Kul Tigin

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Kül

Tegin
Bust of Kul Tigin found at the Khoshoo Tsaidam burial site, in Khashaat, Arkhangai Province, Orkhon River valley. Located in the National Museum of Mongolia.
Native name
Kültegin
Old Turkic: 𐰚𐰇𐰠𐱅𐰃𐰏𐰤
Born684
DiedFebruary 27, 731(731-02-27) (aged 46–47)
AllegianceSecond Turkic Khaganate
RankTarkhan (posthumously)
ConflictsBattle of Bolchu
Sogdian Campaign
Battle of Iduk Bash
Battle of Ming Sha
Battle of Sayan Mountains
Transoxiana Campaign
Battle of Samarkand (712)
Battle of Tashkent (713)
MemorialsOrkhon inscriptions
RelationsIlterish Qaghan (father)
El Bilga Khatun (mother)
Bilge Khagan (brother)

Kul Tigin (Old Turkic: 𐰚𐰇𐰠𐱅𐰃𐰏𐰤, romanized: Kültegin[1] Chinese: 闕特勤,[a] Pinyin: Quètèqín, Wade–Giles: chüeh-t'e-ch'in, 684–731) was a general and a prince of the Second Turkic Khaganate.

Etymology

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Necip Asım (1921) initially gave his name as köl, based on the etymology of Mahmud al-Kashgari, meaning "lake, sea". Radloff rendered this word as kül, and Thomsen (1896), Malov (1951) and Tekin (1968) adopted this reading. Bazin (1956) and Hamilton (1962) rejected Radloff's reading and preferred the form köl. However, Chinese sources used the Chinese character 闕 (què). Therefore, this word should be read as kül, not köl.[2]

Biography

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Early years

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Kul Tigin was the second son of Ilterish Qaghan, the Second Turkic Khaganate's founder, and the younger brother of Bilge Qaghan (born Ashina Mojilian), the fourth qaghan. He was seven when his father died.

During the reign of Qapaghan Qaghan, Kul Tigin and his older brother earned reputation for their military prowess. They defeated the Yenisei Kyrgyz, Türgesh, and Karluks, extending the kaganate territory to the Iron Gate south of Samarkand. They also subjugated all nine of the Toquz Oghuz tribes.

In 705, Turkic forces commanded by Ashina Mojilian entered Lingwu, defeating Shazha Chongyi (沙吒忠义). Kul Tigin commanded a unit in battle, in which he lost three horses.[1]

In 711, he participated in Battle of Bolchu, which was disastrous for the Türgesh.[3]

In 712, the Arab general Qutayba ibn Muslim besieged Samarkand after capturing Khwarazm. The prince of Samarkand appealed to the king of Tashkent for aid. Qapaghan Qaghan, who had become overlord of both Tashkent and Ferghana, dispatched Kul Tegin at the head of a combined army of Eastern turks, Tashkent forces, and Ferghana troops to relieve the besieged city. Despite the strength of the Turkish forces, Qutayba ultimately defeated Kul Tegin's army, forcing the Turks to withdraw and allowing the Umayyads to enter Samarkand and establish a garrison there.[4][5]

In 713 he participated in subjugation of Karluk tribes with his brother and uncle.[3]

As supreme commander

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Upon the death of Qapaghan Qaghan, his son Inel Qaghan attempted to illegally ascend to the throne, defying the traditional lateral succession, but Kül Tigin refused to recognize the takeover. He raised an army, attacked, and killed Inel, Ashina Duoxifu and his trusted followers. He placed Mojilian on the throne as Bilge Qaghan, and took the title of shad, an equivalent of commander-in-chief of the army, for himself.

Death

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Kul Tigin stele.

