HISTORY OF THE CENTRAL ASIAN TURKS

 

The ethnogenesis of the Turkic peoples is, unfortunately, little understood. The Book of Wei (Wèi Shū), a classic Chinese historical text compiled by Wei Shou between 554 and 551 BCE, mentions the Tiĕlè (also called Chile, Gaoche, or Tele) 

people living to the west of the Xiongnu/Hsiung-nu of Mongolia, in the Altai Mountain region. The Tiele were a confederation of nine tribes, seen by most modern historians as the earliest identifiably Turkic peoples, with a common material culture and language. At one time, the Turks were believed to have arisen from the Xiongnu, but current theories regarding Turkic ethnogenesis tend to support a more complex process of social aggregation that includes assimilation between Mongolic (Xiongnu), Samoyedic (Dingling), Aryan (Tashtyk/Tagar and Wusun), Ugrian (Uar), and Tibetan (Tokharian) peoples. A mounting body of evidence indicates that the Hunnic peoples (see my Hun gallery) represent an intermediate stage in the ethnogenesis of the Turks. In the case of the Tiele, we now know that there was a massive migration of Samoyedic Dingling peoples from Siberia into western Mongolia and Central Asia during the Spring & Autumn period of Chinese history (771-476 BCE). These Dingling migrants assimilated with eastern Aryan and Mongolic groups already living in western Mongolia and central Asia.

 

The Tiele became subjects of the Xiongnu Empire (240 BCE-118 CE), but following the collapse of Xiongnu power in Mongolia—the Han Dynasty of China fought a successful war aimed at breaking up the Xiongnu hegemony (ca. 84-94 CE)—the Tiele briefly gained independence (ca. 118-429 CE), probably absorbing elements of their former Xiongnu overlords. The breaking of Xiongnu power in Central Asia culminated in the establishment of the Western Protectorates or Western Regions (Xíyù) by the Han Dynasty in the Tarim Basin, the breakup of the Xiongnu into a number of tribal polities (many of whom were settled in the northern provinces of China as vassals of the Han Dynasty), and the settling of as many as many as 100,000 Han colonists in the Tarim Basin. The collapse of Xiongnu power on the Mongolian Plateau was also precipitated by the rise of the Nirun Xianbei, another Mongolic people originating in Manchuria. The Nirun Xianbei first conquered the remnants of the Xiongnu on the Mongolian Plateau (ca. 85-155 CE), then the Tiele in western Mongolia and northeastern Kazakhstan (ca. 350-429 CE), and eventually they created an empire that stretched from Lake Balkhash in the west to Manchuria in the east. This empire was known as the Róurán/Jou-jan Khaganate (330-555 CE). It is likely that as Xianbei power spread into Central Asia (ca. 107-429 CE), this precipitated the westward migration of the Black Huns of northern Kazakhstan (eventually taking them into Europe) and the southward migration of the Blue Huns of eastern Kazakhstan (eventually taking them into Transoxania and Afghanistan). Those proto-Turkic peoples that remained in Kazakhstan, however, seem to have become an important constituent element of the Rouran Empire, leading to further cultural assimilation between the proto-Turkic and Mongolic peoples. Indeed, it is at this time that additional identifiably Turkic groups begin to emerge in the historical record (i.e., in addition to the Tiele), and the Ashina Clan also emerges as a powerful tribal dynasty. Certainly, Turkic warriors took part in the massive raids that ultimately destabilized the Jin Dynasty of China (265-420 CE), leading to the collapse of Early Imperial Chinese power in northern China. In a play on words, contemporary Chinese sources often refer to the armies of the Rouran/Jou-jan Khaganate as rúrú/juan-juan/ju-ju (literally, “bugs-bugs,” but often more descriptively translated as “wriggling insects”)—a reference to the way Rouran raiders swarmed through the Chinese countryside like a plague of insects. 

