Uokil, or Vokil, was a name of Bulgar dynastic clan listed in the '' Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans''. The first listed in Nominalia was

Kormisosh Kormisosh (), also known as Kormesiy, Kormesios, Krumesis, Kormisoš, or Cormesius, was a ruler of Bulgaria during the 8th century, recorded in a handful of documents. Modern chronologies of Bulgarian rulers place him either as the successor of Te ...

(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 Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

n peoples, during antiquity and the

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

. The peoples concerned include: * the ''Hūjiē'' (呼揭) or ''Wūjiē'' (烏揭), whom Zuev believed to have been an offshoot of the

Yuezhi The Yuezhi were an ancient people first described in China, Chinese histories as nomadic pastoralists living in an arid grassland area in the western part of the modern Chinese province of Gansu, during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defea ...

Wusun The Wusun ( ) were an ancient semi-Eurasian nomads, nomadic Eurasian Steppe, steppe people of unknown origin mentioned in Chinese people, Chinese records from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD. The Wusun originally l ...

; * the ''Xījiē'' (奚結), a Tiele tribe. * the ''Augaloi'' of the

Transoxiana Transoxiana or Transoxania (, now called the Amu Darya) is the Latin name for the region and civilization located in lower Central Asia roughly corresponding to eastern Uzbekistan, western Tajikistan, parts of southern Kazakhstan, parts of Tu ...

region beyond the

Oxus The Amu Darya ( ),() also shortened to Amu and historically known as the Oxus ( ), is a major river in Central Asia, which flows through Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. Rising in the Pamir Mountains, north of the Hindu Ku ...

, among the Indo-European-speaking '' Tocharii''; 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

and

are Chinese

exonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

s for two separate

Indo-European peoples Indo-European is a major language family of Europe, parts of West and Central Asia, and South Asia. Indo-European may also refer to: * Proto-Indo-European language Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-E ...

, who lived in

western China Western China ( zh, s=中国西部, l=, labels=no or zh, s=华西, l=, labels=no) is the west of China. It consists of Southwestern China and Northwestern China. In the definition of the Chinese government, Western China covers six provinces ...

and

, 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 Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

and

Xinjiang Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...

. There was substantial interaction between the Yuezhi, the Wusun and a neighbouring people, the

Xiongnu The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of Nomad, nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese historiography, Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, t ...

, whom many scholars have suggested were precursors of the

Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was par ...

. In about 200 BCE, the Xiongnu leader

Modu Chanyu Modu () was the son of Touman and the founder of the empire of the Xiongnu. He came to power by ordering his men to kill his father in 209 BCE. Modu ruled from 209 to 174 BCE. He was a military leader under his father Touman and later ''chanyu ...

attacked the Yuezhi, and subjugated several other peoples. The Yuezhi subsequently attacked the Wusun, in about 173 BC, and killing their king, Nandoumi (). 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. This pivotal myth shared similarities with the founding myths of many other peoples in Central Asia. It has been, in particular, the basis of theories that the Ashina – the royal clan of the Göktürk Turks – originated amongst the Wusun. In 162 BC, the Yuezhi suffered a further, more decisive defeat at the hands of the Xiongnu and retreated from

. According to

Zhang Qian Zhang Qian (; died c. 114 BC) was a Chinese diplomat, explorer, and politician who served as an imperial envoy to the world outside of China in the late 2nd century BC during the Western Han dynasty. He was one of the first official diploma ...

, the Yuezhi fragmented and most fled westward into the Ili river valley. The Wusun and Xiongnu later drove the main body of the Yuezhi southward, through

Sogdia Sogdia () or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian peoples, 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 Achaemen ...

, into Bactria. The Wusun settled afterwards in Gansu, in the Wushui-he (Chinese: "Raven

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

Water River") valley, as vassals of the Xiongnu. According to the Chinese chronicle ''

Hanshu The ''Book of Han'' is a history of China finished in 111 CE, covering the Western, or Former Han dynasty from the first emperor in 206 BCE to the fall of Wang Mang in 23 CE. The work was composed by Ban Gu (32–92 CE), ...

'', 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 The Dingling (174 BCE); (200 BCE); Eastern Han Chinese: *''teŋ-leŋ'' < Old Chinese: *''têŋ-rêŋ'' were an ancient people who appear in Chinese historiography in the context of the 1st century BCE. The Dingling are considered to have been ...

'' (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 Lake Baikal is a rift lake and the deepest lake in the world. It is situated in southern Siberia, Russia between the Federal subjects of Russia, federal subjects of Irkutsk Oblast, Irkutsk Oblasts of Russia, Oblast to the northwest and the Repu ...

area and the Great Khingan slopes (next to the Dingling).Yu. Zuev, ''"Early Türks: Sketches of history and ideology"'', p. 56 According to Zuev, the ''Hujie'' emigrated further westward, initially to the

Aral Sea The Aral Sea () was an endorheic lake lying between Kazakhstan to its north and Uzbekistan to its south, which began shrinking in the 1960s and had largely dried up into desert by the 2010s. It was in the Aktobe and Kyzylorda regions of Kazakhst ...

area, and may have joined the Yuezhi in their migration to Sogdia and Bactria.

Augaloi

In the 2nd century CE,

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

(VI, 12, 4) wrote of the Lower Syr-Darya that near a northern section of the

Amu Darya The Amu Darya ( ),() also shortened to Amu and historically known as the Oxus ( ), is a major river in Central Asia, which flows through Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. Rising in the Pamir Mountains, north of the Hindu Ku ...

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. 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 Kherlen River (also known as Kerülen; ; ) is a 1,254 km river in Mongolia and China. It is also one of the two longest rivers in Mongolia, along with the Orkhon River. Course The river originates in the south slopes of the Khentii mount ...

. The text of an

Old Uyghur Old Uyghur () was a Turkic language spoken in Qocho from the 9th–14th centuries as well as in Gansu. History Old Uyghur evolved from Old Turkic, a Siberian Turkic language, after the Uyghur Khaganate broke up and remnants of it migrated ...

funeral monument for Eletmish-Kagan (d. 759), referred to the ''Qara Igil bodun'': a combination of the determinative ''qara'' ("blackness") and ''igil'' ("people"). (This name may also have suggested the influence of Manichaeanism, which had a "black and white" dualistic cosmology.) In a 9th-century Yugur text, the ''Xijie'' were mentioned as having a strong leader named Igil kül-irkin (

Old Tibetan Old Tibetan refers to the earliest attested form of Tibetan language, reflected in documents from the adoption of writing by the Tibetan Empire in the mid-7th century to the early 9th century. In 816 CE, during the reign of Tibetan King Sadnaleg ...

''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 The Alans () were an ancient and medieval Iranian peoples, Iranic Eurasian nomads, nomadic pastoral people who migrated to what is today North Caucasus – while some continued on to Europe and later North Africa. They are generally regarded ...

or Turkicized Yeniseian speakers.

Oghuz connection

A circumstantial link between the Oghuz and the Bulgar Vokil is the naming of Verkil, a

hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. The original hero type of classical epics did such thin ...

of the epic ''Kitab-i dedem Korkut''.Yu. Zuev, ''"Early Türks: Sketches of history and ideology"'', p. 57

References

Sources * {{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 Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...