Glossary

232 terms. Where a form in Old Turkic or in the runiform script is recorded, it stands beside the lemma.

Aco Institutions and Titles · brief

Word the Tang histories write 阿熱 for the lord of the Yenisei Kirghiz. The Xin Tang Shu says the ruling clan took its name from it; scholars have proposed several explanations of the word.

Alara Religions

Water fairy of modern popular retellings of Turkic mythology, said to come from Lake Baikal and to live near water. A small winged girl who takes hatred and greed from human hearts.

Altaian Creation Story Religions

Account of the making of the earth that the Altaians told in the nineteenth century. In Radloff's version a first man dives into the primal water for earth, hides part of it in his mouth and is named Erlik. Verbitskii's version has no dive.

Ancestor Cult eçüm apam Religions

The reverence of forefathers and the dead among the Xiongnu, Göktürks, Uyghurs and Kirghiz: the cave of the forebears, funeral offerings, memorials at the grave, and the law of the forefathers.

Anchan Juni Institutions and Titles · brief

Göktürk title formed on anchan, the word for meat. The Tongdian makes the anchan juni the officer who managed the affairs of the household.

Animism idi Religions

Modern name for the belief that places, waters, mountains, fire, animals and the dead have spirits or owners. It is the base layer under shamanism and, through it, under Tengrism.

Apa Tarkan Institutions and Titles · brief

A compound office of the Göktürk court, and the rank the Tang history gives Tonyukuk. Apa names a command, tarkan a standing at the khan's side.

Arçura Religions

Forest spirit of the Chuvash and, as Şüräle, of the Volga Tatars, known from nineteenth- and twentieth-century folklore. A hairy, man-shaped being that leads travellers astray, tickling them to death.

Army of the Steppe Empires tümen Institutions and Titles

How the steppe empires ordered their armies: the decimal commands of the Xiongnu, the wings and princely commands of the Göktürks, the khan's guard, the Uyghur tribes, and the sources' figures.

Asena the She-Wolf (Gök Börü) böri Religions

Ancestor in the Chinese accounts of Göktürk origins, golden head on the standard, name of the khan's guard. In the Göktürks' own writing the wolf is a simile for an army.

Atabeg Institutions and Titles

Father-lord: the commander set over a Seljuk prince as guardian and tutor, who governed the province in the prince's name. In several places the office replaced the dynasty.

Avar Craftsmen Institutions and Titles

Goldsmiths and metalworkers of the Avar khaganate, who worked in Byzantine techniques for Avar taste. The khagan also brought in foreign specialists, and the Avars bought arms in Constantinople.

Ay Ata ay tängridä Religions

The moon as a male deity of the Turkic peoples, the Moon Father beside the Sun Mother. Xiongnu rulers bowed to it, Göktürks raided as it waxed, Uyghur khagans bore it in their titles.

Baga 𐰉𐰍𐰀 Institutions and Titles

Göktürk title written 莫何 or 莫賀 in the Chinese histories. It stands in the titles of Ishbara and Bagha Khan and in Tonyukuk's own style, Boyla Baga Tarkan.

Baghatur Institutions and Titles · brief

Göktürk title written 莫賀咄 in the Chinese histories. Ilig held it as Baghatur Shad before he became khan, and Tong Yabgu's murderer took the throne under it in the west.

Baidie Cotton Institutions and Titles

The cotton cloth of the Turfan oasis. The Liang Shu describes a plant with a cocoon-like fruit and thread inside, woven into soft white cloth that served in trade. The Tang histories repeat it.

Beg bäg 𐰋𐰏 Institutions and Titles

The lord of a tribe or a clan, and the estate of such men. The rank between the khan above and the commons below, named on every face of the Orkhon stones.

Bloomery Furnaces of the South Altai Institutions and Titles

Early medieval iron-smelting furnaces in the Chuya and Kurai basins of the south-east Altai, the densest cluster in the region. The excavators tie the smelting district to the Göktürks.

Bone and Horn Working Institutions and Titles

Bone plates of the bow, bone arrowheads, bone fittings of the horse and horn knife handles, with the bowyers who made the composite bow. The sources name the objects and describe no workshop.

Border Markets Institutions and Titles

The markets on the Chinese frontier where the Göktürks traded their herds for silk. They first came to the border for silk before 545 and asked the Sui for markets in 588 and the Tang in 624.

Böri (Guard) böri Institutions and Titles · brief

The guard of the Göktürk khan, called 附離, fuli, in the Chinese histories. The Zhou Shu says the name means wolf, because the Göktürks were born of a wolf.

Bride-Price in Livestock Institutions and Titles

Betrothal gifts paid in horses, cattle, camels and sheep among the Gaoche, Rouran, Xueyantuo, Uyghurs, Kirghiz and Oghuz. The sums range from the herds of a bridegroom's family to the 20,000 horses of the Uyghur marriage of 821, and one bride-price was lost on the road.

Bronze Mirrors of the Steppe Institutions and Titles

Chinese bronze mirrors in the graves of the Xiongnu and later peoples, and the local copies cast when the supply from China stopped. They came as gifts, as trade goods and as heirlooms.

Buddhism among the Göktürks Religions

One khan was converted by a captive Chinese monk in the 570s. He built a monastery, sent for sutras and fasted, and no one of his house followed him.

Bukhar Khuda Institutions and Titles · brief

The title of the rulers of Bukhara before and under the Arab conquest, lord of Bukhara. The house survived the conquest, commanded Transoxian troops for the caliphs and lost its power in 874.

Burial and the balbal balbal Religions

What the Göktürks did at a grave. The body lay in the tent, and the mourners rode seven circuits and cut their faces. Then the burning, in its season, and the line of stones running east.

Buyruk buyruk Institutions and Titles

The khan's minister. The inscriptions name the buyruks directly after the khan and make the quality of a reign depend on them; a buyruk poisoned Bilge Khan in 734.

Camels Institutions and Titles

The camels of the steppe peoples in the Chinese and Muslim sources: a rare animal among the Xiongnu, a gift of tens or thousands from the Gaoche, Göktürks and Uyghurs, and the pack animal of the caravans. The Kimek kept none, because the camel did not live in their country.

Captives and the Unfree kul Institutions and Titles

People taken in raids and wars of the steppe empires, from the Xiongnu to the Khazars: ransomed, exchanged, enslaved, sold or kept as defectors, and what the sources show about their status.

