), who lived on the shores of the Caspian Sea and lent their tribal name to the body of water in several Turkic languages, including Turkmen.

The word comes from Persian chahar kan چهارکن, meaning "four wells" or "four riches", referring to the wealth of petroleum found on the peninsula.

As far back as the 1st century, the Greek philosopher Strabo said, "They say, diggers opened oily springs near the Okh River.

In 1743, a Captain by the name of Woodruff of a British merchant company remarked that 36 Ogurdjali families resided on the island.

[citation needed] By 1925, after the establishment of Soviet Turkmenistan, wells had been nationalized and oil production decreased.