Nishu Bagha Shad

Nishu Bagha Shad was a Göktürk prince of the western khaganate. After the murder of Tong Yabgu, he refused the throne and raised Si Yabgu as khan instead.^[1] He killed the murderer. He then reigned himself as Duolu Khan from 632 to 634.^[2]

The Bagha Shad

He was the son of the Bagha Shad. The Bagha Shad had served under Tong Yabgu and had sworn brotherhood with the future emperor Taizong.^[3] The Xin Tang Shu says that Nishu took his father’s place when his father died.^[4] The histories accordingly give him his father’s title. They call him Nishu Mohe Shad, that is Nishu Bagha Shad.^[4]

After the murder of Tong Yabgu

Baghatur Khan had murdered Tong Yabgu and made himself khan. The people would not follow him.^[5] The Nushibi tribes put Nishu forward as khan, and he refused.^[6] Tong Yabgu’s son, the tegin Dieli, had fled to Kangju.^[1] Nishu fetched him and raised him as Si Yabgu Khan.^[1] The Zizhi tongjian enters these events, together with the murder, at the end of 628.^[7]

In the war that followed, Si Yabgu drove Baghatur to the Golden Mountain, the Altai. Nishu killed him there.^[6] The Zizhi tongjian enters the killing at the end of 630. It names the killer by his title, Nishu Shad.^[7]

Exile and accession

Si Yabgu came to fear Nishu. He plotted in secret to kill him.^[8] Nishu fled to Yanqi.^[2] Modern accounts identify Yanqi with Karashahr.^[9] Si Yabgu was in his turn driven out and died in Kangju. The people then fetched Nishu from Yanqi and raised him as Duolu Khan.^[8] The Zizhi tongjian enters his accession in 632.^[10]

Nishu sent envoys to the Tang to submit.^[2] The Xin Tang Shu says that he did not dare to take the title of khan on his own authority.^[4] The emperor sent Liu Shanyin, vice-director of the office for foreign guests, to invest him. Liu Shanyin brought a title, a drum and a standard, and a great quantity of silk.^[3] The Jiu Tang Shu and the Tongdian put the investiture in the seventh year of Zhenguan, 633.^[11] The Zizhi tongjian puts it in 632.^[10] The Cefu yuangui enters the gift of drum, standard and ten thousand bolts of silk to the Bagha Shad of the western Göktürks in the eighth month of 632.^[12]

Nishu sent an envoy to give thanks.^[4] At a banquet for this envoy in the Liangyi hall, the retired emperor Gaozu asked Zhangsun Wuji whether antiquity had ever seen the barbarians submit as they did now.^[4] Nishu died in 634. His younger brother, the Tong’e Shad, succeeded him as Ishbara Tolis Khan.^[2]

Name

Tarduš Qağan NiźukOld Turkic
泥孰莫賀設ChineseJiu Tangshu 194
咄陸可汗ChineseJiu Tangshu 194
吞阿婁拔奚利邲咄陸可汗ChineseJiu Tangshu 194
大渡可汗ChineseJiu Tangshu 194

The histories write his name 泥孰, Nishu. The Tongdian and one passage of the Zizhi tongjian write 泥熟.^[13] Modern accounts read the 莫賀 of his title as baga and the last character as shad.^[9] As khan he was the Duolu Khan. The Jiu Tang Shu also calls him Dadu Khan.^[14] The Tang title was 吞阿婁拔奚利邲咄陸可汗 in the Jiu Tang Shu and 吞阿婁拔利邲咄陸可汗 in the Xin Tang Shu.^[5] Some scholars identify the khan title Duolu with Tarduš. It renders title and name as Tarduš Qağan Niźuk.^[15]

The Xin Tang Shu adds that some called him Jiana Shad.^[4] The Jiu Tang Shu makes Jiana a younger brother of Ishbara Tolis. The son of Jiana was the later khan Irbis Ishbara Yabgu.^[14]