Vokil clan

The Vokil, Ukil or Uokil were a dynastic clan of 1st millennium Danube Bulgaria.

They contributed four monarchs listed in the Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans. According to the Nominalia, they "ruled on that side of Danube for 515 years with shaven heads". The first Bulgarian supreme Khan of the Vokil lineage listed in Nominalia was Kormisosh (r. 737–754) and the last was Umor (r. 766).

Scholars such as Edwin Pulleyblank and Yury Zuev have drawn attention to circumstantial evidence suggesting links between the Vokil and various Central Asian peoples, during antiquity and the early Middle Ages. The peoples concerned include:

However, such theories are controversial, conclusive evidence proving or disproving them has never been presented and there is no consensus amongst scholars on whether or not such links exist.

Yuezhi and Wusun are Chinese exonyms for two separate Indo-European peoples, who lived in western China and Central Asia, during ancient times. Before the end of the 4th Century BCE, the Yuezhi and Wusun were located in areas that were later part of the Chinese provinces of Gansu and Xinjiang. There was substantial interaction between the Yuezhi, the Wusun and a neighbouring people, the Xiongnu, whom many scholars have suggested were precursors of the Huns and, indirectly, of the Bulgars.

In about 200 BCE, the Xiongnu leader Modu Chanyu – a vassal of the Yuezhi – rebelled, attacked the Yuezhi, and subjugated several other peoples. The Yuezhi subsequently attacked the Wusun, in about 173 BC, and killing their king, Nandoumi (Chinese: 難兜靡). According to a Wusun legend, Nandoumi's infant son Liejiaomi was left in the wild, but was miraculously saved by a she-wolf, which allowed him to suckle, and ravens, which fed him meat. This pivotal myth shared similarities with the founding myths of many other peoples in Central Asia. It has been, in particular, the basis of theories that the Ashina – the royal clan of the Göktürk Turks – originated amongst the Wusun. In 162 BC, the Yuezhi suffered a further, more decisive defeat at the hands of the Xiongnu and retreated from Gansu. According to Zhang Qian, the Yuezhi fragmented and most fled westward into the Ili river valley. The Wusun and Xiongnu later drove the main body of the Yuezhi southward, through Sogdia, into Bactria. The Wusun settled afterwards in Gansu, in the Ushui-he (Chinese: "Raven Water River") valley, as vassals of the Xiongnu.

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