Muqan Qaghan

{{short description|Khagan of the Göktürks}} {{Infobox Monarch | name = Muqan Qaghan | title = | image_size = 270 | caption = Muqan Qaghan in a Chinese television reenactment | succession = Qaghan of the First Turkic Khaganate | reign = 553–572 | coronation = | full name = | predecessor = Issik Qaghan | successor = Taspar Qaghan | spouse = A Turkic wife (childless).<ref name="Basan"/><br> A non-Turkic wife.<ref name="Basan">{{cite book |last1=Basan |first1=Osman Aziz |title=The Great Seljuqs: A History |date=24 June 2010 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-95392-7 |page=289 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KwvHBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT289 |language=en}} "The problem with this seems to have been that Mukan Kagan's Türk wife was childless. Talopien was not of a Türk mother, being the offspring of a marriage of dynastic convenience."</ref> | issue = Apa Qaghan <br> Empress Ashina <br> Yangsu Tegin | royal house = Ashina | father = Bumin Qaghan | mother = Unrecorded | birth_name = Ashina Yandou (阿史那俟斤) | birth_date = | birth_place = | death_date = 572 | religion = Tengrism }} '''Muqan Qaghan'''<ref>Gary Seaman, Daniel Marksm, ''Rulers from the steppe: state formation on the Eurasian periphery'', Ethnographics Press, Center for Visual Anthropology, University of Southern California, 1991, {{ISBN|978-1-878986-01-6}}, pp. 96–97.</ref> ({{Langx|otk|𐰢𐰆𐰴𐰣:𐰴𐰍𐰣|translit=Muqan qaɣan}},<ref>[https://bitig.kz/index.php?l=m&wi=578&lang=e&mod=3 Muqan qaγan - Ethno Cultural dictionary]</ref> {{Lang-zh|c=木杆可汗/木汗可汗|p=Mùgān Kèhán/Mùhàn Kèhán}}, {{Langx|sog|𐼍𐼇𐼉𐼒𐼎 𐼉𐼒𐼄𐼒𐼎|translit=mwx’n x’ɣ’n}}, Rouran: 𑀫𑀼𑀖𑀅𑀦 𑀕𑀅𑀖𑀅𑀦, romanized: ''Muɣan Qaɣan''<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Vovin |first=Alexander |date=2019-06-18 |title=A Sketch of the Earliest Mongolic Language: the Brāhmī Bugut and Khüis Tolgoi Inscriptions |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/jeal/1/1/article-p162_8.xml |journal=International Journal of Eurasian Linguistics |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=162–197 |doi=10.1163/25898833-12340008 |issn=2589-8825|url-access=subscription }}</ref>), born '''Ashina Yandou'''{{efn|Sometimes spelled as 'Yentou', a name also used by another Göktürk prince, a son of Yami Qaghan of Eastern Türks.}} (阿史那燕都) was the second son of Bumin Qaghan and the third khagan of the Göktürks and the First Turkic Khaganate. He expanded their khaganate and secured the borders against the Hephthalites.

{{Contains special characters|Sogdian}}

== Name == According to Sergey Kljaštornyj and Vladimir Livšic, this ruler is mentioned in the 3rd and 5th lines of the Left Side and the 3rd lines of the Front Side of the Sogdian Bugut Inscription as "mwγ’n γ’γ’n",<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kljaštornyj |first=Sergej G. |last2=Livšic |first2=Vladimir A. |date=1972 |title=The Sogdian Inscription of Bugut Revised |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23657228 |journal=Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=69–102 |issn=0001-6446}}</ref> and according to Yutaka Yoshida and Takao Moriyasu, in the 2nd, 3rd and 5th lines of the B-1 Side and the 3rd lines of the B-2 Side as "mwx’n x’γ’n."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ölmez |first=Mehmet |title=Orhon-Uygur hanlığı dönemi Moğolistan'daki eski Türk yazıtları: metin-çeviri-sözlük |date=2015 |publisher=BilgeSu |isbn=978-9944-795-46-3 |location=Ankara |pages=67-69 |language=tr |trans-title=Ancient Turkic inscriptions in Mongolia during the Orkhon-Uyghur Khanate period: text-translation-dictionary}}</ref> Turkish researchers Talat Tekin, Ahmet Taşağıl, Ahmet Bican Ercilâsun as well as Christopher Beckwith reconstructed his Turkic regnal name as ''Buqan'' and equated him to Bokhanos (Βώχανος) of Menander Protector.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Beckwith |first=Christopher I. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5jG1eHe3y4EC |title=Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present |date=2009-04-05 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-13589-2 |pages=115 |language=en}}</ref>

== Biography == He was born Ashina Yandou (阿史那燕都) to Bumin Qaghan and was made ''irkin'' during his lifetime. He succeeded his elder brother Issik Khagan in a lateral succession in 553. Upon succession, he appointed his younger brother Ashina Kutou (阿史那庫頭) as lesser khagan in the east.

