Qarluqs

Qarluqs, also called Karluks, were a Turkic-speaking nomadic confederation in Central Asia from the 7th to the 13th centuries. They inhabited the steppes north and east of the Syr Darya and later expanded into the Ferghana Valley and parts of Xinjiang, with their political center shifting over time. By the 8th–9th centuries they organized under a yabghu leadership and formed the Karluk Khanate, a powerful polity in what is now southern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and parts of Xinjiang.

The Karluks played a central role in the regional politics of Central Asia. They were influential in the formation of the Karakhanid state, which united several Turkic tribes under Islam and ruled Transoxiana from the late 9th century into the 11th century. The Karluks converted to Islam by around the 10th century, and under Karakhanid rule the region saw the spread of Turkic-language literature and the integration of Persianate culture into Central Asia.

In the 12th–13th centuries the Karluk political influence waned due to rivalry with neighboring powers and the expansion of Mongol forces; by the final centuries of the Khanate their identity had merged into other Turkic-speaking populations of Central Asia, and their lands became part of later Uzbek, Kazakh, and Kyrgyz polities. The term Qarluqs survives in historical sources as the ethnonym for the Karluk people and occasionally as the name of ruling lines within the Karakhanid state.