Study On The Relationship Between The Western Turkic Khanate And The Sassanid Empire

In the process of the conquest of the escaped Avars and the expansion of theterritory, the Turkic Khanate involved in a clash with the Hephthalites—the ally ofthe Avars. In554, Muqan khan and his uncle Silzboulos went on an expedition of theWestern Region. Meanwhile, Muqan khan sent messengers to Sassanid Empire,suggesting a converging attack against Hephthalites. Then, Silzboulos led an armywestward and conquered Hephthalites. In the meantime, the Turkic commanded bySilzboulos gradually formed a relatively independent political power—the WesternTurks and it established independent contact with the Sassanid Empire, for whichthere are still no detailed studies for short of the records both in the East and Westand the incompletement of the historical materials. Some scholars have maderesearches on the contacts between the Western Turkic Khanate and the SassanidEmpire, however, some questions are left unsettled. With the help of the historicalrecords from both the East and West and on the basis of the previous achievements,the present thesis denies some points and revises the following historical facts.In the latter half of the year555, the Turks branched out into two columns inGaoChang, with one being lead by Muqan khan southeastward to go on a punitiveexpedition of the newly-rising Tuyuhun and the other by Silzboulos westward. FromDecember,555to March,556, Silzboulos occupied the Chirchik, thus entering theheart of the Hephthalites. He defeated heavily the main forces of the Hephthalites inBukhara. Then, Silzboulos married his daughter to Kusahe I and allied with theSassanid Empire. From August to September in556, the allied forces attacked andoccupied Hephthalites’s capital—Balkh, thus bringing the ending of the Hephthalites.After that, Silzboulos and his army conquered the Avars moved to the northern partof the Aral Sea. Though the Hephthalites has already fallen down, the Vassal stateentrenched on the Hindu Kush Mountains were still in existence until their finalconquest by the Western Turkic in562～568. From July to August in568, under thedemand of the Sogdian traders, Silzboulos sent diplomatic mission to SassanidEmpire in the request of the trade inside the national boundary. In the fear that theentry of the Sogdian traders would destroy its independent trade system and what’smore, the direct trade contacts between the Sogdian and the Byzantine would breakthe trade-supported political relationship between the Sassanid Empire and Byzantine,and then ruin its plan against the expansion of the Western Turkic Khanate. TheSassanid Empire poisoned the second diplomatic mission sent by the Western Turkic Khanate. So came to the end of the alliance. The Western Turkic Khanate then alliedwith the Byzantine Empire, which broke the mode of the political relationship andthe trade system between the Sassanid Empire and the Byzantine Empire. It wasrecorded that there were seven large-scaled battles between the Western TurkicKhanate and the Sassanid Empire, among which four were in the aid of theByzantine Empire. The Western Turkic Khanate and the Sassanid Empire not onlysuppressed by three battles, but also interfered with the other’s domestic anddiplomatic affairs. And they competed with each other in drawing the ByzantineEmpire over to their own side as well. The consumption of the national strength,coupled with the frequent outbreaks of the civil upheavals, the two states declined.In651, the Sassanid Empire finally fell down under the attacks of the emerging ArabKingdom.