 

By the first half of the sixth century CE, the Turkic tribes had grown in power and importance such that they were able to challenge Nirun hegemony in Central Asia. In 546 CE the Tiele and Uyghur tribes revolted against Nirun leadership of the empire. The head of the Ashina Clan, Bumin Khan, took it upon himself to crush the rebellion in the name of the Nirun khagan, Yujiulü Anagui (520-552 CE). Once accomplished, Bumin sent an emissary to the Nirun court requesting a reward—a Nirun princess in marriage. What Bumin received was a strongly worded rebuke, Anagui asserting that Bumin was little more than a “slave” doing his duty, and that he deserved no such lofty reward. As might be expected, Bumin was offended by this rather impolitic rebuff of a loyal vassal, and raised the banner of revolt himself. From 547 to 551 CE the Ashina clan welded the Turkic tribes into a cohesive rebel alliance, allying themselves with the northern Chinese state of Wei against the Nirun. On 10 March 552 CE Bumin decisively defeated the army of Yujiulü Anagui at the Battle of Huaihuang. Anagui committed suicide to avoid capture (probably a wise decision), and Bumin declared himself illig kayan (“great emperor”) of the Turkic Khaganate (Türk Xanlïqï) of the Celestial Turks (Kök Türk). The name Kök Türk is often mis-translated as “Blue Turks.” This is innacurate, the Old Turkic word for “blue” being mavi. The confusion stems from the fact that the emperors of the Kök Türk Khaganate (552-744 CE) used the color symbolism prevalent in Central and East Asia to identify their regime—colors often being used to designate cardinal directions, spacial orientations (e.g., right, left, or center), and/or cosmological concepts (e.g., elements, divine attributes, etc.). In this scheme, blue was the color of the sky and thus sacred to the sky god Tengri, patron god of the ruling Ashina clan (the name Ashina probably being derived from the Aryan term āššɪna, “deep blue”). So, while it is true that the imperial symbolism of the Kök Türk Khaganate associated the dynasty with the color blue, this was only symbolic of a deeper meaning that connected the ruling clan with the cult of heavenly ordained rule (blue = sky = celestial = heavenly mandated), but the literal translation of Kök Türk is “Celestial Turks,” not “Blue Turks.” The Chinese also referred to the Kök Türks as the Tujue. The Kök Türk Khaganate is also best seen as a successor state to the Rouran Empire, the Ashina clan replacing the Nirun as the ruling elites of much the same empire.

 

Although Bumin died later in the year of his great victory over the Nirun at Huaihuang (552 CE), his sons Issiq (552-553 CE), Muqan (554-572 CE), and Taspar (572-581 CE) succeeded him—each in turn—as khagan, each working to expand Kök Türk hegemony against the Hephthalites in southern Central Asia; against the Khitans in Manchuria; and against the Kyrgyz in southern Siberia (the Kyrgyz were likely a mix of Samoyed Dingling peoples and the Tashtyks). Of particular importance, Kök Türk expansion to the south (Transoxania-Sogdiana and the Tarim Basin) and west (the Kazakh steppes) were to have major repercussions, giving the Kök Türks a virtual stranglehold on trade through Central Asia (the trade routes that would later be called “the Silk Road”). To this end, the campaigns of Bumin's brother, Istämi, were pivotal. Istämi was given the title Yabyu (“Pioneer”), also rendered Yabgu/Jabgu/Djabgu, an office roughly equivalent to viceroy, and provided with substantial forces to operate autonomously against the Hephthalites. In this, the Kök Türks found powerful allies in the Sassanid Dynasty of Persia. Istämi carried out his mission with spectacular success, smashing Hephthalite power in Central Asia, establishing the Turks as overlords of many of the city-states of southern Central Asia, and pushing Kök Türk hegemony further west onto the Ural-Caspian steppe. Although Istämi died in 576 CE, the Kök Türks continued their westward expansion across the Pontic-Caspian steppes, their armies ranging as far as the Crimea (i.e., the northern shores of the Black Sea). This westward expansion coincides roughly with the incursion of the Avars into Europe (ca. 567-804 CE)—although definitive evidence is lacking, many historians believe the Avars were driven westwards by the Kök Türks (see my Hunnic Peoples gallery). Regardless, the Avar migration/conquest brought Turkic military technologies (e.g., stirrups and high-cantled saddles) to Europe. By about 590 CE the Kök Türk Khaganate reached its furthest extent. In the west the Kök Türks maintained a nebulous presence on the Pontic-Caspian steppes, but the Kazakh steppes (between the Caspian Sea and Lake Balkhash) was firmly within the empire, its southern border delimited by the Oxus River (with Sassanid Persia on the other side) and its northern border probably reaching to the forest-steppe transition zone in Siberia. In the east Kök Türk hegemony encompassed southern Siberia (inhabited by the Turko-Tungusic Kïrghïz), Manchuria (inhabited by the Mongolic Khitans), Mongolia (inhabited by the Mongolic Xianbei), and parts of northern China (inhabited by a mix of Xiongnu, Tibetan, and Chinese peoples). The southern border was defined by the Tarim Basin city-states (i.e., Tokharia).

