{{Short description|Bulgar dynastic clan}} '''Vokil''', or '''Uokil''', was a name of Bulgar dynastic clan of the early period of the First Bulgarian Empire listed in the ''Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans''. The first listed in Nominalia was Kormisosh (r. 737–754) and the last was Umor (r. 766).
==Theories regarding origins== Kazakhstanian Turkologist Yury Zuev had drawn attention to circumstantial evidence suggesting links between the Vokil and various Central Asian peoples, during antiquity and the early Middle Ages. The peoples concerned include: * the ''Hūjiē'' (呼揭) or ''Wūjiē'' (烏揭), whom Zuev believed to have been an offshoot of the Yuezhi or Wusun;<ref name="Zuev 56"/> * the ''Xījiē'' (奚結), a Tiele tribe.<ref>Jiu Tangshu [https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E8%88%8A%E5%94%90%E6%9B%B8/%E5%8D%B7199%E4%B8%8B#%E9%90%B5%E5%8B%92 Vol. 199 lower] txt. "鐵勒，本匈奴別種。自突厥強盛，鐵勒諸郡分散，衆漸寡弱。至武德初，有薛延陀、契苾、回紇、都播、骨利幹、多覽葛、僕骨、拔野古、同羅、渾部、思結、斛薛、'''奚結'''、阿跌、白霫等，散在磧北。" tr. "Tiele are originally Xiongnu's splinter stock. As Tujue are strong and prosperous, all Tiele districts are divided and scattered, the masses gradually dwindled and weakened. At the beginning of Wude [era], there are Xueyantuo, Qibi, Huihe, Dubo, Guligan, Duolange, Pugu, Bayegu, Tongluo, Hun, Sijie, Huxue, '''Xijie''', Adie, Baixi, etc. scattered north of the desert."</ref> * the ''Augaloi'' of the Transoxiana region beyond the Oxus, among the Indo-European-speaking ''Tocharii'';<ref>Blažek, V. & Schwartz, M. "Tocharians: Who they were, where they came from, and where they lived" in ''Tocharian Studies: Works 1'' (2011), p. 119</ref> However, such theories are controversial and cannot be all true. Conclusive evidence proving or disproving them has never been presented and there is no consensus amongst scholars on whether or not such links exist.
===Yuezhi and Wusun=== {{main|Yuezhi|Wusun}} Yuezhi and Wusun are Chinese exonyms for two separate Indo-European peoples, who lived in western China and Central Asia, during ancient times. Before the end of the 4th Century BCE, the Yuezhi and Wusun were located in areas that were later part of the Chinese provinces of Gansu and Xinjiang.<ref>G. Haloun, ''"Zur Üe-tsï-Frage. In: Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft"'', 91, NF 16, 1937, p. 301, in Yury Zuev, ''"Early Türks: Sketches of history and ideology"'', p. 42</ref> There was substantial interaction between the Yuezhi, the Wusun and a neighbouring people, the Xiongnu, whom many scholars have suggested were precursors of the Huns.
