The Kyrgyz Khaganate (840-924)

The Kyrgyz had lived on the upper Yenisei since ancient times, and their ruler bore the title Ajo. In the Göktürk and Uyghur eras they were sometimes subjects and sometimes fought to stay independent.

In 840 a Kyrgyz army took Ordu-Baliq, the Uyghur capital, and ended the Uyghur Khaganate. The Kyrgyz then held the Ötüken lands and the Mongolian steppe and sent envoys to the Tang court. Historians call this the Kyrgyz "great power" period.

In 924 the Khitans drove the Kyrgyz out of Mongolia and they returned to the Yenisei valley. The later history of the Kyrgyz and their link to today's Kyrgyzstan is told in the article on the Yenisei Kyrgyz.