Ashina (clan)
The Aschina ( in the literature also often Ashina or A -shi -na; own name in the inscriptions of Bugut and Orkhon: Turkic or Pl türküt ) were the leading clan of a tribal confederation of various steppe nomads in Chinese sources as Tujue (突厥) was circumscribed and is titled today as generalized Göktürks ( kök türk, "Blue Turk " in the sense of " Turks of the East" according to Central Asian colors orientation, by some as " sky Turks" or " root Turks" interpreted ).
Origin and language of the Aschina
The Aschina, which are thought to originate from the southern and western Altai, were evidently under a high degree of influence of the neighboring Indo-European peoples of the Iranians and Tocharians. The possibility that the Aschina themselves have originally spoken a non-Turkish language is not excluded due to the sparse primary sources available. In this regard, it is striking that many of the central concepts of the kingdom - this applies particularly to almost all the tracks - Iranian origin. In addition, the earliest inscriptions of pronouncements by the Ashina, namely two inscriptions from Bugut (central Mongolia) and Xiao Hongnahai ( Xinjiang, China), not written in Old Turkish, but in Sogdian language. How Kljastornyj and Livsic notice, it can " hardly have been a coincidence, " that the first envoy of the Chinese to the Göktürks was a Sogdians.
The Aschina led Chinese sources indicate that their origin to a she-wolf back. They saw themselves as the descendants of the compound of this she-wolf with the sole survivors of a tribe. The Chinese sources locate the Aschina in Gansu and Xinjiang.
About the origin of the name of the leading clans (A- Shih- na) There are therefore several theses. The conventional wisdom is that it is probably " blue " derived from the word for the Iranian ( Sakian ). He is also identified with the name Arsilas ( Aρσίλας ), who reported, among others, and Menander as the name of the earliest monarchs of the Turks is additionally brought by the Orientalists Christopher I. Beckwith with the Tocharian title Āršilānci in conjunction. Even the names of their earliest rulers, such as Albumin, Ištemi, Muqan, Taspar or Nivar, all are not of Turkish origin and suggest, along with the other factors mentioned above, a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural origin of the strain out of the steppe environment.
In summary comes Andras Rona - Tas to the conclusion that it was at the Aschina with very high probability, a prince trunk with Iranian roots and almost certainly sakischer origin, progressively after defeating the Rouran and submission turksprachiger nomads of these was assimilated. The only way to explain why the tribal name " Aschina ", which is derived from Sakian asseina and means "blue" in the later Old Turkic inscriptions as kök türk, " blue türk " appears. Christopher I. Beckwith noticed that in both Greek and Chinese sources in the door are described as descendants of the Sakas.