Tardu

Tardu (died 603) was the second yabgu and the first khagan of the Western Turkic Khaganate.

Names

The regnal name in Turkic was Tarduš (Old Turkic: ),Medieval Greek: Ταρδου, 達頭可汗/达头可汗, Pinyin: dátóu kěhàn, Wade-Giles: ta-t'ou k'o-han, personal name: 阿史那玷厥, āshǐnà diànjué, a-shih-na tien-chüeh). According to Lev Gumilev his personal name was Kara-Churin-Turk (Кара Чурин Тюрк).

Background

Turkic Khaganate was a vast khaganate (empire); from Manchuria and Chinese wall to Black sea. It was impossible to govern the whole khaganate from a certain capital. So while the eastern part was directly ruled by the khagan (emperor), the western part was governed by yabgu (vassal) in behalf of the khagan. The capital of the west was Ordukent (Suyab) (present day Kyrgyzistan). Istemi who was the khagan's brother was the first and Tardu (İstemi's son) was the second yabgu.

Years of civil war

Tardu became the yabgu in 575. Being a very ambitious yabgu he was planning to seize power in whole khaganate. He saw his chance in 581 when khagan Taspar died. Taspar had announced his preference for Talopien instead of his son Anluo. But Göktürk kurultay (council of tribal leaders) which was authorized to appoint the new khagan refused the former kagan's will and appointed the former khagan's son who in turn acknowledged Ishbara as the new khagan. This gave Tardu the necessary cause to interfere. He sent an army to back Talopien. Ishbara applied Sui China for protection and both contestants were played off against each other by China.

Tardu (given name)

Tardu is a common masculine Turkish given name. In Turkish, "Tardu" means "a Light Coming from Darkness".

Real People