Suyab (;

Middle Chinese Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese language, Chinese recorded in the ''Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expande ...

: /suʌiH jiᴇp̚/), also known as ''Ordukent'' (modern-day ''Ak-Beshim''), was an ancient

Silk Road The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...

city located some 50 km east from

Bishkek Bishkek, formerly known as Pishpek (until 1926), and then Frunze (1926–1991), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kyrgyzstan. Bishkek is also the administrative centre of the Chüy Region. Bishkek is situated near the Kazakhstan ...

, and 8 km west southwest from

Tokmok Tokmok (; ) is a city in the Chüy Valley, northern Kyrgyzstan, east of the country's capital of Bishkek, with a population of 71,443 in 2021. Its elevation is 816 m above sea level. From 2003 to 2006, it was the administrative seat of Chüy R ...

, in the Chu river valley, present-day

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia lying in the Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains, Pamir mountain ranges. Bishkek is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Kyrgyzstan, largest city. Kyrgyz ...

. The ruins of this city, along with other acheological sites associated with the Silk Road, was inscribed in 2014 on the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage List World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...

as the Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor World Heritage Site.

History

The settlement of Sogdian merchants sprang up along the

in the 5th or 6th centuries. The name of the city derives from that of the Suyab River,Xue (1998), p. 136-140, 212-215. whose origin is Iranian (in Persian: ''suy'' means "toward"+ ''ab'' for "water", "rivers"). It was first recorded by Chinese pilgrim

Xuanzang Xuanzang (; ; 6 April 6025 February 664), born Chen Hui or Chen Yi (), also known by his Sanskrit Dharma name Mokṣadeva, was a 7th-century Chinese Bhikkhu, Buddhist monk, scholar, traveller, and translator. He is known for the epoch-making ...

who traveled in the area in 629:

''Traveling 500 li to the north west of Great Qing Lake, we arrive at the city of the Suye River. The city is 6 or 7 li in circuit; various Hu ("barbarian") merchants here came from surrounding nations congregate and dwell. The soil is favorable for red millet and for grapes; the woods are not thick, the climate is windy and cold; the people wear garments of twilled wool. Traveling from Suye westward, there are a great number of isolated towns; in each there is a chieftain; these are not dependent on one another, but all are in submission to the Tujue''.

During the reign of Tong Yabgu Qaghan, Suyab was the principal capital of the

Western Turkic Khaganate The Western Turkic Khaganate () or Onoq Khaganate () was a Turkic khaganate in Eurasia, formed as a result of the wars in the beginning of the 7th century (593–603 CE) after the split of the First Turkic Khaganate (founded in the 6th century o ...

. The

khagan Khagan or Qaghan (Middle Mongol:; or ''Khagan''; ) or zh, c=大汗, p=Dàhán; ''Khāqān'', alternatively spelled Kağan, Kagan, Khaghan, Kaghan, Khakan, Khakhan, Khaqan, Xagahn, Qaghan, Chagan, Қан, or Kha'an is a title of empire, im ...

also had a summer capital in Navekat near the springs north of

Tashkent Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...

in the Talas Valley, the capitals are being noted as the westernmost capital of Western Turkic Khaganate.Xue (1992), p. 284-285 There was a sort of

symbiosis Symbiosis (Ancient Greek : living with, companionship < : together; and ''bíōsis'': living) is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction, between two organisms of different species. The two organisms, termed symbionts, can fo ...

, with the Sogdians responsible for economical prosperity and the Gokturks in charge of the city's military security. Following the downfall of the khaganate, Suyab was absorbed into the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

, of which it was a western military outpost between 648 and 719. A Chinese fortress was built there in 679, and

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

flourished. According to some accounts, the great poet

Li Bai Li Bai (, 701–762), Literary and colloquial readings, also pronounced Li Bo, courtesy name Taibai (), was a Chinese poet acclaimed as one of the greatest and most important poets of the Tang dynasty and in Chinese history as a whole. He and hi ...

(Li Po) was born in Suyab. The Chinese traveler Du Huan, who visited Suyab in 751, found among the ruins a still-functioning Buddhist monastery, where Princess Jiaohe, daughter of Ashina Huaidao, used to dwell. Suyab was one of the Four Garrisons of

Anxi Protectorate The Protectorate General to Pacify the West (Anxi Grand Protectorate), initially the Protectorate to Pacify the West (Anxi Protectorate), was a Protectorate (imperial China), protectorate (640 – ) established by the Chinese Tang dynasty in 640 ...

until 719, when it was handed over to Sulu Khagan of the Turgesh, appointed by the Tang court as the "Loyal and Obedient Qaghan". After Sulu's murder in 738, the town was promptly retaken by Tang Chinese forces, along with Talas. The fort was strategically important during the wars between the Tang dynasty and the

Tibetan Empire The Tibetan Empire (,) was an empire centered on the Tibetan Plateau, formed as a result of expansion under the Yarlung dynasty heralded by its 33rd king, Songtsen Gampo, in the 7th century. It expanded further under the 38th king, Trisong De ...

