92 articles

Peoples

Ethnonyms and named peoples.

Core article

Göktürks The self-designation of the people ruled by the Ashina, attested in the runiform inscriptions of the eighth century.
Huns Nomadic people who entered Europe in the 370s and under Attila ruled from the Caucasus to the Rhine. Their empire broke apart after 453. Their identity with the Xiongnu is debated.
On Oq The Ten Arrows: ten tribes, five Üç Tuğlu east of Suyab and five Nushibi west of it, each chief holding an arrow. The western Göktürks dissolved into them after 630.
Rouran The people of the Rouran Khaganate, overlords of the Ashina until 552. Donghu and Xianbei in origin by the Wei Shu, para-Mongolic by the usual classification.
Uyghurs A Tiele people of the Nine Oguz, subject in turn to the Rouran and the Göktürks. They overthrew the last Göktürk khan in 744 and held the Orkhon for ninety-six years.
Xianbei The people who took the eastern steppe from the Xiongnu in the first century and gave it its next order. The Rouran ruling house and the Tuoba of the Northern Wei came out of them.
Yenisei Kirghiz Mysterious Turkic-speaking people of the upper Yenisei, known for iron and gold. Part of the Göktürk Empire for most of the time, they ended the Uyghur Khaganate and the Ötüken-centered ruling mandate.

Abusi minimal Tiele tribe, the eighth of the nine of the Toquz Oghuz in the Tang Huiyao, ranked with the others only after the Tianbao era. Also the name of a chief who went over to the Tang.
Akatziri Nomadic people of the steppe north of the Black Sea, ruled by many chiefs. Attila subdued them in the 440s and set his eldest son over them; the Saragurs defeated them about 463.
Alans Iranian-speaking nomads of the steppe beyond the Don and the north Caucasus. The Huns subdued them in the 370s; in 576 the Göktürk prince Türk-shad counted them among the khaganate's slaves.
Alchon Huns Hun dynasties of the Kabul valley, Gandhara and northern India, known from coins with the Bactrian word alxono. Khingila, Toramana and Mihirakula ruled in their name. Indian texts call them Huna.
Amilzuri minimal People on the lower Danube in the fifth century, named first among those whom the Hun king Rua wanted to fight because they had fled to the Romans. Jordanes splits the name in two.
Angisciri minimal Tribe among the last followers of Attila's son Dengizich in the 460s, named only by Jordanes. The name may be Turkic or may mean the grassland Sciri.
Avars Steppe people who held a khaganate in Pannonia until 796. Their khagans and ruling nobility most likely came from the Rouran, and with them the title khagan came to Europe.
Az People of the mountain country between the western Sayan and the Altai, named beside the Kırgız in the Göktürk inscriptions. A man of the Az guided Tonyukuk, and Kül Tegin took their iltäber.
Bardores minimal Hun tribe among the last followers of Attila's son Dengizich in the 460s, named only by Jordanes. Its name has been read as Turkic.
Basmïl Turkic people of the Beiting country north of the Tianshan. Used by the Tang against the Second Khaganate, they rose against the last Ashina khan in 742 and fell in 744.
Bayirku A Tiele people of the Nine Surnames, north-east of the Orkhon. Beaten by Kül Tegin at Lake Türgi Yargun; one of their stragglers killed Kapgan Khan in 716.
Bittugures minimal Hun tribe among the last followers of Attila's son Dengizich in the 460s. Part of it later joined the Ostrogoths on their march to Italy in 488.
Boisci minimal People on the lower Danube in the fifth century, among those whom the Hun king Rua wanted to fight because they had fled to the Romans. The name has been explained as Celtic.
Boma People of the far north near the northern sea, named for their piebald horses, which they kept for milk. They lived under birch bark and often fought the Kirghiz.
Bugu minimal One of the nine Tiele tribes of the Toquz Oghuz. Pugu Huai'en, who served the Tang against An Lushan and then revolted himself, came from its ruling family.
Bulgars minimal A Turkic people of the Pontic steppe. When the western steppe broke apart in the middle of the seventh century it left two states behind it, the Bulgar union and the Khazars.
