Turkic Khaganate
The Türgesh were a Turkic confederation that filled the Central Asian power vacuum after the Western Göktürk collapse, controlling the Syr Darya and Zhetysu regions of modern Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Their Khagan Sulu led the most effective military resistance against Umayyad Arab expansion into Central Asia — a confrontation that determined whether Islam or the steppe tradition would dominate Transoxiana.
6
Rulers Documented
2 Sections
704–756 AD
2 Rulers
The founding faction of the Türgesh confederacy, the Yellow Türgesh under Uche established the khaganate and consolidated Türgesh control over the former Western Göktürk heartland in Zhetysu.
Founder of the Türgesh Khaganate; seized authority over the former Western Göktürk tribes in Zhetysu following the Tang consolidation of the region; established the Yellow Türgesh as the dominant faction and negotiated early relations with the Tang court
Read biographyExpanded Türgesh territory westward toward Sogdia; his reign saw the first significant Türgesh military engagements with the advancing Umayyad forces in Transoxiana, establishing the khaganate as the primary indigenous military obstacle to Arab expansion
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The Black Türgesh faction, under the leadership of Sulu, became the primary military force resisting Umayyad expansion into Central Asia. Sulu's campaigns (715–738 AD) represented the steppe world's most organized military response to the Arab conquests and directly shaped the political boundaries of Islam in Central Asia.
The greatest Türgesh Qaghan and one of the most consequential commanders in Central Asian history; waged continuous warfare against Umayyad forces for over two decades; his victory at the Battle of the Pass (724 AD) temporarily halted Arab expansion into Sogdia; the Arab sources called him 'Abu Muzahim' — Father of Troubles; defeated the combined Umayyad–Turgesh engagement at the Battle of the Day of Thirst (724) and at Khujand; held Tang, Arab, and Tibetan powers in balance simultaneously through skillful diplomacy and rapid cavalry warfare; assassinated in 738 by Baga Tarqan, a rival Türgesh chief
Read biographyAssassinated Sulu and attempted to claim leadership of the khaganate; his coup triggered a civil war between Yellow and Black Türgesh factions that fatally weakened the confederation precisely when Umayyad military pressure was at its most intense
Read biographyAttempted to reunify the Türgesh after the civil war; his failure to restore central authority allowed Tang to reassert direct control over Zhetysu and opened the region to the Karluk tribal confederation that would replace the Türgesh as the dominant Central Asian steppe power
Read biographyLast documented Türgesh Qaghan; his reign saw the Karluk takeover of the former Türgesh heartland; Tang dominance of Central Asia was itself shattered by the Abbasid–Tang clash at the Battle of Talas in 751, after which the Karluks — allied with the Arabs — expelled the final Tang garrisons; the Türgesh as a distinct political entity dissolved into the Karluk confederation
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