“Spanning a vast territory from the Sea of Okhotsk and the Arctic Ocean to the Adriatic Sea, numbering approximately 26 million (more than 200,000,000 in our days), the Turks speak a single language that is divided only into dialects, so that a Central Asian Turk can understand both a Yakut and an Ottoman Turk.
On the other hand, the physical types of Turkic tribes and peoples are highly diverse, and the appearance of the southwestern Turks has very little in common with the Turkic tribes of Central Asia, let alone those of Eastern Siberia.
Of course, changes in racial and ethnic types occur within certain limits due to the pressure of climatic and other natural conditions, as well as cultural influences. Additionally, these changes may be the result of the evolution of the elements that constitute each given anthropological type.
However, such changes, except in rare cases, are generally insignificant or, at the very least, require extremely long periods of time. Incomparably faster, sharper, and more profound are those changes in ethnic and tribal types that result from intermixing with other races and peoples.
There is no doubt that the diverse physical types of the Ottoman Turks are the result of interbreeding between Turks, who arrived no earlier than nine centuries ago from Central Asia into Asia Minor and later into the Balkan Peninsula, with local Kurds, Greeks, Slavs, and others.
Given this, it is also reasonable to assume that other Turkic tribes acquired their anthropological distinctions from each other primarily as a result of mixing with different peoples rather than merely due to environmental and cultural factors, which were relatively uniform for them.
In view of all this, the study of the origins of Turkic tribes and peoples largely comes down to identifying external admixtures—interbreeding with which gave rise to distinct Turkic tribes.
Historical records about Northern and Central Asia begin only a few centuries before Christ and are scarce even for later periods. Because of this, researchers sought to clarify the origins of the Turkic tribes, especially the most ancient ones, through folk traditions.
According to the most remarkable and one of the oldest Turkic folk legends—whose recorded version by the Chinese is nearly contemporaneous with the first historical mention of the Turks—the ancestor of the Turks came from the ‘realm of So,’ which lay to the north of the land of the Huns.
(KAF supplement: Peter Golden - “Tujue derived from the Suo (Saka) state, which was located north of the Xiongnu.
Suo 索 OC: sâk LH: sak MC: sâk (Schuessler, Minimal: 72 [2-33a]); EMC, LMC: sak (Pulleyblank, Lexicon: 298); sak, sak, sag (Coblin, Compendium: 383[0881]).
Harmatta, ‘A türkök eredetmondája’: 391, identified Suo with the ethnonym Saka and noted the connection with Han-era Sai 塞 OC: sək(h) LH: sək, səC (Schuessler, Minimal: 111 [5-28a]) but considered the terms representations of two different Saka groupings.
Beckwith, Empires: 405, n. 53, also argues that Suo renders Saka and cites Menander, History: 116/117: ‘the Turks, who had formerly been called the Sacae’ (ὅτι των Τούρκων τῶν Σακῶν καλούμενων) as evidence for the Saka connection.
Ashina 阿史那 EMC*a şi’ na’, LMC aʂŗ ́na’ (Pulleyblank, Lexicon: 23, 283, 221) < Khotan Saka âşşeina-âššena ‘blue’ (Bailey, Dictionary of Khotan Saka: 26–27) = Turk. kök, ‘blue’ as argued by Kljaštornyj, ‘The Royal Clan’: 445–48. Atwood, ‘Some Early’: 68–78, connects Ashina with Tokh. Arši ‘holy man’ (cf. Sanskrit rşi, ONW: a-şə-na, see Coblin, Compendium: 124–25 [0016], 240–41 [0382], 121 [0005].
Beckwith, ‘The Pronunciation’: 39–46; Tokh.A: *ārśilāś ‘noble kings’> Old Türk. aršilaš, ‘an epithet or title’, which the Chinese ‘misunderstood’ as a ‘surname’ or ‘clan-name’ (equated by Beckwith with ’Aρσίλας the ‘eldest’ or ‘senior ruler of the Turks’ mentioned by Menander, History: 172/173, 276, n. 222.)
