On čẄlgl (or čẄlgIl) in the Kül Tegin and Bilgä Kagan inscriptions
On čẄlgl (or čẄlgIl) in the Kül Tegin and Bilgä Kagan inscriptions

Summary/Abstract: This paper attempts to give new explanation for the ethnonyms bẄklI and čẄlgl (or čẄlgIl) occurring in the Türk inscriptions of Kül Tegin and Bilgä Kagan. After a thorough survey of former research the author comes to the conclusion that the two names must be treated separately, both indicating a separate country. Bökli or Bökküli (bẄklI), as was correctly supposed formerly, is undoubtedly identical with Goguryeo, a Korean state of the period. čẄlgl (or čẄlgIl) must be read as Čülüg el which may be a Turkic name for the Chinese state of Northern Zhou of Tuoba origin. On the other hand, a third ethnonym of the inscriptions, Tabgač, refers to the Northern Qi state of Tuoba origin. So it is certainly inaccurate to translate Tabgač, in a simpflified manner, as ‘China’ or ‘the Chinese’ as most researchers have done until now. Čülüg el and Tabgač were two separate Chinese states of the period.

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