Göktürks

Template:Short description Template:Other uses Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox ethnic group The Göktürks (Template:Langx; Template:Lang-zh), also known as Türks, Celestial Turks or Blue Turks, were a Turkic people in medieval Inner Asia. The Göktürks, under the leadership of Bumin Qaghan (d. 552) and his sons, succeeded the Rouran Khaganate as the main power in the region and established the First Turkic Khaganate, one of several nomadic dynasties that would shape the future geolocation, culture, and dominant beliefs of Turkic peoples.

Etymology

Origin

A funerary depiction of long haired Türks in the Kazakh steppe. Miho funerary couch, circa 570.<ref>Template:Cite book "In the upper scene, long-haired Turkic servants attend an individual seated inside the yurt proper, and in the lower scene, hunters are seen riding down game. The setting must be the Kazakh steppes over which the Turks had taken control from the Hepthalites."</ref>

As an ethnonym, the etymology of Turk is unknown.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> It is generally believed that the name Türk may have come from the Old Turkic migration-term<ref>(Bŭlgarska akademii︠a︡ na naukite. Otdelenie za ezikoznanie/ izkustvoznanie/ literatura, Linguistique balkanique, Vol. 27–28, 1984, p. 17</ref>Template:Clarification needed Template:Langx, which means 'created, born'.<ref>Faruk Sümer, Oghuzes (Turkmens): History, Tribal organization, Sagas, Turkish World Research Foundation, 1992, p. 16)</ref>

As a word in Turkic languages, Turk may mean "strong, strength, ripe" or "flourishing, in full strength".<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> It may also mean ripe as for a fruit or "in the prime of life, young, and vigorous" for a person.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>

The name Gök-türk emerged from the modern Turkish reading of the word Kök as Gök with assumption of equivalence to "sky" in modern Turkish (Gök). The actual meaning of Kök in Kök-türk is debated due to single attestation, with differing opinions as "big, great"<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> or "blue" as a reference to Ashina, the endonym of the ruling clan of the historical ethnic group which was attested in Old Turkic as Template:Langx<ref name="Kultegin">Kultegin's Memorial Complex, Türik Bitig Orkhon inscriptions</ref><ref name="kaznpu.kz">Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Langx,<ref name="Kultegin" /><ref name="kaznpu.kz" /> or Template:Langx.<ref>Tonyukuk's Memorial Complex, Türik Bitig Bain Tsokto inscriptions</ref>

They were known in Middle Chinese historical sources as the Tūjué (Template:Lang-zh; reconstructed in Middle Chinese as *dwət-kuɑt > tɦut-kyat).Template:Sfn The ethnonym was also recorded in various other East Asian languages, Rouran To̤ro̤x/Türǖg, Manchu Tule/Turuhe, Korean 돌궐/Dolgwol, and Old Tibetan Drugu.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

In Indo-Iranian languages Turks were recorded under various forms. In Sogdian *Türkit ~ Türküt, tr'wkt, trwkt, turkt > trwkc, trukč; Khotanese Saka Ttūrka/Ttrūka, Middle Persian 𐭲𐭥𐭫𐭪𐭠𐭭 Türkān~Türk.

Definition

According to Chinese sources, Tūjué meant "combat helmet" (Template:Lang-zh), reportedly because the shape of the Altai Mountains, where they lived, was similar to a combat helmet.<ref name="Linghu Defen et al">Linghu Defen et al., Book of Zhou, Vol. 50. Template:In lang</ref><ref name="Wei Zheng et al">Wei Zheng et al., Book of Sui, Vol. 84. Template:In lang</ref><ref name="Li Yanshou">Li Yanshou (李延寿), History of the Northern Dynasties, Vol. 99. Template:In lang</ref> Róna-Tas (1991) pointed to a Khotanese-Saka word, tturakä 'lid', semantically stretchable to 'helmet', as a possible source for this folk etymology, yet Golden thinks this connection requires more data.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Göktürk is sometimes interpreted as either "Celestial Turk" or "Blue Turk" (i.e., because sky blue is associated with celestial realms).Template:Sfn This is consistent with "the cult of heavenly ordained rule" which was a recurrent element of Altaic political culture and as such may have been imbibed by the Göktürks from their predecessors in Mongolia.<ref>Wink 64.</ref> "Blue" is traditionally associated with the East as it used in the cardinal system of central Asia, thus meaning "Turks of the East".Template:Sfn The name of the ruling Ashina clan may derive from the Khotanese Saka term for "deep blue", āššɪna.Template:Sfn

