Last time, we saw how the Ashina Turks had managed to establish a new lifestyle among other Turkic groups in the immediate Altai Region between Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Russia and China. But now, it is time to analyze how exactly the Ashina under the leadership of Bumin managed to not only make other Turkic tribes their subordinates, but shortly thereafter even overthrow the once mighty Rouran Khaganate and create the mysterious Göktürk Empire. Part 2 of our series about the Rise of the Gokturks.

Excerpt from *The Gokturks:* *Origins, Religion and Rapid Rise of the First Turkic Empire* by Emre-E. Yavuz, pp. 53-80, modified October ‘22 version.

Pictured on the right: Göktürk noblemen, depicted with their typical long braids, celebrating with a Sogdian nobleman, depicted on the right, ca. 565 CE.

In the first year 545, when the Tiele were just preparing their third rebellion, Bumin kept political distance from the troublemakers. But instead of doing nothing, as his father may have, he moved south. With a considerable army of steppe warriors in tow, he paid a second visit to the Chinese cultural area with the intention of supposedly plundering their cities and grabbing booty for his clan on the Altai. Until this event, none of the available sources reports any raids by the Ashina families against China in the hundred years since their arrival at the Altai with the exception of one passage in the already cited Book of Zhou. However, these annals were written over a period of almost 80 years. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that the Chinese wanted to retroactively attribute to the Turks something that did not take place in this way or that happened later. Forays had actually been commonplace even before the emergence of the Xiongnu, because while the nomads in northern Asia had food, metals or horses in their homeland available, they had little or no access to coveted luxury goods such as silk. This luxury good was exclusively processed by the sedentary peoples in the warmer southern regions. However, since the Ashina did not live in the Mongolian steppe but in the Altai mountains and were in active contact with the traders from the south, it does not lack a certain logic that they considered such raids "unnecessary". All the more astonishing then appears Bumin's "raid" of 542.

The Chinese cultural sphere is often abbreviated in this book as China, which simply means everything south of the Mongolian steppe. This term refers to the geographical and cultural conditions. It should be noted, however, that there had not been a politically unified China since the aforementioned Han Empire. In northern China at that time, two large families ruling which actually descended from the ancient Huns. This so-called Tuoba family (Turkish Tabgaç) had later divided into several dynasties. Now, in late antiquity, for several decades the Western Wei and the Northern Qi were hostile to each other and by this time they had already been sinicized. This means that the ruling families had adopted Chinese traditions, rites, and of course language, and cultivated them in the courts of their empires. The most important characteristic, however, was their sedentariness. In Chinese historiography, the Wei and Qi are counted among the Northern and Southern Dynasties, which brought about consolidated Chinese states again after the chaotic era of the Sixteen Kingdoms (304-439 CE). For our history, it is significant that the once unified Northern China, extending geographically from the Yellow River in the north to the so-called Qinling-Huaihe line in the south, was ruled by the Northern Wei Dynasty. In 534, however, the empire declined, and henceforth the Western Wei ruled over the western part of northern China, and the Northern Qi over the eastern part. However, do not be confused by these terminologies. When Bumin arrived in northern China, he was dealing with individual, quite powerful representatives of the Wei and the Qi. We should just keep in mind that both families were of Hunnic or Turkic origin and flanked by the Rouran to the north and northwest. The following map gives us a good overview of the geopolitical situation in 545.

The geopolitical situation in Eurasia between the years 450 and 546. The entire steppe belt was basically divided among autonomous Turkic tribes of the Ogur federation in Ukraine, the White Huns near the Aral Sea, the Rouran Khaganate in the east and independent Hunnic tribes in-between. The Ashina, clearly, were just a minor group among many states and state-like political entities in Late Antiquity.

