About the Ancient Kyrgyz

A Grade 8 Kyrgyz Literature topic: «About the Ancient Kyrgyz» (pp. 4–8, B. Isakov). The Old Turkic age covers the 6th–10th centuries, and the name «Turk» itself is 700–800 years younger than the name «Kyrgyz». Academician V. V. Bartold (1869–1930) wrote «The Kyrgyz: A Historical Sketch» in 1927. N. Ya. Bichurin (1777–1853) learned Chinese in Peking and brought back Chinese books and manuscripts — fifteen camel loads of them. The Chinese sources are Sima Qian's «Records of the Grand Historian» and Ban Gu's «Book of Han». The first record of the Kyrgyz begins in 201 BC; in 90 BC the mounted Kyrgyz warriors led by Li Ling defeated the Chinese army. In the 6th–7th centuries the state was ruled by an ajo, the people numbered several hundred thousand and the army eighty thousand. The Turkic khagan gave Bars-bek the name Ynanchu Alp Bilge, and in 711 he was defeated. In 843 a great Kyrgyz state was formed, and in 1293 Kyrgyz statehood came to an end.