Oghuz Turks: Map & History
Oghuz Khagan or Oğuz Khan is a legendary khan of the Turkic people and an eponymous ancestor of the Oghuz Turks.
Wikipedia Encyclopedic Compendium
Historiographical synthesis & structured realm registry
Oghuz Khagan or Oğuz Khan is a legendary khan of the Turkic people and an eponymous ancestor of the Oghuz Turks. Some Turkic cultures use the legend of Oghuz Khan to describe their ethnic and tribal origins. The various versions of the narrative preserved in many different manuscripts have been published in numerous languages, as listed in the references below. The narratives about him are often entitled Oghuzname, of which there are several traditions describing his many feats and conquests; some of these tend to overlap with other Turkic epic traditions, such as the Seljukname and The Book of Dede Korkut. Oğuz Khan was from the Balga tribe, the son of Qara Bey, and later became a khan.
Modern Countries Once Part of Oghuz Turks
At its mapped extent, Oghuz Turks covered territory in 1 present-day country. The period shown is when the mapped borders include that country, and the note says how much of it.
States and Provinces
Largest Present-Day Cities in Its Territory
Each opens on the live map inside Oghuz Turks's borders of that time.
Derived by testing mapped cities against this polity's dated territorial polygons, so the list is indicative and follows the borders in the source dataset.
Oghuz Turks in Depth
Historical precursor and legacy
According to Abulgazi, Oghuz Khan may have lived four thousand years before the Prophet Muhammad, during the time of the legendary ancient king Keyumars. The 18th‑century French academic J.‑S. Bailly placed the khan's life in the 29th century BC, while the 18th‑century Russian geographer and historian P. Rychkov and the Soviet historian O. Tumanovich placed it in the 7th century BC. The French Encyclopaedia of Diderot and d'Alembert mentions that Oghuz Khan lived long before the Persian king Cyrus II.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Oghuz Khagan (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Oghuz Turks Map Over Time
Dated world maps on which Oghuz Turks appears, with the other states of the time.
Oghuz Turks Timeline
Key historical inflections from foundation to peak territorial expansion
Expansion to peak recorded area of 466,506 km² in 980 CE.
Oghuz Turks: Frequently Asked Questions
When did Oghuz Turks exist?
Oghuz Turks is dated to 750 CE – 1055 CE, in the Early Middle Ages era.
How large was Oghuz Turks at its peak?
At its peak in 980 AD Oghuz Turks covered about 466,506 km².
How did the map of Oghuz Turks change over time?
Oghuz Turks appears on 3 dated world maps in the atlas, from 750 CE to 1000 CE. Each shows its borders in that year next to the other states of the time.
Other Sovereign Realms
High & Late Middle Ages • Capital: Avarga
Early Middle Ages • Capital: Constantinople
High & Late Middle Ages • Capital: Thanjavur, Gangaikonda Cholapuram
High & Late Middle Ages • Capital: Niani, Kangaba