Chik People on the upper Yenisei between the river and the Sayan, named with the Kırgız and the Az. Bilge Khan beat their army at Orpin after crossing the river Kem.
Chumukun minimal A tribe of the western Göktürks, first of the five that the Tang histories name under the Duolu, the eastern wing of the Ten Arrows. Its chief carried the rank of chur.
Cimmerians minimal Mounted nomads who held the western steppe from about 1000 to 800 BC, before the Scythians. Their raids reached Assyria, and what they were is still argued: a people, or a word for a band of riders.
Dingling People of the north, subdued by Bagatur about 201 BC and a raider of the Xiongnu in the first century BC. One line of derivation traces the Tiele to them.
Donghu The eastern neighbours of the Xiongnu, destroyed by Bagatur about 206 BC. The Xianbei and the Wuhuan are traced to what was left of them.
Dubo Tiele people north of the Uyghurs and south of a small sea, hunters who ate lily roots. The Xin Tangshu names them with the Mielie and Geezhi the Wooden-Horse Tujue, whom the Kirghiz could subject.
Ediz minimal A tribe of the Toquz Oghuz that supplied the Uyghur khagans from 795. Whether it belonged to the nine from the start is argued.
Eurasian Nomads The herding peoples of the steppe belt from Hungary to Manchuria, and the way of life they shared. They lived from sheep and horses and depended on trade, tribute and raids against settled neighbours.
Furi Forest and marsh people east of the Kirghiz in the Muslim geographers, written Fūrī or Qūrī, called man-eaters in the Ḥudūd. Usually taken for the Kurykan.
Gepids minimal Germanic people, subjects of the Huns under Attila. Their king Ardaric led the subject peoples against Attila's sons, won at the Nedao in 454 and took the Hunnic seats in Dacia.
Goths minimal Germanic people north of the Black Sea and on the lower Danube. The Huns broke the eastern Goths in the 370s and ruled them until after Attila; the western Goths fought him in Gaul in 451.
Gulun Wugu minimal Tiele tribe, the ninth of the nine of the Toquz Oghuz in the Tang Huiyao, ranked with the others only after the Tianbao era.
Heichezi People called the Black Carts, with whom the Uyghur khan Ögä took refuge after 843. The Xin Tangshu has them kill him for a Tang reward, and a Tang letter calls them a Shiwei people.
Hephthalites The last of the Hunnic powers of Central Asia, a confederation rather than a people, crushed between Istemi and Khosrow I about 560.
History of the Turkic peoples The history of the Turkic-speaking steppe peoples, with their land, economy and belief, from the Bronze Age through the Xiongnu and the Göktürk and Uyghur khaganates to the Kirghiz and the Khazars.
Hu minimal The Chinese word for the peoples of the north and north-west. In the Han texts it names the Xiongnu; in the Göktürk and Tang period it mostly means the Sogdians and other Iranian-speakers.
Hun (Tiele tribe) minimal One of the nine Tiele tribes of the Toquz Oghuz. Its chieftaincy stayed in one family for several generations, and Hun Shizhi led it into Tang service.
Itimari minimal People on the lower Danube in the fifth century, among those whom the Hun king Rua wanted to fight because they had fled to the Romans. Their origin is unknown.
Jie minimal A group counted among the Xiongnu in the Chinese records of the fourth century. Shi Le founded the Later Zhao out of them, and one recorded sentence of their speech is at the centre of the debate over their origin.
Kabars Group of Khazar origin that left the khaganate after a civil war and joined the Hungarian union. Constantine VII calls them the first of its clans.
Kangju Nomad power of the middle Syr Darya in the Han sources, later lord of Sogdiana. It invited Zhizhi west, who was killed there in 36 BC. Its name became Kang, the Chinese surname of the Sogdians.
Karluk Turkic tribal group of the Altai. They revolted against Tong Yabgu about 627, moved into the western Göktürk lands about 745, and defected to the Arabs on the Talas in 751.
Khalaj minimal Turkic-speaking people of Afghanistan, named in a Bactrian manuscript of 711 and by the geographers of the tenth century. Their language survives in central Iran.
