Dr. Haşmetullah Tabibi quotes the following views from Bartold: The Kaşkay tribe had immigrated from Mongolia and Turkistan to these lands upon the escape from the army and despoil of Cenghiz. Ahmet Caferoğlu has mentioned about the similar views, too. Franc-Jean Shor has stated that Kaşgay people emigrated from the Chinese Turkistan among the pioneers of Cenghiz Khan and they dispersed to Afghanistan and the northern Iraq. Pursuant to their settlement in the northwest borders of Iran and Azerbaijan, they came to the southern regions in 1600s and settled in the place where they live today.
V. Monrsky is convinced that the essential group of Kaşkay people must have settled to these lands in the period of Seljuks before the Mongolian era. There are some Iranian authors that have stated that the Kaşkay Province and its tribes were the nomadic Iranians in the ethnical respect, and they lost their identity and language due to the shock of the historical events and some other reasons. Accordingly, they started to use the languages of the invaders. However, these allegations are the sentimental expressions that are not based on scientific grounds. It is a historical fact that some of the Caucasus peoples (the people of Azerbaijan, Daghestan, Georgia and Hayastan) were forced to immigrate to various regions of Iran in the Safevi period and particularly in the period of the domination of Shah Abbas. But these forced migrations have also been observed before the Safevi domination. Lorens Lakhart, one of the authors that considered Halaç people as the predecessors of the Kaşkay people stated that some big groups of Kaşkay people like Farsimedan and Şeşbloki (Alubölüklü) were forced to immigrate to Halcistan within the region of Kum province and to Persia long before the Safevi domination.
Ibrahimov considered that Kaşkay people were rooted from the Azerbaijani Turks and he stated that Cani Ağa Kaşkai integrated all the tribes around a big union under the name of Kaşkay, a top identity under the political and social conditions of the period. He had emphasised that the name of these people was related with the character of Cani Ağa. The origin of Kaşkay people and the Turkish tribe that is the ancestor of these people can be determined on the basis of their names, language-literature, traditions and customs. There are nearly one hundred and ninety tribes, clans and nomad groups that are included within the Kaşkay union of tribes today. All of these groups did not use the name of Kaşkay in the past and most of them were not Kaşkay. Some of them changed their old names and substituted it with a new name, but there are some groups that had preserved their original names. In other world, the Turkish tribes in Persia were forced to integrate against the obligation of the historical events. They turned into a single tribe and this tribe was called as Kaşkay. The name of Kaşkay is the general and second name of these groups, in other word, it is the name of the Province that they had established. However, there had been a Turkish tribe that was called with the name of Kaşkay before this integration. Accordingly, this tribe used the name of Kaşkay due to the aforesaid reasons (since there is not any evidence for the existence of a tribe under this name included within the historical resources). The other tribes rushed together about this powerful tribe (as an ancient tradition of Turks).
The spoken language, the literary language, the verse, poetry, folklore and the relevant handicrafts are the conclusive proofs that reinforce the membership of each minority to a nation. It has not been possible to obtain written information from the litarary language of Kaşkay people until recently (until the revolution in 1979). Nowadays, there have been several studies and works about these fields although they are limited in scope.
The traditions and customs, rules and regulations pertaining to a nation or a minority of that nation are another important factor that can determine their national identity through comparisons. We can classify the views of the authors about the name origin of the name kaşkay under the following principal issues. The name of kaşkay is rooted from the words of kaçmak, kaşgar or kaşken. The ancestors of Kaşkay people immigrated or were forced to immigrate from Halacistan, Syria, Middle Asia, the Caucasus, Anatolia and the Northern Azerbaijan.
There are some sensible opinions among the views that have been stated above. But most of these opinions are the repetitions of one another. The incapacity to illuminate these issues results from various difficulties. We can classify these difficulties item by item. Kaşkay people did not have a written history.
There are different ethnical groups within the boundaries of Kaşkay Province.
Kaşkay people had not created any works in their own language until recently.
Kaşkay people were a nomadic community.
There are various names pertaining to the tribes located within the boundaries of Kaşkay Province and these names had changed for several times during the history.
Some of the authors approached to the issues with a political stance.
It is not a correct determination to assert that the word of kaçkay was derived from the verb of kaç (fleeing) in Turkish language and it was pronounced as kaşkay as a result of the changes in the course of time. It is possible that there were some tribes that took shelter in the Kaşkay Province in the course of various periods in history. However, it cannot be a realistic approach to assume that this incident was valid for the entire Kaşkay Province. On the other hand, Kaşkay people will never admit such a name. These people who dared to rebel against the Iran government and English domination will not accept such a name.
Some authors stated that the word of Kaşkay was taken from various geographical names. The existence of some tribes with the names of geographical names in a union of tribe will not entail that the name of Kaşkay was taken from a geographical place. Nevertheless, the opinions in favour of this view are also contradictory to one another. The opinion alleging that the name of Kaşkay came from Cani Ağa Kaşkai is not based on any scientific ground. It is much more convincing that he had taken this name from the tribe that he was a member rather than the allegation that he gave his surname to this tribe. Another view is the assertion that the name of Kaşkay is taken from the word Kaşka. They were called as Kaşka atlılar since they rode white-brow horses. In the course of time, this name was abbreviated and pronounced as Kaşkaylar.
to be continued