“ETHNOS SKYTHIKON”: THE UZES IN THE BALKANS (FACTS AND

INTERPRETATIONS)

Alexandar Nikolov

The Balkan Peninsula is located next to the westernmost end of the Eurasian steppe zone,
and was therefore the final destination of many migrations originating from that area. During the
early Middle Ages, the Huns, the Avars, and the Bulgars threatened the Byzantine provinces
from the north and the northeast. By the late 7th century the Bulgars under Asparukh, together
with the Slavic allies even created an early medieval state in the northeastern Balkans, thus
creating a cushion between the imperial lands in the south and the steppe zone. Early medieval
Bulgaria, however, came to an end during the second half of the 10th and the early 11th century,
as Byzantium pushed its northern frontier one more time to the river Danube. This brought again
the Empire in direct contact with the nomads in the steppe lands to the northeast. Thus, the
victory over the Bulgarians created new problems, as the Byzantines now had to negotiate an
uneasy coexistence with the turbulent world of the steppes. The disappearance of Bulgaria
created better opportunities for the Pechenegs to attack and raid the lands south of the Lower
Danube, to settle in the Walachian Plain, and to increase the pressure over the newly established
Byzantine theme of Paristrion. From the 1020s onward, Paristrion turned into one of the most
critical zones of imperial defense, and most nomads from the Eurasian steppe lands focused their
attention on those lands. The Pechenegs and later the Cumans are often mentioned in the
Byzantine sources as the main enemy on the northern frontier. Their role in the ethnic and
political changes taking place in the region between the 11th and the first half of the 13th century
was the subject of many studies by scholars from Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and Russia.
Comparatively less attention has been paid to the mid-11th-century invasion of the northern
Oghuz tribes known as Ouzoi in Byzantine, and Ghuzz in Persian and Arab sources. For some
unknown reason, the details and the chronology of their invasion have escaped scholarly
scrutiny. Perhaps this is because the Byzantine writers describing their attack of 1064-65
unanimously concluded that the hand of God had destroyed most of them.

Was it really so?

 Associated with the invasion of the Uzes, their defeat, and subsequent settlement in
various parts of the Balkan Peninsula is a number of historical and political speculations. The
invaders are viewed as “cousins” of the mighty Seljuks, and kinsmen of the future Ottoman
Turks. Unlike the Pechenegs and the Cumans, their origin and ethnic affiliation has been used to
explain the relatively large presence of Islamicized and Christian, Turkish-speaking groups in
Dobrudzha, Macedonia and Thrace, and to divide the Turkish and Gagauz population into
Ottoman- and pre-Ottoman-age Turks. Needless to say, there is very little evidence to back up
such speculations, a situation any scholar would encounter when studying the medieval history
of the Balkans. Recently, a whole national narrative has been constructed on the assumption that
the modern Gagauz are the descendants of the Uzes. In this paper, I do not intend to solve such a
complex issue. My goal is simply to summarize and comment on some of the facts and
interpretations surrounding the attacks of the Uzes and their settlement in the Balkans, as well as
their real or alleged links to some modern ethnic groups (mainly the Gagauz) in the region of the
Black Sea area.

The Oghuz tribes and their initial migrations

The early history of the Oghuz tribes has been thoroughly examined by various scholars,
especially Peter Golden1 and Victor Spinei.2 According to the former, the ethnic name was either
Oghuz or Oghur and originated in the western areas of the ancient Turkic world..3 Others prefer a
numeric prefix, such as Toquz Oghuz, which is related to the etymology of the word for clan,
tribe, or kin. A third variant is Turk-Oghuz or Oghuz Turks, which covers a large variety of
Turkic-speaking groups speaking closely related dialects.4 Perhaps the best survey of the early
stages of the Oghuz tribal community may be found in Victor Spinei’s monograph dedicated to
the great migrations. Spinei places the focus of scholarly attention on the rise of the Oghuz
confederation in Transoxiana, its relations to the traditions of the ancient Turkic Khaganate, as

