Oghuz Turks

The Oghuz Turks (Middle Turkic: ٱغُز, romanized: Oγuz) were a western Turkic people who spoke the Oghuz branch of the Turkic language family. In the 8th century, they formed a tribal confederation conventionally named the Oghuz Yabgu State in Central Asia. Today, much of the populations of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan are descendants of Oghuz Turks. The term Oghuz was gradually supplanted by the terms Turkmen and Turcoman (Ottoman Turkish: تركمن, romanized: Türkmen or Türkmân) by the 13th century.

The Oghuz confederation migrated westward from the Jeti-su area after a conflict with the Karluk allies of the Uyghurs. In the 9th century, the Oghuz from the Aral steppes drove Pechenegs westward from the Emba and Ural River region. In the 10th century, the Oghuz inhabited the steppe of the rivers Sari-su, Turgai and Emba north of Lake Balkhash in modern-day Kazakhstan.

They embraced Islam and adapted their traditions and institutions to the Islamic world, emerging as empire-builders with a constructive sense of statecraft. In the 11th century, the Seljuk Oghuz clan entered Persia, where they founded the Great Seljuk Empire. The same century, a Tengriist Oghuz clan, also known as Uzes or Torks, overthrew Pecheneg supremacy in the frontier of the Russian steppes; those who settled along the frontier were gradually Slavicized; the almost feudal Black Hat principality grew with its own military aristocracy. Others, harried by the Kipchak Turks, crossed the lower Danube and invaded the Balkans, where they were stopped by a plague and became mercenaries for the Byzantine imperial forces (1065). Oghuz warriors served in almost all Islamic armies of the Middle East from the 1000s onwards, and as far as Spain and Morocco.

In the late 13th century after the fall of the Seljuks, the Ottoman dynasty gradually conquered Anatolia with an army also predominantly of Oghuz, besting other local Oghuz Turkish states. In legend, the founder Osman's genealogy traces to Oghuz Khagan, the legendary ancient ancestor of Turkic people, giving the Ottoman sultans primacy among Turkish monarchs. The dynasties of Khwarazmians, Qara Qoyunlu, Aq Qoyunlu, Afsharids and Qajars are also believed to descend from the Oghuz-Turkmen tribes of Begdili, Yiva, Bayandur, Kayi and Afshar respectively.

The name Oghuz is a Common Turkic word for "tribe". By the 10th century, Islamic sources were calling them Muslim Turkmens, as opposed to those of Tengrist or Buddhist religion; and by the 12th century this term was adopted into Byzantine usage, as the Oghuzes were overwhelmingly Muslim. The name "Oghuz" fell out of use by 13th century.

Linguistically, the Oghuz belong to the Common Turkic speaking group, characterized by sound correspondences such as Common Turkic /-ʃ/ versus Oghuric /-l/ and Common Turkic /-z/ versus Oghuric /-r/. Within the Common Turkic group, the Oghuz languages share these innovations: loss of Proto-Turkic gutturals in suffix anlaut, loss of /ɣ/ except after /a/, /ɡ/ becoming either /j/ or lost, voicing of /t/ to /d/ and of /k/ to /ɡ/, and */ð/ becomes /j/.

Their language belongs to the Oghuz group of the Turkic languages family. Kara-Khanid scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari wrote that of all the Turkic languages, that of the Oghuz was the simplest. He also observed that long separation had led to clear differences between the western Oghuz and Kipchak language and that of the eastern Turks. Byzantine sources call Oghuz Turks Uzes (Οὖζοι, Ouzoi).

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.