Chakar Institutions and Titles · brief

Sogdian title of the sovereign's bodyguard, warriors bound to a lord. Chakar fought in the army of An Lushan, and the caliphs of the ninth century built guards on the model.

Chanyu Institutions and Titles

The supreme title of the Xiongnu ruler, four centuries before Khan. The Han Shu gives the full style as Chengli Gutu Chanyu and glosses it as son of heaven.

Chepetukh Institutions and Titles

Title of the commander of the great khagan's army in the Armenian history of Sebeos, also written Chembukh. It may be a garbled form of yabgu.

Chinese Bans on the Export of Iron Institutions and Titles

Chinese measures to keep iron from the nomads, from the Han court to a Tang decree of 714. In 177 a Han councillor charged that fine iron had passed to the Xianbei.

Chinese Craftsmen at the Orkhon Monuments bediz Institutions and Titles

Carvers, builders and painters sent by the Tang court to the Orkhon for the memorials of Kül Tegin and Bilge Khan, 731 to 735. Bilge Khan asked for them, and the emperor did not refuse.

Chinese transcriptions of Turkic Languages

How the Chinese annals write Göktürk names, titles and a few explained words in characters chosen for their sound. The variant spellings, the glosses and the limits of reconstruction.

Chinese Weaponsmiths among the Xianbei Institutions and Titles · brief

Chinese refugees who taught the Xianbei chief Kebineng to make weapons, armour and shields. In 177 a Han councillor had already named Han fugitives as counsellors of the Xianbei.

Chur čor Institutions and Titles

A rank of command below the princes of the ruling house. It stands among the twenty-eight hereditary grades, names the five chiefs of the Duolu wing, and is carried in the name of Kapgan Khan.

Church of the East Religions · brief

The Syriac church of the Persian world, called Nestorian. Sogdians carried it to China and the Turks; a metropolitan see of the Turks existed by about 782. It lasted in Semirech'e into the 1300s.

Çigşi çigşi Institutions and Titles · brief

Title that occurs seven times on five stones of the Yenisei epitaphs. It comes from the Chinese 刺史 cishi, prefect, and the Tang made the chiefs of surrendered tribes prefects of their own people.

Coinage of the Huna Peoples Institutions and Titles · brief

Coins of the Kidarites, Alchons and Hephthalites in Bactria, Sogdiana and northwest India, from the late fourth century to the Göktürk conquest. They are a main source on these peoples.

Composite bow ya Institutions and Titles

The layered bow of horn, wood and sinew that made mounted archery possible. It is the weapon on which every steppe empire from the Xiongnu to the Göktürks rested.

Craftsmen in the Steppe Empires Institutions and Titles

How the steppe empires from the Xiongnu to the Uyghurs got their craftsmen: by capture, by invitation and by foreign settlers. The sources name the practice and hardly ever the craftsman.

Culture of the Turkic Peoples Customs & Pastimes

Overview of the customs of the steppe peoples from the Xiongnu to the Kirghiz: feasts, songs, the hunt, food, dress, the felt tent, marriage, burial, writing and names.

Daguan Institutions and Titles · brief

Title of the officers around the Göktürk khan, written 達官. Xuanzang saw two hundred of them at Tong Yabgu's court, and Ilig's servant, the Hulu Daguan Tuyuhun Hunye, died at his grave.

Daluobian Institutions and Titles · brief

Göktürk title for the fat and stout, named after a short, thick wine vessel. The Tongdian calls it an especially noble office, held only by sons and younger brothers.

Deer stones Institutions and Titles · brief

Standing stones of Mongolia and South Siberia, carved with stylised deer, from the late Bronze Age. They stand near burials and are the oldest monumental sculpture of the eastern steppe.

Dihqan Institutions and Titles · brief

The landed noble of Sogdiana and eastern Iran, great or small. In the ninth century the class lost its standing; by the tenth the word meant peasant.

Diplomacy of the Steppe Empires Institutions and Titles

How steppe rulers dealt with China, Persia and Byzantium: marriage alliances, hostages, titles, oaths and letters in the language of kinship, from the Xiongnu to the Uyghurs and Kirghiz.

Dochia Religions · brief

The Göktürks' own word for the rites owed to the dead, preserved once, in Greek, by Menander. He heard it at the mourning for Istemi in 576.

Drums and Banners for the Khans Institutions and Titles

Drums, wind instruments and banners that the courts of northern China granted to steppe rulers. The Sui gave them to Ishbara, Bagha and Yami; the Tang invested khans with a drum and a standard.

Envoys and Embassies Institutions and Titles

Sogdians, princes and ministers who carried letters, tallies and gifts between steppe courts and their neighbours: how they were received, ranked and translated, the risks of the road, their numbers.

Er At er at Customs & Pastimes

The man's name won by a deed, er at in Old Turkic. Kül Tegin gets it by his mother's Kut, and Yenisei epitaphs put it before the dead man's name. Some scholars take the pair in the stone to mean an army.

Erklig ärklig Religions

The lord of the dead in Old Turkic Buddhist and Manichaean texts, and an ordinary adjective for power in the older language. Absent from the Göktürk inscriptions.

Falconry togan Customs & Pastimes · brief

Hunting with falcons among the Turkic peoples. In the Irk Bitig a falcon hunts river birds; in al-Kashgari's dictionary a rider sets out with a sacer falcon in his hand.

Farming among the Volga Bulgars Institutions and Titles

Grain growing and food storage among the Volga Bulgars in 922. Ibn Fadlan found millet, wheat and barley, harvests that belonged to the sower, a marten skin from each house, and food kept in pits.

Farming and Taxes in Gaochang Institutions and Titles

The oasis economy of Gaochang, 500 to 640: two harvests a year, an office for water and fields in each town, taxes in silver coin or hemp cloth, and a toll on merchants paid to the Tiele.

Feasts in Kashgari's Dictionary Customs & Pastimes

Feasts of the Turkic peoples as Kashgari recorded them in the 1070s. Küdän is the wedding feast, soγdič a winter feast held in turn, kästäm a feast for drinkers who came unasked.

Felt kidiz Institutions and Titles · brief

Matted wool, the fabric of the steppe. It makes the tent, the floor, the coat and the saddle blanket, and it is made without a loom.