1
Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples: Ethnogenesis and State-Formation in
Medieval and Early Modern Eurasia and the Middle East (Wiesbaden, 1992), 205-24.
2
Victor Spinei, The Great Migrations in the East and South East of Europe from the Ninth to the Thirteenth Century
(Cluj-Napoca, 2003), 161-215.
3
Golden, Introduction, 205-11; and Nomads and Their Neighbours in the Russian Steppe: Turks, Khazars and
Qipchaqs ( Burlington, 2002), 45-84.
4
Golden, Nomads, 45-8.
well as to the neighboring Eurasian nomads and Islamic societies.5 According to Spinei, one of
the most important events in the history of the Oghuz tribes was the separation of the chieftain
Seljuk, his adoption of the Islam and the subsequent rise of the Seljuk dynasties all over the Near
East and Asia Minor. The Islamicized Oghuz, now known as Turkmens or Seljuk Turks, played
a significant role in the spread and revival of Islam over vast of Asia. They succeeded in pushing
the Byzantines out of eastern and central Anatolia, and in the process created the Sultanate of
Rum. The Seljuks are often viewed as precursors of the Ottoman Empire, itself the creation of
descendants of the Oghuz from the noble tribe of Kayi. However, the Balkans were not directly
affected by the Seljuks, at least not until the 14th century. To be sure, Seljuk pirates active in the
Aegean Sea ravaged the Archipelago, and threatened Byzantine, Venetian, Genoese, and other
“Latin” possessions in the area. However, they did not penetrate the inner parts of the peninsula,
except as mercenaries employed by the Byzantines in their military campaigns or in civil
conflicts between rival claimants to the imperial throne. 6

The Western branch of the Oghuz tribes was much more important for the Balkan region.
Those Oghuz did not convert to the Islam, and kept the older traditions of the pagan ancient
Turks and of their Khaganate. Golden and Spinei’s reconstructions of their migrations have
distinguished several phases. First, between 850 and 900, according to Golden,, the Oghuz were
on the lower and the middle course of the Syr Darya, whence they moved from their previous
homeland in Mongolia. To the west, their neighbors were the Pechenegs and Khazars, and to the
east the Qarluqs. The Oghuz were not very different from their neighbors, neither in terms of
language, nor in terms of the social or economic life. All those tribes also had some common
historical memory and traditions, linking them to the early medieval Turkic Khaganate. As
mentioned, the links between the Syr-Darya Oghuz and older confederations, such as the Toquz
Oghuz, the Uighurs, Yuch Oghuz, Sekiz Oghuz, or Oghuric tribes of Western Eurasia, is
disputed and difficult to confirm. Peter Golden explicitly states that the “earliest history, then, of
the Transoxanian Oghuz, too often taken for granted, because of the Inner Asian antecedents of

5
Spinei, Great Migrations, 179-81.
6
Spinei, Great Migrations, 181-96.
the ethnonym Oghuz, is difficult to reconstruct due to the paucity and imprecision of our
sources.”7

What we certainly know is that their rulers had the title of yabghu, which is related to the
traditions of the ancient Khaganate, and that they were neighbors of the Islamicized territories of
Central Asia. That is why they were already known as Ghuzz in sources written within the
Abbasid Caliphate. Their main rivals appear to have been the Pechenegs. The Oghuz succeeded
in pushing them to the west, and out of the Syr-Darya and Volga-Ural areas. Their campaigns
against the Pechenegs appear to have been coordinated with the Khazars, who had also suffered
because of the Pecheneg raids. By the end of the 9th century, the Oghuz controlled the disputed
areas, while the Pechenegs had moved into the steppe lands north of the Black Sea, pushing to
the west the Magyars (who became allies of the Bulgarian Tsar Symeon and contributing to the
rapid decline of the Khazar power. Moreover, Golden offers a list of sub-tribes or clans of the
Oghuz confederacy, some of which are conquered Pecheneg clans. On the basis of such Muslim
sources as Rashid ad- din and Abul` Ghazi, Golden also distinguishes between two branches of
the confederacy: the Bozoq (the senior right wing) and the Yuchoq (the junior left wing). The
Qınıq tribe, which was the original tribe of the later Seljuks, dominated the confederation for a
while. Some have also assumed that the Kayı, the cradle of the later Ottoman dynasty, has played
a similar role. However, it is very unlikely that the Oghuz confederacy had a centralized
government. Ibn Fadlan mentions many “kings,” who were chieftains and local lords. Nobody
among the Oghuz, not even the Yabghu, ever claimed the title of khagan. In the early 10th
century, the Oghuz were a typical frontier society on the periphery of the Islamic world. They
were thus exposed to influences from the lands of Islam, as well as from Khazar Khaganate
(recently converted to Judaism) and Byzantium. Arab and Persian sources also note the existence
of sedentarized Oghuz and of Oghuz towns and emporia in border areas. 8

