He was appointed to the throne after resignation of Amrak, by the high council as the legal resolution to the crisis created by his uncle Taspar Qaghan who had bequeathed the title of khagan to his nephew Talopien (son of Muqan Qaghan). This act violated the traditional system of inheritance from oldest brother to youngest brother and oldest son to youngest. Immediately after his appointment, the legal basis of his power was contested by the erstwhile heir Talopien, Jotan, and Tardu. This highly unstable situation quickly became a smoldering civil war, which the Sui Chinese took advantage of in every way possible to weaken the Göktürks.
Khagan married Princess Qianjin of Northern Zhou and accepted refugees from the Chen dynasty, two moves that were undertaken to legitimize his authority. One of the envoys in his wife's escort was the spy/ambassador Zhangsun Sheng. He managed to become a friend of Ishbara, and spent many years with the Turks. His knowledge about the customs and institutions of the Gokturks was of great importance for the Sui Empire.
In order to end the civil war Ishbara finally acknowledged the Sui dynasty as his overlord.[5] In the end Ishbara succeeded in saving the khaganate, albeit at the price of losing his sovereignty. In 587, both Ishbara Qaghan and Apa Qaghan died.
^as indicated by the mostly non-native initial n-. According to Clauson (1972:774), "[t]he only basic Turkish words beginning with n- are ne: and ne:ŋ, and even ne:ŋ is ultimate der. fr. ne:"[3]
^Golden, P. B. (1992). An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples. Wiesbaden: Otto-Harrassowitz. pp. 121–122.
^Clauson, Gerard (1972). An Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth-Century Turkish. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 774.
^Ahmet, Taşağil (1995–2004). Gök-Türkler. Atatürk Kültür, Dil, ve Tarih Yüksek Kurumu (Turkey). Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi. ISBN975161113X. OCLC33892575.
^Gumilev, Lev Nikolayeviç (2002). Eski Türkler. Batur, Ahsen. İstanbul: Selenge Yay. ISBN9757856398. OCLC52822672.
^ abLiu, Mau-Tsai (2006). Çin kaynaklarına göre Doğu Türkleri. İstanbul: Selenga yayınları. ISBN9758839438. OCLC213301904.
The Turks / editors, Hasan Celal Güzel, C. Cem Oğuz, Osman Karatay. Other author Güzel, Hasan Celâl. Oğuz, Cem. Karatay, Osman, 1971– Ocak, Murat. Imprint Ankara : Yeni Türkiye, 2002. ISBN975-6782-55-2 (set)
