Irkin

Irkin was the rank of a tribal chief inside the khaganate. It closes the Jiu Tang Shu’s list of the great offices: Külüg Chur, apa, ilteber, tudun, irkin. All of them were hereditary, and none was limited to a fixed number of holders.^[1] The Xin Tang Shu places it in the same position among the twenty-eight grades.^[2]

The five irkins of the Nushibi

In the western khaganate the rank organised half the realm. The five Nushibi divisions west of Suyab were set under five great irkins. The five Duolu divisions east of Suyab were set under five great churs. Each of the ten held one arrow, and together they were the Ten Surnames.^[2] The Xin Tang Shu names the five irkins: Axijie Que Irkin, Geshu Que Irkin, Basaigan Tunshabo Irkin, Axijie Nishu Irkin and Geshu Chuban Irkin.^[2] Of these the Axijie Que Irkin was the strongest, with an army the chapter puts at several hundred thousand.^[2]

The irkins were not ornamental. The Ten Arrows fell out under Dielishi Khan. Then an irkin acted with the Tong Tudun to call the people together and set up a rival great khan. The pretender they had raised was in turn broken, and the man who broke him was his own irkin.^[2]

The rank in the Tang campaigns

In the decades when the Tang court was dismantling the khaganate, the men it bought hold this title more often than any other. In 649 Gao Kan was sent against Chebi Khan. His orders were to raise the Uyghurs and the Pugu rather than march a Chinese army into the mountains. The Karluk chief Nishu Que Ilteber and the Chumukun chief Moheduo Irkin turned their tribes and came over one after another.^[1] In the campaign of 657 the irkin Nendulu came in to surrender with more than ten thousand tents before the fighting began.^[2]

A state whose chiefs hold an inherited rank and their own following can be taken apart chief by chief. That is what the title records on the Chinese side.

Ulug Irkin

The Kül Tegin inscription knows the word as part of a name. The chief of the Bayirku, one of the peoples of the Nine Oguz, is Ulug Irkin. Kül Tegin breaks him at Lake Türgi Yargun.^[3] The same rank appears from inside the steppe and from outside it. In both places it belongs to a man who leads his own people and can be fought or bought as a unit.

The word in short texts on rock

Short runiform texts on rock carry the word as well. One of four runic texts on the rocks of Del Uul in Dund Govi province (runiform finds in Mongolia, 1990 to 1999) has four lines. It has been read as saying that “our wise elder brother and we did not receive the title irkin”.^[4] Its finder thinks that it may have been cut in the years of Tang overlordship, about 630 to 680.^[4] Painted texts on the Tayhar rock at Hoyto Tamir have been read with the names Tagay İrkin and Yegen İrkin.^[5] A rock text of two lines at Tavan Tolgoi in Sükhbaatar province has been read by its first editor as the words of a man named Yegän Irkin. The man says that he sat “on the seat” in the fourth month. Some twenty tamgas, all derived from a snake sign, stand around it.^[6] It is not clear whether irkin is a title or part of the name in these texts.^[7]

Turkic Atlas sets the ranks out together under the title of khan.

The title survived at the Karakhanid court as erkin. The Kutadgu Bilig of 1069–1070 lists kül erkin among the honorary ranks of the court. It also quotes an erkin of the Ili valley as an authority on serving a prince.^[8]

References

^ a b Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 194
^ a b c d e f Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 215
^ Kül Tegin inscription; Tekin 1968, p. 310, 352
^ a b Battulga 2000, p. 48
^ Sertkaya 2000, p. 324, 328
^ Badam 2024, p. 32–33
^ Badam 2024, p. 33
^ Kutadgu Bilig; Dankoff 1983, couplets 4068, 4752

Sources

Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 194
Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 215 (after Jiu Tangshu)
Kül Tegin inscription
Bei Shi (History of the Northern Dynasties), juan 99 (after Wei Shu, Zhou Shu and Sui Shu)
Kutadgu Bilig

Literature

Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992)
Édouard Chavannes, Documents sur les Tou-Kiue (Turcs) occidentaux (1903)
Emre-E. Yavuz, The Gokturk Empire: 2nd Edition (2025)
Talât Tekin, A Grammar of Orkhon Turkic (1968)
Tsendiyn Battulga, Moğolistan’da Yeni Bulunan Göktürk Yazıtları (2000)
Osman Fikri Sertkaya; Sartkocaulı Harcavbay, Hoyto Tamir (Moğolistan)’dan yeni yazıtlar (ön neşir) (2000)
Azzaya Badam, Moğolistan’da 2018–2021 Yılları Arasında Bulunan Runik Yazıtlar (2024)