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Chodor Rugs the O'Connell Guide

In 1219 the Mongols crushed the Khwarazm Shah and his Turkmen/Azeri allies. two years later in 1221 the Mongol conquest pushed the Oghuz tribes including the Chodor from the Syr Dara region into the Kara Kum area and along the Caspian Sea. The Chodor appear to have stayed on the Mangyshlak Peninsula from then through the Timurid and the Shaybanid Uzbek periods.

In the early sixteenth century the Chodor were a confederate or aymaq in the Salor Sayin Khani confederation. The Chodor were primarily concentrated in the Mangyshlak Peninsula on the northeastern Caspian coast. I have not figured out the exact order but the Kalmuks moved into the Mangyshlak Peninsula, the Sayin Khan confederation broke up and the Chodor ended up southeast of Khiva loosely confederated but under the authority of the Yomud. There are indications that some Chodor ended up in the mid Amu Darya region near and if I recall properly north of Charjui.

In 1743 the Yomud captured Khiva briefly and again in 1767 but that time they held it for three years. In 1770 the Muhammad Amin Inaqof Qongrats, defeated the Yomuds and founded the Qongrat dynasty. Part and parcel of this was the breakup of the Yomud which gave the Chodor autonomy from the Yomud but still under the Khiva/Khwarezem Khans.

Chodor Finger Puppet
John Wertime was kind enough to show me this very unusual object. Obviously Chodor Turkmen had things such as puppets but sadly very little is apparent in the literature.If I recall my visit with John that day this puppet is embroidered leather with glass beads. john was kind enough to invite me to visit on a weekend that I was in town to hear Wendel Swan address the Hajji Baba on the subject of Shahsavan rugs. Sadly I did not take better notes.

Chodor Carpet

The Chaudor, seven or eight clans, have about 11,000 tents. They frequent the country lying between the S. shores of the Caspian and the Lower Amu.
Balfour on the Turkmen 1883

Firstly, let us take those who are most to the north. The Chodors dwell in the country between the Caspian and northern Khiva — that is to say, on the southern slopes of the Ust Urt. They are computed to number twelve thousand tents, with certainly not fewer than five and possibly six or seven persons to each tent. As they have of late years been undisturbed, and have settled down into a regular mode of earning their existence, it is possible that their numbers have increased since Vambery computed them to be of the number mentioned.
The Turkmen by Demetrius Charles Boulger Part 3

The Bozoglu 7 Sided Chodor Asmalyk

Chaudur Turkmen Shallow Tent-Bag (Torba) Thompson sale Lot 36

The Jon Thompson Chaudur Turkmen Shallow Tent-Bag (Torba)

Pseudo-Chodor Group
N.B. I think that first Jon Thompson piece is Chodor and the second is likely Chodor as well but I do not have he structure available on that one. The other two look Yomud. Just for the record Serif Ozen sold the Cocoon Pseudo-Chodor Chuval as Yomud. I guess there must be some little subtleties that I am missing in the Pseudo-Chodor attribution.