The Ashina, also known as Asen, Asena, or Açina, were a tribe and the ruling dynasty of the ancient Turkic peoples. It rose to prominence in the mid-6th century when the leader, Bumin Qaghan, revolted against the Rouran Khaganate. The two main branches of the family, one descended from Bumin and the other from his brother Istämi, ruled over the eastern and western parts of the Göktürk confederation, respectively.
Origin
Primary Chinese sources ascribed different origins to the Ashina tribe. Ashina were first attested to 439, as reported by the Book of Sui, on October 18, the Tuoba ruler Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei overthrew Juqu Mujian of the Northern Liang in eastern Gansu, whence 500 Ashina families fled northwest to the Rouran Khaganate in the vicinity of Gaochang. According to the Book of Zhou, History of the Northern Dynasties, and New Book of Tang, the Ashina clan was a component of the Xiongnu confederation,. but this is contested. Göktürks were also posited as had originated from an obscure Suo state, north of the Xiongnu. According to the Book of Sui and the Tongdian, they were "mixed barbarians" from Pingliang. According to some researchers the Ashina tribe were descended from the Tiele confederation, who were likewise associated with the Xiongnu. Like the Göktürks, the Tiele were probably one of many nomadic Turkic peoples on the steppe. Ouyang Xiu, apud Davis, also states the Ashina as one of the two largest subgroups of the Tiele.
Etymology
Researchers including Peter B. Golden, H. W. Haussig, S. G. Klyashtorny, A. N. Bernstamm, Carter V. Findley, D. G. Savinov, S. P. Guschin, Rona-Tas have posited that the term Ashina is from the Iranian Saka or possibly from the Indo-AryanWusun. They have put forward this version of the following arguments: Carter Vaughin Findley assumes that the name "Ashina" comes from one of the Saka languages of central Asia and means "blue". The color is identified with the east, so that Göktürk, another name for the Turkic empire, meant the "Turks of the East". This idea is seconded by the Hungarian researcher András Róna-Tas, who finds it plausible "that we are dealing with a royal family and clan of Saka origin". "The term bori, used to identify the ruler's retinue as 'wolves', probably also derived from one of the Iranian languages" proposes Findley. H. W. Haussig and S. G. Kljyashtorny suggest an association between the name and the compound "kindred of Ashin" ahşaẽna. This is so even in East Turkestan; then the desired form would be in the Sogdian'xs' yn' k "blue, dark"; Khotan-Saka āşşeiņa "blue", where a long -ā- emerged as development ahş-> āşş-; in Tocharian A āśna- "blue, dark". The Saka etymology ashina with the value "blue" is phonetically and semantically flawless. There is a textual support for this version in the ancient runic inscriptions of the Turks. In the large Orkhon inscriptions, in the story of the first Kagan, people living in the newly created empire are named "kök türk". Without touching the numerous interpretations "kök" may have in this combination, note its perfect semantic match with the reconstructed value of the name "Ashina". An explicit semantic calque suggests knowledge of its original meaning and foreign origin, which is compatible with the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural nature of the First Turkic khanate, which entailed the loss, however, of the popularity of "national character", in the words of L. Bazin, as was the political and cultural environment of the Otyuken regime of the era of Bilgä Qaǧan. The name "Ashina" was recorded in ancient Arab chronicles in these forms: Aśnas, Ānsa, Śaba, Śana, Śaya. The name "Ashina" is translated by some researchers as "wolf", cf. Tuoba 叱奴 *čino, Middle Mongolčinua, Khalkhačono. However, Golden contended that derivation from Mongolic is mistaken. When Ashina became the head of Göktürks, they exhibited a banner with a wolf head over their gate, in reminiscence of its origins.
Legends
Chinese chroniclers recorded four origin tales, which Golden termed "Wolf Tale I", "Wolf Tale II", "Shemo and the Deer Tale" and "Historical Account", of the Turks in dynasty histories and historical compilations "based on or copied from the same source and repeated in later collections of historical tales".
Wolf Tale I: Ashina was one of ten sons born to a grey she-wolf in the north of Gaochang.
Wolf Tale II: The ancestor of the Ashina was a man from the Suo nation whose mother was a lupine season goddess.
Shemo and the Deer Tale: The Ashina descended from a skilled archer named Shemo, who had once fallen in love with a sea goddess west of Ashide cave..
Historical Account: The Ashina were mixture stocks from the Pingliang commandery of eastern Gansu.
These stories were sometimes pieced together to form a chronologically coherent narrative of early Ashina history. However, as the Book of Zhou, the Book of Sui, and the Youyang Zazu were written around the same time, during the early Tang dynasty, whether they could truly be considered chronological or rather should be considered competing versions of the Ashina's origin is debatable. The record of Turks in Zhoushu describes the usage of gold by Turks around the mid-fifth century: " inlaid gold sculpture of wolf head on their flag; their military men were called Fuli, that is, wolf in Chinese. It is because they are descendant of the wolf, and naming so is for not forgetting their ancestors." According to Klyashtorny, the origin myth of Ashina shared similarities with the Wusun, although there is a significant difference that, whereas in the Wusun myth the wolf saves the ancestor of the tribe, it is not as in the case of the Turks. He also adds that Turk system of beliefs linking at least some sections of the Turk ruling class to the Sogdians and, beyond them, to the Wusun.
Funeral rite
The Old Book of Tang describes the funeral rites of the Ashina as follows: According to D. G. Savinov, no archaeological monument is fully consistent with the description given by I. Bichurin, neither South Siberia nor Central Asia is known yet, although many of its elements are found already in the early Turkic time. According to D. G. Savinov this may be for several reasons:
The source is a compilation in character, and burial rituals and funeral cycle from various sources are listed in a unified description;
Göktürk funeral rites in the form in which it is recorded in written sources, developed later on the basis of the various components present in some of the archaeological sites of Southern Siberia of early Turkic time.
It is certain that the rite of cremation was adopted among Turkic Hagan and a very narrow ruling stratum of kaganates. Rite of cremation did not spread among the common people of Turkic. This may well be at the origin of the other ethnic groups of the ruling family. Almost all of the elements of the funeral rites of the Ashina have analogues in the Indo-European rites, in particular the Slavic rites. About individual incision, Al-Bakr can be quoted: "Wives of the same dead cut their hands and faces with knives." Chinese source said that on the day of the funeral, as well as in the day of his death, family used to ride horses. There is likely to have in mind something like a Slavic funeral feast. "The building was built on the grave" is an analogue of the Slavic Domowina. Burial of the ashes of the deceased in the vessel as is recorded by the Slav's "Tale of Bygone Years", for example where it says: "burned, and after collecting the bones, put them in a small container."
Genetics
Based on testings on persons who identify themselves as descendants of Bumin Qaghan, the Ashina clan belongs to the Z93, Z94+, Z2123-, Y2632- branch of haplogroup R1a. According some researchers, the BulgarAsen dynasty might be descendants of Ashina. Another prominent turkic clan Ashide is also the conjugal clan of the Göktürk khagans' Ashina clan has Q1a-L53.
