Turkmen tribes


The major modern Turkmen tribes are Teke, Yomut, Ersari, Chowdur and Saryk. The most numerous are the Teke.
Seljuks, Khwarazmians, Qara Qoyunlu, Aq Qoyunlu, Ottomans and Afsharids are also believed to descend from the early Oghuz Turkmen tribes of Qiniq, Begdili, Yiva, Bayandur, Kayi and Afshar respectively.

Tribal structure and organization

has traditionally been divided into tribes. Full tribal structure of Turkmens is as follows: halk, il, taýpa, urug, kök, kowum, kabile, aýmak/oýmak, oba, bölük, bölüm, gandüşer, küde, depe, desse, lakam, top, birata, topar, and tire.
The origin of all present-day Turkmen tribes is traced to 24 Oghuz tribes. Khan of Khiva and historian Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur, in his seventeenth century work Shajare-i Tarakime places special importance to the Salur tribe of the Oghuz, since couple of major Turkmen tribes, such as Yomuts and Ersaris derived from it. He claims that the leader of the Salur tribe was Salur Ogurcik Alp who had six sons: Bedri, Buka, Usar, Kusar, Yaycı and Dingli.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Feodor Mikhailov, a Russian officer in the military administration of Transcaspian Region of the Russian Empire noted that “all Turkmen, rich and poor, live almost completely alike”. He also added that the Turkmen “put the principles of brotherhood, equality, and freedom into practice more completely and consistently than any of our contemporary European republics.”
The five traditional carpet designs that form motifs in the coat of arms of Turkmenistan and its flag belong to these tribes.