|
The Göktürks or Kök-Türks were a Turkic people of ancient Central Asia. Known in medieval Chinese sources as Tujue , the Göktürks under the leadership of Bumin Khan (d. 552) and his sons succeeded the Xiongnu as the main Turkic power in the region and took hold of the lucrative Silk Road trade.
The Göktürk rulers originated from the Ashina tribe, an Altaic people
who lived in the northern corner of the area presently called Xinjiang.
Under their leadership, the Göktürks rapidly expanded to rule huge
territories in north-western China, North Asia and Eastern Europe (as
far west as the Crimea). They were the first Turkic tribe known to use
the name "Turk" as a political name.
The state's most famous personalities other than its founder Bumin were
princes Kül Tigin and Bilge and the General Tonyukuk, whose life
stories were recorded in the famous Orkhon inscriptions.
Etymology
The name Tujue (like that of Ashina) appeared in Chinese sources
relatively late, the first record being dated 542 meaning "strong" or
"powerful".Kök-Türks is said to mean "Celestial Turks", but this is
contested. Alternate meanings are "Blue Turks", and "Numerous Turks";
as kök meant both "sky" and "blue" in the Köktürk language, and a
similar sounding word stands for "root". This is also consistent with
"the cult of heavenly ordained rule" which was a pivotal element of the
Altaic political culture before being imported to China.Similarly, the
name of the ruling Ashina dynasty probably derives from the Khotanese
Saka term for "deep blue", āšše(i)na.The name might also derive from a
Tungusic tribe related to Aisin.
According to the ancient East Asian cosmology outlined in the theory of
the Five Elements,to which the Turks have also ascribed since ancient
times, the color blue is a symbol representing the eastern direction,
and it is associated with good omens. The Guardian Deity of the Eastern
Direction is the Azure Dragon. Thus, it would not be surprising if the
Göktürks had chosen to call themselves "Blue Turks" in the primary
sense of "East Turks", with all the associated connotations of "first,"
"rising," "dawning," "auspicious," and so forth.
Origins
Four hundred years after the collapse of northern Xiongnu power in
Inner Asia, leadership of the Turks was taken over by the Göktürks
after rebelling against the Rouran. Formerly an element of the Xiongnu
nomadic confederation, the Göktürks inherited their traditions and
administrative experience. From 552 to 745, Göktürk leadership bound
together the nomadic Turkic tribes into an empire, which eventually
collapsed due to a series of dynastic conflicts. The great difference
between the Göktürk Khanate and its Xiongnu predecessor was that the
Göktürks' temporary khans from the Ashina clan were subordinate to a
sovereign authority that was left in the hands of a council of tribal
chiefs. The Khanate received missionaries from the Buddhists,
Manicheans, and Nestorian Christians, but retained their original
shamanistic religion, Tengriism. The Göktürks were the first Turkic
people to write their language in a runic script.
First unified empire
The Turks' rise to power began in 546 when Bumin Khan made a
pre-emptive strike against the Uyghur and Tiele tribes who were
planning a revolt against their overlords, the Rouran. For this service
he expected to be rewarded with a Rouran princess, i.e. marry into the
royal family. Disappointed in his hopes, Bumin allied with the Wei
state against Rouran, their common enemy. In 552, Bumin defeated the
last Rouran Khan, Yujiulü Anagui. He also subdued the Yenisei Kyrgyz
and the Khitans of Western Manchuria, was formally recognized by China,
and married the Wei princess Changle.
Having excelled both in battle and diplomacy Bumin declared himself
Il-Qaghan ("great king of kings") of the new Göktürk empire at Otukan,
the old Xiongnu capital, but died a year later. It was his son Mukhan
who consolidated his conquests into an empire of global reach. Bumin's
brother Istämi (d. 576) was titled yabghu of the west and collaborated
with the Persian Sassanids to defeat and destroy the White Huns, who
were allies of the Rouran. This war tightened the Ashina's grip of the
Silk Road and drove the Avars into Europe.
Istämi's policy of western expansion brought the Turks into Eastern
Europe. In 576 the Göktürks crossed the Cimmerian Bosporus into the
Crimea. Five years later they laid siege to Tauric Chersonesus; their
cavalry kept roaming the steppes of Crimea until 590. As for the
southern borders, they were drawn south of the Oxus River, bringing the
Ashina into conflict with their former allies, the Sassanids of Persia.
Much of Bactria (including Balkh) remained a dependency of the Ashina
until the end of the century. In 588 they were under the walls of Herat
but Bahram Chobin ably countered the invasion during the First
Perso-Turkic War.
In the eastern part of their extensive dominions, the Göktürk Empire
maintained close political ties with the Goguryeo Empire of Korea which
controlled southern Manchuria and the northern part of the Korean
Peninsula. Giving gifts, providing military support, and free trade
were some of the benefits of this close mutual alliance. Both rival
states in north China paid large tributes to the Göktürks from 581.
