Basmïl

Rouran epoch Göktürk epoch Uyghur epoch Kirghiz epoch

Rouran First Göktürk Tang rule Second Göktürk Uyghur Kirghiz Huns Western Göktürk Türgesh Karluk Khazar

Rouran 400–554
First Göktürk 552–630
Tang rule 630–682
Second Göktürk 682–744
Uyghur 744–840
Kirghiz 840–924
Huns 370–469
Western Göktürk 552–659
Türgesh 699–766
Karluk 766–800
Khazar 650–969

The Basmïl lived about Beiting, the Tang garrison north of the Tianshan, and the Tang counted on them. In 720 the Tang planned an attack on the Göktürk royal camp. The Basmïl were to come from the west, the Xi and Khitan from the east, and a Chinese army was to meet them on the Jiluo river.^[1] Tonyukuk told his khan that the Basmïl were “light and greedy for gain”. He said that they would come first and alone.^[1] In the autumn of 721 they did.^[1] They took fright before the camp and turned home. A detachment took Beiting first and cut them off from it. The Göktürks followed the Basmïl and captured them with their women and children.^[1] The Basmïl belong to the peoples whom Kapgan had brought under the khaganate. Their affiliation is uncertain.^[2]

End of the Göktürk dynasty (742–744)

Twenty years later the Basmïl ended the dynasty that they had failed to break. The Left Shad killed the boy khan Tengri and set himself up as Ozmish Khan. Then “the Basmïl tribe rose in arms against him”, beat him and drove him into flight, “and the whole country fell into chaos”.^[1] A second account has the Basmïl in a coalition with the Karluk and the Uyghurs in 742, with their chieftain on the throne.^[3] The Uyghur chapter of the Tang history has the Uyghurs “attack and conquer the Basmïl” in 744. The Basmïl chief, recognised as khan by the Tang, fled to Beiting and then to Chang’an. Their land and people passed to the Uyghurs.^[3] The lower chapter of the Xin Tang Shu names the stages. At the start of Tianbao the Basmïl, Uyghurs and Karluk together killed the yabgu who had usurped the Göktürk throne. The Basmïl chief was raised as Jiedie Yishi Khan, with the Uyghurs and Karluk as his yabgus of left and right.^[4] In 744 the Basmïl killed Ozmish and sent his head to the capital. In the same year the Uyghurs and Karluk killed the Basmïl khan and set up the Uyghur Guli Peiluo in his place.^[4] The Karluk, who had helped against the Basmïl, were the next to be subjected.

Before Beiting: under Chebi

The Basmïl are on record a lifetime earlier than the campaign of 721, and under a Göktürk khan rather than against one.^[1] The eldest son of Chebi Khan led the Basmïl. Chebi was an Ashina who held the far north on his own account through the first half of the interregnum.^[1] Chebi fell in 650, and that arrangement fell with him. A younger son had gone over to the Tang before the end. The Tang gave him a newly created prefecture to govern his men.^[1]

The pattern of the whole Basmïl record is already visible here. The Basmïl were a people large enough to be worth commanding. They were attached to whichever power could command them. They passed from one power to the next as each failed.

Value to the Tang

The Basmïl mattered to Chang’an because of where they were. Beiting, the Tang garrison north of the Tianshan, was the hinge between the Chinese west and the steppe. The Basmïl were the people around it. The plan of 720 used them as the western jaw of a three-sided attack on the Göktürk royal camp. The Xi and the Khitan came from the east, and a Chinese army stood in the middle.^[1]

Tonyukuk’s judgement of the Basmïl is the sharpest that any source passes on them, and it proved right. He called them light and greedy for gain and said that they would come first and alone.^[1] When they did, he did not meet them. He followed them, cut them off from Beiting by seizing the city first, and took them entire.^[1]

Two years as the leading power

For a moment in 742 the Basmïl were the first power of the eastern steppe.^[4] Their chief was raised as khan, with the Uyghurs and the Karluks as his yabgus of left and right. In 744 the Basmïl killed Ozmish and sent his head to Chang’an.^[4] In the same year the Uyghurs and Karluks killed the Basmïl khan and set Kutlug Bilge Kül in his place.^[4]

Their land and people passed to the Uyghurs. The Basmïl chief who had been recognised as khan fled to Beiting and then to Chang’an. Beiting was the garrison whose people the Basmïl had been. Chang’an was the court that had once planned to use them.^[5]

The title idikut

The ruler of the Basmïl bore the title idikut.^[6] The title outlived the Basmïl. The second Uyghur khan is said to have taken it over from the defeated Basmïl ruler. In Qocho a new ruler was later invested with the title of the Basmïl princes.^[7]

References

^ a b c d e f g h i j k Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 194
^ Golden 1992
^ a b Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 195; Golden 1992; Mackerras 1972
^ a b c d e Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 215
^ Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 195
^ von Gabain 1943, p. 690–691
^ von Gabain 1943, p. 691; 111; von Gabain 2025, p. 691; 111

Sources

Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 194, 195
Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 215 (after Jiu Tangshu)

Literature

Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992)
Colin Mackerras, The Uighur Empire According to the T'ang Dynastic Histories (1972)
Liu Mau-tsai, Çin Kaynaklarına Göre Doğu Türkleri (1958, Turkish edition)
Annemarie von Gabain, Köktürklerin Tarihine Bir Bakış (1943)
Annemarie von Gabain, Eski Türk Edebiyatı (2025)