Felt, Cloth, Leather and Wood in Kashgari's Dictionary kidiz Institutions and Titles

Words for felt, cloth, leather and wood in Kashgari's dictionary of the 1070s: raincoat felt, an embroidered Kashgar felt, a weaver's reed, tanning, leather bags, a carpenter's axe and a resin glue.

Fire Worship Religions

Reverence for fire among the Göktürks. A Chinese pilgrim saw it at the western court, where no one sat on wood because wood held fire, and Theophylact put fire first among the powers they honoured.

Following in Death Religions

Retainers who took their lives after their lord's death. The Tang histories record two Göktürks who followed Ilig Khan in death after he died a captive at Chang'an in 634.

Fourteen (Köčürmä Oyun) Customs & Pastimes · brief

Game drawn on the ground and played with hazelnuts, called köčürmä oyun and glossed 'Fourteen' in Kashgari's dictionary of the 1070s. Four lines make the fortress and ten more the gates.

Fulin Khan Institutions and Titles · brief

Göktürk khan's title named after the wolf and its greed to kill. The Tongdian says that such a khan was set up at times.

Funeral Games of the Caucasian Huns Customs & Pastimes

Rites at the graves of the Huns north of the Caucasus, as Bishop Israyēl found them in 681 to 682: drums, cuts on the cheek, sword fights between troops, wrestling and galloping horsemen.

Funi Rehan Institutions and Titles · brief

Göktürk title tied to the word for wine. The Tongdian makes the rehan the officer who watched over wrongdoing and kept the order of precedence.

Furs and Musk among the Turkic Peoples Institutions and Titles

Sable, squirrel, ermine, fox and musk from the forests north and east of the steppe. The Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam of 982 lists them people by people, and Bilge Khan's inscription names sables among the gifts.

Gaoche Thunder Rite Religions

Rite of the Gaoche at a place struck by thunder, recorded in the Wei Shu. In the autumn after the strike they buried a ram, lit a fire and rode a hundred circuits while a female shaman prayed.

Geli Daguan Institutions and Titles · brief

Göktürk title formed on geli, the word for old, and the rank daguan. The Tongdian gives it among the early titles that took their names from age.

Ghulam Institutions and Titles · brief

The slave soldier of the caliphs and of the eastern Muslim dynasties, bought as a boy and trained as a page. Most were Turks from beyond the Syr Darya, sold through the markets of Samarkand and Chach.

Göktürk Dress and Hair Institutions and Titles

Clothing and hair of the Göktürks as their neighbours saw them: robes closed on the left, furs and coarse wool, hair worn long or plaited. In 585 a khan called the plaits too old a custom to change.

Göktürk Face-Cutting Religions

The Göktürk mourning rite: the kin of the dead cut their faces with knives until blood and tears ran together. Described by the Zhou Shu and the Sui Shu, and performed by Roman envoys in 576.

Göktürk Games Customs & Pastimes

The pastimes the Chinese histories ascribe to the Göktürks: a men's game called chupu in Chinese and a ball game of the women. In 599 two refugees from the steppe played chupu at the Sui court.

Göktürk Ironworking 𐱅𐰢𐰼 Institutions and Titles

The ironwork of the Ashina, smiths of the Rouran on the Altai before 546. Anagui called Bumin his smith slave, and in 569 Göktürks offered iron for sale to a Roman embassy in Sogdiana.

Göktürk Weapons Institutions and Titles

The arms of the Göktürks: bows and whistling arrows, armour, lances, sabres and swords, as the Chinese histories list them. A Zhou general who fought beside them in 564 called their armour poor.

Gold and Silver in the Orkhon Inscriptions kergeksiz 𐰞𐱃𐰆𐰣: 𐰚𐰇𐰢𐰾 Institutions and Titles

Gold and silver in the Orkhon inscriptions. Chinese envoys bring them to the funerals of Kül Tegin and Bilge Khan, and Bilge Khan names them among the gifts that draw in distant peoples.

Gold and Silver Vessels as Tang Gifts to the Uyghurs Institutions and Titles

Gold and silver vessels that the Tang court gave to the Uyghurs in 757, 758 and 813. In 758 the Uyghur khan shared the whole gift among his officers and chiefs.

Gold of the Xiongnu Court Institutions and Titles

Gold in the Xiongnu sources: burials with gold and silver, and a gold-adorned belt with a gold belt ornament that the Han emperor sent the chanyu in 174 BC. The gift of 51 BC again names gold.

Great Khan Institutions and Titles

Title by which the Chinese histories set one Göktürk khan above the others, written 大可汗. Tulan claimed it in 597, and the Sui promised it to Shegui in 610 to split the west.

Han Bestowals on the Chanyu Institutions and Titles

Gifts of the Han court to a chanyu at audience, 51 BC to AD 143: regalia, horses, gold, cash, grain and silk. By 1 BC the silk reached 30,000 bolts, and in AD 50 a yearly gift began.

Han Military Farms in the Western Regions Institutions and Titles

Farms worked by Han soldiers and convicts at Luntai, Quli, Cheshi and Yixun. The Han and the Xiongnu fought over Cheshi's fields before the Han took the Western Regions in 60 BC.

Helan Suni Que Institutions and Titles · brief

Göktürk title formed on helan, the word for horse, and suni, the officer who commanded troops. The Tongdian gives it among the early titles that took their names from animals.

Heqin Institutions and Titles

The Han settlement with the Xiongnu after Baideng: an imperial bride, fixed yearly deliveries of silk and food, open frontier markets, and an oath that made the two rulers brothers.

Honour of Death in Battle Institutions and Titles · brief

The value the Chinese histories ascribe to the Göktürks: death in battle was an honour, death from illness a shame, and men in their prime counted for more than the old.

Horse and Camel Races at the Xiongnu Sacrifices Customs & Pastimes

Running of horses and camels at the three yearly sacrifices of the Southern Xiongnu, in the first, fifth and ninth month. The Hou Han Shu says the tribes ran them for pleasure after the council.

Horse harness eer Institutions and Titles

Bridle, bit, saddle and stirrup. Each addition changed what a rider could do, and the bridle is dated to about the seventh century BC in the Altai.

Horse Sacrifice Religions

Killing of a horse as an offering among the steppe peoples. The Chinese histories give it at the sacrifice to heaven, at funerals and at oaths. The full rite, with its birch, its goose and its journey through the heavens, is known from the Altai of the nineteenth century.

