Türgesh

The Türgesh, Turgish or Türgish (Old Turkic: 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰏𐰾:𐰉𐰆𐰑‎, romanized: Türügeš budun, lit. 'Türgesh people'[1] 突騎施/突骑施, Pinyin: tūqíshī, Wade–Giles: t'u-ch'i-shih; Old Tibetan: Du-rgyas[2]) were a Turkic tribal confederation. Once belonging to the Duolu wing of the Western Turkic On Oq elites, Turgshes emerged as an independent power after the demise of the Western Turks and established a khaganate in 699. The Turgesh Khaganate lasted until 766 when the Karluks defeated them. Turgesh and Göktürks were related through marriage.[3]

Türgesh Khaganate 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰏𐰾
699–766
Status	Khaganate
Capital	Balasagun Suyab
Common languages	Old Turkic
Religion	Tengrism
Türgesh Kagans
• 699-706	Üch Elig
• ca. 750-766	Ata Boyla Qaghan
Historical era	Early Middle Ages
• Established	699
• Disestablished	766
Preceded by Succeeded by Western Turkic Khaganate Second Turkic Khaganate Karluk Yabghu Oghuz Yabgu State

Tribal Composition

By the 7th century, two or three sub-tribes were recorded: "Yellow" Sarï Türgesh tribe Alishi (阿利施) and the "Black" Qara Türgesh tribe(s) 娑葛 (Suoge < *Soq or *Saqal) - 莫賀 (Mohe < *Bağa).[4][5] To the Black Türgesh sub-tribe, Chebishi (車鼻施) (*Čavïš), belonged 8th century Türgesh chor and later khagan Suluk.[6][7][8][9] The Turgesh Khaganate also contained Western Turkic remnants: Suluk's subordinate Kül-chor belonged to the Duolu tribe Chumukun (處木昆), who lived south of Lake Balkash between Türgesh and Qarluq lands.[10][11][12] Tang general Geshu Han was of Duolu Turgesh extraction[13] and bore the Nushibi tribal surname Geshu (阿舒).[14] Chinese historians, when naming the Duolu Turk tribes, might have mentioned Khalajes alongsides Türgesh, under the common appellation 突騎施-賀羅施 (Mand. Tūqíshī-hèluóshī; reconstructed Old Turkic *Türgeš-Qalač).[15]

Timeline

Foundation of the Turgesh Khaganate

Prior to independence, the Turgesh were ruled by a subordinate tutuk, later shad, of the Western Turkic Khaganate's Onoq elites. Turgesh leaders belonged to Duolu division and held the title chur. A Turgesh commander of the Talas district and the town of Balu possesses a name symbolizes some sacred relation to a divine or heavenly sphere. The first Turgesh Kaghan Wuzhile (Chinese transcription 烏質 Wuzhi means "black substance") was a leader of a Manichaean consortium known as yüz er "hundred men". He established the Turgesh Khaganate in 699. In 703, the Turgesh captured Suyab from the Tang dynasty.[16] In 706 his son Saqal succeeded him. Both khagans had a church rank of Yuzlik according to Yuri Zuev.[17]

Saqal attacked the Tang city of Qiuci (Kucha) in 708 and inflicted a defeat on the Tang in 709. However Saqal's younger brother Zhenu rebelled and sought military support from Qapagan Khaghan of the Second Turkic Khaganate in 708. Qapaghan Khagan defeated the Turgesh in 711 in Battle of Bolchu and killed both Saqal and Zhenu.[18] The defeated Turgesh fled to Zhetysu. In 714 the Turgesh elected Suluk as their khagan.

Timeline of Suluk

Map of Transoxiana in the 8th century

In 720 Turgesh forces led by Kül-chor defeated Umayyad forces led by Sa'id ibn Abdu'l-Aziz near Samarkand.[19]

In 722 Suluk married the Tang Princess Jiaohe.[19]

In 724 Caliph Hisham sent a new governor to Khorasan, Muslim ibn Sa'id, with orders to crush the "Turks" once and for all, but, confronted by Suluk on the so-called "Day of Thirst", Muslim hardly managed to reach Samarkand with a handful of survivors, as the Turgesh raided freely.[20]

In 726 the Turgesh attacked Qiuci (Kucha).[16]

In 727 the Turgesh and the Tibetan Empire attacked Qiuci (Kucha).[16]

