Sheep were the animal that the steppe peoples kept in the largest numbers, and the sources count them more often than they describe them. The Chinese word yang may cover goats as well, and the texts do not separate the two.

In the lists

The Shiji names horses, cattle and sheep as the animals the Xiongnu kept in greatest numbers.[1] Xiongnu children rode sheep and shot birds and rats from their backs.[1] In the Hudud al-Alam sheep stand in the notice of every Turkic people. The Kimek, whom it credits with only sable-martens and sheep, are the clearest case.[2] The Xin Tang Shu says that the land of the early Uyghurs was stony and salty, and that their livestock were mostly big-footed sheep.[3] The Sui Shu says that the western Tiele had many cattle and sheep and few horses.[4] The southern Shiwei had no sheep, few horses and many pigs and cattle.[4]

Counts

In 127 BC the Han general Wei Qing took more than a million sheep, by the Han Shu’s count.[5] In AD 83 a Northern Xiongnu chief surrendered with more than 100,000 cattle and sheep.[6] In 601 Göktürk raiders carried off more than 200,000 head of mixed livestock from Yami Khan’s people.[4] Ibn Fadlan saw Oghuz who owned 100,000 sheep.[7] Details of the Oghuz sheep are in Oghuz herds.

Sheep as payment

Sheep were part of the bride-price of the Wuhuan, the Xueyantuo and the Kirghiz.[8] They are treated in Bride-Price in Livestock. Under Tulan Khan the Göktürk chiefs sent the Sui court twenty thousand sheep with ten thousand horses.[4] After the fall of the Sui, Ilig Khan offered Taizong 3,000 horses and 10,000 sheep, and the emperor refused them.[9] In 584 Ishbara Khan wrote to the Sui emperor that all the sheep and horses of his country were the emperor’s livestock, and that all the silks of the emperor’s country were his own.[4]

The Zhou Shu says that the Göktürks recorded the levy of troops and horses and the tax on livestock on notched wood, together with a golden arrowhead sealed in wax.[10] The tokens are treated in Tally sticks and the golden arrow.

Meat for the armies

The sheep also fed allies. In 757 a force of 4,000 Uyghur horsemen came to help the Tang against the rebels, and the court gave it 200 sheep, 20 oxen and 40 shi of rice a day.[11] The Xin Tang Shu records the same daily ration, counted in 40 horns of cattle and 800 hooves of sheep.[3] These are the same animals counted another way.

In 842 the Uyghur khan Ögä asked the Tang for grain, cattle and sheep.[12] The court answered that oxen were needed for farming and that China forbade their slaughter. Sheep were rare in China and came from the nomads of the north, and the state had never levied them.[12] After Ögä’s death the Uyghurs under his successor lived on grain and sheep supplied by the king of the Xi.[11]

Sacrifice and slaughter

At a death the family and relatives of a Göktürk killed sheep and horses, laid them before the tent and hung the heads on a pole.[10] In the fifth month the Göktürks killed many sheep and horses in a sacrifice to Heaven.[4] Ibn Fadlan says that the Oghuz did not cut the throat of a sheep. They struck it on the head until it died.[13]

Gaps in the sources

The sources do not give the weight or the price of a sheep. They do not say how the wool was used outside the felt tent. The felt itself is treated in Felt.

References

  1. ^ a b Shiji, juan 110; Han Shu, juan 94
  2. ^ Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam; Minorsky 1937, p. 99
  3. ^ a b Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 217
  4. ^ a b c d e f Sui Shu (Book of Sui), juan 84
  5. ^ Han Shu, juan 94
  6. ^ Hou Han Shu, juan 89
  7. ^ Ibn Fadlan; Canard 1958, p. 83
  8. ^ Hou Han Shu, juan 90; Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 217
  9. ^ Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 194
  10. ^ a b Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 50
  11. ^ a b Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 195
  12. ^ a b Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 246
  13. ^ Ibn Fadlan; Canard 1958, p. 71

Sources

Literature

  • M. Canard, La relation du voyage d'Ibn Fadlān chez les Bulgares de la Volga (1958)
  • V. Minorsky, Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam, "The Regions of the World": A Persian Geography 372 A.H. – 982 A.D., translated and explained, with the preface by V. V. Barthold (1937)

Related

What links here1

Institutions and Titles
The Economy of the Steppe Empires

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Sheep.” Turkic Atlas, revised 7 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/institutions/sheep/

Last revised: 7 November 2026