At about the same time, the growing pressure from the east primarily from the strong
Kimek-Qipchaq union, led to growing hostilities between the Oghuz and the Khazars, and to
Oghuz raids against Volga Bulgaria and the Finnic tribes of the forest-steppe zone in the
northwest. The loose tribal union of the Oghuz had, in fact, no unified policy against its

7
Golden, Introduction, 206.
8
Golden, Introduction, 207-10.
neighbors. Many clans appear to have acted independently, and the Yabghu probably had no
more than symbolic authority. By the end of the 10th century, the instability of the Oghuz
confederacy was chronic. The western clans were increasingly involved in the affairs of the
moribund Khazar Khaganate, and the growing power of Kievan Rus’ and Volga Bulgaria, the
new Orthodox Christian and Muslim strongholds in Eastern Europe. 9

The Process of Islamization and the Rise of the Seljuks

Meanwhile, the eastern and southern Oghuz tribes were subject to a strong Islamic
influence. Contacts with the Islamic centers of Central Asia appear to have been responsible for
the rise of a solid Sunni population under the influence of Arab and Persian culture. Some of the
border towns became focal points of Islamic propaganda, and the Oghuz confederacy, already
under serious threat of internal strife, was now divided along confessional lines, between
Muslims and infidels, the latter still keeping the old pagan traditions of the ancient Turkic era.
One of the terms used to describe the Oghuz newly converted to Islam, as well as other Turkic-
speaking groups, was Turkmen or Turcoman. This later became an ethnic name, designating the
turbulent nomadic groups of Central Asia and of the borderlands separating the Seljuk/Ottoman
realms from Iran. The Turcomans became a constant source of concern for the settled and highly
centralized Islamic societies of Central Asia. The split of the Oghuz confederacy was probably
triggered by the conversion to Islam of the tribal chieftain and su-bashi of the Yabghu, a man
named Seljuk of the Qınıq tribe (985). His followers viewed themselves as holy warriors fighting
for the spread of Islam in the border areas separating them from the Karakhanid, Ghaznavid and
Samanid polities of Central Asia. The conflicts between the Islamicized Seljuks and the Oghuz
who remained loyal to the Yabghu regime and the old faith led to the concentration of the former
in Khorasan, which became a second homeland for the Seljuks and the Launchpad of their future
conquests in the Near East and Anatolia. In 1055, the Seljuk leader Toghrul conquered Baghdad,
thus becoming one of the most influential Muslim rulers in the world. The Seljuk Turks proved
to be very conservative and militant followers of Islam, who waged war against Byzantium, thus
indirectly triggering the Crusades, when old treaties between Christians and Muslims regarding
the pilgrimage to Jerusalem were broken. Their role in the Islamicization and Turkification of
eastern and central Anatolia has been the subject of many studies. The fate of Christian Anatolia

9
Golden, An Introduction, 210-212.
was sealed by the Seljuk victories against the Byzantines at Mantzikert in 1071 and
Myriokephalon in 1176. One can go as far as to regard the Ottoman conquests as simply reaping
what has already been sown by the Seljuks. More important for our purpose in this paper is the
fact that the Seljuks did not completely sever their ties to the nomadic, pagan Oghuz or with the
only superficially Islamicized Turkmens, whom they did not hesitate to use as warriors against
the Christian borderlands in Armenia, Georgia, and Byzantium. 10

