Ashina
Encyclopedia
Ashina was a tribe and the ruling dynasty of the ancient Turks
who rose to prominence in the mid-6th century when their leader, Bumin Khan
, revolted against the Rouran
. The two main branches of the family, one descended from Bumin and the other from his brother Istemi
, ruled over the eastern and western parts of the Göktürk empire, respectively.
, by a Japanese team of philologists has proven that the name, known only with the Chinese transcription of Ashina, was in fact Ashinas
. It is in fact known in later Arabic sources under this form.
, the Ashina were related to the northern tribes of the Xiongnu
. As early as the 7th century, four theories about their mythical origins were recorded by the Book of Zhou
, Book of Sui
and Youyang Zazu:
These stories were sometimes pieced together to form a chronologically narrative of early Ashina history. However, as the Book of Zhou, the Book of Sui, and the Youyang Zazu were all written around the same time, during early Tang Dynasty
, whether they could truly be considered chronological or rather should be considered competing versions of the Ashina's origin is debatable. These stories also have parallels to folktales and legends of other Turkic peoples, for instance, the Uyghurs and the Wusun
.
The record of Turks in Zhoushu (written in the first half of 7th century) describes the usage of gold in Turks around mid-5th century: (The Turks) inlaid gold sculpture of wolf head on their flag; their military men were called Fuli, that is, wolf in Chinese; It is because they are descendant of the wolf, and naming so is for not forgetting their ancestors.
confederations. About 460 they were subjugated by the Rouran, who ousted them from Xinjiang
into the Altay Mountains
, where the Ashina gradually emerged as the leaders of the early Turkic confederation, known as the Göktürks. By the 550s, Bumin Khan
felt strong enough to throw off the yoke of the Rouran domination and established the Göktürk Empire, which flourished until the 630s and from 680s until 740s. The Orkhon Valley
was the centre of the Ashina power.
After the collapse of the Göktürk empire under pressure from the resurgent Uyghurs
, branches of the Ashina clan moved westward to Europe, where they became the kaghan
s of the Khazars
and possibly other nomadic peoples with Turkic roots. According to Marquart, the Ashina clan constituted a noble caste throughout the steppes. Similarly, the Bashkir historian and Turkolog Zeki Validi Togan described them as a "desert aristocracy" that provided rulers for a number of Eurasia
n nomadic empire
s. Accounts of the Göktürk and Khazar khaganates suggest that the Ashina clan was accorded sacred, perhaps quasi-divine
status in the shamanic religion practiced by the steppe nomads of the first millennium CE.
It is very interesting, that in 12-13 centuries the Mongolian tribe Chonos
, (Tribe of Wolf) was supposed to be sacred - for example, when Jamuha took 70 Chonos-prisoners, he killed them by boiling without bloodshed.
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
who rose to prominence in the mid-6th century when their leader, Bumin Khan
Bumin Khan
Bumin Qaghan or Illig Qaghan was the founder of the Turkic Khaganate...
, revolted against the Rouran
Rouran
Rouran , Mongolia name Jujan or Nirun Ruanruan/Ruru , Tan Tan , Juan-Juan or Zhu-Zhuwas the name of a confederation of nomadic tribes on the northern borders of Inner China from the late 4th century until the middle 6th century...
. The two main branches of the family, one descended from Bumin and the other from his brother Istemi
İstemi
İstemi is a common masculine Turkish given name. In Turkish, "İstemi" means "Conquerror of the Sky".-Real People:* İstemi, the Yabgu of the western part of the Göktürks, the Western Turkic Khaganate ....
, ruled over the eastern and western parts of the Göktürk empire, respectively.
Name
The recent re-reading of the Bugut inscription, the oldest inscription of the Ashina dynasty, written in SogdianSogdian language
The Sogdian language is a Middle Iranian language that was spoken in Sogdiana , located in modern day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan ....
