Their name comes from their eponymous founder,Nogai Khan (lit. 'dog' inMongolian), a grandson ofJochi. Nogai (d. 1299–1300) was de facto ruler, kingmaker, and briefly self-proclaimed khan of theGolden Horde.[13][10] The name is also spelled asNogay orNoghay, and they are also known as theNogalar orMangkyt.[10]
A few thousand Bug-Nogais live inBudjak (today inUkraine), and they are concentrated mainly in southwest Budjak. They live in the villages of Kotlovyna, Kosa, Krynychne, Karakurt, Oksamytne, Ozerne, Topolyne, Tabaky, Zaliznychne, and Vladychen. They also inhabit the towns ofBolhrad and Kubei. They also inhabit the cities ofIzmail andTatarbunary.
Nogai minorities also live in Bulgaria, mainly in Northeast and Southeast planning regions. A minority also lives inHaskovo province.
The number of Nogais living in Turkey today is disputed. Estimates claim there are 90,000–100,000 Nogais (Nogai Turks) in the country. They mainly settled inCeyhan/Adana,Ankara, andEskisehir provinces. The Nogai language is still spoken in some of the villages of Central Anatolia – mainly around Salt Lake, Eskişehir, andCeyhan. To this day, Nogais in Turkey have maintained their cuisine:üken börek,kaşık börek,tabak börek,şır börek,köbete andNogay şay (Nogai tea – a drink prepared by boiling milk and tea together with butter, salt and pepper).
TheJunior Juz or theLesser Horde of theKazakhs occupied the lands of the former Nogai Khanate in WesternKazakhstan. A part of the Nogais joined the Kazakhs in the 17th and 18th centuries and formed a separate clan or tribe called as Kazakh-Nogais. Their estimated number is about 50,000.
From the 16th century until their deportation in the mid-19th century, the Nogais living along theBlack Sea northern coast were divided into the following sub-groups (west to east):
It can be considered that the gene pool of the Nogais has absorbed so many Eurasian genetic flows that it can successfully serve as one of the standards of the "genetic pole of the Eurasian steppe".
The ethnic history of the Nogai people is primarily based on the naming of a branched clan stratification, where theethnonymy of specific clans andclan groups, combined with the customary identification of clan-family signs (tamga), clearly traces the ethno-genetic and historical-cultural continuity with the ethnonyms of major actors from early and later periods across the North Eurasian space. The interethnic integration of these groups formed the totality and overall unity of the Nogai ethnic community. The ethnic foundation of the people was formed by ancient groups such as theNaimans,[17]Siraki, Uysun,Kangly,Kipchaks,Asi,Mangyt,Bulgars, Bayysy, Bodraki, Kobany, Baydary, Mazhar and others, who inhabited the Irtysh region, Northwestern Mongolia, Central Asia, Southern Ural, Lower Volga, Northern Caucasus, Crimea, Northern Black Sea region, Don region, Azov region, and Lower Dnieper region.[18][19] Many of these groups had their own states.
In the genetic history of the Nogai population of Kuban, there were two episodes of admixture with populations from Southern Siberia and Mongolia: in the 8th and 17th centuries.[20]
According to an ethnogenetic study conducted by Kazakh researchers Zh. M. Sabitov and A. K. Abdullin among the Nogais of the Republic of Dagestan, a representative of the Bayat (or Tore) clan from Anevska village, Tarumovsky District, who claimed descent from the murza of the Yedishkul Horde and whose genealogy was thus associated by the authors with the founding lineage of the Nogai ruling dynasty Edige, was found to belong to theC2 supercluster. The authors associate this haplogroup with Nirun Mongols tribes, to which theManghit clan belonged.[21]
The nameNogai derives fromNogai Khan (died 1299/1300, great-great-grandson ofGenghis Khan), a general of theGolden Horde.[22][23] The Nogai homeland is known asNogaistan and lies on theNogai Steppe.[10] The Nogai originated as nomadic tribes in Central Asia, and following their conquest by the Golden Horde in the 13th century, they migrated west.[10] A Mongol tribe called the Manghits (Manghut) constituted a core of theNogai Horde. The Nogai Horde supported theAstrakhan Khanate, and after the conquest ofAstrakhan in 1556 by theRussians, they transferred their allegiance to theCrimean Khanate. The Nogais protected the northern borders of the Crimean Khanate, and through organized raids to theWild Fields inhibited Slavic settlement. Many Nogais migrated to the Crimean peninsula to serve as the Crimean khans' cavalry. Settling there, they contributed to the formation of theCrimean Tatars.[citation needed] They raised various herds and migrated seasonally in search of better pastures for their animals. Nogais were proud of their nomadic traditions and independence, which they considered superior to settled agricultural life.