The western branch of the Oghuz people

Unlike the southern and eastern branches of the Oghuz confederacy, its western parts
were exposed to the influence from the Khazars, Kievan Rus’, Volga Bulgaria and Byzantium.
Those Oghuz moved westwards under the growing pressure of the Cumans during the first half
of the 11th century. For a while, they appear to have dominated the steppe lands north of the
Black Sea, pushing the Pechenegs to the Byzantine and Hungarian borders. The Pecheneg raids
into Byzantium and Hungary, their partial conversion to Christianity, and subsequent settlement
in the border areas are relatively well documented in several sources. The “Oghuz Yabghu
State,” as Peter Golden called the Oghuz polity, was allied to the Khazars during the first half of
the 10th century. As already mentioned, that alliance had indirectly contributed to the migration
of the Magyars to Pannonia, as pushed by the Oghuz, the Pechenegs and their Bulgarian allies
have forced them out of the Black Sea region by the late 9th century. In the mid-10th century,
however, relations between the Oghuz and the Khazars deteriorated. The western Oghuz tribes
thus became part of a strong anti-Khazar coalition, together with Kievan Rus’, Byzantium, the
“As” people from Khwarezm, and the Pechenegs, their former enemies.11 The fall of the Khazar
Khaganate in 965 was a major event for that part of the Eurasian steppe zone, followed by
significant changes in the balance of power in the Black Sea region. Kievan Rus’ now reached
the northern coast of that sea, established contact with Byzantium, and converted to the form of
Christianity favored in Constantinople. Bulgaria on the Danube was annihilated after a mortal
combat with the Empire, which lasted for several decades and involved the involvement of the
Rus’ in the Balkans. The Pechenegs slowly moved to the west, and became a major threat for the
lands along the Lower Danube, and even for Thrace and Macedonia. As for the Oghuz, they

10
Spinei, The Great Migrations, 179-196.
11
Golden, “The Migrations”, 72-84.
apparently suffered defeat at the hands of the increasingly powerful Cumans in the east, a defeat
which coincided with the internal strife between the Islamicized and the non-Islamicized clans.
The latter entered the former territories of Khazaria, where they battled the Pechenegs and from
which they raided the border principalities of Kievan Rus’. For several decades after 1000, the
non-Islamicized Oghuz tribes (which are known as Torki in the Rus’ sources) were the new
masters of the Black Sea region. The end of this short-lived supremacy came in 1060 AD, when
a coalition of Rus’ princes defeated the Oghuz and forced them to move to the west, in the wake
of the Pechenegs, who had meanwhile established themselves in the lands north of the Lower
Danube. The defeated Oghuz, followed by both Rus’ and Cumans, who had already entered the
Black Sea region, thus reached the northern frontier of Byzantium. 12

In 1064-1065 AD those Oghuz launched a massive attack against the Byzantines and
their Bulgarian subjects. They managed to capture the Byzantine commanders Basilius Apokapes
and Nicephorus Botaneiates and reached deep into the Balkans, to the hinterland of
Constantinople and Thessaloniki. The Byzantine authors who describe the invasion of those
whom they call Uzes (Ouzoi) agree that most of them were eventually destroyed by disease and
hunger. The survivors are said to have fled to the lands north of the river Danube, or to have
been captured and settled in the theme of Macedonia as stratiotai.13 According to Attaleiates, the
lands given to the Uzes in Macedonia were public. That Attaleiates’ Macedonia is the theme of
that name, and not the modern province in the middle of the Balkans, results from his mention of
such “Macedonian” cities as Rhaidestos and Panion, both in eastern Thrace.14 The Uzes were
therefore given lands in the region immediately to the “northwest from Constantinople. That
some Uzes may have settled at that time in what are now Dobrudzha and northeastern Bulgaria
cannot be excluded, but is actually not confirmed by any written source. Archaeology can neither
confirm nor reject that possibility, as Victor Spinei is right to point out that no distinction could

