Firmament

Gangsters are ghosts on the one hand.

—Salar proverb

Ali lived a stable and secure life in Niujie in the central capital of the East. His hometown of Khorezm did not find a moment of peace. History has staged thrilling stories here.

In 1230, in the south-central Anatolia region of the Asia Minor Peninsula, a Turkmen Salur tribe family gave birth to a lovely little boy.

The boy was named Hassan by his beloved parents. Hassan means handsome and beautiful in Turkic. Like all boys in the world, Hassan grew up imitating adults to fight on horseback and play games with military confrontations.

It is customary for the Salur people to regard the beginning of adulthood at the age of 12 for boys and 9 for girls. When Hassan turned 12, his parents saw that he had grown up and felt that it was their duty and obligation to tell him the history of the family.

One day, his father said to him: "O Hassan, although we live here now, our ancestors were the Oghuz people who lived in the northern part of the Eastern Desert. "

Hassan asked curiously: "Ada, we are obviously the Turkmen Salur tribe, how can our ancestors be Oghuz people? What does Oghuz mean? Where is the northern desert?"

The father replied with a smile

"You listen to me slowly. Our ancestors used to graze and hunt on the savannah. Bows and arrows and bulls are the most basic guarantee of their survival. Oghuz means bow and arrow and bull.

"The east is right where the sun rises. To the south of the desert is the fertile Central Plains. For generations, there were people from the Central Plains who cultivated the fields and weaved silk. To the north is the endless savannah. The savannah is inhabited by many nomadic tribes who chase water and grass like our ancestors.

"Legend has it that the earliest source of the Oghuz people was a man named Oghuz. He was born different from ordinary people, and he grew up in just 40 days. He has strong and powerful legs like a bull, a slender waist like a wolf, a broad and solid chest like a bear, and is extremely powerful, brave and fearless, cutting off demons and eliminating harm to the people.

"Oghuz was an upright man, and he was wicked as a hater. His father, Qarakhan, was the leader of the tribe, but he ruled the people with vulgarity and tyranny. Oghuz was very dissatisfied with his father, and united with his cousin Hui and other tribes to overthrow the Qarakhanid, and succeeded to the throne himself as the Oghuz Khan of the tribe.

Under the guidance of the blue wolf, Oghuz Khan led the tribe to fight against the other surrounding tribes. The Altun (Turkic, golden) Khan of the East voluntarily submitted to him, forming close allies with him. The Urum (i.e., Roman) emperors in the West, however, were unwilling to cooperate and openly confronted him.

So, Oghuz Khan led a large army to conquer Urum and quickly defeated the emperor. The Oghuz Khan conquered the Jurchens, Shen Poison (i.e., India), Tang Wu (i.e., Bai Gao Daxia), Shamu (i.e., Syria), and Barhan (i.e., Western Liao), and became a powerful overlord who unified the world.

"Oghuz Khan took the daughter of Celestial Light as his wife. Together, they had three sons, the eldest named Sun, the second named Moon, and the third named Star, and he took the daughter of the tree hole as a concubine. Together, they gave birth to three sons, named Blue Sky, High Mountain, and Sea.

"These 6 children are Sun Khan, Moon Khan, Star Khan, Blue Sky Khan, Mountain Khan and Sea Khan. Later, each son married and raised four sons. In this way, Oghuz Khan had 24 grandsons.

He named the 24 tribes he ruled after his grandson. Each tribe has its own totem and specific parts of the animals that are eaten. Of these 24 tribes, we, the Salur, Konik and Kaya, are the three most powerful and famous tribes.

"In his old age, the Khan of Oghuz divided the territory he ruled among his descendants, thus forming the vast territory of Oghuz. "

Hassan interjected and asked, "Ada, why is our territory so small now?".

The father smiled helplessly: "This is just a myth and legend passed down by word of mouth. The real history of Oghuz, let me tell you slowly. You go and bring my bowl first. My mouth was so dry that it was smoking. "

Hassan quickly got up and ran out to bring his father's tea bowl from the kitchen.

As soon as he sat down, he urged eagerly: "Ada, you can drink tea, and then give me the history of Oghuz." "

The father took a few sips of tea, put down the tea bowl and slowly narrated

"A long, long time ago, we Oghuz people lived in the 9 rivers area of the northern grasslands of the Eastern Desert, and we were close relatives of the same clan as the Hui, and were successively called Chidi, Ding Ling and Tiele by the Qin people (referring to the Central Plains people). Therefore, some people call us the nine surnames Oghuz and the Hui Hui ten surnames Oghuz.

"After the defeat of the Xiongnu in the East, the Turks rose rapidly and became powerful, continued to oppress the Oghuz, forced our ancestors to speak the Turkic language, obeyed the customs and habits of the Turks, and called us Black Turks and Turks with different surnames. Our ancestors formed a confederation of tribes in the sphere of influence of the Turkic Khanate.

In the 126th year of the AH (that is, in 745 AD), the Turkic Khanate was heavily damaged by the combined forces of the Tang Empire, the Uighurs and the Grolus, and was forced to leave the Mobei steppe and migrate westward along the route of the Xiongnu's westward escape, constantly blending with the local indigenous peoples along the way.

