Ethnographic Insights Into Central Asian History From “Devonu Lug‘Otit Turk”

This article explores Mahmud al-Kashgari’s 11th-century work Compendium of Turkic Dialects (Devonu Lug‘otit Turk) as a valuable ethnographic source for understanding the cultural and historical development of Turkic peoples in Central Asia. The study examines tribal ethnonyms, geographic distribution, and social structures, with a focus on prominent tribes such as the Kipchaks, Karluks, and Oghuz. It also highlights urban cultural centers like Bukhara, Samarkand, and Khwarezm, revealing the complex interplay between nomadic and sedentary lifestyles, religious syncretism, and ethnogenesis processes in the Turkic world.