kyrgyz, although their language was different. This may indicate that the Kyrgyz were not originally a Turkic-speaking people, but underwent Turkification, at least partially, through intertribal marriages during the period of the First Turkic Khaganate. In the case of Are (阿熱), a ruler of the Kyrgyz, his wife was of Karluk origin, while his mother was of Türgesh origin. In addition, the Xin Tangshu states that the Kyrgyz "mixed with the Dingling" (其種雜丁零). At any rate, the (red-haired) Qirghiz "found dark hair ominous (以黑髮為不祥)" and "regarded those with black eyes as descending from [Li] Ling (李陵)", a Chinese general who had defected to the Xiongnu.
The modern descendants of the Yenisei Kyrgyz are considered to include the Tian Shan Kyrgyz, Khakas, Southern Altaians, and Fuyu Kyrgyz. The R1a1 lineage, more specifically its subclade R1a1a1b2 (R1a-Z93), occurs at high frequencies among Turkic peoples currently living in the Yenisei River and Altai Mountains regions of Russia, as well as among the Kyrgyz of Kyrgyzstan. This has been interpreted as potentially supporting an Indo-European origin for the Yenisei Kyrgyz.
History The Yenisei Kyrgyz correlated with the and may perhaps be correlated to the Tashtyk culture."Xipoliya Yanke Suo Jian Xiajiesi Monijiao" ("Siberian Rock Arts and Xiajiesi's Manicheism") 1998 Gansu Mingzu YanjiuA. J. Haywood, Siberia: A Cultural History, Oxford University Press, 2010, p.203Christoph Baumer, The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe Warriors, I.B.Tauris, 2012, p.171 Their endonym was variously transcribed in Chinese historical texts as Jiegu (結骨), Hegu (紇骨), Hegusi (紇扢斯), Hejiasi (紇戛斯), Hugu (護骨), Qigu (契骨), Juwu (居勿), and Xiajiasi (黠戛斯),Theobald, Ulrich (2012). "Xiajiasi 黠戛斯, Qirqiz" for ChinaKnowledge.de - An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History, Literature and Art but first appeared as Gekun (or Ko-kun; ) or Jiankun (or Chien-kun; ) in the Shiji and Book of Han, respectively.Pulleyblank, Edwin G. "The Name of the Kirghiz" in Central Asiatic Journal, Vol. 34, No. 1/2 (1990). Harrassowitz Verlag. page 98-99 of 98-108 Peter Golden reconstructs underlying *Qïrğïz < *Qïrqïz< *Qïrqïŕ and suggests a derivation from Old Turkic qïr 'gray' (horse color) plus suffix -q(X)ŕ/ğ(X)ŕ ~ k(X)z/g(X)z.Golden, Peter B. (August 2018). "The Ethnogonic Tales of the Türks". The Medieval History Journal, 21(2): 302.
Around 202 BCE, Xiongnu chanyu Modu conquered the Kyrgyz –then known to Chinese as Gekun (鬲昆), along with the Hunyu (渾庾), Qushe (屈射), Dingling (丁零), and Xinli (薪犁).Sima Qian Records of the Grand Historian Vol. 110 "後北服渾庾、屈射、丁零、鬲昆、薪犁之國。…… 是時漢初定中國，……。" translation: "Later in the North [Modun] subdued the Hunyu, Qushe, Dingling, Gekun, and Xinli nations. It was when the Han had just stabilized the Central Region, [...]. [i.e. 202 BCE]" Duan Chengshi wrote in Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang that the mythological ancestors of the Kyrgyz tribe (Jiānkūn bùluò 堅昆部落) were "a god and a cow" (神與牸牛), (unlike the Göktürks, whose mythological ancestress was a she-wolf; or the Tiele, whose mythological ancestors were a he-wolf and a daughter of a Xiongnu chanyu), and that Kyrgyz's point of origin was a cave north of the Quman mountains (曲漫山),Youzang Zazu vol. 4Lee & Kuang (2017) "A Comparative Analysis of Chinese Historical Sources and Y-DNA Studies with Regard to the Early and Medieval Turkic Peoples", Inner Asia 19. p. 204-205 of 197-239Golden, Peter B. (August 2018). "The Ethnogonic Tales of the Türks". The Medieval History Journal, 21(2): 297-304 which was identified with either the Sayan or the Tannu-Ola; additionally, Xin Tangshu mentioned that the Kyrgyz army was stationed next to Qīngshān 青山 "Blue Mountains", calqued from Turkic Kögmän (> Ch. Quman) and the river Kem (> 劍 Jiàn).Kenzheakhmet, Nurlan (2014). "Ethnonyms and Toponyms" of the Old Turkic Inscriptions in Chinese sources". Studia et Documenta Turcologica. II. p. 299 of 287–316. By the time the Göktürk Empire fell in the eighth century CE, the Yenisei Kyrgyz had established their own thriving state based on the Göktürk model. They had adopted the Orkhon script of the Göktürks and established trading ties with China and the Abbasid Caliphate in the Middle East.
The Kyrgyz khagans of the Kyrgyz Khaganate claimed descent from the Chinese general Li Ling, grandson of the famous Han dynasty general Li Guang. Li Ling was captured by the Xiongnu and defected in the first century BCE and since the Tang imperial Li family also claimed descent from Li Guang, the Kyrgyz khagan was therefore recognized as a member of the Tang imperial family. Emperor Zhongzong of Tang had said to them that "Your nation and Ours are of the same ancestral clan (Zong). You are not like other foreigners."