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the word Türk meant "strong" in Old Turkic;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> though Gerhard Doerfer supports this theory, Gerard Clauson points out that "the word Türk is never used in the generalized sense of 'strong'" and that the noun Türk originally meant "'the culminating point of maturity' (of a fruit, human being, etc.), but more often used as an [adjective] meaning (of a fruit) 'just fully ripe'; (of a human being) 'in the prime of life, young, and vigorous'".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Hakan Aydemir (2022) also contends that Türk originally did not mean "strong, powerful" but "gathered; united, allied, confederated" and was derived from Pre-Proto-Turkic verb *türü 'heap up, collect, gather, assemble'.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The name as used by the Göktürks only applied to themselves (i.e. the Göktürk khanates), their subjects, and splinter groups. The Göktürks did not consider other Turkic speaking groups such as the Uyghurs, Tiele, and Kyrgyz to be Türks. In the Orkhon inscriptions, the Toquz Oghuz and the Yenisei Kyrgyz are not referred to as Türks. Similarly, the Uyghurs called themselves Uyghurs and used Türk exclusively for the Göktürks, whom they portrayed as enemy aliens in their royal inscriptions. Chinese historiographers transcribed the Khazars' name as Template:Transliteration Template:Lang and Template:Transliteration Template:Lang, whose element Template:Transliteration Template:Lang suggests that the Khazars might have kept the Göktürk tradition alive. When tribal leaders built their khanates, ruling over assorted tribes and tribal unions, the collected people identified themselves politically with the leadership. Turk became the designation for all subjects of the Turk empires. Nonetheless, subordinate tribes and tribal unions retained their original names, identities, and social structures. Memory of the Göktürks and the Ashina had faded by the turn of the millennium. The Karakhanids, Qocho Uyghurs, and Seljuks did not claim descent from the Göktürks.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Lee, Joo-Yup; Kuang, Shuntu (18 October 2017). "A Comparative Analysis of Chinese Historical Sources and Y-DNA Studies with Regard to the Early and Medieval Turkic Peoples". Inner Asia. Brill. 19 (2): p. 203 of 197–239.</ref><ref>Sui-Tang China and Its Turko-Mongol Neighbors, Page 34</ref>

History

Origins

Hunting scene from the Göktürk period, from Chaganka, Altai region, 5th-6th century CE<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Turkic horseman (Tomb of An Jia, 579 CE).<ref name="Baumer-2018">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Yatsenko-2009">Template:Cite journal</ref>

The Göktürk rulers originated from the Ashina clan, who were first attested to in 439. The Book of Sui reports that on 18 October 439, the Tuoba ruler Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei overthrew Juqu Mujian of the Northern Liang in eastern Gansu,<ref>Wei Shou, Book of Wei, Vol. 4-I. Template:In lang</ref><ref>Sima Guang, Zizhi Tongjian, Vol. 123. Template:In lang</ref><ref>永和七年 (太延五年) 九月丙戌 Academia Sinica Template:In lang Template:Webarchive</ref> whence 500 Ashina families fled northwest to the Rouran Khaganate in the vicinity of Gaochang.<ref name="Wei Zheng et al" />Template:Sfn

