Life
Yukuk Shad reigned in the final days of the Western Turkic Khaganate. He was the son of Illig Qaghan, ruler of the Eastern Turkic Khaganate and spent his early years there. In 627, he was assigned to suppress a rebellion around Tien shan but was defeated and fled to Western Turkic Khaganate. He knew that his father would kill him. After the death of the Tong Yabgu Qaghan of Western Turkic Khaganate, in 628, the struggle for the throne began between the leaders of the union known as On-ok, which was formed by the unification of ten Turkic tribes. This conflict between the On-ok and Tulo arms dragged the country into internal turmoil. Backed by on-ok, Ishbara Tolis Qaghan tried to consolidate his khanate and establish authority in 634. But his tent was raided and kidnapped. After this event, the leaders of the On-ok proposed Yukuk for the throne and thus Yukuk ascended the throne. However, Yukuk was soon opposed by the On-ok. Yukuk still remained the khagan. In 642 he captured Samarkand. But he lost the support of many tribes after the disagreement between the tribes over the distribution of loot. On-ok saw this as an opportunity to dethrone Yukuk. They declared Irbish as khagan. Initially, they wanted to attack Yukuk so that he could retreat as far as Sayram. When Yukuk retreated to Sayram; They besieged Sayram. Yukuk succeeded in defeating the rebels, despite receiving no support. With this victory, he tried to get the support of the Tulo tribe again. However, the Tulo lords did not accept this. Yukuk felt insecure as he could not provide support from the tribes. Therefore, in 642 he fled to Kunduz, which is in present-day Afghanistan. Yukuk spent the rest of his life in Kunduz and died in 653.