, by a Japanese team of philologists has proven that the name, known only with the Chinese transcription of Ashina, was in fact Ashinas
Ashinas
Abu Ja'far Ashinas was a general of the Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tasim, possibly of the sacred clan of the First Turkic empire, transcribed in Chinese as Ashina 阿史那. While a folk etymology of his name is given in al-Tabari, al-Mu'tasim gave him the first rank among his Turkish generals and a text of...
. It is in fact known in later Arabic sources under this form.
Origins and legends
According to the New Book of TangNew Book of Tang
The New Book of Tang , is a classic work of history about the Tang Dynasty edited by Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi and other official scholars of the Song Dynasty. The emperor called for a revision of the former Book of Tang in 1044. The New Book was presented to the throne in 1060. It was given its...
, the Ashina were related to the northern tribes of the Xiongnu
Xiongnu
The Xiongnu were ancient nomadic-based people that formed a state or confederation north of the agriculture-based empire of the Han Dynasty. Most of the information on the Xiongnu comes from Chinese sources...
. As early as the 7th century, four theories about their mythical origins were recorded by the Book of Zhou
Book of Zhou
The Book of Zhou was the official history of the Chinese/Xianbei dynasty Northern Zhou, and it ranks among the official Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was compiled by the Tang Dynasty historian Linghu Defen and was completed in 636...
, Book of Sui
Book of Sui
The Book of Sui was the official history of the Chinese dynasty Sui Dynasty, and it ranks among the official Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was compiled by a team of historians led by the Tang Dynasty official Wei Zheng and was completed in 636.-External links:* of the Book of Sui,...
and Youyang Zazu:
- Ashina was one of ten sons born to a grey she-wolf (see AsenaAsenaAsena is the name of one of the ten sons, whom mythical female wolf gave birth to, in old Turkic mythology. It is associated with a Göktürk ethnogenic myth "full of shamanic symbolism"...
) in the north of GaochangGaochangGaochang is the site of an ancient oasis city built on the northern rim of the inhospitable Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang, China. A busy trading center, it was a stopping point for merchant traders traveling on the Silk Road...
. - The ancestor of the Ashina was a man from the Suo nation, north of XiongnuXiongnuThe Xiongnu were ancient nomadic-based people that formed a state or confederation north of the agriculture-based empire of the Han Dynasty. Most of the information on the Xiongnu comes from Chinese sources...
, whose mother was a wolf, and a season goddess. - The Ashina were mixture stocks from the Pingliang commandery of eastern GansuGansu' is a province located in the northwest of the People's Republic of China.It lies between the Tibetan and Huangtu plateaus, and borders Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia to the north, Xinjiang and Qinghai to the west, Sichuan to the south, and Shaanxi to the east...
. - The Ashina descended from a skilled archerArcheryArchery is the art, practice, or skill of propelling arrows with the use of a bow, from Latin arcus. Archery has historically been used for hunting and combat; in modern times, however, its main use is that of a recreational activity...
named Shemo, who had once fallen in love with a sea goddess west of Ashide cave.
These stories were sometimes pieced together to form a chronologically narrative of early Ashina history. However, as the Book of Zhou, the Book of Sui, and the Youyang Zazu were all written around the same time, during early Tang Dynasty
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
, whether they could truly be considered chronological or rather should be considered competing versions of the Ashina's origin is debatable. These stories also have parallels to folktales and legends of other Turkic peoples, for instance, the Uyghurs and the Wusun
Wusun
The Wūsūn were a nomadic steppe people who, according to the Chinese histories, originally lived in western Gansu in northwest China west of the Yuezhi people...
.
The record of Turks in Zhoushu (written in the first half of 7th century) describes the usage of gold in Turks around mid-5th century: (The Turks) inlaid gold sculpture of wolf head on their flag; their military men were called Fuli, that is, wolf in Chinese; It is because they are descendant of the wolf, and naming so is for not forgetting their ancestors.