契骨 EMC: khejh kwət/ khit kwət LMC: khjiaj ̀ kut; khit kut, (Pulleyblank, Lexicon: 248 111); MC khejH kwot (Kroll, Dictionary: 140) = Qïrqïr (Qïrqïz> Mod. Turk.Kyrgyz). Sinor, ‘Legendary Origin’: 228–29, cites the Youyang zazu that the Qïrğïz ‘do not belong to the race of the wolf’. Rather, Qïrğïz origin tales relate that they stemmed from the mating of a spirit and a cow and lived in a cave north of the Kögmän Mountains (see further); see also Ögel, Türk Mitolojisi, vol. 1: 21–22.
In the Orxon inscriptions, the Kyrgyz are noted as having a Qağan (BQ, E, 20 N, 26-28, KT, E, 25, N, 13; Berta, Szavaimat: 155, 161, 164–65, 185). Eberhard, Kultur und Siedlung: 46, also reports that they lived mixed with the 丁靈 Dingling: LH teŋ leŋ< têŋ-rêŋ (Schuessler, Minimal: 137 [9-11a]) >狄歷 Dili (EMC: dejk-lejk)/特勒 Tele (EMC: dək lək)/勑勒 Chile (EMC: trhik lək)/直勒 Zhile (EMC: drik-lək) >鐵勒 Tiele (EMC: thet-lək) = tägräg.
-Peter B. Golden, Professor Emeritus of History, Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University, "The Ethnogonic Tales of the Turks")
One of his descendants, Ichzhini-Nishydu (I-tchi-ni-sse-tou), who was born of a she-wolf and possessed supernatural qualities, had two wives: the daughter of the spirit of the sky and the daughter of the spirit of winter.
From the first, he had four sons, one of whom transformed into a swan. Another, named Qi-gu (Ki-ku), founded a state (Kyrgyz) between the rivers Afu (A-pou) and Gyan (Kien). The third son established a kingdom on the banks of the Chusi River (Tchou-tche).
The fourth and eldest son, named Nadulushe (No-tou-lou-che), lived in the Basy-chu-si-shi (Tsien-sse-tchou-tche-chi) mountains. In these same mountains dwelled a horde descended from the aforementioned common Turkic ancestor.
This horde suffered greatly from the cold caused by dew. Nadulushe taught them how to make fire, warmed and fed them, thus saving their lives. For this, the horde submitted to him, recognized him as their elder, and called themselves Tu-kü (tou-kioue). His descendant, Tumin, was the first ruler of the Turks (Tukyu) to establish relations with China in the first half of the 6th century.”
The legend mentioned above is included in the Chinese History of the Northern Wei Dynasty (from 386 to 558 AD) and is presented here with some abridgments based on the translation by Stan. Julien, which largely agrees with the translation by Father I. Bichurin, from whom the Russian transcription of names has been taken.
The Chinese compiled their dynastic histories based on chronicles and documents contemporary to the events described. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the legend recorded in the History of the Wei Dynasty was written down between 535 and 558 AD, likely based on the accounts of Turkic envoys.
The accuracy of this record is confirmed by the apparent misunderstanding of some of its geographical and ethnic details on the part of the Chinese.
The realm of So, located north of the land of the Huns—that is, north of present-day Mongolia—must have been on the northern side of the Altai Mountains, since the southern slopes were part of the Hunnic territories.
At present, one of the two clans that make up the Upper Kumandin district, near the confluence of the Lebed River with the Biya River, bears the name So, while the other is called Kubandy or Kumandy.
From this, we can reasonably infer that the legendary ancestor of the Turks originated from the So tribe, which lived north of the Altai, and that the So clan is a small surviving remnant of what was likely, in prehistoric times, a considerably larger tribe.
Furthermore, the Turkic word ku means “swan.” The Turks living along the Lebed River still call themselves Ku-kishi, meaning “people of the [river] Ku (Lebed).” From this, it is not difficult to conclude that the Chinese historians mistakenly depicted the son of Ichzhini-Nishidu as transforming into a swan.