According to the Book of Zhou and History of the Northern Dynasties, the Ashina clan was a component of the Xiongnu confederation,<ref name="Linghu Defen et al" /><ref name="Li Yanshou" /> specifically, the northern Xiongnu tribes<ref>New Book of Tang, vol. 215 upper. "突厥阿史那氏, 蓋古匈奴北部也." "The Ashina family of the Turk probably were the northern tribes of the ancient Xiongnu." translated by Xu (2005)</ref><ref>Xu Elina-Qian, Historical Development of the Pre-Dynastic Khitan, University of Helsinki, 2005</ref> or southern Xiongnu "who settled along the northern Chinese frontier", according to Edwin G. Pulleyblank.Template:Sfn However, this view is contested.Template:Sfn Göktürks were also posited as having originated from an obscure Suo state (索國) (MC: *sâk) which was situated north of the Xiongnu and had been founded by the Sakas<ref>Harmatta, János, (1999), "A türkök eredetmondája", Magyar Nyelv, vol. 95(4): p. 391 of 385–396. cited in Golden (2018), "The Ethnogonic Tales of the Türks", p. 300</ref> or Xianbei.<ref>Vásáry, István (2007) Eski İç Asya Tarihi p. 99-100, cited Golden (2018), "The Ethnogonic Tales of the Türks", p. 300</ref><ref name="Linghu Defen et al" /><ref name="Li Yanshou" />Template:Sfn According to the Book of Sui and the Tongdian, they were "mixed Hu (barbarians)" (雜胡) from Pingliang (平涼), now in Gansu, Northwest China.<ref name="Wei Zheng et al" /><ref>杜佑, 《通典》, 北京: 中華書局出版, (Du You, Tongdian, Vol.197), 辺防13 北狄4 突厥上, 1988, Template:ISBN, p. 5401. Template:In lang</ref> Pointing to the Ashina's association with the northern tribes of the Xiongnu, some researchers (e.g. Duan, Lung, etc.) proposed that Göktürks belonged in particular to the Tiele confederation, likewise Xiongnu-associated,<ref name="Wei Zheng et al" /> by ancestral lineage.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> However, Lee and Kuang (2017) state that Chinese sources do not describe the Ashina-led Göktürks as descending from the Dingling or belonging to the Tiele confederation.<ref>Lee, Joo-Yup; Kuang, Shuntu (18 October 2017). "A Comparative Analysis of Chinese Historical Sources and Y-DNA Studies with Regard to the Early and Medieval Turkic Peoples". Inner Asia. Brill. 19 (2): p. 201 of 197–239.</ref>

Chinese sources linked the Hu on their northern borders to the Xiongnu just as Graeco-Roman historiographers called the Pannonian Avars, Huns and Hungarians, "Scythians". Such archaizing was a common literary topos, implying similar geographic origins and nomadic lifestyle but not direct filiation.Template:SfnTemplate:Page needed

As part of the heterogeneous Rouran Khaganate, the Turks lived for generations north of the Altai Mountains, where they 'engaged in metal working for the Rouran'.<ref name="Wei Zheng et al" /><ref>Sima Guang, Zizhi Tongjian, Vol. 159. Template:In lang</ref> According to Denis Sinor, the rise to power of the Ashina clan represented an 'internal revolution' in the Rouran Khaganate rather than an external conquest.Template:Sfn

According to Charles Holcombe, the early Turk population was rather heterogeneous and many of the names of Turk rulers, including the two founding members, are not even Turkic.Template:Sfn This is supported by evidence from the Orkhon inscriptions, which include several non-Turkic lexemes, possibly representing Uralic or Yeniseian words.Template:Sfn<ref>Vovin, Alexander. "Did the Xiongnu speak a Yeniseian language?". Central Asiatic Journal 44/1 (2000), pp. 87–104.</ref> Peter Benjamin Golden points out that the khaghans of the Turkic Khaganate, the Ashina, who were of an undetermined ethnic origin, adopted Iranian and Tokharian (or non-Altaic) titles.Template:Sfn German Turkologist W.-E. Scharlipp points out that many common terms in Turkic are Iranian in origin.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Whatever language the Ashina may have spoken originally, they and those they ruled would all speak Turkic, in a variety of dialects, and create, in a broadly defined sense, a common culture.Template:Sfn<ref>Lev Gumilyov, (1967), Drevnie Turki (Ancient Turks), p. 22-25</ref>

Expansion

Template:Main Template:Asia 576 CE The Göktürks reached their peak in the late 6th century and began to invade the Sui dynasty of China. However, the war ended due to the division of Turkic nobles and their civil war for the title of khagan. With the support of Emperor Wen of Sui, Yami Qaghan won the competition. However, the Göktürk empire was divided into eastern and western empires. Weakened by the civil war, Yami Qaghan declared allegiance to the Sui dynasty.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> When the Sui began to decline, Shibi Khagan began to assault its territory and even surrounded Emperor Yang of Sui at the Siege of Yanmen (615 AD) with 100,000 cavalry troops. After the collapse of the Sui dynasty, the Göktürks intervened in the ensuing Chinese civil wars, providing support to the northeastern rebel Liu Heita against the rising Tang in 622 and 623. Liu enjoyed a long string of success but was finally routed by Li Shimin and other Tang generals and executed. The Tang dynasty was then established.Template:Citation needed

