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The Göktürks (; w=T'u-chüeh), also known as Türks, Celestial Turks or Blue Turks, were a in medieval . The Göktürks, under the leadership of (d. 552) and his sons, succeeded the as the main power in the region and established the First Turkic Khaganate, one of several nomadic dynasties that would shape the future geolocation, culture, and dominant beliefs of .

Etymology
Origin
As an , the etymology of Turk is still unknown. It is generally believed that the name Türk may have come from Old Turkic migration-term(Bŭlgarska akademii︠a︡ na naukite. Otdelenie za ezikoznanie/ izkustvoznanie/ literatura, Linguistique balkanique, Vol. 27–28, 1984, p. 17 , which means 'created, born'.Faruk Sümer, Oghuzes (Turkmens): History, Tribal organization, Sagas, Turkish World Research Foundation, 1992, p. 16)

As a word in Turkic languages, Turk may mean "strong, strength, ripe" or "flourishing, in full strength". It may also mean ripe as for a fruit or "in the prime of life, young, and vigorous" for a person.

The name Gök-türk emerged from the reading of the word Kök as Gök with assumption of equivalence to "sky" in Modern Turkish ( Gök). Actual meaning of Kök in Kök-türk is debated due to single attestation, with differing opinions as "big, great" or "blue" as a reference to , the endonym of the ruling clan of the historical ethnic group which was attested in as Kultegin's Memorial Complex, Türik Bitig Orkhon inscriptions , or . Tonyukuk's Memorial Complex, Türik Bitig Bain Tsokto inscriptions

They were known in historical sources as the Tūjué (厥]]; reconstructed in Middle Chinese as * dwət-kuɑt > tɦut-kyat).

The ethnonym was also recorded in various other Middle Asian languages, such as * Türkit ~ Türküt, tr'wkt, trwkt, turkt > trwkc, trukč; Ttūrka/ Ttrūka, to̤ro̤x/ türǖg, / Dolgwol, and Drugu.

Definition
According to Chinese sources, Tūjué meant "" (w=Tou1-mou2), reportedly because the shape of the , where they lived, was similar to a combat helmet. et al., Book of Zhou, et al., Book of Sui, (李延寿), History of the Northern Dynasties, Róna-Tas (1991) pointed to a word, tturakä 'lid', semantically stretchable to 'helmet', as a possible source for this folk etymology, yet Golden thinks this connection requires more data.

Göktürk is sometimes interpreted as either "Celestial Turk" or "Blue Turk" (i.e., because is associated with ). This is consistent with "the cult of heavenly ordained rule" which was a recurrent element of Altaic political culture and as such may have been imbibed by the Göktürks from their predecessors in Mongolia.Wink 64. "Blue" is traditionally associated with the East as it used in the cardinal system of central Asia, thus meaning "Turks of the East". The name of the ruling may derive from the term for "deep blue", āššɪna.

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the word Türk meant "strong" in Old Turkic; though supports this theory, points out that "the word Türk is never used in the generalized sense of 'strong'" and that the noun Türk originally meant "'the culminating point of maturity' (of a fruit, human being, etc.), but more often used as an adjective meaning (of a fruit) 'just fully ripe'; (of a human being) 'in the prime of life, young, and vigorous'".

(1972). 9780198641124, Clarendon Press.
Hakan Aydemir (2022) also contends that Türk originally did not mean "strong, powerful" but "gathered; united, allied, confederated" and was derived from Pre- verb * türü 'heap up, collect, gather, assemble'.

The name as used by the Göktürks only applied to themselves (i.e. the Göktürk khanates), their subjects, and splinter groups. The Göktürks did not consider other Turkic speaking groups such as the , , and to be Türks. In the Orkhon inscriptions, the and the are not referred to as Türks. Similarly, the Uyghurs called themselves Uyghurs and used Türk exclusively for the Göktürks, whom they portrayed as enemy aliens in their royal inscriptions. Chinese historiographers transcribed the ' name as 突厥可薩部 and 突厥曷薩, whose element 突厥 suggests that the Khazars might have kept the Göktürk tradition alive. When tribal leaders built their khanates, ruling over assorted tribes and tribal unions, the collected people identified themselves politically with the leadership. Turk became the designation for all subjects of the Turk empires. Nonetheless, subordinate tribes and tribal unions retained their original names, identities, and social structures. Memory of the Göktürks and the Ashina had faded by the turn of the millennium. The , Uyghurs, and did not claim descent from the Göktürks.Lee, Joo-Yup; Kuang, Shuntu (18 October 2017). "A Comparative Analysis of Chinese Historical Sources and Y-DNA Studies with Regard to the Early and Medieval Turkic Peoples". Inner Asia. Brill. 19 (2): p. 203 of 197–239.Sui-Tang China and Its Turko-Mongol Neighbors, Page 34

History
Origins
The Göktürk rulers originated from the , who were first attested to in 439. The Book of Sui reports that in that year, on 18 October, the ruler Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei overthrew of the in eastern ,, Book of Wei, , , 七年 (五年) 九月丙戌 Academia Sinica whence 500 Ashina families fled northwest to the in the vicinity of .