The recorded history of the Nogais first commenced when[when?] representatives of theOttoman Empire reached theTerek–Kuma Lowland, where the Nogais were living as rogue clans and herders. There were two main chiefs: YusufMirza and Ismail Mirza,Bey of the Nogai Horde from 1555 to 1563. Yusuf Mirza supported joining the Ottomans. However, his brother Ismail Mirza, who was allied with the Russians, ambushed Yusuf and declared his chiefdom under Russian rule. After that, the supporters of Yusuf Mirza migrated to Crimea andYedisan, joining the Crimean Khanate. Supporters of Yusuf took the nameQara, later named by Crimeans asKichi (Lesser Nogai Horde founded in 1557 by Mirza Kazy). Those who remained in present-day West Kazakhstan and the North Caucasus (Greater Nogai Horde) took the nameUly (Strong).
Nogay Princess by Paul Jacob Laminit after Emelyan Korneev, 1812,National Museum inWarsaw
At the beginning of the 17th century, the ancestors of theKalmyks, theOirats, migrated from the steppes of southernSiberia on the banks of theIrtysh River to the Lower Volga region. Various theories attempt to explain this move, but the generally accepted view is that the Kalmyks sought abundant pastures for their herds.[citation needed] They reached the Volga about 1630. That land, however, was not uncontested pasture, but rather the homeland of the Nogai Horde. The Kalmyks expelled the Nogais, who fled to the Northern Caucasian Plains and to the Crimean Khanate, areas under the control of theOttoman Empire. Some Nogai groups sought the protection of the Russian garrison atAstrakhan. The remaining nomadic Turkic tribes became vassals of the Kalmyk khan.
After theRussian annexation of Crimea in 1783, Slavic and other settlers occupied the Nogai pastoral land, since the Nogais did not have permanent[citation needed] residence. In the 1770s and 1780s the Russian EmpressCatherine the Great resettled approximately 120,000 Nogais fromBessarabia and areas northeast of theSea of Azov to the Kuban and the Caucasus.[24] In 1790, during theRusso-Turkish war, PrinceGrigory Potemkin ordered the resettlement of some Nogai families from the Caucasus (where, he feared, they might defect to the Ottomans) to the north shore of the Sea of Azov.[25] With the 1792Treaty of Jassy (Iaşi) the Russian frontier expanded to theDniester River and the Russian takeover of Yedisan was complete. The 1812Treaty of Bucharest transferredBudjak to Russian control.
After confiscating the land previously belonged to Nogais, the Russian government forced Nogais to settle through various methods, such as burning their tents and limiting their freedom of movement. The Russian generalAlexander Suvorov slaughtered thousands of rebellious Kuban Nogais in 1783. Several Nogai tribes tookrefuge among theCircassians in this period. Several other Nogai clans began to migrate to the Ottoman Empire in great numbers. The Nogais followed two routes. An estimated 7,000 Nogais of the Bucak and Cedsan Hordes settled inDobruja before 1860. Most of these Nogais later migrated toAnatolia. However, the great exodus of the Nogais took place in 1860. Many clans from the Camboyluk and Kuban Hordes moved westwards to southern Ukraine, and wintered with the local ethnics there in 1859. They emigrated either through the ports ofFeodosia orKerch, or by crossing via the Budjak steppes to Dobruja. 50,000 of the roughly 70,000 Nogais of the Kuban and adjacentStavropol region left Russia for the Ottoman Empire during this period. They induced the Nogais of Crimea (who lived in the districts ofYevpatoria,Perekop and in the north ofSimferopol) to emigrate too. Similarly, 50,000 Nogais disappeared from northern Black Sea region by 1861.Other Nogai clans emigrated directly from the Caucasus to Anatolia, together with theCircassians. Nogais lived alongside German-speakingMennonites in theMolochna region of southern Ukraine from 1803, when the Mennonites first arrived there, until 1860, when the Nogais were deported.[26]
Modern Turkic PeoplePCA Analysis, including the Nogais (Stravropol). Modelled proportions ofAncient Northeast Asian ancestry (ANA,), as well as Chinese Yellow River (YR_NLA,) andSintashta () ancestry.[27]
^Golden, P. B. (2022). "Nogai people". In K. Fleet; G. Krämer; D. Matringe; J. Nawas; D. J. Stewart (eds.).Encyclopaedia of Islam Three Online. Brill.doi:10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_41065.The Nogai (self-designation Noghay) are a Sunnī Muslim Turkic people numbering about 120,000, who live mainly in the North Caucasus, the neighbouring Stavropol and Krasnodar krais (administrative districts), and Astrakhan province of the Russian Federation.