Conquest by the Tang

Although the Göktürk Khaganate had once provided support to the Tang dynasty in the early period of the civil war during the collapse of the Sui dynasty, the conflicts between the Göktürks and the Tang broke out whilst the Tang were gradually reunifying China proper. The Göktürks began to attack and raid the northern border of the Tang Empire and once marched their main force of 100,000 soldiers to Chang'an, the capital of the Tang. Emperor Taizong of Tang, in spite of the limited resources at his disposal, managed to turn them back. Later, Taizong sent his troops to Mongolia and defeated the main force of Göktürk army in Battle of Yinshan four years later and captured Illig Qaghan in 630 AD.<ref name="Liu 劉-945">Template:Cite book</ref> With the submission of the Turkic tribes, the Tang conquered the Mongolian Plateau. From then on, the Eastern Turks were subjugated to China.<ref name="Liu 劉-945" />

After a vigorous court debate, Emperor Taizong decided to pardon the Göktürk nobles and offered them positions as imperial guards.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> However, the proposition was ended by a plan to assassinate the Emperor. On 19 May 639<ref>貞觀十三年 四月戊寅 Academia Sinica Template:Webarchive Template:In lang</ref> Ashina Jiesheshuai and his tribesmen directly assaulted Emperor Taizong at Jiucheng Palace (Template:Linktext, in present-day Linyou County, Baoji, Shaanxi). However, they did not succeed and fled north, but were caught by pursuers near the Wei River and were killed.<ref>Sima Guang, Zizhi Tongjian, Vol. 195. Template:In lang</ref> On 13 August 639, following Jiesheshuai's unsuccessful raid,<ref>貞觀十三年 七月庚戌 Academia Sinica Template:Webarchive Template:In lang</ref> Taizong installed Qilibi Khan and ordered the settled Turkic people to follow him north of the Yellow River to settle between the Great Wall of China and the Gobi Desert.<ref>Ouyang Xiu et al., New Book of Tang, Vol. 215-I.</ref> However, many Göktürk generals still remained loyal in service to the Tang Empire.

Bust of Kul Tigin (684–731) found in Khashaat, Arkhangai Province, Orkhon River valley, modern-day Mongolia.

Revival

Template:Main In 679, Ashide Wenfu and Ashide Fengzhi, who were Turkic leaders of the Template:Interlanguage link (單于大都護府), declared Ashina Nishufu qaghan and revolted against the Tang dynasty.<ref name="Sima Guang">Sima Guang, Zizhi Tongjian, Vol. 202 Template:In lang</ref> In 680, Pei Xingjian defeated Ashina Nishufu and his army. Ashina Nishufu was killed by his men.<ref name="Sima Guang" /> Ashide Wenfu made Ashina Funian a qaghan and again revolted against the Tang dynasty.<ref name="Sima Guang" /> Ashide Wenfu and Ashina Funian surrendered to Pei Xingjian. On 5 December 681,<ref>開耀元年 十月乙酉 Academia Sinica Template:Webarchive Template:In lang</ref> 54 Göktürks, including Ashide Wenfu and Ashina Funian, were publicly executed in the eastern market of Chang'an.<ref name="Sima Guang" /> In 682, Ilterish Qaghan and Tonyukuk revolted and occupied Heisha Castle (northwest of present-day Hohhot, Inner Mongolia) with the remnants of Ashina Funian's men.<ref>Sima Guang, Zizhi Tongjian, Vol. 203 Template:In lang</ref> The restored the Göktürk Khaganate and intervened in the war between the Tang and Khitan tribes.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> However, after the death of Bilge Qaghan, the Göktürks could no longer subjugate other Turkic tribes in the grasslands. In 744, allied with the Tang dynasty, the Uyghur Khaganate defeated the last Göktürk Khaganate and controlled the Mongolian Plateau.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Rulers

Template:Main The Ashina tribe of the Göktürks ruled the First Turkic Khaganate, which then split into the Eastern Turkic Khaganate and the Western Turkic Khaganate, and later the Second Turkic Khaganate, controlling much of Central Asia and the Mongolian Plateau between 552 and 745. The rulers were called "qaghans".