Horses in Göktürk Law Institutions and Titles

The penalties of the Göktürks that name the horse: death for stealing a horse's tether, a repayment of ten times or more for stolen horses, and a horse as the price of a broken limb. The Chinese histories give the rules in one sentence, and the Tuyuhun had a harsher one.

Hunnic Cauldrons Institutions and Titles

Cast copper cauldrons with solid conical stands and scalloped lugs, found from Silesia to the High Altai. They were cooking vessels cast by Hunnic smiths and have close kin in the Xiongnu cauldrons.

Hunnic Diadems Institutions and Titles · brief

Headbands of gold sheet over bronze plaques, set with almandines or glass in cells, from graves between Hungary and Kazakhstan. They are the finest goldwork that archaeology ties to the Huns.

Hunting among the Göktürks kiyik Customs & Pastimes

Hunting as a livelihood and a pastime of the Göktürks. The Zhou Shu names it beside herding, and the Tonyukuk inscription has the first Göktürks of the restored khaganate living on game.

Idi idi Institutions and Titles · brief

Old Turkic word for a lord or master. The Kül Tegin inscription uses it in the formula that land and water must not be left without one, and Rashīd ad-Dīn names it a rank of Kirghiz nobles.

Illig illig Institutions and Titles · brief

Element of the title Illig Khan, written 伊利, which Bumin took in 552 after the fall of the Rouran. Ishbara's title begins with the same word.

Ilteber Ilteber Institutions and Titles

The rank of a subject ruler: a man left on his own throne under a khan not of his people, with a tax officer beside him. Attested from the Caucasus to Turfan.

Inal Institutions and Titles · brief

Title of the Kirghiz princes before the Mongol conquest, according to Rashīd ad-Dīn. It appears also among the Kimek and the Oghuz, and the Chinese 阿熱 has been identified with it.

Irkin erkin Institutions and Titles

A chief's rank at the lower end of the twenty-eight grades. Five irkins held the Nushibi wing of the western khaganate, and the chiefs the Tang bought carry this title most often.

Iron of the Bayegu Institutions and Titles · brief

Fine iron of the Bayegu, a Tiele people east of the Pugu, in the Tang histories. The Xin Tang Shu and the Tongdian both name iron among the products of their country, beside good horses.

Ishbara (Title) ïšbara 𐰃𐱁𐰉𐰺𐰀 Institutions and Titles

Göktürk title for the brave and strong. Ishbara Khan bore it among his titles, a man on the Kül Tegin stone carried it before his name, and two western khans of the Tang era kept it.

Islam Religions

The religion of the Arab conquerors, which reached the Oxus in the eighth century. It came to the Turkic peoples from the south, through the cities of Transoxiana, and not by conquest from the west.

Iye idi Religions

The owner-spirits of the Turkic peoples, held to possess a mountain, a water, a hearth, a house or a pass. The word for owner, idi, stands on the Orkhon stones, said of land and water.

Kam (Turkic Shaman) qam Religions

The Old Turkic ritual specialist. Chinese observers describe the office, and a Byzantine embassy saw it at work once, in 569.

Katun katun Institutions and Titles

The khan's consort, named beside him in the formula of rule. The inscriptions have Heaven raise khan and katun together; a regency in her hands ended the Second Khaganate.

Keluo Chuo Institutions and Titles · brief

Göktürk title formed on the word for black and the rank chur. The Tongdian calls it a very high office, held by men of great age.

Khan (Khagan) 𐰴𐰍𐰣 Institutions and Titles

The title of the supreme ruler of the steppe, taken by Bumin from the Rouran in 552. Its forms, its history and the ranks around it are set out here, and here alone.

Khazar Customs and Tribute Institutions and Titles

Revenue of the Khazar khagan: a tenth on goods that crossed his land, and tribute in kind from subject peoples, paid in swords, pelts and money. The Bulgar king passed marten skins up the same chain.

Khazar Dual Kingship Institutions and Titles

The rule of the Khazars divided between a sacral khagan, who reigned, and a king, the bek, who commanded the army and governed. Its age and origin are disputed.

Khazar Mail and the Armourers of the Caucasus Institutions and Titles · brief

Mail and iron arms in the Khazar lands in al-Masʿūdī. The Khazar king's Muslim guard rode as archers in cuirass, helmet and mail, and a Caucasian people made mail, stirrups, bits and swords.

Kirghiz Entertainments Customs & Pastimes

Four shows that the Xin Tang Shu lists for the Kirghiz of the upper Yenisei: tricks with camels, a lion performance, feats on horseback and rope skills. Their instruments included flutes and drums.

Kirghiz Iron and Gold Institutions and Titles

Metals of the Kirghiz on the upper Yenisei in the Tang histories: gold, iron and tin. The Kirghiz made weapons of their iron, called qiasha, and regularly delivered them to the Göktürks.

Knucklebones Customs & Pastimes · brief

Game played with the astragali of animals. Bones scratched with tamga-like signs come from Xiongnu graves, and Kashgari's dictionary has the word said when a bone falls on its underside.

Kül Tegin's Horses boz at Institutions and Titles

The mounts that the Kül Tegin inscription names in the prince's battles: grey, white, brown and chestnut horses, three of them killed under him in one fight. The text gives the colour of each horse and sometimes its name or owner.

Külüg Chur Institutions and Titles · brief

The first of the great Göktürk offices in the Tongdian and the Jiu Tang Shu, written 屈律啜. It was hereditary and had no fixed number of holders.

Kün Tengri kün täŋri Religions

The sun as a divine power among the steppe peoples, and the god of the sun in the titles of the Uyghur khagans and in the Old Uyghur texts. The Xiongnu chanyu bowed to the rising sun, the Göktürk khan's tent opened to the east, and the Uyghur khagans ruled by the god of the sun or of the moon.

Kunçuy kunçuy Institutions and Titles · brief

Word for a woman of rank. The Orkhon inscriptions use it for the khan's sister and the princesses of his house, the Yenisei epitaphs for a man's wife, and Old Uyghur texts for princesses.

Kurgan Institutions and Titles · brief

The burial mound of the steppe: a chamber under a heap of earth or stone, with grave goods, and often with horses. It is the single most continuous steppe practice from the Bronze Age to the Göktürks.

Kut qut Institutions and Titles

Heavenly fortune granted by Tengri, which made a man fit to rule. Part of the Xiongnu ruler's title, this mystic aura enabled charismatic steppe warriors to dominate and conquer.

