The Ashina (; Middle Chinese: (Guangyun) ), also known as Asen, Asena, or Açina, were a tribe and the ruling dynasty of the ancient Turkic peoples.
It rose to prominence in the mid-6th century when the leader, Bumin Qaghan, revolted against the Rouran Khaganate.
The two main branches of the family, one descended from Bumin and the other from his brother Istämi, ruled over the eastern and western parts of the Göktürk confederation, respectively.
Origin
Primary Chinese sources ascribed different origins to the Ashina tribe.
Ashina were first attested to 439, as reported by the Book of Sui: on October 18, the Tuoba ruler Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei overthrew Juqu Mujian of the Northern Liang in eastern Gansu,Wei Zheng et al., Book of Sui, Vol. 84. Wei Shou, Book of Wei, Vol. 4-I.
Sima Guang, Zizhi Tongjian, Vol. 123. 永和七年 (太延五年)
九月丙戌 Academia Sinica   and 500 Ashina families fled northwest to the Rouran Khaganate near Gaochang.Christian, p. 249.
According to the Book of Zhou, History of the Northern Dynasties, and New Book of Tang, the Ashina clan was a component of the Xiongnu confederation.Linghu Defen et al., Book of Zhou, Vol. 50. 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)Xu Elina-Qian, Historical Development of the Pre-Dynastic Khitan, University of Helsinki, 2005 but this is contested.Christian, p. 249 Göktürks were also posited as having originated from an obscure Suo state (索國), north of the Xiongnu.Li Yanshou (李延寿), History of the Northern Dynasties, Vol.
99.  According to the Book of Sui and the Tongdian, they were "mixed barbarians" (; záhú) from Pingliang.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, , p. 5401.
According to some researchers (Duan, Xue, Tang, Lung, Onogawa, etc.) the Ashina tribe were descended from the Tiele confederation,Duan: Dingling, Gaoju and Tiele.
1988, pp.
39–41Xue, Zongzheng History of Turks (1992).
39–85Rachel Lung, Interpreters in Early Imperial China, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2011, p. 48 "Türk, or Türküt, refers to a state of Ašina clan (of Tiele [鐵勒] tribe by ancestral lineage)"Duan: Dingling, Gaoju and Tiele.
1988, pp.
39–41 who were likewise associated with the Xiongnu.Old Book of Tang Vol. 199 lower "鐵勒，本匈奴別種" tr.
"Tiele, originally a splinter race from Xiongnu"Suishu, Vol. 84 "鐵勒之先，匈奴之苗裔也" tr.
"Tiele's predecessors are Xiongnu's descendants."
Like the Göktürks, the Tiele were probably one of many nomadic Turkic peoples on the steppe.Suribadalaha, "New Studies of the Origins of the Mongols", p. 46–47Cheng, Fangyi.
"The Research on the Identification Between Tiele and the Oghuric Tribes".
Etymology
Several researchers, including Peter B. Golden, H. W. Haussig,Haussig Н. W. "Byzantinische Qullen über Mittelasien in ihrer historischen Aussage" // Prolegomena to the sources on the history of pre-Islamic Central Asia.
Budapest, 1979.
S. 55–56.
S. G. Klyashtorny,Кляшторный С. Г. Проблемы ранней истории племени тÿрк (ашина).
// Новое в советской археологии.
/ МИА № 130.
М.: 1965.
С. 278–281.Kjyashtorny S. G.
The Royal Clan of the Turks and the Problem of its Designation // Post-Soviet Central Asia.
Edited by Touraj Atabaki and John O'Kane.
Tauris Academic Studies.
London*New York in association with IIAS.
International Institute for Asian Studies.
Leiden-Amsterdam, p. 366–369.
Carter V. Findley, D. G. Savinov,Савинов Д.Г. Владение Цигу древнетюркских генеалогических преданий и таштыкская культура.
// Историко-культурные связи народов Южной Сибири.
Абакан: 1988.
С. 64–74.
S. P. Guschin, and András Róna-Tas have posited that the term Ashina is from the Iranian Saka or possibly from the Wusun.
Carter V. Findley assumes that the name "Ashina" comes from one of the Saka languages of central Asia and means "blue" (gök in Turkic).
The color blue is identified with the east, so that Göktürk, another name for the Turkic empire, meant the "Turks of the East"; meanwhile, Peter Benjamin Golden favours a more limited denotation of Göktürks as denoting only the Eastern Turks.C. V. Findley 39.Golden, P.B. (1992)
Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples.
Series: Turcologia, Volume 9.
