Istämi

Istämi Yabghu (Old Turkic: , İstemi Ķaġan; 室點密/室点密, Pinyin: shìdiǎnmì, Wade-Giles: shih-tien-mi; 室點蜜/室点蜜, 瑟帝米; b. ? – d. 576) was the brother of Bumin Khagan, the founder of the Göktürk Khaganate, and was himself a khagan, a yabghu, and an envoy. Alongside Bumin Khagan he governed the western wing (the later Western Göktürk Khaganate).

Istämi Yabghu strengthened diplomatic relations with the Byzantine Empire and the Sasanian Empire. Extensive information about him is found in the Byzantine archives. He is known to the Byzantines as "Stembis Dizaboulos."

Istämi Yabghu — the khan of the western wing of the Göktürk Khaganate, which was founded when the Göktürks, under the rule of the Rouran, rose up under the leadership of Bumin Khagan and gained their independence in 552 — was at the same time the brother of Bumin Khagan.

He played a great role in the Göktürk Khaganate's swift rise to power. He organized campaigns against China and, in order to seize the Silk Road held by the Hephthalites through the Battle of Bukhara, made an alliance with the Sasanians. As a result of this alliance, the Hephthalites were brought to an end. However, after some time, when the Sasanians set their sights on the Silk Road, he made an alliance with the Byzantine Empire and put the Sasanians in a difficult position. In the time of the powerful Turkic yabghu Istämi Yabghu, the state reached its widest borders. With the death of Istämi Yabghu in 576, he was succeeded by his son Tardu; but in the time of Tardu Khagan the state was not well governed, and as a result of the revolts that broke out it was split in two (582).

During the governance of the state he behaved respectfully toward his elder brother, and, by not opposing Bumin Khagan's rule, he upheld the central authority. The Göktürk Khaganate — the first in history to bear the word "Turk" in its own name — reached its widest borders in his time, and the orderly and successful authority he established broke apart after his death.

In the Kül Tigin Inscription, Istämi Khagan is mentioned as follows: "When the blue sky above and the dark earth below were created, between the two the sons of man were created. Over the sons of man my ancestors Bumin Khagan and Istämi Khagan sat as rulers. Having sat upon the throne, they held together and set in order the realm and the customs of the Turkic nation. All four quarters were enemies. Sending out armies, they took all the peoples of the four quarters and made them all subject. They made those with heads bow their heads and those with knees bend their knees. In the east they settled them as far as the Kadırkan forest, and in the west as far as the Iron Gate. Between the two, the largely unorganized Göktürk thus dwelt."

The word Istämi means "the spirit of the ancestors" in Göktürk Turkic.

Sources

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