Ashide

Rouran epoch Göktürk epoch Uyghur epoch Kirghiz epoch

Rouran First Göktürk Tang rule Second Göktürk Uyghur Kirghiz Huns Western Göktürk Türgesh Karluk Khazar

Rouran 400–554
First Göktürk 552–630
Tang rule 630–682
Second Göktürk 682–744
Uyghur 744–840
Kirghiz 840–924
Huns 370–469
Western Göktürk 552–659
Türgesh 699–766
Karluk 766–800
Khazar 650–969

The Ashide are a Göktürk clan known from the Tang histories.^[1] The inscriptions never name them.^[2] They appear at the end of the interregnum, as the men who set the risings of 679 and 682 in motion. The Chinese form of the name, 阿史德, shares its first two characters with the Ashina, 阿史那.

The risings of 679 and 682

In 679 two chiefs of the Ashide within the Shanyu protectorate, Wenfu and Fengzhi, rose together. They set up Nishufu as khan, and twenty-four prefectures went over with them.^[1] The first Tang army was beaten. The second, under Pei Xingjian, broke Wenfu. Nishufu was killed by his own people, and Fengzhi was taken.^[1] Three years later a third Ashide, Yuanzhen, went over to Ilterish. Yuanzhen was supervisor of the surrendered tribes under the same protectorate. Ilterish gave him his army as Apa Tarkan.^[1]

The same pattern appears three times. The Ashide were chiefs with Tang ranks inside the prefecture system. Whenever a khan was to be made, they were the ones who made him.

Tonyukuk

Where Tonyukuk is given a clan, it is this one. The attribution rests on his identification with Ashide Yuanzhen. The Tang history’s account of Yuanzhen’s death makes this identification difficult, and Turkic Atlas treats the question under Yuanzhen. Tonyukuk’s own stone gives no clan name.^[2]

The regency of 734

During the regency of Tengri Khan, his mother ran the state. She was Tonyukuk’s daughter. If Tonyukuk was an Ashide, a woman of the clan governed the last years of the khaganate. The Tang history does not say so. It names her only as Tonyukuk’s daughter.^[1]