The analysis of the ancient Uyghur runic monuments of Mongolia, which were discovered and studied during the Soviet-Mongolian Historical and Cultural Expedition (1969-1990), shows that the western summer camp of the Uyghur kagans Kasar-Kurug, which existed in the 50s - 60s of the VIII century, was located on the territory of Tuva near the river basin. Thermal power plant, on the site of the well-known ancient settlement of Por-Bazhyn. The article compares information from the inscriptions of the Tesin and Terkhin steles, as well as on the Mogoin Shin-Usu stele, with the results of archaeological work on the Por-Bazhyn settlement.

Keywords: Uyghur Khaganate, Tuva, ancient Uyghur runic monuments, kurug, Khangai mountain country, Tokuz-oguz.

In September-October 749, the victory of Eletmish Bilge Khagan ended a two-year internecine war in the Uyghur Khaganate. Its last battles almost coincided with the emergence of a new threat to the Uighur state - in the northwest, an alliance of Kyrgyz, Chiks, Karluks and Basmils hostile to them was formed. Tuva, Northwestern Mongolia, and Dzungaria became the new theater of military operations. In 750. Eletmish Bilge Kagan, having determined the main operational direction, moved his summer headquarters to the west, to the present-day Mongol-Tuvan borderlands.

"In the year of the Tiger (750), I went on a hike against the chiks. In the second month, on the fourteenth day, by the river By whom I defeated them. In that year, I ordered the establishment of a headquarters at Kasar Kordan, near the headwaters of the Tez, on the western slope of Otyuken. I ordered a fortress to be built there and spent the summer there. There I set the boundaries (of my domain). In the same place, I ordered my (coat of arms) signs and my writings to be cut out, " says the inscription on the stele from Mogoin-Shin-usu (stk. 19-20)*.

A shorter version of the message about the establishment of the western headquarters by Eletmish Bilge Kagan is contained in the Terkhinsky inscription (stk. 1-2): "I, the Newborn Eletmish Bilge Kagan, (together with) The unborn (consort) Elbilge-katun, assuming the titles of kagan and katun, then ordered to set up his headquarters < and build a fortress >, there, on the western outskirts of Otyuken, at the upper (river) Tez. There, in the year of the Tiger (A.D. 750) and in the year of the Snake (A.D. 753), I spent two summers." In this place, the initial base for new campaigns was formed, and the army was drawn there to prepare for the spring-summer and autumn campaigns.

The foundation of the stake was accompanied by a number of strictly defined and in all cases repeated actions - cyt (fortification, fortress) and orgin (rate) were built, where the throne was located, a stele was erected with the coat of arms of the kagan and his family (belgii), the declaration of the kagan (bitig) was applied to the stele in runic writing. The center of the stavka-Chida-fortress-was built in the safest and most strategically convenient place, and the stele with signs and inscriptions - on the borders of the Khan's reservation. The location of the headquarters was recorded in the Kagan declaration and declared a protected area (kurug).

* For texts and translations of the runic monuments cited here, as well as their interpretation, see [Klyashtorny, 2010].

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The institute of protected royal lands (paradises, hunting parks) existed in many ancient and medieval states of West and East Asia (Allsen, 2006). The first description of a reserve of this kind in the steppe empire, among the Huns, is preserved in the "History of the Early Han Dynasty" (I century BC). It quotes the memorandum of Hou Ying, an official "knowledgeable in border affairs": "From east to west, the Ininan Mountains stretch for more than a thousand li... Among these mountains, shanyu Maodun took refuge. Here he made bows and arrows, from here he made raids, and this was his reserve for breeding wild birds and animals" [Taskin, 1973, p.39-40].

In the steppe tradition inherited by the Turks, the reserved lands were called quruglqorug (from the verb qurylqory - "to protect, to protect"). [Doerfer, Bd. III, S. 440 - 450]. The purpose of kurug was very diverse. Kurug was a hunting ground, a training ground for gathering and preparing troops for the campaign, a place for storing supplies and weapons, and a seasonal nomad of the Khan closed to his subjects (Drobyshev, 2005; Dmitriev, 2006). Another function is highlighted by Mahmud of Kashgar (XI century): "kurug is (a place) shelters of the ruler "[Mahmud al-Kashgari, 2005, p. 356].

