
The Kayi were an Oghuz Turkic people who migrated from Central Asia to Anatolia during the 13th century, under the leadership of Suleyman Shah and his son Ertugrul. One of the 24 Oghuz tribes, the Kayi were a migratory people who initially settled in Ukraine (where they may have lent their name to Kiev) before finally settling in Anatolia and forming the Isfendiyarids and Chobanids. In 1225, Sulayman Shah and his sons led 2,000 tents of Kayi Turkmen west from Central Asia to flee the Mongol invasion, settling at Sogut in the Sultanate of Rum. In Anatolia, 27 villages bear the name "Kayi". The Kayi tribe's descendants through Ertugrul formed the Ottoman Empire, with Ertugrul's son Osman founding the Ottoman beylik in 1299 and creating an empire which would become the last great Islamic empire in world history.