In 728 Suluk defeated Umayyad forces while aiding the Sogdians in rebellion and took Bukhara.[20]

In 731 the Turgesh defeated the Umayyads again in the Battle of the Defile.[21]

In 735 the Turgesh attacked Ting Prefecture (Jimsar County).[22]

In the winter 737 Suluk, along with his allies al-Harith, Gurak (a Sogdian leader) and men from Usrushana, Tashkent and Khuttal attacked the Umayyads. He entered Jowzjan but was defeated by the Umayyad governor Asad at the Battle of Kharistan.[16]

Kül-chor

Following his defeat Suluk was murdered by his relative Kül-chor. When Suluk was killed the Kara and Sary (Black and Yellow) Turgesh began a civil war. Kül-chor of the Sary Turgesh vanquished his rival Tumoche of the Kara Turgesh. In 740 Kül-chor submitted to the Tang dynasty but rebelled anyway when he killed the Turgesh puppet sent by the Tang court in 742. He was then defeated and executed by the Tang in 744. The last Turgesh ruler declared himself a vassal of the recently established Uyghur Khaganate. In 766 the Karluks conquered Zhetysu and ended the Turgesh Khaganate.[23]

Legacy

Tuhsi and Azi might be remnants of the Türgesh, according to Gardizi,[24] as well as Khalaj,.[25][26][27] Even so, it's unclear whether the ethnonym Tuhs is of Turkic origin;[28] meanwhile the Azi were proposed to be originally Yeniseian-speaking.[29] The Turgesh-associated tribe Suoge, alongsides Chuyue and Anqing, participated in the ethnogenesis of Shatuo Turks.[30][31] A late-7th century Uyghur chief was surnamed Türgesh[32]

According to Baskakov, the ethnonym Türgesh survives in the name of the seok Tirgesh among Altaians.[33]

List of Türgesh Khagans

1. Wuzhile (699-706)
2. Suoge (706-711)
3. Suluk (716-738)
4. Kut Chor (738-739)
5. Kül Chor (739-744)
6. El Etmish Kutluk Bilge (744-749)
7. Yibo Kutluk Bilge Juzhi (749-751)
8. Tengri Ermish (753-755)
9. Ata Boyla (750s - 766)

