The Nogay are a Turkic-speaking people, living in the northern Caucasus region in southwestern Russia and the Ural region in western Russia, as well as in the Crimea in southern Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Poland, and parts of Asia, especially Turkey. Those living in the Russian republics of Dagestan and Kalmykia are called Qara or Black Nogay; those in the province of stavropol are the Aq or White Nogay.
Originally nomads the Nogay are thought to be descendants of TURKICs traveling with the Mongols in their invasion of Europe in the 13th century C. E.; they are associated with a Mongol general, known as Nogay, who ruled one of the Mongol hordes. Their Aralo-Caspian dialect of Northwestern (Kipchak; Ogur) Turkic is shared by peoples to the east in siberia.
In 1554-56 the Russian Slavs under Czar Ivan IV invaded their territory, and the Nogay horde split in two. One group, the Great Horde, settled along the Lower Volga River; the Little Horde occupied lands to the southwest toward the Black Sea. Some among them united with the Kazakhs. Remnants of the two hordes reunited as Tatars in 1634.
In the 19th century with further Russian expansion the Nogays dispersed for the most part. Most of the Nogay are Sunni Muslims, although some living among the Tatars in western Russia are Russian Orthodox Christians.
See also Russians: nationality.
World History
