58 articles

Persons

Rulers, envoys, commanders and kin.

Afuzhiluo Chief of the Fufuluo clan of the Gaoche who led more than a hundred thousand tents out of the Rouran khaganate in 487, founded a Tiele kingdom north-west of Gaochang with the title 'great son of heaven', beat Tulun Khan repeatedly, offered the Wei two arrows and a war against the Rouran, and was killed by his own people for cruelty.
Amrak Son of Taspar, elected khan at Ötüken in 581 as the compromise the assembly could accept, and gone within the year: he abdicated in Ishbara's favour to avert Töremen's revolt, and the revolt came anyway.
An Lushan Tang general of Sogdian and Göktürk parentage, born 703, whose rebellion of 755 to 763 ruined the Tang, cost them Central Asia, and brought the Uyghurs into China; the apogee, in de la Vaissière's reading, of the Turco-Sogdian milieu of northern China.
An Nuopantuo The Sogdian of Jiuquan whom Yuwen Tai sent to the Göktürk in 545, the first envoy of a Chinese state to Bumin; his name transcribes the Sogdian Anāhitā-banda.
Anagui Last khan of the Rouran, who held the steppe for three decades, called Bumin his blacksmith slave, and died in 552 as the Göktürk army closed on his capital.
Anluochen Son of Anagui who fled to the Northern Qi after his father's death in 552; set up by the Qi as khan of the Rouran remnant and their instrument against the Göktürk, he rose against the Qi themselves in 553, was beaten twice, and with him the house ended.
Ashina Helu Last independent khan of the western Göktürk: a fifth-generation descendant of Istemi who was yabgu of five tribes under the Üç Tuğlu Khan, fled to the Tang with thousands of tents in 648, served them as guide and commandant, proclaimed himself Shaboluo Khan over the Ten Arrows after Taizong's death, raided Tingzhou, and was hunted down by Su Dingfang across the Ili and the Chu in 657 and 658; presented at Taizong's tomb, pardoned, and buried beside Ilig Khan.
Bagha Khan Brother of Ishbara and a lesser khan, who fought in the invasion of China in 583, led the Göktürk army across the Oxus in April 588 and fell to Bahram Chobin; whether he was the Šāba of the Persian tradition is disputed.
Bahram Chobin Sasanian general who destroyed the Göktürk army in Hyrcania in 588, or at Herat in 589, retook Herat and reached Bukhara, then rose against his own kings, lost, fled to the Göktürk at Suyab and was poisoned there.
Bilge Khan Khan of the Second Göktürk Khaganate from 716 to 734, set on the throne by his brother Kül Tegin's coup, advised by Tonyukuk, at peace with the Tang from 721; the speaker of the Kül Tegin inscription and the subject of his own; poisoned by a minister in 734.
Börü Shad Nephew of Tong Yabgu with an independent command in the north-west, who led some forty thousand Göktürk through Derbent into the Caucasus in 627 and besieged and later took Tiflis with the emperor Heraclius; the name is Turkic for 'wolf'.
Buluzhen Khan Nephew of Hulü who deposed him by intrigue in 414 and left the government to the minister Shuli; he was strangled within the year by Datan, whom the Gaoche chief Chiluohou had chosen in his place.
Bumin Khan Ashina Göktürk leader who overthrew the Rouran in 552 and founded the First Göktürk Khaganate.
Chounu Khan Khan of the Rouran from 508 to 520 and elder brother of Anagui: he sent a monk with a jewelled image to the Wei, crushed the Gaoche in 516 and made their king's skull a drinking cup, raised a young shamaness to khatun after she conjured his lost son out of the sky, let her kill the boy, and was killed by his mother and ministers after a defeat.
Chula Khan Brother of Shibi and khan of the eastern Göktürk from 619 to 620: he married the Sui princess Yicheng, set up the Sui emperor's grandson as king of Sui at Dingxiang, sent his brother's riders to help the Tang against Liu Wuzhou, let his men carry off the women of Bingzhou, and died within the year, by one account poisoned by a Chinese official at his court.
