Kirghiz, Enisei

(also Enisei Kyrgyz), one of the ancient Turkic-speaking peoples of Asia inhabiting the Minusinsk Basin.

The Enisei Kirghiz are first mentioned in sources at the turn of the second century B.C. In the second half of the first millennium A.D.they formed a state, and they were conquered by Genghis Khan in the early 13th century. At the beginning of the 18th century a large number of Enisei Kirghiz migrated beyond the Minusinsk Basin; those who remained were amalgamated into the Khakass. Some scholars, notably A. N. Bernshtam, maintain that the Enisei Kirghiz who migrated took part in the ethnogenesis of the modern Kirghiz, but this view has been questioned. The Enisei Kirghiz practiced animal husbandry, agriculture, including the irrigation of arid land, hunting, and such crafts as metallurgy, metalworking, and pottery. They used the Orkhon-Enisei script.