Ashina tribe

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Ashina
阿史那
Āshǐnà
Tamga of Ashina.png
Tamga of Ashina, representing mountain goat[1][2][3]
Regions with significant populations
Central and East Asia
Languages
Old Turkic[4]
Religion
Tengrism[5][6]
Buddhism (minority)[7][8]

The Ashina (Chinese: 阿史那; pinyin: Āshǐnà; Wade–Giles: A-shih-na; Middle Chinese: (Guangyun) [ʔɑʃi̯ə˥nɑ˩]), were a Turkic speaking tribe and the ruling dynasty of the Göktürks. This clan rose to prominence in the mid-6th century when the leader, Bumin Qaghan, revolted against the Rouran Khaganate. The two main branches of the family, one descended from Bumin and the other from his brother Istämi, ruled over the eastern and western parts of the Göktürk confederation, respectively.

Origin

Primary Chinese sources ascribed different origins to the Ashina tribe. Ashina were first attested to 439, as reported by the Book of Sui: on the 18th day of the 10th month, the Tuoba ruler Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei overthrew Juqu Mujian of the Northern Liang in eastern Gansu,[9][10][11][12] and 500 Ashina families fled northwest to the Rouran Khaganate near Gaochang.[9][13] According to the Book of Zhou, History of the Northern Dynasties, and New Book of Tang, the Ashina clan was a component of the Xiongnu confederation.[14][15][16][17] but this is contested.[13] Göktürks were also posited as having originated from an obscure Suo state (索國), north of the Xiongnu.[14][15] According to the Book of Sui and the Tongdian, they were "mixed barbarians" (雜胡; záhú) from Pingliang.[9][18]

According to some researchers (Duan, Xue, Tang, and Lung) the Ashina tribe were descended from the Tiele confederation,[19][20][21][22][23] who were likewise associated with the Xiongnu.[24][25] Like the Göktürks, the Tiele were probably one of many nomadic Turkic peoples on the steppe.[26][27] However, Lee & Kuang (2017) state that Chinese histories did not describe the Ashina-led Göktürks as descending from the Dingling or belonging to the Tiele confederation.[28]

Etymology

Several researchers, including Peter B. Golden,[29] H. W. Haussig,[30] S. G. Klyashtorny,[31][32] Carter V. Findley,[33] D. G. Savinov,[34] B. A. Muratov,[35] S. P. Guschin,[36] and András Róna-Tas[37] have posited that the term Ashina is from the Iranian Saka or possibly from the Wusun.[38]

Carter V. Findley assumes that the name "Ashina" comes from one of the Saka languages of central Asia and means "blue" (which translates to Proto-Turkic *kȫk, whence Old Turkic 𐰚𐰇𐰚‎ kök, and same in all Modern Turkic languages). The color blue is identified with the east, so that Göktürk, another name for the Turkic empire, meant the "Turks of the East"; meanwhile, Peter Benjamin Golden favours a more limited denotation of Göktürks as denoting only the Eastern Turks.[39][40] This idea is seconded by Hungarian researcher András Róna-Tas, who finds it plausible "that we are dealing with a royal family and clan of Saka origin".[41] Findley also said that the term böri, used to identify the ruler's retinue as 'wolves', probably also derived from one of the Iranian languages.[42]

H. W. Haussig and S. G. Kljyashtorny suggest an association between the name and the compound "kindred of Ashin" ahşaẽna (in Old Persian). This is so even in East Turkestan; then the desired form would be in the Sogdian 'xs' yn' k (-әhšēnē) "blue, dark"; Khotan-Saka (Brahmi) āşşeiņa (-āşşena) "blue", where a long -ā- emerged as development ahş-> āşş-; in Tocharian A āśna- "blue, dark" (from Khotan-Saka and Sogdian). There is a textual support for this version in the ancient runic inscriptions of the Turks.