Religion

A Turk (center) mourning the Buddha, surrounded by Tocharians. Kizil Caves, Mingoi, Maya cave, 550–600 CE.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Their religion was polytheistic. The great god was the sky, Tengri, who dispensed the viaticum for the journey of life (qut) and fortune (ulug) and watched over the cosmic order and the political and social order. People prayed to him and sacrificed to him a white horse as the offering. The khagan, who came from him and derived his authority from him, was raised on a felt saddle to meet him.

Tengri issued decrees, brought pressure to bear on human beings, and enforced capital punishment, often by striking the offender with lightning. The many secondary powers – sometimes named deities, sometimes spirits or simply said to be sacred, and almost always associated with Tengri were the Earth, the Mountain, Water, the Springs, and the Rivers; the possessors of all objects, particularly of the land and the waters of the nation; trees, cosmic axes, and sources of life; fire. The symbol of the family and alterego of the shaman; the stars, particularly the sun and the moon, the Pleiades, and Venus, whose image changes over time.

Umay, the mother goddess who is none other than the placenta; the threshold and the doorjamb; personifications of Time, the Road, Desire, etc.; heroes and ancestors embodied in the banner, in tablets with inscriptions, and in idols; and spirits wandering or fixed in Penates or in all kinds of holy objects. These and other powers have an uneven force which increases as objects accumulate, as trees form a forest, stones form a cairn, arrows form a quiver, and drops of water form a lake.<ref>Asian Mythologies by Yves Bonnefoy, Page 315</ref>

Legacy

Members of the Turk-lead Ashina dynasty also ruled the Basmyls,<ref>Zizhi Tongjian Vol. 212, cited in Zuev Yu.A., Horse Tamgas from Vassal Princedoms (translation of 8-10th century Chinese Tanghuyao), Kazakh SSR Academy of Sciences, Alma-Ata, 1960, p. 104, 132 Template:In lang</ref><ref>Klyashtorny, S.G. "The Polovcian Problems (II)" in Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, Vol. 58, No. 3, Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Mediaeval History of the Eurasian Steppe: Szeged, Hungary May 11—16, 2004: Part III (2005). p. 245</ref><ref>Golden, Peter B. An Introduction to the History of Turkic Peoples, p. 142-143</ref> and the Karluk Yabghu State;<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and possibly also the Khazars<ref>Pritsak, Omeljan (September 1978). "The Khazar Kingdom's Conversion to Judaism" (PDF). Harvard Ukrainian Studies. II (3): 261–281.</ref><ref>Golden, Peter Benjamin (2007a). "Khazar Studies: Achievements and Perspectives". In Golden, Peter B.; Ben-Shammai, Haggai; Róna-Tas, András (eds.). The World of the Khazars: New Perspectives. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Vol. 17. BRILL. pp. 7–57. ISBN 978-90-04-16042-2.</ref> and Karakhanids (if the first Karakhanid ruler Bilge Kul Qadir Khan indeed descended from the Karluk Yabghus).<ref>"Karluk Yabghu State (756-940)" Qazaqstan Tarihy. quote: "In 840, in the Central Asian steppes an important event occurred. The Yenisei Kyrgyz invasion destroyed the Uighur Khaganate, forcing the Uighurs to flee to Turfan oasis and to Gansu [original article mistakenly has Guangzhou]. The Karluk Djabgu and the ruler of Isfijab, Bilge Kul Qadeer-Khan, took advantage of the situation and proclaimed himself as a sovereign ruler and assumed a new title of Khagan."</ref> According to some researchers, the Second Bulgarian Empire's Asen dynasty might be descendants of Ashina.<ref>Sychev N. V., (2008), Книга династий, p. 161-162</ref> The Kyrgyz subgroup of Türkatalar claim to be direct descendants of the Göktürks and to have inherited their name.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

See also

• Göktürk family tree
• Horses in East Asian warfare
• Khazars
• Timeline of the Turkic peoples (500–1300)
• Silver Deer of Bilge Qaghan

In popular culture

• Kürşat, fictional character based on Göktürk prince Ashina Jiesheshuai
• Göktürk-1, Göktürk-2, Göktürk-3 satellites named after Göktürks
• Gokturk exoplanet named after Gökturks

Sources

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