Although the Turks fled to the west, the Uighurs established the Uighur Khanate in Mobei and continued to oppress their close relatives, the Oghuz.

The Oghuz had no choice but to migrate to the Altai Mountains in the west. The Uighurs still chased after us and bullied our ancestors. Finally, the ancestors came to the northern steppes (that is, in present-day Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan) to live a nomadic life.

"Under the sky, it is really a thing descending from one thing. The Uighurs were driven south and west of the Tien Shan Mountains from the southbound Gans, the ancestors of the Kyrgyz people. Together with the Grolus, they founded the Qarakhanid kingdom and ruled and oppressed the Oghuz and Turkic mestizos who lived there.

"The Oghuz people were forced to continue their migration westward, gradually spreading over a vast area between the Irtysh and the Volga. In 204 AH (820 AD), the Oghuz moved south from the steppes to occupy Suzushana (now Ushrushana, Tajikistan), an indigenous people south of the Syr Darya River (Sogdians), and began contact with the indigenous peoples of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya valleys.

"In the 4th century (i.e., in the 10th century AD), the Oghuz established the Oghuz state on the lower reaches of the Syr Darya River and on the northern shore of the Aral Sea, reaching the lower reaches of the Ural and Volga rivers in the west and the upper reaches of the Irtysh River in the northeast. During this period, the Oghuz created the heroic epic "Ancestor Kolkut". This is a treasure of art that has been passed down through the ages.

"In 358 AH (970 AD), the Oghuz chieftain Seljuk, who was stationed in Felt (near present-day Kizylorda, Kazakhstan), clashed with the king and led his tribe to secede from the kingdom of Oghuz.

The Seljuks migrated to the south and settled in the lower reaches of the Syr Darya River, where they merged with the local Aryans and Turks through battles and marriages to form a mixed Aryan and Turkic ethnic group. The Oghuz were therefore renamed Turkmen, meaning Turkic-like people.

At this time, the Turkic tribes that had previously moved south overthrew the Samanid Empire established by the Iranians and established the Kingdom of Ghazni in the Hindu Kush Mountains. King Ghazni sent the Seljuk tribes to guard the northern frontier.

"In the middle of the 5th century AH (i.e., the 11th century AD), the Oghuz kingdom was overthrown by the Turkic Kepchak Khanate, which rose up in the steppes. The kingdom of Oghuz fell apart, and the Turkmen tribes began to wander.

"In 431 AH (i.e., 1040 AD), the Turkmen tribes who had gone south in the early stage defeated the Kingdom of Ghazni at Dandankan (located near Mar, Turkmenistan), occupied Khorasan (i.e., present-day Khorasan in Iran), cleared the power of the Arab Empire, established Isfahan as the capital, and established the Seljuk Empire.

"The Seljuk Empire conquered much of Azerbaijan, Arabia, and Asia Minor, and became the largest empire in the world, stretching from the Hindu Kush Mountains in the east, to the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea in the west, to the Arabian Sea in the south, and to the borders of Kievan Rus' in the north. Dozens of countries and hundreds of khans from near and far came to the Seljuk Empire to pay tribute and show their submission.

"In 486 AH (1092 AD), the Seljuk royal family fought for power. The empire soon fell apart. On the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, in the Kerman and in Asia Minor, there were a number of small dynasties. King Suleiman, a Turkmen in Asia Minor, founded the Sultanate of Rum with the capital of Nicaea (present-day Iznik, Turkey) in the west. The Sultanate of Rûm was gaining momentum, reaching the Bosphorus with its troops pointing across the sea.

"In the autumn of 535 AH (1141 AD), in the Katwan steppe of northern Samarkand, the Seljuk Empire army was defeated by the combined forces of the Eastern Qarakhanid State and the Western Khitan State, and lost control of the Western Qarakhanid.

"At the end of the 6th century AH (i.e., 1194 AD), the Khorezm Empire, together with the Western Khitan, eliminated the Seljuk Empire and brought the Turkmen into its jurisdiction. The Turkmen became subjects of the Khorezm Empire.

"After the collapse of the Seljuk Empire, the Kaya, Salur, and other tribes migrated to northern and western Iran and the peninsula of Asia Minor, and established several small kingdoms, including our kingdom of Galemang (located in present-day Karaman Province, Turkey).

"In 615 AH (i.e., 1219 AD), the Khorezm Empire was swept away by a stormy sweep by the army of the steppe country. The once-majestic Empire State Building collapsed. The homeland of the Turkmen people in the east was devastated. Fortunately, we were not trampled by the horse's hooves of the steppe country in the distant Asia Minor!

After listening to his father's account of the history of Oghuz, Hassan felt unsatisfied. He cupped his pointed chin in his hands, frowning in earnest thought.

He pondered: Both the Oghuz and the Turkmen have built powerful empires and created incomparably glorious history, which is worthy of the admiration of future generations.

He was very unhappy with the current situation of the Turkmen, and quietly set the ambition to restore the Seljuk Empire and revitalize the Turkmen cause.