The Hudud al-ʿĀlam, a Persian geography of 982, goes through the Turkic countries one by one.[1] For most it names towns and villages and says what the people lived on.[1] The Turkic peoples appear as herders in tents and felt huts. Beside them the list sets villages with fields, a few towns and the merchants who came to them.

The Toghuzghuz

The geographer calls the country of the Toghuzghuz the largest of the Turkish countries. In summer and in winter its people wandered from one grazing ground to the next.[2] The capital was a middle-sized town beside the border of China. Its summer was very hot and its winter pleasant.[2] Behind the Tafqan mountain lay five villages, and in one of them, Panjikath, the king of the Toghuzghuz lived in the summer.[2] A small town on the river Khuland had much fruit, except grapes, and seven villages. The geographer says that it and its districts were said to send out 20,000 men.[2]

Five villages that belonged to the Sogdians lay in a cold region among mountains. Christians and Zoroastrians lived in them, and apparently heathens.[3] A large village whose chief was called yabghu had been plundered again and again by the Kimak, the Karluk and the Yaghma.[3] The list also names a village whose people were hunters, and stages on the road with grass and springs, with snow or with no one left.[3]

The Yaghma

In the country of the Yaghma there was but little agriculture. Furs and game were plentiful.[3] The Balaq clan, which lived mixed with the Toghuzghuz, had a few villages.[4] Kashghar stood on the frontier between the Yaghma, Tibet, the Kirghiz and China. Its chiefs in the old days were Karluk or Yaghma.[4] Artuj had been a populous Yaghma village, but snakes multiplied there, and the people left it.[4] A large village, Khirmaki, whose people were Artujians, held three kinds of Turks: Yaghma, Karluk and Toghuzghuz.[4]

The Kirghiz

The Kirghiz kept sheep, cattle and horses and moved along rivers and grass. They lived in tents and felt huts and hunted.[4] A town stood on this side of the Furi, a tribe that lived east of the other Kirghiz, and the Kirghiz khan lived in it. The geographer says that, apart from the residence of the khan, no class of the Kirghiz had any villages or towns at all.[5]

The Karluk

The geographer calls the Karluk country prosperous and the most pleasant of the Turkish lands. It had running water and a mild climate.[5] It held towns and villages. Some of the Karluk were hunters, some were farmers and some were herdsmen, and their wealth was in sheep, horses and furs.[5]

He names the places. Kulan was a small district on the border of the Muslim world where agriculture was practised.[5] Mirki was a village of the Karluk visited by merchants.[5] A town near a mountain had once stood on the road, and it was now desolate and a haunt of thieves, with a few felt huts of the Karluk beside it.[5] A large village in the country was prosperous and held many Karluk tribes.[5] Tüzün-Bulagh, on the frontier between the Karluk and the Yaghma, was a village with fields, running water and amenities.[6]

Three prosperous and pleasant villages lay on the slope of a mountain, and their princes were brothers of the yabghu. Two more villages on a mountain slope belonged to the realm of the yabghu.[6] Kirminkath was a large village in which merchants from everywhere lived. Barskhan was a prosperous town on the shore of a lake. Its prince was a Karluk, but its people were devoted to the Toghuzghuz.[6] Two further places were held by the Karluk. One was a town with a numerous population between a mountain and a river, and the other was a place on a mountain with some two hundred men.[6]

The Chigil and the Tukhs

The Chigil owned tents and felt huts, and they had few pleasant towns and villages. Their wealth was in cattle, sheep and horses.[7] A large town on the frontier between the Chigil and the Karluk lay close to the Muslim world. It was prosperous, and merchants lived there.[7]

The Tukhs wandered along pasture and meadow in winter and summer. Their two clans each held a small country, and two villages carried the clans’ names.[7] Suyab was a large village from which 20,000 men marched out. Another large village, Biglilig, “the home of the Beg’s men”, called in Sogdian by another name, put 3,000 men in the field with its prince.[7]

The Kimak, the Ghuz and the Pechenegs

In the country of the Kimak there was only one town but there were many tribes. The people lived in felt huts and wandered along grazing grounds, waters and meadows in summer and winter.[7] They lived on milk in summer and on preserved meat in winter.[8] The summer residence of the khan was a town, Namakiya, and a village on a river bank drew many people in summer.[9] One district of the Kimak, between the Atil and the Irtysh, had more comfortable people and more settled conditions.[9]

The Ghuz wandered along pasture and grazing grounds in summer and winter. Their wealth was in horses, cattle and sheep, and merchants were very numerous among them.[9] The geographer says that the Ghuz had no towns but very many people who owned felt huts.[9] Of the Pechenegs he says the same: they had no towns, and their chief was one of themselves.[10]

Merchants and fields

Merchants are named at Mirki, at Kirminkath, at the large town of the Chigil and among the Ghuz.[11] In the Turkic sections the geographer names farmland only for the Karluk, at Kulan and at Tüzün-Bulagh, and he credits the Yaghma with little agriculture. The Toghuzghuz town of Ark had much fruit.[12] The Kirghiz, the Ghuz and the Pechenegs are the peoples named as without villages or towns, with the Kirghiz khan’s residence as the one exception.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam; Minorsky 1937, p. 94–101
  2. ^ a b c d Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam; Minorsky 1937, p. 94
  3. ^ a b c d Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam; Minorsky 1937, p. 95
  4. ^ a b c d e Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam; Minorsky 1937, p. 96
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam; Minorsky 1937, p. 97
  6. ^ a b c d Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam; Minorsky 1937, p. 98
  7. ^ a b c d e Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam; Minorsky 1937, p. 99
  8. ^ Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam; Minorsky 1937, p. 99–100
  9. ^ a b c d Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam; Minorsky 1937, p. 100
  10. ^ Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam; Minorsky 1937, p. 101
  11. ^ Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam; Minorsky 1937, p. 97–100
  12. ^ Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam; Minorsky 1937, p. 94–98
  13. ^ Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam; Minorsky 1937, p. 97–101

Sources

Literature

  • V. Minorsky, Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam, "The Regions of the World": A Persian Geography 372 A.H. – 982 A.D., translated and explained, with the preface by V. V. Barthold (1937)

Related

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Towns and Villages of the Turks in the Hudud al-ʿĀlam.” Turkic Atlas, revised 7 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/institutions/turkic-towns-in-the-hudud-al-alam/

Last revised: 7 November 2026