Civil war
This first Göktürk Empire split in two after the death of the fourth
Qaghan, Taspar Khan (ca. 584). He had willed the title Qaghan to
Mukhan's son Talopien, but the high council appointed Ishbara in his
stead. Factions formed around both leaders. Before long four rival
khans claimed the title of Qaghan. They were successfully played off
against each other by the Sui and Tang dynasties of China.
The most serious contender was the Western Khan, Istämi's son Tardu, a
violent and ambitious man who had already declared himself independent
from the Qaghan after his father's death. He now titled himself as
Qaghan, and led an army to the east to claim the seat of imperial
power, Otukan.
In order to buttress his position, Ishbara of the Eastern Khanate
applied to the Chinese Emperor Yangdi for protection. Tardu attacked
Changan, the Sui capital, around 600, demanding from Emperor Yangdi to
end his interference in the civil war. In retaliation, Chinese
diplomacy successfully incited a revolt of Tardu's Tiele vassal tribes,
which led to the end of Tardu's reign in 603. Among the dissident
tribes were the Uyghur and Syr-Tardush.
Dual empires
The civil war left the empire divided into the eastern and western
parts. The eastern part, still ruled from Ötüken, remained in the orbit
of the Sui Empire and retained the name Göktürk. The khans Shipi
(609-19) and Khieli (620-30) of the East attacked China at its weakest
moment during the transition between the Sui and Tang dynasties. All in
all, 67 incursions on Chinese territories were recorded.Khieli was
brought down by a revolt of his Tiele vassal tribes (626-630), allied
with Emperor Taizong of Tang. This tribal alliance figures in Chinese
records as the Huihe (Uyghur). After the Khan was taken prisoner, the
Tang dynasty had his empire divided into protectorates.
The Western khans Shekuei and Tung Yabğu constructed an alliance with
the Byzantine Empire against the Persian Sassanids and succeeded in
restoring the southern borders along the Tarim and Oxus rivers. Their
capital was Suyab in the Chui River valley, about 60 km east of modern
Tokmok. In 627 Tung Yabğu, assisted by the Khazars and Emperor
Heraclius, launched a massive invasion of Transcaucasia which
culminated in the taking of Derbent and Tbilisi (see the Third
Perso-Turkic War for details). In April 630 Tung's deputy Buri-sad sent
the Göktürk cavalry to invade Armenia, where his general Chorpan
Tarkhan succeeded in routing a large Persian force. Tung Yabğu's murder
in 630 forced the Göktürks to evacuate Transcaucasia.
The Western Turkic Khaganate was modernized through an administrative
reform of Ishbara-Qağan (reigned 634-639) and came to be known as the
Onoq.The name refers to "ten arrows" that were granted by the khagan to
five leaders (shads) of its two constituent tribal confederations, Tulu
and Nushipi, whose lands were divided by the Chui River.The division
fostered the growth of separatist tendencies, and soon the Bulgarian
tribes under the Dulo chieftain Kubrat seceded from the khaganate. In
657, the eastern part of the khaganate was overrun by the Tang general
Su Ding Fang, while the central part had emerged as the independent
khaganate of Khazaria, led by a branch of the Ashina dynasty.
In 659 the Tang Emperor of China could claim to rule the entire Silk
Road as far as Po-sse (Persia). The Turks now carried Chinese titles
and fought by their Side in their wars. The era spanning from 659-681
was characterized by numerous independent rulers - weak, divided, and
engaged in constant petty wars. In the east, the Uyghurs defeated their
one-time allies the Syr-Tardush, while in the west the Turgesh emerged
as successors to the Onoq.
Second empire
Despite all the setbacks, Ilteriş Şad (Idat) and his brother Bäkçor
Qapağan Khan (Mo-ch'o) succeeded in reestablishing the Khanate. In 681
they revolted against Chinese domination and, over the following
decades, steadily gained control of the steppes beyond the Great Wall
of China. By 705, they had expanded as far south as Samarkand and
threatened the Arab control of Transoxiana. The Göktürks clashed with
the Umayyad Califate in a series of battles (712-713) but, again, the
Arabs emerged as victors.
Following the Ashina tradition, the power of the Second Empire was
centered on Ötükän (the upper reaches of the Orkhon River). This polity
was described by historians as "the joint enterprise of the Ashina clan
and the Soghdians, with large numbers of Chinese bureaucrats being
involved as well".The son of Ilteriş, Bilge, was also a strong leader,
the one whose deeds were recorded in the Orkhon inscriptions. After his
death in 734 the empire declined. The Göktürks ultimately fell victim
to a series of internal crises and renewed Chinese campaigns.
When Kutluk Khan of the Uyghurs allied himself with the Karluks and
Basmils, the power of the Göktürks was very much on the wane. In 744
Kutluk seized Ötükän and beheaded the last Göktürk khagan Özmish Khan,
whose head was sent to the Chinese court.In a space of few years, the
Uyghurs gained mastery of Inner Asia and established the Uyghur
Khaganate.
|