. In 766, the city fell to a Qarluq ruler, allied with the nascent

Uyghur Khaganate The Uyghur Khaganate (also Uyghur Empire or Uighur Khaganate, self defined as Toquz-Oghuz country; , Tang-era names, with modern Hanyu Pinyin: or ) was a Turkic empire that existed for about a century between the mid 8th and 9th centuries. It ...

. Of the subsequent history of Suyab there is little record, especially after the Chinese evacuated the Four Garrisons in 787.

David Nicolle David C. Nicolle (born 4 April 1944) is a British historian specialising in the military history of the Middle Ages, with a particular interest in the Middle East. Life David Nicolle worked for BBC Arabic before getting his MA at SOAS, Univers ...

states that Suyab provided 80,000 warriors for the Qarluq army and that it was governed by a man known as "King of Heroes". Hudud al-Alam, completed in 983, lists Suyab as a city of 20,000 inhabitants. It is believed to have been supplanted by Balasagun in the early 11th century and was abandoned soon thereafter. The area around Suyab briefly returned to China under the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

during the 18th century, but was ceded to the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

in the

Treaty of Tarbagatai The Treaty of Tarbagatai () or Treaty of Chuguchak () of was a border protocol between Qing dynasty, Qing China and the Russian Empire that defined most of the western extent of their border in central Asia, between Outer Mongolia and the Khanate ...

in 1864, along with Lake Balkhash. It became part of the Russian Empire's Semirechye Oblast; following the completion of national delimitation in Soviet Central Asia in 1936, Suyab was assigned into the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic.

Archaeological site

In the 19th century the ruins at Ak-Beshim were erroneously identified with Balasagun, the capital of the Kara-Khitans.

Wilhelm Barthold Vasily Vladimirovich Bartold (; – 19 August 1930), who published in the West under his German baptismal name, Wilhelm Barthold, was a Russian orientalist who specialized in the history of Islam and the Turkic peoples ( Turkology). Biogra ...

, who visited the site in 1893–94, also lent his support to this identification. Although excavations started in 1938, it was not until the 1950s that it was determined that the site had been abandoned as early as the 11th century and therefore would not be identical with Balasagun, which had flourished until the 14th century. The archaeological site of Suyab covers some 30

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

s. As a testimony to Suyab's diverse and vibrant culture, the site encompasses remains of Chinese fortifications, Nestorian Christian churches, Zoroastrian ossuaries, and Turkic balbals. The site is particularly rich in finds of

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...

statues and stelae. Apart from several Buddhist temples, there were a

Nestorian Nestorianism is a term used in Christian theology and Church history to refer to several mutually related but doctrinarily distinct sets of teachings. The first meaning of the term is related to the original teachings of Christian theologian ...

church and cemetery from the 7th century, and probably also a 10th-century monastery with frescoes and inscriptions in Sogdian and Uyghur scripts.Kyzlasov L.R. ''Arkheologicheskie issledovaniya na gorodishche Ak-Beshim v 1953-54 gg.'' 'Archaeological Exploration of Ak-Beshim in 1953-54.'' // Proceedings of the Kama Archaeological Expedition. Vol. 2. Moscow, 1959. Pages 231-233.
Semyonov G.I. ''Monastyrskoe vino Semirechya'' Semirechye Monasteries''">Jetisu.html" ;"title="'The Wine of Jetisu">Semirechye Monasteries'' // ''Hermitage Readings in Memory of Boris Piotrovsky''. St. Petersburg, 1999. Pages 70-74.

References

Citations

Sources

* Cui, Mingde (2005). ''The History of Chinese Heqin''. Beijing: People's Press. . * Nicolle, David (1990). ''Attila and the Nomad Hordes''. Osprey Publishing. . * Ji, Xianlin(1985). ''Journey to the West in the Great Tang Dynasty''. Xi'an: Shaanxi People's Press. * Xue, Zongzheng (1998). ''Anxi and Beiting Protectorates: A Research on Frontier Policy in Tang Dynasty's Western Boundary''. Harbin: Heilongjiang Education Press. . * Xue, Zongzheng (1992). ''A History of Turks''. Beijing: Chinese Social Sciences Press. .

External links