Chigils
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The Chigil (Chihil, and also (D)Jigil, Cihil, Chiyal) were a Turkic tribe known from the 7th century CE as living around Issyk Kul lake area. They were considered to be descended from the tribe Chuyue,[1][2][3] who were of mixed Yueban-Western Turkic origins.[4]
Etymology[]
Sinologist Yu. A. Zuev notes that the Chinese transcription of Chigil, 處月 Chǔyuè (Middle Chinese (ZS): /t͡ɕʰɨʌˣ-ŋʉɐt̚/) may be calqued as "abode of the Moon [god]"; whereas 處密 Chǔmì (/t͡ɕʰɨʌˣ-mˠiɪt̚/)) as "abode of the Sun [god]", for Chinese 密 transcribed Middle Iranian theonym Mihr, the all-seeing Zoroastrian deity of covenent, oath, and light, vaguely associated with the Sun. However, citing Gabain's 1931 and 1934 researches, Zuev cautions that neither Turkic-Buddhist texts, nor the Turkic-Manichaean literature and other sources containing information about Turkic Manichaeism, give a genealogical meaning in reference to the invocation of the Sun and Moon (Turk. kün ay).[5] Confusingly, Zuev also compares Chigil to Persian čihil "forty".[6]
Kamoliddin (2006) proposed that the ethnotoponym Chigil contains the morpheme -il (Turkic land, country).[7] On the other hand, Alyılmaz (2017) etymologized Čigil as from plural and generalization suffix -GIl affixed onto tribal name Çik (OTrk.