Bumin sought out the territory of the Wei, as it was geographically closest. He had by now increased the prestige of the Ashina within the Rouran Khaganate, maintained an acceptable relationship with Anagui and dared without remorse to invade Chinese territory, capture valuable goods and retreat to the steppes. Or so it seemed. The Chinese, as the sources tell us, took the danger from Bumin seriously. To forestall his campaign, a certain Yuwen Tai was sent on a diplomatic mission by the Wei emperor. Tai was the chancellor of the Wei, a kind of supreme official who could also act as commander-in-chief of the army thanks to certain political powers. He sent a certain Nanai-Banda, a Sogdian from Bukhara, to the Altai. Nanai-Banda's goal was to establish trade relations with the Ashina, both to stop the incursions and to allow economic profit. For the Wei were well aware of the large number of weapons and armaments produced by the Ashina. Moreover, probably the most important commodity that the Turks could have sold was traded in the form of horses. Based on these accounts, we can assume that Bumin had invaded Wei territory at least once and then retreated. Bumin agreed. The decision should not surprise us. After all, trading with the Wei allowed him to get his hands on valuable Chinese silk without detours by, say, Sogdian traders who demanded certain prices and without the need to go on costly plundering campaigns every year. From a geopolitical point of view, Bumin may have provoked this deal. But what if the Ashina wanted to gain the Wei Empire as an ally in the fight against the Rouran from the very beginning? This is pure speculation on my part, of course, but it does seem unusual for a semi-nomadic clan to make such a deal with a sedentary empire in such a short time and without pre-existing relations. Moreover, since the Tiele were preparing their rebellion, and Bumin had demonstrably learned of it beforehand, we can assume that he reported it to the Wei. Why? This can be explained by subsequent events. In any case, this anecdote covers the economic component of Bumin's rise to stardom.

In the following year 546 the Tiele rebellion broke out, this time actually threatening Rouran rule. Anagui had been in power for nearly three decades and aged. Relations with the neighboring White Huns, who ruled over a broad swath from Central Asia to India, had once borne witness to friendship. Both great empires posed a military threat to the Western Wei and their ambitions of a unified China. By the mid-6th century, however, these relations were on hold thanks in part to a disruption of Rouran-Hunnic relations by Wei agents seeking to diminish Rouran power. Anagui was de facto on his own, his rule tarnished. But the Khagan unexpectedly received help from Bumin. He told Anagui about the Tiele attempt, then gathered his retinue and a large army and marched west. The young Turk advanced with his Ashina warriors into what is now Kazakhstan and crushed the Tiele uprising. It is said that shortly thereafter he brought 250,000 Tiele soldiers under his control. This is highly unusual. First, the official liege of both factions continued to be a certain Anagui; there was a branch situated in-between the Khagan and the lesser lords. Second, there is the question of how Bumin managed to defeat such a numerically larger army when his own clan is said to have been comparatively in the minority. Perhaps the Chinese sources reporting the event exaggerated or were misunderstood. It is quite possible that the figure of 250,000 that repeatedly appears in history books referred to the total number of potential warriors of the Tiele, not to the army that fought against Bumin in the field. Otherwise, these accounts imply that the Ashina were either a) valiant warriors with superhuman strength or b) already comprised a larger clan than just their own family members, with the others accepting Bumin as their Yabgu, their leader, as I have already indicated in my theory above. It seems logical to consider possibility b).

Once again, we have found evidence that the Ashina clan already included a larger number of members than just their own family members, and that they all accepted the Ashina leader as their leader. If the actual number of the Tiele army should have been clearly smaller, e.g. 100,000 instead of 250,000 men, then now the victory of the Ashina can be better understood. In addition, there is a Chinese source, which states the man strength of the Tiele after all with "only" 50,000. Why and how a clan, which had been producing its own weapons and armor for a century and which still under the supremacy of an emperor independently established relations with a Chinese state (!), could defeat such a loosely organized group as the Tiele in the battle of 546 seems self-explanatory by now. Economic capacities were already being expanded upon. Now the Ashina clan was also increasing its military might. The capabilities of the Turks in general increased day by day. Bumin's self-confidence must have increased accordingly, so much so that he actually placed himself between his Khagan and the Tiele in the political hierarchy without the Khagan's blessing, Bumin was obeyed by tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of steppe warriors. Thus we have internalized the military component in the rise of the Gokturks as well.