Otto-Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden p. 117 This idea is seconded by Hungarian researcher András Róna-Tas, who finds it plausible "that we are dealing with a royal family and clan of Saka origin".Róna-Tas 280.
"The term böri, used to identify the ruler's retinue as 'wolves', probably also derived from one of the Iranian languages", proposes Findley; while Turkish-Armenian etymologist Sevan Nişanyan asserts that the term likely is derived from the Turkic word for "gray" (boz), indicating the practice of taboo speech.
H. W. Haussig and S. G. Kljyashtorny suggest an association between the name and the compound "kindred of Ashin" ahşaẽna (in Old Persian).
This is so even in East Turkestan; then the desired form would be in the Sogdian 'xs' yn' k (-әhšēnē) "blue, dark"; Khotan-Saka (Brahmi) āşşeiņa (-āşşena) "blue", where a long -ā- emerged as development ahş-> āşş-; in Tocharian A āśna- "blue, dark" (from Khotan-Saka and Sogdian).
There is a textual support for this version in the ancient runic inscriptions of the Turks.
In the large Orkhon inscriptions, in the story of the first Kagan, people living in the newly created empire are named "kök türk" (translated as "Celestial Turks").
Without touching the numerous interpretations "kök" may have in this combination, note its perfect semantic match with the reconstructed value of the name "Ashina".
An explicit semantic calque suggests knowledge of its original meaning and foreign origin, which is compatible with the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural nature of the First Turkic Khaganate, which entailed the loss, however, of the popularity of "national character", in the words of L. Bazin, as was the political and cultural environment of the Otuken regime in the era of Bilgä Qaǧan.
The name "Ashina" was recorded in ancient Muslim chronicles in these forms: Aś(i)nas (al-Tabari), Ānsa (Hudud al-'Alam), Śaba (Ibn Khordadbeh), Śana, Śaya (Al-Masudi).Гумилёв Л. Н. Древние тюрки.
М.-Л., Наука, 1967.P. B. Golden, "Irano-Turcica: The Khazar sacral kingship revisited," in Acta Orientalia Hungarica 60:2 (2007) p. 165, 172, n. 33  The name "Ashina" is translated by some researchers as "wolf", cf.
Tuoba 叱奴 *čino, Middle Mongol činua, Khalkha čono.Gumilev, 1967, p. 23Boodberg, 1936, p. 182 However, Golden contended that derivation from Mongolic is mistaken.Golden, Peter B. (August 2018).
"The Ethnogonic Tales of the Türks".
The Medieval History Journal, 21(2).
21 (2): 292.
When Ashina became the head of Göktürks, they exhibited a banner with a wolf head over their gate, in reminiscence of its origins.Bichurin, 1950, p. 220–221 Legends
Chinese chroniclers recorded four origin tales, which Golden termed "Wolf Tale I", "Wolf Tale II", "Shemo (Žama) and the Deer Tale" and "Historical Account", of the Turks in dynasty histories and historical compilations "based on or copied from the same source(s) and repeated in later collections of historical tales".
Wolf Tale I: Ashina was one of ten sons born to a grey she-wolf (see: Asena) in the north of Gaochang.Zhoushu, vol. 50
Wolf Tale II: The ancestor of the Ashina was a man from the Suo nation (north of Xiongnu) whose mother was a lupine season goddess.
Shemo and the Deer Tale: The Ashina descended from a skilled archer named Shemo, who had once fallen in love with a sea goddess west of Ashide cave.Youyang Zazu, vol. 4
Historical Account: The Ashina were mixture stocks from the Pingliang commandery of eastern Gansu.Suishu, vol. 84
These stories were sometimes pieced together to form a chronologically coherent narrative of early Ashina history.
However, as the Book of Zhou, the Book of Sui, and the Youyang Zazu were all written around the same time, during the early Tang dynasty, it is debatable whether they could truly be considered chronological or rather should be considered competing versions of the Ashina's origin.Xue, Zongzheng.
History of Turks (1992) 39–85 The record of Turks in Zhoushu (written in the first half of the seventh century) describes the use of gold by Turks around the mid-fifth century: "(The Turks) inlaid gold sculpture of wolf head on their flag; their military men were called Fuli, that is, wolf in Chinese.
It is because they are descendants of the wolf, and naming so is for not forgetting their ancestors."
According to Klyashtorny, the origin myth of Ashina shared similarities with the Wusun, although there is a significant difference that, whereas in the Wusun myth the wolf saves the ancestor of the tribe, it is not as in the case of the Turks.
He also adds that Turk system of beliefs linking at least some sections of the Turk ruling class to the Sogdians and, beyond them, to the Wusun.
