On the origin of the ethnonym Chigil

The article examines the origin of the ethnonym Chigil, the name of a Turkic-speaking tribal union attested since the 7th–8th centuries. Based on unique information from the 11th-century philologist Mahmud al-Kashgari, a new interpretation of this ethnonym is proposed, directly related to one of the most ancient dastans of the Western Turks, ”Ulu-khan Ata Bitigchi”.