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The 'Karluks' (obs. 'Qarluqs', 'Qarluks', 'Karluqs', Arab/Persian 'Halluh', , customary phonetic 'Gelolu', 'Gelu', 'Khololo', 'Khorlo', 'Harluut') were a prominent nomadic Turkic tribe residing in the regions of Kara-Irtysh (Black Irtysh) and Tarbagatai west of the Altay Mountains in Central Asia. They were closely related to the Uygurs. Karluks gave their name to the distinct Karluk group of the Turkic languages, which also includes the Uygur, Uzbek and Ili Turki languages. Karluks were known as a coherent ethnic group with autonomous status within the Turkic Kaganates, and the independent states of the Karluk Yabgu and Karakhanids, before being absorbed in the Chagatai Ulus of the Mongol empire.

Contents

History

Historical background

Kyrgyz period

Karakhanid period

Control of Turkestan

Khitan period

Mongol era

Modern

Social organization

Dynastic relations

Etymology

Notes and references

History

Historical background

The first Chinese reference to the Karluks (644 AD) labels them with a Manichaean attribute: Lion Karluks (''Shi-Gelolu'', ''shi'' stands for Sogd. "lion"). The "lion" (Tr. "arslan") Karluks persisted up to the time of the Mongols ^[1]. In the Early Middle Age, organized as the Uch-Karluks (Three Karluks) union, composed of Karluks, Chigils, and Yagma tribes, they were members of the Turkic Kaganate. After the split of the Kaganate around 600 into the Western and Eastern Kaganates, the Uch-Karluks remained in the Western Turkic Kaganate under a non-autonomous home rule, as the members of the five Tiele (Dingling) tribes that did not receive autonomy: the Karluks; the Yagma (Yan Nyan); the Kipchaks; the Basmals; and the Hun (Dulu) tribes Chue, Chumi, and Shato. After the breakup of the Western Turkic Kaganate around 630, the Karluk union became independent, and by the year 665 it was lead by former a Uch-Karluk bey with the title Kül-Erkin, now titled "Yabgu" (prince), who had a powerful army. The Karluk vanguard left the Altai region, and at the beginning of the 8th century reached the banks of the Amu Darya ^[2].
The Karluks were a branch of the Turkic Türgesh, or aboriginal Altaians. In 650 AD, at the time of their submission to the Chinese, the Karluks had 3 tribes: Meulo, Chjisy (Popou), and Tashili. On paper, the Karluk divisions received Chinese names as Chinese provinces, and their leaders received Chinese state titles. Later, the Karluks spread from the valley of the river Kerlyk along the Irtysh River in the western part of the Altay to beyond the Black Irtysh, Tarbagatai, and towards the Tien Shan. ^[3].
In 630 AD the Aru-Kagan (Chinese, ''Helu'') of the Eastern Turkic Kaganate was captured by the Chinese, and his heir apparent, the "lesser Khan" Khubo, with a major part of the people and 30,000 members of the army, escaped to Altai, conquered the Karluks in the west, the Kyrgyz in the north, and took the title Ichju Chebi Khan. The Karluks allied with the Dingling and their leaders the Uygurs against the Turkic Kaganate, and participated in enthroning the victorious head of the Uygurs (Tokuz Oguzes). After that, a smaller part of the Karluks joined the Uygurs, and settled in the Bogdo-Ola mountains in Mongolia, and the larger part settled in the area between Altai and the eastern Tien Shan ^[4].
The Karluk rose in rebellion in against the Türküt, then the dominant tribal confederation in the region, in about 745, and established a new tribal confederation with the Turkic Uygur and Basmil tribes.^[5]
In 766, after they overran the Turgesh in Semirechye, the Karluk tribes formed a Khanate under the rule of a Yabgu (prince). Famed for their woven carpets in the pre-Muslim era, they were considered a vassal state by the Tang Dynasty after the final conquest of the Transoxania regions by the Chinese around 744. They remained in the Chinese sphere of influence and an active participant in fighting the Muslim expansion into the area, up until their betrayal of the Tang at the Battle of Talas in 751.
Chinese intervention in the affairs of Western Turkestan ceased after their defeat in 751 by the Arab general Ziyad ibn Salih. The Arabs dislodged the Karluks from Fergana. In 766, the Karluks occupied Suyab, and transferred their capital there. By that time the bulk of the tribe had left the Altai, and the supremacy in the Jeti-Su passed to the Karluks. Their ruler bore the title Yabgu, and is often mentioned in the Orkhon inscriptions ^[2]. In Pehlevi texts one of the Karluk rulers of Tocharistan is called Yabbu-Hakan (Yabgu-Khagan) ^[7]. The fall of the Western Turkic Kaganate left the Jeti-su in the possession of the Turkic peoples, unconquered by either the Arabs or Chinese ^[2].
The Karluks were hunters, nomadic herdsmen, and agriculturists. They settled in the countryside and in the cities, which were centered around trading posts along the caravan roads. The Karluks inherited a vast multi-ethnic region, whose diverse population was not much different from its rulers. The Jeti-su was populated by the Turkic Türgesh, who were divided into two tribes, the Tukhshi and the Azes (Ases) mentioned in the Orkhon inscriptions, remnants of the Turkic Oguzes whose main body had moved to the west, becoming the Shatuo Turks (i.e. "Steppe Turks"), and interspersed with the Sogdian colonies. The southern part of the Jeti-su was occupied by the Yagma people, a branch of the Tokuz-Oguzes, the later Uygurs, who also held Kashgar. In the north and west lived Kangars (Kangly, Kangüy, Kangju). A separate significant division of the Karluks were the Chigils, a tribe that had detached from the Karluk. They resided around Issyk Kul.^[2].
The diverse population adhered to a spectrum of religious beliefs. The Karluks and the majority of the Turkic population professed Tengrianism, called by the proselytizing religions shamanism and heathen. Among the Chigils were Christians of the Nestorian denomination. The majority of the Tokuz-Oguz, with their khan, were Manicheans, but there were also Christians, Buddhists and Muslims among them. The peaceful penetration of Muslim culture through commercial relations played a far more important role in the conversion of the Türks than Muslim arms. The merchants were followed by missionaries of various creeds, including Nestorian Christians. Many Turkestan towns had Christian churches. The Turks held sacred the Qastek pass mountains, believing to be the abode of the deity. Each creed carried its script, resulting in a variety of used scripts, including Türkic runiform, Sogdian, Syriac, and later Uygur ^[2]. Karluks had adopted and developed the Turkic literary language of Khoresm, established in the Bukhara and Samarkand, which after Mongol conquest became known as Chagatai Turki.
Of all Turkic peoples, Karluk were the most open to the influence of the Muslim culture. Yacubi reported the conversion of the Karluk-yabgu to Islam under Caliph Mahdi (775-785), and by the tenth century in several towns to the east of Talas had cathedral mosques. Muslim culture had affected the general way of life of the Karluks ^[11]
In the following three centuries the Karluk Yabgu state occupied a key position on the choice international trade route, fighting off mostly Türkic competing encroachers to retain their prime position. Their biggest adversaries were Kangars in the north-west and Tokuz-Oguzes in the south-east, with a period of Samanid raids to Jeti-su in the 840-894. But even in the heyday of the Karluk Yabgu state, parts of its domains was in the hands of the Tokuz-Oguzes, and later under Kyrgyz and Kidan] control, increasing the ethnical, religious, and political diversity. ^[12].

Kyrgyz period

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