the Yomud split into eastern and western groups, and the Teke migrated to the Ahal region near the Kopetdag Mountains and eventually into the Murghab River basin. Other Salor tribes moved into the region near the Amu Darya delta and into other parts of modern-day southeast Turkmenistan. Salor groups also live in Turkey, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and China. Turkmenistan in the 16th and 17th centuries The history of Turkmenistan from the 16th until the 19th century is mostly known by the relations with the states of Iran, Khiva, Bukhara, and Afghanistan. Wars of the period took place mostly in the lands of Turkmenistan. The invasion of the Khan of Khiva, Abul Gazi Bahadur Khan, from 1645 to 1663, caused some difficulties to the Turkmens, coupled with the impact of the drought that occurred at about the same period, most of the Turkmens within the khanate moved to areas around Ahal, Atrek, Murgap and Tejen. In this period, many of the Turkmens tribes living around the Aral Sea also migrated because of pressures from both the Khiva Khanate and the Kalmyks, and migrated to Astrakhan and Stavropol in the northern Caucasus. Popular epics such as Koroglu, and other oral traditions, took shape during this period which could be taken as a beginning of Turkmen nation. The poets and thinkers of the time such as Devlet Mehmed Azadi and Magtymguly Pyragy became a voice for an emerging nation, calling for unity, brotherhood and peace among Turkmen tribes. Magtymguly Pyragy is venerated in Turkmenistan as the father of national literature. Most of present Turkmenistan was divided between Khanates of Khiva and Bukhara except southernmost parts were handed to Persia. Nader, Shah of Persia, conquered it in 1740 but after him assassination in 1747, Turkmen lands were recaptured by Uzbek khanates of Khiva and Bukhara. During the 1830s, the Teke Turkmen, then living on the Tejen River, were forced by the Persians to migrate northward. Khiva contested the advance of the Tekes, but ultimately, about 1856, the latter became the sovereign power of southern and southeastern parts of present Turkmenistan. Russian colonization and Great Game In the 18th century Turkoman tribes came into contact with Tsarist Empire. The Russian Empire began to move into the area in 1869 with the establishment of the Caspian Sea port of Krasnovodsk, present-day Turkmenbashy. After the suppression of the Emirate of Bukhara (1868) and the Khanate of Khiva (1873),