The most important was the strategic purpose of the Kurug, as evidenced by reports of Arab authors dating back to the khaganate era. Thus, at-Tabari (IX century) describes the kurug of the Turgesh khagan of the first half of the VIII century as follows: "The Khaqan ordered his people to prepare for war. And the Khaqan had meadows and protected mountains, which no one approached or dared to hunt in them, because they were left for (preparing) for war. The space that these meadows occupied was three days 'journey, and the reserves in the mountains were three days' journey. And people began to prepare (for the campaign). They let their flocks graze (in protected meadows), tanned the skins of animals killed in the hunt and made vessels out of them, and began to make bows and arrows" (At-Tabari, 1987, p.242).

The boundaries of the Kurug were defined in Uyghur inscriptions through a system of permanent landmarks, which are mentioned repeatedly and supplemented with single instructions. Using these landmarks and directions, we will try to determine where the western headquarters of Eletmish and his son, Begu-kagan, was located: "He (Begu-Kagan) settled by the (river) Tez, in Kasar-Kurug, built a fortress, erected a headquarters. (There) he spent the summer" (Taesin inscription, page 19).

First of all, it should be noted that neither the fortress nor the palace structure was the permanent residence of the kagan. Being in the places of letovka, the kagan lived in his yurt (eb), which is repeatedly mentioned, and roamed along certain routes. The entire territory of the nomad camp, the entire kurug kagan, etc.this protected area was considered his summer residence. Nowhere is it mentioned that he ever lived in the Chydai fortress. Traces of its presence were not revealed during the archaeological study of the fortress: "As studies in 2007 showed, the intensity of the monument's functioning was very insignificant - there are practically no layers of habitation. This is closely related to the analysis of the architectural and planning zones of Por-Bazhyn. The designated areas do not include a residential area that is mandatory for a palace structure." There is a lack of heating systems, which makes it impossible to live in the fortress in winter: "... the monument functioned only in summer and, most likely, for short periods" [Fortress Por-Bazhyn, 2008, p. 5]. Here is how the letovka of Eletmish Bilge Kagan is described in the Terkhin inscription: "... along (the rivers) Karga and Burgu, in that country, I wander along (these) my rivers. In my summer camps, on the western edge of the northern slope of the Otyuken and to the east of the upper (river) Tez, here I roam " [stk. 4 - 5].

Where, according to the information given in the inscriptions, were the structures built by order of the kagan, and where did he roam? Both discovered inscriptions of Eletmish Bilge Kagan, two of the many on the Terkhin Stele and the Mogoin Shineusu stele, first indicate permanent landmarks of the nomad area: "at the upper reaches (of the river) Tez (or: from the upper reaches (of the river) Tez), on the western outskirts of Otyuken" (Terkhinskaya stele, stk. 1). This landmark is mentioned in the same inscription in the already cited lines 4-5. It is the Otyuken Highlands and major rivers-Orkun (Orkhon), Tot (Tola), Selenga, Tez, Kem, Irtysh-that form a kind of network of main landmarks on the virtual map of nomadic and military routes of the Uyghur kagans. Their purely route-based concepts of space differ significantly from the modern geographical description [Klyashtornyi, 2008, p. 409-414].

The Tez River is the present-day Teshem River in Tuva, also known as Tesyingol in Mongolia. In inscriptions, it is repeatedly mentioned as the main landmark to the west of the upper Selenga and Otyuken rivers. Otyuken (Ötüken jyš - Otyuken rabble) "this is the Hangai Mountain Country. Its western edge is the Sangilen ridge, from the northern slopes of which the Khan's nomad camp - kurug began, as indicated in the inscription, east (more precisely, north-east) of the upper reaches of the Tes River in the immediate vicinity of the Sangilen ridge. The fortress itself is located between the valleys of the Small Yenisei and the Tpp in their upper reaches. And the main landmark was the TPP, because it was the main watercourse on the way to the fortress from the south, and its upper course was part of the kurug.

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From the northern slopes of Sangilen originates the Karga River (modern Kargy), which flows into Kaakhem (Small Yenisei, Kem River in inscriptions). The river Burgu, which is mentioned in the inscription, has not retained its name, but a wide interfluve, which abuts in the north in the lake. Terekhol, bounded from the east by the river with the modern name Balyktyghem (lit. 'Fish'). From the east and west, this area is surrounded by low wooded mountain ranges, marked on old maps by the local Tuvan name Khan taiga - "Royal taiga". And from the south, from Mongolia, an ancient road leads to them, which the Mongols call Khanyn Zam - "The Royal Road". From the north, the Khan taiga is bounded by the lake basin. Terekhol [Map..., 1887].