Lacquerware Institutions and Titles

Chinese lacquered cups, weapons, drums and fans that reached the steppe as gifts and trade, from the princely graves of the Xiongnu to the gift lists of the Wei court for the Rouran and the Gaoche.

Lesser Khan Institutions and Titles · brief

The second throne of the Göktürk khaganate, held under the khan. Kapgan set his own son on it, and Kül Tegin killed him on it in 716.

Levirate Institutions and Titles

Göktürk marriage of a dead man's widows by his sons, younger brothers and nephews. The Zhou Shu and the Sui Shu record the rule, and Chinese princesses passed by it from khan to khan.

Livestock in the Hudud al-Alam Institutions and Titles

The herds of the Turkic peoples in the Hudud al-Alam of 982: sheep in every notice, horses in all but the Kimek, cows in four of eight, no camels. Marvazi adds why the Kimek kept none.

Livestock Losses in the Annals Institutions and Titles

Reports of herds lost to snow, drought, locusts and disease, from the Xiongnu of 105 BC to the Uyghurs of 839 and 840. The Chinese annals give the cause and, in several cases, the share of the herds that died.

Livestock Raids yılkı Institutions and Titles

Raids for herds in the Chinese histories and the Bilge Khan inscription, from the seven commanderies of the Sui to the Tang horse pastures of Longyou. A raid for sheep and horses brought Ilterish his first following, and Bilge Khan fed a hungry people with a captured herd.

Logades Institutions and Titles · brief

The leading men around Attila, so called by Priscus: Onegesius, Scottas, Edeco, Berichus and Orestes. They served as envoys and guards and governed parts of the realm.

Loose-rein prefectures Institutions and Titles

The Tang device for governing surrendered steppe peoples without absorbing them: the tribe kept whole, its own chief made prefect, the unit entered on the register.

Manichaean Diet of the Uyghurs Religions

Food rules of the Manichaean clergy among the Uyghurs after the conversion of 762 and 763. They ate only late in the day, drank water, ate vegetables and refused milk.

Manichaeism Religions

The religion of Mani, carried by the Sogdians to China and the steppe and adopted by the Uyghur khan at Luoyang in 762 and 763.

Metals and Metalworking in Kashgari's Dictionary altun Institutions and Titles

Words for metals and metalwork in Kashgari's dictionary of the 1070s: gold, silver, copper, iron, a smelting place, bellows, a copper mountain and a fortress above gold mines.

Mounted Archery Customs & Pastimes

Shooting from horseback, the skill of the Xiongnu, the Göktürks, the Tiele and the Uyghurs in the Chinese histories. Xiongnu boys began on sheep. The courts of Wei, Sui and Tang had it shown.

Oghur Turkic Languages

The r and l branch of the Turkic family, known from tribal names, the Danube Bulgars, old Hungarian loanwords and Volga inscriptions. Chuvash is its one living language.

Oghuz and Kipchak speech in Kashgari Languages

What Mahmud al-Kashgari says in the 1070s of the speech of the Oghuz and the Kipchak: where he places them, the sound changes he names, the words he marks as theirs and the limits of his knowledge.

Oghuz Herds in Ibn Fadlan's Account Institutions and Titles

Sheep, horses and camels of the Oghuz in the winter of 921 and 922. Ibn Fadlan saw men with 10,000 horses and 100,000 sheep, flocks that grazed through the snow, and a trade in which merchants from Khwarezm bought sheep and left camels and horses with Oghuz hosts.

Old Turkic türk bodun Languages

The Turkic language of the runiform inscriptions and the manuscripts that follow them. The oldest Turkic that can be read, and the stage against which every later Turkic language is measured.

Old Uyghur Languages

The Turkic of the manuscripts of eastern Xinjiang and Gansu, from the ninth century on, in Uyghur, Manichaean, Brahmi and other scripts. The largest body of early Turkic by volume.

Omens and Divination ırk Religions

Signs and their interpretation among the Göktürks. Theophylact gives them priests who foretold the future, and the Chinese histories record a divination at a khan's court and portents before khans died.

Ordos bronzes Institutions and Titles · brief

The animal-style bronze plaques, buckles and fittings of the northern frontier, from about the sixth century BC. They are the material record of the Xiongnu world and of what came before it.

Ordu ordu Institutions and Titles

The ruler's camp: the moving centre of a steppe realm, where the court, the guard and the treasury were. The word reached Europe as horde.

Ötüken ötüken yış Places

The sacred mountain-forest in the Orkhon country from which the eastern steppe was ruled, from the Xiongnu and Rouran to the Göktürk and Uyghur Empires. It is said that whoever ruled over Ötüken could rule over the entire Eurasian Steppe.

Peri peri Religions

Female spirit of Turkic folklore, known from the ethnographic record of the Islamic and modern period. The name is Persian, and so is the peri-reader who calls her.

Polo Customs & Pastimes · brief

Polo as Kashgari's dictionary records it in the 1070s: the stick čögän, the goal-rope talas, the boundary tasal and a match played for a pair of trousers.

Post and Communication ulaq Institutions and Titles

How word travelled between the Göktürk khans, their men and their neighbours: envoys, letters, Sogdian and runiform writing, seals, notched wood, arrows, relay horses, and what the sources leave out.

Purification by Fire Religions

Göktürk rite of cleansing by fire. In 569 men of the tribe censed a Roman embassy's baggage with burning frankincense and led the envoy Zemarchos through the fire.

Raiding at the Full Moon Religions · brief

Göktürk custom of timing raids by the moon. The Sui Shu says in one sentence that they waited until the moon was nearly full and then rode out to plunder.

Raising on the Felt Religions

Göktürk installation of a new khan. His ministers carried him on a felt, turned him nine times with the sun, half-strangled him with silk and asked how many years he would reign.

Raw Materials and Trade among the Turkic Peoples Institutions and Titles

Iron, salt, precious metals, furs, jade, horses and silk in the Turkic lands, and the markets and merchants that moved them. The Ashina worked iron on the Altai, the Uyghurs sold horses for silk.

Riding Round the Dead Religions

Funeral act of riders circling the dead. Jordanes records it at Attila's funeral in 453, the Zhou Shu among the Göktürks, who rode seven times round the tent in which the body lay.

Roof Tiles of the Uyghur Khaganate Institutions and Titles

Unglazed clay tiles in the Chinese pattern, made locally for the walled seats of the Uyghur khans and for the Göktürk memorials before them. They show Chinese methods at work in the steppe.