Bumin had warned Anagui of the Tiele's revolt in advance and put it down with his own hands. On paper, he had protected his liege lord from an attempted coup. Therefore, in his view, he was entitled to collect a quid pro quo in return. Bumin sent an envoy to the court of Anagui in Mumocheng after his overwhelming victory. But Bumin did not want to be given gold or goods and instead asked the Khagan for the hand of his daughter. His self-confidence was now at its peak, evident to any observer including his new Chinese allies. The Yabgu of the Ashina wanted to marry into the Rouran dynasty. A shrewd move which would have injected him into the Yujiulü dynasty. And since the Rouran rule of succession only included male successors, Bumin could theoretically have become a successor to Anagui. Possibly, he could thus eventually reach the throne or at least exert influence over the rest of the Yujiulü nobility. But to accept Bumin – a Turk! – as the rightful heir, and even to have a half-Turkic grandchild, was out of the question for Anagui. For his part, he sent an envoy to Bumin's court in the Altai and had the following words conveyed:

““You are my slave and blacksmith! How dare you utter such words?””

— Anagui Khagan to Bumin in 546 CE.

Anagui openly regarded Bumin as a lowly slave blacksmith. By saying that he was a blacksmith for the Rouran, the Khagan had not yet entered dangerous territory. For it is documented that some Ashina members supplied weapons to the Khagan, perhaps they were forced to do so. But the word slave hit a sore spot. To clarify, the term was not meant literally by Anagui as Bumin was not literally owned by the Khagan. Instead, Anagui alluded to the fact that the Ashina were politically under the Rouran and had to obey the Khagan and his family. A well-known Turkish saying "haddini bil!" ("know your place [in the hierarchy]!") would be a more appropriate translation for our understanding. Bumin simply should not dare to aspire to higher political offices. In this respect, Anagui's message was a rebuke and an insult, since Bumin had just done the Khagan a great favor. And that is the political component of Bumin's rise.

Three factors thus play a role in Bumin's rise and the creation of the Gokturk Empire. The young Turk had created military capabilities that posed a threat to his liege. He had established economic relations with a Chinese empire, thus securing revenues for steppe goods and the exchange or supply of goods even apart from silk. And he was rebuked by Anagui at the last, while he sought more political power. It is evident that Bumin was always willing to test his limits in the process, and it is quite possible that he and his Ashina clan were merely stumbling from event to event, from one stage of the play to the next. But could it be that Bumin had secretly achieved his actual goal? Let us recapitulate the previous events of 545 and 546: Bumin, as leader of the Ashina clan, learns of a rebellion by the Tiele. He warns Anagui of this revolt, then leaves for China and independently establishes economic relations with the Western Wei. Bumin then returns and marches to Kazakhstan with a band of warriors to suppress the Tiele single-handedly. When Bumin returns and asks for the hand of Anagui's daughter, he is not rewarded but rebuked. As a Yabgu of the Ashina, he should have expected the Khagan's reaction. When, in response to the Khagan's insult, he had the envoys of Anagui executed on the spot and all relations with the Rouran severed, he was most likely not acting out of an emotional outburst but political calculation. However, for the period between the years 546 and 551, no evidence of Ashina activities is recorded. Accordingly, Bumin must have instructed his kinsmen to gradually leave the Rouran court in Mongolia and to cease all supplies to the Rouran, for several years passed before the first confrontation. During this time, surrounding (Turkic) tribes joined the cause of Bumin, possibly due to the prosperity-led perspective through trade with China. However, there is an interesting claim regarding the waiting game of Bumin towards the Rouran. In a study on the conditions of climatic catastrophes on the course of Gokturk history, Gamiev and Kukarskhih list that in the period 536 to 545 extreme climatic conditions appeared that would have literally influenced the course of history. Since the nomadic societies of Eurasia had rarely if ever accumulated food and fodder, climatic catastrophes meant socioeconomic ruin. A disadvantage compared to the sedentary peoples who could save and store their harvests for bad days. Researchers were able to identify events around the world for the above time period that had an unfavorable impact on crops in Eurasia. China was also affected and, as is known, divided into the Western Wei and Northern Qi Empires in the affected northern part of the country. The steppe peoples further north could make political use of this fact, but they had to wait for the normalization of food supply in cattle breeding. Therefore, it can be assumed that Bumin waited to attack Anagui in order to be able to mobilize its forces logistically as well. This would explain the absence of any records in the otherwise precise Chinese chronicles.

