The
Turkic term oğuz or oğur (in
z- and
r-Turkic, respectively) is a historical term for "military division, clan, or tribe" among the
Turkic peoples.
With the
Mongol invasions of 1206–21, the Turkic
khaganates were replaced by Mongol or hybrid
Turco-Mongol confederations, where the corresponding military division came to be known as orda.
Background
The 8th-century
Kul Tigin stela has the earliest instance of the term in
Old Turkic epigraphy: Toquz Oghuz, the "nine tribes".
Later the word appears often for two largely separate groups of the
Turkic migration in the early medieval period, namely:
The stem uq-, oq- "kin, tribe" is from a Proto-Turkic *uk.
The Old Turkic word has often been connected with oq "arrow";[1]
Pohl (2002) in explanation of this connection adduces the Chinese T'ang-shu chronicle, which reports: "the khan divided his realm into ten tribes. To the leader of each tribe, he sent an arrow. The name [of these ten leaders] was 'the ten she', but they were also called 'the ten arrows'."[2][3]
An oguz (ogur) was in origin a military division of a
Nomadic empire, which acquired tribal or ethnic connotations, by processes of
ethnogenesis.[3]
1These are traditional areas of settlement; the Turkic group has been living in the listed country/region for centuries and should not be confused with modern diasporas. 2State with limited international recognition.