Apa (Kirghiz Chancellor)

Apa was the chancellor of the Kirghiz whom the Xin Tang Shu and the Jiu Tang Shu call Abo, 阿播.^[1] In 848 he led a Kirghiz force of 70,000 against the Shiwei and brought the remaining Uyghurs back north of the desert.^[2]

The office

The Xin Tang Shu lists six ranks at the Kirghiz court: chancellors, governors-general, zhishi, zhangshi, generals and dagan. It counts seven chancellors, three governors-general and ten zhishi. It says that these three ranks all had charge of troops.^[2] Apa was one of the seven.^[2] The text names no other Kirghiz chancellor.^[2]

The march of 848

After the death of the Uyghur khan Wujie his brother had been set up in his place. A Tang general in the north then broke the Xi, who had been feeding the Uyghurs. The Uyghurs turned to the Shiwei. The Tang urged the Shiwei to hand over the khan. He fled with nine horsemen in the night, and the Shiwei divided the Uyghurs among their seven clans.^[2] The Kirghiz were angry. They marched with their chancellor Abo and 70,000 soldiers against the Shiwei and brought all the Uyghurs back north of the desert.^[2] Tents that had been left behind hid in forest and mountain. They lived by robbing other peoples and drifted back to Pang Tegin.^[2]

The Jiu Tang Shu dates the march. It stands in the spring of the second year of Dazhong, which is 848, three nights after the Shiwei had divided the Uyghurs.^[3] It calls the army the soldiers of the various foreign peoples, said to number 70,000. It says that Apa defeated the Shiwei heavily and took the Uyghurs among them back north of the desert.^[3] The Zizhi tongjian calls the Xi Tatabi. It gives their defeat in June or July 847 and the flight of the khan then. It places the march of Apa within days of them. One modern dating places this, with “apparently”, in March 848.^[4]

The same dating notes that the attack was sudden. The Kirghiz khan who destroyed the Uyghur khaganate had died before 6 February 847. The attack may be the policy of his successor.^[5] The march is told in its own article.

Name

ApaOld Turkic
阿播ChineseXin Tangshu 217

The Chinese form is understood as the Turkic name or title Apa.^[4] Vladimir Tishin sets the name beside the stele of Tör Apa at Begre. In his view the chancellor is either the chief whom the dead man served or the man of the stone himself.^[6] The identification rests on the name alone.

The sources say nothing of Apa before or after the march.^[2]

References

^ Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 217; Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 195
^ a b c d e f g h Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 217
^ a b Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 195
^ a b Drompp 2005, p. 156
^ Drompp 2005, p. 158
^ Tishin 2019, p. 201–202

Sources

Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 217 (after Jiu Tangshu)
Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 195

Literature

Michael R. Drompp, Tang China and the Collapse of the Uighur Empire: A Documentary History (2005)
V. V. Tishin, K datirovke enisejskoj runičeskoj nadpisi Begre (E 11) [К датировке енисейской рунической надписи Бегре (Е 11)] (2019)