The As or Az were a Turkic people[1] from the Eastern and Southern Altai and are associated with the Türkic period[2][3] Kudyrge culture[4] in the Altai. According to L.P. Potapov, the names of the Telengit seoks (Tёrtas – “four As”, Djeti-as – “seven As”, Baylangas – “numerous As”) suggest that the As tribe was a part of the Turkic Tiele, and is certainly connected with the modern-day Altai population. The As left the runic Kalbak-Tash II inscription which was written in Turkic language.[4]
Their existence is confirmed by the Tannu-Ola mountains inscriptions of Mugur-Sargol and Bayan-Kol and certain verses of the Göktürks, while describing the battles between the Göktürks and the Kyrgyz. According to the Bayan-Kol inscriptions, the As were divided to many clans living in the region of Mugur west of the Tannu-Ola mountains. There are also writings from the 8th century (around 714 AD) in Uyghur sources about the uprising of the As against the Göktürks.
Name
editResearch has also been done by Russian linguist experts who trace them as close ethnically to Ket people of Yenisei basin in Siberia due to similarities in name between Old Turkic 𐰔𐰉𐰆𐰑𐰣 As budun and the Assans, an extinct Yeniseic Kott dialect, but without solid proof.[5] The primary information on their language was collected by Matthias Castrén in 1845, with further research and information added later by the anthropologist Dmitry Anuchin.
Meanwhile, within Vasily Abaev's Alans framework, the As were also hypothesized by pro-Iranist scholars to be Turkicized descendants of alleged Iranian-speakers, particularly Asiani-Wusun,[6][7] of which the Wusun evidently had a Turkic-Altaic language.[8] In order to connect the As with non-Turkic tribes, supporters of the Iranian theory claim that the As only used Turkic language for writing, not for speaking.[4]
The name As has been suggested to live on in the names of several other peoples of southern Siberia: the Kamas ("Mountain As"), the Karagas ("Black As" or "Plains As"), and the Khakas ("White As").[9][10] Similar names of genealogical nature are ascertainable among modern and historical Turkic tribes: Old Bulgars, Nogais, Altaians, Turkmens, Uzbeks, Kazan Tatars and Kazakhs.[11]
A wide toponymic distribution of the name As, Az and Ash is found in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Central Asia and Altai region.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b Hajiyeva Galiba, "Toponimys with ancient Turk origins in the Balkans", Nakhchivan State University, IBAC 2012 vol.2, pp.270-272
- ^ Nikita Konstantinov, Vasilii Soenov, Synaru Trifanova, Svetlana Svyatko, "History and culture of the early Türkic period: A review of archaeological monuments in the Russian Altai from the 4th–6th century AD", Archaeological Research in Asia, Volume 16, 2018, Pages 103-115, ISSN 2352-2267, doi:10.1016/j.ara.2018.06.002. (PDF)
- ^ Ciro Lo Muzio, "Archaeological Traces of Early Turks in Transoxiana: An Overview", 2010, in: Coins, Art and Chronology II. The First Millennium CE in the Indo-Iranian Borderlands, edited by M. Alram, D. Klimburg-Salter, M. Inaba, M. Pfisterer, Vienna, pp. 429-442. doi:10.1553/0x00250de0 ISBN 978-3-7001-6885-0
- ^ a b c Gleb V. Kubarev, "A Runic Inscription at Kalbak-Tash II, Central Altai, with Reference to the Location of the Az Tribe*", Novosibirsk State University. In: Archaeology Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia 44(4):92-101. 2016. ISSN 1563-0110 doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2016.44.4.092-101 (PDF)
- ^ BARTHOLD Wilhelm, 12 Vorlesungen über die Geschichte der Türken Mittelasiens, Berlin, Arthur Collignon, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Islamkunde, 1935, p37
- ^ Golden, P.B. (1992) "An Introduction to the History of the Turkic peoples" Turcologica 9. p. 53
- ^ Kubrev, G.V. "A Runic Inscription at Kalbak-Tash II, Central Altai, with Reference to the Location of the Az Tribe" in Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia 44/4 (2016). p. 97-98 of 92–101
- ^ Penglin Wang, Central Asiatic Journal Vol. 39, No. 2 (Harrassowitz 1995), p.176
- ^ Joki, Aulis J. (1952). Die Lehnwörter des Sajansamojedischen. Helsinki. pp. 34–35.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Simoncsics, Péter. 1998. "Kamassian". The Uralic Languages, ed. Daniel Abondolo, pp. 580–601.
- ^ Ismail Miziulu, Adilhan Appa, "Tarih Halkin Zenginliğidir", bilig-7/Güz 1998, p.27