12
Spinei, Great Migrations, 197-198.
13
Paul Stephenson, Byzantium`s Balkan Frontier: a Political Study of the Northern Balkans, 900-1204 (Cambridge,
2000), 94-6.
14
Michael Attaleiates, Historia, edited by Immanuel Bekker (Bonn, 1853), 87: “hosoi de prosēlthon twi twn
Rhwmaiwn basilei (kai gar prosēlthon tines), chwran labontes dēmosian apo tēs Makedonikēs ta Rhwmaiwn
ephronēsan, kai symmachoi toutwn ex ekeinou mechri tēs deuro gegonasi…;; 89-90: “ Ek de tois Makedonikois
meresin hai paralioi poleis….Rhaidestos te phēmi kai Panion kai auto Myriophyton…”
be drawn on the basis of the archaeological evidence alone between Pechenegs, Oghuz, and
Cumans.15 At any rate, any Oghuz influence on the Balkans was short-lived. To be sure, Oghuz
stratiotai in Byzantine service are mentioned as skirmishing with the crusaders in the region of
Dyrrachion, or deserting to their kinsmen in the course of the battle of Mantzikert.16 This cannot,
by any means, be regarded as evidence of a massive settlement of Oghuz tribes in the Balkans
after 1065. We have comparatively much more information about the settlement of Pechenegs
and later Cumans in the Balkans, and their influence and role in Byzantium and medieval
Bulgaria. The Pechenegs are attested also archeologically in the region of Silistra, around Sofia
(e.g., the place name Berende), and in the Ovche pole region of the present-day Republic of
Macedonia.17 The Cumans are also known to have settled in the valley of Maritsa River and in
the region of Braničevo of modern Serbia. Members of the Bulgarian aristocracy and of the
ruling Asenid, Terter, and Shishman dynasties were definitely of Cuman origin. Many boyar
families, who ruled over various parts of medieval Bulgaria were also of Cuman origin, or at
least had such Cuman names as Eltimir, Dorman, or Balik.18 That north Turkic nomads entered
the territory of Byzantium and later of medieval Bulgaria cannot be contested, yet should not be
overestimated either. They served as warriors and mercenaries of the Byzantine emperors and the
Bulgarian Tsars and other local rulers, and converted to Orthodox Christianity, thus becoming an
integral part of the fabric of the Byzantine and Bulgarian societies.

Oghuz and Gagauz: possible links and impossible theories

The invasion of the Uzes in 1064 is without any doubt a major event in the history of the
Balkans, with significant historical and political consequences. For more than 150 years,
however, that invasion has also been linked to scholarly disputes regarding the origins of the
Gagauz, the Turkic-speaking Christian population of the southern parts of the Republic of
Moldova and the territories of present-day Ukraine located north of the Danube Delta. The
Gagauz appear to have been settled in those territories of former Bessarabia during the first half

15
Spinei, Great Migrations, 210.
16
Stephenson, Byzantium`s Balkan Frontier, 96.
17
Spinei, Great Migrations, 134.
18
István Vásáry, Cumans and Tatars: Oriental Military in the Pre-Ottoman Balkans, 1185-1365 (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2005), 63-66.
of the 19th century, together with large numbers of Bulgarians. Both groups were moved there
from Dobrudzha and northeastern Bulgaria where they lived together for centuries. Some of the
Gagauz left behind in Dobrudzha and the Ludogorie (Deliorman) region of northeastern Bulgaria
later acquired a Bulgarian identity, while a few maintained a Gagauz identity. Others migrated to
Greece primarily because of their Christian identity linked to the Patriarchate of Constantinople
and their “Rum” or “Greek” identity), and Romania.19 Two other groups of Turkish-speaking
Christians are known from the 19th- and 20th-century Balkans: the Christian Turks of the region
of Zichni, in the eastern parts of Aegean Macedonia, now in Greece,20 and the so-called Surguch
people near Adrianople and Havsa. The latter migrated to Greece after the Balkan Wars, and
settled around Orestiada in Western Thrace.21 Large numbers of Turkish-speaking people are
also known from Anatolia, where they were classified as “Urum” or “Greek-Orthodox,” despite
their language. The best known group are the Karamanlides, who even had the Bible translated
into Turkish and demonstrated a very strong sense of Greek identity. The vast majority of those
Turkish-speaking Christians were transferred to Greece after 1922, and settled in large numbers
in those territories, which Greece had recently gained from Macedonia and Thrace. They were
known as Matziri (refugees).22 Bulgaria also had to deal with a massive exodus of Bulgarians
from the former Vilayet of Adrianople, divided after the Balkan Wars between Turkey and
Greece. A group of Bulgarians from the region of Bursa in Asia Minor was also among them,
speaking a mixed Bulgarian-Turkish dialect.23 Thus, the use of Turkish among Christians with
Greek, Bulgarian or Armenian identity was not unique, and many Turkish-speaking Christians
were slowly or more intensively assimilated into large nations of later times. Almost nobody
paid attention to the smaller groups of the Zichni and the Surguch. They seem to have
completely disappeared from the radar of both scholars and politicians. By contrast, the much
more numerous Gagauz, however have become the object of both scholarly interest and political

