TURKS

Nomadic Players
 
Hun, Xianbei & Toba:    Hunnic Han Dynasty & Hunnic Zhao Dynasty (AD 304-329), set up in today's Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan Provinces, ended when Shi Le's Posterior Zhao (Jiehu barbarians, one of the five nomadic groups "ravaging China at the time", comprising of Huns, Jiehu, Xianbei- Wuhuan-Toba, Qiang, & Di) usurped the power.   Thereafter, the five nomadic groups would set up a dozen of short-lived states, categorically called "Sixteen Nations" in Chinese chronicle (prior to south-north dynasties), until Toba's Northern Wei united northern China in AD 386.   Toba nomads are said to be the northern-most branch of the Xianbei nomads, the proto-Tunguz people who had descended from Dong-hu or Eastern Hu nomads. Dong-hu split into Xianbei in the north and Wuhuan in the south after they were defeated by Hunnic Chanyu Modok.
 
Toba Xianbei was recorded to have dwelled to the northeatern-most of all Xianbei, in a place called 'Ga Xian Dong', somewhere near the north segment of the Greater Xing'an Ridge. The Xianbei (Syanbiy) were the northern branch of the Donghu (or Tung Hu, the Eastern Hu), a proto-Tunguz group mentioned in Chinese histories. By the first century, two major subdivisions of the Donghu had developed: the Xianbei in the north and the Wuhuan in the south. The Xianbei expanded their territories by taking advantage of the Hunnic decline, and they took over most of the northern territories held by the Huns previously. There appeared a Xianbei chieftan called Tanshikui (reign AD 156-181) who established a Xianbei alliance by absorbing dozens of thousands of Huns (numbering 200 thousand). Tanshikui Xianbei dissolved after the death of this chieftan. By the time of Three Kingdoms Period (AD 220-280), the Wuhuan nomads took control of today's Hebei Province and Peking areas. Warlord Yuan Shao campaigned against the Wuhuan and controlled three prefectures of Wuhuan nomads. Before Toba's march towards northern China, the Xianbei people had absorbed most of the Wuhuan branch. Wuhuan fell apart after Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao and his Wuhuan allies. After Ts'ao Ts'ao defeated Yuan Shao, Yuan's two sons (Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi) fled to seek refuge with the Wuhuans. Ts'ao Ts'ao campaigned against the Wuhuan, killed a chieftan called Datu (with same last character as Hunnic Chanyu Motu), and took over the control of southern Manchuria. Xianbei alliances would consist of Greater Xianbei under Budugeng, Lesser Xianbei under Ke'bineng, and Manchurian Xianbei. Cao Wei Dynasty broke a new Xianbei alliance by sending an assasin to kill a Xianbei chieftan called Kebineng. By the "Sixteen Nations" time period, Xianbei could be distinguished into: a) Eastern Xianbei; b) Western Xianbei; and c) Toba Xianbei. The Eastern Xianbei would include tribes like Yuwen, Murong and Duan, while the Western Xianbei would include Qifu & Tufa (to mutate into Tubo in Chinese and Tibet in English). One ancient Chinese account put early Yuwen tribe in the Hunnic category. The Xianbei would later establish many successive states along the Chinese frontier. Among these states was that of the Toba Xianbei, Tufa Xianbei and Murong Xianbei etc.
 
In earlier times of Western Jin Dynasty, Tobas were befriended by a Chinese border general called Liu Kun whose strategy was to "fight the aliens via the aliens".   Liu Kun, a general famous for "practicing swords in early mornings at the sound of cock crow" with general Xie Xuan in their teenage times, had requested with Western Jin emperor for the authorization to have the Toba settle down in today's Yanmenguan Pass, an area called the Dai prefecture in Qin Empire's times.   Liu Kun would later die in the hands of his Xianbei ally in today's Beijing area. Tobas were at first very vulnerable to attacks from the Xianbei whose Murong (or Mujong) kingdom would evolve into Anterior Yan, Posterior Yan and Southern Yan. (Northern Yan is Chinese.)
 