{{Asia 576 CE|right|Map of the Göktürk Qaghanate ("First Turkic Khaganate") and contemporary polities, circa 576, at the end of Muqan Qaghan's reign.||Map of the First Turkic Khaganate.png}} His accession to power was followed by finishing off remnants of the Rouran. Around the new year 554, after the defeat of Yujiulü Kangti at the hands of Göktürks, the remnants of the Rouran, which by that point was near its end, surrendered to the Northern Qi to seek protection from Gökturk attacks. Emperor Wenxuan personally attacked Muqan Qaghan, fighting off his army and then made Yujiulü Anluochen the new khagan of Rouran, settling the Rouran people within Northern Qi territory, at Mayi (馬邑, in modern Shuozhou, Shanxi). The last khagan of the Rouran Yujiulü Dengshuzi was executed by Emperor Gong in 555 because of Gökturks' pressure.

Muqan led an attack on Tuyuhun territory in 556 together with the Western Wei. According to the plan, Muqan was to attack Hezhen (near present-day Chaka Salt Lake, Qinghai) from the north and general Shi Ning (史寧) was to attack Shudun (near Gonghe County). The siege was a success as the Tuyuhun king Murong Kualu's wife, children and treasure was captured, but he returned to his homeland after the Turks withdrew. As the army prepared to withdraw, Muqan Qaghan gifted Ning 100 slaves, 500 horses, and 10,000 sheep.

He then defeated the Hephthalites to the west near Bukhara in 557 together with Khosrow I, however this battle was largely overseen by Muqan's uncle Istami.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/khosrow-ii|title=ḴOSROW II – Encyclopaedia Iranica|website=www.iranicaonline.org|language=en|access-date=2018-07-26}}</ref> He routed the Khitan to the east, and annexed the Kyrgyz to the north. This expansion also pushed against the Avars who were driven towards the Byzantine Empire and the Sassanid Empire and eventually towards the Danube. Other tribes of Central Asia, such as the eastern Bulgars were also displaced.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bauer |first=Susan Wise |title=The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-393-05975-5 |pages=238–241}}</ref>

=== Marriage proposals === Muqan proposed to marry his daughter to Yuwen Tai in 556, but his death prevented this. After the establishment of the Northern Zhou by Emperor Ming, Muqan sent gifts and an emissary to establish contact in 558. At first he wanted to marry his daughter to Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou, however, she was also being courted by Emperor Wucheng of Northern Qi, which caused Muqan some indecision. Ultimately, Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou took the extra step of dispatching Yang Jian, the Governor of Liangzhou, along with Wang Qing (王庆) and others to formally propose the marriage. In fall 563, Northern Zhou entered into an alliance treaty with the Göktürks against the Northern Qi, part of which involved a promise that Emperor Wu would marry the daughter of Muqan Qaghan.

In the winter of 563, the joint forces of the Northern Zhou and Gökturks launched a two-prong attack on the Northern Qi, with the northern prong attacking the Northern Qi's secondary capital Jinyang (晉陽, in modern Taiyuan, Shanxi) and the southern prong attacking Pingyang (平陽, in modern Linfen, Shanxi).

In the spring of 565, Emperor Wu sent his brother Yuwen Chun (宇文純), Yuwen Gui (宇文貴), Dou Yi (竇毅) and Yang Jian (楊薦) to lead a ceremonial guard corps to Tujue to welcome back Muqan's daughter for marriage to him. However, when they arrived at Muqan's headquarters, he turned against the treaty and detained Yuwen Chun and his attendants.

In the spring of 568, a major storm at the Göktürks' headquarters inflicted substantial damage, and Muqan Qaghan took it as a sign of divine displeasure at his rescission of the marriage agreement with the Northern Zhou. He therefore returned Yuwen Chun, along with the daughter he promised Emperor Wu, back to Northern Zhou. Emperor Wu personally welcomed her and made her empress.

After Muqan's death in 572 the title of Qaghan passed to his younger brother Taspar.

