22 articles
Sources
One article per source work.
- Bei Qi Shu (Book of Northern Qi) Official history of the Northern Qi, largely lost and made good from the Bei Shi; juan 8 read at the text for this work.
- Bei Shi (History of the Northern Dynasties) A compilation covering the northern dynasties; not an independent witness.
- Bilge Khan inscription Runiform monument for Bilge Khan on the Orkhon, parallel to the Kül Tegin inscription in its historical section; the passages that are its own are given here.
- Bugut inscription A stone of about 584 on a stone tortoise at Bugut in central Mongolia, inscribed in Sogdian with a Brahmi text on the reverse and a wolf figure at its top: the earliest monument of the Göktürk state, held to commemorate Taspar Khan, and the earliest attestation of the name Ashina outside the Chinese histories.
- Dīvān Lughāt al-Turk minimal Mahmud al-Kashgari's dictionary of the Turkic languages, compiled at Baghdad in the 1070s; the fullest record of Turkic vocabulary and lore before the Mongol period.
- Han Shu minimal Dynastic history of the Former Han, compiled in the first century; its chapter 94 is the fullest early account of the Xiongnu.
- Hou Han Shu minimal Dynastic history of the Later Han, compiled in the fifth century; its chapter 89 carries the southern Xiongnu and the campaigns of 89 to 91 against the northern Chanyu.
- Irk Bitig minimal Old Turkic book of omens in runiform script; a Dunhuang manuscript of the ninth or tenth century.
- Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang) The first official history of the Tang, completed 945; the principal Chinese source for the western Göktürk after 618, the Ten Arrows and the Türgesh.
- Kül Tegin inscription Runiform monument of 732 on the Orkhon, given here in full on all three Turkic faces: the history of the Göktürk state, the service record of one man, and a speech to the living.
- Menander Protector A contemporary Greek history, surviving in fragments; the source for Göktürk contact with Byzantium.
- Movsēs Dasxurancʿi The Armenian History of the Caucasian Albanians, which records the mission of Bishop Israyēl to the Huns north of Derbent in 681–682 and names their ruler Alp Ilitʿuer — the earliest attestation of the title Ilteber outside the Chinese records.
- Shahnameh Ferdowsi's Persian verse epic, completed about 1010, four centuries after the events; in this work's account the only narrative source for the war of 588, with Bahram's arrow and the twelve thousand against three hundred thousand.
- Shiji minimal Sima Qian's history, completed around 91 BC; its chapter 110 is the earliest sustained account of the Xiongnu.
- Sui Shu (Book of Sui) The official history of the Sui and the principal Chinese source for the western wing.
- Tabari Arabic universal history of the early tenth century, whose Sasanian section carries the Persian tradition on the Göktürk wars: the king Šāba, 'the greatest king of the Turks', and his defeat by Bahram Chobin.
- Theophylact Simocatta Byzantine history of the reign of Maurice, 582 to 602, written under Heraclius; the Greek witness to the Göktürk civil war, to the war of 588, and to Göktürk religion.
- Tonyukuk inscription Runiform monument of two stones at Bain Tsokto on the upper Tola, sixty-two lines in which the counsellor of the first three khans of the Second Göktürk Khaganate tells, in the first person, how the state was restored; given here in full.
- Wei Shu Dynastic history of the Northern Wei, compiled by Wei Shou and presented in 554; its chapter 103 is the principal Chinese account of the Rouran from Mugulü to Anagui and of the Gaoche, read at the text in this work, and its chapter 9 carries the Six Garrisons revolt.
- Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang) The second official history of the Tang, completed 1060; for the Uyghurs and the Kirghiz the companion of the Jiu Tangshu, briefer, less precisely dated, and drawing on it.
- Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou) The official history of the Northern Zhou and the earliest sustained account of the Göktürk.
- Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance) An eleventh-century chronicle compiling the earlier histories; useful for chronology, not for attestation.