The Kayı or Kai tribe were an Oghuz Turkic people and a sub-branch of the Bozok tribal federation. In the 11th centuryMahmud al-Kashgari cited Kayı. The word kayı means "the one who has might and power by relationship". The anicent Turkmen proverb says: "Kayi and Bayat tribes shall lead the people". In his history work Shajare-i Tarakime, the khan of the Khanate of Khiva and historian, Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur, mentions Kayı among 24 OghuzTurkmen tribes, direct descendants of Oghuz-khan, who was the ancient progenitor of the Oghuz people. The name of the tribe translates as “strong”. In his extensive history work “Jami' al-tawarikh”, the chapter "Legends of Oghuz-Khan. The Tribal Division of Turkmens", the statesman and historian of the IlkhanateRashid-al-Din Hamadani also says that the Kayı tribe comes from the oldest of Oghuz Khan's 24 grandchildren who were the patriarchs of the ancient Oghuz tribes, and the name Kayı means “strong”. variant Kayı tamga. The famous Oghuz Turkic folk narrator, soothsayer and bard Gorkut-ata belonged to the Kayı tribe . In the middle ages, part of the tribe moved to the territory of modern Ukraine, they are known in the ancient Russian annals as kovuy and kaepichi. According to the famous Soviet and Russian linguist and turkologist A. V. Superanskaya, the origin of the name of the city ofKiev is associated with the Kayı tribe: "As ethnographers testify, ethnically “pure” peoples do not and cannot exist. On the contrary, new peoples arise from ethnic mixes of two or more peoples, usually assimilating the best features of each. There are many folk legends that the beginning of a nation was laid by two brothers... Apparently, something similar lies behind the legend of Kiy, Schek, Horev and Lybed. The tribal name Kyy belonged to the ancient Turkic peoples. It is still present in the names of tribal structures of modern Turkic peoples ”. In Anatolia, total of twenty seven villages bear the name of Kayı. The Kayı tribe were the founders of such medieval Anatolian Beyliks as İsfendiyaroğulları and Çobanoğulları. In Turkmenistan, the Kayı tribe are a sub-division of the Geklen Turkmens living in the Balkan region of the country and a clan within the Turkmen tribe of Bayat living in the Lebap region. With the Russified name Kaitag the Kayı tribe played a prominent role in the history of the Caucasus, and now the Kaitag language is classified as one of five dialects of the Kumyk language, which for ten centuries was a lingua franca in the North Caucasus. Kaitag principality was a leading component of the Shamkhalate of Kazi-Kumukh state on the Caspian western seaboard that in different forms lasted from the 8th to the 19th centuries. Kaitag textiles, stamped out under the Soviet rule, remain distinct in their artistry and workmanship. According to Ottoman tradition, Osman I, the founder of Ottoman Empire, was a descendent the Kayı tribe. This claim has, however, been called into serious question by many modern historians. The only evidence for the Ottomans' Kayı descent came from genealogies written during the fifteenth century, more than a hundred years after the life of Osman. More significantly, the earliest genealogies written by the Ottomans did not include any reference to Kayı descent at all, indicating that it may have been fabricated at a later date. The name and logo of the İYİ Party of Meral Akşener is inspired by the seal of the Kayi tribe.
