Illig

Illig, 伊利, is the first element of the title that Bumin took in 552.^[1] The same element stands at the head of the title of Ishbara.^[2] Ishbara became khan in 581.^[3]

Bumin’s title

In the first month of 552 Bumin, whom the Chinese call Tumen, attacked the Rouran and crushed them north of Huaihuang.^[1] Anagui, the Rouran khan, killed himself.^[1] Bumin then called himself 伊利可汗, Illig Khan. The Zhou Shu compares this with the chanyu of old.^[1] He called his wife katun, as the yanzhi of old.^[1] The Tongdian adds that the Rouran ruler Shelun had already called himself khan, and that the Göktürks followed him in it.^[4]

When Ishbara was raised to the throne, the Sui Shu gives his title as 伊利俱盧設莫何始波羅可汗.^[2] Its first two characters are the 伊利 of Bumin’s title.^[5]

The meaning

The Chinese histories do not explain the element.^[6] Some scholars identify 伊利 with Turkic illig, “having a realm”, from el, “realm”. They render Bumin’s title as “the khan who has a realm”.^[7] In their view the word later came to mean “king” or “ruler”.^[7] The Uyghur word elig, “king”, is explained as el+lig, “having a realm”, in the same way. The double l was shortened early, and the word is never spelled with two.^[8] The Kül Tegin inscription has illig in the first sense. Of Bilge Khan’s father it says that he took the realm from those who had a realm.^[9]

The title is not the name of the later Ilig Khan. The Tang histories write his name 頡利, xieli, with different characters.^[10]

The later sense is plain in the Kutadgu Bilig, written at the Karakhanid court in 1069–1070. There ilig is the ordinary word for the king of the story and the form in which he is addressed, ay ilig.^[11]