Byzantine impact on the iconography of western Turkic coinage

Babayarov, Gaybulla and Kubatin, Andrey (2013) Byzantine impact on the iconography of western Turkic coinage. Acta Orientalia, 66 (1). pp. 47-58. ISSN 0001-6446

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Abstract

This article is devoted to the coinage of Western Turkic Qaghanate (568–740) in the Chach (Tashkent) region and the influence of Byzantine monetary traditions on their formation. Bearing on the newly discovered numismatic material the authors tried to throw light on the stages of coinage of the Western Turkic Qaghanate and elucidate the brief history of their relations with the Byzantine Empire. The Western Turkic rulers minted their own coins (with the titles of żpγw ‘Yabghu’, cpγw x′γ′n ‘Yabghu-qaghan’, the ethnopolitical name of twrk x′γ′n ‘Türk-Qaghan’ and with the rulers’ names of trδw x′γ′n ‘Tardu qaghan’, twn cpγw x′γ′n ‘Tun Yabghu-qaghan’, all in the Sogdian script) in the Chach region and these coins were symbols of the independence of the Western Turkic Qaghanate. On the coins the following three variants of an original tamga can be seen: <inline-graphic xlink:href="62_2013_Article_3_Fig1_HTML.gif"/> . The difference in the shape of the tamgas, in our opinion, is connected with the three stages of the formation of the Western Turkic Qaghanate. Stage 1: the Western Qaghanate is a wing or peripheral state within the Turkic Qaghanate under the rule of a Yabghu (the title Yabghu appears on the coins as <inline-graphic xlink:href="62_2013_Article_3_Fig2_HTML.gif"/> ); stage 2: during the period when it was related nominally to the Turkic Qaghanate, in the period of the Yabghu-Qaghanate (the title Yabghu-qaghan on the coins is <inline-graphic xlink:href="62_2013_Article_3_Fig3_HTML.gif"/> ); stage 3: from 630 onward, after the defeat of the Eastern Turkic Qaghanate by Tang China, the Western Turkic Qaghanate existed for a certain time as an independent state (the title Qaghan on the coins is <inline-graphic xlink:href="62_2013_Article_3_Fig4_HTML.gif"/> ).

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