Khitan People of the pine-moors between the Xianbei and Manchuria. Tributaries of the Northern Wei from the 440s, driven east by the Göktürks under Mukan, and mourners at the Orkhon monuments.
Kidarites Hun dynasty named after its founder Kidara. It took Bactria, Gandhara and, after 440, Sogdiana. The Wei Shu calls it Xiongnu. Weakened by the Sasanians and the Hephthalites from 456.
Kimek minimal Turkic tribal union of the Irtysh and the steppes of western Siberia and Kazakhstan, north of the Qarluqs. The Kipchak, who belonged to it, later took its place.
Kipchak minimal Turkic people of the northern steppe. Kashgari counts their speech with that of the Oghuz, and later Arabic and Persian writers use their name for the whole western steppe.
Kotzager minimal People who fled from the Göktürks into Europe with the Tarniach and joined the Avar khan. Some scholars identify them with the Kutrigurs.
Kurykan Tiele people north of the desert, the Gulikan of the Tang, known for their horses. The Göktürk inscriptions name the Three Kurıkan as mourners of the founders and as enemies of the restored state.
Kutrigurs Hunnic steppe people west of the Sea of Azov, kin to the Utigurs. They raided the Roman Balkans in the 550s and went west with the Avars when the Göktürks came.
Kyshtym Mountain people of the Kirghiz country in the Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam, written K.SAYM, hunters of furs and musk. The restored name Kishtim later covers the dependants of the Kirghiz.
Nezak Shahs Kings of Kapisa, Kabul and Ghazni known from drachms with a bull's-head crown and the Pahlavi legend Nezak Malka. They have been taken for Huns, local rulers or a Western Turkic dynasty.
Nushibi minimal The western half of the Ten Arrows, five tribes under five irkin. With the Duolu they made up the tribal body of the western khaganate.
Oghuz minimal Turkic people of the western steppe and the Syr Darya. Kashgari treats their speech as one of the two great Turkic dialect groups, and the Seljuk house came from their tribe of Qïnïq.
Ogurs Steppe people named by Priscus about 463 among the tribes the Sabirs drove west. A century later their chief held the country west of the Volga for Istemi.
Onogurs Steppe people north of the Caucasus and the Sea of Azov, named by Priscus about 463. They came under Göktürk hegemony in the 560s; later Byzantine writers join their name to the Bulgars.
Pechenegs minimal Turkic steppe people who entered the Pontic steppe from the Volga-Ural region in the late ninth century. Byzantium's chief steppe neighbour in the tenth century; their power ended in 1091.
Qibi minimal Tiele tribe, one of the nine of the Toquz Oghuz in the Tang Huiyao. Its leaders served the Tang as generals in the seventh century.
Sabirs Steppe people of the north Caucasus and the lower Volga from the early sixth century. They fought for Rome and for Persia, and the Göktürks absorbed their union.
Saka The Persian name for the eastern Iranian nomads, from Kazakhstan to the Tarim. The Achaemenid inscriptions count four kinds of them, and one group gave its name to Sistan.
Saragurs minimal Oguric people who came to the Black Sea steppe about 463, driven west by the Sabirs. They defeated the Akatziri, sought an alliance with Constantinople and raided Iberia and Armenia.
Sarmatians Iranian nomads who took the western steppe from the Scythians. They were pushed west by pressure from the east, and in the second century BC that pressure can be traced to the rise of the Xiongnu.
Scythians Iranian mounted nomads who held the western steppe from the eighth century BC. Three of the customs Herodotus records of them reappear among the Xiongnu and the Turkic peoples.
Shatuo minimal Turkic union of Western Göktürk origin, foes of the Uyghurs, who became the military prop of the Tang and then founded dynasties in northern China.
Shiwei Peoples north of the Khitan in eastern Mongolia and Heilongjiang, ruled through Göktürk tudun. In 848 seven Shiwei clans held the last Uyghurs until the Kirghiz took them back.
Sijie minimal One of the nine Tiele tribes named in the Tang histories as part of the Toquz Oghuz confederation.
