Ashina tribe: Difference between revisions
Undid revision 131937512 by Briangotts (talk) Per WP:DISAMBIG, WP:CONTEXT and WP:RED. |
Togan said there were three main dynasties in the history of Turks, Ashina, Chinggisid and Ottoman, Ghirlandajo once again you had been cheating with your source, well done. |
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{{otheruses|Ashina (disambiguation)}} |
{{otheruses|Ashina (disambiguation)}} |
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'''Ashina''' (''Asen'', ''Asena'', etc.) was a tribe and the ruling dynasty of the ancient [[Turkic peoples|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. |
'''Ashina''' (''Asen'', ''Asena'', etc.) was a tribe and the ruling dynasty of the ancient [[Turkic peoples|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. |
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== Origins and legends == |
== Origins and legends == |
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*[http://www.cultinfo.ru/fulltext/1/001/008/085/212.htm Klyashtorny, Sergei. "Орхонские тюрки" ("Orhon Turks").] ''The [[Great Soviet Encyclopaedia]]'' 2nd ed. Soviet Encyclopedia, 1950-1958. |
*[http://www.cultinfo.ru/fulltext/1/001/008/085/212.htm Klyashtorny, Sergei. "Орхонские тюрки" ("Orhon Turks").] ''The [[Great Soviet Encyclopaedia]]'' 2nd ed. Soviet Encyclopedia, 1950-1958. |
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*Róna-Tas, András. ''Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages''. Central European University Press, 1999. ISBN 9639116483. Page 280. |
*Róna-Tas, András. ''Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages''. Central European University Press, 1999. ISBN 9639116483. Page 280. |
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*Togan, İsenbike. ''Flexibility and Limitation in Steppe Formations''. Brill Academic Publishers, 1998. ISBN 9004100288. |
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*Xueyuan, Zhu. ''The Origins of Northern China's Ethnicities''. Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 2004. ISBN 7-101-03336-9. |
*Xueyuan, Zhu. ''The Origins of Northern China's Ethnicities''. Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 2004. ISBN 7-101-03336-9. |
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*Zongzheng, Xue. ''A History of Turks''. Beijing: Chinese Social Sciences Press, 1992. ISBN 7-5004-0432-8. |
*Zongzheng, Xue. ''A History of Turks''. Beijing: Chinese Social Sciences Press, 1992. ISBN 7-5004-0432-8. |
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Revision as of 07:31, 19 May 2007
Ashina (Asen, Asena, etc.) 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.
Origins and legends
According to the New Book of Tang, 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:[1]
- Ashina was one of ten sons born to a grey she-wolf in the north of Gaochang.[2]
- The ancestor of the Ashina was a man from the Suo nation, north of Xiongnu, whose mother was a wolf, and a season goddess.[2]
- The Ashina were mixture stocks from the Pingliang commandery of eastern Gansu.[3]
- The Ashina descended from a skilled archer named Shemo, who had once fallen in love with a sea goddess west of Ashide cave.[4]
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.[1] These stories also have parallels to folktales and legends of other Turkic peoples, for instance, the Wusun and Kazakhs.
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.[1] The Great Soviet Encyclopaedia infers that between the years 265 and 460 the Ashina had been part of various late Xiongnu 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.[5] 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 kaghans 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 Tatar historian Zeki Validi Togan described them as a "desert aristocracy" that provided rulers for a number of Eurasian nomadic empires. 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.
Etymology
Sergei Klyashtorny, a Soviet Turkologist who was responsible for the coverage of the Gokturks in the Great Soviet Encyclopaedia, derives the name of the Ashina from the Iranian term for "deep blue" (this epithet was applied by the Persians to the Black Sea). This is consistent with the prevalent interpretation of the ethnonym "Göktürks" as "blue Turks", "heavenly Turks".[6]
"The term bori, used to identify the ruler's retinue as 'wolves', probably also derived from one of the Iranian languages", Carter Vaughin Findley has observed.[7] His opinion is seconded by the Hungarian researcher András Róna-Tas, who finds it highly plausible "that we are dealing with a royal family and clan of Iranian origin, almost certainly Saka".[8]
According to former Dr. Zhu Xueyuan, the Ashina was most certainly derives from if not related to the Manchu word Aisin or otherwise the Wusun (Asin or Osin) pronounced earlier in archaic Chinese, a group of tribe which he highly considered as a Tungusic people. Zhu asserted that the Xiongnu's tribe Juqu was evidently related to Juji (old pronouncing of Jurchen), and that Yuezhi belonged to another Tungusic tribe named Wuzhe, all of which could ultimately traced back to the roots of Sushen.[9]
Notes
References
- Findley, Carter Vaughin. The Turks in World History. Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 0195177266.
- Klyashtorny, Sergei. "Орхонские тюрки" ("Orhon Turks"). The Great Soviet Encyclopaedia 2nd ed. Soviet Encyclopedia, 1950-1958.
- Róna-Tas, András. Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages. Central European University Press, 1999. ISBN 9639116483. Page 280.
- Xueyuan, Zhu. The Origins of Northern China's Ethnicities. Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 2004. ISBN 7-101-03336-9.
- Zongzheng, Xue. A History of Turks. Beijing: Chinese Social Sciences Press, 1992. ISBN 7-5004-0432-8.