Argyn

The Argyn ( kz, Арғын) tribe (or clan) is a constituent of the Kazakh ethnicity. The Argyn are a component, of the ''Orta jüz'' (Орта жүз; " Middle Horde" or "Middle Hundred"). Kazakhs historically consisted of three tribal federations: the Great ''jüz'' (or Senior ''jüz''), Middle jüz, and Little ''jüz'' (or Junior ''jüz''). Karakhanid scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari glossed ''Arghu'' as "ravine between two mountains", because the Arghu country was located between Tiraz and Balasagun.

Argyns are of mixed origins. A historical bilingual, yet steadily Turkicizing, people, Basmyls,Maħmūd al-Kašğari. "Dīwān Luğāt al-Turk". Edited & translated by Robert Dankoff in collaboration with James Kelly. In Sources of Oriental Languages and Literature. Part I. (1982). p. 82-83 likely contributed to the ethnogenesis of Argyns because both Basmyls and Argyns occupied roughly the same geographic location, in Beiting Protectorate, where Basmyls made their first recorded appearance and which is now in western China, and still home to a Kazakh minority. Kara-Khanid scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari wrote that Basmyls spoke their own language besides Turkic.

The name of the Argyns probably corresponds to that of the "Argons" mentioned by Marco Polo in a country called "Tenduc" (around modern-day Hohhot) during the 13th century. () Polo reported that this clan who had "sprung from two different races: to wit, of the race of the Idolaters</