Sabao Institutions and Titles

Chinese title for the head of a foreign community, above all a Sogdian one. It renders the Sogdian sartapao, caravan master. The post is attested from the sixth century to the early eighth.

Sacred Mountains ıduk ötüken yış Religions

The mountains that the sources of the Göktürks, Uyghurs and Kirghiz set apart: the sacred Ötüken forest, a bare mountain called the spirit of the earth, and the sacred heads of the inscriptions.

Sacrifice and the year Religions

The Göktürk ritual year as the Chinese record it. The cave of the ancestors once a year, the sacrifice to heaven in the middle of the fifth month, and a reckoning by the greening of the grass.

Salt among the Turkic Peoples tuz Institutions and Titles

Salt in the Turkic lands: the rock-salt deposit of Dus-Dag in Tuva, Irtysh salt lakes, and the lake of seven Karluk tribes in the Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam of 982. Merchants brought salt to the Kimak.

Saŋun seŋün Institutions and Titles · brief

Title taken from the Chinese 將軍 jiangjun, general. The Orkhon form seŋün names Chinese generals and heads of delegations. The Yenisei epitaphs carry saŋun eleven times.

Scapulimancy ırq Religions

Divination from the cracks in a sheep's shoulder blade held in fire. Attila's soothsayers read scraped bones before the battle of 451, the Mongol khan Möngke consulted charred blades before every undertaking in 1254, and Kirghiz, Mongols and Altaians still read them in the nineteenth century.

Seasonal Pastures Institutions and Titles

The movement of the steppe peoples from winter to summer grazing, as the Chinese and Muslim sources record it. The Chinese say the peoples followed water and grass. A few sources name a winter and a summer place, and Tonyukuk gives the reason the Göktürks refused to live behind walls.

Seating at the Feast Customs & Pastimes

Order of rank among the guests at the feasts and audiences of the steppe rulers and at the Tang court. A guest's place showed his standing, and rival envoys quarrelled over it.

Shad 𐱁𐰑 Institutions and Titles

The command of a wing or a subject people, reserved for princes of the Ashina. Bilge Khan's uncle made him shad over the Tarduš; the office was where a khan's heir was tried out.

Shamanism kam Religions

Practice of a ritual specialist who enters a trance to treat the sick, foretell the year and deal with spirits, recorded on the steppe since the Xiongnu. Tengrism grew out of it and rests on it.

Sheep Institutions and Titles

The sheep of the steppe peoples in the sources: a main animal of the Xiongnu and of every people in the Hudud al-Alam, a payment in bride-prices and tribute, and the meat that the Tang and the Xi supplied to Uyghur armies. Ibn Fadlan saw Oghuz owners of 100,000.

Sifa Institutions and Titles · brief

Office of the western Göktürks, written 俟發. The Sui Shu names it with the yanhongda as the council that deliberated on the affairs of state.

Silk in the Steppe Institutions and Titles

Chinese silk in the steppe from the 540s to 840: bought at the frontier, paid as peace money, traded for horses, used as currency and sold on to the west by the Sogdians.

Six Garrisons Institutions and Titles · brief

The Northern Wei's line of frontier posts along the Hetao plain, manned against the Rouran. Their revolt in 524 broke the dynasty and made the two Weis.

Skull Cup Institutions and Titles

Drinking cup made from the skull of a slain enemy ruler. The Chinese histories record it among the Xiongnu and the Rouran, and a Byzantine chronicle among the Bulgars of Krum.

Soul Words tïn Religions

The Turkic words for breath, soul and life force: tın, kut, sür, süne, tyula and üzüt. The inscriptions of the Göktürks use Kut for the fortune of a khan, the Old Uyghur texts add tınlıg and üzüt, and the Altaians of the nineteenth century named six souls, each with its own task.

Stakes and Wagers tutug Customs & Pastimes

Stakes in Turkic play: words for wagering in Kashgari's dictionary of the 1070s, and an omen of the Irk Bitig about a man who stakes his sons and women, whose reading is disputed.

Stone Figures balbal Religions

Carved stone statues of the early medieval steppe, mostly a standing man with a cup, a belt and a sword, set at the east side of memorial enclosures from the Altai to Semirechye.

Strava Religions · brief

The funeral feast that the Huns held over the tomb of Attila in 453, with great revelry and lamentation. Jordanes gives the word as their own.

Suoge Tudun Institutions and Titles · brief

Göktürk title formed on suoge, the word for hair, and the rank tudun. The Tongdian likens the office to that of an official of a Chinese prefecture.

Sword of Mars Religions · brief

The ancient sword that a herdsman found and brought to Attila, sacred to the Scythian kings and dedicated to the god of war. Priscus heard the story at Attila's court in 449.

Taisan Institutions and Titles · brief

Title of the ruler of Taugast, China, in Theophylact Simocatta, who explains it as 'son of god'. The report reached Constantinople with a Göktürk embassy.

Tally Sticks and the Golden Arrow Institutions and Titles

The Göktürk record of a levy: the number of troops, horses or livestock cut as notches in wood, sealed with wax together with an arrow whose head was of gold or metal, as a token of trust.

Tamga tamga Institutions and Titles · brief

The mark of a house or a tribe, cut on livestock, on rock and on coins. It is a sign of ownership and of descent, and related houses carry related marks.

Tarkhan Institutions and Titles

A rank of command carrying exemption from tax. A Roman envoy recorded it from inside the court, and Tonyukuk held it in the compound Apa Tarkan.

Tegin 𐱅𐰃𐰏𐰤 Institutions and Titles

Title of the sons and younger brothers of the Göktürk khan, third among the great offices of the Zhou Shu. Kül Tegin bore it in his name.

Tengri kök teŋri 𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃 Religions

The sky of the Old Turkic inscriptions, and the power that installs and deposes khans. The one divine name the Göktürks themselves wrote.

Tengrism Teŋri 𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃 Religions

Modern name for the sky-centred religion of the Old Turkic peoples. Its attested core is Tengri, the fortune he grants, and the sacred Earth-and-Water.

Terken terken Institutions and Titles · brief

Title of high rank in three Yenisei epitaphs, two of them in the name Bögü Terken. Later courts used it for rulers' wives, and scholars disagree whether it belonged to women alone.

The Battue sagu Customs & Pastimes

Ring hunt in which people surround a stretch of country and drive the game together. The Wei emperor used the beaten Gaoche as the ring in 399; the Irk Bitig and al-Kashgari name the battue.

