conquest pushed the Oghuz tribes, including the Chowdur, from the Syr Darya region into the Kara Kum area and along the Caspian Sea. In the early 16th century, the Chowdur formed a confederate or aymaq in the Sayin Khan confederation. The Chowdur were primarily concentrated in the Mangyshlak Peninsula on the northeastern Caspian coast. The Kalmuks moved into the Mangyshlak Peninsula, the Sayin Khan confederation broke up and the Chowdur ended up southeast of Khiva, loosely confederated, but under the authority of the Yomut tribe. There are indications that some Chowdur ended up in the mid-Amu Darya region near the north of Charjui. Under the Khanate of Khiva, during the 19th century, Chowdur included the Igdir, Bozachi, Abdal, and Arabachi tribes. Yomut Yomuts are one of the major modern Turkmen tribes. They descend from the Salur tribe of the Oghuz Turks. The historical region of settlement is the southern part of the Balkan velayat (region) of Turkmenistan, near the Etrek River and in the adjacent areas of Iran, between Etrek and Gorgan, as well as in the north, in the Dashoguz velayat. The Yomuds were divided into sedentary, semi-nomadic and nomadic groups, the latter being the majority. Sedentary Yomud Turkmens lived in the villages of Chekishler and Esenguly (nowadays Balkan velayat of Turkmenistan), semi-nomadic ones lived in the lower reaches of the Etrek (in two large villages) in summer, and in winter they broke up into small groups and led nomadic life. Nomadic Turkmen Yomuds usually left for Etrek or Iran in autumn and winter. The last ruler (de facto) of the Khanate of Khiva was the representative of the Turkmen Yomut tribe, Junaid Khan. Tribal structure and organization Turkmen society has traditionally been divided into tribes (taýpalar). The full tribal structure of Turkmens is as follows: , and . The origin of all present-day Turkmen tribes is traced to 24 Oghuz tribes. Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur, in his 1659 work Shajara-i Tarākima, places special emphasis on the Salur tribe of the Oghuz, since a couple of major Turkmen tribes, the Teke, Yomuts and Ersaris, derived from it. Abu al-Ghazi claims that the leader of the Salur tribe was Salur Ogurcik Alp. who had six sons: Berdi, Buka, Usar, Kusar, Yaycı and Dingli. At the beginning of the 20th century, Feodor Mikhailov, a Russian officer in the military administration of the Transcaspian Region of the Russian Empire noted that "all Turkmen,