Oghuz

Oghuz [огузи; aka Oüguz, Ohuz, Ghuzz, Huz, Uz]. A federation of nomadic Turkic tribes, which arose in the Aral Sea region in the first half of the 10th century and established a state on the lower Syr Darya River. Some of their detachments helped Volodymyr the Great in his campaign against the Volga Bulgars in 985. Pressed by the Kipchaks, in the mid-11th century some of the Oghuz moved into the Volga River-Don River region, thereby forcing the Pechenegs to move into the Black Sea steppes, and others, under the leadership of the Seljuks, conquered Byzantine Anatolia.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]