Tola

The Tola flows through central Mongolia, east of the Orkhon. Together the two rivers mark the ground that a khan had to hold in order to be a khan. The monuments of the second khaganate stand on both rivers.

Two episodes of the second khaganate took place on the Tola. In his own inscription, Tonyukuk says that he crossed the Kök Öng and defeated the Oguz on the Tola. He fought with two thousand men against three.^[1] In 716 Kapgan Khan won a victory over the Bayirku on the Tola. He rode home carelessly, without keeping his order. A straggler beheaded him in a willow wood.^[2]

The Tariat inscription of the Uyghurs names a river Tuγla, with the Selenga of the eight branches and the Orkhon, among the waters of the khan’s own land.^[3] The form Tuγla is taken for the Tola.

References

^ Tonyukuk inscription; Tekin 1968, p. 285
^ Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 194
^ Şen 2008, p. 102–103

Sources

Tonyukuk inscription
Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 194

Literature

Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992)
Emre-E. Yavuz, The Gokturk Empire: 2nd Edition (2025)
Talât Tekin, A Grammar of Orkhon Turkic (1968)
Serkan Şen, Taryat yazıtının batı yüzünde mGLi ve mGL işaretleriyle yazılan sözcük nasıl okunup anlaşılmalı? (2008)