The next recorded event took place in the early 550s, probably in 551. Remember: a few years earlier, the Western Wei had approached the Ashina and established economic relations. Now Bumin sent a diplomatic mission on his part to the Chang'an court. He asked for a marriage on his part with one of the princesses of the Tuoba dynasty. If the Rouran would not bequeath him a wife, he would have to look elsewhere. And not surprisingly, Yuwen Tai as chancellor of the Wei granted Bumin's request. Tai dispatched Changle, a young daughter of the emperor, to the Altai. The marriage between Bumin and Changle took place on June 17, 551. The Wei emperor died shortly thereafter. Bumin, now allied with the Wei, sent 200 well-bred horses from the Eurasian steppe to the Wei court as a token of sympathy. Which emperor was Princess Changle's father, however, is disputed. In 551 Emperor Fei, and after his death Emperor Gong, ruled over the empire. However, Changle's name is not recorded under either emperor. It is also not known who her mother was. Could Changle have been the daughter of a lower nobleman who had agreed to the marriage in agreement with the emperor? Since the Tuoba dynasty of the Wei the had Turkic origins, the Ashina-Wei alliance could have consisted of much more than realpolitik. Thus, Grousset summarized the situation as follows:

“Bumin then allied himself with the Wei dynasty, a dynasty of the T’o-pa (Tuoba), thus presumably of Turkish origin [...] Although completely Sinicized, the T’o-pa were perhaps not insensitive to this Turkish blood relationship. In any case, they had to be happy about this alliance which threatened their old enemies, the Mongolian Juan-Juan (Rouran), in their back [...]. ”

— Grousset (1970), 131.

The alliance of the two families was now complete and with the Tiele warriors in reserve Bumin began a revolt of his own against Anagui. The mobilization of his revolutionary army included the warriors of all the tribes integrated by the Ashina since 546. After six years of preparation, the Ashina went to war against their liege. Bumin's army defeated the Rouran forces twice. First in January 552 in a small battle on the Altai-Mongolia border, and between February and March in a major battle north of Huaihuang near China. The defeat was so crushing that Anagui committed suicide and his family fled to the south. The Rouran were forced to retreat from the steppe and found refuge with the Northern Qi, rivals of the Wei. Another part of the Rouran fled towards Europe, as already mentioned. There were about 20,000 members of the Rouran in the territory of the Avars.

Bumin now ascended to the vacant post of ruler, took the title of Illig Khagan and founded his own empire, the Empire of Turk. Princess Changle became Khaghatun, or Hatun, a fellow empress, and the Ashina the new ruling dynasty of the Eurasian Steppe belt. Within six years, Bumin had accomplished what the Ashina and other Turkic tribes had not in six hundred years. For the first time in history, a state emerged that was inhabited and led by Turks and became even larger than any other steppe empire before. The Ashina empire as a result of later campaigns of conquest stretched across the entire Eurasian steppe, from Manchuria to the Black Sea.

The Ashina family referred to themselves as Türük, from which the name Türk is derived. Even today, Anatolian Turks are referred to as Török in Hungary. And the name Hungary, in turn, derives from the Old German transcription for Ogur, the Turkic tribal federation in present-day Ukraine that became a vassal of the Gokturks. The name probably referred only to their own tribe at first, as explained in detail above. But they were not the only Turks around. Most of the ethnic groups of the Tiele Federation as well as other tribes and kingdoms of Eurasia spoke the same language as the Ashina: Common Turkic. When Bumin's family extended their influence on the entire steppe, they too adopted the Turk designation. Their language and traditions had already been the same. But now the Turks of the early Middle Ages were also finally united politically. Bumin was not the first Turkic ruler in history, but he was the first to demand to be called King of the Turks. With the ambition to unite the remaining Turkic tribes of Asia under his banner and with them all the tribes of the steppe, Bumin set to work with his brother Istemi. Together they led the Ashina family to glory and power. Their first great goal, however, was not in Central Asia, China or Europe but in Korea. The Turks wasted no time. With the Turkic Ashina nobility as their backers and a large warrior caste in tow, they controlled all of Rouran territory, from Lake Alaköl in Kazakhstan to the Gobi Desert and the Tarim Basin to the Great Wall of China. In the north, Bumin's influence did not extend very far, as the Kyrgyz, also Turkic, dominated the Yenisey region. In the south, he was confronted with two empires whose leaders were of Hunnic origin: he maintained a good relationship with the Western Wei after they had indirectly supported him in the Turk War of Independence. The Northern Qi were in turn hostile to the Turks. They had granted asylum to the remnants of the Rouran dynasty and settled them in the border area with the steppe, so this diplomatic attitude of the Qi seems quite logical.

