Kül Tegin's Horses

The Kül Tegin inscription tells the prince’s campaigns one by one. In most of them it names the horse he rode.^[1] The horses are grey, white, brown or chestnut. Some carry a name, and some are called after the man who owned them.^[1]

Three horses in one battle

At the age of twenty-one Kül Tegin fought a Chinese general called Čača Seŋün. He rode three horses in turn. First he rode the grey horse of Tadık Çor and charged, and that horse died there.^[2] Second he rode the grey horse of Išbara Yamtar and charged, and that horse died there.^[2] Third he rode the armoured chestnut of the lord Yegen Silig and charged, and that horse died there.^[2] More than a hundred arrows struck his armour and coat. None touched his face or head.^[2]

The text names each horse after its owner. Kül Tegin therefore rode the mounts of other men in this fight. The verb for the death of each horse is ölti, “died”.^[2]

The Kırgız and the Türgeš

At twenty-six Kül Tegin marched against the Kırgız through snow deep enough to bury a spear. He rode the white stallion of the Bayırku and charged.^[3] In the charge the stallion’s thigh was broken by a blow.^[3] The campaign is probably the one told in The Göktürk campaign against the Kirghiz of 710.

Against the Türgeš, in the battle of Bolču, he rode the grey with the blaze, başgu boz at.^[4] The text of the passage that follows is damaged.^[4]

Alp Šalčı

After the Türgeš battle the Black Türgeš rose again. The army’s horses were lean and it had no provisions. The Göktürks sent Kül Tegin ahead with a few men, and he rode the white horse Alp Šalčı and charged.^[5] The name returns on the north face. At the age of thirty, in the fight against the Karluk at the Holy Spring of Tamag, he rode the white Alp Šalčı.^[6] At thirty-one he rode it against the Az at the Black Lake.^[6] In the war against the İzgil, while his uncle’s realm was in disorder, he rode it once more. The inscription says of that horse: “that horse died there”.^[7]

The name is taken here as that of a horse. Tekin’s glossary lists Šalčı as a personal name.^[8]

The Nine Oguz

In one year the Göktürks fought the Nine Oguz five times, and the inscription names the horse of each charge. At Togu, Kül Tegin rode the white horse Azman, and he ran six men through.^[9] The word azman is taken here as the horse’s name, as in Tekin’s edition.^[10] Tekin’s glossary gives azman as “yellowish (?)”.^[11] A reading from Kazakh takes it for a common word, a gelding, and not for a name.^[12] At Košulgak, against the Ediz, he rode his brown Az horse. At Bo[lču] he rode Azman again. At Ezginti Kadız he rode the brown Az horse a second time.^[9] The fight at the head of the Čuš has no horse.^[9]

In the winter camp at the fortress of Amga the Oguz fell on the royal camp. Kül Tegin rode the white horse Ögsüz, ran nine men through, and did not give up the camp.^[13]

The pattern

The pattern is the same in each passage: Kül Tegin mounts, charges and strikes. The horse is named at the moment of the charge.^[1] The inscription records three kinds of loss among the horses: three killed in one battle, one stallion with a broken thigh, and Alp Šalčı, which died in the fight against the İzgil.^[1] In the reading used here, three horses have a name besides their colour: Alp Šalčı, Azman and Ögsüz.^[1]

The inscription does not say where the horses were bred. It does not say what became of the surviving ones after the prince’s death. The horses sacrificed at the burial of a ruler are treated in Horse sacrifice, and the gear that such a horse wore in Horse harness.

References

Sources

Kül Tegin inscription

Literature

Talât Tekin, Orhon Yazıtları. Kül Tigin, Bilge Kağan, Tunyukuk (o. J.)
Aydar Mirkamal, On Some Old Turkic Words in Kazakh / Kazakçadaki Bazı Eski Türkçe Sözcükler Üzerine (2011)