Yenisei Kyrgyz
[5] Peter Golden reconstructs underlying *Qïrğïz < *Qïrqïz< *Qïrqïŕ and suggests a derivation from Old Turkic qïr 'gray' (horse color) plus suffix -q(X)ŕ/ğ(X)ŕ ~ k(X)z/g(X)z.
[6][7] Around 202 BCE, Xiongnu chanyu Modun conquered the Kyrgyz –then known to Chinese as Gekun (鬲昆), along with the Hunyu (渾庾), Qushe (屈射), Dingling (丁零), and Xinli (薪犁).
[8] Duan Chengshi wrote in Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang that the mythological ancestors of Kyrgyz tribe (Jiānkūn bùluò 堅昆部落) were "a god and a cow" (神與牸牛), (unlike Göktürks, whose mythological ancestress was a she-wolf; or Gaoche, whose mythological ancestors were a he-wolf and a daughter of a Xiongnu chanyu), and that Kyrgyz's point of origin was a cave north of the Quman mountains (曲漫山),[9][10][11] which was identified with either the Sayan or the Tannu-Ola; additionally, Xin Tangshu mentioned that Kyrgyz army was stationed next to Qīngshān 青山 "Blue Mountains", calqued from Turkic Kögmän (> Ch.
They had adopted the Orkhon script of the Göktürks and established trading ties with China and the Abbasid Caliphate in Central Asia and the Middle East.
When Genghis Khan came to power in the early 13th century, the Yenisei Kyrgyz submitted peacefully to him and were absorbed into his Mongol Empire, putting an end to their independent state.
During the time of the Mongol Empire, the territory of the Yenisei Kyrgyz in northern Mongolia was turned into an agricultural colony called Kem-Kemchik.
Kublai Khan, who founded the Yuan dynasty, also sent Mongol and Han officials (along with colonists) to serve as judges in the Kyrgyz and Tuva regions.
The Tang Huiyao (961 CE), citing the Protector General of Anxi Ge Jiayun, states that the Kyrgyz, known to the Chinese as the Jiankun, all had red hair and green eyes.
[26] The description of the Kyrgyz as "large, with red hair, white faces, and green or blue eyes" in Tang Chinese sources and also Tibetan and Islamic sources have tempted a number of researchers to assume that the Kyrgyz may have originally been non-Turkic or at least an ethnically mixed people with a large non-Turkic element.
[32] According to Lee & Kuang, who cite Chinese historical descriptions as well as genetic data, the turcophone "Qirghiz" may have been of non-Turkic origin, and were later Turkified through inter-tribal marriage.
The Kyrgyz were described in the You yang za zu by Duan Chengshi in the 9th century AD as people with yellow hair, green eyes, and red beards.
According to Duan, the Kyrgyz were not of wolf descent, unlike the Turks, and were born in a cave north of Quman Mountain as the offspring of a god and a cow.
They looked similar to the neighboring "Boma tribe" (Basmyl), who did not share the same language, implying that the Kyrgyz may have originally been a non-Turkic people.
The tenth-century Persian text Hudud al-'alam described the Kirgiz as people who "venerate the Fire and burn the dead", and that they were nomads who hunted.
Before that time we have a series of Chinese transcriptions referring to the same people and stretching back to the 2nd century BCE, which end either in -n or -t: Neither -n nor -t provides a good equivalent for -z.
