Khan of Heaven or Tian Kehan, Celestial Kha(ga)n, Heavenly Kha(ga)n, Tengri Kha(ga)n (;

Old Turkic Old Siberian Turkic, generally known as East Old Turkic and often shortened to Old Turkic, was a Siberian Turkic language spoken around East Turkistan and Mongolia. It was first discovered in inscriptions originating from the Second Turkic Kh ...

: 𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃𐰴𐰍𐰣‬) was a title addressed to the

Emperor Taizong of Tang Emperor Taizong of Tang (28January 59810July 649), previously Prince of Qin, personal name Li Shimin, was the second emperor of the Tang dynasty of China, ruling from 626 to 649. He is traditionally regarded as a co-founder of the dynasty fo ...

by various Turkic nomads. It was first mentioned in accounts on May 20, 630 and again on October 24, 646, shortly after the

Eastern Turkic Khaganate The Eastern Turkic Khaganate ( zh, t=東突厥, p=Dōng Tūjué or Dōng Tújué) was a Turkic khaganate formed as a result of the internecine wars in the beginning of the 7th century (AD 581–603) after the First Turkic Khaganate (found ...

and

Xueyantuo The Xueyantuo or Sir Tardush were an ancient Tiele people, Tiele tribe and khaganate in Northeast Asia who were at one point vassals of the Göktürks, later aligning with the Tang dynasty against the Eastern Turkic Khaganate, Eastern Göktürk ...

were annihilated by 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 ...

. The title Tengri Khagan also used to refer other Turkic rulers, both known as the Tengri Khagan ( or ) or Täŋridä qaγan () to the Chinese, during the Second Eastern Turkic Khaganate (r. 739–741) and

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 ...

(r. 759–779) periods. It is uncertain whether the title also applied to the rest of the Tang emperors, or to the

Wu Zhou Zhou, known in historiography as the Wu Zhou (), was a short-lived Chinese imperial dynasty that existed between 690 and 705. The dynasty consisted of the reign of one empress regnant, Wu Zhao (Wu Zetian), who usurped the throne of her son, ...

empress regnant

Wu Zetian Wu Zetian (624 – 16 December 705), personal name Wu Zhao, was List of rulers of China#Tang dynasty, Empress of China from 660 to 705, ruling first through others and later in her own right. She ruled as queen consort , empress consort th ...

, since the term "Khagan" only referred to male rulers and Empress Wu had started her dominion in the Chinese court after the year AD 665 until the year AD 705, which is after the title's first use by a Chinese emperor. However, two appeal letters from the Turkic hybrid rulers, Ashina Qutluγ Ton Tardu in 727, the Yabgu of Tokharistan, and Yina Tudun Qule in 741, the king 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 ...

, addressed the

Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (; 8 September 685 – 3 May 762), personal name Li Longji, was an Emperor of China, emperor of the Tang dynasty of China, reigning from 712 to 756. His reign of 44 years was the longest during the Tang dynasty. Throu ...

as Tian Kehan during the

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (, ; ) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty. Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a membe ...

expansion. A later letter sent by the Tang court to the Yenisei Kirghiz Qaghan explained that "the peoples of the northwest" had requested Emperor Taizong of Tang to become the "Heavenly Qaghan".

References

Citations

Sources

* Bai, Shouyi et al. (2003). ''A History of Chinese Muslim (Vol. 2)''. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company. . * Liu, Yitang (1997). ''Studies of Chinese Western Regions''. Taipei: Cheng Chung Book Company. . * Xue, Zongzheng (1992). ''A History of Turks''. Beijing: Chinese Social Sciences Press. . {{Inner Asia Chinese royal titles Chinese-language titles + History of Central Asia Emperor Taizong of Tang

See also

References

Citations

Sources