In the large Orkhon inscriptions, in the story of the first Kagan, people living in the newly created empire are named "kök türk" (translated as "Celestial Turks"). Without touching the numerous interpretations "kök" may have in this combination, note its perfect semantic match with the reconstructed value of the name "Ashina". An explicit semantic calque suggests knowledge of its original meaning and foreign origin, which is compatible with the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural nature of the First Turkic Khaganate, which entailed the loss, however, of the popularity of "national character", in the words of L. Bazin, as was the political and cultural environment of the Otuken regime in the era of Bilge Qaghan.[citation needed]

The name "Ashina" was recorded in ancient Muslim chronicles in these forms: Aś(i)nas (al-Tabari), Ānsa (Hudud al-'Alam), Śaba (Ibn Khordadbeh), Śana, Śaya (Al-Masudi).[43][44] Based on Chinese sources' testament that the Ashina, upon becoming the head of Göktürks, exhibited a tuğ banner with a wolf head over their gate in reminiscence of its origins,[45][46][47] the name "Ashina" is translated by some researchers as "wolf", cf. Tuoba 叱奴 *čino, Middle Mongol činua, Khalkha čono.[48][49] However, Golden contends that derivation from Mongolic is mistaken.[50]

In Turkic sources

A recently acquired (2009 – 2012) new source for the word Ashina is found in the Old Turkic Ašїnas written in the Khor-Asgat inscription, which is confirmed by the Sogdian form Ašinas from the Bugut and Karabalgasun steles and the Arabic forms Ašinās and Ašnās from medieval Islamic sources. Chinese editors usually avoided the letter /s/. The word is derived from Turco-Mongolic and Tungusic *aš / eš, *azhi / *ezhi < *ašїn / ešin, and *azhїn / *ezhin (wife of the ruler). The final element -as of Ašїnas is explained as a plural suffix (similar to the Turkic Kangaras < Kangar + suffix -as) as proposed by Marquart, Melioranskii and others.[51]

Legends

Chinese chroniclers recorded four origin tales, which Golden termed "Wolf Tale I", "Wolf Tale II", "Shemo (Žama) and the Deer Tale" and "Historical Account", of the Turks in dynasty histories and historical compilations "based on or copied from the same source(s) and repeated in later collections of historical tales".[50]

  • Wolf Tale I: Ashina was one of ten sons born to a grey she-wolf (see: Asena) in the north of Gaochang.[52]
  • Wolf Tale II: The ancestor of the Ashina was a man from the Suo nation (north of Xiongnu) whose mother was a lupine season goddess.[52]
  • Shemo and the Deer Tale: The Ashina descended from a skilled archer named Shemo, who had once fallen in love with a sea goddess west of Ashide cave.[53]
  • Historical Account: The Ashina were mixture stocks from the Pingliang commandery of eastern Gansu.[54]

These stories were sometimes pieced together to form a chronologically coherent 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 the early Tang dynasty, it is debatable whether they could truly be considered chronological or rather should be considered competing versions of the Ashina's origin.[55] The record of Turks in Zhoushu (written in the first half of the seventh century) describes the use of gold by Turks around the mid-fifth century: "(The Turks) inlaid gold sculpture of wolf head on their tuğ banner; their military men were called Fuli, that is, wolf in Chinese. It is because they are descendants of the wolf, and naming so is for not forgetting their ancestors."[52]

According to Klyashtorny, the origin myth of Ashina shared similarities with the Wusun, although there is a significant difference that, whereas in the Wusun myth the wolf saves the ancestor of the tribe, it is not as in the case of the Turks. He also adds that Turk system of beliefs linking at least some sections of the Turk ruling class to the Sogdians and, beyond them, to the Wusun.[38]

Funeral rite

The Chronicle of Northern Zhou describes the funeral rites of the Ashina. The deceased were laid to rest in a tent, and animals would be sacrificed around the tent. Relatives of the deceased would ride horses around the tent and ritualistically cut themselves about the face as a display of mourning, or "blood tears". The individual and their belongings would then be incinerated.[56]

According to D. G. Savinov, no burials in South Siberia nor Central Asia that are fully consistent with the description of Ashina burials have been found.

According to D. G. Savinov this may be for several reasons:

  1. Göktürk burial sites in Central Asia and Southern Siberia are not yet open;
  2. The source is a compilation in character, and burial rituals and funeral cycle from various sources are listed in a unified manner;
  3. Göktürk funeral rites in the form in which they are recorded in written sources, developed later on the basis of the various components present in some of the archaeological sites of Southern Siberia of earlier Turkic cultures.[which?]