Instead, like his three brothers—who settled in specific regions and founded kingdoms (or tribes) there—he settled on the Ku (Lebed) River and became the progenitor of the Ku tribe, remnants of which still live along the Lebed River and in the Upper and Lower Kumandin districts.
Additionally, Ki-ko is one of the Chinese transcriptions of the name Kyrgyz, in which the letter r—absent in the Chinese language—has been omitted, along with the final consonant, which was a common practice among the Chinese until the Manchu dynasty.
Moreover, the Apu River is most likely the Abakan, the main settlement area of the Kyrgyz, while the Gyan or Kyan River is undoubtedly the Kem, which has retained its native name for the Yenisei River since ancient times.
(KAF Supplement: The Kyrgyz were first mentioned in the 2nd century BCE by the Chinese Grand Historian Sima Qian. Their Ashina-Tukue Turkophone relatives appeared in the 6th century CE)
The Chu-si River must correspond to the Chu River (known to Russians as Chuya), a tributary of the Katun River, which is still today a place of migration for the Chu Turks (Chu-kishi).
Finally, Basy-Chu, when translated from Turkic, could mean “the upper reaches of the Chu River.” Since shi in Chinese means “stone,” the area where the eldest son settled refers to pastures in the “rocky (or mountainous) region of the upper Chu River.”
Overall, based on the geographical and ethnic data in the legend, the Turks-Tükü (more precisely, according to Father Iakinf, “Dulu house”, meaning the khan’s lineage) originated from the So tribe, which lived north of the Altai. After migrating to the Altai and growing in number, they split into four branches:
One settled on the northern slopes of the Altai under the name Ku (ban or man seems to have meant “land” or “country” and later became a collective suffix, as seen in Turkman or Turkmen—possibly also Kuman?).
The second branch settled on the Yenisei and Abakan under the name Kyrgyz.
The third remained nomadic within the Altai, along the Chu River.
The fourth formed a tribe that took the name Turk.
The latter group, which became known to the Chinese in the second quarter of the 6th century, established political relations with them. In 536 AD, it subdued the Gaogü people, numbering 50,000 yurts, then ended the dominance of the Rouran, and by 556, it had conquered all of Mongolia and Central Asia, extending its power as far as the Hindu Kush and the Black Sea.
Despite the historical interest of this legend, it must be acknowledged that it reflects only the traditions preserved by the Turks-Tükü in the 6th century regarding their own origins and those of the neighboring Turkic tribes, of which only a few were destined to have a historical future.
The absence in the legend of any mention of such ancient and numerous Turkic tribes as the Huns, Kangly, or Gaogü, which had appeared on the historical stage centuries before the Tükü, shows that this is a legend about the origin of the Tükü Turks rather than the entire Turkic people and its major tribes.
It is, of course, possible that this legend faintly and vaguely echoes the ancestral homeland of all Turks in the northern Altai. However, its immediate significance is limited to the traditions about the origins of the khan’s lineage or, more precisely, the ruling elite that united the fragmented Turkic clans of the southern Altai and gave their union and tribe the name Türk, whether self-adopted or externally assigned.
This legend, which is presented here in some detail, is not the only or the oldest tradition about the origins of the Turks. A century earlier, in the 5th century, the Chinese recorded a legend about the Gaogü, according to which this Turkic tribe descended from a wolf and the daughter of a shanyu (ruler) of the Huns.
At the same time as the above-cited 6th-century legend, the Chinese also preserved another tradition, which traces the origins of the Tükü Turks to a she-wolf and a ten-year-old boy—the sole survivor of a Hun lineage that had been exterminated by its enemies and left with severed hands and feet.
The she-wolf nursed him until the enemies discovered that he had miraculously survived and killed him. The she-wolf then fled to a valley surrounded by impassable mountains (in the Altai), where she gave birth to ten sons, from whom the Tükü Turks descended.