Datan Khan Khan of the Rouran from 414 to 429, the strongest of the house before Anagui: he surrounded the young emperor Taiwu fifty ranks deep at Yunzhong in 424, drew three Wei campaigns into the steppe, and was scattered at the Li river in 429; the Otuz Tatar of the Orkhon inscriptions may carry his name.
Dengzhu Uncle of Anagui, set up as ruler by the Rouran remnant in 552, beaten by Issik Khan north of Woye in 553, and killed with three thousand of his people outside the Qingmen gate of Chang'an at Mukan's request.
Diwan Shamaness at the court of Chounu Khan, a woman of about twenty who conjured the khan's lost son out of the sky, was proclaimed Holy Woman and made khatun, governed through the khan's trust, had the boy killed when he told the truth, and was strangled on the khan's mother's order in 520.
Empress Ashina Daughter of Mukan Khan, promised to the Northern Zhou to seal the alliance against the Qi, held back three years while her father wavered toward the Qi, released after a ten-day storm he took for Heaven's anger, married to the emperor Wu in 568, empress dowager under two emperors, dead in 582 at thirty-one; her tomb yielded the only ancient genome of an Ashina.
Futu Khan Son and successor of Nagai, khan of the Rouran from about 506 to 508: twice he sent envoys to the Wei asking for peace and was twice refused with a reminder that Shelun had been a Wei rebel; he marched west against the Gaoche and was killed by their king Mi'etu north of Lake Barkol.
Heshana Khan Khan of the western Göktürk from 603 to about 611, Tardush's successor, whose taxation of the Tiele and execution of their chiefs set off the rising of about 605; deposed by his sub-khan Shegui, titled Heshana Khan by the Sui in 611, and executed at Chang'an by eastern Göktürk envoys in 619.
Hulü Khan Younger brother and successor of Shelun, khan of the Rouran from 410 to 414: he kept the peace with the Wei, made a marriage with Feng Ba of the Northern Yan, and was seized in his tent by his own nephew and sent to Feng Ba's court with the bride.
Ilig Khan Last khan of the eastern Göktürk, 620 to 630: third son of Yami, he raided the Tang almost every year, stood before Chang'an eighteen days after Taizong's accession and swore peace at the Wei bridge, lost the Xueyantuo, the Uyghurs and his own nephew, was struck in the snow of 630 and taken alive, and died an honoured captive at Chang'an in 634.
Ilterish Khan Founder of the Second Göktürk Khaganate: Kutluk of the Ashina, who rose against the Tang in 682 with a band in the hills north of the frontier, took the throne name Ilterish, brought his people back to Ötüken, raided China every year, and died in 691 leaving two small sons and a brother.
Inel Khan Son of Kapgan Khan, made Lesser Khan over the Ten Surnames of the west in 699 with the title Khan Who Expands the West; sent at the head of the army against the Türgesh and against Beiting; killed by his cousin Kül Tegin in the coup of 716.
Ishbara Khan Son of Issik and lesser khan under Taspar, who forced the assembly of 581 to pass over Töremen, took the throne when Amrak stood down, invaded China, drove Apa west, killed his own aunt, and in 585 made himself a vassal of the Sui; dead in 587.
Issik Khan Eldest son of Bumin and second khan of the Göktürk, who finished the Rouran on the Ordos in 553 and died within the year.
Istemi Bumin's younger brother, who held the west as yabgu for twenty-three years, destroyed the Hephthalites with Persia, took Sogdiana, made a pact with Khosrow and an alliance with Byzantium, and doubled the khaganate.
Kapgan Khan Second khan of the Second Göktürk Khaganate, 691 to 716: Ilterish's younger brother, who took the throne over his nephews, raided China to the plain of Hebei, destroyed the Türgesh and reached the Iron Gate, and was killed in a willow wood by a straggler of the Bayirku.
