{{Short description|Oghuz Turkic tribe}} {{Infobox ethnic group | group = | image = Kayi.svg | image_caption = Tamga of Kayı, which its ongon represents the bow and arrow according to Mahmud al-Kashgari | popplace = Turkey, Turkmenistan<ref>{{Cite book|last=Atanyýazov|first=Soltansha|date=1988|title=Словарь туркменских этнонимов|trans-title=Dictionary of Turkmen Ethnonyms|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ju3UAAAAMAAJ|isbn=9785833800140|language=ru}}</ref> | rels = Sunni Islam | langs = Turkish, Turkmen | native_name = Kayı | native_name_lang = tr | related_groups = Oghuz Turks }} The '''Kayı''' ({{langx|xqa|قَيِغْ|qayïġ}}; {{langx|tr|Kayı boyu}}, {{langx|tk|Gaýy taýpasy}}) were an Oghuz Turkic ethnic group and a sub-branch of the Bozok tribal federation. In his ''Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk'', the 11th century Kara-Khanid scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari cited {{lang|tr|Kayı}} as of one of 24 Oghuz tribes, saying that Oghuz were also called Turkomans.<ref>{{Cite web|language=Russian|url=http://www.vostlit.info/Texts/rus17/Machmud_Kasgar/text1.htm|title=Диван лугат ат-турк (Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk)|author=Махмуд ал-Кашгари (Mahmud al-Kashgari)|website=|date=1939|location=Москва-Ленинград (Moscow-Leningrad)|publisher=АН СССР (USSR Academy of Sciences)|quote=Огуз — одно из тюркских племен (кабиле), они же туркмены...Второй (род) — Кайыг/(Oghuz - one of the Turkic tribes (kabile), they are also Turkmens. Second (clan) - Kayig)}}</ref>
The name ''Kayı'' means "the one who has might and power by relationship" and a Turkmen proverb says that "the people shall be governed by Kayı and Bayat tribes" ({{langx|tk|Il başy - gaýy-baýat}}).<ref>''Г.И.Карпов.'' Племенной и родовой состав туркмен. (G.I.Karpov. Turkmen tribal and clan composition) — Полторацк (Асхабад): Наркомвмутдел Туркменск. С. С. респ., 1925</ref>
== Origin == In his history work ''Shajara-i Tarākima'', the Khan of Khiva and historian, Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur, mentions {{lang|tr|Kayı}} among the 24 ancient Turkmen (Oghuz Turkic) tribes, direct descendants of Oghuz Khagan. Oghuz Khagan is a semi-legendary figure thought to be the ancient progenitor of Oghuz Turks. {{lang|tr|Kayı}} translates as "strong". In his extensive history work “Jami' al-tawarikh” (Collection of Chronicles), the statesman and historian of the Ilkhanate Rashid-al-Din Hamadani also says that the {{lang|tr|Kayı}} tribe comes from the oldest of Oghuz Khan's 24 grandchildren who were the patriarchs of the ancient Oghuz tribes, and the name ''Kayı'' means "powerful".