All these legends, including the one about the Mongols descending from a “heaven-born gray wolf and a pale deer,” and similar stories, do not provide concrete evidence for determining the origins and ethnic composition of peoples and tribes. Instead, they offer only vague and enigmatic hints, serving as echoes of a distant phase in the evolution of human societies when primitive clans worshiped various animals, believing themselves to be their descendants.
Slightly richer in useful ethnographic material are the folk legends preserved for us by Muslim writers of the 13th and 14th centuries and later, such as Juvayni, Rashid al-Din, Abu’l-Ghazi Bahadur Khan, and others.
By the time of these writers, the ancient folk traditions concerning the origins of Turkic tribes—those that had historical, ethnic, and sociological foundations—had already been lost. Instead, they relied on naive etymologies:
The Uyghurs were supposedly the tribes that were allies or followers of the mythical Oghuz Khan, since the word Uyghur in Turkic supposedly means “follower” or “one who has joined.”
The Kangly originated from Oghuz’s warriors who introduced carts for carrying loot and supplies, as kangly in Turkic means “cart.”
The Karluks were said to have come from Oghuz’s people who were covered in snow (karluk meaning “snowman”), and so on.
The later the written accounts of Turkic tribal origins and the more they were subjected to literary embellishment and external influences, the less valuable they became as reliable sources.
The only accounts of some significance are the simple, unembellished oral genealogical traditions still found among Turkic tribes that have preserved a nomadic way of life and strong clan structures.
Due to the immense importance of kinship in their societies, these groups have retained firm recollections of degrees of blood relations or at least perceived blood ties and connections between clans.
By the 8th century, the Tükü Turks had already lost the memory of the legend recorded by the Chinese two centuries earlier. At least, in the Kül Tegin inscription of 732 AD, their history begins directly with Bumın Khan.
“When above, the blue sky was established, and below, the dark earth, human beings appeared between them.
Among the sons of men arose the famous Bumın Qaghan, a great khan. He established the clans (Stämme) and laws of the Turkic people and set everything in order.”
At the forefront of Bumın Qaghan’s achievements is the organization of clans. Although the translation had to be adjusted, in the patriarchal-clan-based society of the nomadic Turks, clans and their unions into tribal and intertribal alliances were indeed of paramount importance in all aspects.
A strong, numerous, and united clan had a greater ability to occupy the best pastures, provide its members with reliable and effective protection from external enemies, secure its leaders’ political influence within the tribe and state, and claim a larger share of the spoils and tributes collected for the benefit of the tribe or state.
While a clan’s large size contributed to its strength, economic factors related to pasture use and other circumstances made it impossible for a clan to remain intact indefinitely, inevitably leading to its division into more or less independent branches.
As a result, within every clan, two opposing tendencies coexisted: on one hand, the need to maintain unity, and on the other, a drive toward division.
This struggle was often intensified by competition among clan leaders and prominent figures. Some, seeking to preserve the power of the clan they ruled, fought to maintain its unity, while others, aiming to secure leadership over newly separated branches, actively worked toward fragmentation.
The drive for division often prevailed. However, the disadvantages of overly small and weak clan units prompted the formation of larger clan alliances, which sometimes included parts of different clans or even entire tribes. Yet, such unions, where blood ties were weak, tended to dissolve even more quickly and easily.
The history of Turkic nomadic states in Mongolia shows that these states arose when one tribe, led by courageous, intelligent, and fortunate rulers, managed to consolidate their own clans under their influence and subjugate other tribes.
They secured their power by placing their relatives or loyal followers—who owed their rise to them—at the head of clans and tribes.
The fall of Turkic states usually occurred during internal conflicts within the ruling house. However, these collapses were always driven primarily by the clans’ and tribes’ desire for independence, as their leaders increasingly aligned their interests with those of their respective clans.
After the fall of the dominant tribe, a more or less prolonged period of fragmentation among the clan alliances followed, until one of the tribes grew strong enough to subjugate the others and establish a new state.
This was the pattern in the rise and fall of the Xiongnu, Tükü Turks, and Uyghurs in Mongolia.
