The Yomut (Turkmen: Ýomut, Persian: یَمود/یُمود ) is a large ethnographic group within the Turkmen people and historically one of the five major tribes of Turkmenistan.Bosworth, C.E. "Turkmen." In Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., edited by P. Bearman et al. Leiden: Brill, 2012.Ataniyazov, Sh. "The Turkmen Tribes." Central Asian Studies Journal, vol. 14, no. 2, 1997, pp. 45–68. The Yomut have maintained a distinct cultural identity and continue to live primarily in Turkmenistan, Iran, and Uzbekistan.Library of Congress. Turkmenistan: A Country Study. Washington, DC: GPO, 1996.Clement, Victoria. The Peoples of Central Asia. London: Routledge, 2013.
The earliest depictions and descriptions of the Yomut date back to the 16th century. The first official guidebook about the Yomut and the neighboring ethnic groups was written by Clement Augustus de Bode, titled On the Yamud and Goklan Tribes of Turkomania. Historical and modern Yomut tribes
The nineteenth-century ethnographic accounts provide some of the earliest detailed descriptions of the Yomut internal divisions.
According to Charles A. de Bode's On the Yomud and Goklan Tribes of Turkomania, published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society in the mid-19th century, the Yomut of the Gorgan and Atrek regions were grouped into four principal tribal sections:
Sheref: consisting of six subdivisions Chony: consisting of ten subdivisions Bayram-Shali: consisting of five subdivisions Kujfik-Tatar: consisting of eight subdivisions
De Bode notes that these groups were regarded as descendants of four brothers, whose father, "Yamud", is looked upon as the founder of their race (ethnicity).
In contemporary the tribal names have changed, and the Yomut are now represented as:
Jafarbay (Was Sheref-Jafarbay) Ak-Atabay (Cony-Atabay) Bayram-Shali (Remained the same)
Early ethnographic works from the Russian Imperial period record several major patrilineal groupings (urug) within the Yomut. An ethnographic survey published in 1900 notes that, among the Yomut of the Transcaspian region, social and cultural distinctions were often framed around three prominent lineages: the Jafarbay, the Aq, and the Atabay.
Jafarbay (Cäfärbay) — identified as one of the largest and most influential Yomut branches; historically associated with territories between the Atrek River and the southeastern Caspian coast. Atabay (Atabai) — another major Yomut lineage, noted for settlements in the Balkan region and northern Iran. Together with the Jafarbay, the Atabay formed one of the two primary rival groupings within Yomut society. Aq (Ak) — listed in the same source as the third major lineage, forming the counterpart to the Jafarbay in traditional social rivalries.
These lineages were described as playing a role similar to that of major segmentary divisions among other Turkmen tribes, such as the Otamış and Toktamış among the Teke. While modern Yomut tribal identity is less rigid, dialectal and minor cultural differences between these groups continue to be noted in regional ethnographic studies.
Ethnographic research from the early 20th century, including the work of Karpov (1925), notes that the Aq (Ak) and Atabay (Atabai) lineages eventually merged into a single composite grouping known as the Ak-Atabay. Following this consolidation, the former tribal names continued to exist as sub-tribal divisions within the larger Ak-Atabay structure.
Social divisions and the economic divisions
The Yomut Turkmen were traditionally organised not as a unified tribal confederation under a single centralised authority, but rather as a loose coalition of autonomous clans and lineages, each often led by its own local khan or chieftain. While all were identified under the broader Yomut name, these groups operated semi-independently, forming alliances as needed for mutual defense or political interest. Because of this decentralised structure, scholars such as Richard Tapper consider the Yomut not a formal confederation, but a "coalition"—a distinction used to differentiate tribal groups lacking centralised leadership. This flexible political organisation allowed the Yomut to remain resilient and independent in the face of external control, but also made them prone to internal rivalry unless unified by external threats or charismatic leadership.Richard Tapper, "Confederations, Tribal," in *Encyclopaedia Iranica*, Vol. VI, Fasc. 1, pp. 96–102, available online at (http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/confederations-tribal)
The Yomut are divided into two primary geographical categories:
Gurgan (; Also called Gorgan or Gutlytemir): The Gurgan Yomut live in the Gorgan Plain of Iran and the southern bank of the Caspian Sea in Turkmenistan. Khiva (; Also called Bayramsly): The Khiva Yomut live to the immediate west of the city of Khiva, across the border in Turkmenistan.
The nineteenth-century ethnographic sources describe the Yomut as being divided into two principal socio-economic groupings based on mode of life and occupation.
According to Charles A. de Bode, writing on the Yomut in the mid-19th century, these categories were not hereditary but reflected differences in subsistence and settlement patterns.[] Charles A. de Bode, On the Yomut and Goklan Tribes of Turkomania, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, pp. 62–63.
• Chomur (Çomur):
The Chomur lived primarily along the banks of the Gorgan River, extending southwards toward the Karasu. They practised agriculture, cultivating wheat, barley, rice, and vegetables, and maintained gardens and fields in the river valleys. Bode notes that the Chomur had more frequent commercial contact with neighbouring Persian settlements, particularly Asterabad, where they traded felt, woven carpets, grain, butter, sheep, horses, and other products.
