Kangar union was a Turkic state in the territory of the entire modern

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

without Zhetysu. The ethnic name Kangar is an

early medieval The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Middle Ages of Europ ...

name for the Kangly/ Uyghur] people, who are now part of the Uyghur, Kazakhs, Kazakh, Uzbek, and Karakalpak nations. The capital of the Kangar union was located in the Ulytau mountains. The Pechenegs, three of whose tribes were known as ''Kangar'' (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: Καγγαρ), after being defeated by the Uyghur's,

Karluks The Karluks (also Qarluqs, Qarluks, Karluqs, , Qarluq, Para-Mongolic languages, Para-Mongol: Harluut, zh, s=葛逻禄, t=葛邏祿 ''Géluólù'' ; customary phonetic: ''Gelu, Khololo, Khorlo'', , ''Khallokh'', ''Qarluq'') were a prominent no ...

, and Kimek- Kypchaks, attacked the

Bulgars The Bulgars (also Bulghars, Bulgari, Bolgars, Bolghars, Bolgari, Proto-Bulgarians) were Turkic peoples, Turkic Nomad, semi-nomadic warrior tribes that flourished in the Pontic–Caspian steppe and the Volga region between the 5th and 7th centu ...

and established the Pecheneg state in Eastern Europe (890–990 CE).

Etymology

The ''Kengeres'', mentioned in the

Orkhon inscriptions The Orkhon inscriptions are bilingual texts in Middle Chinese and Old Turkic, the latter written in the Old Turkic alphabet, carved into two memorial steles erected in the early 8th century by the Göktürks in the Orkhon Valley in what is modern- ...

, were possibly known in the Islamic world and in the west as ''Kangar'', a collective name for three Pecheneg tribes (of eight).

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

emperor

Constantine Porphyrogenitus Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (; 17 May 905 – 9 November 959) was the fourth Byzantine emperor of the Macedonian dynasty, reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zoe Karbonopsina, an ...

stated that ''Kangar'' signified nobleness and bravery. Ukrainian historian

Omeljan Pritsak Omeljan Yosypovych Pritsak (; 7 April 1919 – 29 May 2006) was the first Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of History of Ukraine, Ukrainian History at Harvard University and the founder and first director (1973–1989) of the Harvard Ukrainian Rese ...

suggested that ''Kangar'' originated from

Tocharian A Tocharian A, also known as Tokharian A, Eastern Tocharian, Agnean (), Karashahrian or Turfanian is a dead language that was in use in the 1st millennium AD in the Karashahr and Turpan, Turfan region of the Tarim Basin, present-day Xinjiang, West ...

*''kânk'' "stone" and ''Kengeres'' combined ''Kenger'' with the Iranian ethnonym ''As'', supposedly from *''ârs'' < *''âvrs'' < *''Aoruša'' (Greek: Αορσοι). However, Golden objected that *''Aoruša'' would have yielded ''Ors''/''Urs'' and Pritsak's opinion on the Kengeres-Kangars' ethnonym and mixed Tocharian-Iranian origin remained "highly hypothetical". Other Orientalists, Marquart, Toltsov, Klyashtorny, attempted to connect the ''Kangar'' and ''Kengeres'' to the ''Qanglı'', the eastern grouping of the Cuman-Kipchak confederation as well as the Indo-European '' Kangju'' in Chinese sources. Akhinžanov proposed that the

Kipchaks The Kipchaks, also spelled Qipchaqs, known as Polovtsians (''Polovtsy'') in Russian annals, were Turkic nomads and then a confederation that existed in the Middle Ages inhabiting parts of the Eurasian Steppe. First mentioned in the eighth cent ...

simply assumed the name ''Qanglı'' (literally "wagon") after taking over the Kang region. András Róna-Tas (1996, 1999) proposes that the Pechenegs associated with their word ''kongor'' meaning "brown" (referring to their horses' coat color) with the ethnic name Kangar, which had been in existence in the Caucasus region as early as the 6th century CE before the Turkic peoples emerged; though he considers it a "case of an ethnic name established by means of a

popular etymology A false etymology (fake etymology or pseudo-etymology) is a false theory about the origin or derivation of a specific word or phrase. When a false etymology becomes a popular belief in a cultural/linguistic community, it is a folk etymology (or po ...

". Nevertheless, all of these connections, if any, remain unclear.

Independence

After the capture of Zhetysu by the Chinese, Kangars become independent from the Turkic Kaganate. The Syr Darya cities retained their autonomy. The Oguzes in the southern

, Kimaks in the

Irtysh River The Irtysh is a river in Russia, China, and Kazakhstan. It is the chief tributary of the Ob and is also the longest tributary in the world. The river's source lies in the Mongolian Altai in Dzungaria (the northern part of Xinjiang, China) cl ...

valley,

Cumans The Cumans or Kumans were a Turkic people, Turkic nomadic people from Central Asia comprising the western branch of the Cumania, Cuman–Kipchak confederation who spoke the Cuman language. They are referred to as Polovtsians (''Polovtsy'') in Ru ...

in Mugodjar, and Kypchaks in the northern Kazakhstan became the vassals of the Kangar union. At the end of the 7th century the Syr Darya cities rebelled and formed an alliance with the

Sogdiana Sogdia () or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian civilization between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, and in present-day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Sogdiana was also a province of the Achaemenid Empire, and l ...

. The revolt was successful, but the

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

armies attacked Sogdiana from the south. The revolt has waned, and Kangars consented to the continued autonomy of the Syr Darya cities.

Fall of the Union

At the beginning of the 8th century the Oghuz confederation and the city of

Tashkent Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...

seceded from the Kangar union. The Arabs continued raiding Sygnakh, Jend, and other rich Kangar cities. The Oguzes formed an alliance with the Kimaks and

, and their joint assault defeated the Kangars, whose union dissolved.Golden, Peter B. (1992). ''An Introduction to the History of the Turkic People''. Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden. Three Kangar tribes and five allied Turkic tribes, under the collective name Pecheneg, later carved out a realm, which bordered both the Ouzes and the

Khazars The Khazars ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a nomadic Turkic people who, in the late 6th century CE, established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, Crimea, a ...

, in Eastern Europe.

Etymology

Independence

Fall of the Union

See also

Notes

Further reading