It should be noted that in the Turkic languages and dialects of Tuva and Altai, the term taiga does not have the meaning of "continuous forest", which it acquired in Russian. Usually taiga is a mountainous area, most often rich in black forests, but with wide treeless river valleys. Sometimes the same name is given to treeless mountains adjacent to the black Sea (Molchanova, 1979, pp. 93-94). In the Old Turkic language, such a place was called jyš, and this name denoted entire mountain countries (for example, Ötüken jyš - Khangai mountain country).

The fortress, which the Tuvans call Por-Bazhyn (Vainshtein, 1964), was the center of the summer nomads of Eletmish Bilge Kagan for two seasons (750 and 753) and for at least one season of his son and heir Begyu Kagan. These were the čyt and yrgin of both khagans in the west; the southern and southwestern borders of the residence were considered to be the upper reaches of the Tpp and the spurs of the Sangilen ridge. It was in this border region that I discovered the lower fragment of a stele with a runic inscription - the Begu Kagan's declaration-during the summer field season of 1976. It was also possible to find the place of installation of the Taesin stele.

According to the residents of Tsagan-uul-somon (Khubsugul aimag), the monument still recently lay on the Nogon-tolgoi hill, where in 1981 I conducted excavations*. The hill turned out to be a semi-spherical bulk structure. Its width along the C - Y axis is 37 m, along the 3-Y axis is 46 m, and its height is approx. 1.5 m. In the western part of the hill there is a gentle ramp (8-9 m). After removing the ground cover, it was found that the hill and ramp were covered with a double layer of gypsum blocks. Initially, the structure had the appearance of a truncated pyramid with a gentle ascent to it from the western side. Under the pakhs layer, at a depth of 0.75-0.80 m, there was a fire pit with a diameter of 0.8-1.0 m, in the lower layer of which six charred logs with a diameter of 5 - 8 cm lying parallel to each other were preserved; the upper layer of the fire pit consisted of fine coals. The fire burned intensely, but not for long - most of the wood didn't crumble; it was obviously filled in. Horse and mutton bones were found under the fire pit, as well as a fragment of the sidewall of a hand-sculpted vessel. Most likely, a ritual burning of sacrificial meat was performed on the hill after the construction and before covering with a double plaster layer.

3 km southwest of Nogon tolgoi is the similar-shaped earthen hill of Hohh tolgoi, which is half the size and 1 m high. On the western side of the hill there is also a short "tongue" - ramp. A small pit, laid in 1981, showed that this hill is also of artificial origin. It was probably the site of the border stele of Eletmish Bilge Kagan, which has not been preserved.

The Begyu Kagan inscription (Tesin stele) shows the entire territory of the residence; it is called Kasar-Kurug - "reserved (forbidden) lands of Kasar". In Eletmish's epitaph inscription, perhaps only the center of the residence - Kasar-Kordan-is named. However, the words that I read as qasar qordan, J. Klauson, correcting the reading of G. Ramstedt, reads as qasar qurydyn and translates "in the west of Kasar" [Clauson, 1972, p. 95] . I. V. Kormushin suggests reading qasar qurda "in Kasar-Kur" [2004, pp. 106-107], which is less justified. I conditionally keep the reading of the second word that I suggested earlier as qordan [1980, p. 90], considering it part of the title. If we accept the interpretation of J. R. R. Tolkien, However, if the name Kasar in the inscriptions refers to a fairly large area. My reading of qasar qordan was accepted by F. Rybatzki believes that the word qordan is a geographical or ethnic name, which he also records in the 14th line of the Tonyukuk inscription [Rybatzki, 1997, p. 95-96].

Kasar is the main component in the name of the western headquarters of the Uyghur khagans. This name applied to the lands bounded by the upper reaches of the Tpp in the southwest, the Sangilen range in the south, and the Kargy and Balyktyg river valleys in the north. The eastern border of the Kagan Kurug is more difficult to determine. Perhaps in the north-east of Kurug it was oz. Terekhol. Meanwhile, the toponym Kasar, mentioned twice in inscriptions, is based on an ethnonym. It is also mentioned twice in inscriptions as part of the personal name of the ancient Oghuz (Ogur) leader Kadyr Kasar, both times paired with the name of another leader - Bedi Bersil. Earlier, I noted the significance of both personified ethnonyms for the history of the Khazar Khaganate, as well as the fact that the Kasar/Khazar tribal union only partially migrated to the west of the Eurasian steppe [2005, 2007]. The main massif of Oghuz tribes, which since the middle of the 7th century were called

* For more information about the circumstances of the monument's opening, see [Klyashtorny, 1983, pp. 77-78].