 

Following the death of Taspar Khagan, the Ashina clan split over the succession, and a civil war followed that led to the division of the empire into eastern and western khaganates. Taspar had named Muqan's son, Daluobian (Apa Khagan, 581-587 CE), as his successor, but he was opposed by the high council of Turk clan leaders (kurultay/kurultai) who wished to place Shapolo (Ishabara Khagan, 581-587 CE), son of Issiq, on the throne. The machinations of the Sui Dynasty of China (581-618 CE) helped to prolong the civil war by playing different Turkic factions off each other, ultimately creating two more rival claimants (for a total of four rival khagans), including Tardu son of Istämi (who had inherited his father's position as yabyu of the newly conquered western regions) and Anluo son of Taspar (khagan, 581 CE). Ultimately, the western half of the empire broke away under Tardu Khagan (581-603 CE), who founded the Onuq/Onoq Khaganate (581-659 CE)—the name of the western khaganate comes from the Old Turkic, on okh, meaning “ten arrows,” a reference to the administrative reforms of Ishbara Khagan (634-639 CE), who recognized the five leading khans of each of the empire's two main tribal confederations as vassals (shad), each receiving a golden arrow as a badge of office. However, the Onuq Khaganate always lacked political unity, being divided into a western confederacy ruled by the Dulo clan and an eastern confederacy ruled by the Nushibi clan. The Dulo clan's territory stretched across the Pontic-Caspian steppes, the constituent tribes of the confederacy primarily consisting of the Bulgars (a Hunnic group), Avars (another Hunnic group), and Alans (western Aryan nomads), along with later Turkic arrivals such as the Hazarlars (who settled north of the Caucasus Mountains), the Kimeks (who settled north of the Caspian Sea), and the Basmyls (who settled along the forest-steppe transition zone east of the Ural Mountains). The Nushibi clan dominated the Kazakh steppe between the Caspian Sea and Lake Balkhash, the constituent tribes of the confederacy being the Kangars, the Tölash, and the Türgesh. The khagans ruled from the Sogdian city of Suyab, directly administering the territories of Sogdiana and the Tarim Basin, an indication of how important control of the Silk Road had become to the western khagans. The city-states were inhabited by a combination of Sogdians (an Iranian group related to the Persians), Huns (Xionites and Hephthalites), Tokharians (a Tibetan people), and Han Chinese, although the Turkic Karluks dominated the adjacent steppe lands to the north of Sogdiana (i.e., the southern Kazakh steppe), and the Turkic Chigils took up residence around Lake Issyk-kul region. However, Onuq control of the Silk Road oases proved to be a double-edged sword—it both enriched the Turks and brought them into conflict with the two other major regional powers, Sassanid Persia and Tang Dynasty China, each of whom sought to remove the Turks as middlemen. The Sassanians fought a long series of ultimately inconclusive campaigns against Turkic dominion over Sogdiana, echoes of which are preserved in the great Persian epic, Shahnameh—an entertaining read, although highly mythologized (e.g., the Turks are often led by evil sorcerers in league with demons). The Tang had greater success, wresting the Tarim Basin from the Onuq Khaganate by 659 CE. Meanwhile, the western regions of the empire had already begun to break away—the Hazarlars/Khazars in 630 and the Bulgars in 632 CE—and from 659 to 681 CE the western khaganate collapsed into a maelstrom of competing tribal factions.    

