The Question of Türk Origins

The question of the ancient homeland of the Turkic peoples and the origins of the distinct grouping that bore the ethnonym Türk remain a topic of debate. The earliest references to peoples that are presumed to be Turkic date to the era of the Xiongnu (2^nd century BC), well before the appearance of the Türks proper (mid-6^th century AD). The breakup of the Xiongnu (whose ethno-linguistic affiliations remain a matter of conjecture) produced the migrations of Oghuric-Turkic speaking peoples to the Kazakhstanian and then western Eurasian (Ponto-Caspian) steppes (4^th and 5^th centuries AD). The rise of the Ashina, the ruling clan of the Türks, its origins in the polyethnic borderlands of China and connections with the East Iranian world, were also ultimately a by-product of the migrations touched off by the collapse of the Xiongnu. Interestingly, none of the early Türk Qaghans bear Turkic names. The fall of the First Türk Qaghanate in 630 in the east brought about by the Tang led to the close interaction of key elements of the Eastern Türks with China. The Tang emperor Taizong, calling himself “Heavenly Qaghan” in the Türk style and his successor, preserved the Türks for a time from steppe foes while attempting to use them as border forces. The Türks broke free and founded the Second Türk Qaghanate (682-742). The ethnonym Türk spread as a generic term for Turkic (and some non-Turkic) steppe peoples among their neighbors and was used as a cultural marker by some Turkic peoples that had been part of the Türk Qaghanate.