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Tokuz-Oguz - "nine (tribal) Oguz" and led by on-Uyghurs - "ten (tribal) Uyghurs", remained in Inner Asia. Depending on the political situation, they either left the indigenous lands in the Tola and Selenga River basins to migrate to East Turkestan, or returned to Central and Northwestern Mongolia (Klyashtorny, 2010).

In the Chinese lists of "nine tribes", i.e. Tokuz-Oguz, contained in the old and new "Histories of the Tang Dynasty", the Xhosa (Kasar) tribe is mentioned as the sixth. In another most important Tang compendium, Tang hu - eiyao ("Summary of the most important events of the Tang Dynasty"), the Syze tribe (siker) is named the sixth. This contradiction, already noted by E. Pulleyblank (1956, pp. 167-168), was finally clarified by T. Senga, who showed that both Tangshu combined the list of names of the "small" tribes (sub-tribal names) that were part of the Uyghurs proper, and the list of names of the "nine tribes", i.e. the Uyghurs themselves. tokuz-oguzov. Summarizing the research results of several Japanese scientists, T. Senga showed that the Xhosa (Kasar) tribe was dominant in the Sytse (siker) tribal group (Senga, 1990, p. 57-69), and it also included the Apusa (abuz) tribe (Pulleyblank, 1955).

The Chinese list of "vassal districts" established by the imperial decree of 648, when the Uyghurs, after the defeat of the Seyanypo (Sirov) khaganate, headed the Oghuz tribes and formally recognized their dependence on the empire, allows us to clarify the location of the indigenous lands of the Siker tribal group. The" vassal district "of the Sikers, called "Lushan District", was located north of the Tola River and west of the" district "of the Uyghurs themselves [Liu Mau-tsai, 1958, p. 357]. G. E. Grumm-Grzhimailo localized the "Lushan district" in the upper Selenga River [1926, p. 275], i.e. in the extreme west settlements of Oghuz tribes. The western localization of the sikers is indirectly confirmed by their connection to the western wing of the military-administrative organization in the Uyghur states - the Tardush, as recorded in the Khotan-Saka document of 925. According to this document, compiled by the Khotan ambassadors in Dunhuang, the Sikers traditionally headed the western Tardush wing, while the dynastic tribe of the Uyghurs, the Yagla-Kars, was headed by telisov, i.e. tribes of the eastern wing [Hamilton, 1977, p. 516-517]. Kasars, the dominant tribe in a tribal groupThe Sikers most likely occupied the extreme western Uyghur lands-the territories north of the TPP, which became known by their name.

What was the purpose of a fortress that no one lived in? Only as a temporary shelter (refugium) in case of war, invasion, or sudden attack by enemies. The Khan's personal escort, which is called qut jortuy in the inscriptions - "august escort", and his guards (in the inscriptions - turyaq) could create reliable cover at any time during a quick retreat to the fortress, and the gates with gates 4 - 5-meter wide* were able to instantly let the retreating detachment pass. Of course, the fortress could also be used for special occasions, which are mentioned in the inscriptions. There are also two references to external threats, in one case from Tutuk Chikov and in the other from the Kyrgyz Khan. In both cases, the preventive campaigns of Uyghur troops prevented a war on the territory of the residence. However, a case is recorded when one of the rebellious Oghuz tribes was defeated on the bank of the Burgu, i.e. within the Kurug. So the creation of a fortress-shelter on the lands of the Khan's kurug was by no means an empty matter.

These were the location, boundaries and functions of the western headquarters of the first Uyghur khagans, called Kasar-Kurug - "Kasar reserved land".

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Klyashtorny S. G. [The Asian aspect of the early history of the Khazars]. Jerusalem, Moscow: Mosty kul'tury Publ., 2005, vol. XVI: Khazary, pp. 259-264.

Klyashtorny S. G. Runicheskie pamyatniki uyghurskoy epokhi kak istoricheskii istochnik [Runic monuments of the Uyghur era as a historical source]. RGNF. - 2007. - Issue 4. - p. 30-42.

Klyashtorny S. G. Runic monuments of the Uyghur Khaganate and the history of the Eurasian steppes. - St. Petersburg: Petersburg, vostokovedenie Publ., 2010, 325 p. (in Russian)

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* Information obtained in consultation with V. A. Zavyalov.

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The article was submitted to the Editorial Board on 14.11.11. The final version was published on 15.12.11.

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