thumb|upright=1.7|Genealogical tree of Oghuz. Soviet Sinologist and Turkologist Yury Zuev based on the analysis of tribal names and tamgas from Tang Huiyao, identifies a number of ancient Central Asian Turkic tribes as Oghuz-Turkmen tribes, one of them is the Kay tribe, whom the Chinese knew as Xí 奚 (< MC *''γiei''). After examining Chinese sources & consulting the works of other scholars (Pelliot, Minorsky), Zuev proposes that the Kay had belonged to the proto-Mongolic Xianbei tribal union Yuwen Xiongnu and that Kay had been ethnic and linguistic relatives of the Mongolic-speaking Khitans, prior to being known as an Oghuz-Turkmen tribe by the 9th century.<ref>{{Cite web|language=|url=https://www.studmed.ru/zuev-yua-tamgi-loshadey-iz-vassalnyh-knyazhestv_abb1cbc58b8.html|title=Тамги лошадей из вассальных княжеств (Horse Tamgas from Vassal Principalities)|author=Ю.Зуев (Yu.Zuyev)|website=|date=1960|location=Алма-Ата/Alma-Ata|publisher=Издательство Академии Наук Казахской ССР (Academny of Science of the Kazakh SSR)}}</ref> Likewise, Hungarian scholar Gyula Németh (1969) links ''Kayı(ğ)'' to the (para-)Mongolic ''Qay''/''Xí'', whom Tibetans knew as ''Dad-pyi'' and Göktürks knew as ''Tatabï''; however, Németh's thesis is rejected by Mehmet Fuat Köprülü among others. Later on, Németh (1991) proposes that Mg. ''Qay'' is derived from Tk. root ''qað-'' "snowstorm, blizzard"; nevertheless, Golden points out that ''Qay'' has several Mongolic etymologies: ''ɣai'' "misfortune", ''χai'' "interjection of grief", ''χai'' "to seek", ''χai'' "to hew".<ref>Golden, Peter B. (2006). "Cumanica V: The Basmils and Qipčaqs" in ''Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi'' 15: notes 24–25. p. 17 of 13-42</ref><ref>Golden, P.B. (2003) "Cumanica II: The Olberli (Olperli): The Fortunes and Misfortunes of an Inner Asian Nomadic Clan" in ''Nomads and their neighbours in the Russian Steppe'' note. 49 p. 17 of 5-29</ref>
Even so, Köprülü rejects scholarly attempts to link the formerly Mongolic Qay/Xi to the Oghuz Turkic tribe Qayı(ğ); he points out that Kashgari's ''Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk'' distinguished the Qay tribe from the Qayığ branch/sub-tribe of the Oghuz-Turkmen tribe.<ref>Köprülü, Mehmet Fuad (2006) Early Mystic in Turkish literature translated by Leiser and Dankoff. 146-147</ref><ref>Maħmūd al-Kašğari. "Dīwān Luğāt al-Turk". (1982) Edited & translated by Robert Dankoff in collaboration with James Kelly. In Sources of Oriental Languages and Literature. Part I. p. 82-84, 101-102; Part II. p. 230</ref>
== History == {{See also|Division of the Kayı tribe|Siege of Kulaca Hisar}} [[File:Council of Tuman, Köl Erki, Kayı Yavgu Han and Korkut, 1426-30 Herat, folio 387a. Jami al-Tawarikh, TSMK, H.1653 (miniature).jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Council of Tuman, Köl Erki, Kayı Yavgu Han and Korkut. ''Jami al-Tawarikh'' (1426-30), Herat]] [[File:Manghir coin of Murad II having the Kayi tribe symbol.png|thumb|Manghir coin of Murad II with the Kayı tamga]] According to Ottoman tradition, Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman Empire, was a descendant of the Kayı.<ref>"Some Ottoman genealogies claim, perhaps fancifully, descent from Kayı.", Carter Vaughn Findley, ''The Turks in World History'', pp. 50, 2005, Oxford University Press; Shaw, Stanford Jay. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=UVmsI0P9RDUC&dq=ottomans+kayi+tribe&pg=PA306 History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey]''. Cambridge University Press, 1976, p. 306</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Ottoman Empire|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/434996/Ottoman-Empire|access-date=11 February 2013|publisher=Britannica Online Encyclopedia}}</ref><ref>Atalay, Besim (2006). Divanü Lügati't - Türk. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi. {{ISBN|975-16-0405-2}}, Cilt I, sayfa 55.</ref><ref>Golden, Peter B. (1992). An Introduction to the History of the Turkic People. Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden. p. 358, 359</ref> This claim has, however, been called into serious question by many modern historians. The only evidence for the Ottomans' Kayı descent came from genealogies written during the fifteenth century, several centuries after the life of Osman. More significantly, the earliest genealogies written by the Ottomans did not include any reference to Kayı descent, indicating that it may have been fabricated at a later date.