Karluk Yabgu State

Rouran epoch Göktürk epoch Uyghur epoch Kirghiz epoch

Rouran First Göktürk Tang rule Second Göktürk Uyghur Kirghiz Huns Western Göktürk Türgesh Karluk Khazar

Rouran 400–554
First Göktürk 552–630
Tang rule 630–682
Second Göktürk 682–744
Uyghur 744–840
Kirghiz 840–924
Huns 370–469
Western Göktürk 552–659
Türgesh 699–766
Karluk 766–800
Khazar 650–969

In the sixth and seventh centuries the Karluks had been one of the peoples subject to the Göktürk khagans. In one account, members of the house of Ashina stood at their head. In the Second Khaganate, the Karluks joined the Uyghurs and the Toquz Oghuz in the uprising that ended the khaganate.^[1] After the Uyghurs became the ruling confederation of Mongolia in 744, the Karluks left their homeland between the western Altai and the Tarbagatai. They moved into the western Göktürk lands of Semirechye.^[2]

At the Battle of Talas in 751 they defected to the Arabs. By 766 they held the western capital Suyab and the city of Talas, having replaced the fading Türgesh as the dominant nomads.^[2] Another account dates the takeover of Semirechye to 766 and adds Kashgaria and, in part, Ferghana between 766 and 775.^[3] In it, the Karluks broke away from the Uyghurs but still acknowledged themselves as their vassals.^[3]

A yabgu led the confederation. The Karluk il-teber had been raised to this title after the fall of the Göktürks. The core of the confederation was three tribes or tribal groups, to which the Chigil and the Tukhsi probably came to belong.^[4]

The Uyghurs drove the Karluks out of Beshbalik in 791 and defeated them again in 792. After the Uyghur khaganate fell in 840, the Karluks gained control of some areas of Eastern Turkistan.^[5] The Karluk yabgu may then have claimed the khanship. In Gardizi’s tale the Karluk Yabgu takes the empire of the khan, and the title stayed with the Karluks.^[5]

A different account has the ruler of a Karluk union of the Yaghma, the Chigil and the Tukhsi proclaim himself khagan in 840, as a descendant of the Ashina.^[3] There were two khagans, and the Chigil one was the senior.^[3] The Yaghma may have been related to the Uyghur ruling house. They moved west after 840 and took the Kashgar region from the Karluks.^[6]

By the middle of the tenth century the realm extended from the Oghuz borders at Farab and Isfijab to Tibet, and from the Kimek lands on the Irtysh to the Samanid zone of Transoxiana. Its relation to the Karakhanid state is not clear.^[7]

Relations with other states

Red is war, blue alliance, gold trade. Where several held at once, the line shows what prevailed; alliance and trade can run side by side. Each line rests on an article. Point at a state to see its weightiest relation, select it to see its events. The slider shows what stood in a given year, and Play runs through the years.

Yenisei Kirghiz Khaganate758 to 840
- Alliance758 to 840the Karluks and the Kirghiz leaned on each other
- Marriage820the khan's wife, a daughter of a Karluk yabgu

References

^ Khazanov 1994, p. 259
^ a b c d Golden 1992, p. 196
^ a b c d Khazanov 1994, p. 260
^ a b Golden 1992, p. 197
^ a b Golden 1992, p. 198
^ Sümer 1972, p. 30
^ Golden 1992, p. 199
^ Golden 1992, p. 141

Literature

Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992)
Anatoly M. Khazanov, Nomads and the Outside World (1994)
Faruk Sümer, Oğuzlar (Türkmenler). Tarihleri, boy teşkilâtı, destanları (1972)