It is thought that the rite of cremation which was adopted by the ruling elite did not spread among the common people of the Qaganate. This may be attributed to the different ethnic origin of the ruling family.[57]

Physical appearance

According to the Book of Zhou, the Ashina clan was related to the "Yenisei Kyrgyz", who resided near the Pamir mountains, and are described as possessing red hair and blue eyes in the New Book of Tang (Xin Tangshu 217b.6147), a description previously used to describe the Wusun.[28] However, the Göktürks differed from the Qirghiz in their physiognomy and "no comparable depiction of the Kök Türks or Tiele is found in the official Chinese histories."[58]

According to Lee & Kuang (2017), the most likely explanation for the West Eurasian physiognomy of the Yenisei Kirghiz is a high frequency of the Eurasian Indo-European haplogroup R1a-Z93.[59]

Muqan Qaghan, the third Qaghan of the First Turkic Khaganate, was described by Chinese authors as having an unusual appearance. His eyes were blue,[60] he had a red complexion, and his face was wide.[61][62]

According to Chinese scientist Xue Zongzheng, the early members of the Ashina tribe had physical features that were quite different from those of East Asian people. These would include deep eye sockets, prominent noses, and light eye or hair color. However, over time, members of the Ashina tribe intermarried with Chinese nobility, which shifted their physical appearance to a more East Asian one.[63]

Qilibi Khan, an eighth generation descendant of Bumin Qaghan, the founder of the First Turkic Khaganate, is likewise described as having a physical appearance similar to that of the Sogdian people. The Old Book of Tang records that Qilibi Khan was forbidden from assuming the title of Shad, due to his Sogdian-like physical appearance. This implies that the transformation of the physical appearance of the Ashina tribe was almost complete by the mid-7th century AD. According to Zongzheng, having a physical appearance like a Sogdian was, by this time, being presented as a sign of mixed ancestry among the Ashina. The Ashina clans suspected him of being born out of an adulterous relationship, and therefore did not entrust him with great authorities.[64][page needed] According to the Old Book of Tang, the Ashina Khagans Shibi and Heshana suspected Qilibi was not an Ashina because he looked like a barbarian rather than a Turk, and thus could not become a shad.[65]

Similarly, Turkish historian Emel Esin noted that the early members of the Ashina tribe, much like the Yenisei Kirghiz, had more Europeoid features, but became more East Asian-looking over time, due to intermarriage. She also wrote that members of the Ashina tribe sought to marry Chinese nobles, "perhaps in the hope of finding an occasion to claim rulership over China, or because the high birth of the mother warranted seniority". Esin notes that the later depiction of an Ashina prince, the Bust of Kul Tigin, has an East Asian appearance.[66]

Genetics

According to Canadian scholar Joo-Yup Lee, it is possible that the Ashina tribe belonged to the paternal haplogroup R1a1.

The reasoning for this assumption is that the Ashina tribe was said to be closely related to the Yenisei Kirghiz people, and also to the Iranian Saka. The modern-day descendants of the Yenisei Kirghiz, the Kyrgyz people, have one of the highest frequencies of haplogroup R1a-Z93.[67] This lineage is associated with Indo-Iranians who migrated to the Altai region in the Bronze Age, and is carried by various Türkic groups.[68][69][70]

American historian Peter Golden has reported that genetic testing of the proposed descendants of the Ashina tribe does seem to confirm a link to the Indo-Iranians, emphasizing that "the Turks as a whole ‘were made up of heterogeneous and somatically dissimilar populations'".[71] The paternal haplogroup identified in the proposed descendants of the Ashina was R1a-Z2124, the so-called "Pashtun cluster".[72]

Legacy

Members of the Ashina dynasty also ruled the Basmyls,[73][74][75] and Karluk Yabghu's State;[76] and possibly also Khazars[77][78] and Karakhanids (if the first Karakhanid ruler Bilge Kul Qadir Khan indeed descended from the Karluk Yabghus).[79] According to some researchers, the Second Bulgarian Empire's Asen dynasty might be descendants of Ashina.[80]

