The Thirty Tribes of the Turks

Dobrovits, Mihály (2004) The Thirty Tribes of the Turks. Acta Orientalia, 57 (3). pp. 257-262. ISSN 0001-6446

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Abstract

The present study first investigates the Turkic and Chinese terminology for nomadic tribes and tribal confederacies, then proceeds to analyse the famous passage to be found on the Chinese epitaph of Princess Xienli Pijia (Bilgä), in which we are informed that the father of the Princess, Gudulu (= Qutlu?) Mechuo was the Türk Khagan of theThirty Tribes. Contrary to an older attempt of K. Czeglédy at interpreting the numerical composition of the Türk confederacy, the author elucidates the question in another way. To his opinion the term Nine Surnames (jiu xing) stands for the toquz o?uz, to which the eleven tribes of the Eastern Turks must be added. These two groups make up twenty tribes, and adding to this amount the ten tribes of the Western Turks (on oq) we get the Thirty Tribes of the complete Türk confederacy.

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