In 546 the Ashina were a clan of smiths in the Altai, subjects of the Rouran. Thirty years later their realm reached from the Khingan Mountains to the Volga, and their envoys had been received in Constantinople. The path follows that rise in eight steps, from the empire they served to the embassy that brought a Roman envoy to their khan.

Map of East Asia in 516: the Rouran under Chounu, his campaign west against the Gaoche, the Ashina in the Altai as subjects of the Rouran, the Northern Wei and the Liang in China, the Tuyuhun, the Tarim oasis states and the Hephthalites
516: The Rouran khan Chounu marches west, defeats the Gaoche and takes and kills their king Mi'etu. The Ashina in the Altai are subject to the Rouran. Modern map; the road is drawn, the site of the battle is not recorded, and the borders in the steppe are approximate.
© Emre-E Yavuz 2026

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Rouran Khaganate

400–554

The empire the Göktürks served before they ruled.

For a century and a half before 552 the Rouran ruled the eastern steppe, from the Khingan range in the east to the Seven Rivers in the west. Their first ruler, Shelun, took the title khagan. Among the peoples who answered to them were the Tiele and a small clan in the Altai, the Ashina. When the Göktürks came to power, they took this empire over rather than tearing it down.

  • Rouran Khaganate

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Map of Asia around 542: the Rouran Khaganate across the eastern steppe, with the Ashina in the Altai and the Tiele from Dzungaria to the Caspian as its subjects, beside the Western and Eastern Wei, the Liang, the Tuyuhun, the Tarim Basin, the Hephthalites, the Nezak Huns, Sasanian Persia, the Eastern Roman Empire and Goguryeo
Asia around 542, the year Bumin became yabgu of the Ashina: the Ashina in the Altai and the Tiele as subjects of the Rouran, who rule the eastern steppe, beside the Western and Eastern Wei, the Liang, the Tuyuhun, the Hephthalites, Sasanian Persia and the Eastern Roman Empire. Modern map; the frontiers are approximate.
© Emre-E Yavuz 2026

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Ashina

439–969

The family behind the Göktürk khaganates.

Before 546 the Ashina were a few hundred households in the Altai, the mountains where Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan and Russia meet today. They worked iron for the Rouran. The Chinese histories tell their origin in several ways. In the best known, the clan descends from a she-wolf, and Ashina was the ablest of her ten sons, who became ruler of the others. Every khan of the First Khaganate came from this house.

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Anagui

520–552

Anagui in a modern portrait.
Anagui in a modern portrait.© Emre-E Yavuz 2026

The last khan of the Rouran, and the sentence that started a war.

Anagui held the Rouran throne for three decades. He crushed the Tiele when they rose and twice led his armies into China. In 546 Bumin, the head of the Ashina, asked him for a daughter in marriage. Anagui answered that Bumin was his blacksmith slave and asked how he dared open his mouth. Six years later Bumin's army stood before his capital, and by the Chinese account Anagui took his own life.

  • Rouran Khaganate

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Map of the Göktürk–Rouran war of 551 and 552: from the Altai the Ashina under Bumin strike a Rouran army in Dzungaria and drive east across the Gobi to Huaihuang, where Anagui kills himself; the Rouran rule the eastern steppe, the Tiele are their subjects in the west
551–552: the Göktürks under Bumin rise against the Rouran. In January 552 they beat a Rouran army in Dzungaria, then crush the main Rouran army north of Huaihuang, and Anagui kills himself. Modern map; the routes and the place of the battle in Dzungaria are drawn.
© Emre-E Yavuz 2026

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Bumin Khan

552

Bumin Khan in a modern portrait.
𐰉𐰆𐰢𐰣: 𐰴𐰍𐰣 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰜: 𐰃𐰠
Bumin Khan in a modern portrait.© Emre-E Yavuz 2026

The founder, from the refused marriage to the new khaganate.

In 546 Bumin intercepted the Tiele on the march and defeated them, and more than fifty thousand of them submitted to him. After Anagui's insult he turned to China: in 551 the Western Wei sent him the princess Changle as his bride. In 552 he crushed the Rouran and took the title Illig Khan. He died within months, and his brother Istemi carried the new realm to the west.