^Trepavlov V. V. Istoriya Nogayskoy Ordy. — M.: Vostochnaya literatura, 2002. pp. 499–504
^R. Kh. Kereitov. Nogais. Features of Ethnic History and Everyday Culture / Scientific ed. Yu. Yu. Klychnikov. Stavropol: Servisshkola, 2009.
^Burdzhany: Sources, Research History, Hypotheses: Abstract of the Candidate of Historical Sciences Dissertation / Hamidullin Salavat Ishmukhametovich; [Defense location: Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) RAS] — Ufa, 2016
^Bayazit Yunusbayev; Mait Metspalu; Ene Metspalu; Albert Valeev; Sergei Litvinov; Ruslan Valiev; Vita Akhmetova; Elena Balanovska; Oleg Balanovsky; Shahlo Turdikulova; Dilbar Dalimova; Pagbajabyn Nymadawa; Ardeshir Bahmanimehr; Hovhannes Sahakyan; Kristiina Tambets; Sardana Fedorova; Nikolay Barashkov; Irina Khidiyatova; Evelin Mihailov; Rita Khusainova; Larisa Damba; Miroslava Derenko; Boris Malyarchuk; Ludmila Osipova; Mikhail Voevoda; Levon Yepiskoposyan; Toomas Kivisild; Elza Khusnutdinova; Richard Villems (April 21, 2015)."The Genetic Legacy of the Expansion of Turkic-Speaking Nomads across Eurasia".PLOS Genetics.11 (4).doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1005068.PMID25898006.There are exceptions, like the Balkars, Kumyks, and Nogais in Northern Caucasus, who showed either earlier dates of admixture (8th century) or much later admixture between the 15th century (Kumyks) and 17th century (Nogais)
^Ethnic Groups of Europe: An Encyclopedia edited by Jeffrey E. Cole[1] "The origin of the Nogais is related to the Golden Horde in the 13th and 14th centuries. Their ethnonym (nogay means 'dog' in Mongolian) seems to have emerged among them under the leadership of Amir Nogay."
^B. B. Kochekaev, Nogaisko-Russkie Otnosheniia v XV-XVIII vv (Alma-Ata: Nauk, 1988), passim.
^P. S. Pallas,Travels through the Southern Provinces of the Russian Empire, in the Years 1793 and 1794, 2 vols. (London: S. Strahan, 1802), 1:533.
^Compare:Mennonite-Nogai Economic Relations, 1825–1860: "Mennonites lived alongside Nogais – semi-nomadic Tatar pastoralists – in the Molochna region of southern Ukraine from 1803, when Mennonites first arrived, until 1860, when the Nogais departed."
1 Central Asian (i.e.Turkmeni,Afghani andIranian)Turkmens, distinct from Levantine (i.e.Iraqi andSyrian) Turkmen/Turkoman minorities, who mostly adhere to an Ottoman-Turkish heritage and identity.2 In traditional areas of Turkish settlement (i.e. formerOttoman territories).
1These are traditional areas of settlement; the Turkic group has been living in the listed country/region for centuries and should not be confused with modern diasporas. 2State with limited international recognition.
