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TheChigil (Chihil,Cihil, orChiyal) were aTurkic tribe known from the 7th century CE as living aroundIssyk Kul lake area. They were considered to be descended from the tribe Chuyue,[1][2][3] who were of mixedYueban-Western Turkic origins.[4]
Scholars propose different etymologies for the ethnonym Chigil:
However, Atwood (2010), in light of researches byTenishev (1965) & Saguchi (1986), doubted the common scholarly identification of Chigils with Chuyue, from whom emerged the Shatuo[14] asChuyue is phonetically closer toChunghyl, the name of a "bone" among theYugurs in modernGansu province.[15]
As for *Čömül (Ar.Jumul جمل),H. W. Bailey derived it fromIranic *čamṛta <čam- "to stride out like a warrior", thus "warrior striders"[16]
Hamilton (1962) and Zuev (2002) saw the first reference to the Chigil as 職乙 (Zhiyi), whose Middle Chinese pronunciation was reconstructed by Zuev astšįək-iət, as aTiele tribe mentioned inBook of Sui, compiled byWei Zheng.[17][18] However, the original manuscript contains no punctuation, so different scholars read and reconstruct the ethonyms differently: for example, 薄落職乙咥 may also be read asBoluozhi andYidie[19]
According to medieval writers, the city ofChigil was at "a distance of a human voice" fromTaraz.[20][21] An 11th-century story byMahmud Kashgari proposed a folk etymology of Chigil, which he dated back to the time of the Zu-l-Karnein ("the "Bihorn", i.e.Alexander the Great) 4th century BCE:
When the armies of Zu-l-Karnein reached Talas in the Manichean country Argu, a heavy rainstorm formed thick mud. The road became impassable, and angry Zu-l-Karnein exclaimed in Persian: "In chi gil ast?!" – "What is this mud?! We cannot get out of it!" He ordered a building be erected on the spot called Chigil. Turks in the area were called Chigils. Nomadic Turks, who adopted the Chigil type of [long] clothes were also called Chigils, from Djeyhun (Amu Darya) to the Chin (China).[22] ... The nomad Chigil (as well as theTukhsī) lived near the township of Quyās lying beyond Barsghān and watered by the two Keykān rivers flowing into the Ili[23] ... Another group of the tribe lived in the township of Chigil, near Ṭarāz, and a third one in the villages of the same name near Kāshgar.
Kashghari[24] says that theOghuz Turks used to call "Chigil" all the Turks between the Oxus and Northern China.[25]
If the Chuyue in Chinese sources were indeed Chigils, then theShatuo 沙陀, a Chuyue splinter group, were also a splinter group from Chigils. A Shatuo noble,Keyong, was from the Shatuo Dragon tribe, bore the surnameZhuye 朱耶 ~Zhuxie 朱邪, and later adopted the surnameLi of theTang emperors,[26] first bestowed on Keyong's fatherZhuxie Chixin.[27] Keyong's sonLi Cunxu would found of theLater Tang dynasty (923–936) in Northern China, elevating the Shatuo to a regnal clan. Among the Shatuo, the dragon cult was predominant. The annals noted that Shatuo prayers "followed the old tradition of the northern custom" near Thunder-mountain, at the Dragon Gate.[28][29][30][31]
Paraphrasing a passage fromSima Guang'sZizhi Tongjian, Zuev states that "Shatuo is originally (or, at root, 本běn) a Zhuxie tribe";[32] Zuev further asserts that Zhuxie reflects the Turkicjüz "hundred". The Chigil-Shatuo wereManichaeans, and "hundred" is not always a military team, but also a religious categoryyüz er "hundred monk men" as is stated, for example, on a number of the ManichaeanYenisei monuments ofancient Turkic writings. Thusyüz er, as opposed tootuz oglan orotuz er, is a category of dominating level.[33]
Chigils andYagma, and also theTuhsi, one of theTürgesh tribes,[34][35] the remains of theOrkhon Turks, united in the Karluk tribal union, and the history of these tribes, at least since the 9th century, is indivisible.[36] TheHudud al-'Ālam, compiled in 982–3 CE, describes the Chigils as members of theKarluk Yabghu state, occupying the Zhetysu territories including regions around Issyk Kul to the north and east of the Karluks. They are described as possessing great riches and that their king "is one of themselves." It is also reported that "Some of them worship the Sun and the stars."[37]