Gallery

See also

Notes

  1. ^ International Turkic Academy, (2015), TÜRK BENGÜ TAŞI: Şivеet-Ulаan Damgalı Anıtı, p. 13 (in Turkish)
  2. ^ Grač, 1957, p. 408-414
  3. ^ "The tamga of the royal clan of the first Turkish empire was a neatly drawn lineal picture of an ibex", Kljastornyj, 1980, p. 93
  4. ^ Peter B. Golden, (1992), An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples, p.126:
    "Whatever language the A-shih-na may have spoken originally, in tirne, they and those they ruled would all speak Turkic, in a variety of dialects, and create, in a broadly defined sense, a cornmon culture."
  5. ^ Empires, Diplomacy, and Frontiers. (2018). In N. Di Cosmo & M. Maas (Eds.), Empires and Exchanges in Eurasian Late Antiquity: Rome, China, Iran, and the Steppe, ca. 250–750 (pp. 269–418).
    "Mythology employing shamanic symbolism along with references to the sky-god Tengri were, evidently, tools to strengthen the Türk ruler's legitimacy, and some scholars see this practice as amounting to a state religion, "Tengrism," in which the ruling Ashina family gained legitimacy through its support from Tengri."
  6. ^ Peter B. Golden, (2010) Central Asia in World History, p. 43-44:
    "The Türks, like many of their subjects, were believers in Tengri."
    "The qaghan claimed that he was "heaven-like, heaven-conceived" and possessed qut (heavenly good fortune), a sign of the heavenly mandate to rule."
  7. ^ Liu Mau-tsa, (1958), 1: p. 172-173
  8. ^ Tsvetelin Stepanov, (2008), The Bulgars and the steppe empire in the early Middle Ages: The problem of the others, p. 65-66
  9. ^ a b c Wei Zheng et al., Book of Sui, Vol. 84. (in Chinese)
  10. ^ Wei Shou, Book of Wei, Vol. 4-I. (in Chinese)
  11. ^ Sima Guang, Zizhi Tongjian, Vol. 123. (in Chinese)
  12. ^ 永和七年 (太延五年) 九月丙戌 Academia Sinica (in Chinese) Archived 2013-10-16 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ a b Christian 1998, p. 249.
  14. ^ a b Linghu Defen et al., Book of Zhou, Vol. 50. (in Chinese)
  15. ^ a b Li Yanshou (李延寿), History of the Northern Dynasties, Vol. 99. (in Chinese)
  16. ^ New Book of Tang, vol. 215 upper. "突厥阿史那氏, 蓋古匈奴北部也." "The Ashina family of the Turk probably were the northern tribes of the ancient Xiongnu." translated by Xu (2005)
  17. ^ Xu Elina-Qian, Historical Development of the Pre-Dynastic Khitan, University of Helsinki, 2005
  18. ^ 杜佑, 《通典》, 北京: 中華書局出版, (Du You, Tongdian, Vol.197), 辺防13 北狄4 突厥上, 1988, ISBN 7-101-00258-7, p. 5401. (in Chinese)
  19. ^ Tang, Li ( University of Salzburg, Austria ). "A Brief Description of the Early and Medieval Türks" in Turkic Christians in Central Asia and China (5th - 14th Centuries), Studies in Turkic philology. Minzu University Press. p. VII.
  20. ^ Duan: Dingling, Gaoju and Tiele. 1988, pp. 39–41
  21. ^ Xue, Zongzheng History of Turks (1992). 39–85
  22. ^ Rachel Lung, Interpreters in Early Imperial China, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2011, p. 48 "Türk, or Türküt, refers to a state of Ašina clan (of Tiele [鐵勒] tribe by ancestral lineage)"
  23. ^ Duan: Dingling, Gaoju and Tiele. 1988, pp. 39–41
  24. ^ Old Book of Tang Vol. 199 lower "鐵勒,本匈奴別種" tr. "Tiele, originally a splinter race from Xiongnu"
  25. ^ Suishu, Vol. 84 "鐵勒之先,匈奴之苗裔也" tr. "Tiele's predecessors are Xiongnu's descendants."
  26. ^ Suribadalaha, "New Studies of the Origins of the Mongols", p. 46–47
  27. ^ Cheng, Fangyi. "The Research on the Identification Between Tiele and the Oghuric Tribes".
  28. ^ a b Lee & Kuang (2017), p. 201.
  29. ^ Golden, Peter; Mair, Victor (2006). Contact and Exchange in the Ancient World. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. p. 142. ISBN 0824828844.