  • First Göktürk Khaganate
  • Ashina

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Map of the First Göktürk Khaganate around 576: the Göktürk realm across the steppe from the Black Sea, the Utigurs and the Alans to the Khitan, with the court at Ötüken, the Tarim oasis states and the Hephthalite principalities as tributaries, the Kirghiz, Tiele, Shiwei and Mohe at its northern and eastern edges, and beside it the Eastern Roman Empire, Sasanian Persia, the Tuyuhun, the Northern Zhou, the Northern Qi, the Chen and Goguryeo, and between the steppe and China the wall of the Northern Qi and a hatched frontier zone
The First Göktürk Khaganate around 576, the year of Istemi's death: the realm from the Black Sea to the Khitan, with the Tarim oasis states and the Hephthalite principalities as tributaries, beside the Eastern Roman Empire, Sasanian Persia, the Northern Zhou, the Northern Qi and the Chen. Between the steppe and China stand the wall of the Northern Qi (556) and a frontier zone held by neither side. Modern map; the western frontier is inferred and the frontiers are approximate.
© Emre-E Yavuz 2026

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First Göktürk Khaganate

552–630

The first state in history to bear the name Türk.

From its centre at Ötüken in Mongolia, the new khaganate brought the steppe from Mongolia to the Black Sea under one rule. It was governed in two wings, an eastern and a western one, each held by a member of the Ashina. The arrangement made rapid growth possible, but it also created rival centres of power. After 584 civil war divided the wings, and the eastern khaganate fell to the Tang in 630.

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Map of Asia around 560: the Göktürk Khaganate from Manchuria to the Caspian, Istemi advancing through Chach to the battle of Bukhara, Khosrow I advancing from the south to Balkh, beside Sasanian Persia, the Northern Zhou, the Northern Qi and the Chen
Around 560 Istemi advances through Chach into Sogdiana and destroys the Hephthalites in the battle of Bukhara, while Khosrow I takes their lands south of the Oxus as far as Balkh. The Oxus becomes the frontier between the Göktürks and Persia. Modern map; Istemi's route is drawn.
© Emre-E Yavuz 2026

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Istemi

552–576

Istemi in a modern portrait.
𐰃𐰾𐱅𐰢𐰃: 𐰴𐰍𐰣 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰜: 𐰃𐰠
Istemi in a modern portrait.© Emre-E Yavuz 2026

The brother who carried the khaganate west.

Bumin's younger brother Istemi took over the western half of the realm and ruled it for twenty-three years. In 553 he led an army out of the Altai into lands the Göktürks knew only by hearsay. Together with Persia he destroyed the Hephthalites and took the trading cities of Sogdiana. When he died in 576, the khaganate reached from the Khingan Mountains to the Volga, and its frontier with Persia ran along the Oxus, the Amu Darya of today.

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Göktürk Expansion along the Silk Road

553–629

Why silk turned allies into enemies.

The Sogdians, once subjects of the Hephthalites, now served the Göktürks, and their merchants set out to sell the khaganate's raw silk in the west. In Persia the king Khosrow bought the silk and had it burned before the envoys' eyes. The quarrel over the trade turned the two allies into enemies. The Sogdian Maniakh then led an embassy around Persia to Constantinople.

  • Byzantium
  • Sasanian Persia
  • Hephthalites

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Map of the return of Zemarchos with the Göktürk embassy under Tagma Tarkhan, 569 to 571: from Talas north of the Aral Sea across the Emba, the Ural and the Volga, through the lands of the Alans and over the Caucasus to the Black Sea and Constantinople
569–571: Zemarchos returns from Istemi with a Göktürk embassy under Tagma Tarkhan, from Talas across the steppe north of the Caspian, through the lands of the Ugurs and the Alans and over the Dareine road to the Black Sea, and reaches Constantinople late in 571. Modern map; the stations are Menander's, the road between them is drawn.
© Emre-E Yavuz 2026

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The embassy of Zemarchos, 569

569–571

A Roman envoy at the court of Istemi.

Emperor Justin II answered Maniakh's embassy with one of his own. In 569 Zemarchos of Cilicia travelled with the Sogdians to Istemi's camp on a mountain that the Greek account calls the Golden Mountain. He was purified by fire and received in a tent, where Istemi sat on a golden throne with two wheels. The Greek historian Menander preserved the account of the journey.

