Göktürk Khaganate

Founder of the Göktürk Khaganate; revolted against the Rouran Khagan Anagui and destroyed the Rouran state; died within months of proclaiming the khaganate, passing the empire to his sons

Elder son of Bumin; ruled briefly before dying in campaign; his short reign nonetheless secured the eastern steppe during the khaganate's vulnerable founding period

Greatest Qaghan of the First Khaganate; expanded the empire from Manchuria to the Black Sea, conquered the Epthalites in alliance with Sassanid Persia, subjugated the Kitans and Xi peoples, and forced Northern Qi and Northern Zhou to pay tribute

Maintained the vast empire consolidated by Muqan; showed interest in Buddhism and corresponded with Northern Zhou and Northern Qi emperors; his death without a clear successor triggered the succession crisis that split the khaganate

Briefly held the supreme title in the disputed succession after Taspar; his weak claim accelerated the formal division between Eastern and Western branches

First designated Eastern Qaghan after the formal split; faced Sui dynasty China's deliberate policy of fomenting Göktürk civil war; his reign marked the beginning of Chinese political manipulation of steppe succession

Eastern Qaghan during a period of intense internal conflict; his brief reign reflected the breakdown of Göktürk unity under Sui pressure

Longest-ruling Eastern Qaghan of the late First Khaganate period; initially allied with Sui against the Western branch but later turned hostile; eventually killed by his own subordinates with Sui involvement

A Sui-backed Qaghan who submitted to Chinese suzerainty in exchange for military support against his rivals; his submission made the Eastern Khaganate effectively a Sui client state

Reversed his father Qimin's pro-Sui policy; launched devastating raids into Sui territory and famously besieged Emperor Yang of Sui at Yanmen in 615 AD with an army reportedly numbering in the hundreds of thousands

Ruled during the collapse of the Sui dynasty and the rise of Tang; attempted to play competing Tang and Sui successor warlords against each other with mixed success

Last Qaghan of the First Eastern Khaganate; inflicted a decisive defeat on Tang founder Gaozu at the Wei River in 626, extracting tribute; captured and humiliated by Emperor Taizong at the Battle of Yinshan in 630, ending the First Khaganate's independence

Co-founder of the Göktürk Khaganate alongside his brother Bumin; led western expansion; allied with Sassanid Persia to destroy the Epthalites around 557 AD; sent the first Turkic ambassadors to the Byzantine Empire in 568 AD, opening the silk road diplomatic corridor

Most powerful Western Qaghan; briefly held supreme authority over both eastern and western branches; his overreach and conflict with the Sui-backed Eastern Qaghans eventually led to the formal permanent split of the khaganate

Ruled the western branch during Tardu's contested later period; his death contributed to a period of western Göktürk fragmentation under Tang-era Chinese pressure

Western Qaghan during a period of Tang consolidation; struggled to maintain unity among the western tribal confederates as Chinese influence grew

Restored western Göktürk power; allied with Tang against Sui and secured western steppe territory; his alliance with the rising Tang court proved strategically sound

Greatest Western Qaghan; controlled the entire silk road from China to Persia; corresponded with Byzantine Emperor Heraclius and allied with him against Sassanid Persia; his domains stretched from Transoxiana to the Caspian, and Tang accounts describe his court as receiving envoys from over forty peoples

Assumed power after Tong Yabghu's assassination; struggled to hold together the fractious western tribal confederacy amid Tang interference

Ruled during the period of western Göktürk fragmentation following Tang's defeat of the eastern branch; his reign saw the western khaganate increasingly contested between rival factions

Attempted to consolidate the western branch under Tang suzerainty; his reign marked the beginning of the western Göktürks' role as a Tang client state

Western Qaghan during continued factional conflicts between the Nushibi and Dulu tribal wings; his reign accelerated the permanent weakening of western Göktürk central authority

Last effectively independent Western Qaghan; his defeat by the Tang general Su Dingfang in 657 AD ended formal Western Göktürk sovereignty and brought Central Asia under Tang dominance

Founder of the Second Khaganate; led the Göktürk revolt against Tang rule in 682; rebuilt steppe power from a band of refugees into a reconstituted khaganate through seventeen major campaigns documented in the Orkhon Inscriptions

Most powerful ruler of the Second Khaganate; extended Göktürk control from Manchuria to Transoxiana; repeatedly defeated Tang armies and extracted tribute and concessions; killed in a surprise attack by the Bayyrqu tribe in 716

Briefly held power after Qapaghan's death before being overthrown by Ilterish's sons; his displacement restored the founding lineage to the throne

Son of Ilterish and one of the great figures of Turkic history; his reign is documented in the famous Orkhon Inscriptions, bilingual stone monuments in Old Turkic runic and Chinese; ruled alongside his brother Kultegin, whose military genius secured the khaganate's borders

Brother and supreme general of Bilge Qaghan; never held the Qaghan title but was the khaganate's greatest military commander; his death stele is one of the most important surviving documents of early Turkic civilization

Son of Bilge; ruled after his father's probable poisoning; his reign saw the beginning of the internal conflicts that would destroy the Second Khaganate

Last substantive Qaghan of the Second Khaganate; his rule coincided with the Uyghur and Basmyl uprising that fragmented Göktürk authority beyond recovery

Attempted to resist the Uyghur-led coalition that had shattered the Second Khaganate; defeated and killed by the Uyghurs in 744, ending two centuries of Göktürk supremacy over the Mongolian steppe