White/Black Sheep Turkomans?

I have recently found about the Ag Qoyunlu and the Kara Koyunlu, two tribal federations. The Ag Qoyunlu gained power with Timur, while the Kara Koyunlu were a vassal of the Jalayirid dynasty.

I also found that Ag Qoyunlu means White Sheep Turkomans and the Kara Koyunlu were the Black Sheep Turkomans.

After this little context here comes the question. Were does those silly names come from? Were they, like a friend of mine said half serious half mocking, sheepshagers that liked black or white sheep, and that's were the name comes from?

Silly question I know :p, but I am really interested in finding the reason for those names.
 
Turkic peoples denoted directions with colors, so black was north, white west, south red and east blue.
 
Ak and Kara Koyunlu were probably so-named because they claimed to be direct descendants, through the Oghuz Turks, of the legendary Turkic ancestor Oghuz, whose myth was passed on through oral tradition until being committed to writing in around the 1300s.

Basically Oghuz had two pairs of triplets, and one day he assembled the entire horde before him, and set up two trees directly opposite each other: on the right, a tree with a golden hen and white sheep; on the left, a tree with a silver hen and black sheep (in Tengri mythology, the hens and sheep would have symbolized the Sun and Moon). Oghuz then placed the elder set of triplets on the right, and the younger set of triplets on the left, and divided his empire between the two parties.

So by claiming themselves to be 'White/Black Sheep', both Turkoman bands claimed to be direct descendants of the sons of Oghuz, which grants no small legitimacy in horde culture where good lineage can be a powerful political asset (Mughals/Timur being the most obvious one).

The point of all this is that you should be happy that the leaders of those tribes didn't call themselves the 'Golden/Silver Hen Turkomans' instead :p.
 
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