Eastern Jin Chinese, under the banner of General Liu Yu, would retake from the Xianbei nomads the garrisons in Hebei-Shandong areas of northern China, and then took over Shaanxi-Henan ares by defeating the Qiang nomads in today's Xi'an.   However, General Liu Yu, eager to go back to Nanking to usurp the power (and formally started the history of South-North), would only leave his 13 year old son in charge of Xi'an, despite pleas from local elderly who said that they said they had not seen Han clothes for almost 100 years by that time and feared that they would be lost to the nomads again should General Liu leave.   A short-lived Hunnic Dynasty, called Xia, would attack the Chinese in Xi'an. General Liu's son would barely escape alive after the Chinese generals had internal turmoils in face of Hunnic attacks. One general, Wang Zheng'er, was killed by his comarade. Wang would be the general responsible for taking Xi'an from the Qiangs in early campaigns, and he was the grandson of Wang Meng who had aided Emperor Fu Jian of Anterior Qin (Di nomads) as prime minister. Tobas, having emerging from Dai in the Shanxi Province area between A.D. 338 and 376, would take advantage of Chinese northern expedition against Xianbei and Qiang in establishing control over the region as the Northern Wei Dynasty (A.D. 386-533). Toba first defeated the Xianbei. Toba (Tuoba) would finish Hunnic Xia Dynasty soon and then unite northern China.
 
Ruruans, Kok Turks & Tobas:    Meanwhile, a newly arising people, called Ruruans or Rouran (Juan-Juan) came into power in steppes north of the Altai Mountains in the 4th cent.   Western historians called the Ruruans by "Mongolian", a term that would not appear till the 14th century. The Ruruans lost the wars to the Tobas in northern China. Chinese records showed that the ancestor of the Ruruans was a Hu nomad who served as the bodyguard for the Toba founder. This person later offended the Toba founder and fled to the Altai Mountains where he subjugated the remaining Hunnic tribes and Gao-che people. (See Li Yanshou's Bei Shi, namely, History Of The North.)
 
The Ruruan founder was said to be a 'Hu' by Toba. Toba claimed heritage from Huangdi and hence dispised other nomads as 'Hu'. The terminology for 'Hu' was categorical. Toba, in order to show their disdain for the Ruruans, despised the Ruruan and nicknamed them as 'ru ru', meaning a kind of slow crawling insect on the ground. Toba, claiming Yellow Emperor heritage, certainly treated other nomads as barbarian. There is one more comment in History Of Toba Wei Dynasty, namely, the founder of Ruruan might have origin in Eastern Hu nomads. So to say that it is no strange to see non-Chinese websites advocating a school of thought stating that Ruruan (Zhuzhan), like Toba, were people of Eastern Mongolia and Western Manchuria and that "from the IInd and up to the IVth centuries, Altai lived under the influence of Syanbiy tribes. From the end of the IVth century the Altaian tribes were subjugated by the Zhuzhans ... and were to pay tribute to them (by ironware)." (see http://www.altai-republic.com/history/altai_history_eng.htm for details.)
 
But after the Ruruan founder fled to the Altai Mountains, he conquered and absorbed remnant Hunnic tribes and Gao-che people there. Ruruans and Gao-che people warred with each other as well as allied with each other. Hence, the Ruruans were more Hunnic than anyone else. History Of Toba Wei Dynasty further commented that "Ruruans, though the descendants of the Huns, could not have their exact ancestry traced."
 
Western history books stated that "in c. 370, the so-called Huns were pressured by the Ruruans into invading Europe from the Central Asian steppe." We could say that the Ruruans were more Hunnic than the Western Huns they drove away towards the Europe, especially so after the Ruruans subjugated the remaining Hunnic tribes in the area. Western history recorded that the Attila Huns were so savage and barbaric that they ate raw meat. This life style was totally different from those eastern Huns who were semi-sinicized and civilized. In the next page, a brief discussion of the relationship between the Ruruans and the remnant Hunnic statelets to the west and northwest is mentioned. To the west and northwest of Ruruans will be Hunnic tribes such as Nie-ban, Jian-kun and Li-te etc.
 
