The story
In 552 Bumin, chief of the Ashina clan of the Turks, defeated the Rouran, the steppe power that had ruled Mongolia, and took the title Illig Khagan. Within a generation his people created the first empire to call itself Turk (in Chinese, Tujue), stretching from Manchuria across the Mongolian and Central Asian steppe to the Black Sea. Bumin died the same year, and his brother Istemi ruled the western half. Like the Xiongnu and Huns before them, the Gokturks were mounted archers who grew rich by taxing the Silk Road and collecting tribute from rival Chinese states.
They relied on Sogdian merchants as diplomats, and in 568 sent envoys to Byzantium seeking to sell silk. The empire split into eastern and western khaganates around 583, and Tang China destroyed the east in 630 and the west in 657. A second eastern khaganate rose in 682 and left the Orkhon inscriptions of the 730s, the oldest surviving texts in a Turkic language. Later Turkic peoples, including the Seljuks and Ottomans, spread west and south.
Why it mattered
- It spread Turkic language and identity across Eurasia, laying the basis for the Seljuks, the Ottomans and today's Turkic-speaking nations.
- It showed the steppe empire as a stable political form and a power broker between China, Persia and Byzantium.
- It controlled the Silk Road's northern routes, shaping trade and the spread of religions.
- The Orkhon inscriptions gave Turkic peoples their earliest written record.
Sources
- The Turk Empire UNESCO
- Orhon inscriptions Britannica
- History of Central Asia: The Middle Ages Britannica
Community notes
Loading notes…