According to the Book of Zhou and History of the Northern Dynasties, the Ashina clan was a component of the confederation, specifically, the Northern Xiongnu tribes 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)Xu Elina-Qian, Historical Development of the Pre-Dynastic Khitan, University of Helsinki, 2005 or southern Xiongnu "who settled along the northern Chinese frontier", according to Edwin G. Pulleyblank. However, this view is contested. Göktürks were also posited as having originated from an obscure Suo state (索國) (: * sâk) which was situated north of the and had been founded by the Harmatta, János, (1999), "A türkök eredetmondája", Magyar Nyelv, vol. 95(4): p. 391 of 385–396. cited in Golden (2018), "The Ethnogonic Tales of the Türks", p. 300 or .Vásáry, István (2007) Eski İç Asya Tarihi p. 99-100, cited Golden (2018), "The Ethnogonic Tales of the Türks", p. 300 According to the Book of Sui and the , they were "mixed Hu (barbarians)" () from (平涼), now in , .杜佑, 《通典》, 北京: 中華書局出版, (, , Vol.197), 辺防13 北狄4 突厥上, 1988, , p. 5401. Pointing to the Ashina's association with the Northern tribes of the , some researchers (e.g. Duan, Lung, etc.) proposed that Göktürks belonged in particular to the , likewise Xiongnu-associated, by ancestral lineage.

(2025). 9789027224446, John Benjamins.
(1988). 9787208001107, Shanghai People's Press.
However, Lee and Kuang (2017) state that Chinese sources do not describe the Ashina-led Göktürks s descending from the Dingling or belonging to the Tiele confederation.Lee, Joo-Yup; Kuang, Shuntu (18 October 2017). "A Comparative Analysis of Chinese Historical Sources and Y-DNA Studies with Regard to the Early and Medieval Turkic Peoples". Inner Asia. Brill. 19 (2): p. 201 of 197–239.

Chinese sources linked the on their northern borders to the Xiongnu just as Graeco-Roman historiographers called the , and "". Such archaizing was a common literary topos, implying similar geographic origins and nomadic lifestyle but not direct filiation.

As part of the heterogeneous , the Turks lived for generations north of the , where they 'engaged in metal working for the Rouran'.Sima Guang, Zizhi Tongjian, According to , the rise to power of the Ashina clan represented an 'internal revolution' in the Rouran Khaganate rather than an external conquest.

According to Charles Holcombe, the early Turk population was rather heterogeneous and many of the names of Turk rulers, including the two founding members, are not even Turkic. This is supported by evidence from the Orkhon inscriptions, which include several non-Turkic lexemes, possibly representing or Yeniseian words.Vovin, Alexander. "Did the Xiongnu speak a Yeniseian language?". Central Asiatic Journal 44/1 (2000), pp. 87–104. Peter Benjamin Golden points out that the khaghans of the Turkic Khaganate, the Ashina, who were of an undetermined ethnic origin, adopted and Tokharian (or non-) titles. German Turkologist W.-E. Scharlipp points out that many common terms in Turkic are Iranian in origin.

(1992). 9783534116898, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
Whatever language the Ashina may have spoken originally, they and those they ruled would all speak Turkic, in a variety of dialects, and create, in a broadly defined sense, a common culture., (1967), Drevnie Turki (Ancient Turks), p. 22-25

Expansion
The Göktürks reached their peak in the late 6th century and began to invade the of China. However, the war ended due to the division of Turkic nobles and their civil war for the throne of Khagan. With the support of Emperor Wen of Sui, won the competition. However, the Göktürk empire was divided to Eastern and Western empires. Weakened by the civil war, Yami Qaghan declared allegiance to the Sui dynasty. When Sui began to decline, began to assault its territory and even surrounded Emperor Yang of Sui in Siege of Yanmen (615 AD) with 100,000 cavalry troops. After the collapse of the Sui dynasty, the Göktürks intervened in the ensuing Chinese civil wars, providing support to the northeastern rebel against the rising in 622 and 623. Liu enjoyed a long string of success but was finally routed by and other Tang generals and executed. The was then established.

