A CRITICAL VIEW ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF OGHUZ TRIBES IN ANATOLIA BASED ON THEIR NAMES
ANADOLU’DAKİ OĞUZ VARLIĞININ AŞİRET İSİMLERİ ÜZERİNDEN TASNİFİNE ELEŞTİREL BİR BAKIŞ

Author : ARİF SARI
Number of pages : 65-75

Abstract

Nomadic Turkmen tribes who settled in Anatolia, along with other sedentary Turkish components, are the parts of Oghuz- Turk groups that spread from Turkistan to Balkans, and they formed the original elements of independent principalities in Anatolia. In the records of Seljuk, Mameluke and Ottoman period, which provided information as regards the Turkmen, many tribes that still maintained the names of old Oghuz clans can be found. These records, referring to the names of the tribes, have formed the basis of the research in which the method that the existence of Oghuz in Anatolia should be classified based on the categories of Üçok and Bozok was adopted. However, the comparative analysis of demographic and tax records of the 16th century proves that Oghuz tribes were so closely related to each other that they cannot be subject to any classification like Üçok or Bozok just by referring to their names. As a matter of fact, this situation is the result of the distinction between Üçok and Bozok, which indeed weakened when Turkmen settled in Anatolia, and interference of these tribes with each other when they gathered in Northern Syria because of Mongol oppression.

Keywords

Oghuzs, Turkomans, Ucok, Bozok, Nomads

Read: 2,665

Download: 1,688