Ughur title

Source: TW

The grandiose title with which the Uighur khan was addressed:

kün ay tengride qut bulmısh ulugh qut ornanmısh alpın erdemin el tutmısh alp arslan qutlugh kül bilge tengri khaanımız

My khan, the wise kül (also found in the name Kül-tegin of the türk-s).

3 deities are mentioned as conferring the qut -heavenly fortune or the royal power: Tengri, the solar and lunar deities. He is also called “the brave lion who has taken the realm by bravery and virtue”. Some of these titular elements also appear post-conversion to marUnmAda in the regnal names of various tyrants from mUjavant to dilli.

The qut in this title is the equivalent of Iranic xvarenah – the royal luster that confers kingship to the one on whom it descends. Like yima kShaeta got it among the Iranians. It also reminds one of the chIna “mandate of heaven”. One wonders if that is convergent or even the chIna-s acquired it from an early steppe iranic source.

An Islamic author talks of the pagan, like Uighur, khan: “Joined by shamans in a fire ritual, this ruler divines the future by the colors of a ‘great face (that) rises up from the fire” – this likely indicates & Indo-Iranic influence. Even after the Uighurs apparently lost status to maintain khaghanal titles, their ruler still saw himself as possessing the qut to perform such shamanic roles.

Thus the title idiqut seen close to chingizid times. The Turkic & Mongolic Khans seems to have believed that that this qut was acquired by Khan at the Ötüken mountain in Mongolia. The Chingizid capital Qaraqorum was built in its vicinity & they saw it as the holy spot of the Earth goddess.