According to historians and linguists, the
Proto-Turkic language originated in Central-East Asia, potentially in
Altai-Sayan region,
Mongolia or
Tuva. Initially, Proto-Turkic speakers were potentially both hunter-gatherers and farmers, but later became
nomadic pastoralists. Early and
medieval Turkic groups exhibited a wide range of both East Asian and West-Eurasian physical appearances and genetic origins, in part through long-term contact with neighboring peoples such as
Iranian,
Mongolic,
Tocharian,
Uralic and
Yeniseian peoples, and others. In early times, they practiced a
Tengrist religion, erecting many carved wooden funerary statues surrounded by simple stone
balbal monoliths and holding elaborate hunting and banqueting rituals. During the 2nd century BC, according to ancient
Chinese sources, a
steppe tribal confederation known as the
Xiongnu and their allies, the
Wusun defeated the neighboring
Yuezhi and drove them out of western China and into Central Asia. Various scholarly theories link the Xiongnu to Turkic peoples and/or the
Huns.
Bichurin claimed that the first usage of the word
Oghuz appears to have been the title of
Oğuz Kağan, whose biography shares similarities with the account, recorded by Han Chinese, of Xiongnu leader
Modu Shanyu (or Mau-Tun), who founded the
Xiongnu Empire. However, Oghuz Khan narratives were actually collected in
Compendium of Chronicles by
Ilkhanid scholar
Rashid-al-Din in the early 14th century.
Sima Qian recorded the name
Wūjiē 烏揭 (
LHC: *
ʔɔ-gɨat) or
Hūjiē 呼揭 (
LHC: *
xɔ-gɨat), of a people hostile to the Xiongnu and living immediately west of them, in the area of the
Irtysh River, near
Lake Zaysan.
Golden suggests that these might be Chinese renditions of
*Ogur ~
*Oguz, yet uncertainty remains. According to one theory,
Hūjiē is just another transliteration of
Yuezhi and may refer to the Turkic
Uyghurs; however, this is controversial and has few scholarly adherents.
Yury Zuev (1960) links the Oghuz to the
Western Turkic tribe 姑蘇
Gūsū (h)ɨut̚
) after the 十箭 Shí Jiàn
"Ten Arrows" (OTrk 𐰆𐰣:𐰸 On Oq
) and Jĭu Xìng
"Nine Surnames" (OTrk 𐱃𐰸𐰆𐰔:𐰆𐰍𐰔 Toquz Oğuz''); and • another from
al-Maṣudi's
Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems, which mentioned the three hordes of the
Turkic Ġuz. Based on those sources, Zuev proposes that in the 8th century the Oghuzes were located outsides of the Ten Arrows' jurisdiction, west of the
Altai Mountains, near lake
Issyk-Kul,
Talas river's basin and seemingly around the
Syr Darya basin, and near the Chumul,
Karluks,
Qays,
Quns,
Śari, etc. who were mentioned by al-Maṣudi and
Sharaf al-Zaman al-Marwazi. , an Oghuz
Döğer ruler of the
Artuqid dynasty,
Mardin, dated AH 611 (1214-5 CE) According to
Ahmad ibn Fadlan, the Oghuz were nomads, but also had cultivated crops, and the economy was based on a semi-pastoralist lifestyle. Byzantine emperor
Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos mentioned the
Uzi and
Mazari (
Hungarians) as neighbours of the
Pechenegs. By the time of the
Orkhon inscriptions (8th century AD) "Oghuz" was being applied generically to all inhabitants of the Göktürk Khaganate. Within the khaganate, the Oghuz community gradually expanded, incorporating other tribes. A number of subsequent tribal confederations bore the name Oghuz, often affixed to a numeral indicating the number of united tribes. These include references to the simple
Oguz,
Üch-Oghuz ("three Oghuz"),
Altï Oghuz ("six Oghuz"), possibly the
Otuz Oghuz ("thirty Oghuz"),
Sekiz-Oghuz ("eight Oghuz"), and the
Tokuz-Oghuz ("nine Oghuz"), who originally occupied different areas in the vicinity of the Altai Mountains.
Golden (2011) states
Transoxanian Oghuz Turks who founded the
Oghuz Yabgu State were not the same tribal confederation as the
Toquz Oghuz from whom emerged the founders of
Uyghur Khaganate.
Istakhri and Muhammad ibn Muhmad al-Tusi kept the Toquz Oghuz and Oghuz distinct and Ibn al-Faqih mentioned: "the infidel Turk-Oghuz, the Toquz-Oghuz, and the Qarluq" Even so, Golden notes the confusion in
Latter Göktürks' and
Uyghurs'
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. Noting that the mid-8th-century
Tariat inscriptions, in
Uyghur khagan
Bayanchur's honor, mentioned the rebellious Igdir tribe who had revolted against him, Klyashtorny considers this as one piece of "direct evidence in favour of the existence of kindred relations between the Tokuz Oguzs of Mongolia, The Guzs of the Aral region, and modern
Turkmens", besides the facts that
Kashgari mentioned the Igdir as the 14th of 22 Oghuz tribes; and that Igdirs constitute part of the Turkmen tribe
Chowdur. The Shine Usu inscription, also in Bayanchur's honor, mentioned the Nine-Oghuzes as "[his] people" and that he defeated the Eight-Oghuzes and their allies, the
Nine Tatars, three times in 749.; according to Klyashtorny and Czeglédy, eight tribes of the Nine-Oghuzes revolted against the leading Uyghur tribe and renamed themselves Eight-Oghuzes.
Ibn al-Athir, an
Arab historian, claimed that the Oghuz Turks were settled mainly in
Transoxiana, between the Caspian and Aral Seas, during the period of the
caliph Al-Mahdi (after 775 AD). By 780, the eastern parts of the
Syr Darya were ruled by the
Karluk Turks and to their west were the Oghuz. Transoxiana, their main homeland in subsequent centuries became known as the "Oghuz Steppe". During the period of the
Abbasid caliph
Al-Ma'mun (813–833), the name Oghuz starts to appear in the works of Islamic writers. The
Book of Dede Korkut, a historical epic of the Oghuz, contains historical echoes of the 9th and 10th centuries but was likely written several centuries later. ==Physical appearance==