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Map of East Asia in 516: the Rouran under Chounu, his campaign west against the Gaoche, the Ashina in the Altai as subjects of the Rouran, the Northern Wei and the Liang in China, the Tuyuhun, the Tarim oasis states and the Hephthalites© Emre-E Yavuz 2026
516: The Rouran khan Chounu marches west, defeats the Gaoche and takes and kills their king Mi'etu. The Ashina in the Altai are subject to the Rouran. Modern map; the road is drawn, the site of the battle is not recorded, and the borders in the steppe are approximate.
Map of Asia around 542: the Rouran Khaganate across the eastern steppe, with the Ashina in the Altai and the Tiele from Dzungaria to the Caspian as its subjects, beside the Western and Eastern Wei, the Liang, the Tuyuhun, the Tarim Basin, the Hephthalites, the Nezak Huns, Sasanian Persia, the Eastern Roman Empire and Goguryeo© Emre-E Yavuz 2026
Asia around 542, the year Bumin became yabgu of the Ashina: the Ashina in the Altai and the Tiele as subjects of the Rouran, who rule the eastern steppe, beside the Western and Eastern Wei, the Liang, the Tuyuhun, the Hephthalites, Sasanian Persia and the Eastern Roman Empire. Modern map; the frontiers are approximate.
Map of the Göktürk–Rouran war of 551 and 552: from the Altai the Ashina under Bumin strike a Rouran army in Dzungaria and drive east across the Gobi to Huaihuang, where Anagui kills himself; the Rouran rule the eastern steppe, the Tiele are their subjects in the west© Emre-E Yavuz 2026
551–552: the Göktürks under Bumin rise against the Rouran. In January 552 they beat a Rouran army in Dzungaria, then crush the main Rouran army north of Huaihuang, and Anagui kills himself. Modern map; the routes and the place of the battle in Dzungaria are drawn.
Map of the First Göktürk Khaganate around 576: the Göktürk realm across the steppe from the Black Sea, the Utigurs and the Alans to the Khitan, with the court at Ötüken, the Tarim oasis states and the Hephthalite principalities as tributaries, the Kirghiz, Tiele, Shiwei and Mohe at its northern and eastern edges, and beside it the Eastern Roman Empire, Sasanian Persia, the Tuyuhun, the Northern Zhou, the Northern Qi, the Chen and Goguryeo, and between the steppe and China the wall of the Northern Qi and a hatched frontier zone© Emre-E Yavuz 2026
The First Göktürk Khaganate around 576, the year of Istemi's death: the realm from the Black Sea to the Khitan, with the Tarim oasis states and the Hephthalite principalities as tributaries, beside the Eastern Roman Empire, Sasanian Persia, the Northern Zhou, the Northern Qi and the Chen. Between the steppe and China stand the wall of the Northern Qi (556) and a frontier zone held by neither side. Modern map; the western frontier is inferred and the frontiers are approximate.
Map of Asia around 560: the Göktürk Khaganate from Manchuria to the Caspian, Istemi advancing through Chach to the battle of Bukhara, Khosrow I advancing from the south to Balkh, beside Sasanian Persia, the Northern Zhou, the Northern Qi and the Chen© Emre-E Yavuz 2026
Around 560 Istemi advances through Chach into Sogdiana and destroys the Hephthalites in the battle of Bukhara, while Khosrow I takes their lands south of the Oxus as far as Balkh. The Oxus becomes the frontier between the Göktürks and Persia. Modern map; Istemi's route is drawn.
Map of the return of Zemarchos with the Göktürk embassy under Tagma Tarkhan, 569 to 571: from Talas north of the Aral Sea across the Emba, the Ural and the Volga, through the lands of the Alans and over the Caucasus to the Black Sea and Constantinople© Emre-E Yavuz 2026
569–571: Zemarchos returns from Istemi with a Göktürk embassy under Tagma Tarkhan, from Talas across the steppe north of the Caspian, through the lands of the Ugurs and the Alans and over the Dareine road to the Black Sea, and reaches Constantinople late in 571. Modern map; the stations are Menander's, the road between them is drawn.

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