• Charwa (Chorva):
The Charwa lived to the north, along the Atrek River and the steppe approaching the desert. They were pastoral nomads whose economy centred on herding sheep, camels, and horses. Bode describes them as more independent and more distant from Persian authority due to their location farther from cultivated lands and administrative centres.
Bode emphasises that the distinction between Chomur and Charwa was fluid: families could move from one category to the other depending on economic circumstances, such as acquiring or losing herds.[Charles A. de Bode, On the Yomut and Goklan Tribes of Turkomania, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, pp. 62–63.
Culture
The Yomut culture is unique from other Turkmen tribes, especially in its traditions, rituals, and customs.
The Kushtdepdi is a traditional rite of singing and dancing that combines improvised poetic verses with rhythmic group movement. In 2017, the practice was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity under the title “Kushtdepdi rite of singing and dancing.”https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/kushtdepdi-rite-of-singing-and-dancing-01259
According to official Turkmen cultural publications, Kushtdepdi represents one of the most distinctive forms of Turkmen folk performance.https://turkmenistan.gov.tm/index.php/en/post/5698/kushtdepti-is-a-vivid-paradigm-of-folk-dance
While the dance has been practised across various Turkmen communities, the coastal groups including some of the Yomut communities, are often noted in contemporary cultural accounts as contributing to its preservation and transmission. However, UNESCO and other major heritage sources do not attribute the tradition exclusively to any single Turkmen tribe.
Among Gurgan Yomut who live on the shore of the Caspian Sea, fishing is an extremely significant part of life. Based on local estimates, there are at maximum 40 fishers in every village. Historically, the Eurasian carp was the most commonly caught fish, however due to environmental loss and overfishing, their population has significantly declined since 1992. Today, almost no Eurasian carp are caught. In recent years, Yomut have adopted modern fishing tools such as galvanized fishing nets and motorboats, though these have also been blamed by locals for a decline in the quantity and quality of fish. Galvanized nets are known locally as "Namardi nets", Narmardi literally meaning invisible, but colloquially used to refer to something considered unmanly.
The khasava (also called khasaba) was a traditional Yomut Turkmen women's wedding headdress, reaching 30 cm or more in height. It was constructed on a widening frame, originally from wheat stalks and later cardboard, draped with fabric and covered with a purenjek (shawl) or don (robe). The headdress was richly decorated with gilded silver plaques, pendants, beads, and chains with bells, whose jingling was compared to the rattle of a snake. Similar in form to the Russian kokoshnik, but much taller, it was considered to preserve features of ancient ritual headgear associated with fertility cults.
Traditionally, the khasava was worn by young brides on their wedding day, removed during the gaytarma period (the temporary return of the bride to her family's home after the wedding before fully settling into her husband's house), and then worn again until the birth of the first or second child. By the early 20th century, variants of the khasava were widespread among young and middle-aged women regardless of childbirth status, though the tall type became rare and was gradually replaced by a shorter form known as alym dany (or beruk, a style borrowed from Iranian women). Different Turkmen tribes used various local names for similar headdresses, including borik (Teke), topby/topba (Sarakhs), bagmak (Ersari), chanie (Nokhur), uramak (northern Yomut), aladaŋy (western Yomut), kars (Khatab and Mukry), dastar (Salyr and Geoklen), and pechek (Lebap).Шохрат Кадыров. Туркмен-нама. Кто такие туркмены. Упсала–Москва: IFECAS, 2013. — С. 386. .
History
Early history The Yomut are one of the major Turkmen tribes, traditionally divided into two groups: the western (Shagadam) Yomuts and the northern (Dashhowuz) Yomuts. A significant portion of the Yomut population lives in the Turkmen region of Iran (Turkmensahran, Etrek and Gurgen districts), while smaller subgroups can also be found in Afghanistan and Karakalpakstan.
Although the name Yomut is very ancient, the tribe appears to have reached formal tribal status only in the late Middle Ages, after the Mongol invasions (12th century onwards). In earlier sources, such as Abylgazy's Genealogy of the Turkmens (16th century), the term "Yomut" is not used to refer to the tribe, but rather to a smaller lineage or clan. According to Abylgazy, the Yomuts descend from Ögürjik Alp, a grandson of Salyr Ghazan: Ögürjik Alp → Berdi → Gulmy → Yomut (Gulmy's second son, Gultak, is considered a sibling lineage).
It is possible that the Yomuts consolidated into a full tribe by gathering people from different branches of the Salyr tribe in the Balkan and Mangyshlak regions, because:
· Abylgazy counts the Yomut as direct descendants of Salyr.
· In the 16th century, Yomuts, together with the Ersary, Saryk, and Teke tribes, belonged to the tribal union known as the outer Salyr.
· The name Gultag, considered a sibling lineage to the Yomut, is preserved as a clan name among the Salyr and Ersary tribes.
Other Yomut sub-clan names also correspond closely to ethnonyms found among these tribes.Soltanşa Atanyýazow, Şejere: Türkmeniň nesil daragty, Aşgabat: Turan-1, 1994.