Conquest by the Tang
Although the Göktürk Khaganate once provided support to the Tang dynasty in the early period of the civil war during the collapse of the , the conflicts between the Göktürks and Tang finally broke out when Tang was gradually reunifying . The Göktürks began to attack and raid the northern border of the Tang Empire and once marched their main force of 100,000 soldiers to Chang'an, the capital of Tang. The emperor Taizong of the Tang, in spite of the limited resources at his disposal, managed to turn them back. Later, Taizong sent his troops to Mongolia and defeated the main force of Göktürk army in Battle of Yinshan four years later and captured in 630 AD. With the submission of the Turkic tribes, the Tang conquered the Mongolian Plateau. From then on, the Eastern Turks were subjugated to China.

After a vigorous court debate, Emperor Taizong decided to pardon the Göktürk nobles and offered them positions as imperial guards. However, the proposition was ended by a plan for the assassination of the emperor. On 19 May 639十三年 四月戊寅 Academia Sinica Ashina Jiesheshuai and his tribesmen directly assaulted Emperor Taizong of Tang at Jiucheng Palace (, in present-day , , ). However, they did not succeed and fled to the north, but were caught by pursuers near the and were killed. Ashina Hexiangu was exiled to .Sima Guang, Zizhi Tongjian, After the unsuccessful raid of Ashina Jiesheshuai, on 13 August 639十三年 七月庚戌 Academia Sinica Taizong installed and ordered the settled Turkic people to follow him north of the to settle between the Great Wall of China and the .Ouyang Xiu et al., New Book of Tang, However, many Göktürk generals still remained loyal in service to the Tang Empire.

Revival
In 679, Wenfu and Ashide Fengzhi, who were Turkic leaders of the Chanyu Protectorate (), declared as qaghan and revolted against the Tang dynasty.Sima Guang, Zizhi Tongjian, In 680, defeated Ashina Nishufu and his army. Ashina Nishufu was killed by his men. Ashide Wenfu made a qaghan and again revolted against the Tang dynasty. Ashide Wenfu and Ashina Funian surrendered to Pei Xingjian. On 5 December 681,元年 十月乙酉 Academia Sinica 54 Göktürks, including Ashide Wenfu and Ashina Funian, were publicly executed in the Eastern Market of Chang'an. In 682, and revolted and occupied Heisha Castle (northwest of present-day , ) with the remnants of Ashina Funian's men.Sima Guang, Zizhi Tongjian, The restored Göktürk Khaganate intervened in the war between Tang and Khitan tribes. However, after the death of Bilge Qaghan, the Göktürks could no longer subjugate other Turk tribes in the grasslands. In 744, allied with the Tang dynasty, the defeated the last Göktürk Khaganate and controlled the Mongolian Plateau.

Rulers
The of the Göktürks ruled the First Turkic Khaganate, which then split into the Eastern Turkic Khaganate and the Western Turkic Khaganate, and later the Second Turkic Khaganate, controlling much of Central Asia and the Mongolian Plateau between 552 and 745. The rulers were named "" (Qaghan).

Religion
Their religion was polytheistic. The great god was the sky, , who dispensed the viaticum for the journey of life (qut) and fortune (ulug) and watched over the cosmic order and the political and social order. People prayed to him and sacrificed to him a white horse as the offering. The khagan, who came from him and derived his authority from him, was raised on a felt saddle to meet him. Tengri issued decrees, brought pressure to bear on human beings, and enforced capital punishment, often by striking the offender with lightning. The many secondary powers – sometimes named deities, sometimes spirits or simply said to be sacred, and almost always associated with Tengri – were the Earth, the Mountain, Water, the Springs, and the Rivers; the possessors of all objects, particularly of the land and the waters of the nation; trees, cosmic axes, and sources of life; fire, the symbol of the family and alterego of the shaman; the stars, particularly the sun and the moon, the Pleiades, and Venus, whose image changes over time; , the mother goddess who is none other than the placenta; the threshold and the doorjamb; personifications of Time, the Road, Desire, etc.; heroes and ancestors embodied in the banner, in tablets with inscriptions, and in idols; and spirits wandering or fixed in Penates or in all kinds of holy objects. These and other powers have an uneven force which increases as objects accumulate, as trees form a forest, stones form a cairn, arrows form a quiver, and drops of water form a lake.Asian Mythologies by Yves Bonnefoy, Page 315

Genetics
A genetic study published in Nature in May 2018 examined the remains of four elite Türk soldiers buried between ca. 300 AD and 700 AD. 50% of the samples of belonged to the West Eurasian haplogroup R1, while the other 50% belonged to East Eurasian haplogroups Q and O. The extracted samples of belonged mainly to East Eurasian haplogroups C4b1, A14 and A15c, while one specimen carried the West Eurasian haplogroup H2a. The authors suggested that central Asian nomadic populations may have been Turkicized by an East Asian minority elite, resulting in a small but detectable increase in East Asian ancestry. However, these authors also found that Türkic period individuals were extremely genetically diverse, with some individuals being of complete West Eurasian descent. To explain this diversity of ancestry, they propose that there were also incoming West Eurasians moving eastward on the Eurasian steppe during the Türkic period, resulting in admixture.

