history of kayi tribe

 The Kayı or Kai tribe (Middle Turkish: قَيِغْ, Romanized: Kayığ; Turkish: Kayı boyu, Turkmen: Gaýy taýpasy) were an Oghuz Turkish people and a sub-branch of the Bozok tribal federation. In the 11th century, Mahmud al-Kashgari cited Kayı (Kayığ) as one of the 22 Oghuz tribes of his Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk. The word kayı means "one who has strength and power through relationship". Origin

In his history work, Shajara-i Tarākima, the khan of the Khanate of Khiva and historian, Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur, mentions Kayı among 24 ancient Turkmen tribes (Oghuz-Turkic), direct descendants of Oghuz-khan, who was the ancient ancestor of the Oghuz people. The name of the tribe translates to "strong". In his extensive history work "Jami 'al-tawarikh" (Collection of Chronicles), the statesman and historian of the Ilkhanate Rashid-al-Din Hamadani also says that the Kayı tribe comes from the oldest of the 24 grandchildren of Oghuz Khan who were the patriarchs. of the ancient Oghuz tribes, and the name Kayı means "mighty".

Hungarian scholar Gyula Németh (1969) links Kayı (ğ) to a (Para-) Mongolian people whom Muslim scholars called Qay, also known to the Chinese as Xí (<MC * ɣiei 奚), to the Tibetans as from Dad-pyi, and in Göktürk -the inscriptions of Orkhon as Tatabi; however, Nemeth's thesis is rejected by Köprülü among others. Later, Németh (1991) proposes that Mg. Qay is derived from Tk. root qað- "snowstorm, blizzard"; nevertheless, Golden points out that Qay has several Mongolian etymologies: ɣai "woe", χai "interjection of sorrow", χai "to seek", χai "to prune". [2] [3]

History

See also: Division of the Kayı tribe and seat of Kulaca Hisar

Variant of Selçukname Kayı tamga.

According to Ottoman tradition, Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman Empire, was a descendant of the Kayı tribe. [4] [5] [6] [7] This claim has, however, been seriously questioned by many modern historians. The only evidence for the descendants of the Kayı Ottomans came from genealogies written in the 15th century, more than a hundred years after Osman's life. More importantly, the earliest genealogies written by the Ottomans did not include any reference to Kayı descent, indicating that it may have been fabricated at a later date. [8]

However, a proof that Osman I was in fact related to the tribe and that the Ottoman tradition was correct is that after the death of his grandfather, Gündüz Alp or Suleyman Shah, his father Ertuğrul and his uncle Dündar emigrated to Söğüt with 400 members of the tribe. . [9]

Coin of 500 old Turkmen manats (2001) representing the monument to Ertuğrul Ghazi of the Kayi tribe in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

The famous Oghuz-Turkic folk narrator, diviner and bard Gorkut-ata (Dede Korkut) belonged to the Kayı tribe. [10] In the 10th century, the state of Oghuz Yabgu in Central Asia was ruled by supreme chiefs (or Yabghu) who belonged to the Kayi tribe. [11]

According to Soviet archaeologist and ethnographer Sergey Tolstov, part of the Kayi tribe moved in the Middle Ages from Central Asia to modern Ukraine, they are known in ancient Russian chronicles as kovuy and kaepichi, [12] yet Golden considers that the Kaepichi is in the place of the descendants of the para-Mongolian Qay. [13] According to the famous Soviet and Russian linguist and Turkologist A. V. Superanskaya, the origin of the name of the city of Kiev is associated with the Kayı tribe:

"As ethnographers testify, ethnically" pure "peoples do not and cannot exist. On the contrary, new peoples are born from ethnic mixtures of two or more peoples, generally assimilating the best characteristics of each. nation was posed by two (or more) brothers ... Apparently, something similar lies behind the legend of Kiy, Schek, Horev and Lybed. The tribal name Kyy (Kiy) belonged to the ancient Turkish peoples. It is still present in the names of the tribal structures of modern Turkish peoples ”[14].