  30. ^ Haussig Н. W. "Byzantinische Qullen über Mittelasien in ihrer historischen Aussage" // Prolegomena to the sources on the history of pre-Islamic Central Asia. Budapest, 1979. S. 55–56.
  31. ^ Кляшторный С. Г. Проблемы ранней истории племени тÿрк (ашина). // Новое в советской археологии. / МИА № 130. М.: 1965. С. 278–281.
  32. ^ Kjyashtorny S. G. The Royal Clan of the Turks and the Problem of its Designation // Post-Soviet Central Asia. Edited by Touraj Atabaki and John O'Kane. Tauris Academic Studies. London*New York in association with IIAS. International Institute for Asian Studies. Leiden-Amsterdam, p. 366–369.
  33. ^ Findley, Carter (11 November 2004). The Turks in World History (1 ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 39. ISBN 978-0195177268.
  34. ^ Савинов Д.Г. Владение Цигу древнетюркских генеалогических преданий и таштыкская культура. // Историко-культурные связи народов Южной Сибири. Абакан: 1988. С. 64–74.
  35. ^ Муратов Б. А, Р.Р. Суюнов Р. Р. Cаки-динлины, аорсы, Ашина и потомки кланов Дешти-Кипчака по данным ДНК-генеалогии // ВАД, Том 7, №8, Август 2014, стр. 1198-1226.
  36. ^ Wen S.-Q., Muratov B.A., Suyunov R.R. The haplogroups of the representatives from ancient Turkic clans – Ashina and Ashide // BEHPS. ISSN 2410-1788, Volume 3, No. 2 [1,2]. March 2016. p. 154–157. R.R. Suyunov, Муратов Б.А., Суюнов Р.Р. Саки-динлины, аорсы, Ашина и потомки кланов Дешти-Кипчака по данным ДНК-генеалогии // Вестник Академии ДНК-генеалогии (Бостон, США) → Том 7, №8, Август 2014, стр. 1198–1226., Muratov, Муратов Б.А. ДНК-генеалогия тюркоязычных народов Урала, Волги и Кавказа. Том 4, серия «Этногеномика и ДНК-генеалогия», ЭИ Проект «Суюн». Vila do Conde, Lidergraf, 2014, илл. ISBN 978-5-9904583-2-1.
  37. ^ Rona-Tas, Andras (1999). Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages: An Introduction to Early Hungarian History. Central European University Press. pp. 280–281. ISBN 9639116483.
  38. ^ a b Sinor & Klyashtorny 1996, pp. 328–329
  39. ^ C. V. Findley 39.
  40. ^ Golden, P.B. (1992) Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples. Series: Turcologia, Volume 9. Otto-Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden p. 117
  41. ^ Róna-Tas 280.
  42. ^ Findley, Carter V. (2005). The Turks in World History. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-19-517726-8.
  43. ^ Гумилёв Л. Н. Древние тюрки. М.-Л., Наука, 1967.
  44. ^ P. B. Golden, "Irano-Turcica: The Khazar sacral kingship revisited," in Acta Orientalia Hungarica 60:2 (2007) p. 165, 172, n. 33
  45. ^ Bichurin, 1950, p. 220–221
  46. ^ Zhoushu, vol. 50: quote: "旗纛之上,施金狼頭。侍衞之士,謂之附離,夏言亦狼也。蓋本狼生,志不忘舊。"
  47. ^ Suishu vol. 84. quote "故牙門建狼頭纛,示不忘本也。"
  48. ^ Gumilev, 1967, p. 23
  49. ^ Boodberg, 1936, p. 182
  50. ^ a b Golden, Peter B. (August 2018). "The Ethnogonic Tales of the Türks". The Medieval History Journal, 21(2). 21 (2): 292.
  51. ^ Takashi Osawa, “A hypothesis on the etymology of the Old Turkic royal clan name Ašina/Ašinas and the transformation process in the early Abbasid period”, Chronica, S. 11, (2011), pp. 145-153.
  52. ^ a b c Zhoushu, vol. 50 "Zhou Shujuan". Archived from the original on 11 October 2007. Retrieved 15 May 2007.
  53. ^ Youyang Zazu, vol. 4 [1][permanent dead link]
  54. ^ Suishu, vol. 84 "Sui Shu Juan". Archived from the original on 10 February 2008. Retrieved 28 December 2007.
  55. ^ Xue, Zongzheng. History of Turks (1992) 39–85
  56. ^ Baumer, Christoph (2018). The history of Central Asia : the age of decline and revival. London. p. 183. ISBN 978-1838608682.
  57. ^ Савинов Д.Г. Народы Южной Сибири в древнетюркскую эпоху Глава II. Раннетюркское время 1. Древнетюркские генеалогические предания и археологические памятники раннетюркского времени (с. 31–40)
  58. ^ Lee & Kuang 2017, p. 202.
  59. ^ Lee & Kuang 2017, p. 216.
  60. ^ Beishi vol. 99 "狀貌奇異,面廣尺餘,其色赤甚,眼若琉璃。"
