Zhetiru: seven names, one union
In 1748 the diplomat Alexei Tevkelev compiled an inventory of the Junior Juz. In it he recorded how seven divisions came to form a union: Tabyn, Tama, Kerderi, Kereit, Zhagalbaily, Teleu and Ramadan. Their neighbours within the same juz, the Alshyn, raided them, and none of the seven could strike back with a raid on its own. The seven asked Tauke Khan for protection. The khan was revered but not feared, and he had no power to restrain the Alshyn. He then joined the seven into one union, so that an offence against even one of them would send all of them raiding together, and named it by its number — Zhetiru, “seven clans”. Yet even together they remained the weakest in the juz: “although the seven clans are joined in one place, before the Alshyn they are utterly powerless”.
All seven names are alive today.
One union, five lines
The union was made by a khan, and the paternal lines of the seven differ. Zhetiru has five main lines:
- Tabyn C2 63%, R1a 14%, N1a 14%, J2 2%, R1b 6%, G1 1%, G2 1%, O2 1%
- Tama C2 68%, R1a 5%, J2 3%, R1b 5%, E1b 8%, G1 7%, O2 3%
- Kerderi C2 14%, R1a 55%, J2 29%, R1b 2%
- Ramadan C2 9%, R1a 30%, N1a 2%, R1b 14%, Q 25%, O2 18%, G1 2%
- Kereit C2 26%, N1a 57%, J2 17%
- Teleu C2 2%, R1a 2%, N1a 10%, J2 82%, R1b 5%
- Zhagalbaily C2 9%, R1a 4%, N1a 8%, J2 4%, R1b 39%, O2 25%, I2 8%, G1 3%, D1 1%
- C2
- R1a
- N1a
- J2
- R1b
- other
Two pairs share a main line: Tabyn and Tama stand on C2, Kerderi and Ramadan on R1a.
Ramadan is the only one where no line reaches even a third. After R1a come Q, the main line of Kangly, and O2, the main line of Naiman. Kereit stands on N1a, on the same Uralic branch as the Khanty and the Khakas.
Tabyn and Tama: one line, different main branches
C2 is the main line of the Kazakhs. Among Tama it stands mostly on one branch. Among Tabyn that branch is rare, and C2 is split between two others, one of which is the old branch.
Teleu: J2, rare among Kazakhs
In the Caucasus and in Iran J2 is a common line, while among Kazakhs as a whole it is 6%. Teleu is the only Kazakh clan where it is the main line: 82%.
Among Teleu all tested J2 stands on one branch. Two other members of the union, Kerderi and Kereit, also have J2, but on another branch: the two branches parted 19,000 years ago.
By the shezhire Teleu is the son of Argymak, and “Argymak” is also one of the clan's battle cries.
Zhagalbaily: Tolegen of “Kyz Zhibek”
Among Zhagalbaily the main line is R1b, but it does not reach even half, and the second is O2.
Tolegen, the hero of the epic “Kyz Zhibek”, is of the Zhagalbaily, the son of the wealthy Bazarbai: “Асып туған Төлеген / Жағалбайлы халқынан” — “peerless Tolegen of the Zhagalbaily people”. He went to the Shekti for a bride and there found Zhibek, the daughter of Khan Syrlybai. In Tevkelev's inventory the Shekti are among the Alshyn — the very ones who raided the seven.
Sources
Khussainova et al. 2022; Zhabagin et al. 2020, 2021, 2024 — the Kazakh corpus; Zhunussova et al., 2025 (PMC11973391) — the Zhetiru sample by its seven divisions; “Opis kirgis-kaisatskogo naroda Menshei ordy…”, 24 September 1748 — “Kazakhsko-russkie otnosheniya v XVI–XVIII vekakh”, Alma-Ata, 1961, doc. no. 155, p. 406 — the union of the seven under Tauke Khan; “Istoriya Kazakhstana v russkikh istochnikakh XVI–XX vekov”, vol. III, Almaty, 2005, the 1748 inventory and commentary — the Shekti among the Alshyn; “Kyz Zhibek”, the version of Zhusipbek Shaikhislamuly, “Babalar sozi”, vol. 53, Astana, 2009, pp. 85–86, 93, 125 — Zhagalbaily and Tolegen, Syrlybai, khan of the Shekti; Vostrov V. V., Mukanov M. S., “Rodoplemennoi sostav i rasselenie kazakhov”, 1968 — the shezhire and battle cry of Teleu; open Y-DNA data.
And which line does your clan stand on? Does it agree with what the shezhire remembers?
The full tree of a line with the ages of all its branches, the distribution of clan lines inside each tribe, and comparison of tribes with one another — in the app.