The Chile Song Customs & Pastimes

Song of the Chile, the people the Wei Shu calls Gaoche. The Chile general Hulü Jin sang it before the sick Gao Huan after the failed siege of Yubi in 546; its words survive in a Song anthology.

The Economy of the Steppe Empires Institutions and Titles

How the steppe peoples lived, from the Xiongnu to the Uyghurs: herds and pastures, farming, iron and salt, craftsmen, markets, tribute, coins and the Sogdian merchants.

The Gaoche Wedding Customs & Pastimes

Marriage custom of the Gaoche as the Wei Shu records it. The bride's kin rode the groom's horses bareback out of a pen to win them, and both families feasted on mare's milk and meat.

The Göktürk Feast Customs & Pastimes

Feasting at the khans' courts as foreign guests saw it, from the Roman embassy to Istemi in 569 to Tong Yabgu's court at Suyab: drink and music, meat, rows of guests, silence while the khan spoke.

The Göktürk Oath Institutions and Titles

Oath-taking among the Göktürks. Their envoys swore before Justin II with raised hands and a curse upon themselves, and Ilig Khan swore a covenant with the Tang emperor at the Bian bridge in 626.

The Hunnic language Languages

The language of the Huns of Europe, known only from personal and tribal names, a river name and a few words in Greek and Latin writers. Its classification is argued.

The Iron Oath bu kök kirsün qizil čiqsün Institutions and Titles

Oath of the Qirqiz, Yabaqu and Qifchaq in Kashgari's dictionary. The swearer faced a drawn sword and prayed that the iron go in blue and come out red if he broke the treaty.

The Khalaj language Languages

Turkic language of the Khalaj, spoken today in central Iran. It keeps an initial h, long vowels and a dative in -kA that other Turkic languages lost, and so bears on the reconstruction of Old Turkic.

The Khazar language Languages

Language of the Khazar Khaganate, known only from titles, names and a few remarks of geographers. It looks Turkic. Whether it was Oghur or Common Turkic is argued.

The New Year on the Steppe Customs & Pastimes

The beginning of the year on the steppe. The Xiongnu chiefs met in the first month. In 741 Tengri Khan sent the Tang emperor New Year wishes. The Kirghiz named their years after twelve animals.

The Old Turkic script 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰜 Languages

The alphabet of the steppe inscriptions: some forty signs, written right to left. It fits Turkic sounds more exactly than any script the Göktürks could have borrowed unchanged.

The Sogdian language Languages

Eastern Middle Iranian language of the Zarafshan cities, carried along the trade roads to Gansu. The Göktürk chancery wrote in it, and its alphabet became the Uyghur one.

The three worlds üze kök teŋri, asra yagız yer Religions

The tiered cosmos of upper, middle and lower world in the reconstructed Turkic religion, set against the two-part cosmos the Göktürk inscriptions actually describe.

The Three Xiongnu Assemblies Customs & Pastimes

Yearly gatherings of the Xiongnu chiefs. The Shiji names three: at the chanyu's court in the first month, at Longcheng in the fifth, at Dailin in autumn. Kings at odds with the chanyu stayed away.

The Turkic languages Languages

The whole family, from the Yenisei to the Balkans. Two primary branches, some forty living languages and as many again that died, and the order of their entry into the record.

The twelve-year animal cycle koñ yıl Institutions and Titles

The Göktürk reckoning of years: a run of twelve, each named for an animal. The inscriptions attest it, and the eleventh-century dictionary lists it in full.

The Twenty-Eight Ranks Institutions and Titles

The hereditary order of Göktürk offices, from the yabgu down, counted at twenty-eight grades in the Zhou Shu and the Sui Shu. The Tongdian counts ten early grades and explains their names.

The Western and Southern Khans Institutions and Titles · brief

Khans named after a side of the realm, written 西面可汗 and 南面可汗. Tardush had been the Western Khan; the Sui planned a Southern Khan to divide Shibi's power.

The Xianbei Spring Assembly Customs & Pastimes

Great assembly of the Xianbei in the last month of spring, on the Raole river. The people drank and feasted there, and marriages were made at it.

Tölis and Tardush 𐱅𐰇𐰠𐰃𐰾 Institutions and Titles

Two peoples of the Göktürk inscriptions, which İlteriš organised and gave a yabgu and a shad. They are taken to be the eastern and the western half of the realm.

Tongpu Duwei Institutions and Titles

Xiongnu office over the oasis states of the Tarim Basin, seated between Yanqi, Weixu and Yuli. It taxed the states and drew supplies from them until the Rizhu King went over to the Han in 60 BC.

Töre törü Institutions and Titles

The customary law of the Göktürks: succession, punishment, marriage, burial, and the limits on taking from the land. A ruler was held to it as much as anyone.

Towns and Villages of the Turks in the Hudud al-ʿĀlam Institutions and Titles

The settlements of the Turkic countries in the Persian geography of 982. The Karluk had towns, villages and fields, the Yaghma little agriculture, and the Kirghiz no town but the seat of their khan.

Toy toy Institutions and Titles

The assembly of the Ashina nobility. It raised Bumin to yabgu in 542, met each year at the ancestral cave, and in 581 elected a khan against a dead khan's wish.

Trade Routes of the Steppe Institutions and Titles

The roads of the steppe and its oases as the sources give them: the northern road to Fulin, the way to Suyab, the Tarim roads, Zemarchos's road, the Uyghur roads to Chang'an, the road to the Bulgars.

Tribute Missions and Bestowals Institutions and Titles

Exchange between a steppe ruler and a Chinese court. The ruler's envoys brought tribute, the court answered with bestowals and yearly payments. The words claimed rank for the court.

Tudun Institutions and Titles

The overseer a khan left behind in a subject country. He supervised its own ruler and collected the tribute. The Zhou Shu ranks the office fifth among the great offices of the khaganate.

Tuğ Institutions and Titles

The standard of the steppe ruler: a pole with a metal finial and horse tails, carried before the khan and counted by the tail. The visible sign of authority.

Türgesh and Karluk Coinage Institutions and Titles

Copper coins with Sogdian legends and Turkic tamgas, struck in the Chu and Talas valleys in the eighth and early ninth centuries. 533 coins found at Taraz are the largest published group.

