The article is an attempt to summarize some of the research results of recent years and highlight the most important aspects that deserve the attention of historians and philologists, primarily Turkologists and Iranists. Keywords: ancient Turks, origin of the A-shi-na family, onomastics, Iranian cultural influence. The initial stages of the tribe's history are still very vague, and all attempts to reconstruct them are purely conditional, hypothetical in nature. The lack of written sources, which are limited to reports of Chinese dynastic chronicles and chronicles - "Zhou Shu" (629), "Sui Shu" (656), "Bei shi" (656) - does not allow us to draw any reasonable conclusions. Several variants of genealogical legends transmitted by Chinese sources (Bichurin, 1950, p. 220-222; Julien, 1864, p. 327-328, 348; Parker, 1899, p. 120-121; Parker, 1900 (1), p. 163-164; Kychanov, 1997, p. 251-253) are no longer available. times were interpreted by researchers. In general, studies have shown that under the legendary layer in these messages there is a reflection of historical events that took place, namely, the arrival of a small nomadic group (of what origin? from where?) several generations before the exodus from there and the rise of the Tu-jue people (Bichurin, 1950, p. 4). 222-227; Aristov, 1896, p. 278-282; Grumm-Grzhimailo, 1926, p. 208-211; Kiselev, 1949, p. 276-277; Kiselev, 1951, p. 493-194; Klyashtorny, 1964, p. 103-106; Klyashtorny, 1965, p. 171-178; Gumilyov, 1993, p. 23; Zuev, 1960 (2), p. 122-125; Potapov, 1969, p. 54-56; Savinov, 1984, p. 31 sl.; Nesterov, 1990, p. 98-100; Klyashtorny and Sultanov, 2000, p. 74; Klyashtorny and Savinov, 2005, pp. 75-81]1. S. G. Klyashtorny attempts to distinguish two periods in the early history of the Turkic (Tujue) people: the Gansu-Gaochan period, characterized by the formation of a proto-Turkic substrate based on the Xiongnu tribes of the Yue-Ban and the Iranian-Tocharian tribes on the territory of East Turkestan in the third centu ... Read more