Etymology The word
boz is found in almost all of the
Turkic languages, and appears in
Middle Mongol as
boro.
Boz has two meanings, first "to break" and second "gray", specifically a color "between white and
roan", light gray, ash-colored, light-ashen, whitish, off-white, skewbald, blue tending towards white, blue-gray, whitish red, etc. Its symbolic significance is not clear.
Boz is used as color symbolism, in connection with a later
Oghuz nomadic subdivisions such as
Boz Oq or
Boz Ulus. The enacted in 1540 recognizes ethnic and social differences of the Muslim communities under the Ottoman rule, which characterizes the Turkmen nomadic tribes as
Boz Ulus (grey nation) and the
Kurdish nomadic tribes as
Kara Ulus (black nation).
Population In 1474, the confederacy had 6,000 households (tents) with 29,000 persons, including 3,000 men, 15,000 women and 11,000 children. According to the Ottoman census dating 1540, the confederacy consisted of 4,994 households, which 4,568 were families, while 462 were
mücerred (bachelors). Turkologist Mustafaev believes that the confederation was large as 23,000 people. Population of Bozulus in the 17th century is estimated to 60,000 people with more than 2 million sheep. Its seasonal migrations covered an area extending from
Mardin to
Persia and
Georgia. In early 17th century some groups broke off from this confederacy went to western Anatolia and the
Balkans, signaling the end of the confederacy in eastern Anatolia. The confederacy started to come to the
Karaman and
Ankara regions and reached to the
Kütahya and
Aydın regions by the middle of the 17th century. A community of Bozulus had been settled in
Kuşadası whereas some groups had been settled within the
Aegean islands like
Rhodes and
Kos (
İstanköy). == References ==