Life

Istemi Yabgu was the governor of the western part of the Göktürks, which became the Western Turkic Khaganate and dominated the Sogdians(A Persian tribe). He was the yabgu (warlord) of his brother Bumin Qaghan in 553 AD. He was posthumously referred to as khagan in Turkic sources. But he was not a khagan. He also helped his brother Bumin when he established the state. During his rule Istemi established diplomatic relations with the Sassanid and Byzantine Empires, defeated the White Huns. We know a great deal about him from the diplomatic missions of the Byzantine Empire.

Diplomatic movements for trade and war against White Huns

Shortly after the smuggling of silkworm eggs into the Byzantine Empire from China by Nestorian Christian monks, the 6th-century Byzantine historian Menander Protector writes of how the Sogdians attempted to establish a direct trade of Chinese silk with the Byzantine Empire. After forming an alliance with the Sassanid ruler Khosrow I to defeat the White Huns and capture their important territories, Istemi was approached by Sogdian merchants requesting permission to seek an audience with the Sassanid shah for the privilege of traveling through Persian territories in order to trade with the Byzantines. Istemi refused the first request, but when he sanctioned the second one and had the Sogdian embassy sent to the Sassanid shah, the latter had the members of the embassy poisoned to death. Maniah, a Sogdian diplomat, convinced Istemi to send an embassy directly to Byzantium's capital Constantinople, which arrived in 568 and offered not only silk as a gift to Byzantine ruler Justin II, but also proposed an alliance against Sassanid Persia. Justin II agreed and sent an embassy to the Turkic Khaganate, ensuring the direct silk trade desired by the Sogdians. He made good money for the state with trade.