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kafadar|first=Cemal|title=Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State|date=1995|page=122|quote=That they hailed from the Kayı branch of the Oğuz confederacy seems to be a creative "rediscovery" in the genealogical concoction of the fifteenth century. It is missing not only in Ahmedi but also, and more importantly, in the Yahşi Fakih-Aşıkpaşazade narrative, which gives its own version of an elaborate genealogical family tree going back to Noah. If there was a particularly significant claim to Kayı lineage, it is hard to imagine that Yahşi Fakih would not have heard of it.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Lowry|first=Heath|title=The Nature of the Early Ottoman State|date=2003|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=0-7914-5636-6|page=78|quote=Based on these charters, all of which were drawn up between 1324 and 1360 (almost one hundred fifty years prior to the emergence of the Ottoman dynastic myth identifying them as members of the Kayı branch of the Oguz federation of Turkish tribes), we may posit that...}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Lindner|first=Rudi Paul|url=https://archive.org/details/nomadsottomansme00lind|title=Nomads and Ottomans in Medieval Anatolia|date=1983|publisher=Indiana University Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/nomadsottomansme00lind/page/n23 10]|isbn=9780933070127|quote=In fact, no matter how one were to try, the sources simply do not allow the recovery of a family tree linking the antecedents of Osman to the Kayı of the Oğuz tribe.|url-access=limited}}</ref>
[[File:TM-2001-500manat-Ärtogrul Gazy-b.png|thumb|Coin of 500 old manats (2001) depicting monument to Ertuğrul of the Kayı at the Independence Monument in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan]] The famous Oghuz folk narrator, soothsayer and bard Dede Korkut was a Kayı.<ref>{{Cite web|title=АБУ-Л-ГАЗИ->РОДОСЛОВНАЯ ТУРКМЕН->ЧАСТЬ 1|url=http://www.vostlit.info/Texts/rus6/Abulgazi/frametext1.htm|access-date=2020-11-27|website=www.vostlit.info}}</ref> In the 10th century, the Central Asian Oghuz Yabgu State was headed by supreme leaders (or Yabghu) who belonged to the Kayı tribe.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Росляков (Roslyakov)|first=А. (A.)|year=1956|title=Краткий очерк истории Туркменистана (до присоединения к России)|trans-title=A Brief Outline of the History of Turkmenistan (before accession to Russia)|url=https://archive.nyu.edu/handle/2451/40010|publisher=Turkmegosizdat|location=Ashgabat, Turkmenistan|page=70|language=ru}}</ref>
According to Soviet archaeologist and ethnographer Sergey Tolstov, part of the Kayi tribe moved in the Middle Ages from Central Asia to modern day Ukraine, they are known in the Rus' chronicles as ''kovuy'' and ''kaepichi'' as one of the tribes that formed the Turkic tribal confederation called the Black Klobuks,{{efn|It is unclear whether the Chornyi Klobuki are related to the Karakalpaks of today.<ref>{{citation|title=Armies of Medieval Russia |author= David Nicolle, Angus McBride|year=2001|publisher=Osprey Publishing|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=FyfXPN4nhNQC&dq=%22Chernye+Klobuki%22&pg=PA21|isbn=978-1-85532-848-8}}</ref>}} who were allies of the Rurikids of the Rus' Khaganate;<ref>{{Cite web|last=Толстов (Tolstov)|first=Сергей (Sergey)|year=1947|title=Города Гузов (историко-этнографические этюды)|trans-title=The Cities of the Ghuz (historical and ethnographic studies)|url=https://b-ok.asia/book/3232616/a24399?regionChanged=&redirect=2260473|publisher=Soviet Ethnography Journal|location=Moscow|language=ru|access-date=2020-08-04|archive-date=2025-02-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250215102951/https://b-ok.asia/book/3232616/a24399?regionChanged=&redirect=2260473|url-status=dead}}</ref> Golden however considers the Kaepichi to be descendants of the para-Mongolic Qay instead.