19
Ivan Gradeshliev, Gagauzite [The Gagauz People], (Dobrich: Lyudmil Beshkov, 1993), 5-8.
20
Vasil Kynchov, Makedoniya: Etnografiya i statistika [Macedonia: Ethnography and Statistics] (Sofia: Marin
Drinov, 1996), 96.
21
Nikola Robev, “Trakiyskite gagauzi” [The Gagauz People of Thrace], Vekove 3 (1988): 36-43.
22
Speros Vryonis. Studies on Byzantium, Seljuks, and Ottomans: Reprinted Studies. (Undena Publications, 1981),
305.
23
Dimityr Shishmanov, Neobiknovenata istoriya na maloaziyskite bylgari [The Unusual History of the Bulgarians
from Asia Minor] (Sofia: Poni, 2001), 52-55.
combinations. Dobrudzha, divided between Romania and Bulgaria in 1878, became later a
source of a strong discord for them. Nor has Turkey remained indifferent in these disputes, given
the relatively numerous Turkish and Tatar population in that area. The Gagauz, who also speak
Turkish, have drawn attention because of their location in Bessarabia, another disputed area in
the region. In other words, the apparently innocent question regarding the ethnogenesis of the
Gagauz has quickly turned into a source of political strife. There are currently three major
theories concerning the origin and history of the Gagauz, all three involving the possible Oghuz
(and Seljuk) settlement in Dobrudzha during the late Middle Ages, but before the Ottoman
conquest. According to the first theory, which has the largest number of advocates, the Gagauz
are descendants of the north Turkic-speaking nomads--Pechenegs, Oghuz (Uzes) and Cumans
(Kipchaks). There are several variants of this theory. For example, some believe that the
Pechenegs and especially the Cumans played a more important role in the ethnogenesis of the
Gagauz ethnogenesis than the Oghuz. According to this variant, during the Ottoman period, the
language of the Gagauz, which is slightly different from Turkish, was Turkicized and lost its
original Kipchak form. The Gagauz were converted to Christianity long before the rise of the
Ottomans and remained strong supporters of Orthodoxy, being in contact mostly with their
Bulgarian and Greek-speaking co-religionists.24

The second theory links the Gagauz with the Oghuz tribes and especially with the Seljuks.
According to this theory, a massive settlement of Seljuks in Dobrudzha took place in 1263.
Those Seljuks were led by the former Sultan of Rum Izzeddin Kaykaus, who had converted to
Christianity together with his people, then seized Dobrudzha from the Bulgarians, and created
there an Oghuz state, which was a political ally of Byzantium and under the ecclesiastical
jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople. This state, later known later as the Despotate of
Dobrudzha, was conquered by the Ottomans iin the late 14th century. In the mid-17th century, the
Ottoman traveler Evliya Celebi mentioned this territory as “Uz Eyaleti,” which strongly suggests

