Chigils

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Chigil (Chihil, and also Jigil, Djikil, Chiyal) was a Turkic tribe known from the 7th century CE as living around Issyk Kul lake area, they were known for their religious dedication. They were considered to be descended from two of the "Six Chu tribes" or Chumuhun of the Chinese historians, the Chuyue and Chumi. The exact ethnic composition of Chigils had not been determined, but they are known to have been speakers of the Oguz group of the Türkic language family of the Altaic linguistic family. The first depictions of Chigils describe them as adherents of Manichaeism, later sources describe Chigils as Nestorian Christians, and as Christians. The Jeti-su area, a former Chigil territory, is rich with Christian and pre-Christian archaeological remains, and the Talas area is especially saturated with religious monuments and historical reports. Gagauzes, a distinct N.Pontic Türkic tribe known for their steadfast adherence to Greek Orthodox Christianity, have a folk legend associating their descent from the Chigils.

Sinologist Yu. A. Zuev suggests an etymology of the name Chigil from the Chinese transcriptions of the ethnonyms Chigil (Ch. 處月 Chuyue "abode of the Moon [god]", Küngul) and Chumul (Ch. 處密(or 蜜) Chumi "abode of the Sun [god]"), with the note that neither Türkic-Buddhist texts, nor the Türkic-Manichaean literature and other sources containing information about Türkic Manichaeism, in reference to the joint invocation of the Sun and Moon (Turk. kün ay) do not carry a genealogical meaning [Bang, Gabain, 1931, p. 333; Bang, Gabain, Rachmati, 1934, p. 159] ^[1].

To some degree the Chigils are a mystery people, mentioned in passing by the Chinese, Moslem, Arabic, Persian, and other Early and Middle Age sources, but not covered by a single comprehensive scientific monograph. The best historical source, also dedicated to a different subject, is the work of Prof. Yu. A. Zuev: "Early Türks: Sketches of history and ideology".

Contents 1 Historical background 2 Religious aspects 3 Toponymic traces 4 References

[edit] Historical background

The first reference about Chigils comes from the "History of the Sui dynasty" (581-680) Chji-i < tšįək-iət < chigil ^[2].

A genesis legend, written in the 11th century by Mahmud Kashgari, places the events in the time of the Zu-l-Karnein = the "Bihorn" (Alexander the Great, 4th century BCE). When the armies of Zu-l-Karnein reached Talas in the Manichean country Argu, a cloud poured streams of water forming 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!" And he ordered a building to be erected here called Chigil. From then on, those Türks who came there, began to be called Chigils. And other nomadic Türks, who adopted the Chigil type of (long) clothes began to be also called Chigils, from Djeyhun (Amu Darya) to the Chin (China)^[3].

Mahmud al-Kashgari mentions that:

“

"the nomad Chigil (as well as the Tukhsī) lived near the township of Quyās (*Quyash) lying beyond Barsghān and watered by the two Keykān rivers flowing into the Ili, ibid., iii, 132, v.i., p. 301, note 4. Quyash ("Sun" in Turkish) is supposed to have lain on the left bank of the Ili; in Mongol times it was the camping place of Chagatay . . . . Another group of the tribe lived in the township of Chigil, near Ṭarāz (Talas) . . . , and a third one in the villages of the same name near Kāshgar. Under the Qara-khanids the Chigil tribe formed the main body of their troops, Barthold, Turkestan, 317. Therefore probably Kāshgharī, i, 330, says that the Ghuz used to call "Chigil" all the Turks between the Oxus and Upper China." [4]

”

According to medieval writers, the city Chigil was at a distance of a "human voice from Taraz" [Volin, 1960, p. 81-82]^[5].

The reigning family of the Western Türkic initially Manichean Chigil tribe was Shato, which also founded the state Hou-Tang (923-936) in the Northern China, and adopted a Chinese surname Li. Its famous founder, Li Keün, also was from the Shato Dragon tribe [Malyavkin, 1974, p. 100; Li Fan, Ch. 425, p. 3458-3459]. Between the Shato Türks the dragon cult was predominant. The annals even noted that the Shato prayers "followed the old tradition of the northern custom" near a Thunder-mountain, at the Dragon Gate [Se Tszüichjen, Ch. 32, p. 225, f. 4b] ^[6]. The "Common Mirror" says: "Shato is actually (or primarily: Ch. ben) a Chüse tribe" [Sima Qian, Ch. 223, p. 7169]. The transcription Chüse reflects the Türkic jüz "hundred". Chigils-Shato were Manichaeans, and "hundred" is not always a military team, but also a religious category yüz er "hundred monk men" as is stated, for example, in the content of a number of the Manichaean Enisei monuments of the ancient Türkic writings. Thus yüz er, as against otuz oglan or otuz er, is a category of a dominating level ^[7].

The Hudud al-'Ālam, compiled in 982/3 CE, describes the Chigils as members of the Karluk state, and occupying Jeti-su 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."^[8]. Chigils and Yagma, and also one of Türgesh tribes, Tuhsi the remains of the Orhon Türks, united in the Karluk tribal union, and the history of these tribes, at least since the 9th century, is insoluble ^[9].

