The TürgeshorTürgish (Old Turkic: 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰏𐰾:𐰉𐰆𐰑, romanized: Türügeš budun, lit. 'Türgesh people'; simplified Chinese: 突骑施; traditional Chinese: 突騎施; pinyin: Tūqíshī; Wade–Giles: T'u-ch'i-shih; Old Tibetan: Du-rgyas)[1][2] were a Turkic tribal confederation. Once belonging to the Duolu wing of the Western TurkicOn Oq elites, Türgeshes emerged as an independent power after the demise of the Western Turks and established a khaganate in 699. The Türgesh Khaganate lasted until 766 when the Karluks defeated them. Türgesh and Göktürks were related through marriage.[3]
Atwood (2013), citing Tekin (1968), etymologizes the ethnonym Türgiş as contains gentilic suffix -ş affixed onto the name of lake Türgi-Yarğun, which was mentioned in Kültegin inscription.[4][5][6]
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).[7][8] To the Black Türgesh sub-tribe, Chebishi (車鼻施) (*çavïş, from Old Turkic 𐰲𐰉𐰾 *çabïş[9]orSogdiančapīş "chief"[10]), belonged 8th century Türgesh chor and later khagan Suluk.[11][12][13][14] The Turgesh Khaganate also contained remnants of the Western Turkic Khaganate: Suluk's subordinate Kül-chor belonged to the Duolu tribe Chumukun (處木昆), who lived south of Lake Balkash between Türgesh and Qarluq.[15][16][17]Tang general Geshu Han was of Duolu Turgesh extraction[18] and bore the Nushibi tribal surname Geshu (阿舒).[19] Chinese historians, when naming the Duolu Turk tribes, might mention Khalajes along with the Türgesh, under the common appellation 突騎施-賀羅施 (Mand. Tūqíshī-hèluóshī; reconstructed Old Turkic *Türgeş-Qalaç).[20]
A late-7th century Uyghur chief was also surnamed Türgesh.[21]
Coin of the Türgesh Kaghans. Early–mid 8th century CE. Semirech'e. Obverse: Sogdian legend around central square hole. Reverse: Curved tamgha around central square hole.[22]
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 possessed a name symbolizing 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. He had driven out the Tang[23] protégé Böri Shad. In 703 he captured Suyab and set up his authority on the territory from ChachtoTurfan and Beshbaliq.[24] In 706 his son Saqal succeeded him. Both khagans had a church rank of Yuzlik according to Yuri Zuev.[25]
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 the Qapagan Khaghan of the Second Turkic Khaganate in 708. Qapaghan Khagan defeated the Turgesh in 711 in the Battle of Bolchu, and killed both Saqal and Zhenu.[26] The defeated Turgesh fled to Zhetysu. In 714 the Turgesh elected Suluk as their khagan.
In 722 Suluk married the Ashina Princess Jiaohe.[27]
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.[28]
In the winter of 737 Suluk, along with his allies al-Harith, Gurak (a Sogdian leader) and men from Usrushana, Tashkent and the Khuttal attacked the Umayyads. He entered Jowzjan, but was defeated by the Umayyad governor Asad at the Battle of Kharistan.[23]
Following his defeat Suluk was murdered by his relative Kül-chor. Immediately, the Turgesh Khaganate was plunged into a civil war between the Black (Kara) and Yellow (Sary) factions. 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 captured 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.[32]
Tuhsi and Azi might be remnants of the Türgesh, according to Gardizi,[33] as well as Khalaj.[34][35][36] The Turgesh-associated tribe Suoge, alongsides Chuyue and Anqing, participated in the ethnogenesis of Shatuo Turks.[37][38]
According to Baskakov, the ethnonym Türgesh survives in the name of the seokTirgesh among Altaians.[39]
^Wuzhile ruled over the territory from Chach to Turfan and Beshbaliq. The boundary on the south was established at the Oxus river, but Samarkand and Bukhara were lost c. 710. Khiva was part of Khwarezm. Aksu (along with the principality of Farghana) was under Western Turk rule up to 657. Above Beshbaliq, the border might be at the Altay mountain range. From there onwards, the Türgesh might control the upper Irtysh, Ob, and Tobol regions to oversee the local fur hunting business. This is supported by some archaeological sources of the ancient Hungarians (△), provided by Manichean symbolism, like Srostki (c. 766-780) and Zevakino (c. 9-10th century), and the Türkish language Yenisey inscriptions also grouping there. The Turks/Türgesh (according to one opinion[whose?]) might also settle some Chigils from the area of Chach in the Kama-Belaya region, who later became the Szeklers. This is also supported by some archaeological sources of the ancient Hungarians provided by Buddhist symbolism, like Redikor (7-9th century) and Ishimbay.
