How did different steppe tribes identify one another?

[lancer]

Hi, I'm trying to work out how different tribes identified each other. For background: I'm writing a novel set in a fictional steppe-based world. One of my antagonists is a minor tribal warlord, who tries to gain power by starting a major tribal war between two larger clans--by having his warriors disguise themselves as warriors from one side and attack the other, then do the reverse. The so called "false flag operation".

Could this even have been done in real life? How? Are there any recorded notes about how tribes identified one another?

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

Yes there is. According to Mahmud of Kashghar who wrote in the 1070s, when two Turks met on the road, they would first ask each other if they are fine (that is, they would greet each other), and then they would ask which clan or tribe they belong to. The Turkic social organization was as follows: family -> clan -> tribe -> people. Dialectical differences occured mostly between peoples, while tribes and clans of the same people spoke the same dialect (in this case there were very minor differences). So it was probably very easy to disguise oneself among a rival tribe within the same people.

[Temüjin]

there is also a story in the Secret History of Mongols that Chinggis Qaan had all the people around him group according to tribe or clan, and then the former husband of his wife Yesui was discovered. effectively, there was no uniform or identification. in small scale tribal warfare this wouldn't be much of a problem, becaus everyone would know who is of his tribe/clan and who isn't. larger empires like that of Temür and the Mandchu however are well known to have issued uniforms based on different colors, and i believe the Keshik guards of Chinggis Qaan also had a special uniform. but other than that, only flags, banners and battle-standarts would really identify one side from the other.

and there were of course tamgas, which would also be a sign of identification.

[snafu]

Tamgas for sure. A tamga was a clan insignia, and it was branded on all of a clan's horses for identification purposes. If your raiders use their own horses they'll be busted immediately, no matter what disguises they wear. Someone will just say "oh, they were the XYZ clan. I saw the mark on their horses." To frame another clan they'll have to either steal a bunch of their horses and use them in the raid, or find a bunch of unbranded horses and falsely brand them. So basically it's the disguises of the horses that would matter more than the disguises of the people.