The same tendency of clans and tribes toward independence played a decisive role in the disintegration of the Mongol-founded uluses of Jochi and Chagatai, as well as in the political weakness and instability of the Kyrgyz-Kazakh alliance that emerged in their place.
Thus, clans were not only central to the everyday life of Turkic nomads but also played a crucial role in their political history. Given this significance, when every aspect of a nomad’s life and fate was determined by clan affiliation, clan names naturally remained extraordinarily stable.
Clans could join different alliances, either entirely or in parts, but they invariably retained their original names. Indeed, as we shall see, clan names recorded many centuries ago by Chinese historians—presumably due to the political importance of the clans bearing them—have been preserved in part even to this day.
This fact makes it possible to determine, to a significant extent, the ethnic composition of present-day Turkic tribes and peoples that have maintained a nomadic lifestyle, a clan-based society, and, with them, their ancestral names.
Among Turks who transitioned to a settled life long ago and lost their clan-based social structure, their clan names also disappeared. As a result, in studying the ethnic composition of these sedentary Turks, we are left with only the historical records of their clan structures from the period before they adopted a settled way of life.” - N.A. Aristov, Notes on the Ethnic Composition of Turkic Tribes and Peoples and Information on Their Numbers
Anthropology and DNA science
Lee and Kuang (University of Toronto) – A Comparative Analysis of Chinese Historical Sources and Y-DNA Studies with Regard to the Early and Medieval Turkic Peoples
“The nomadic people who spread the Turkic language and the name Türk beyond the Mongolian steppes were the Kök Türks (Tujue 突厥 in Chinese) led by the Ashina clan. Importantly, Chinese histories do not describe them as descending from the Dingling or as belonging to the Tiele confederation.
The Zhoushu (c. 630s ad), for instance, describes them as ‘a separate tribe of the Xiongnu (匈奴之別種)’ (Zhoushu 50.907) or ascribes their origin to the Suo state (suo guo 索國) located to the north of the Xiongnu (Zhoushu 50.908); Suo 索- Sak, Saka according to Schuessler, Pulleyblank, Beckwith).
The Suishu recounts that the Kök Türks are descended from ‘the mixed barbarians (za hu 雜胡) of Pingliang (平涼)’ (Suishu 84.1863). Interestingly, the Zhoushu also relates that the Ashina clan was related to the Kyrgyz (Qigu 契骨) (Zhoushu 50.908), who are described in the Xin Tangshu as possessing ‘red hair’ and ‘blue eyes’ (Xin Tangshu 217b.6147).
However, as to their physiognomy, the Kök Türks differed from the Kyrgyz. According to the Jiu Tangshu, an Ashina commander named Ashina Simo (阿史那思摩) was not given a high military post by the Ashina rulers because of his Sogdian (huren 胡人) physiognomy:
Simo was a relative of Xieli. Because his face was like that of the ‘barbarian (huren 胡人)’ and not like that of the Tujue, Shibi [Khagan] and Chuluo [Khagan] were doubtful of his being one of the Ashina. Thus although he always held the title of Jiabi tele[i] (夾畢特勒) during Chuluo and Xieli’s time, he could not become a shad (she 設) in command of the army till the end …
It should be noted that the seventh-century Tang historian Yan Shigu (顏師古), who added a commentary to the Hanshu (c. 80s ad), describes the Wusun (烏孫) as follows:
The Wusun have the weirdest appearance among all the Rong (戎) of the Western Region (西域). Today’s Hu (胡) people, being blue-eyed and red-bearded, and having the appearance of macaques, were originally their progeny.
However, no comparable depiction of the Kök Türks or Tiele is found in the official Chinese histories. The Kök Türks became divided into Eastern Türks and Western Türks in the late sixth century (583 ad).
The Western Türks, centred in the Kazakh steppes, developed into an autonomous tribal confederation that included some tribes not found among their eastern counterpart, such as the Qarluq (Geluolu 歌邏祿), the Chuyue (處月), the Türgesh (Tuqishi 突騎施), and perhaps the Khazars (Hesa 曷薩).
