Tardu

Tardu was a ruler of the Western Turks in Central Asia in late ancient times . He ruled from 576 to 603.

According to the late antique (Greek-speaking) and Chinese sources, the Turkish khaganate was initially divided into four khanates, with a superordinate khan; after 582 the entire Turkish domain was divided into a western and an eastern khaganate. Sogdia had ruled Sizabulos until about 576 , who according to the majority opinion of the research should be identical with the ruler Iştämi, known from Turkish inscriptions , but this is by no means absolutely certain. Through the mediation of the Sogdier Maniakh, Sizabulos had successfully concluded an alliance with the Eastern Roman Empire against the Persian Sassanid Empire around 570 . This was the beginning of a regular exchange of ambassadors between the West Turks and the East, about which the late antique historian Menander Protektor reports in great detail in his work , which is only fragmentary today, based on very good sources.

Sizabulos died in 576. When shortly afterwards an Eastern Roman embassy under Valentinos reached the Turkish court, the Turkish ruler Turxanthos , a son of Sizabulos, received them very unfriendly. The embassy wanted to announce the takeover of the new emperor Tiberios I and renew the alliance against Persia. Turxanthos made serious reproaches to the Eastern Roman ambassadors, however, because the Eastern Roman emperor, despite the alliance with the Turks, was now in contact with the Avars who had advanced westward . The Avars, however, regarded Turxanthos as escaped slaves of the Turks and made violent threats against them. Turxanthos refused to negotiate with the Eastern Romans, but had to allow them to move on to Tardu.

In this context, the ranking of the turxanthos in the hierarchy of the Turkish khaganate is important, which is not easy to determine. The statements made by Menander clearly indicate that Turxanthos was by no means the overlord of the Western Turks, perhaps not even the first among equals. This role was apparently played by Tardu, at least in the West. This is also well documented in Chinese sources. The Roman-Turkish alliance was not renewed and eventually broke up; apparently Tardu was no longer interested in it either.

According to the sources, Tardu was the (probably older) brother of Turxanthos and a son of Iştämi , although the address of the brother in the sources may only indicate a hierarchy and the equation of Iştämi with Sizabulos is not entirely undisputed, as I said.

In any case, Tardu was apparently the highest ranking Western Turkish ruler, but it is unclear how exactly he came to power. He resided, as the Eastern Roman embassy reached him on the mountain Ektel in the Altai Mountains and ruled over a vast territory in the western Central Asia , stretching from Transoxiana to the western Mongolia extended. However, tensions soon arose within the khaganate, the eastern part of which extended to northern China. During internal power struggles in the eastern Khaganat, Tardu supported an uprising of his nephew Apa (referred to in Chinese sources as Ta-Lo-Pien) against the Khagan Nivar in the 580s. However, Nivar received support from the Chinese, whereupon Apa turned against Tardu to establish an empire after all. Apa was initially successful, but was then defeated by other Turks. Tardu himself seems to have ruled only formally in the western Khaganate for some time after his defeat by Apa.

Tardu sought and received Chinese support in 584, as the Sui dynasty now ruling China was primarily interested in playing off dangerous neighbors in the north against each other. In 588/89 he made an advance into the Sassanid Empire (which was followed by a Persian counter-attack) and was finally able to re-establish himself in the western part of the Khaganate, but the previous events had effectively broken the rather loose connection with the supreme khagan in the east. It turned out to be fatal that the Turks apparently did not act very successfully in the battles against the Persians at the end of the 6th century and became very dependent on China, which undermined Tardu's authority. This seems to have tried hard to secure his old position and in 598 apparently also came into contact with the Eastern Roman emperor Maurikios . Tardu apparently fell during an uprising in 603.

literature

• Hans Wilhelm Haussig : The relations of the Eastern Roman Empire to Central Asia and their resonance. In: Oriens Extremus 19/20, 1972, pp. 231-237.
• Bertold Spuler : History of Central Asia since the appearance of the Turks. In: Karl Jettmar (Ed.): History of Central Asia. Brill, Leiden 1966, p. 123ff.
• Denis Sinor : The Establishment and Dissolution of the Turk Empire. In: Denis Sinor (ed.): The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1990, pp. 285-316.

Remarks

1. ↑ See the evidence from Hans Wilhelm Haussig: The sources on the Central Asian origin of the European Avars. In: Central Asiatic Journal 2, 1956, p. 21ff., Here p. 27f. with note 26.
2. ↑ Skeptical about Denis Sinor: The Establishment and Dissolution of the Turk Empire. In: Denis Sinor (ed.): The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia. Cambridge 1990, p. 305.
3. ↑ On the Turkish-Eastern Roman contacts, see also Christoph Baumer : The History of Central Asia. Vol. 2, London 2014, pp. 175ff .; Walter Pohl: The Avars . 2nd edition Munich 2002, p. 42f .; Bertold Spuler: History of Central Asia since the appearance of the Turks. In: Karl Jettmar (Ed.): History of Central Asia. Leiden 1966, p. 129ff .; Étienne de La Vaissière: Sogdian Traders. A history . Leiden 2005, p. 234ff.
4. ↑ Hans Wilhelm Haussig: The relations of the Eastern Roman Empire to Central Asia and their resonance. In: Oriens Extremus 19/20, 1972, here p. 232ff.
5. ^ Cf. Walter Pohl: The Avars . 2nd edition Munich 2002, p. 66f.
6. ^ Hans Wilhelm Haussig: The sources on the Central Asian origin of the European Avars. In: Central Asiatic Journal 2, 1956, here p. 29ff.
7. ↑ See Denis Sinor: The Establishment and Dissolution of the Turk Empire. In: Denis Sinor (ed.): The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia. Cambridge 1990, p. 304.
8. ↑ See also I. Ecsedy: Western Turks in Northern China in the Middle of the 7th Century on the Turkish-Chinese contacts of this time . In: Acta antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 28, 1980, pp. 249-258 ( digitized version ).
9. ↑ See Hans Wilhelm Haussig: The relations of the Eastern Roman Empire to Central Asia and their resonance. In: Oriens Extremus 19/20, 1972, p. 235, note 22.
10. ↑ See Denis Sinor: The Establishment and Dissolution of the Turk Empire. In: Denis Sinor (ed.): The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia. Cambridge 1990, pp. 304f.
11. ↑ Denis Sinor: The Establishment and Dissolution of the Turk Empire. In: Denis Sinor (ed.): The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia. Cambridge 1990, p. 306.
12. ↑ Denis Sinor: The Establishment and Dissolution of the Turk Empire. In: Denis Sinor (ed.): The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia. Cambridge 1990, pp. 305f.
13. ^ Bertold Spuler: History of Central Asia since the appearance of the Turks. In: Karl Jettmar (Ed.): History of Central Asia. Leiden 1966, p. 131.
14. ↑ Denis Sinor: The Establishment and Dissolution of the Turk Empire. In: Denis Sinor (ed.): The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia. Cambridge 1990, p. 306.
15. ^ Bertold Spuler: History of Central Asia since the appearance of the Turks. In: Karl Jettmar (Ed.): History of Central Asia. Leiden 1966, p. 132.