Khosrow I King of kings of Sasanian Persia from 531 to 579, Istemi's partner in the destruction of the Hephthalites and his neighbour along the Oxus; the king who fortified the gate of Sul against the khagan Sinjibu, bought the Sogdians' silk to burn it, poisoned a Göktürk embassy, and so sent the Göktürk to Constantinople.
Kül Tegin Prince of the Second Göktürk Khaganate, younger son of Ilterish, the fighting arm of his uncle Kapgan and his brother Bilge Khan; in 716 he killed the uncle's heirs and made his brother khan, commanded the army for fifteen years, and died in 731 at forty-seven, mourned by the monument of 732 on the Orkhon.
Maniakh Sogdian of standing at Istemi's court who led the Göktürk embassy to Persia and, when Khosrow burned the silk, the embassy of 568 to Constantinople; he died before Zemarchos returned and his young son inherited his title.
Mugulü The eponymous ancestor of the Rouran ruling house in the Wei Shu: a captured slave of the Tuoba with no name and no memory of one, who fled a death sentence into the Gobi with a hundred fugitives; his son Cheluhui first called the people Rouran.
Mukan Khan Second son of Bumin and third khan of the Göktürk, 553 to 572, under whom the khaganate took the Kirghiz and the Khitan, fought the Northern Qi beside the Zhou, and married a daughter to a Chinese emperor.
Nagai Khan Uncle of Tulun, the general whom the Rouran made khan in 492 after killing his nephew because Heaven seemed to fight on his side; he ruled until about 506, the Wei Shu recording of his reign only his title and his era.
Ozmish Khan The Left Shad of the Second Göktürk Khaganate, a cousin of Bilge Khan, who killed the boy khan Tengri in 741 and took the throne; rejected by the people, beaten by the Basmïl, and swept away with the dynasty by 744.
Poluomen Khan Cousin of Anagui, set up as khan by the Rouran in 521 after he destroyed the usurper Shifa; beaten by the Gaoche within months, he surrendered at Liangzhou with ten tribes, was settled by the Wei at Dunhuang, tried to defect to the Hephthalites, whose ruler had married three of his sisters, and died a prisoner in Luoyang in 524.
Princess Changle minimal The Western Wei princess given to Bumin in 551, the marriage that sealed the alliance against the Rouran a year before Bumin took the title of khan.
Shegui Khan Khan of the western Göktürk from 611 to 618 or 619, younger brother of Tardush, whom the Sui set up against his overlord Heshana with a white-feathered arrow; he drove Heshana to Gaochang, made the states west of the Jade Gate his subjects, held his court at Sanmi mountain north of Kucha and stood against the eastern Göktürk; elder brother of Tong Yabgu.
Shelun Khan Founder of the Rouran Khaganate, d. 410: a fugitive from the Northern Wei who killed his kinsman Pihouba, fled north of the Gobi, absorbed the Gaoche, gave the Rouran a military order of thousands and hundreds, and was the first steppe ruler to call himself khagan.
Shibi Khan Son of Yami and khan of the eastern Göktürk from 609 to 619: he took his father's Chinese wife, rebuilt the army, besieged the Sui emperor at Yanmen in 615, made the warlords of northern China his vassals with khan's titles and wolf's-head standards, lent Li Yuan the horsemen who took Chang'an, and died on a raid across the Yellow River.
Tardush Son of Istemi and yabgu of the west from 576 to 603, who moved the seat to Suyab, took Apa's side against Ishbara, reached for the whole khaganate, held it for three years about 600, and was driven into exile by a Tiele rising in 603.
Taspar Khan Youngest son of Bumin and fourth khan of the Göktürk, 572 to 581: ruler of the khaganate at its greatest extent, patron of a Buddhist monk, and the khan whose succession wish broke the house.
Tengri Khan Boy khan of the Second Göktürk Khaganate from 734, under the regency of his mother, Tonyukuk's daughter; invested by the Tang in 740; killed in 741 by the Left Shad, his father's cousin, after he and his mother had murdered the Right Shad.