Sogdians The Iranian-speaking people of the Zarafshan valley and the merchants of Central Asia. They gave the Göktürks their script, their chancellery, their envoys and their silk trade.
Sorosgi minimal People of Scythia against whom Bleda and Attila made war after the treaty of Margus. Priscus names them once, and no other source mentions them.
Tarniach minimal People who fled from the Göktürks into Europe with the Kotzager and joined the Avar khan. Theophylact derives them from the Var and Chunni.
Tashtyk Culture Archaeological culture of the Khakas-Minusinsk basins on the Yenisei, known for graves with painted plaster masks. Who its people were, and their link to the early Kirghiz, is disputed.
Tatars Confederation of the Mongolian east, the Thirty Tatars of the Göktürk inscriptions and the Nine Tatars of the Uyghur stones. Mourners of the founders, then enemies of the restored khaganate.
The Great Empires of the Steppe The great steppe empires from the Xiongnu to the Khazars, in the order of their rise. For each one the founding, the ruling house, the centre, the reach and the end.
Tiele The federation of Turkic groups west of the Altai, called Töles in the Old Turkic inscriptions. Bumin intercepted their rising in 546, and their fifty thousand made the Ashina a power.
Tongra minimal A tribe of the Toquz Oghuz. The Kül Tegin inscription records ten of its champions killed at a funeral feast.
Toquz Oghuz The Nine Oguz, a confederation of Tiele peoples north of the Orkhon country. The Göktürk inscriptions call them enemies and my own people in the same sentence; the Uyghurs came out of them.
Tounsoures minimal People on the lower Danube in the fifth century, among those whom the Hun king Rua wanted to fight because they had fled to the Romans. Jordanes calls them Tuncarsi.
Tukhsi minimal Turkic tribe of the land between Lake Balkhash and Issyk Kul in the ninth and tenth centuries. One of the tribes whose federation became the Karakhanid state. They abducted the boy Sebüktegin.
Tuoba minimal The Xianbei house that founded the Northern Wei and ruled north China for a century and a half. The Rouran wars were fought against them, and their collapse in 534 made the two Weis.
Türgesh Tribe of the Üç Tuğlu wing of the Ten Arrows, in the Ili basin. Its khans ruled the western Göktürk lands from Suyab, 699 to 744, and were broken at Kharistan in 737.
Turkic Tribes in Europe The Turkic-speaking and Turkic-led peoples of the Pontic–Caspian steppe and the north Caucasus, fifth to seventh centuries. From the 560s most of them stood under Göktürk hegemony.
Tuyuhun minimal A people of the Koko Nor country between China and Tibet, of Xianbei descent. Their land was where a beaten Göktürk khan could vanish.
Ultzinzures minimal Hun tribe on the lower Danube after Attila's death. It followed Attila's son Dengizich against the Goths in the 460s; a later historian calls it well known until the reign of Leo.
Utigurs Hunnic steppe people east of the Sea of Azov, kin to the Kutrigurs. Under their ruler Anagai they fought for the Göktürks at Bosporos in 576.
Vandals minimal People who crossed from Spain into Africa under their king Gaiseric and took Carthage in 439. Their fleet drew Roman forces away from the Danube, and in 455 they sacked Rome.
Wuhuan People of the eastern steppe, subject to the Xiongnu from Bagatur's victory over the Donghu and then to the Han, who settled them at the frontier and used them against the Xiongnu and the Xianbei.
Wusun Steppe people of the Ili valley, clients then rivals of the Xiongnu and the Han's chief ally in the west. Their founder was exposed at birth and suckled by a she-wolf.
Yueban The part of the northern Xiongnu that stayed behind north of Kucha when the rest moved west. The Wei Shu places their country north-west of the Wusun and records their embassies to the Northern Wei.
Yuezhi The people of the Gansu corridor whom the Xiongnu broke twice, and whose flight west set off the movement that ended in Bactria.
Zabender minimal People whom Theophylact derives from the Var and Chunni, named beside the Tarniach and Kotzager who fled from the Göktürks to the Avars.

