Forgotten Turkic Peoples: Lost Histories of the Eurasian Steppe
A sorcerer said to summon snowstorms. A prince who cut off his own ear rather than break an oath. A lone straggler who killed a mighty steppe khan. An army dressed in black, known as the Raven Army. Discover the little-known Turkic peoples behind these extraordinary stories.
This documentary explores forgotten chapters of Turkic and Eurasian steppe history through Chinese annals, Byzantine reports, Arabic and Persian geographies, and the Orkhon inscriptions of the Göktürks. From shifting clans and confederations to new identities, it asks: how does a people vanish from history?
Peoples, stories and turning points:
• How peoples disappear from the historical record, and what the Kül Tegin inscription reveals about friends and enemies.
• The Yueban: remnants of the Xiongnu, tales of weather magic, and an offer to the Wei emperor in 448.
• The Gaoche: high carts, a wolf legend, and a realm beyond the Rouran.
• The Tongra, Az, Kurykan and Bayirku: peoples recorded in stone, including those who killed Kapgan Khan.
• Qibi Heli and Pugu Huai’en: loyalty, sacrifice and rebellion.
• The Basmil and Karluks: the fall of a khaganate and the Battle of Talas in 751.
• The Shatuo: Li Keyong, the Raven Army, and the rise of three ruling houses in China.
• The Chigil, Yagma and Tukhsi: Mahmud al-Kashgari’s accounts and the oldest map of the Turkic world.
• The Akatziri, Saragurs, Onogurs, Kutrigurs and Utigurs: their place in European history and a name that survives today.
Historical sources:
Kül Tegin inscription (732); Wei Shu 4B, 102 and 103; Zhou Shu 50; Sui Shu 84; Jiu Tang Shu 104, 109, 121, 194上 and 195; Xin Tang Shu 135, 215下, 217 and 218; Zizhi Tongjian 216 and 255; Jiu Wudai Shi 25, 75 and 99; Xin Wudai Shi 4, 5, 8, 9, 10 and 72 (Ouyang Xiu); Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam (982, translated by V. Minorsky, 1937); Mahmud al-Kashgari, Dīwān Lughāt at-Turk (translated by R. Dankoff and J. Kelly, 1982); Priscus, fragments 8 and 30; Jordanes, Getica; John Malalas XVIII; Menander Protector; Procopius VIII; Theophylact Simocatta VII 8.
On-screen source texts include works by Vilhelm Thomsen (1896), Uchida Ginpū (1971), Liu Mau-tsai (1958), Peter B. Golden (1992), Carl Müller (FHG IV, 1851), Charles C. Mierow (1915) and Ludwig Dindorf (1871). On-screen quotations follow the wording of the sources.
Image and production credits:
Historical images: see image credits. Head of Kül Tegin and Hunnic cauldron photographs: Vyacheslav Kirillin, 2023, CC BY-SA 4.0. All other images and scenes were created with AI.
A film by Emre-E Yavuz.
Maps © Emre-E Yavuz 2026.
#Turkic history, #Göktürks, #steppe history, #forgotten Turkic peoples, #Eurasian steppe, #Orkhon inscriptions, #Kül Tegin, #Yueban, #Xiongnu, #Gaoche, #Rouran, #Tongra, #Az, #Kurykan, #Bayirku, #Kapgan Khan, #Qibi Heli, #Pugu Huai’en, #Basmil, #Karluks, #Battle of Talas, #Shatuo, #Li Keyong, #Raven Army, #Chigil, #Yagma, #Tukhsi, #Mahmud al-Kashgari, #Akatziri, #Saragurs, #Onogurs, #Kutrigurs, #Utigurs
Timeline
00:00:Introduction
01:42:How a people vanishes from history
03:31:The Yueban and weather magic
06:29:The Gaoche and the wolf
09:56:Peoples recorded in the Orkhon inscriptions
13:08:Loyalty at any price: Qibi Heli and Pugu Huai’en
16:08:Basmil and Karluks
18:43:The Shatuo: from the sand desert to the imperial throne
23:14:Chigil, Yagma and Tukhsi
25:37:Turkic peoples in Europe and their surviving legacy