Military Forces of the Kyrgyz in the 6th to 18th Centuries
The structure, organization, and supply of the armed forces of the Kyrgyz during that period were based on the principles of the organization of the Huns — the ancestors of modern Turkic peoples, including the Kyrgyz. It is known that Attila's Huns reached the Gibraltar Strait in the 4th-5th centuries. Turkic khans from the 6th century were able to conquer the entire Great Steppe in a short time and reached the Black Sea.
In all the khanates that existed in the territory of modern Kyrgyzstan from the 6th to the 12th centuries, during the Mongol domination (13th-15th centuries), as well as in the era of Tamerlane (15th century), the structure of the Turkic army was improved. Strike units of Turkic cavalry served as mercenaries far beyond Central Asia: in Iran, India (as Ghulams), in the Middle East, in Egypt (as Janissaries), etc. By the time of the Karakhanids, the Turkic cavalry had transformed into a well-organized type of regular army. The Yenisei Kyrgyz made a significant contribution to the development of the armed forces of the Turkic peoples. The Kyrgyz khanate, during the 7th-8th centuries, formed a military system adapted for prolonged military operations. A series of military campaigns against the peoples of Siberia allowed the Kyrgyz to significantly expand the borders of the state and acquire rich material resources, especially iron ore deposits and human resources. The hierarchy levels in the armed forces were: ajo (commander-in-chief): three biys; followed by officials of six different levels. The state had a regular cavalry guard.
In the 9th-10th centuries, the Kyrgyz khanate introduced a new military-administrative organization: the army was divided according to the decimal principle into ten-thousand and five-thousand units, led by military leaders of four ranks. The army consisted of 30,000 heavy-armed Kyrgyz horsemen and 70,000 light cavalry from vassal tribes.
The achievements of the Kyrgyz in armament are well known: archers had composite bows with central, side, and frontal overlays; the set of arrows included 21 types of non-armored arrows and 19 types of armored arrows (all with iron tips). Such a large variety of armaments has not been recorded in any other nomadic culture of the Middle Ages. It is also significant that many types of arrows are characteristic only of the Kyrgyz. All this indicates a significant development of the weapons craft in Kyrgyz lands (historians believe that the war with the Uyghurs served as a stimulus for this).