Turkic Mythology Religions

Stories of origin, divine powers and the order of the world among the Turkic peoples. Its oldest figures are the she-wolf of the Ashina, the tree of the succession, Heaven, Earth-and-Water and Umay.

Turkic Songs at the Tang Court Customs & Pastimes

Göktürk songs at the Tang court, sung by Wu Yanxiu, whom Kapgan Khan held from 698 to 705. He came back knowing their language. Before him a Göktürk troupe had played at the Sui court.

Tutuk totok Institutions and Titles

Rank of a governor or tribal head, taken from the Chinese 都督, military governor. The Orkhon inscriptions give it to a Chinese commander and to the Az governor, and the Yenisei epitaphs carry it fourteen times.

Ülgen and Kayra Khan Religions

Sky gods of the Altaians as recorded by Radloff, Verbitskii and Potanin in the nineteenth century. Ülgen is the good creator, Kayra Khan the gracious khan of the highest heaven. The records differ on whether the two are one god, father and son, or a god and an epithet.

Ulukayın (Turkic World Tree) Religions

The tree at the centre of the world in the reconstructed Turkic cosmology. The Göktürk-period sources give one tree only: the tree of the succession contest in the Zhou Shu.

Umay umay teg ögüm katun 𐰆𐰢𐰖 Religions

The goddess of birth and of children. The Kül Tegin inscription names her once, in a comparison to a queen mother; the Tonyukuk inscription names her with Tengri and the sacred Earth-and-Water among the powers that gave victory. She is the only female divine figure in the Göktürk corpus.

Uyghur Farming Institutions and Titles

Grain growing in the Uyghur khaganate, 744 to 840. The Uyghurs began as herders and raised towns within a generation. An Arab envoy found villages and farmland on the road to the capital.

Uyghur Horse-Silk Trade Institutions and Titles

Exchange of Uyghur horses for Tang silk from 757 to the fall of the khaganate in 840. The Uyghurs asked forty bolts of silk a horse. The Tang paid single sums of 200,000 bolts and more.

Wagons of the Steppe Peoples Institutions and Titles

Wooden wagons of the steppe peoples: the camp wagons of the Huns, the high-wheeled carts of the Gaoche and the felt carts of the Göktürks. The sources name them and never say how they were built.

Warfare of the Steppe Empires süle- Institutions and Titles

How the steppe empires fought: horse and bow, moon and season, scouts, feigned retreat and surprise, plunder and sieges, the wolf standard, the khan's council, and what followed a battle.

Water Cult ıduk yer sub Religions

Reverence for rivers, lakes and springs as powers with owners: the sacred Earth-and-Water beside Heaven, a river of sacrifice in the Zhou Shu, and the water that Theophylact has the Göktürks revere.

Women among the Turkic Peoples Institutions and Titles

Women at the courts of the steppe peoples, from the Xiongnu yanzhi to the Volga. Consorts shaped successions, princesses carried treaties, and the Orkhon stones name the khan's mother.

Wood and Woodworking Institutions and Titles

Timber and wooden work among the steppe peoples: planks for coffins, felled timbers, gilded pillars at a Göktürk court, wooden cups and figures, and the khadang and khalanj woods of the Hudud.

Wooden Horses Customs & Pastimes

Skis as the Chinese histories describe them: boards bound under the feet and a staff in the hand, for running down deer on snow and ice. Seven peoples of the northern forests are named as users.

Worthy Kings of the Left and Right Institutions and Titles

The Left and Right Worthy Kings, two of the four great kingships of the Xiongnu court. The Left Worthy King ranked first, ruled the east and was usually the heir. The Right Worthy King held the west.

Wrestling Customs & Pastimes · brief

Contest of strength between two men. Kashgari's dictionary of the 1070s has the Turkic word čališ, and an Armenian history has Huns wrestling at their graves in 682.

Wuhuan Funeral Songs Customs & Pastimes

Funeral custom of the Wuhuan. They wept at a death and saw the dead off with song and dance at the burial, and a fattened dog was to guard his spirit on the way to the Red Mountain.

Xiongnu Agriculture Institutions and Titles

Grain growing and storage among the Xiongnu. The Shiji denies them tilling, the Han Shu records crops, granaries and farmers, and excavated settlements hold wheat, barley and millet.

Xiongnu Herds Institutions and Titles

The animals of the Xiongnu as the Shiji, the Han Shu and the Hou Han Shu give them: horses, cattle and sheep in the herds, camels, donkeys and mules besides. The annals count the herds in booty, gifts and trade, and one Han general was accused of inflating his count.

Xiongnu Ironworking Institutions and Titles

Iron of the Xiongnu: knives and iron-shafted lances in the Chinese histories, a smelting furnace at Ivolga and slag at seasonal camps in the Khanui valley. Iron-making was small and widespread.

Xiongnu Pottery Institutions and Titles

Grey, coil-built and partly wheel-finished household pottery of the Xiongnu, with narrow-necked jars and flat-rimmed bowls. It was made locally in the valleys where it was used.

Yabgu 𐰖𐰉𐰆 Institutions and Titles

The second rank of the Göktürk order, held by the ruler of the western wing. Istemi bore it for fifty years without ever claiming the title of khan.

Yada Stone yat Religions

The stone with which Turkic and Mongol weather-workers are said to bring rain, wind, snow and hail. Kashgari saw it put out a fire with summer snow in the eleventh century, and the Altai missionaries and Radloff recorded the yadachi in the nineteenth. The Chinese histories give weather-working men and do not name a stone.

Yanhongda Institutions and Titles · brief

Office of the western Göktürks, written 閻洪達. The Sui Shu names it with the sifa as the council that deliberated on the affairs of state.

Yer-Su Spirits türk ıduk yeri subı 𐰃𐰑𐰸 𐰘𐰃𐰼𐰃 𐰽𐰆𐰉𐰃 Religions

The sacred Earth-and-Water of the Göktürk inscriptions. The land itself is a power that speaks beside Tengri, and a possession that can be left without a master.

Yi Khan Institutions and Titles · brief

House khan, the title by which great Göktürk families addressed one another. The Tongdian derives it from yi, the Göktürk word for house.

Yinghefu Institutions and Titles · brief

Göktürk word for the brave and strong, given by the Tongdian beside shiboluo. It stands among the early titles that took their names from the body.

Yol Tengri yol teŋri Religions

The road-god of the Irk Bitig. His name is ambiguous: yol is both the road a man travels and the fortune he meets on it.