Image credits

Akatziri: c. 450: The realm of Attila reaches from the Danube into the steppe. The Akatziri stand in two proposed places, north-west of the Black Sea and by the Sea of Azov. Modern map. No source records the frontier. © Emre-E Yavuz 2026
Avars: 558: The first embassy of the Avars comes through the Alans and Lazica to Constantinople. The Avars then break the Onogurs and destroy the Sabirs. Modern map. The road of the embassy is drawn, and the places of the battles are not recorded. © Emre-E Yavuz 2026
Eurasian Nomads: A herder on horseback with a flock of sheep and goats on the open steppe of Mongolia, photographed in 1909. Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), General Ethnographic Photo Collection, VKK156:33. Photograph by Sakari Pälsi, 1909. Finna, CC BY 4.0.
Hephthalites: Envoy of the Hua (滑國), as the Liang court called the Hephthalites, carrying a bowl. From “Foreign Visitors Coming to Court”, a copy after a painting ascribed to Emperor Yuan of Liang (r. 552–555); an inscription of the Song emperor Lizong names Gu Deqian of the Southern Tang as the copyist. Handscroll, ink on paper; National Palace Museum, Taipei, 故畫001389N. Copy of Emperor Yuan of Liang’s “Foreign Visitors Coming to Court”, The National Palace Museum, Taipei, CC BY 4.0 @ www.npm.gov.tw.
History of the Turkic peoples: Runes of the Tonyukuk stone, the Göktürk realm in 552, the Altai from space, a Scythian gold stag, the empire of Attila in 453 and riders on a Tang bronze mirror. Photographs: G. J. Ramstedt and Sakari Pälsi, Finnish Heritage Agency (CC BY 4.0); NASA, astronaut photograph iss069e071176 (public domain); The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1985.77 (CC0); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 25.20.3 (CC0). Maps: © Emre-E Yavuz 2026
Khitan: Fragment of a Liao-dynasty tomb mural showing a Khitan man and a Khitan boy, from a tomb at Paolou Hill in Lindong, excavated in 1988. Photograph: BabelStone, 2016, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Kutrigurs: c. 550: The Kutrigurs live west and the Utigurs east of the Don and the Sea of Azov, the Sabirs and the Onogurs north of the Caucasus. The Kutrigurs raid in 551 and, under Zabergan, reach Constantinople in 558–559. The Avars arrive in 557. Modern map. The roads are drawn. © Emre-E Yavuz 2026
Sabirs: 558: The first embassy of the Avars comes through the Alans and Lazica to Constantinople. The Avars then break the Onogurs and destroy the Sabirs. Modern map. The road of the embassy is drawn, and the places of the battles are not recorded. © Emre-E Yavuz 2026
Saragurs: c. 463: The Abares drive out the Sabirs, and the Sabirs drive the Saragurs, Ogurs and Onogurs west. The Saragurs defeat the Akatziri and send an embassy to Constantinople. Later they raid through the Caucasus. Modern map. The arrows are a reconstruction. © Emre-E Yavuz 2026
Turkic Tribes in Europe: One of a pair of gold earrings, Avar work, 550 to 650. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 17.191.4, CC0.
Tuyuhun: Envoy of the Tuyuhun, labelled 河南, the name under which the southern histories treat their kingdom. From “Foreign Visitors Coming to Court”, a copy after a painting ascribed to Emperor Yuan of Liang (r. 552–555); an inscription of the Song emperor Lizong names Gu Deqian of the Southern Tang as the copyist. Handscroll, ink on paper; National Palace Museum, Taipei, 故畫001389N. Copy of Emperor Yuan of Liang’s “Foreign Visitors Coming to Court”, The National Palace Museum, Taipei, CC BY 4.0 @ www.npm.gov.tw.
Uyghurs: Muqam, a painting of 1984 by the Uyghur painter Ghazi Ehmet: singers and musicians of the Uyghur muqam with long-necked lutes, fiddles, a dulcimer, frame drums and flutes. It shows the Uyghurs of the twentieth century, eleven centuries after the dispersal of 840. Painting: Ghazi Ehmet, 1984.

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