In 758, the Uyghurs killed the Kyrgyz khagan and the Kyrgyz came under the rule of the Uyghur Khaganate. However, the Yenisei Kyrgyz spent much of their time in a state of rebellion. In 840 they succeeded in sacking the Uyghur capital, Ordu-Baliq in Mongolia's Orkhon Valley and driving the Uyghurs out of Mongolia entirely. On February 13, 843 at "Kill the Foreigners" Mountain, the Tang Chinese inflicted a devastating defeat on the Uyghur qaghan's forces. But rather than replace the Uyghurs as the lords of Mongolia, the Yenisei Kyrgyz continued to live in their traditional homeland and exist as they had for centuries. The defeat and collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate triggered a massive migration of Uyghurs from Mongolia into Turfan, Kumul and Gansu, where they founded the kingdom of Qocho and the Ganzhou Uyghur Kingdom.
When Genghis Khan came to power in the early 13th century, the Yenisei Kyrgyz submitted peacefully to him and were absorbed into his Mongol Empire, putting an end to their independent state. During the time of the Mongol Empire, the territory of the Yenisei Kyrgyz in northern Mongolia was turned into an agricultural colony called Kem-Kemchik. Kublai Khan, who founded the Yuan dynasty, also sent Mongol and Han officials (along with colonists) to serve as judges in the Kyrgyz and Tuva regions.
Some of the Yenisei Kyrgyz were relocated into the Dzungar Khanate by the Dzungars. In 1761, after the Dzungars were defeated by the Qing dynasty, some Öelet, a tribe of Oirat-speaking Dzungars, were deported to the Nonni basin in northeastern China (Manchuria) and a group of Yenisei Kyrgyz were also deported along with the Öelet. The Kyrgyz who moved to northeastern China became known as the Fuyu Kyrgyz, but they have now mostly merged with the Mongol and Chinese population.Tchoroev (Chorotegin) 2003, p. 110.Pozzi & Janhunen & Weiers 2006, p. 113.
Language
The Tang Huiyao (961 CE), citing the Protector General of Anxi Ge Jiayun, states that the Kyrgyz, known to the Chinese as the Jiankun, all had red hair and green eyes. The ones with dark eyes and black hair were believed to be descended from Li Ling, a Han dynasty general whom the Kyrgyz claimed to have married a Kyrgyz woman and was sent to aid in their governance after he surrendered to the Xiongnu. The name Jiankun was later changed to Xiajiasi; according to a translation clerk, Xiajiasi meant "yellow head and red face" and this was what the Uyghurs called them; Pulleyblank (1990) proposes that "yellow head and red face" was a folk etymology based on Turkic qizqil ~ qïzïl "red".
From Xiajiasi 黠戛斯, Soviet scientists constructed the new exonym Khakass.Lee & Kuang (2017) "A Comparative Analysis of Chinese Historical Sources and Y-DNA Studies with Regard to the Early and Medieval Turkic Peoples", Inner Asia 19. p. 216 of 197-239 Edwin G. Pulleyblank surmises that "red face and yellow head" meaning was possibly a folk etymology provided by an interpreter who explained the ethnonym based on Turkic qïzïl ~ qizqil, meaning 'red'.Pulleyblank, Edwin G. "The Name of the Kirghiz" in Central Asiatic Journal, Vol. 34, No. 1/2 (1990). Harrassowitz Verlag. page 105 of 98-108 The description of the Kyrgyz as "large, with red hair, white faces, and green or blue eyes" in Tang Chinese sources have tempted a number of researchers to assume that the Kyrgyz may have originally been non-Turkic or at least an ethnically mixed people. Ligeti cited the opinions of various scholars who had proposed to see them as assimilated Germanic, Slav, or Ket, while he himself, following Castrén and Schott, favoured an assimilated Samoyed origin on the basis of an etymology for a supposed Kyrgyz word qaša or qaš for "iron". However Pulleyblank argued:
American Turkologist Michael Drompp notes that the connection between language and race is highly inconclusive and the physical appearance of the Kyrgyz is no more credible an indicator of non-Turkic origin than a few possibly non-Turkic words in their lexicon, whose presence can be explained through linguistic borrowing. Yenisei Kyrgyz inscriptions in the eighth century and later are written completely in the Turkic language and Tang Chinese sources clearly state that the Kyrgyz wrote and spoke a language identical to the Uyghurs. Drompp states that there is no reason to assume the Kyrgyz were non-Turkic in origin, although such a possibility cannot be discounted.
According to Lee & Kuang, who cite Chinese historical descriptions as well as genetic data, the turcophone "Qirghiz" may have been of non-Turkic origin, and were later Turkified through inter-tribal marriage. The Kyrgyz were described in the You yang za zu by Duan Chengshi in the 9th century AD as people with yellow hair, green eyes, and red beards. According to Duan, the Kyrgyz were not of wolf descent, unlike the Turks, and were born in a cave north of Quman Mountain as the offspring of a god and a cow. The New Book of Tang (11th century) did not consider the Kyrgyz to be the same as the Tiele tribes but states that they had the same language and script as the Uyghurs. The New Book states that the Kyrgyz were "all tall and big and have red hair, white faces, and green eyes." They looked similar to the neighboring "Boma tribe" (Basmyl), who did not share the same language, implying that the Kyrgyz may have originally been a non-Turkic people. Lee & Kuang consider the Kyrgyz to have been physically distinct from the "Kök Türks" because no similar description of their appearance exists while Ashina Simo's ancestry was called into question for his "Hu" Sogdian appearance. Gardizi believed the red hair and white skin of the Kyrgyz was explained by mixing with the "Saqlabs" (Slavs) while the New Book states that the Kyrgyz intermixed with the Dingling.
Lifestyle