The Ruruans employed a group of people called Turks as slaves or serfs working in the iron mines in the Altai Mountains. Turks, after rearing the Tiele Tribes on behalf of the Ruruans, would compete against the Ruruans. Turks ultimately exterminated the Ruruans. In northern China, remaining Huns, who served in Toba's army, rebelled in today's Wuyuan area, Inner Mongolia in AD 523.   The Tobas, together with the Ruruans, cracked down on the Huns.   Thereafter, the Tobas moved over 200 thousand Huns to today's Hebei province.
 
Northern Wei split into Eastern and Western Wei Dynasties in AD 534.   At almost the same timeframe, the Turks rebelled against the Ruruans in AD 546-553, and they defeated the Ruruans and forced Ruruan khan into seeking refuge inside of Western Wei.   Turks would succeed the Ruruans in controlling the vast land west and northwest of China.   This Turkic empire would be called Turkic Khaganate (552-744 A.D.), alternatively called Kok Turk.
 
Later Turks would be more complicated than early Turks as a result of expansion and assimilation, and later Turks would include Khazars, Pechenegs, Cumans, Sabirs, Saragurs, Kuturgurs, Barsils and Seljuks etc.   To fully understand how Western Turks evolved, multiplied and expanded, some serious studies need to be conducted as to how the Tiele Tribes warred with each and allied with each other. See Turk versus Tiele (Tara or Tole) for further explanations.
 
The early Turks came to their apex in AD 593. Both Sui Dynasty and Tang Dynasty would play the trick of dissension among Turkic khans. Eastern Khans would end in the hands of Xueyantuo, a Tiele Tribe. Western Khante would be dispersed by Tang armies later. Remaining Eastern Turks, i.e., Orchon Turks, would officially end when the Uygurs defeated them and set up the Uygur Kingdom in AD 744   
 
In the west, Khazer Turks would ally with Sassanians of Persia to destroy the Hephthalite Empire of the White Huns in 553-68.   A Turkic khan sent emissaries to Byzantium in AD 568, about 9 centuries before other Turks were to take over the city of Constantinople.   In 572-91, the Khazer Turks and the Byzantines allied against the Sassanian Persia.   In 576, the Turks invaded the Caucasus and established the Khazar Khanate, Khazaria where they were converted into Judiaism in AD 740 by Jewish immigrants who came from Persia after the Arab conquest.   In Asia Minor, the Western Turks allied with Sassanian Persians (Chosroes of Persia) in AD 565, dividing Ephthalite empire of the White Huns.   In the east of the Gobi, the Eastern Turks would defeat Khitans.
 
The two Wei dynasties would be usurped by Northern Qi Dynasty (A.D. 550-577) and Northern Zhou Dynasty (A.D. 557-581), separately.   The Turks had earlier helped the Ruruans by cracking down on the Tiele Tribe and absorbing about 50,000 people. Then, the Turks proposed to the Ruruan Khan for a marriage with the princess. The Ruruans cursed the Turks about the marriage, and the Turks killed the Ruruan messenger and cut off relations with their Ruruan master. The Turks then proposed for marriage with Western Wei Dynasty and obtained Princess Changle of Toba-Wei royal family, certainly with the nodding approval of the later founder of Northern Zhou Dynasty. The Turks then attacked the Ruruans and the Ruruan royals fled to Northern Zhou. Turks forced Northern Zhou into handing over the Ruruan khan whose royal family, numering in 3000, were slaughtered by Turks while still being deported inside the boundary of Northern Zhou.   Turks played Northern Qi and Northern Zhou against each other for tributes.   Northern Zhou, located to the west of China's central plains, used Han Chinese "intermarriage" strategy in marrying their princesses over to the Turks, with one princess re-married to successor Turk kings three more times.   At one time, the Turks and Northern Zhou combined their forces in attacking Northern Qi of today's Shandong province, but were defeated by Qi army.
 