Tong Yabgu Ruler of the western Göktürk from 618 to 630, who reunited the west, brought the Tiele to submission, recovered Bactria as far as Gandhara, allied with Heraclius and sent his nephew through Derbent to take Tiflis; assassinated by his uncle, after which the west dissolved into the Ten Arrows.
Tonyukuk Counsellor and commander of the first three khans of the Second Göktürk Khaganate, from the rising of 682 to the 720s; the author of the only first-person account of the restoration, and the man whom the Tang court named beside Bilge Khan and Kül Tegin as one of the three on whom the state rested.
Töremen Apa Son of Mukan, whom Taspar wished to succeed him and whom the assembly of 581 refused; as Apa Khan he fought Ishbara with the western wing behind him, lost his mother to Ishbara's raid, and died in 587 in the same year as his enemy.
Tuhezhen Khan Khan of the Rouran from before 449 to 464: he besieged a Wei column dozens of ranks deep in 449, fled nine days and nights before it, lost his baggage and a million head of stock, and left the frontier quiet; in 458 Taiwu crossed the desert against him with a hundred thousand horse and found no one.
Tulan Khan Khan of the eastern Göktürk after Ishbara's death in 587, who tried to shake off the Sui, married his predecessor's Chinese widow, was betrayed by his nephew Yami, and was killed by his own followers in 603.
Tulun Khan Khan of the Rouran from 485 to 492, cruel and fond of killing by the Wei Shu's account: he executed the minister who counselled peace, lost the Gaoche when Afuzhiluo led more than a hundred thousand tents west in 487, was beaten by them again and again, and was killed with his mother by his own people, who put his uncle Nagai in his place.
Türk-shad Brother of Tardush and a governor of the western Göktürk, who received the Byzantine envoy Valentinos in 576, charged him with sheltering the Avars, and sent the Utigurs and a Göktürk general against Bosporus in the Crimea; known only from Menander.
Tuwu Father of Bumin and Istemi, the chief under whom the Ashina lived in the Altai as ironworkers of the Rouran in the early sixth century; the Sui Shu and the Bei Shi know him as the Great Yabgu under whom the stock grew strong, the Xin Tang Shu names him Tuwu, grandson of Nadulu, and father of Bumin and Istemi, and the Zhou Shu names no father.
Wuti Khan Son and successor of Datan, khan of the Rouran from 429 into the 440s: he made the first marriage alliance with the Northern Wei, married a Wei princess and gave the emperor his sister, then broke the peace in 436 and spent his last years fleeing Taiwu's columns.
Yami Khan Son of Ishbara, who bought a Sui princess in 597 with the murder of Tulan's wife, fled to China with five horsemen in 599, was made Qimin Khan and given a walled town inside the frontier, marched into Ötüken with Chinese troops in 603, and ruled the eastern Göktürk as the emperor's client until his death in 609.
Yiran Khan minimal Son and successor of Bilge Khan, set up by the people after the poisoning of 734, invested by the Tang and given a stele and a shrine, and dead of illness within months; his younger brother Tengri followed him.
Yucheng Khan Khan of the Rouran from 464 to 485, the first to proclaim a reign era of his own: beaten by the emperor Xianwen at the Nü river in 470 with fifty thousand dead, he sought a Wei marriage for ten years, was refused as faithless, and paid tribute without ever concluding it.
Yuwen Tai Chancellor and commander of the Western Wei, d. 557, who sent the Sogdian An Nuopantuo to Bumin in 545, gave him the princess Changle in 551, handed over the Rouran fugitive Dengshuzi to Mukan's envoys in 553, and was promised a daughter of Mukan for the alliance against the Qi that his sons, the emperors of the Northern Zhou, completed.
Zemarchos Byzantine envoy sent by Justin II with Maniakh in 568 to Istemi's camp at Ektag, who came home with a Göktürk embassy under the Tarkhan Tagma and Maniakh's young son, and used silk as bait to shake off a Persian army.