Funeral rite
The Old Book of Tang describes the funeral rites of the Ashina as follows:
"The body of the deceased lived in a tent.
Sons, grandchildren and relatives of both sexes slaughter horses and sheep, and as they spread around in front of the tent, sacrifice; they ride on horseback seven times around the tent, and then, at the entrance to the tent, slit their own faces with a knife weeping, and spill their blood forward; pouring blood and tears collectively.
They do so seven times, and it is over.
Later in the chosen day they take the horse on which the deceased used to ride, and the things that he used, and burn them along with the corpse: the ashes are then collected and buried in a certain season into the grave.
Those who died in the spring and summer, are buried when the leaves on the trees and plants begin to turn yellow and fall; those who died in the fall or winter are buried when the flowers begin to unfold.
On the day of the funeral, as well as on the day of his death, the family offers a sacrifice, rides horses and slit their face.
The building, which was built on the grave, is decorated with the portrait of the face of the dead man and with the description of battles in which he was as in the continuation of life.
Usually they put one stone for every man he killed, they may have a different number of such stones, up to a hundred or even a thousand.
when bringing sheep and horses as a sacrifice to a single, they hang their heads on the milestones."
According to D. G. Savinov, no burials in South Siberia nor Central Asia that is fully consistent with the description given by I. Bichurin, has been found as of yet.
Many of the burial features, however, were already extant in earlier Turkic cultures.
According to D. G. Savinov this may be for several reasons:
Göktürk burial sites in Central Asia and Southern Siberia are not yet open;
The source is a compilation in character, and burial rituals and funeral cycle from various sources are listed in a unified manner;
Göktürk funeral rites in the form in which they are recorded in written sources, developed later on the basis of the various components present in some of the archaeological sites of Southern Siberia of earlier Turkic cultures.
It is thought that the rite of cremation which was adopted by the ruling elite did not spread among the common people of the Qaganate.
This may be attributed to the different ethnic origin of the ruling family.Савинов Д.Г. Народы Южной Сибири в древнетюркскую эпоху Глава II.
Раннетюркское время 1.
Древнетюркские генеалогические предания и археологические памятники раннетюркского времени (с. 31–40) Genetics
Based on testings of people who identify themselves as descendants of Bumin Qaghan, the Ashina clan belongs to the Z93, Z94+, Z2123-, Y2632- branch of haplogroup R1a.Wen S.-Q., Muratov B.A., Suyunov R.R.
The haplogroups of the representatives from ancient Turkic clans – Ashina and Ashide // BEHPS. , Volume 3, No. 2 [1,2].
March 2016.
p. 154–157.
R.R. Suyunov, Муратов Б.А., Суюнов Р.Р. Саки-динлины, аорсы, Ашина и потомки кланов Дешти-Кипчака по данным ДНК-генеалогии // Вестник Академии ДНК-генеалогии (Бостон, США) → Том 7, №8, Август 2014, стр. 1198–1226., Muratov, Муратов Б.А. ДНК-генеалогия тюркоязычных народов Урала, Волги и Кавказа.
Том 4, серия «Этногеномика и ДНК-генеалогия», ЭИ Проект «Суюн».
Vila do Conde, Lidergraf, 2014, илл. .
According to some researchers, the Bulgar Asen dynasty might be descendants of Ashina.Sychev N. V., (2008), Книга династий, p. 161-162 Another prominent Turkic clan, the Ashide, is the conjugal clan of the Göktürk Ashina clan and has Q1a-L53.
Gallery
See also
Timeline of Turks (500–1300)
Turks in the Tang military
Mythology of the Turkic and Mongolian peoples
Shǐ (surname), (史) adopted by some of the Ashina tribe
Notes
References
Findley, Carter Vaughin.
The Turks in World History.
Oxford University Press, 2005. .
Golden, Peter.
An introduction to the history of the Turkic peoples: Ethnogenesis and state-formation in medieval and early modern Eurasia and the Middle East, Harrassowitz, 1992.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia 2nd ed. Soviet Encyclopedia, 1950–1958.
Róna-Tas, András.
Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages.
Central European University Press, 1999. .
Page 280.
Zhu, Xueyuan.
The Origins of Northern China's Ethnicities.
Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 2004. .
Xue, Zongzheng.
A History of Turks.
Beijing: Chinese Social Sciences Press, 1992. .
Duan: Dingling, Gaoju and Tiele.
1988, pp.
39–41
Suribadalaha, "New Studies of the Origins of the Mongols", p. 46–47.
Cheng, Fangyi.
"The Research on the Identification Between Tiele and the Oghuric Tribes".
External links
Lev Gumilev about the Ashina clan
