Kayı tribe

The Kayı tribe or Kai tribe (Turkish: Kayı boyu) was an Oghuz Turkic people and a sub-branch of the Bozok tribal federation. In the 11th century Mahmud al-Kashgari cited Kayı (Kayiglardir). The word kayı means "the one who has might and power by relationship".

As a Kayitag (Russified Kaitag) group (Mountain Kayi) the Kayı tribe played a prominent role in the history of the Caucasus, and now the Kayitag language is classified as one of five dialects of the Kumyk language, which for ten centuries (10-19 cc.) was a lingua franca in the North Causacus. Kayitag principality was a leading component of the Shamkhalate of Kazi-Kumukh state on the Caspian western seaboard that in different forms lasted from the 8th to the 19th centuries. Kaitag textiles, stamped out under the Soviet rule, remain distinct in their artistry and workmanship.

According to Ottoman tradition, Osman I, founder of Ottoman Empire, was descended from the Kayı tribe.[1][2][3] 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, more than a hundred years after the life of Osman. More significantly, the earliest genealogies written by the Ottomans did not include any reference to Kayı descent at all, indicating that it was fabricated at a later date.[4]

See also

Notes

  1. "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. History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. Cambridge University Press, 1976, p. 306
  2. "Ottoman Empire". Britannica Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  3. Atalay, Besim (2006). Divanü Lügati't - Türk. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi. ISBN 975-16-0405-2, Cilt I, sayfa 55.
  4. Kafadar, Cemal (1995). Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State. p. 122. 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.
    • Lowry, Heath (2003). The Nature of the Early Ottoman State. SUNY Press. p. 78. ISBN 0-7914-5636-6. 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...
    • Lindner, Rudi Paul (1983). Nomads and Ottomans in Medieval Anatolia. Indiana University Press. p. 10. 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.

References


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