The Chigils were prominent in theKara-Khanid Khanate, where they formed the main body of the troops.[38] The power in the Karakhanid state was divided between the nobility of two tribal groups, Chigils and Yagma, which in the 9th century formed the nucleus of theKarluk tribal union, besidesMouluo 謀落 /Moula 謀剌 (Bulaq?),Tashili 踏實力 (Tashlyk?) andSuofu 娑匐[a][39] (Sebeğ?)[40][41] orChisi 熾俟. Golden (1992) hesitantly identifies theChisi 熾俟 withChuyue 處月. Meanwhile, Atwood (20101) identifiesChisi 熾俟 withZhusi 朱斯, also mentioned inXiu Tangshu; Atwood does not linkChisi 熾俟 ~Zhusi 朱斯 toChuyue 處月, but instead toZhuxie 朱邪, the original tribal surname of the Shatuo ruling house.[42] ThisKarluk-speaking Khaganate was divided into two parts, eastern and western, each headed by its ownKhagan. The eastern Kagan was the senior Kagan, with his court inKashgar andBalasagun (Buran fortress, near Tokmak inKyrgyzstan). He was from the Chigil tribe and had the title Arslan Kara-Hakan. The western was the lesser Kagan, from the Yagma tribe, with the title Bogra Kara-Kagan and his court inTaraz, and later inSamarkand.[43]
In the eleventh century the Chigils became independent. Kashgari writes that they consisted of three branches.[44]
After theMongol invasion ofTurkestan, the Turks in northern Turkestan and in theTien Shan region, among them the Chigils,Yagma,Karluks,Argu andTuhsi, had to give up their territory to the eastern nomadic groups. They migrated toTransoxania andKashgharia.[45]
There are presently four villages inTurkey calledChigil, indicating that some Chigils migrated to Asia Minor after the Mongol invasion.[46]
The Chigil were known for their religious dedication. The first depictions of the Chigils describe them as adherents ofManichaeism. Later sources describe the Chigils asNestorian Christians. The Zhetysu area, a former Chigil territory, is rich with Christian and pre-Christian archaeological remains, and theTalas area is especially saturated with religious monuments and historical reports. theGagauzes, a distinctPontic Turkic tribe known for their steadfast adherence toGreek Orthodox Christianity, have a folk legend associating their descent from the Chigils.
An Arab writer named Abū Dulaf reported to have found only a few Christians among the Chigil, while most worshipped "the stars", in particularSirius.[47]
In Manichaeism, the lion, mighty and ruthless king of animals, is a central image. This demonstrates an imported ideology; the lion is not native to Central Asia, and so it originally did not have symbolic significance for the population there. The building found by the archaeologists, without traces of economic activities, served as a chapel of the inhabitants depicted in long robes: the Chigils, whose symbol was a lion (Turk.Arslan, Bars).[48]
The connection betweenTalas, Manichaeism and the Lion is recorded in the Turco-Manichean "Sacred book of two fundamentals" (Iki jïltïz nom), fragments of which were found in 1907 atKara-Khoja in theTurpan oasis byAlbert von Le Coq. The book was dedicated to the ruler (Beg) of the Chigil-Arslan tribe, named Il Tirgüg, Ap Burguchan, Alp Tarhan [Henning, 1977, p. 552]. It was completed in Argu-Talas city (Altun Argu Talas). A postscript in the manuscript noted an Arslan Mengü that used the book.[49] Talas had four Manichean cloisters: in the Chigil-balyk, Kashu, Ordu-kent and Yigyan-kent.[50]
In the middle of the 7th century, Chigils, Chumuls and Karluks were united by the Western Turkic yabguAshina Helu in his anti-Tang uprising. Zuev reconstructs Helu's Old Turkic name as *Aru, which, he contends, is identical with the Turkic-Manicheanarïg (likearïg dïntar "pure priest").[51]
Many settlements recorded in medieval sources have names derived from the ethnonym Chigil, such as Chigil-kant and Chigil-balyk inXinjiang, and Chigil in the Zhetysu area:[52]
During the Middle Ages, a city, Yar, is mentioned as located on the southern bank of lake Issyk-kul. This city is the capital of the leader of the Djikil (i.e. Chigil) tribe.[53] The city retained its name in the formChal till present. The various forms of this toponym (Shiyan, Shal, Chal) come from the Turkic ethnonym Chiyal (i.e. Chigil).[54]
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