But while the revolution against the Rouran was still underway, Bumin had already turned to his first foreign policy goal. For he wanted to take advantage of the general chaos in the region and expand in as many directions as possible. The Koreans populated the outermost settlements on the coast to the Pacific and had led an independent existence for centuries. The settlement area of the Koreans had been divided into several empires. The southern part was ruled by states that competed with each other in alternating coalitions. The north belonged to the dominion of the Goguryeo. This kingdom formed the spearhead of Korean civilization. For 500 years, they ruled over northern Korea, Manchuria and even parts of Mongolia. The Goguryeo had established contact with the Xiongnu Huns in ancient times, but this was prevented by the Han Chinese for fear of a Hunnic alliance with the Koreans. Now, the Goguryeo again came into contact with people from the steppes. But the Turks did not come with peaceful intentions. Not yet. In September of the year 551, as the royal Korean chronology Samguk sagi describes it, an army of Turkic warriors appeared on the Goguryeo border. The army laid siege to the settlement of Sin-song. It then moved on and probably attacked Paeg'am-song nearby. King Yangwon of Goguryeo then dispatched an army of 10,000 men. The Korean counterattack was successful, and the Turks retreated back to the steppe. In the process, the Koreans reportedly captured about a thousand Turks. Nothing is known about the level of casualties on the Turkic side, although the alleged Turkic strength of "one hundred thousand" may have been an exaggeration by contemporary Korean scholars. The first contact between Turks and Koreans had been hostile in nature. But this event later turned out to be a key moment for Turkic-Korean relations. In the course of the following decades, a regular cooperation began between Turks and Koreans on economic, military and political levels. The Gokturk-Goguryeo relationship was to prove seminal in the resistance to the Sui Dynasty in China, and enemies were to become friends. For the moment, the Liao River represented the easternmost border of the Turkic Empire.

Back home in the Altai, Bumin could take a look at an empire with a powerful army and considerable territory; in terms of power politics, he was in no way inferior to his predecessor Anagui. In the highest position was he himself, the Khagan – the emperor, if you will. Bumin's state, like that of the Rouran, was based on hereditary law. The Ashina empire was furthermore not built on an invasion from outside, but on an internal revolution. Therefore, he did not tamper too much with the political structures of the steppe. The Ashina simply provided the Shads and Tegins of the empire, high-esteemed princes and generals. In addition, the title of Beg existed among the ancient Turks. These were tribal leaders originally. Since they were now all subordinate to the Khagan, the Begs no longer had autonomous foreign policy at their disposal, but they did have the authority to lead military commands. From Beg, by the way, the honorary title Bey developed during Seljuk and Ottoman rule, a title still used today in Turkiye as an equivalent to “sir”. Mostly, however, with reference to the first name. So for you I would not be "Mr. Yavuz", but "Mr. Emre” – Emre bey. In any case, the legitimacy of the Khagan was built on the support of these Begs.

An illustration of a Turkic ruler who has, in rather simple fashion, assembled his loyal Begs to listen to their reports, wishes and complaints. Imagine that with Bumin and his Ashina descendants, this would take inside a huge Yurt (tent).