 

In the east, the Eastern Kök Türk Khaganate (599-630 CE) was established following the victory of the Ishabara faction and the elevation of Rangan son of Ishabara as Yami Khagan (599-609 CE). Although the eastern khaganate had an auspicious start, it ultimately ran afoul of the same problems that brought down the western khaganate (i.e., tribal separatism and Tang enmity). Shibi Khagan (609-619 CE) invaded China in 615 CE, taking emperor Yáng Guǎng of Sui (604-618 CE) by surprise and trapping him in the city of Yanmen (ironically, he had been making a tour of the northern provinces overseeing the reconstruction of the Great Wall). Although the Turks lifted the siege when Chinese relief forces approached the city, the incident humiliated the emperor, who had beggared the empire to rebuild the Great Wall that had failed to stop the Turks. This and two disastrous wars against the Khitans in Manchuria and the Goguryeo/Koguryo Kingdom of northern Korea, led to the assassination of Yáng Guǎng and the fall of the Sui Dynasty. The succeeding Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) inherited both the throne and its problems securing the northern borders. In 626 CE Illig Khagan (620-630 CE) launched another series of incursions into China, including a drive on the capital at Chang'an that nearly succeeded, forcing emperor Taizong of Tang (626-649 CE) to conclude a humiliating peace treaty with the Turks that made Tang China a tributary state of the Eastern Kök Türk Khaganate (known to the Chinese as the Tujue). However, the winter of 627-628 CE was extremely harsh and long, with heavy snows and freezing winter storms across the Mongolian Plateau, freezing temperatures being reported as late as midsummer 628. The Turkic and Mongolic nomads' livestock (horses, cattle, sheep, goats) were unable to dig through the deep snows to feed, and the abnormally low temperatures took a heavy toll—there was a massive die-off of domestic animals. When Illig Khagan attempted to levy horses from his Tiele vassals in order to make up for his own losses in the harsh winter, the Tiele rebelled and, with the connivance of emperor Taizong of Tang, they were joined by the Uyghurs and Syr-Tardush. The Mongolic Khitans of Manchuria also took the opportunity to withdraw from Kök Türk hegemony at this time, becoming vassals of the Tang from 626-649 CE. On 27 March 630 CE, Illig Khagan was defeated by a Tang army at the Battle of Yinshan. He escaped but was later captured (2 May) and taken to Chang'an in chains. The Eastern Kök Türk Khaganate collapsed, many of the eastern Turk and Mongolic tribes becoming vassals of the Tang under the Jimi System.

 