In about 200 BCE, the Xiongnu leader Modu Chanyu attacked the Yuezhi,<ref name="Benjamin_Marshak">{{cite journal |last=Benjamin |first=Craig |author-link=Craig Benjamin |date=October 2003 |title=The Yuezhi Migration and Sogdia |url=http://www.transoxiana.org/Eran/Articles/benjamin.html |journal=Transoxiana Webfestschrift |publisher=Transoxiana |volume=1 |issue=Ēran ud Anērān |access-date=29 May 2015}}</ref><ref name="Beckwith380">{{harvnb|Beckwith|2009|pp=380–383}}</ref> and subjugated several other peoples.<ref name="EKH">{{harvnb|Enoki|Koshelenko|Haidary|1994|pp=171–191}}</ref> The Yuezhi subsequently attacked the Wusun, in about 173 BC,<ref name="Benjamin_Marshak"/><ref name="Beckwith6">{{harvnb|Beckwith|2009|pp=6–7}}</ref> and killing their king, Nandoumi ({{zh|難兜靡}}).<ref name="Beckwith6"/> According to a Wusun legend, Nandoumi's infant son Liejiaomi was left in the wild, but was miraculously saved by a she-wolf, which allowed him to suckle, and ravens, which fed him meat.<ref name="FH215">{{harvnb|François|Hulsewé|1979|p=215}}</ref><ref>[http://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=en&id=9036 Shiji 《史記·大宛列傳》] '''Original text''': 匈奴攻殺其父，而昆莫生棄於野。烏嗛肉蜚其上，狼往乳之。</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Beckwith|2009|p=6}}</ref><ref name="Watson237">{{harvnb|Watson|1993|pp=237–238}}</ref> This pivotal myth shared similarities with the founding myths of many other peoples in Central Asia.<ref>{{harvnb|Beckwith|2009|p=2}}</ref> It has been, in particular, the basis of theories that the Ashina – the royal clan of the Göktürk Turks – originated amongst the Wusun.<ref name="Sinor328">{{harvnb|Sinor|Klyashtorny|1996|pp=328–329}}</ref> In 162 BC, the Yuezhi suffered a further, more decisive defeat at the hands of the Xiongnu and retreated from Gansu.<ref name="Benjamin_Marshak"/> According to Zhang Qian, the Yuezhi fragmented and most fled westward into the Ili river valley.<ref name="Benjamin_Marshak"/><ref>[http://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=en&id=66451 Hanshu 《漢書·張騫李廣利傳》] '''Original text''' 時，月氏已為匈奴所破，西擊塞王。</ref> The Wusun and Xiongnu later drove the main body of the Yuezhi southward, through Sogdia, into Bactria. The Wusun settled afterwards in Gansu, in the Wushui-he (Chinese: "Raven[-Black] Water River") valley, as vassals of the Xiongnu.<ref name="Beckwith6"/>
According to the Chinese chronicle ''Hanshu'', in 49 BCE the Xiongnu ruler, Zhizhi defeated three small states. Zuev reads the names of these states as the ''Hujie'' (呼揭) or ''Wūjiē'' (烏揭), ''Jiankun'' (堅昆) (i.e. Kyrghyz) and ''Dingling'' (丁零). While other scholars have regarded the Hujie ~ Wujie as most likely an offshoot of the Wusun, Zuev considers it possible that they were a remnant of the Yuezhi. The ''Hanshu'' recorded that the '''Hujie'' retreated to the Lake Baikal area and the Great Khingan slopes (next to the Dingling).<ref name="Zuev 56">Yu. Zuev, ''"Early Türks: Sketches of history and ideology"'', p. 56</ref> According to Zuev, the ''Hujie'' emigrated further westward, initially to the Aral Sea area, and may have joined the Yuezhi in their migration to Sogdia and Bactria.<ref name="Zuev 56"/>
===Augaloi=== In the 2nd century CE, Ptolemy (VI, 12, 4) wrote of the Lower Syr-Darya that near a northern section of the Amu Darya were the Iatioi and ''Tokharoi'' (Tukharas, i.e. Bactrians), and south of them were a people known as the ''Augaloi''.
Yury Zuev postulated that the ''Augaloi'' mentioned by Ptolemy with the Ukil.<ref>Yu. Zuev, ''"Early Türks: Sketches of history and ideology"'', p. 55</ref> However, a majority of scholars regard ''Augaloi'' as a misrendering of Sacaraucae.