These tribes, which would outlive the Ashina clan and the Eastern Türks and play an important role in medieval Central Asian history, had probably incorporated some indigenous, non-Turkic elements of the Kazakh steppes.
The Jiu Tangshu (194b.5179) writes that the language of the Western Türks was ‘slightly different’ from that of their eastern counterpart.
Interestingly, the Chinese histories refer to some obscure nomadic tribes residing beyond northern Mongolia as Tujue, i.e., Kök Türk. These include such tribes as the Muma Tujue (木馬突厥) [Wooden-horse Türk], the Xianyu Tujue (鮮于突厥) and the Niuti Tujue (牛蹄突厥) [Ox-hoof Türk], who resided to the east of the Kyrgyz.
However, not much is known about them and as to why they were designated as Tujue. According to the Xin Tangshu (217b.6148), the Doubo (都播), an ancestral tribe of modern Tuvinians, constituted one of the three Muma Tujue tribes, who ‘mourn their dead like the Kök Türks’.
The Kyrgyz, who destroyed the Uighur Khaganate in 840 ad, were centred in the upper Yenisei region, not in the Mongolian steppes. According to the You yang za zu, written by Duan Chengshi in the ninth century ad, the Kyrgyz regarded themselves as progenies of a god and a cow:
The Jiankun (堅昆) Kyrgyz] tribe, [unlike the Türks], is not of wolf descent. Their ancestors were born in a cave located to the north of the Quman Mountain. They themselves say that in the ancient times there was a god who mated with a cow in that cave. The people’s hair is yellow, eyes are green, and beards are red.
The Kyrgyz are distinguished from the Uighurs and other Tiele tribes in Chinese histories. The Xin Tangshu, which provides detailed information on the Kyrgyz and the Tiele tribes, does not include the former among the latter (Xin Tangshu 217b.6139–6145).
In addition, while the Xin Tangshu states that ‘their language and script were identical to those of the Uighurs (其文字言語，與回鶻正同)’ (Xin Tangshu 217b.6148), it also notes the peculiar physical phenotype of the Kyrgyz.
The Xin Tangshu relates: ‘The people are all tall and big and have red hair, white faces, and green eyes (人皆長大，赤髮、皙面、綠瞳)’ (Xin Tangshu, 217b.6147).25 According to the Xin Tangshu, their neighbouring tribe named Boma (駁馬) or Bila (弊剌) resembled the Kyrgyz, although their language was different (Xin Tangshu 217b.6146).
This may imply that the Kyrgyz were originally a non-Turkic people who became Turkicized during the Kök Türk period at least partly through inter-tribal marriages. The Xin Tangshu relates that ‘the Kök Türks sent women as wives for the [Kyrgyz] chiefs (突厥以女妻其酋豪)’ (Xin Tangshu, 217b.6149).
In the case of Are (阿熱), the Kyrgyz ruler who destroyed the Uighur Khaganate, his wife was a Qarluq woman, while his mother was a Türgesh (Xin Tangshu 217b.6149). In addition, the Xin Tangshu relates that the Kyrgyz ‘intermixed with the Dingling (其種雜丁零)’ (Xin Tangshu 217b.6146–47). At any rate, the (red-haired) Kyrgyz ‘found dark hair ominous (以黑髮為不祥)’ and ‘regarded those with black eyes as descending from [Li] Ling (李陵)’, a Chinese general who had defected to the Xiongnu.
Genetics
Haplogroup R1a1, more specifically, its subclade R1a1a1b2 (defined by mutation Z93), is the genetic marker of the Indo-European pastoralists, who migrated from modern-day Ukraine to modern-day Iran, India, the Kazakh steppes, the Tarim Basin, the Altai Mountains region, the Yenisei River region, and western Mongolia during the Bronze Age.
Naturally, R1a1, more specifically, its subclade R1a1a1b2 (R1a-Z93), occurs at high frequency among the Turkic peoples now residing in the Yenisei River and the Altai Mountains regions in Russia.