He died suddenly on 27 February 731. A stele in his memory, which included inscriptions in both Turkic and Chinese, was erected at his memorial complex of Khoshoo Tsaidam, at the present site of the Orkhon inscriptions.[clarification needed][6] Kül-Tegin is also mentioned in the inscription erected in memory of his older brother Bilge Qaghan at the neighbouring site of Khöshöö-Tsaidam-1.[clarification needed]

Heavenly Divine Türk Bilgä Qaghan, I reign at this time.
Hear out my words, all my brothers, my sons, and also you, my tribe, my people:
Šad Pït lords of the south;
Tarqan Buyruq lords of the north;
Otuz . . .;[7]

His burial ceremony took place in 1 November 731. He was posthumously renamed Inanču Apa Yarğan Tarqan (Old Turkic: 𐰃𐰤𐰨𐰆:𐰯𐰀:𐰖𐰺𐰍𐰣:𐱃𐰺𐰴𐰣) by Bilge Qaghan.

The head of the Kül Tigin sculpture in the Khöshöö-Tsaidam enclave in (Orkhon, in northern Mongolia) carries a bird with wings spread like an eagle, personifying a raven.[8] The head was found by the Czech archeologist Lumir Jisl during his 1957–1958 expedition to Mongolia.

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He was portrayed by Ham Suk Hun (함석훈) in Korean TV Series Dae Jo-yeong.

Notes

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  1. ^ erroneously 阙特勒 Quètèlè

References

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  1. ^ a b Kultegin’s Memorial Complex, TÜRIK BITIG
  2. ^ Lars Laamann, ed. (1991). Central Asiatic Journal. Vol. 35. p. 48.
  3. ^ a b Ahmet., Taşağil (1995–2004). Gök-Türkler. Atatürk Kültür, Dil, ve Tarih Yüksek Kurumu (Turkey). Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi. ISBN 975161113X. OCLC 33892575.
  4. ^ Beckwith, Christopher I. (1993). The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia: A History of the Struggle for Great Power Among Tibetans, Turks, Arabs, and Chinese During the Early Middle Ages. Princeton University Press. p. 77. ISBN 0691024693. In 93 A.H./A.D. 712 Qutayba b. Muslim continued his successful campaigns of conquest by force and trickery. After taking Khwarizmia by treachery, he marched on Samarkand, assisted by Bukharan and Khwarizmian troops. This caused Ghirak, the prince of Samarkand, to write to the king of Tashkent for help. In this hour of need, Qapaghan Qaghan responded. Because Qapaghan had become the protector of Ferghana by his conquest of the Tiirgis and because he had also become the overlord of the king of Tashkent, major support of Samarkand was in order. He sent Kul Tegin, in command of an Eastern Turkic army with men of Tashkent and Ferghana as well, to attack the besieging Arabs. The Arabs defeated them, however, and although the Eastern Turks profited greatly from this expedition into Sogdiana,'" Qutayba still managed to enter Samarkand and establish a garrison there.
  5. ^ Beckwith, Christopher I. (2009). Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton University Press. p. 133. ISBN 9780691135892. In 712 Qutayba seized Khwarizm by trickery and settled an Arab colony there. In that year, he also besieged Samarkand. Its king appealed to Tashkent for help, so as overlords of Tash-kent the Eastern Türk sent an army led by Köl Tigin into Sogdiana in his support. But Qutayba prevailed. The Türk were forced to withdraw, and the Arabs established a garrison in Samarkand
  6. ^ Sören Stark, Die Alttürkenzeit in Mittel- und Zentralasien (Nomaden und Sesshafte, Band 6), Reichert: Wiesbaden 2008, pp. 76–78
  7. ^ Kamola 2023, p. 18.
  8. ^ Yu. Zuev, "Early Türks: Sketches of history and ideology", Almaty, Daik-Press, 2002, p. 25, ISBN 9985-4-4152-9 {}: ignored ISBN errors (link)

Sources

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  • Kamola, Stefan (2023), I Made Him Praiseworthy: The Kül Tegin Inscription in World History, De Gruyter
  • Talat Tekin, A Grammar of Orkhon Turkic. Indiana University Uralic and Altaic Series, vol. 69 (Bloomington/The Hague: Mouton, 1968)
  • 新疆维吾尔自治区民族事务委員会、新疆民族辞典， 乌鲁木齐：Xinjiang People's Press，1995 [Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous District Minority People's Committee, Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Xinjiang Minority Peoples, Ürümqi: Xinjiang People's Publishing Company, 1955]
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