24
Konstantin Jireček, Einige Bemerkungen über die Überreste der Petschenegen und Kumanen sowie über die
Völkerschaften der sogenannten Gagauzi und Surguči im heutigen Bulgarien. (Prague, 1889); Stefan Mladenov."
Pechenezi i ouzi-koumani v bălgarskata istoriia," Bălgarska istoricheska biblioteka 1 (1931): 25-32.
that the memory of the Oghuz was retained by the Christian Gagauz.25 A third theory regards the
Gagauz as Bulgarians, who were assimilated linguistically during the Ottoman times, but kept
their Orthodox religion. Sometimes, this theory is also combined with the idea that the old
Bulgars, who initially settled in Dobrudzha and probably spoke a Turkic, “Oghur”, dialect, have
not been entirely assimilated by the Slavic-speaking majority. The Bulgars thus retained a Turkic
dialect, which was thoroughly Turkicized during the Ottoman era. They thus became Gagauz,
but were in fact non-Slavic Bulgars.26

At a quick glimpse, the idea that the Gagauz originated from northern Turkic nomads,
who invaded Byzantium and Bulgaria between 11th and the mid-13th centuries is the most
convincing. Pechenegs, Oghuz and Cumans have indeed settled along the Lower Danube and in
other parts of the Balkans. They have been baptized and assimilated into local communities,
mostly as a part of the military structures. Some of them reached high positions in the Byzantine
and the Bulgarian societies, especially in the Bulgarian ruling class. There is, however, no
evidence of any one of those groups acting as an independent, dominant factor, trying to impose
a different political or cultural agenda on the neighboring communities. Moreover, Dobrudzha
was not the primary place of their settlement. They were in fact dispersed through different
section of the Byzantine possessions in the 11th- and 12th–century Balkans. Some have proposed
links between Pecheneg stratiotai and the Bulgarian-speaking Shopi of Central Western Bulgaria
and the neighboring parts of Serbia and Macedonia. Others associate the Bulgarian-speaking
Muslims, known as Pomaks, to the northern Turkic nomads, but the areas inhabited by the
Pomaks do not coincide with the settlement areas in which those nomads are known to have been
established. The Byzantine sources clearly indicate that the mid-11th century Uzes were settled in

25
Georgi Balaschev, “Dărzhavata na oguzite v Dobrudzha,” Voenni izvestiia 26 (1917): 33-6 ; Atanas Manov, “Za
Gagauzite,” Izvestiia na Varnenskoto Arkheologichesko Druzhestvo 7 (1921): 84-93. In fact, Evliya Celebi’s”Uzi
eyaleti” was a vast Ottoman province, stretching all the way to the River Uzi (Dnieper), a point demonstrated by
James Alexander Kapaló, Text, Context and Performance. Gagauz Folk Religion in Discourse and Practice (Leiden,
2006), 80-1.

26
Strashimir Dimitrov, “Gagauzkiiat problem,”in Bălgarite v Severnoto Prichernomorie. Izsledvaniia i materiali,
edited by Petăr Todorov (Veliko Tărnovo, 1995), 147-68; Plamen Pavlov, “Tiurkofoniiata v srednovekovna
Bălgariia i proizhodăt na gagauzite,” , available at http//Internet.bg?publish13/p.pavlov/gagauzi.htm (visit of
August 15, 2013).
the theme of Macedonia, i.e., in eastern Thrace, and thus very far from the original homeland of
the Gagauz. The Gagauz themselves appear as a separate group only in the 19th century, when
they are distinguished from the rest of the Christian population in Dobrudzha. One cannot of
course exclude the existence of Turkic-speaking people in modern Deliorman (Ludogorie) and
Dobrudzha during the later Middle Ages, but it is difficult to estimate their proportion within the
population, their exact origin, and their ethno-political affiliation. The “Bulgarian” or the
“Greek” identities subsumed into the Ottoman-era Rum millet probably included also groups
speaking languages other than Bulgarian and Greek. Being dispersed and Christianized, the new
settlers slowly lost their tribal and clan ties and were absorbed by the local population. The
Turkic names among the Ottoman Rayah, attested in many registers from the early Ottoman
times, are not necessarily a testimony of a Turkic origin or identity.