Tang domination of the eastern Turks lasted until 681 CE, when the Ashina prince Kutluk repudiated Tang overlordship and declared himself Ilterish Khagan (681-693 CE) of the Second Kök Türk Khaganate (681-744 CE). Although Ilterish failed to bring the Khitans back into the fold, he received the submission of the Uyghurs, Syr-Tardush, Tiele, Tatars, Kyrgyz, and Toquz Oghuz. This put all of Mongolia and southern Siberia under Kök Türk hegemony, with the western border of the empire at Lake Balkhash and the southern border at the Great Wall—although the Turks were again in a position to raid the Silk Road, the Tang retained dominion over the Tarim Basin city-states. Qapaghan Khagan (694-716 CE) invaded the Kazakh steppe (west of Lake Balkhash), temporarily adding the Karluks, Chigils, Basmïls, and Türgesh to the khaganate. He then attempted to invade Sogdiana, his armies pushing as far south as the Sogdian city of Samarkand by 705 CE. However, between 712 and 713 CE the Umayyad Caliphate (661-750 CE)—the Islamic dynasty that had overthrown the Sassanids—pushed back, first stopping the Kök Türks at the Oxus River, then throwing them out of Sogdiana. In the east, Qapaghan Khagan encouraged the Khitans to attack the Tang, promising military aid, but when the Khitans were fully engaged with Tang forces on their southern border Qapaghan invaded Khitan territory from the west and ravaged Manchuria (ca. 696-697 CE). On 22 July 716 CE, while returning to the imperial capital at Ötüken following his suppression of a Tiele revolt, Qapaghan was ambushed and killed by the Toquz Oghuz, who sent his severed head to the Tang court in order to curry favor. The empire slowly declined thereafter, falling victim to internecine strife, numerous rebellions by subject tribes, and pressures from foreign powers. Inel Khagan (716-717 CE) was assassinated in a palace coup by a faction supporting his cousin, who took the throne as Bilge Khagan (717-734 CE). Bilge had a longer and more distinguished career, although he too was assassinated (poisoned). Bilge's assassins did not profit from his removal, being executed by his son and successor Yollig Khagan (734-39 CE). Bilge Kutluk Khagan (739-740 CE) was killed trying to put down a rebellion of one of his governors (shad), and Kutluk Yabgu Khagan (741-742 CE) met a similar fate when the Uyghurs and Karluks rebelled with the aid of the Basmïls. Özmiş Khagan (742-744 CE) attempted to bring the Uyghurs, Karluks, and Basmïls to heel, but the Tang supported the rebels and Özmiş was killed in battle versus the Basmïls (who sent his head to the Tang). His son and successor, Kulun Beg (744-745 CE), attempted to revive the Kök Türk Dynasty, but it was already too late. The Karluks were effectively independent from the reign of Bilge Kutluk Khagan; the Kyrgyz, Tatars, and Toquz Oghuz barely recognized Kök Türk suzerainty; and the Tang Dynasty of China had allied itself with the Uyghurs, who defeated Kulun Beg in battle, captured and beheaded him, and sent his head to the Tang (thus completing a grisly pattern that had characterized the end of the Kök Türk Dynasty). The remaining elements of the Ashina clan and its allies fled to various other Turkic tribal groups, where khans and khagans were glad to assimilate the clan, if only to lend their own dynastic line some of the legendary luster of the Kök Türk Dynasty.

 

The Uyghurs were the primary beneficiaries of the collapse of the Second Kök Türk Khaganate. Although the Uyghurs, Karluks, and Basmïls had been allies against the last of the Kök Türks, the Uyghurs and Karluks turned on the Basmïls in 744 CE and annihilated the tribe. Soon after, the Uyghurs and Karluks fell out, and the Karluks were forced to abandon their lands in western Mongolia to flee/migrate west of Lake Balkhash onto the Kazakh steppe. Following the death of Kulun Beg, the Uyghur khan, Qulliğ Boyla, took the title Qulliğ Bilge Köl Kaghan (744-747 CE), and founded the Uyghur Khaganate (744-848 CE). At that time, the Uyghurs were the undisputed masters of the Mongolian Plateau. Qulliğ was succeeded by his son, Bayanchur, who reigned as El Etmish Bilge Khagan (747-759 CE). Bayanchur formed a strong alliance with the Tang Dynasty of China by helping emperor Suzong of Tang to quell the An Lushan Rebellion (755-763 CE) and to repel a major Tibetan invasion (ca. 756 CE). In return for his services, Bayanchur was given a Tang princess to marry, sealing an alliance between the Uyghur and Tang imperial houses. The alliance brought serious material benefits to the Uyghur Khaganate, including an annual tribute (10,000 rolls of silk, later revised upward to 20,000 rolls), the right to build and operate several trade outposts along the Silk Road (and thus levy taxes on the goods passing through those outposts), tax-free status for Uyghurs within the Tang empire, and material aid (both supplies and allied troops) for use in a series of campaigns against the Oghuz, Kyrgyz, Karluks, Tatars, Türgish, and Chigils. In 759 CE, Bayanchur died (alcohol poisoning from drinking too heavily at a celebration for his victory over the Kyrgyz) and was succeeded by his son, Tengri Bögü, who took the regnal name Qulliğ Tarkhan Sengün Khagan (759-779 CE). The reign of Tengri Bögü ushered in a period of prosperity, territorial and commercial expansion, and cultural renaissance that is considered the golden age of the Uyghur Khaganate. Although Tengri Bögü continued his father's policies vis-a-vis Tang China, the Tang continued to suffer from internal discord, natural calamities, and foreign incursions (primarily the Tibetans). The Uyghurs, however, benefited from the weakness of their erstwhile allies, extending their hegemony into the Tarim Basin and establishing most-favored status in trade with the Sogdians. Indeed, a close commercial and diplomatic relationship between the Uyghurs and Sogdians was one of the defining features of the Uyghur Khaganate—immense wealth flowed into the Uyghur capital at Ordu-Balik (a.k.a., Karabalghasun), allowing the Uyghurs to transform it into one of the world's great imperial cities. The Uyghur script, one of the earliest written Turkic languages, became a kind of lingua franca for commerce and diplomacy throughout Central Asia. 

