Toquz Oghuz

The Toquz Oghuz () was a political alliance of nine Turkic Tiele tribes in Inner Asia, during the early Middle Ages. The Toquz Oghuz was consolidated and subordinated within the First Turkic Khaganate (552–603) and remained as a nine-tribe alliance after the khaganate fragmented.

Oghuz is a Turkic word meaning "community" and toquz means "nine". Similarly the Karluks were possibly known as the Üç-Oğuz – üç meaning "three". The root of the generalized ethnic term "oghuz" is og-, meaning "clan, tribe"; which in turn, according to Kononov, descends from the ancient Turkic word ög meaning "mother" (however, Golden considered such a further derivation impossible). Initially the oguz designated "tribes" or "tribal union", and eventually became an ethnonym.

The Toquz Oghuz were perhaps first mentioned in the Orkhon inscriptions written in the 730s. The nine tribes were named in Chinese histories as the Uyghurs (回纥), Pugu (仆骨), Hun (浑), Bayegu/ (拔野古), Tongluo (同罗), Sijie (思结), Qibi (契苾), A-Busi (阿布思) and Gulunwugusi (骨仑屋骨思). The first seven named – who lived north of the Gobi Desert – were dominant, whereas the A-Busi and Gulunwugu(si) emerged later and were accepted on an equal footing with the others some time after 743. The A-Busi apparently originated as a sub-tribal group within the Sijie and the Gulunwugu(si) as a combination of two other tribes.

Bilge Qaghan of the Second Turkic Khaganate considered the Toquz Oghuz "[his] own people". It is also mentioned in the Kul Tigin inscriptions that the Göktürks and Toquz Oghuz were fighting five times in a year.

<blockquote>𐱃𐰸𐰆𐰕:𐰆𐰍𐰕:𐰉𐰆𐰑𐰣:𐰚𐰤𐱅𐰃:𐰉𐰆𐰑𐰣𐰢:𐰼𐱅𐰃:𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃:𐰘𐰃𐰼:𐰉𐰆𐰞𐰍𐰴𐰃𐰤:𐰇𐰲𐰇𐰤:𐰖𐰍𐰃:𐰉𐰆𐰡𐰃 Toquz Oγuz budun kentü budunïm erti teŋіri jer bolγaqïn üčün yaγï boltï.

"Nine Oguz people were my own people. Because of the sky being jumbled up with the earth, they became an enemy."</blockquote>

Likewise, foreign sources suggested the political association of some Toquz Oghuz tribes to the Göktürks. A Khotanese Saka text about Turks in Ganzhou mentioned saikairä ttūrkä chārä (< OTrk. *sïqïr türk çor). The Sïqïr Türks were identified with the Sikāri in Sogdian documents as well as the Sijie, who were mentioned as Tujue Sijie (突厥思結) in the Zizhi Tongjian. Among the Eastern Turkic tribes who dwelt south the Gobi Desert, Tang Huiyao listed the Sijie (erroneously rendered as Enjie 恩結), who dwelt in the Lushan military governorate 盧山都督府, and Fuli, who dwelt in the same jimi province of Dailin as the Sijie's splinter tribe A-Busi. The Fuli(-yu) (匐利[羽]), or Fuli(-ju) (伏利[具]), were identifiable as the Fuluo (覆羅) in other Chinese sources and the Bökli-Çöligil (OTrk. 𐰋𐰇𐰚𐰲𐰃:𐰲𐰇𐰠𐰏𐰠), who appeared on Kül-tegin inscription and were proposed to have originated from Tungusic Mohe, Koreans, or ethnic Turkic peoples. Kenzheakhmet (2014:297-299) links the Sijies splinter-tribe Abusi (< OTrk. *Abïz) to the Fuli (< OTrk. *Bükeli < büke "snake, dragon" + coordinating conjunctive suffix -li, possibly).