Ruruans, Ephthalites (White Huns) & Avars:    The Ruruans are the successors to the Huns.   They were famous for introducing a new cavalry warfare called the stirrup.   We called it "introducing" because they did not invent "stirrups", an art of war which led to the feudal class of the European Middle Ages according to Lynn White (Medieval Technology and Social Change).      Primitive stirrups had appeared much earlier. Many excavations of tombs in northern Korea showed that the Xianbei nomads had developed some form of stirrups. It was the Xianbei nomads who are frequently mentioned as mercenaries of Jin Chinese in fighting the Huns and Jiehus on behalf of the Chinese emperor.  
 
Ruruans once helped the Tobas in cracking down on the Huns.   But soon they were defeated by the Turks.   According to Chinese chronicle, the Ruruan khan and his family sought refuge inside of China, but were slaughtered by the Turks within the boundary of Norther Zhou Dynasty (AD 557-581) while being deported.   Before the rebellion of the Turks, the Ruruans moved west after being pressured by the Toba's Wei Dynasty, some of them reaching Hungary by the 6th century, where they were called Avars.  
 
http://www.best.com/~heli/wargame/variant/maharaja/eph.txt mentioned that in AD 522, the time of the apex of Ephthalite power, some Ruruan (Juan-Juan) chief fled to the Ephthalites for protection.   In AD 552, Turks, after overthrowing Ruruans, began conflicts with Ephthalites (White Huns).   In AD 565, Western Turks and Chosroes of Persia allied to capture and divide Ephthalite empire.   (Father of Sassanian Persian King Chosroes, Kubad, were previously twice placed on Sassanid throne with the help of the Ephthalites.) Chosroes married a daughter of the Turk chief Sinjibu.   The Turkic chief Sinjibu conquered the Hephthalites and killed their king. 
 
Avar is also the same name as the Avars formed by remaining Hephthalites (White Huns). Hephthalites moved west to the Russian steppe to form the Avar Khanate late 6th cent after its Hephthalite Empire was destroyed by the Turks and Sassanians in today's Iran in AD 553-568.   http://www.silk-road.com/heph.htm stated that the White Huns "disappeared by 565 ... only small number of them survived.   Some surviving groups living south of Oxus escaped Chosroes' grasp ... later fell to Arab invaders in the 7th century.  One of the surviving groups fled to the west and may have been the ancestors of the later Avars in the Danube region."
 
History of Ye-tai (White Huns):    The Hephthalites (or the Ephthalites or Epthalites or Hunas or White Huns or Hayathelites or Ye-tai) crossed (AD 425) the Syr Darya (Jaxartes) River and invaded Persia, conquered Kabul's Kushans (founded in c. AD 50 by Kujula Kadphises who united the five Yüeh-chih tribes and established the Kushan Empire stretching from Persia to Transoxiana to Tarim Basin to the Ganges in Upper Indus).
 
The Yüeh-chih had migrated southwest in 141-128 BC to the Oxus Valley, i.e., the modern Amu Darya, after being defeated by the Huns in 174-161 BC. Under the attacks of Wusun Statelet, they moved on to take over the Bactria (called Daxia in Chinese), which is renamed Tocharistan. Around that time, the Scythians (called the 'Sai' people in Chinese), allied with Parthians, had already conquered the Greco-Bactria kingdom by defeating the remaining divided Greeks there. After 135 BC, the Scythians or Sakas and Parthians, known as Pahalavas in India, would enter India under the pressure of the Yüeh-chih. By 75 BC, Scythians took over Punjab, and by 25 BC, Scythians terminated the Greek rule in India.
 
