Ersari


Ersari are one of the major tribes of the Turkmen people of Central Asia and one of the five major tribes of the country of Turkmenistan. They live mainly in Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Population

Ersari people's number is approximately 2.1 million people overall.
Ersari has four sub-tribal divisions. They are: Gara, Bekeul, Gunesh and Uludepe.

History

Origin

Ersari are direct descendants of the Oghuz Turks. It is believed that they come from the Salur tribe of the Oghuz Turks, just as Turkmen Yomud tribe. The Seljuk Turkomans, the conquerors of Iran and Turkey, are also considered as the forefathers of the Ersari.

Sayin Khan Turkmen tribal confederacy

Ersari appear to have been major component of the Sayin Khan Turkmen tribal confederacy whose Yurt, in the late 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, stretched from the Balkan mountains to the Mangishlaq peninsula and north to the Emba river. The label Sayin Khani, given to these Turkmen by the other peoples around, referred to their emergence from the breakup of the Golden Horde,, in order to differentiate their origins from tribes that came from the territories of Hulegu or Chaghatay.
The Sayin Khani Turkmens appear to have been an organized confederation of tribes said to be divided, in typical Turco-Mongol fashion, into two parts, the Ichki and Tashki Oguz. Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur, the Uzbek Khan of Khiva in the 17th century, in his book Shajare-i Tarakime does not indicate whether the term Tashki refers to an organizational, military or purely geographical meaning. Sometime in the 17th century, in part to the drying up of the western Uzboy channel of the Amu Darya, the Ersari and its major subtribes moved east to the banks of the main course of the Amudarya. One sub-tribe, the Ali-Eli also moved eastwards, but remained near Kaka region, which is now in Ahal Province of Turkmenistan.

Ersari baba

is the legendary leader of Ersari people, and of all Turkmen, who lived in the 13-14th centuries in Mangishlaq and Balkan mountains. He had been the founder of the Sayin Khan Turkmen confederation and considered to be father of Ersari people. He assembled all Turkmens, those that remained in Central Asia after the Mongol invasion of Central Asia. He played a leading role in consolidation of Turkmen tribes at that arduous period in Central Asia.