Shiboqu Azhan was the chief of the Kirghiz who came in person to the court of the Tang emperor Taizong in 648.[1] The Xin Tang Shu gives him the title 俟利發, silifa.[1] Taizong made the Kirghiz land the governorship of Jiankun and made him its governor-general.[1]

The Kirghiz before the visit

The Xin Tang Shu calls the Kirghiz of that time a country that had once been strong and equal to the Göktürks in the extent of its land. It says that the Göktürks gave their chiefs daughters in marriage.[1] They had then been subject to the Xueyantuo, who set one man with the title 頡利發 over the country.[1] Three chiefs, named Qixibei, Jushabobei and Amibei (訖悉輩, 居沙波輩, 阿米輩), ruled it together.[1] The text adds that the Kirghiz had never had dealings with China.[1]

The visit

The Kirghiz sent envoys with tribute when they heard that the Tiele and the other tribes had already come in as subjects.[1] Turkic Atlas tells the submission of the Tiele under the Banquet of the Wine Fountain. Their chief Shiboqu Azhan came himself.[1]

Taizong feasted him. In the Zizhi tongjian the feast is in the Tiancheng hall, in the second month of the twenty-second year of Zhenguan. The entry remarks on the strangers: they were tall, red-haired and green-eyed, and held black hair to be ill luck.[2] The Xin Tang Shu has the emperor tell his officials that he had thought his deed great when he cut down three Göktürks at the Wei Bridge. With the silifa at the table, he said, he felt it surpassed.[1] The Zizhi tongjian reports similar words.[2]

In the Xin Tang Shu, Shiboqu Azhan, warmed with wine, asks to be allowed to hold a tablet of office.[1] In the Zizhi tongjian he asks for one office and says that to go home holding the tablet would be a blessing for a hundred generations.[2]

The appointment

The emperor made the Kirghiz land the governorship of Jiankun, 堅昆府. He put the silifa over it as governor-general with the rank of general of the guards, under the protector-general of Yanran.[3] The Xin Tang Shu names the Left Garrison Guard, 左屯衛, and the Zizhi tongjian the Right, 右屯衛.[1] A letter of Li Deyu of 843 gives the Left.[4]

The year is given in two ways. The Xin Tang Shu and the Zizhi tongjian set the visit in the twenty-second year of Zhenguan, which is 648.[3] The Tongdian puts the arrival of the Kirghiz ruler in the twenty-first year, 647.[5] The letter of Li Deyu also says the twenty-first year. A modern translation treats that as a slip.[4] A Turkish study of the title names the envoy Elteber Shih-po-ch’ü A-chan and places his mission in 647.[6]

The title

The title silifa stands in the Zhou Shu among the great offices of the Göktürks. The handbooks identify it as ilteber, the rank of a subject ruler.[7] The identification is disputed.[8] One Turkish study calls him elteber. It says that the Kirghiz declared their independence when the Tiele khaganate broke up in 647, and that their ruler still bore that title and not the title of khan.[6]

After the visit

The Xin Tang Shu says that the Kirghiz came again twice under Gaozong. They brought tribute in the Jinglong years, when Zhongzong told their envoy that their country was of the same clan as the Tang and not like other tribes.[1] In 843 Li Deyu recalled the visit of the chief in a letter to the Kirghiz khan. In a second letter he offered the khan the same offices, general of the Left Guard and governor-general of Jiankun.[9] The claim of kinship behind Zhongzong’s words is told in The Kirghiz descent from Li Ling.

The histories give no age for the chief, no year of his death and no successor.[1] In its account of the Kirghiz before the ninth century the Xin Tang Shu names four chiefs, the three who ruled together and Shiboqu Azhan. It tells of a visit to court only for him.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 217
  2. ^ a b c Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 198
  3. ^ a b Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 217; Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 198
  4. ^ a b Drompp 2005, p. 126
  5. ^ Tongdian, juan 200
  6. ^ a b Mokeev 2019, p. 29
  7. ^ Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 50
  8. ^ Czeglédy 1951, p. 184
  9. ^ Drompp 2005, p. 126,140

Sources

Literature

  • Michael R. Drompp, Tang China and the Collapse of the Uighur Empire: A Documentary History (2005)
  • Anvarbek Mokeev, Yenisey ve Altay Kırgızlarında siyasi unvan olarak aco ve idi terimlerinin menşesi ve anlamı (2019)
  • Károly Czeglédy, Yiltavar unvanı: Volga Bulgarları ile İslâvların X. asırdaki münasebeti meselesine dâir (1951)

Related

What links here2

Battles & Events
Kirghiz embassy of 648
Institutions and Titles
Tutuk

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Shiboqu Azhan.” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/persons/shiboqu-azhan/

Last revised: 8 November 2026