^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.
^Clauson, Gerard (1972), “çavuş”, in An Etymological Dictionary of pre-thirteenth-century Turkish, Oxford: Clarendon Press, page 399
^Tuqishi 突騎施, Türgiš from chinaknowledge.de – An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History, Literature and Art
^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. ISBN8120814096. OCLC43545117.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
^Inaba, M. "Nezak in Chinese Sources?" Coins, Art and Chronology II. Ed. M. Alram et.al. (2010) p. 191-202
^Thierry, Francois (2006). "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 絲路文國際學研討會 論文集, Shanghai Museum.
^Klyashtorny S.G., The second Türk Empire (682–745). In: History of civilizations of Central Asia. Vol. III. The crossroads of civilizations: 250 to 750 AD. Editor: B. Litvinsky. Co-editors: Zhang Guang-da and R. Shabani Samghabadi.UNESCO publishing, 1996. – Pp. 335-347. (here: 346.); V.A. Belyaev, S.V. Sidorovich, Tang Tallies of Credence Found at the Ak-Beshim Ancient Site. Numismatique Asiatique. A bilingual French-English review. Revue de la Société de Numismatique Asiatique n° 33, Mars 2020. p. 50.[1]
^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
^Minorsky, V. "Commentary" on『§17. The Tukhs』in Ḥudūd al'Ālam. Translated and Explained by V. Minorsky. pp. 300–304
^Golden, Peter Benjamin (1992). "An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples: Ethnogenesis And State Formation in the Medieval and Early Modern Eurasia and the Middle East". Turcologica. 9. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN978-3-447-03274-2. p. 165
Asimov, M. S. (1998), History of civilizations of Central Asia, vol. 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
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
Skaff, Jonathan Karam (2012). Sui-Tang China and Its Turko-Mongol Neighbors: Culture, Power, and Connections, 580-800. Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-973413-9.
Stark, Sören (2016). "Türgesh Khaganate". In McKenzie, John M.; Dalziel, Nigel R.; Charney, Michael W.; Doumanis, Nicholas (eds.). Encyclopedia of Empire. Vol. IV: S–Z. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell. pp. 2122–2127.
Xiong, Victor (2008), Historical Dictionary of Medieval China, United States of America: Scarecrow Press, Inc., ISBN978-0810860537, ASIN0810860538
1These are traditional areas of settlement; the Turkic group has been living in the listed country/region for centuries and should not be confused with modern diasporas. 2State with limited international recognition.
1 Central Asian (i.e. Turkmeni, Afghani and Iranian) Turkmens, distinct from Levantine (i.e. Iraqi and Syrian) Turkmen/Turkoman minorities, who mostly adhere to an Ottoman-Turkish heritage and identity.
2 In traditional areas of Turkish settlement (i.e. former Ottoman territories).
![Approximate borders of Türgesh Khaganate (white line).[note 1]](https://akarinohon.com/text/taketori.cgi/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:T%25C3%25BCrgesh_Khaganate%252C_borders.svg@.338_Lapua_Magnum)
