Karluken

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The Karluken ( Old Turkish Qarluq; Arabic / Persian قارلوق, Tibetan Gar-log ) were a historical tribal federation of Turkish steppe nomads in early medieval Central Asia .

The later Ghaznavid rulers of Khorasan and northern India emerged from the ranks of enslaved Karluken in the service of the Samanids .

history

Around 600 the Karluken lived north of Lake Balkhash . Initially, they were of relatively minor importance. Even Mahmud al-Kāshgharī does not mention the Karluken in the list of the 20 Turkish tribes in the introduction to his diwān lughāt at-turk . According to Uighur sources, they formed a tribal federation of three clans around 760 . The work Hudūd al-ʿĀlam mentions, however, that the Karluken consisted of seven tribes. Around 700 the Karluken lived in what was later known as the Djungary .

After the decline of the Second Turk Kaganat and its replacement in 745 by the Uighur Kaganat , the Karluks gradually relocated their residences in the 7th and 8th centuries from the Changai Mountains and Altai to the eastern end of Lake Balkhash and further into the Seven Rivers . From 744 onwards there is talk of a "empire of the Karluken", which was based mainly on the rich Sogdian cities of the Seven Rivers. Since the Ötüken Mountains, a sacred place for the Turks, were in their domain, they saw themselves as the successors of the former kingdom of the Kök Turks.

Around 766, the Karluken replaced the then prevailing door history as the upper class of nomads in Turkestan , and occupied the cities of Suyāb (the former capital of the Türgiş) and Tarāz . They also gained influence in Ferghana . With this, the Karluken ruled the areas between Altai and Syrdarja , also displaced the Oghuz further west to the Aral Sea , but were still under the pressure and the supremacy of the Uighurs.

In 791/792 the Karluken were regarded as allies of the Tibetans and tried with them to gain control over East Turkestan, but were defeated by the Uighurs. But there were also various alliances and struggles against the Arabs in Central Asia. B. around 776 they supported the Mukanna uprising. Around 800 the Karluk settled in the Seven Rivers land . Finally, after a massive campaign by the Uighur Khaqan Qut Bulmish (ruled 808-821, he came to the Syr Darya and fought against the Arabs) in 820/821, the Karluk territories were incorporated into the Uighur Empire. But already in 840 they became independent again and were able to appropriate some areas of East Turkestan.

According to later sources ( Al-Marwazi ), nine tribal groups united under her leadership: three groups of the Tschigil , three groups of the B.gh.sk.l, plus the Bulaq , Kökerkin and Tukhsi . However, this composition was not stable and has probably undergone a number of changes over time, which is also supported by the presence of a few other tribal names. Perhaps this also included the Yaghma , which in the 10th century, analogous to the Karluken, were scattered over various areas of Turkestan.

As was customary with nomads at the time, the Karluken had two princes ruling together: the “ Arslan Qara Khaqan ” in the east and the “ Bugra Qara Qagan ” in the west. The western ruler Oghulchak Kadir Khan , for example, waged war against the Samanids (893, 903-904). In 893 he was defeated by Ismail I (r. 892-907), who reached the Talas and took many prisoners. Many Karluken were enslaved, converted to Islam and subsequently served the Samanids as military and court slaves ( ghulām ). The later Ghaznavid rulers of Khorasan and northern India emerged from the ranks of these military slaves.

The Turkish ruling dynasty of the Karakhanids , which ruled Central Asia in the 11th and 12th centuries , is often traced back to a branch of the Karluken.

literature

  • VV Barthold : History of the Semirechyé. In: Ders .: Four Studies on the History of Central Asia. Volume I. EJ Brill, Leiden 1956, section The Qarluq: pp. 86-92 (Russian first publication: Almaty 1893)
  • Helmut Hoffmann: The Qarluq in Tibetan Literature. In: Oriens , Vol. 3, No. October 2, 1950, pp. 190-208
  • Denis Sinor (Ed.): The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1990
  • Marion Linska, Andrea Handl, Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: Introduction to the ethnology of Central Asia . Script. Vienna 2003; accessed on December 13, 2019.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b C. E. Bosworth: Samanids . In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition . Volume 8, Brill, Leiden 1995, pp. 1025-1031, here p. 1026 (“ One role which Ismā'īl inherited as ruler of Transoxania was the defense of its northern frontiers against pressure from the nomads of Inner Asia, and in 280 / 893 he led an expedition into the steppes against the Qarluq Turks, capturing Ṭalas and bringing back a great booty of slaves and beasts. ")
  2. ↑ See Map of Asia at 600 on Commons , accessed January 1, 2020
  3. ↑ See Map of Asia at 700 on Commons , accessed January 1, 2020
  4. ↑ Linska, Handl, Rasuly-Paleczek, p. 61
  5. ↑ Linska, Handl, Rasuly-Paleczek, p. 61
  6. ↑ Michael Weiers : Qarluq . (PDF; 36 kB). In: Outlines of the history of inner-Asian peoples. 1998.
  7. ↑ See Map of Asia at 800 on Commons , accessed January 1, 2020
  8. ^ Sinor: The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia. Pp. 354-357.