Üçok- Turkic GroupCollective"The Left Wing"

The Silver Arrows

In the Oghuzname tradition preserved by Rashid al-Din and later by Abu al-Ghazi, Oghuz Khan divides authority among his six sons after a great hunt. A golden bow is broken into three pieces and given to the three elder sons (the Bozok), while three silver arrows are given to the three younger sons: Gök Han, Dağ Han, and Deniz Han. These three form the Üçok, the "Three Arrows," and their portion establishes them as the left wing of the Oghuz tribal confederation.

The distribution of bow and arrows carries cosmological weight in Turkic political symbolism. The bow represents sovereign authority, while the arrows signify the warriors who carry out that authority. The silver of the Üçok arrows marks them as junior to the golden Bozok, establishing a ranked duality that structured Oghuz political life for centuries. The three sons' names reflect cosmic domains: Gök (Sky), Dağ (Mountain), and Deniz (Sea), linking the Üçok to the natural world below the heavenly sphere associated with the Bozok.

The Twelve Tribes

Each of the three Üçok sons fathered four sub-tribes, creating twelve Üçok tribes out of the twenty-four total Oghuz tribes. These twelve include several historically prominent groups: the Salur, Afşar, and Bayat among others. In the Oghuz military encampment structure, the Üçok tribes occupied the left side (sol kol), facing the enemy alongside but subordinate to the Bozok on the right.

Rashid al-Din records each tribe's tamga (brand mark) and ongon (totemic animal), linking the Üçok tribes to specific birds of prey and livestock marks that served as identity markers across the steppe. The Üçok division persisted as a meaningful political category well into the medieval period, with Turkmen confederations and Seljuk-era polities tracing their lineage through specific Üçok tribes to claim legitimacy within the Oghuz genealogical framework.