Baghatur

Baghatur is the reconstructed form of a title that the Chinese histories write 莫賀咄, moheduo.^[1] The first two characters, 莫賀, also begin the title baga.^[2] The Göktürk inscriptions do not use the word. Its Turkic form therefore rests on the Chinese transcription alone.

Ilig as Baghatur Shad

Ilig, the third son of Yami Khan, first held the title Moheduo Shad. His camp lay due north of Wuyuan. The Jiu Tang Shu and the Tongdian both report this.^[3] The Xin Tang Shu gives the same title.^[2] The Sui Shu also names Yami’s youngest son as Moheduo Shad. A Sui envoy there gives the Tuyuhun as the family of his mother.^[4] The sources do not say whether this youngest son is Ilig himself.

The usurper in the west

In the western khaganate the title passed to a khan.^[5] Tong Yabgu was murdered by his paternal uncle, who made himself khan as Moheduo Hou Quli Sibi Khan.^[5] The uncle had earlier governed part of the Göktürk tribes as a lesser khan. When he called himself Great Khan, the people would not follow him.^[5] Tong Yabgu’s son, raised as Si Yabgu Khan, defeated him and drove him into the Altai, where he was killed.^[5] The Tang histories call him by the title alone, Moheduo.^[6] Modern accounts take the name to be Bagatour, that is Baghatur.^[7]

The title remained in use among the Ten Arrows.^[5] Ashina Mishe, a descendant of Istemi in the fifth generation, held it in his own country as Moheduo Yabgu. The Tang then set him up as khan in 632.^[5]