Revolt of Turum

The revolt of Turum was a civil war among the Göktürks. It is known from a single passage of the Byzantine historian Theophylact Simocatta.^[1] A certain Turum, a kinsman of the khan by birth, rose and gathered great forces.^[1] The khan called three other great khans to his aid. At a place called Ikar the usurper fell and his allies fled.^[1] The khan reported the victory to the emperor Maurice in his letter.^[1] Neither the khan nor the year is named, and both are disputed.

The revolt

The letter told the khan’s victories in turn, over the Abdeli, the Avars, the Ogur and the Kolch.^[2] Theophylact goes on to say that the khan was still winning when the Göktürks clashed in civil war.^[1] Turum revolted and collected great forces.^[1] His party gained the upper hand in battle.^[1] Then the khan sent an embassy to three other great khans, whose names were Sparzeugun, Kunaxolan and Tuldich.^[1]

The battle at Ikar

The whole array of the khans assembled at the Ikar, a place enfolded in great plains. Their opponents drew up against them there.^[1] Turum fell, and his allied forces turned to flight.^[1] After much slaughter the khan again became master of his own territory.^[1] Theophylact places the Ikar four hundred miles from the mountain called Golden. By Göktürk custom that mountain was ceded to the most powerful khan.^[3] Some scholars identify the mountain with the Ektag of the Roman embassies.^[4] Others hold that the place of the Ikar, the three khans and Turum himself cannot be identified without fragile hypotheses.^[5] A third view leaves the three khans unidentified. It offers Turkic forms for their names and tentatively identifies the first as an Ishbara Yabgu.^[6]

Date

The date depends on the date of the letter. There are three datings. The first puts the civil war in 581 and 582.^[6] The second dates the defeat of the revolt to about 582 on the evidence of the Chinese histories and holds this date to be the earliest possible date of the embassy to Maurice.^[7] The third sets the revolt about 598, when Tardush had recovered from his defeats.^[6] According to it, the revolt followed the subjugation of the Ogur, and it was a revolt of the Ogurs.^[6] Those who date the letter to 598 identify Tardush as its author.^[8] If the revolt fell about 582, it belongs to the prelude of the civil war of 584 to 603; if it fell about 598, it belongs to its last years.

Consequences

Theophylact adds that at that time the Tarniach and the Kotzager fled from the Göktürks into Europe. They also came from the Var and Chunni. They joined the Avar khan, in the flight of the Tarniach and Kotzager.^[3] The Zabender were said to be of the same race. The reinforcement that came to the Avars was put at ten thousand.^[3] The Kotzager are the Kutrigurs.^[9] According to one dating, they fled in the same year as the suppression of Turum, 582.^[10] According to a second, the flight took place in 598.^[9] The theory that makes Turum’s rising a revolt of the Ogurs connects it with that flight of Ogur tribes to Pannonia.^[6]

When the khan had ended the civil war, he made an agreement with the men of Taugast, China, so that he might rule in peace on every side.^[3]^[11] The revolt is the one Göktürk civil war that a Greek source describes from the side of the victor, in his own report.

References

^ a b c d e f g h i j k Theophylact Simocatta; Whitby 1986, p. 190
^ Theophylact Simocatta; Whitby 1986, p. 188–190
^ a b c d Theophylact Simocatta; Whitby 1986, p. 191
^ Chavannes 1903, p. 248
^ Chavannes 1903, p. 251
^ a b c d e Golden 1992, p. 133
^ Whitby 1986, p. 190–191
^ Chavannes 1903, p. 249
^ a b Marquart 1903, p. 504
^ Whitby 1986, p. 191
^ Golden 1992, p. 109

Sources

Theophylact Simocatta

Literature

Michael Whitby, Mary Whitby (trans.), The History of Theophylact Simocatta (1986)
Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992)
Édouard Chavannes, Documents sur les Tou-Kiue (Turcs) occidentaux (1903)
Josef Marquart, Osteuropäische und ostasiatische Streifzüge (1903)