<ref>Golden, Peter B. (1990). "The peoples of the south Russian steppes". In Sinor, Denis (ed.). The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia. Cambridge University Press. p. 279 of pp. 256–284. quote: "Similarly, the Qāy, or elements of them arrived in the Pontic steppes where the Rus' chronicles attested to their present as Kaepichi, i.e. 'sons of the Qay,' a russified of a tribal or clan name *Qay-oba."</ref><ref>Golden, Peter B. (2006). "Cumanica V: The Basmils and Qipchaqs" in ''Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi'' p. 16-17. quote: " The Qay (the Tatabı of the Türk inscriptions) are noted as ''Xi'' (奚 Late Middle Chinese ''xɦjiaj'' = Ġay/Qay), in Chinese sources, part of the larger Kumoxi grouping stemming from the ''Xianbei'' (*Särbi?), a grouping of people that is generally considered to be of 'Proto-Mongolic' or more probably Mongolic and/or 'Para-Mongolic' ethno-linguistic affiliations."</ref>
== Legacy of the Kayı tribe ==
Soviet and Russian linguist and Turkologist A. V. Superanskaya associates the Kayı tribe with the origin of the name of the city of Kyiv;<ref>A.V.Superanskaya. What is your name?//Nauka i Zhizn magazine. - Moscow, 1993, issue No 4, p.116: “''There are many folk legends that the beginning of a nation was laid by two (or several) brothers ... Apparently, something similar lies behind the legend of Kiy, Schek, Horev and Lybed. The tribal name Kyy (Kiy) belonged to the ancient Turkic peoples. It is still present in the names of tribal structures of modern Turkic peoples.”''</ref> however, Canadian Ukrainian linguist Jaroslav Rudnyckyj connects the name Kyiv to the Proto-Slavic root *kyjь, which should be interpreted as meaning 'stick, pole' as in its modern Ukrainian equivalent Кий; therefore, the toponym should in that case be interpreted as 'palisaded settlement'.<ref>Rudnyc'kyj, Jaroslav Bohdan (1962–1982). An etymological dictionary of the Ukrainian language. 2., rev. ed. Winnipeg: Ukrainian free acad. of sciences, pp. 660–663.</ref>
In Anatolia, twenty seven villages bear the name of {{lang|tr|Kayı}}.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TrobAAAAMAAJ|title=Этногенез турок (Ethnogenesis of the Turks)|last=Еремеев (Yeremeyev)|first=Дмитрий (Dmitriy)|date=1971|website=Google Books}}</ref>
In Turkmenistan, the {{lang|tr|Kayı}} tribe is one of the main divisions of the Gökleň Turkmens living in the Balkan velayat and consists of the following clans: {{lang|tk|adnakel, ak kel, alatelpek, bagly, barak, burkaz, ganjyk, gapan, garabalkan, garawul, garagol, garagul, garadaşly, garakel, garga, garyşmaz}} and others. The {{lang|tr|Kayı}} are also a subtribe of the Bayat Turkmens of the Lebap velayat.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Atanyýazov|first=Soltansha|date=1988|title=Словарь туркменских этнонимов|trans-title=Dictionary of Turkmen Ethnonyms|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ju3UAAAAMAAJ|isbn=9785833800140|language=ru}}</ref>
==Inspirations== The name and logo of the İyi Party (''İyi'' means ''Good'' in Turkish) of Meral Akşener is inspired by the seal of the Kayı tribe.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The bow and two arrows|url=https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/opinion/yusuf-kanli/the-bow-and-two-arrows-121460|access-date=2020-06-07|website=Hürriyet Daily News|language=en}}</ref>
==See also== * Ottoman dynasty * Turkmen tribes * Oghuz traditional tribal organization * Ptolemaida, formerly named after the Kayı * Good Party
==Notes== {{Notelist}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Sources== * Kafesoğlu, İbrahim. ''Türk Milli Kültürü''. Türk Kültürünü Araştırma Enstitüsü, 1977. [https://books.google.com/books?id=FDkBAAAAMAAJ&q=%22yabgu+devleti+zaman%C4%B1nda+O%C4%9Fuzlar%22 ''page 134''] *Gmyrya, L. 1995. ''"Hun country at the Caspian Gate: Caspian Dagestan during the epoch of the Great Movement of Peoples"''. Makhachkala: Dagestan Publishing *{{cite book |last1=Sümer |first1=Faruk |title=KAYI - An article published in 25th volume of Turkish Encyclopedia of Islam |date=2002 |publisher=TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi |location=Ankara |isbn=978-97-53-89403-6 |pages=77–78 |volume=25 |url=https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kayi|language=tr}}
{{Kayı tribe}} {{Oghuz tribes}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kayı}} <!--Categories--> Category:Ottoman dynasty Category:Oghuz tribes