The second theory linking the Gagauz with a real or alleged mass settlement of Seljuk
Turks, led by their Sultan Izzeddin Kaykaus, in Dobrudzha, is based mostly on later Ottoman
sources. The theory, which was embraced by Paul Wittek27 and other specialists in the history of
the Seljuks and the Ottomans, has been thoroughly criticized by Petăr Mutafchiev28 and recently
by Khristo Matanov.29 Nevertheless, this theory is well developed, leading to the conclusion
according to which a separate Oghuz state existed in Dobrudzha from the middle of the 13th
century, which was hostile to the Bulgarians, but in very good relations with Constantinople.
According to this theory, the Ottoman conquest of northeastern Bulgaria and Dobrudzha was a
“re-Turkization,” and Turks played a dominant role in the region ever since the nomadic
migrations from the 11th century. The Gagauz appear as the main ruling element in the Oghuz
Turkish state in Dobrudzha, and Balik, Dobrotitsa and Ivanko its first documented independent

27
Paul Wittek, “Yazijioghlu` Ali on the Christian Turks of the Dobruja,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and
African Studies14 (1952), .3: 639-68.

28
Petăr Mutafchiev, Die angebliche Einwanderung von Seldschuk-Türken in die Dobrudsha im XIII Jahrhundert,
(Sofia, 1943).
29
Khristo Matanov, ”Ima li preselenie na seldzhukski turtsi v Dobrudzha prez 13 vek?” Pyt (2009), 10-14.
rulers.30 There are several arguments against this theory, but even if admitting that Gagauz
people are descendants of the Seljuk migrants, it is surprising that the former preserved
absolutely no trace of the Islamic past of the latter. While the Seljuks had only recently been
converted to Christianity, the Gagauz are well known for their firm commitment to Orthodox
Christianity.

The third group of theories attempts to present the Gagauz as an organic part of the
Bulgarian nation. Such theories are based primarily on many cultural similarities and the
common religion and cohabitation in many places. Indeed, such theories are particularly popular
among the Gagauz people in Bulgaria, who like to think of themselves as descendants of the
Turkic-speaking Bulgars. Of course, a direct lineage between the Protobulgarians and the
Gagauz is impossible to be followed, having in mind also the fact that the separate Bulgar, non-
Slavic identity, disappeared most probably after the Christianization. Meanwhile, the compact
Gagauz population in Moldova and Ukraine continues to maintain the idea of an Oghuz origin,
while the Gagauz of Greece regard themselves as a specific group of a larger community of
Turkic-speaking Greeks.

Conclusion

The Oghuz invasion in the Balkans in the mid-11th century was a significant, but short-
lived episode in the history of the region. Some of the Uzes indeed settled in “Macedonia,” and
would later be documented as Byzantine stratiotai during the 11th and the 12th centuries. It is
difficult to link for certain those North Turkic settlers with the Christian, Turkish-speaking
groups, and especially with the most numerous of them, the Gagauz of Dobrudzha (and
Bessarabia). Such a relation cannot in theory be excluded, but the sources are insufficient to
permit any conclusion in this regard. The “Oghuz state” in Dobrudzha is a rather new myth,
which ultimately serves the political goals of nation-building among the Gagauz of Moldova and

30
Nuray Ocaklı, “Turkization or Re-Turkization of the Ottoman Bulgaria: case Study of Nigbolu Sandjak in the 16th
century,” West-East Journal of Social Sciences 2(2013), 1: 71-88. For a survey of the history of the Despotate of
Dobrudzha, see Ivan Bozhilov and Vasil Giuzelev, Istoriia na Dobrudzha, II (Veliko Tărnovo, 2004).
Ukraine, and has little, if anything to do with historical reality.31 Moreover, the Ottoman
conquest did not lead to the “re”-Turkicization of northeastern Bulgaria and Dobrudzha. In fact,
a large part of the pre-Ottoman population was forced to leave the region and to seek refuge in
the neighboring regions, such as the vassal principalities of Walachia and Moldavia, the
easternmost part of which, known as Bessarabia would later become a second homeland of the
Gagauz people.

31
For a detailed description of all the theories regarding the Gagauz ethnic and national identity, seeKapaló, Text,
47-82; and http://gagauzija.ucoz.ru/index/0-2: http://istoriagagauz.com/ (visit of August 15, 2013). The website
refers to extravagant views, such as those connecting the Gagauz with a Hebrew tribe from the Biblical Land of Uz,
or with the Thracian tribe of the Cattausii.