Börü Khan

Börü Khan was the lesser khan whom Taspar Khan set over the west of the Göktürk realm in the first year of his reign.^[1] He belonged to the house of Ashina. He was a nephew of Taspar or, in one history, his brother.^[2] The Chinese histories call him the Buli Khan, 步離可汗.^[3]

The appointment of 572

When Taspar became khan, he made his nephew Ishbara Erfu Khan. He gave him the command of the east.^[3] He made a son of his younger brother Rudan Khan the Buli Khan, to live in the west.^[3] The Zizhi tongjian enters the appointment under 572, the year of Mukan’s death.^[4] The Tongdian explains in a note that the Erfu Khan and the Buli Khan were both lesser khans.^[5] In one account the size of the realm forced a change in its hierarchy. Taspar named his two nephews lesser khans in the east and the west. The khan now had deputies who could act in his name.^[1]

There are two views of his parentage. The Sui Shu, the Tongdian and the Zizhi tongjian make him the son of Rudan Khan.^[6] The Bei Shi lacks the word for son. It makes Rudan Khan himself the Buli Khan.^[7] A modern translation of the Sui Shu records both.^[8] None of the histories gives him a personal name or mentions him again.^[9]

The Buli Khan of 563

The title is older than the appointment. In 563 Mukan came with the Ditou Khan, the Buli Khan and a hundred thousand horse to join the Zhou general Yang Zhong against the Qi, in the alliance with the Northern Zhou.^[10] The received text of the Zhou Shu writes the name Busui. Its modern editors corrected it to Buli from the Bei Shi and other works.^[10] Their note holds that this khan was a different man from the one Taspar appointed after Mukan’s death.^[10] The Zhou Shu does not name him.^[10]

Name

BörüBöriOld Turkic
步離可汗ChineseSui Shu 84

The Chinese title has been explained as the Turkic böri, wolf.^[11] One account gives his name in the form Börü.^[1] He is not Börü Shad, the nephew of Tong Yabgu who led the western Göktürks through the Caucasus in 627.