But Bumin’s rule was indirect. In order to understand how the Khagan could be simultaneously appointed and legitimized by Tengri, even be untouchable, but nevertheless have preferred indirect rule over his empire, we must look at the size of the Khaganate. The takeover of the Rouran empire meant that the Ashina dynasty now had de jure control over 3-4 million square kilometers – de jure, that is, legally, because de facto, in reality, not every square kilometer belonged to the Ashina. Rein Taagepera, who was a pioneer in the territorial estimation of great empires and whose data I originally wanted to adopt for this chapter, has given in his essay Size and Duration of Empires from 1979 the size of the empires of the Rouran and the Gokturks with 2.8-3.3 million km² and 5 million km², respectively. Obviously, there is a discrepancy here, because at the founding of the state in 552 the Turkic empire did not extend further than the Khaganate of the Rouran once did. In other words, the Rouran Khaganate and the Gokturk Khaganate would have to be described as almost congruent territorially.

Instead, Bumin took over the empire of Anagui and suddenly possessed over twice as much area? At first glance, this seems illogical. However, since many Turkic tribes joined the Gokturks while being located away from Rouran territory, the figure for the Gokturk Empire is probably not exaggerated. But Taagepera definitely understated the size of the Rouran territory. An own calculation of mine for the territory of Bumin's empire in 552 resulted in 4.5 million km². Therefore, I estimate the size of the Rouran Khaganate before it was replaced by the Turks to be about 4 million km². My estimate for the Gokturk territory is nevertheless smaller than Taagepera's figure. This can be explained by the fact that he wrongly stated an area of 6 million km² for the year 557, after the Gokturks had expanded into eastern Mongolia. But this is not true! As we will see in a moment, the Gokturks had already arrived at the gates of Korea in 551. It is likely that at least large parts of present-day Mongolia and, beyond that, Manchuria had fallen into the firm hands of the Turks along the way, when Bumin had not yet been proclaimed Khagan. Instead, Taagepera should have included the expansion to the west. At this point I would like to withhold some spoilers; it should just be mentioned that the Gokturks expanded not only to Korea but also to Ukraine on the other side of the continent. To be precise, up to Chersonesus on the Black Sea after declaring an indirect war on the Byzantines. We will talk about this event later. If we measure the territory of the Gokturk Khaganate for the year 580 during its greatest expansion, we conclude that the area was no less than 8.6 km². You’ve heard right. Eight (!) million square kilometers. That’s about 3.2 square miles. This exceeds the estimate of Taagepera by far.

It is difficult to say how big the Gokturk Khaganate really was at certain points in time because there were expansions and cessions of territory again and again, the latter especially from 581 on. In this respect, my estimate cannot be taken as a quotable measurement. However, the disagreement that exists about the expansion of the Khaganate should be addressed and discussed in the future, especially since the estimate of my mentioned colleague is at least partly based on maps of the Putzger Weltatlas and dtv Weltgeschichte. I had to buy the former in 7th grade for history classes at a German high school, and later got hold of the latter out of curiosity for 5 Euro at a bookstore. The editions he cites are from the 1960s and 70s, my editions were printed in the 2000s. I acquired the old editions from before I was born out of curiosity. Believe me when I tell you that neither in Taagepera's time nor in my school days was there even a single mention of the Gokturks in these books, let alone an illustration of the extent of the empire.

Nonetheless, we can say one thing with justification: the empire of the Turks was vast and larger than its predecessor state. Moreover, the area stretched along the narrow green steppe belt, surrounded or interrupted by lakes like Baikal, mountain ranges like Altai, and the Caspian Sea. As we have seen in the previous chapter, this region was and is geographically very diverse. Accordingly, the Ashina dynasty faced a major challenge: direct control of the entire Khaganate was neither politically nor militarily feasible. Bumin could not rule over such a large territory without resorting to deputies. Therefore, he appointed governors and tribute kings, Shads and Eltebers, early on to maintain unity among the various tribes and peoples. His state is known to us today as the Empire of the Gokturks, but the meaning of this name remains disputed. Gök in Turkic stands for the color blue, and accordingly for the blue sky. The eastern direction of the compass was also symbolized by the color blue among the Turks. Also, gök or originally kök in ancient Turkish, stood for origin. Gök Turks can therefore be confidently translated as blue, original and heavenly Turks at the same time – heavenly perhaps because their leaders, empowered by Kut, were chosen by Tengri to rule.