===Xijie=== This name may be a sinicisation of ''igil'', a Turkic root meaning "many" (''Xijie'' < 奚結 ''γiei-kiet'' < ''igil''). In the middle of the 7th century, the Xijie were reported to be located on the northern bank of the Kherlen River.<ref>Tang Huiyao [https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=gb&chapter=461266 Vol. 72] txt. "奚結馬。與磧南突厥馬相類。在雞服山南。赫連枝川北住。今雞祿州。印坎" tr. "The Xijie's horses and the horses of the Tujue south of the shoal. They dwelt south of Jifu mountains, north of Helianzhi river, now [in] Jilu pronvince. Their tamga [resembles] [the character] 坎"</ref><ref>Wang Pu, ''"Summary review of Tang dynasty, 618-907 (Tang Huiyao)"'', Shanghai, 1958, ch. 72, p. 1307, in Yu. Zuev, ''"Early Türks: Sketches of history and ideology"'', p. 45</ref>
The text of an Old Uyghur funeral monument for Eletmish-Kagan (d. 759), referred to the ''Qara Igil bodun'': a combination of the determinative ''qara'' ("blackness") and ''igil'' ("people").<ref>Mogoin Shine Usu monument, line 14</ref> (This name may also have suggested the influence of Manichaeanism, which had a "black and white" dualistic cosmology.<ref>Yu. Zuev, ''"Early Türks: Sketches of history and ideology"'', p. 45</ref>)
In a 9th-century Yugur text, the ''Xijie'' were mentioned as having a strong leader named Igil kül-irkin (Old Tibetan ''Hi-kil-rkor-hir-kin''), and were located next to the ''Iduq-kas'', ''Iduq-qash'', or ''Iduk-Az'' (OTib ''Hi-dog-kas''), who may have been offshoot or successor of the Yuezhi or Alans<ref>J. Bacot, ''"Reconnaissance en haute asie septentrionale par cinq envoyé ouigours au VIIIE siècle."'', JA, 2, 1956, p. 147, in Yu. Zuev, ''"Early Türks: Sketches of history and ideology"'', p. 45</ref> or Turkicized Yeniseian speakers.<ref>Barthold, W. ''12 Vorlesungen über die Geschichte der Türken Mittelasiens'', Berlin, Arthur Collignon, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Islamkunde, 1935, p. 37</ref>
===Oghuz connection=== A circumstantial link between the Oghuz and the Bulgar Vokil is the naming of Verkil, a hero of the epic ''Kitab-i dedem Korkut''.<ref>Yu. Zuev, ''"Early Türks: Sketches of history and ideology"'', p. 57</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==Sources== {{refbegin}} * {{cite book |last=Beckwith |first=Christopher I. |author-link=Christopher I. Beckwith |date=16 March 2009 |title=Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-2994-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Ue8BxLEMt4C |access-date=30 December 2014 }} * {{cite book |last1=Enoki |first1=K. |last2=Koshelenko |first2=G.A. |last3=Haidary |first3=Z. |author-link2=:ru:Кошеленко, Геннадий Андреевич |chapter=The Yu'eh-chih and their migrations |editor-last=Harmatta |editor-first=János |editor-link=János Harmatta |date=1 January 1994 |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The Development of Sedentary and Nomadic Civilizations, 700 B. C. to A. D. 250 |url=http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/001057/105703eo.pdf |location=Paris |publisher=UNESCO |pages=171–191 |isbn=978-92-3-102846-5 }} * {{cite book |last1=François |first1=Anthony |last2=Hulsewé |first2=Paulus Hulsewé |author-link2=A.F.P. Hulsewé |date=1 January 1979 |title=China in Central Asia: The Early Stage: 125 BC - AD 23; an Annotated Transl. of Chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty. With an Introd. by M.A.N.Loewe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HzhCAAAAIAAJ |publisher=Brill Archive |isbn=9004058842 |access-date=30 May 2015 }} * {{cite book |last1=Sinor |first1=Denis |author-link1=Denis Sinor |last2=Klyashtorny |first2=S. G. |chapter=The Türk Empire |editor1-last=Litvinsky |editor1-first=B. A. |date=1 January 1996 |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The crossroads of civilizations, A.D. 250 to 750 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=883OZBe2sMYC |publisher=UNESCO |pages=327–346 |isbn=9231032119 |access-date=29 May 2015 }} * {{cite book |last=Watson |first=Burton |year=1993 |title=Records of the Grand Historian of China: Han Dynasty II |publisher=Columbia University Press |edition=revised |isbn=978-0-231-08166-5 }} {{ISBN|978-0-231-08167-2}} (pbk.) Translated from the ''Shiji'' of Sima Qian {{refend}}
==See also== *History of Bulgaria *List of Bulgarian monarchs *Bulgars *Huns *Oguz *Xiongnu
{{Royal houses of Bulgaria}} {{Bulgarian monarchs}}
Category:Bulgars Category:Dynasties of the First Bulgarian Empire Category:Turkic peoples