Yabaku

Yabaku is a fairly enigmatic tribe out of ten prominent Türkic tribes enumerated by Mahmut Kashgari (11th century) in the list describing the location of the Türkic polities from the borders of the Eastern Roman Empire to the borders of China in the following sequence:

1. Bäčänäk;
2. Qifčāk;
3. Oğuz;
4. Yemēk;
5. Bašğirt;
6. Basmil;
7. Qāi;
8. Yabāqu;
9. Tatār;
10. Qirqiz.

Yabāqu is etymologisable as from Turkic yapağu, "originally denoting 'matted hair or wool' and then an animal characterized by this, e.g. a 'colt.' Zoonyms or hipponyms are known in Turkic ethnonymy, some of probable totemic origin."[1]

Kashgari also noted that "Among the nomadic peoples are the Čömül - they have a gibberish (raṭāna [رَطَانَة‎]) of their own, but also know Turkic; also Qāy, Yabāqu, Tatār and Basmil - each of these groups has its own language, but they also know Turkic well".[2]

References

1. Golden, Peter B. (2006). "Cumanica V: The Basmils and Qipčaqs". Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 15: 17-18.
2. Maħmūd al-Kašğari. "Dīwān Luğāt al-Turk". Edited & translated by Robert Dankoff in collaboration with James Kelly. In Sources of Oriental Languages and Literature. Part I. (1982). p. 82-83

See also

• History of Kyrgyzstan
• History of Kazakhstan
• History of China