A 2020 study analyzed genetic data from 7 early medieval Türk skeletal remains from Turkic Khaganate burial sites in Mongolia. The authors described the Türk samples as highly diverse, carrying on average 40% West Eurasian, and 60% East Eurasian ancestry. West Eurasian ancestry in the Türks combined -related and BMAC ancestry, while the East Eurasian ancestry was related to Ancient Northeast Asians. The authors also observed that the Western Steppe Herder ancestry in the Türks was largely inherited from male ancestors, which also corresponds with the marked increase of paternal haplogroups such as R and J during the Türkic period in Mongolia. Admixture between East and West Eurasian ancestors of the Türkic samples was dated to 500 AD, which is 8 generations prior. Three of the Türkic-affiliated males carried the J2a and J1a, two carried haplogroup C-F3830, and one carried R1a-Z93. The analyzed were identified as D4, D2, B4, C4, H1 and U7. A 2023 study published in the Journal of Systematics and Evolution analyzed the DNA of (551–582), a royal Göktürk and immediate descendant of the first Khagans, whose remains were recovered from a mausoleum in , . The authors determined that Empress Ashina belonged to the North-East Asian haplogroup F1d. Approximately 96-98% of her autosomal ancestry was of Ancient Northeast Asian origin, while roughly 2-4% was of West Eurasian origin, indicating ancient admixture, and no Chinese ("Yellow River") admixture. The results are consistent with a North-East Asian origin of the royal Ashina family and the Göktürk Khaganate. However, the Ashina did not show close genetic affinity with central-steppe Türks and early medieval Türks, who exhibit a high (but variable) degree of West Eurasian ancestry, which indicates that there was genetic sub-structure within the Türkic empire. For example, the ancestry of early medieval Turks was derived from Ancient Northeast Asians for about 62% of their genome, while the remaining 38% was derived from West Eurasians (BMAC and ), with the admixture occurring around the year 500 CE.

The Ashina was found to share genetic affinities to post-Iron Age Tungusic and Mongolic pastoralists, and was genetically closer to East Asians, while having heterogeneous relationships towards various Turkic-speaking groups in central Asia, suggesting genetic heterogeneity and multiple sources of origin for the population of the Turkic empire. This shows that the Ashina lineage had a dominating contribution on Mongolic and Tungusic speakers but limited contribution on Turkic-speaking populations. According to the authors, these findings "once again validates a cultural diffusion model over a demic diffusion model for the spread of Turkic languages" and refutes "the western Eurasian origin and multiple origin hypotheses" in favor of an East Asian origin for the royal Ashina family.

Two Turkic-period remains (GD1-1 and GD2-4) excavated from present-day eastern Mongolia analysed in a 2024 paper, were found to display only little to no West Eurasian ancestry. One of the remains (GD1-1) was derived entirely from an Ancient Northeast Asian source (represented by SlabGrave1 or Khovsgol_LBA and Xianbei_Mogushan_IA), while the other (GD2-4) displayed an "admixed profile" deriving c. 48−50% ancestry from Ancient Northeast Asians, c. 47% ancestry from an ancestry maximised in (represented by Han_2000BP), and 3−5% ancestry from a West Eurasian source (represented by ). The GD2-4 belonged to the paternal haplogroup D-M174. The authors argue that these findings are "providing a new piece of information on this understudied period".

Legacy
Members of the Turk-lead Ashina dynasty also ruled the , 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 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. 245Golden, Peter B. An Introduction to the History of Turkic Peoples, p. 142-143 and the State;
(2025). 9785858032557
and possibly also Pritsak, Omeljan (September 1978). "The Khazar Kingdom's Conversion to Judaism" (PDF). Harvard Ukrainian Studies. II (3): 261–281.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. and (if the first Karakhanid ruler Bilge Kul Qadir Khan indeed descended from the Karluk Yabghus). "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 original. 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." According to some researchers, Second Bulgarian Empire's might be descendants of .Sychev N. V., (2008), Книга династий, p. 161-162

Gallery
See also
  • Göktürk family tree
  • Horses in East Asian warfare
  • Timeline of the Turkic peoples (500–1300)
  • Silver Deer of Bilge Qaghan

In popular culture
  • Kürşat, fictional character based on Göktürk prince Ashina Jiesheshuai
  • Göktürk-1, Göktürk-2, Göktürk-3 satellites named after Göktürks
  • Gokturk exoplanet named after Gökturks

Sources

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