 

However, after about 789 CE the Uyghur Khaganate began to decline. The Kyrgyz had always been restive vassals, and with the rise of the Yenisei Kyrgyz Khaganate (800-1219 CE), the now-autonomous Kyrgyz posed a constant threat. The Empire of Tibet (618-841 CE) not only threatened the Tang, but put pressure on the Uyghurs in the Tarim Basin, and the growing power of the Tanguts (another Tibetan people descended from the ancient Xiang tribes) in western China challenged Tang-Uyghur control of the eastern terminals of the Silk Road. The Shātuó/Sha-t'o Dynasty (808-951 CE) of the Chigils threw off Uyghur dominion and dominated the Ordos region (northwest China/Inner Mongolia). Internally, the Uyghur Khaganate began to fracture along religious lines—although Manicheism (a dualistic and gnostic religion from Persia) became the official religion of the khaganate in 762 CE, it was opposed by Turkic traditionalists (who preferred Tengriistic shamanism). Politically, the court became divided against itself, with the increasing influence of Sogdian advisors being opposed by the traditionalist kuriltay (high council of clan leaders). Several coups toppled khagans of one faction or another (in 779, 832, and 839), and a climatic shift in north Asia caused a series of long cold winters that led to herd die-offs, famine, and disease. Following the coup of 839 CE, the losing faction, led by a court minister named Kulug Bagha, fled to the Yenisei Kyrgyz seeking succor. The Kyrgyz took the opportunity to invade with an army of 80,000 horsemen, storming and sacking the Uyghur capital at Ordu Baliq in 840 CE and ravaging Mongolia for the next eight years. The Uyghurs failed to unite to meet this threat, rival claimants to the khaganate continuing to fight each other, the Kyrgyz, and Tang Chinese border troops. The last legitimate khagan, Üge (841-848 CE), was assassinated, and the Uyghur people were scattered across Central Asia, leaving a social and political vacuum in Mongolia (the Kyrgyz had no interest in expanding beyond their traditional lands in southern Siberia, continuing to raid Mongolia, Manchuria, and the Kazakh steppe until defeated by Chingis/Chinghis Kha'an and incorporated into the Mongol Empire).

 

Two Uyghur tribal groups fleeing the fall of the Uyghur Khaganate were successful in setting up independent states in what had been Uyghur trade outposts on the Silk Road. The first, Uyghuria Gansu (848-1036 CE), was located in northwest China—it had been an important commercial center and gateway to the Silk Road under the Tang, and continued to be so under the Uyghurs. The Uyghurs settling there converted to Islam sometime in the later ninth century. Uyghuria Gansu was conquered by the Tanguts and incorporated into the Tangut Empire (1038-1227 CE)—known to the Chinese as the Xī Xià or Hsi Hsia (“Western Xiang” or “Western Chiang”) Dynasty. The second Uyghur successor state, Uyghuria Idikut/Idiqut (856-1335 CE), was established in the Tarim Basin and encompassed several cities—Qocho, Turpan/Turfan, Beshbalik, Kumul, and Kucha. It became a center of Buddhist, Manichean, and Uyghur culture, its cities important trade entrepôts along the Silk Road. In 1130 CE the kingdom became a tributary state of the Kara-Khitai (see my Khitans gallery), and in 1209 CE Uyghuria Idikut became a vassal state of the Mongol Empire (1206-1368 CE). It was conquered and incorporated into the Chagatai Khanate (1225-1687 CE), one of the successor states of the Mongol Empire, sometime between 1330 and 1390 CE, ceasing to be an independent state, although the Uyghurs continued to be an important ethnic group within the khanate and throughout Central Asia, and are still a major ethnic group in much of western China today.