Sanmi Mountain

Sanmi Mountain, 三彌山, was the mountain north of Kucha on which Shegui Khan set the court of the western Göktürks.^[1] The Chinese histories give it no other position and no description.^[1]

Shegui’s court

In the winter of 611 the western khan Heshana, then called Chuluo Khan, paid court to the Sui emperor at the Linshuo palace.^[2] His people had not wanted him to go. When the Sui detained him, they raised a grandson of Tardush as Shegui Khan.^[3]

The Jiu Tang Shu says that Shegui widened the realm to the Altai in the east and to the sea in the west.^[4] All the states west of the Jade Gate served him, and he became the rival of the northern Göktürks.^[4] Then he set up his court on Sanmi Mountain. Not long after, he died.^[4] His younger brother Tong Yabgu followed him. He moved the court to the Thousand Springs north of Chach.^[5] The Tang histories name Sanmi for no other reign.^[5]

The tradition

The Tongdian, the Jiu Tang Shu, the Xin Tang Shu and the Zizhi tongjian give the sentence on Sanmi in nearly the same words.^[6] The Xin Tang Shu rewrites the Jiu Tang Shu here. The four passages go back to one account.

Location

Sanmi may lie in the valley of the Tekes, beyond the mountains north of Kucha.^[7] Ektag, the mountain where the Roman envoys had found Istemi and Tardush, would then lie in that region too.^[8]