Compared to the Tuvinians, the Khakass (whose name was created by the Soviets from Xiajiasi (黠戛斯), a Chinese name for Kyrgyz, since they were regarded as descending from the Kyrgyz have noticeably higher percentages of R1a1 (35.2%) and much lower percentages of haplogroups C (1.1%) and Q (4%). However, N is also the most prevalent haplogroup (50%) of the Khakass (Gubina et al. 2013: 339; Shi et al. 2013)
As for the Altaians, the Altai-Kizhi (southern Altaians) are characterised by a high percentage of R1a1 (50%) and low to moderate percentages of C2 (20%), Q (16.7%) and N (4.2%) (Dulik et al. 2012: 234).
The major differences between the Khakass and the southern Altaians are the lower frequency of haplogroup N (in another study, haplogroup N is found at high frequency (32%) among the Altaians in general: see Gubina et al. 2013: 329, 339) and the higher frequencies of haplogroups C2 and Q among the latter.
The descent of the Kyrgyz (Kyrgyz) of the Tien Shan Mountains region (Kyrgyzstan) from the Yenisei Kyrgyz is debated among historians.
However, among the modern Turkic peoples, the former have the highest percentage of R1a1 (over 60%). Since the West Eurasian physiognomy of the Yenisei Kyrgyz recorded in the Xin Tangshu was in all likelihood a reflection of their Eurasian Indo-European marker R1a1a1b2 (R1a-Z93), one may conjecture that the Tien Shan Kyrgyz received their R1a1 marker from the Yenisei Kyrgyz. That is, the former are descended from the latter.
The other Y-chromosome haplogroups found among the Kyrgyz (Kyrgyz) are C2 (12~20%), O (0~15%) and N (0~4.5%).50 The lack of haplogroup Q among the Qirghiz (Kyrgyz) mostly distinguishes them from the Altaians.
During the Bronze Age and early Iron Age, the Yenisei River region was inhabited by Indo-Europeans. The dna study of 26 ancient human specimens from the Krasnoyarsk area dated from the middle of the second millennium bc to the fourth century ad shows that the Yenisei pastoralists mostly belonged to haplogroup R1a1 (Keyser et al. 2009: 401)
The high frequency of R1a1 among the modern-day Kyrgyz and Altaians may thus prove that they are descended from the Yenisei Kyrgyz. In addition, this may explain the reason why medieval Chinese histories depict the Kyrgyz as possessing West Eurasian physiognomy.
The Y-chromosomes of the Kök Türks have not been studied. After the collapse of the Second Türk Khaganate in 745 ce, the Kök Türks became dispersed and it is difficult to identify their modern descendants.
If they were indeed descended from the Eastern Scythians aka Saka (Suo) or related to the Kyrgyz, as the Zhoushu states (Zhoushu 50.908), the Ashina (royal Türkic dynasty, possibly related to the Turko-Jewish Khazar Khaganate, according to Peter B. Golden of Rutgers University) may have belonged to the R1a1 lineage.”
-Lee and Kuang, University of Toronto, “A Comparative Analysis of Chinese Historical Sources and Y-DNA Studies with Regard to the Early and Medieval Turkic Peoples"
A genetic study published in Nature in May 2018 examined the remains of four elite Türk soldiers buried between ca. 300 AD and 700 AD.
50% of the samples of Y-DNA belonged to the West Eurasian haplogroup R1, while the other 50% belonged to East Eurasian haplogroups Q and O. The extracted samples of mtDNA belonged mainly to East Eurasian haplogroups C4b1, A14 and A15c, while one specimen carried the West Eurasian haplogroup H2a.
The authors suggested that central Asian nomadic populations may have been Turkicized by an East Asian minority elite, resulting in a small but detectable increase in East Asian ancestry.
However, these authors also found that Türkic period individuals were extremely genetically diverse, with some individuals being of complete West Eurasian descent. To explain this diversity of ancestry, they propose that there were also incoming West Eurasians moving eastward on the Eurasian steppe during the Türkic period, resulting in admixture.
Source: Damgaard, P. B.; et al. (9 May 2018). "137 ancient human genomes from across the Eurasian steppes". Nature
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