== Legacy == Muqan's reign marked the pinnacle of Sogdian cultural influence in the Göktürk Empire. Sogdian culture was transmitted by merchants from Turpan who worked as ambassadors and advisers. The Sogdian language and script were used to govern the empire.{{sfn|Roux|2000|p=79}}

Muqan Qaghan was friendly to Buddhist people, and is credited with being the first to introduce Buddhism to the Türks.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Durand-Guedy |first1=David |title=Turko-Mongol rulers, cities and city life |date=2013 |location=Leiden |isbn=978-9004257009 |page=41 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ua9AAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA41}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kwanten |first1=Luc |title=Imperial nomads: a history of central Asia, 500-1500 |date=1979 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |location=Philadelphia |isbn=0812277503 |page=45 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NKuGAAAAIAAJ}}</ref> He promoted the construction of a Türkic Buddhist temple in the Chinese capital city of Chang'an. Despite his promotion of Buddhism in China, it is not known if he himself converted to Buddhism, and it is also uncertain whether or not a substantial number of Türks were Buddhists during his reign.<ref>{{cite book |title=Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae |date=1972 |publisher=Magyar Tudományos Akadémia |page=78 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QY1gxlOMVHsC |language=en}} "During the reign of Muqan, the Türks were receptive toward Buddhism, but whether or not it was actually adopted by a substantial number of Türks or by Muqan himself is not known."</ref>

== Physical appearance == [[File:An Jia Entertainment Scene. Xi’an, 579 CE. Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, Xi’an.jpg|thumb|Contemporary depiction of the reception of a noble Turk (center, with his retinue to the left) in the residence of the Sogdian trader An Jia (right half). 579 CE, Tomb of An Jia, Xi’an, China.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Yatsenko |first1=Sergey A. |title=Early Turks: Male Costume in the Chinese Art Second half of the 6th – first half of the 8th cc. (Images of 'Others') |journal=Transoxiana |date=2009 |volume=14 |page=Fig.9, 10 |url=http://www.transoxiana.com.ar/14/yatsenko_turk_costume_chinese_art.html}}</ref>]] Muqan Qaghan was described by Chinese authors as having an unusual appearance. He had a red complexion, his face was wide, and his eyes were described as like "colored glazes" (using the term "琉璃" (''liúli''), "glaze"):{{sfnp|Wang|2018|p=190}}

{{quote|"狀貌奇異，面廣尺餘，其色赤甚，眼若琉璃。" <br> "His appearance was strange, his face was broad, his complexion was red, his eyes were like glazes".{{sfnp|Wang|2018|p=190}}<ref>Beishi [https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E5%8C%97%E5%8F%B2/%E5%8D%B7099 vol. 99] "狀貌奇異，面廣尺餘，其色赤甚，眼若琉璃。"</ref><ref>Zhoushu, [https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E5%91%A8%E6%9B%B8/%E5%8D%B750 vol. 50] ""狀貌多奇異，面廣尺餘，其色甚赤，眼若瑠璃。"</ref> }}

Some authors have translated the term "琉璃" ("glaze") as "lapis lazuli"-like (suggesting a blue color).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Balogh |first1=Dániel |title=Hunnic Peoples in Central and South Asia: Sources for their Origin and History |date=31 March 2020 |publisher=Barkhuis |isbn=978-94-93194-05-2 |page=83, I.068/A |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NfpPEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA83 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Esin |first1=Emel |author-link=Emel Esin|title=Proceedings Of The Twenty Sixth International Congress Of Orientalists Volume II |date=1968 |publisher=Organising Committee, XXVI International Congress of Orientalists |location=New Delhi |page=126 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.170727/page/n152/mode/2up}} "Muhan's blue eyes Danişmend p.208" * Other blue-eyed Kök-Türk kings see Eberhard"</ref><ref name="Esin1980">{{cite book |last1=Esin |first1=Emel|author-link=Emel Esin |title=A History of Pre-Islamic and Early-Islamic Turkish Culture|date=1980 |publisher=Ünal Matbaasi |location=Istanbul |page=116}} "The Kök-Türk kagan Mu-kan was also depicted with blue eyes..."</ref><ref>The name for lapis-lazuli is normally 青金岩, but Buddhists sometimes call lapis-lazuli 璧琉璃 ("blue glaze"): "佛教称之为吠努离或璧琉璃，属于佛教七宝之一。" [https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%9D%92%E9%87%91%E5%B2%A9]</ref>

He was characterized as being "tough and fierce", and he was regarded as brave and knowledgeable by historians.