The Kushans followed the path of the Scythians in entering India, reducing the Sakas to the tributary vassal in the Punjab. Kushans' expansion towards Chinese Turkistan was checked by General Pan Ch'ao in AD 90. Kushans allied with Romans in skipping their common enemy in trade, Parthia, by linking China/India to the Roman Empire via the Indian Sea. Emperor Trajan received the Kushan emissary in AD 99. The Kushans will be responsible for reviving Buddhism and propogating it across Central Asia and to China.
 
Hephthalites (White Huns or Ye-tai) crossed the Syr Darya (Jaxartes) River in AD 425, invaded Persia, conquered Kabul's Kushans. In 473-479, the Ye-tai conquered Sogdiana (Samarkand), driving the Kidarites Yüeh-chih to the west.   (Modern Tadjisks were said to be descendants of the Yüeh-chih.) In the east, the Ye-tai conquered Khotan and Kashgar, and in AD 493-508 extended power as far as Zungaria, then Turfan and Karashar.  
 
After the Ye-tai conquered Bactria, they settled down in Afghanistan. They first invaded India in AD 455 but were defeated by the Gupta forces under Skandagupta. They invaded India again in 464.   In AD 465-470, they conquered Gandhara, setting up a Tegin (a viceroy).   In India, they temporarily overthrew the Gupta empire but were eventually defeated in AD 528 by a Hindu coalition. Though they were defeated by the Hindus and had to seek refuge in Kashmir in AD 528, their damages to the Gupta empire and Buddhism were irremediable. The Gupta Empire of India ended in AD 535. While the White Huns in Central Asia were broken by the Turks and disappeared, their Indian members settled down and became absorbed into Hindu society.
 
Between 507 and 531, the Ye-tai, under king named Ye-dai-yi-li-tuo, sent thirteen emissaries to Toba's Northern Wei (AD 439-534).   Approximately AD 522, the Ye-tai dominated north and south of the Tien Shan range, controlling as far as Tieh-lo in the south, Gaoche (Kao-ch`e^) in the north, to Khotan in the east, and up to Persia in the west.   Based in today's Pakistan, the Ye-tai had once controlled forty countries in the whole Asia Minor area. History Of the Northern Dynasties mentioned that the Ye-tai people lived to the south of the Altai Mountains and to the west of the ancient Yu-Tian Statelet. (Yu-Tian Statelet was recorded to be the only statelet in the west where the people looked similar to the Chinese.) About 30 statelets, including Kang-ju, Shu-le and Yu-tian, submitted to the Ye-tai rule. The Ye-tai had inter-marriage with the Ruruans. From AD 455 onward, Ye-tai sent emissaries to Toba Wei Dynasty, and in AD 553 to Western Toba Wei Dynasty. In AD 558, they paid tribute to Northern Zhou, but later they were defeated by the Turks. Around AD 610s, Ye-tai sent emissary to Sui Dynasty.
 
History Of Toba Wei Dynasty said that the White Huns or Ye-tai people were a branch of the Yüeh-chih. History Of the Northern Dynasties also mentioned that the Ye-tai people could be either of the same origin as Yüeh-chih or they could be of the same family as the ancient Gaoche Statelet.
 
The timing of the Hun migration to Europe in AD 370 and the White Hun in AD 440 to Transoxiana, Bactria, Khurasan, and eastern Persia is pretty close; however, the directions of movement are not the same. "There is no definite evidence that they (i.e., White Huns) are related to the Huns. .." ( The White Huns were an agricultural
people with a developed set of laws.) According to Chinese records, this group of people were called "Ye-tai" who lost the wars to the Turks. History Of Toba Wei Dynasty also mentioned the existence of Turkic tents in the 4th century, much earlier than the Turkic rebellion against the Ruruans. The Ye-tai people were first mentioned by the Chinese, who described them (A.D. 125) as living in Dzungaria. History Of Jin Dynasty mentioned that Ye-tai was just a family name of Yüeh-chih people.
 
