Editing Göktürks (section)

=== Origins ===
{{See also|Timeline of the Göktürks}}
[[File:Turkic hunting scene, Gokturk period Altai.png|thumb|Hunting scene from the Göktürk period, from Chaganka, [[Altai Mountains|Altai]] region, 5th-6th century AD<ref>{{cite web |last1=Konstantinov |first1=Nikita |last2=Soenov |first2=Vasilii |last3=Черемисин |first3=Дмитрий |title=BATTLE AND HUNTING SCENES IN TURKIC ROCK ART OF THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES IN ALTAI |url=https://www.academia.edu/29773396}}</ref>]]
[[File:Turkic horseman (Tomb of An Jia, 579 CE).jpg|thumb|upright|Turkic horseman ([[Tomb of An Jia]], 579 CE).<ref name="REF1">{{cite book |last1=Baumer |first1=Christoph |title=History of Central Asia, The: 4-volume set |date=18 April 2018 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-83860-868-2 |page=228 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DhiWDwAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA228 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="SYET">{{cite journal |last1=Yatsenko |first1=Sergey A. |title=Early Turks: Male Costume in the Chinese Art |journal=Transoxiana |date=August 2009 |volume=14 |url=http://www.transoxiana.com.ar/14/yatsenko_turk_costume_chinese_art.html}}</ref>]]
The Göktürk rulers originated from the [[Ashina tribe|Ashina clan]], who were first attested to in 439. The ''[[Book of Sui]]'' reports that in that year, on 18 October, the [[Tuoba]] ruler [[Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei]] overthrew [[Juqu Mujian]] of the [[Northern Liang]] in eastern [[Gansu]],<ref>[[Wei Shou]], ''[[Book of Wei]]'', [[:zh:s:魏書/卷4上|Vol. 4-I.]] {{in lang|zh}}</ref><ref>[[Sima Guang]], ''[[Zizhi Tongjian]]'', [[:zh:s:資治通鑑/卷123|Vol. 123.]] {{in lang|zh}}</ref><ref>[[:zh:承和 (北凉)|永和]]七年 ([[:zh:太延|太延]]五年) 九月丙戌 [http://sinocal.sinica.edu.tw/ Academia Sinica] {{in lang|zh}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131016003621/http://sinocal.sinica.edu.tw/ |date=16 October 2013 }}</ref> whence 500 Ashina families fled northwest to the [[Rouran Khaganate]] in the vicinity of [[Gaochang]].<ref name="Sui84" />{{sfn|Christian|1998|p=249}}

According to the ''[[Book of Zhou]]'' and ''[[History of the Northern Dynasties]]'', the Ashina clan was a component of the [[Xiongnu]] confederation,<ref name="Zhou50" /><ref name="Northern99" /> specifically, the Northern Xiongnu tribes<ref>''[[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)</ref><ref>Xu Elina-Qian, [https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/19205 ''Historical Development of the Pre-Dynastic Khitan''], [[University of Helsinki]], 2005</ref> or southern Xiongnu "who settled along the northern Chinese frontier", according to [[Edwin G. Pulleyblank]].{{sfn|Golden|2018|p=306}} However, this view is contested.{{sfn|Christian|1998|p=249}} Göktürks were also posited as having originated from an obscure Suo state (索國) ([[Middle Chinese|MC]]: *''sâk'') which was situated north of the [[Xiongnu]] and had been founded by the [[Sakas]]<ref>[[János Harmatta|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</ref> or [[Xianbei]].<ref>Vásáry, István (2007) ''Eski İç Asya Tarihi'' p. 99-100, cited Golden (2018), "The Ethnogonic Tales of the Türks", p. 300</ref><ref name="Zhou50" /><ref name="Northern99" />{{sfn|Golden|2018|p=300}} According to the ''Book of Sui'' and the ''[[Tongdian]]'', they were "mixed Hu (barbarians)" ({{linktext|雜胡}}) from [[Pingliang]] (平涼), now in [[Gansu]], [[Northwest China]].<ref name="Sui84" /><ref name="Tong197">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 lang|zh}}</ref> Pointing to the Ashina's association with the Northern tribes of the [[Xiongnu]], some researchers (e.g. Duan, Lung, etc.) proposed that Göktürks belonged in particular to the [[Tiele people|Tiele confederation]], likewise Xiongnu-associated,<ref name="Sui84" /> by ancestral lineage.<ref>{{cite book |first=Rachel |last=Lung |title=Interpreters in Early Imperial China |publisher=John Benjamins |year=2011 |page=48 |isbn=978-90-272-2444-6 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Duan |title=Dingling, Gaoju and Tiele |year=1988 |pages=39–41 |publisher=[[Shanghai People's Press]] |isbn=7-208-00110-3 }}</ref> 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.<ref>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.</ref>

Chinese sources linked the [[Donghu people|Hu]] on their northern borders to the Xiongnu just as Graeco-Roman historiographers called the [[Pannonian Avars]], [[Huns]] and [[Hungarians]] "[[Scythians]]". Such archaizing was a common literary topos, implying similar geographic origins and nomadic lifestyle but not direct filiation.{{sfn|Sinor|1990}}{{page needed|date=August 2015}}

As part of the heterogeneous [[Rouran Khaganate]], the Turks lived for generations north of the [[Altai Mountains]], where they 'engaged in metal working for the Rouran'.<ref name="Sui84" /><ref name="Zizhi159">Sima Guang, ''Zizhi Tongjian'', [[:zh:t:資治通鑑/卷159|Vol. 159.]] {{in lang|zh}}</ref> According to [[Denis Sinor]], the rise to power of the Ashina clan represented an 'internal revolution' in the Rouran Khaganate rather than an external conquest.{{sfn|Sinor|1990|p=295}}

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.{{sfn|Holcombe|2001|p=114}} This is supported by evidence from the [[Orkhon inscriptions]], which include several non-Turkic lexemes, possibly representing [[Uralic languages|Uralic]] or [[Yeniseian languages|Yeniseian]] words.{{sfn|Sinor|1990|p=291}}<ref>Vovin, Alexander. "Did the Xiongnu speak a Yeniseian language?". Central Asiatic Journal 44/1 (2000), pp. 87–104.</ref> [[Peter Benjamin Golden]] points out that the khaghans of the Turkic Khaganate, the Ashina, who were of an undetermined ethnic origin, adopted [[Iranian peoples|Iranian]] and Tokharian (or non-[[Altaic languages|Altaic]]) titles.{{sfn|Golden|1992|p=126}} German Turkologist W.-E. Scharlipp points out that many common terms in Turkic are [[Iranian languages|Iranian]] in origin.<ref>{{cite book |quote=(...) Über die Ethnogenese dieses Stammes ist viel gerätselt worden. Auffallend ist, dass viele zentrale Begriffe iranischen Ursprungs sind. Dies betrifft fast alle Titel (...). Einige Gelehrte wollen auch die Eigenbezeichnung türk auf einen iranischen Ursprung zurückführen und ihn mit dem Wort "Turan", der persischen Bezeichnung für das Land jeneseits des Oxus, in Verbindung bringen. |first=Wolfgang-Ekkehard |last=Scharlipp |title=Die frühen Türken in Zentralasien |location=Darmstadt |publisher=Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft |year=1992 |isbn=3-534-11689-5 |page=18 }}</ref> 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.{{sfn|Golden|1992|p=126}}<ref>[[Lev Gumilyov]], (1967), ''Drevnie Turki'' (Ancient Turks), p. 22-25</ref>