The Khagan was after all sacrosanct. To fight against the Khagan meant to act against the will of Tengri. He possessed more Kut than any other person. Kut means sacred power or energy and in terms of personal character, charisma and luck. The mobile residence of the Khagan was in Ötüken, a forest city from which the Kut emitted. Whoever ruled Ötüken, the Kut bestowed them victory and success against all enemies. The Khagan was thus kutlu, that is, endowed with luck and charisma. A term that is still used in Turkic today. The Turkish saying for "Happy Birthday" translates to "Doğum günün kutlu olsun." The accumulation and one’s radiation of Kut was the condition for successful domination of the steppe. The exact location of Ötüken as the capital of the Gokturk Empire is not known. According to the Turkic inscriptions it was located somewhere between Tengri Khan (Tian Shan) mountains and the Orkhon River in Mongolia. After the death of a Khagan, an elaborate tomb would be erected in his honor. But the Yabgu, one step below the Khagan in the political hierarchy, was also respected by the people. Between 2015 and 2017, researchers at Osaka University (Japan) excavated a tomb in modern-day Mongolia, the reconstructed form of which shows how serious the Turks were about their rulers. The body of the Yabgu was placed in a stone sarcophagus which, positioned centrally, was surrounded by fourteen stone pillars. On the pillars and the sarcophagus itself the names of about 100 tribes were inscribed in ancient Turkic script.

Bumin died shortly after the foundation of the empire. The reason for death is still unknown. There are not even rumors of an illness or an alleged assassination attempt, as with Attila the Hun or Alexander the Great. Even before his death, he had made a momentous decision. Instead of one there were to be two rulers of the Khaganate. Given the sheer size of the empire, this was logical. But no dual kingship was established. The Khagan remained in Ötüken, while another member of the Ashina was to take care of all the territories to the west. After the empire’s foundation, it was Istemi, younger brother of Bumin, who was given the title of Yabgu. He had to recognize the theoretical authority of the Khagan over his domain. In case of doubt, the Khagan had the say. Nevertheless, Istemi was allowed to conduct a foreign policy autonomous from that of the Khagan. After Bumin's death, his eldest son Kara assumed the Khagan title. The unexpected demise of Bumin collided with several events along the borders of the Khaganate. First, the Rouran remnants had far from given up their ambition to restore the Rouran Empire. They raised a new army and, with the help of the northern Qi, attacked the Turks from the south. Second, the Kyrgyz in the north were also eager to drive the Gokturks away from Lake Baikal in order to preserve their political autonomy. And third, the Turks in the east had just suffered their first major defeat against Goguryeo. Although the number of casualties is not known, this excursion into Korea was almost certainly associated with high logistical costs. Nevertheless, we are told that the Koreans apparently sent representatives to the Gokturk Khaganate to attend Bumin's funeral and, on behalf of the Celestial Kingdom of Goguryeo, pay respects to the Turks. In the Kül Tegin inscription of 732, nearly two centuries later, the Turks indicated that representatives of the Bukli attended the ceremony. Linguists now agree that the Bukli meant the Koreans. However, it is quite questionable whether the Gokturks would have already generated such attention at the time of Bumin's death, in the year of the founding of the state, that diplomats and prominent envoys from all over the world – i.e. also from Byzantium and Persia – would have actually moved to the Altai, as claimed in the inscriptions. We can therefore assume that the Koreans already in a dynamic relationship with the Gokturks after the first contact. But the Gokturks were not world-famous. Not yet.

Thus, after the death of the founder, the fate of the fledgling Khaganate was absolutely uncertain. Responsibility for the Empire now rested on the shoulders of two men: Kara, as the next eldest son of Bumin, and Istemi, Bumin's brother and Yabgu of the West. While Kara had to take care of the Rouran remnants that plagued the border region with China, his uncle Istemi was already on his way to Europe.

Rise of the Ashina – Bumin, King of Turks pt. 2

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