Argu

Argu was the country north of the Syr Darya. Mahmud al-Kashgari describes it as extending from Isfijab to Balasaghun.^[1] Its people spoke two languages. In Mahmud’s words: “The people of Balasagun speak both Soghdian and Turkic. The same is true of the people of Tiraz (Talas) and the people of Madinat al-Bayda (Isbijab)”. He adds that there is a slurring in the speech of the whole country of Argu.^[1] In Balasaghun lived the Soghdaq, a people “from Sogd which is between Bukhara and Samarqand, but their dress and manner is that of Turks”.^[1]

Mahmud al-Kashgari also records what the speech of Argu was like. The Argu say bardum and käldüm, “I went” and “I came”, where the Oghuz say bardam and the other Turks bardım. In their speech the old palatal nasal ñ has become n.^[2] A few Uyghur manuscripts in Sogdian script show the same two traits. They may therefore be written in this dialect. They also have a long form of the third person imperative, -zunı. The Kutadgu Bilig has this form too. Its poet is said to have been born in Balasaghun, where Argu was spoken. The form is therefore taken for an Argu feature.^[3] Modern accounts hold that the Argu of the dictionary shares several features with Khalaj.^[4]

William of Rubruck passed Cailac, the old Karluk capital south-east of Lake Balkhash, in 1253. He heard of a country called Organum with its own language and script, which the Nestorians there used in their services. Paul Pelliot linked the name to Ürgänč in Khorezm. Organum may be Argu, and its language Sogdian, which Turkic dialects supplanted there.^[5]

Argu remained a Sogdian and Turkic stronghold after the Sogdians of Transoxiana had been assimilated. It was the breeding ground of the trade in Turkic slaves. It was also the country out of which the Karakhanid state was born. Sogdian was probably still spoken there in the twelfth century.^[5]