Kyrgyz Khaganate: The Leading Nomadic State in Central Asia from the Mid-9th to the First Quarter of the 10th Century

Kyrgyz Great Power

During the VI-VIII centuries, when the Kyrgyz state existed only in the territory of the Minusinsk Basin, it had to constantly defend its independence from the leading military powers: the Khaganates of the Jujans, the ancient Turks, the Seyanto, and the Uyghurs.

The military coalitions that the Kyrgyz entered were aimed at opposing the most powerful adversary in the nomadic world. At the same time, they managed to keep the dependent tribes of the Kyshtym in subjugation, who inhabited some areas of the Middle Yenisei valley. An attempt to conclude a dynastic alliance with the ruling family of the Eastern Turks, the Ashina, could not prevent the Turkic conquest of the Minusinsk Basin. The collapse of the Second Eastern Turkic Khaganate made the Minusinsk Kok-Turks, who remained to live on the territory of the Kyrgyz state, its natural allies. During this period, the Chinese authorities sought to establish allied, but not equal, rather vassal relations with the Kyrgyz.

In the VI-VIII centuries, the Minusinsk Basin was an important center of iron production for the nomads, who were supplied with weapons and iron products. A branch of the Great Silk Road from China, Eastern Turkestan, and Central Asia passed through the land of the Kyrgyz, along which Sogdian merchants delivered silk and other goods, while exporting furs, timber, and mammoth tusks from Southern Siberia.

In 820, the Kyrgyz again rebelled against Uyghur domination - the ruler Ajo declared himself khan, his mother, who came from the ruling family of the Turgish, a widow khatun, and his wife, the daughter of the ruler of the Karluks, a khatun, thereby claiming equal status with the Uyghur khagan. This signified a claim to supreme power in Central Asia. In response, the Uyghur khagan sent a minister with an army, but he was unsuccessful (Bichurin, 1998, p. 363). The Kyrgyz were burdened by their dependence on the Uyghurs and prepared for the struggle for independence. Ajo concluded a dynastic alliance with the rulers of the Karluks, who were at odds with the Uyghurs.

In the Kyrgyz Khaganate, an extensive administrative apparatus was established, and an Asian decimal system of the army and the people was introduced, allowing for the mobilization of all forces to fight the Uyghurs (Khudyakov, 1980, pp. 134, 135, 140, 141). Almost simultaneously, the Tibetans also acted against the Uyghurs. It can be assumed that their actions were pre-coordinated. The Uyghur khagans were forced to wage war on two fronts simultaneously, continuing the war with the Yenisei Kyrgyz for a full 20 years.

Gradually, the advantage in military operations in the Sayan-Altai region shifted to the latter. Military failures increased instability in the Uyghur Khaganate. After another military coup in the capital, Ordu-Balik, in 839, the commander of the Uyghur army, General Güylu Mohe, switched sides with his entire army to the Kyrgyz. In 840, at the walls of the Uyghur capital's citadel, the Kyrgyz army inflicted a complete defeat on the Uyghurs.

The Kyrgyz khan "personally set fire to the khan's camp and the residence of the princess," "took all his treasures and captured the princess Tkhai-ho." Considering that the thunder of the Uyghur state was over, he "moved his residence to the southern side of the Lao-Shan mountains" in northwestern Mongolia (Bichurin, 1998, p. 364).

In 843, the Kyrgyz troops made a campaign following the Uyghurs, reaching new areas of their settlement in Eastern Turkestan. As a result of these campaigns, the borders of the Kyrgyz Khaganate were expanded throughout Central Asia from the Altai and Upper Irtysh to Eastern Transbaikalia, and from Southern Siberia, the Tianshan, Eastern Tianshan, and Ordos. In 847, the Kyrgyz khan, who had achieved victory over the Uyghurs, died, and his name has not survived in written historical sources. He is known only by the Chinese title bestowed upon him by the Chinese emperor Zong-in Xun-wu Chen-min khan. His successor, the new khan, was awarded the title "Yin-wu Chen-min khan" by the Chinese emperor (Bichurin, 1998, p. 365). In 848, the Kyrgyz army, numbering "70,000 troops from various tribes," made a campaign into Transbaikalia. "He inflicted a heavy defeat on the Shivei people, then gathered all the Uyghurs who were with the Shivei and returned them north of the Gobi" (Malyavkin, 1974, p. 30). The remnants of the surviving Uyghurs from this group fled to Eastern Turkestan and joined their fellow tribesmen.

By the end of the IX century, Kyrgyz troops resumed active military actions in Eastern Turkestan, capturing the cities of Penchul and Aksu and reaching Kashgar (Bartold, 1963, p. 492).

The period of the IX-X centuries in the history of the Kyrgyz Khaganate received a just historical name "Kyrgyz Great Power" (Bartold, 1963, p. 489). For the first time in the history of the Central Asian region, a relatively small in number Turkic-speaking nomadic people, inhabiting the remote northern periphery in the Minusinsk Basin, managed to achieve a convincing military victory over the more numerous Uyghurs and other Tele tribes, who populated all the vast steppe territories, up to the borders of China and Eastern Turkestan. However, the mass migrations of the Tele tribes from their former habitats posed a significant threat to the future of Kyrgyz statehood in the conquered territory. As a result of these migrations, the steppes of Mongolia could almost completely remain without their former nomadic population. This situation forced the Kyrgyz khans to send their armies in pursuit of the fleeing Uyghurs and other Tele tribes to the eastern and southern fringes of the Central Asian region.

The Kyrgyz rulers did not fully succeed in implementing their plans to return the fleeing Uyghurs and Tele.

The goals of the war that the Kyrgyz waged during the IX-X centuries can be considered traditional for the rulers of all nomadic states claiming dominance in the Central Asian region. The main one was the subjugation of all nomadic tribes, thereby significantly increasing the number of the subjugated population and their army.

The second important goal was to seize the cities along the route of the Great Silk Road in Eastern Turkestan.

The third goal was to establish direct diplomatic and trade contacts with the Tang Chinese Empire.

It was not possible to fully realize all these goals over a sufficiently long period. Nevertheless, for about 80 years, from the mid-IX to the first quarter of the X century, the Kyrgyz Khaganate remained the leading nomadic state in Central Asia.

Kyrgyz Khan Bars-beg