There are quite some confusion here about the Ephthalites or Ye-tai.  Procopius, a Greek, wrote that they had "white bodies and countenances which are not ugly", but 'short and ugly in their features' according to the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang, remarks made while seeing a small settlement of 'White Huns' by Kunduz in the Hindu Kush in AD 644 A.D.  They were said to have originally lived in Dzungaria in A.D. 125, and because of the pressure from the Ruruan (Juan-juan), moved south from the Altai region to occupy Transoxiana, Bactria, Khurasan, and eastern Persia in AD 440.   According to http://www.silk-road.com/heph.htm, "they probably stemmed from a combination of the Tarim basin peoples and the Yüeh-chih.   There is a striking resemblance in the deformed heads of the early Yüeh-chih and Hephthalite kings on their coinage."   But according to http://www.best.com/~heli/wargame/variant/maharaja/eph.txt, "Iranian customs also are common in the Ephthalite world.  For example, the practice of several husbands to one wife, or polyandry, was always the rule, ...   Tellingly, polyandry has never been associated with any Hun tribe, but is known of several Central Asian ones, including the Aryans in India, other Indo-Europeans and probably in prehistoric Iran."
 
Lack of written records from the Asia Minor, Caucusus and Volga areas has led to the above historical confusion in regards to the Ruruan Avars and the Hephthalite Avars.   Some counts of the above events are intended to alert the readers about the riddles of Central Asia which will now be complicated further by the introduction of Takla Makan mummies.   The Avars would be there to stay.   The Avars, together with Persians, would attack Byzantium in AD 626.   Charlemagne the Great would face the Avars and the Slavs for control of Carinthia and Bohemia in late 8th century.  
 
Turks Of Afghanistan & the Hindus:    Turks were not the first Moslems to invade India. Before the Turks converted to Islam, their ancestors were in fact believers of Buddhism. It is a bit ironic to see the later Turks dealing a devastating blow to Buddhism. Arabs of the Umayyad caliphate first invaded India in AD 711 and captured Sind. But the Arabs stopped here and were satisfied with exacting a poll tax in exchange for allowing the Indians to have their own religion. But the Turks turned out to be some people who would trun India upside down. Turks, with almost heroic episodes of slaves turning into kings, as in the case of their first rebellion against the Ruruans and the later Egyptian Mamluks' wrestling Damascus from the Mongols, would produce several figures of similar background in its warfare against India. The Turks of Ghazni in Kabul, Afghanistan would have a slave, called Sabuktegin, as their king. In AD 989 and 991, respectively, he raided into the Indus, and his successor, Mahmud of Ghazni, waged 17 wars against India between AD 997 and 1030, and he annexed Punjab. After the Ghazni, the Ghoris, a mountain Turkic principality in Western Afghanistan, would succeed the Ghaznavids in conquering India under Muhammad Ghori. Ghori's slave, Kutbu-d-din Aibak, was appointed as a general and this person slaughtered all monks and destroyed monasteries in AD 1199. In AD 1200, Aibak invaded Bengal and the Rajput principalities in northern India all ended. An internal rebellion, which killed Ghori, made Aibak declare to be the sultan of the slave dynasty in Delhi in AD 1206. The Delhi dynasties continued three dynasties, Slave, Khilji and Tughlak, till AD 1388. In between, the Genghis Khan Mongols once pursued the son of Kharism sultan to the Punjab in AD 1220, and the Turks repelled Mongol invasion from 1246 to 1287. Timur would sack Delhi in AD 1398. Babur, after losing Fergana Valley, entered Kabul with 300 followers in AD 1504, and then invaded Lodi, India in AD 1526. The successor, Akbar, would take measures to remove discriminatory policies against the Hindus as well as removed the poll tax. Though those rulers invariably claimed Mongol or Mugul heritage, their Turkic elements might weigh more than the Mugal.
 
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