History
The name Ashina first appeared in the Chinese records of the 6th century, and prior to that no other sources had related their history at all. The Great Soviet Encyclopaedia infers that between the years 265 and 460 the Ashina had been part of various late XiongnuXiongnu
The Xiongnu were ancient nomadic-based people that formed a state or confederation north of the agriculture-based empire of the Han Dynasty. Most of the information on the Xiongnu comes from Chinese sources...
confederations. About 460 they were subjugated by the Rouran, who ousted them from Xinjiang
Xinjiang
Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...
into the Altay Mountains
Altay Mountains
The Altai Mountains are a mountain range in East-Central Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan come together, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob have their sources. The Altai Mountains are known as the original locus of the speakers of Turkic as well as other members of the proposed...
, where the Ashina gradually emerged as the leaders of the early Turkic confederation, known as the Göktürks. By the 550s, Bumin Khan
Bumin Khan
Bumin Qaghan or Illig Qaghan was the founder of the Turkic Khaganate...
felt strong enough to throw off the yoke of the Rouran domination and established the Göktürk Empire, which flourished until the 630s and from 680s until 740s. The Orkhon Valley
Orkhon Valley
Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape sprawls along the banks of the Orkhon River in Central Mongolia, some 360 km west from the capital Ulaanbaatar. It was inscribed by UNESCO in the World Heritage List as representing evolution of nomadic pastoral traditions spanning more than two millennia...
was the centre of the Ashina power.
After the collapse of the Göktürk empire under pressure from the resurgent Uyghurs
Uyghur people
The Uyghur are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China...
, branches of the Ashina clan moved westward to Europe, where they became the kaghan
Kaghan
Kaghan is a small town and union council of the Balakot Tehsil, in Mansehra District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It has a reputation as a place of great natural beauty....
s of the Khazars
Khazars
The Khazars were semi-nomadic Turkic people who established one of the largest polities of medieval Eurasia, with the capital of Atil and territory comprising much of modern-day European Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the northern Caucasus , parts of...
and possibly other nomadic peoples with Turkic roots. According to Marquart, the Ashina clan constituted a noble caste throughout the steppes. Similarly, the Bashkir historian and Turkolog Zeki Validi Togan described them as a "desert aristocracy" that provided rulers for a number of Eurasia
Eurasia
Eurasia is a continent or supercontinent comprising the traditional continents of Europe and Asia ; covering about 52,990,000 km2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres...
n nomadic empire
Nomadic empire
Nomadic empires, sometimes also called Steppe Empires, Central or Inner Asian Empires, are the empires erected by the bow-wielding, horse-riding, nomadic peoples in the Eurasian steppe, from Classical Antiquity to the Early Modern era .The nomadic or semi-nomadic Cimmerians, Avars, Magyars,...
s. Accounts of the Göktürk and Khazar khaganates suggest that the Ashina clan was accorded sacred, perhaps quasi-divine
Divinity
Divinity and divine are broadly applied but loosely defined terms, used variously within different faiths and belief systems — and even by different individuals within a given faith — to refer to some transcendent or transcendental power or deity, or its attributes or manifestations in...
status in the shamanic religion practiced by the steppe nomads of the first millennium CE.
It is very interesting, that in 12-13 centuries the Mongolian tribe Chonos
Chonos tribe
Chonos, one of the Mongolian tribes, can be found in Kalmykia, Buryatia and Irkutskaya province in the Russian Federation, in Mongolia, and in the People's Republic of China. The name of the tribe translates as "wolves" or "wolf's", and it is one of the most ancient Mongolian tribes. It is else...
, (Tribe of Wolf) was supposed to be sacred - for example, when Jamuha took 70 Chonos-prisoners, he killed them by boiling without bloodshed.
See also
- AsenaAsenaAsena is the name of one of the ten sons, whom mythical female wolf gave birth to, in old Turkic mythology. It is associated with a Göktürk ethnogenic myth "full of shamanic symbolism"...
- Oghuz TurksOghuz TurksThe Turkomen also known as Oghuz Turks were a historical Turkic tribal confederation in Central Asia during the early medieval Turkic expansion....
- Timeline of Turks (500-1300)
- History of the TurksHistory of the TurksThe term Turk may refer to either the Turkic peoples is general, on a specific one of these peoples, typically the Turkish people:* History of the Turkish people* History of the Turkic peoples...
- Mythology of the Turkic and Mongolian peoples