  61. ^ Zhoushu, vol. 50 ""狀貌多奇異,面廣尺餘,其色甚赤,眼若瑠璃。"
  62. ^ Emmerick, Ronald Eric (1979). Akten des VII. Internationalen Kongresses für Iranische Kunst und Archäologie : München, 7.-10. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag GmbH. p. 449. ISBN 9783496001034. "Some of the “Hu", including the Köktürk Qaghan Mu-kan and the Qirghïz Turks, were reported by the Chinese to have Europeoid features, such as aquiline noses, red hair and light-coloured eyes."
  63. ^ Wang, Penglin (2018). Linguistic Mysteries of Ethnonyms in Inner Asia. Lanham: Lexington. pp. 189–190. ISBN 1498535283. "According to Xue Zongzheng (1992:80), the emergence of less-Caucasoid features in the Turkic ruling class was probably due to the intermarriage with the Chinese imperial families from generation to generation. Consequently, up to the Qagan's eighth generation descendant, Ashina Simo, his racial features remained unchanged to the extent in which he was described as looking like a Hu (Sogdian) person, not akin to Turkic, and suspected to be not of Ashina genealogical strain, and henceforth was unfortunately not trusted for military commandership (JTS 194.5163). Xue Zongzheng argues that 'looking like a Hu person' was originally the intrinsic feature of the Ashina lineage, then became presented as a sign of impure blood as a result of the qualitative change occurred in the hybrid physical features combining both Mongoloid and Caucasoid physical traits."
  64. ^ Ahmet., Tasagil. Gök-Türkler. Onat, Ayse., Izgi, Özkan., Türk Tarih Kurumu. (3 cilt birarada 1. baski ed.). Ankara. ISBN 9789751624604. OCLC 880367410.
  65. ^ Lee & Kuang 2017, p. 201-202.
  66. ^ Esin, Emel (1980). A History of Pre-Islamic and Early-Islamic Turkish Culture. Istanbul: Ünal Matbaasi. p. 116. "The Chinese sources of the Kök-Türk period describe the turcophone Kirgiz with green eyes and red hair. They must have been in majority Europeoids although intermarriages with the Chinese had begun long ago. The Kök-Türk kagan Mu-kan was also depicted with blue eyes and an elongated ruddy face. Probably as a result of the repeated marriages, the members of the Kök-Türk dynasty (pl. XLVII/a), and particularly Köl Tigin, had frankly Mongoloid features. Perhaps in the hope of finding an occasion to claim rulership over China, or because the high birth of the mother warranted seniority, the Inner Asian monarchs sought alliances165 with dynasties reigning in China."
  67. ^ Lee, Joo-Yup (2018). "Some remarks on the Turkicisation of the Mongols in post-Mongol Central Asia and the Qipchaq Steppe". Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 71 (2): 121–124. doi:10.1556/062.2018.71.2.1. ISSN 0001-6446. S2CID 133847698. "The Y-chromosomes of the Kök Türk elites, who cremated their dead (Wei  Zheng 2008, Chapter 84, p. 1864), have not been investigated yet. We can only pre- sume their patrilineal lineages by testing the DNA of their direct descendants, who  are, however, difficult to identify. The Zhoushu [the book of the Zhou Dynasty]  (Linghu Defen 2003, Chapter 50, p. 908) informs us that the Ashina, the royal clan of  the Kök Türks, were related to the Qirghiz. If so, the Ashina may have belonged to  the R1a1 lineage like the modern-day Tienshan Qirghiz, who are characterised by the  high frequency of R1a1 (over 60%).16 Haplogroup R1a1, more specifically, its sub- clade R1a1a1b2 defined by mutation Z93, was carried by the Indo-European pastoralists, who reached the Kazakh steppes, the Tarim Basin, the Altai Mountains region,  the Yenisei River region, and western Mongolia from the Black Sea steppes during  the Bronze Age (Semino et al. 2000, p. 1156)."
  68. ^ Lee & Kuang 2017"... R1a1a1b2 (R1a-Z93),  which spread across Eurasia by the Bronze Age Indo-European (Iranic) pastoralists and is carried by various modern-day Turkic groups.65"