References

1. Bilge kagan’s Memorial Complex, TÜRIK BITIK
2. Venturi, Federica (2008). "An Old Tibetan document on the Uighurs: A new translation and interpretation". Journal of Asian History. 1 (42): 30.
3. Muharrem Ergin, (1975), Orhun Abideleri, p. 80 (in Turkish
4. • Stark, Sören. "Türgesh Khaganate, in: Encyclopedia of Empire, ed. John M. McKenzie et al. (Wiley Blackwell: Chichester/Hoboken 2016)". Cite journal requires |journal= (help). p. 2122
5. François THIERRY, "Three Notes on Türgesh Numismatics", Proceedings of the Symposium on Ancient Coins and the Culture of the Silk Road, Sichou zhi lu guguo qianbi ji Silu wenhua guoji xueshu yantaohui lunwenji 絲綢之路古國錢幣暨 絲路文化國際學術研討會 論文集, Shanghai Bowuguan, décembre 2006, Shanghaï 2011, 413-442.
6. Zizhi Tongjian, vol 211
7. Tuqishi 突騎施, Türgiš from chinaknowledge.de - An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History, Literature and Art
8. History of civilizations of Central Asia. Dani, Ahmad Hasan., Masson, V. M. (Vadim Mikhaĭlovich), 1929-, Harmatta, J. (János), 1917-2004., Litvinovskiĭ, B. A. (Boris Abramovich), Bosworth, Clifford Edmund., Unesco. (1st Indian ed.). Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. 1992–1999. p. 346. ISBN 8120814096. OCLC 43545117.CS1 maint: others (link)
9. Inaba, M. "Nezak in Chinese Sources?" Coins, Art and Chronology II. Ed. M. Alram et.al. (2010) p. 191-202
10. Grousset 1970, p. 115. sfn error: no target: CITEREFGrousset1970 (help)
11. Gibb 1923, p. 91. sfn error: no target: CITEREFGibb1923 (help)
12. Skaff 2012, pp. 180, 386. sfn error: no target: CITEREFSkaff2012 (help)
13. Xiong, Victor Cunrui (2016). Capital Cities and Urban Form in Pre-modern China: Luoyang, 1038 BCE to 938 C. Asian States and Empires (Book 13). Routledge. p. 151.
14. Kenzheakhmet, Nurlan (2014). ""Ethnonyms and Toponyms" of the Old Turkic Inscriptions in Chinese sources". Studia et Documenta Turcologica. II: 303.
15. Stark, Sören. "Türgesh Khaganate, in: Encyclopedia of Empire, ed. John M. McKenzie et al. (Wiley Blackwell: Chichester/Hoboken 2016)". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
16. Bregel 2003, p. 18.
17. A., Zuev, I︠U︡. (2002). Rannie ti︠u︡rki : ocherki istorii i ideologii. Daĭk-Press. Almaty. ISBN 978-9985-441-52-7. OCLC 52976103.
18. Yu. Zuev, "Early Türks: Essays on history and ideology", Almaty, Daik-Press, 2002, p. 207, 209, 239, ISBN 9985-4-4152-9
19. Golden 1992, p. 140.
20. Asimov 1998, p. 25.
21. Shaban 1979, p. 113.
22. Bregel 2003, p. 19.
23. Asimov 1998, p. 33.
24. Yu. Zuev. (2002) Early Turks: Sketches of history and ideology Almaty. p. 153 (in Russian)
25. Gumilyov, L. Searches for an Imaginary Kingdom: The trefoil of the Bird's Eye View' Ch. 5: The Shattered Silence (961-1100)
26. Pylypchuk, Ya. "Turks and Muslims: From Confrontation to Conversion to Islam (End of VII century - Beginning of XI Century)" in UDK 94 (4): 95 (4). In Ukrainian
27. Minorsky, V. "Commentary" on "§17. The Tukhs" in Ḥudūd al'Ālam. Translated and Explained by V. Minorsky. pp. 300-304
28. Minorsky, V. "Commentary" on "§17. The Tukhs" in Ḥudūd al'Ālam. Translated and Explained by V. Minorsky. pp. 300
29. BARTHOLD Wilhelm, 12 Vorlesungen über die Geschichte der Türken Mittelasiens, Berlin, Arthur Collignon, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Islamkunde, 1935, p. 37
30. Golden, Peter Benjamin (1992). "An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples: Ethnogenesis Ans State Formation in the Medieval and Early Modern Eurasia and the Middle East". Turcologica. 9. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 978-3-447-03274-2. p. 165
31. Atwood, Christopher P. (2010). "The Notion of Tribe in Medieval China: Ouyang Xiu and the Shatup Dynastic Myth". Miscellanea Asiatica: 693–621.
32. Golden, Peter B. The Turkic Word in Mahmud al-Kashgari, p. 530. note 138
33. Baskakov N.A., "Dialects of Taiga Tatars, Taba-kishi. Texts and translations", Moscow, 1965, p.9

Bibliography

• Asimov, M.S. (1998), History of civilizations of Central Asia Volume IV The age of achievement: A.D. 750 to the end of the fifteenth century Part One The historical, social and economic setting, UNESCO Publishing
• Barfield, Thomas (1989), The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China, Basil Blackwell
• Bregel, Yuri (2003), An Historical Atlas of Central Asia, Brill
• Golden, Peter B. (1992), An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples: Ethnogenesis and State-Formation in Medieval and Early Modern Eurasia and the Middle East, OTTO HARRASSOWITZ · WIESBADEN
• Millward, James (2009), Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang, Columbia University Press
• Shaban, M. A. (1979), The ʿAbbāsid Revolution, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-29534-5
• Stark, Sören (2016). "Türgesh Khaganate". In McKenzie, John M.; Dalziel, Nigel R.; Charney, Michael W.; Doumanis, Nicholas (eds.). Encyclopedia of Empire, Volume IV: S–Z. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell. pp. 2122–2127.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Xiong, Victor (2008), Historical Dictionary of Medieval China, United States of America: Scarecrow Press, Inc., ISBN 978-0810860537, ASIN 0810860538
• Xue, Zongzheng (薛宗正). (1992). Turkic peoples (突厥史). Beijing: 中国社会科学出版社. ISBN 978-7-5004-0432-3; OCLC 28622013

External links

• Turgish Khanate