A complete genetic analysis of Muqan Qaghan's daughter Empress Ashina (551–582) in 2023 by Xiaoming Yang et al. found nearly exclusively Ancient Northeast Asian ancestry (97,7%) next to minor West-Eurasian components (2,7%), and no Chinese ("Yellow River") admixture. This supports the Northeast Asian origin of the Ashina tribe and the Göktürk Khanate.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Yang |first1=Xiaomin |title=Ancient Genome of Empress Ashina reveals the Northeast Asian origin of Göktürk Khanate |journal=Journal of Systematics and Evolution |date=2023 |volume=61 |issue=6 |pages=1056–1064 |doi=10.1111/jse.12938 |s2cid=255690237 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/366965287|quote=In the principal component analysis (PCA) (Figs. 1B, S3), the Ashina individual clustered with modern Tungusic and Mongolic speakers, ancient populations from Northeast Asia and eastern Mongolia Plateau, and especially with the Northeast Asian hunter‐gatherers previously referred to as “Ancient Northeast Asian” (ANA), that is, DevilsCave_N, Mongolia_N_North, Boisman_MN, AR_EN (Jeong et al., 2020; Ning et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2021), as well as post‐Iron Age Eastern Steppe nomadic people including Xianbei, Rouran, Khitan, and part of the Mongol population. The shared genetic similarity between Ashina and Northeast Eurasians, especially ANA, was also evident in outgroup‐f3 statistics (Fig. S5A).}}</ref> According to the authors, these findings "once again validates a cultural diffusion model over a demic diffusion model for the spread of Turkic languages.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Yang |first1=Xiaomin |last2=Meng |first2=Hailiang |last3=Zhang |first3=Jianlin |last4=Yu |first4=Yao |last5=Allen |first5=Edward |last6=Xia |first6=Ziyang |last7=Zhu |first7=Kongyang |last8=Du |first8=Panxin |last9=Ren |first9=Xiaoying |last10=Xiong |first10=Jianxue |last11=Lu |first11=Xiaoyu |last12=Ding |first12=Yi |last13=Han |first13=Sheng |last14=Liu |first14=Weipeng |last15=Jin |first15=Li |date=2023-01-09 |title=Ancient Genome of Empress Ashina reveals the Northeast Asian origin of Göktürk Khanate |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jse.12938 |journal=Journal of Systematics and Evolution |volume=61 |issue=6 |language=en |pages=1056–1064 |doi=10.1111/jse.12938 |s2cid=255690237 |issn=1674-4918|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

== Family == Muqan Qaghan's Türkic wife was childless. This caused difficulties for his son Talopien, as he was born to a non-Turkic woman who Muqan had married for diplomatic reasons.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Basan |first1=Osman Aziz |title=The Great Seljuqs: A History |date=24 June 2010 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-95392-7 |page=289 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KwvHBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT289 |language=en}} "The problem with this seems to have been that Mukan Kagan's Türk wife was childless. Talopien was not of a Türk mother, being the offspring of a marriage of dynastic convenience."</ref>

His daughter Empress Ashina became the wife of Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou. His son Talopien, as Apa Qaghan unsuccessfully claimed the throne after the death of his uncle Taspar while his other son Yangsu Tegin was ancestor of the later Western Turkic Qaghans.

===Ancestry=== {{see also|Göktürk family tree}} {{ahnentafel | align = center | boxstyle_1 = background-color: #fcc; | boxstyle_2 = background-color: #fb9; | boxstyle_3 = background-color: #ffc; | boxstyle_4 = background-color: #bfc; | boxstyle_5 = background-color: #9fe; | 1 = Muqan Qaghan (r.553-572)<br>Third khagan of the Göktürks | 2 = Bumin Qaghan (r.552)<br>First khagan of the Göktürks and founder of the First Turkic Khaganate | 3 = Mother: unrecorded | 4= Ashina Tuwu (Grand Yabgu) | 5= Grandmother: unrecorded | 9= | 10 = }}

==Notes== {{notelist}}

== References == {{Reflist}}

;Bibliography *{{cite book |last=Roux |first=Jean-Paul |title=Histoire des Turcs |language=French |publisher=Fayard |year=2000 }}

{{S-start}} {{s-hou|Ashina Clan||}} {{Succession box|title=Khagan of the Turkic Khaganate|before=Issik Qaghan|after=Taspar Qaghan|years = 554–572}} {{S-end}}

{{Göktürks}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muqan Qaghan}} Category:Göktürk khagans Category:6th-century monarchs in Asia Category:572 deaths Category:Ashina house of the Turkic Empire Category:Year of birth unknown Category:Rouran Khaganate {{Rouran rulers}}