  69. ^ Lee 2018"Haplogroup R1a1, more specifically, its subclade R1a1a1b2 defined by mutation Z93, was carried by the Indo-European pastoralists, who reached the Kazakh steppes, the Tarim Basin, the Altai Mountains region,  the Yenisei River region, and western Mongolia from the Black Sea steppes during  the Bronze Age (Semino et al. 2000, p. 1156)"
  70. ^ Wen, Shao-qing; Du, Pan-xin; Sun, Chang; Cui, Wei; Xu, Yi-ran; Meng, Hai-liang; Shi, Mei-sen; Zhu, Bo-feng; Li, Hui (March 2022). "Dual origins of the Northwest Chinese Kyrgyz: the admixture of Bronze age Siberian and Medieval Niru'un Mongolian Y chromosomes". Journal of Human Genetics. 67 (3): 175–180. doi:10.1038/s10038-021-00979-x. "Therefore, the Kyrgyz are an admixed population between the East and the West. Different patterns have been observed in the patrilineal gene pool of the Kyrgyz. Extremely low Y-diversity and the presence of a high-frequency (63% [10], 54.5% [11], or 68.9% [12]) Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a1-M17 (a diagnostic Indo-Iranian marker [10]) are striking features of Kyrgyz populations in central Asia."
  71. ^ Golden, Peter (2018). "The Ethnogonic Tales of the Türks". SAGE. 21 (2): 314. doi:10.1177/0971945818775373. S2CID 166026934. "Some DNA tests point to the Iranian connections of the Ashina and Ashide,133 highlighting further that the Turks as a whole ‘were made up of heterogeneous and somatically dissimilar populations’.134"
  72. ^ Muratov, Bulat (2020). "ПОЧЕМУ ВЕРСИЯ О СОПОСТАВЛЕНИИ КИМАКОВ С ЧУМУКУНЬ ЯВЛЯЕТСЯ". БЭИП «Суюн». 7 (1): 14. Page 14: "Representatives of the Ashina clans by STR-markers belong to the so-called ‘Pashtun’ cluster from the line R1a-Z2124."
  73. ^ Zizhi Tongjian Vol. 212, cited in Zuev Yu.A., Horse Tamgas from Vassal Princedoms (translation of 8-10th century Chinese Tanghuyao), Kazakh SSR Academy of Sciences, Alma-Ata, 1960, p. 104, 132 (in Russian)
  74. ^ Klyashtorny, S.G. "The Polovcian Problems (II)" in Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, Vol. 58, No. 3, Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Mediaeval History of the Eurasian Steppe: Szeged, Hungary May 11—16, 2004: Part III (2005). p. 245
  75. ^ Golden, Peter B. An Introduction to the History of Turkic Peoples, p. 142-143
  76. ^ Kli︠a︡shtornyĭ, S. G. (2004). Gosudarstva i narody Evraziĭskikh stepeĭ : drevnostʹ i srednevekovʹe. Peterburgskoe Vostokovedenie. Sultanov, T. I. (Tursun Ikramovich) (2-e izd., isprav. i dop ed.). Sankt-Peterburg. ISBN 5858032559. OCLC 60357062.
  77. ^ Pritsak, Omeljan (September 1978). "The Khazar Kingdom's Conversion to Judaism" (PDF). Harvard Ukrainian Studies. II (3): 261–281.
  78. ^ Golden, Peter Benjamin (2007a). "Khazar Studies: Achievements and Perspectives". In Golden, Peter B.; Ben-Shammai, Haggai; Róna-Tas, András (eds.). The World of the Khazars: New Perspectives. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Vol. 17. BRILL. pp. 7–57. ISBN 978-90-04-16042-2.
  79. ^ "Karluk Yabghu State (756-940)" Qazaqstan Tarihy. quote: "In 840, in the Central Asian steppes an important event occurred. The Yenisei Kyrgyz invasion destroyed the Uighur Khaganate, forcing the Uighurs to flee to Turfan oasis and to Gansu [original article mistakenly has Guangzhou]. The Karluk Djabgu and the ruler of Isfijab, Bilge Kul Qadeer-Khan, took advantage of the situation and proclaimed himself as a sovereign ruler and assumed a new title of Khagan."
  80. ^ Sychev N. V., (2008), Книга династий, p. 161-162
  81. ^ Kül-Tegin monument. Turkic Khaganate and research of the First Czechoslovak- Mongolian expedition in Khöshöö Tsaidam 1958, p. 82

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