Chigils were prominent in the Karakhanid state. The power in the Karakhanid state was divided between the nobility of two tribal groups, Chigils and Yagma, which in the 9th century were a nucleus of the Karluk tribal union. The Karluk Kaganate was divided into two parts, eastern and western, headed by their Kagans. The eastern Kagan was a senior Kagan, with a court in Kashgar and Balasagun (fortress Buran, near Tokmak in Kyrgyzstan). He was from the Chigil tribe and had the title Arslan Kara-Hakan. The western was a lesser Kagan, from Yagma tribe, he had a title Bogra Kara-Kagan and had court in Taraz, and later in Samarkand^[10]..

In the eleventh century Chigils became independent, Mahmud Kashgari writes that they had three branches^[11].

After the Mongol invasion of Turkestan, the Türks in the northern Turkestan and in the Tien Shan region, among them Chigils, Yagma, Karluks, Argu and Tuhsi, had to give up their territory to the eastern nomadic groups. These Türkic tribes migrated to Transoxania and Kashgharia^[12].

There are presently four villages in Turkey called Chigil, indicating that some Chigils immigrated to Asia Minor after the Mongol invasion^[13].

[edit] Religious aspects

In Manichaeism the primary image of a lion, a mighty and ruthless king of animals takes an impressing place. This demonstrates an imported ideology, because it is impossible to imagine a lion as a "protector of clan" in the Central Asian populace, the lion in most parts never existed there. The building found by the archaeologists, without traces of economic activities, served as a chapel, a building and a "house" of the inhabitants in long clothes, the Chigils, whose symbol was a lion (Turk. Arslan, Bars) ^[14].

The permanent connection Talas - Manichaeism - Lion is recorded in the Türco-Manichean "Sacred book of two fundamentals" (Iki jïltïz nom), fragments of which were found in the 1907 at Karakhoja in the Turfan oasis by Albert von Le Coq. The "Book", tentatively dated by the 8th century, was dedicated to the ruler (Beg) from Chigil-Arslan tribes by the name Il-Tirgüg, Ap-Burguchan, Alp-Tarhan [Henning, 1977, p. 552]. It was completed in the Argu-Talas city (Altun Argu Talas). A postscript in the manuscript noted some Arslan Mengü that used the "Book" ^[15]. Talas had four Manichean cloisters: in the Chigil-balyk, Kashu, Ordu-kent and Yigyan-kent ^[16].

In the middle of the 7th century Chigils (Ch. Chuyue), Chumuls (Ch. Chumi) and Karluks (Ch. Gelolu) were united by the Western Türkic yabgu named Aru (Ch. Helu) in his anti-Tang uprising. The yabgu's name, Aru, is identical with the Türkic-Manichean arïg (like arïg dïntar "pure priest") ^[17].

The dynastic strife between competing tribes of Tuhs and Ases in the Türgesh Kaganate was dressed into religious attire. The new dynasty, reflected in the legend tuhsan of the Türgesh coins, was established by Sakal of the Tuhs tribe, and was challenged by the leader of the As tribe Sülük, who took over the Kagan's throne in the 716. After Sülük's death his son Tuhsan (Ch. Tuhosyan) was raised to Kaganship in Suyab, a "Tuhs Sovereign" of the Sogdo-Türgesh coins. In the 576, when the Byzantinian ambassador Valentine came to Tuhsan (Gr. Turksanth ) court, in the 738, when Türgesh Tuhsan was enthroned, and even in the 11th century the Tuhs/Tuhsi tribe professed Manichaeism and were called Tuhsi-Chigil, i.e. "Tuhsi-Manicheans" [Mahmud Kashgari, I, p. 399] ^[18].

[edit] Toponymic traces

Many settlements recorded in the medieval sources have names form the ethnonym Chigil. Sampling of such cities are Chigilkant and Chigil-balyk in East Turkestan, and Chigil in the Jety-su area ^[19]. Türks used a Chigil word kum (qum) "sand" to designate sandy deserts ^[20]. The ethnotoponym Chigil is formed with an affix -il (Turk. land, country) ^[21]. During the Middle Ages on the southern bank of the lake Issyk-kul is mentioned a city Yar, a capital of the leader of a Djikil (i.e. Chigil, Jigil tribe ^[22]. The city Shal retained its name in the form Chal till present. The various forms of this toponym (Shiyan, Shal, Chal) come from the Türkic ethnonym Chiyal (i.e. Chihil, Chigil) ^[23].

[edit] References

• Chavannes, Édouard (1900), Documents sur les Tou-kiue (Turcs) occidentaux. Paris, Librairie d’Amérique et d’Orient. Reprint: Taipei. Cheng Wen Publishing Co. 1969.
• Findley, Carter Vaughn, The Turks in World History. Oxford University Press, (2005). ISBN 0-19-516770-8; 0-19-517726-6 (pbk.)