242 wilkens
Beginning with Alγu until Nom Kulı,
the charismatic ones with ample puṇya,
all Qans ascended the throne of Čagatay
and ascended to the tuṣita palace (after death).255
The Chagataid ruler Alγu is a grandson of Čagatay’s (reigned from 1260–1265/6).
According to Rašīd al-Dīn, Nom Kulı is a brother of the donor Nomdaš and
both are sons of Čübei, the second son of Alγu.256 But in line 19 of the inscrip-
tion it is stated that Nomdaš was the son of Nom Kulı and Av(a)lčay Hatun.
2.6.2.2 A Lotus Flower Which Traces its Origin to Bokok 257
In the Commemorative Inscription, a woman is referred to by this epithet:
‘the lotus flower Oŋ Tegin Bägi258 who traces her origin back to Bokok’259
255 Geng, “Zhong xiu wenshu si bei”, line 12:
alugu bašlap nom kulıka tägi
agır buyanlıg ıdoklar
alku han čagaṭay oronın olurup
agṭıntılar tužit ordoka
(Inscription from Mañjuśrī Hill)
With reference to a person belonging to the Uyghur ruling house whose name is
not preserved: ašnukı oronı tušitka [bar]dı (CI IV, 21, ed. Geng, Hamilton, “Stèle
commémorative,” 20) Balati, Liu, “Yiduhu gaochang wang,” 68 (line 175) do not give a
transcription of a verb in this sentence.
256 See Boyle, John Andrew, trans. The Successors of Genghis Khan (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1971), 143–144.
257 The name is spelled differently in scholarly literature. As later myths equate the name
of the ruler—perhaps by folk etymology—with the word bokok ‘swelling, bird’s crop,
bud, goitre’, one can assume that it had the same pronunciation. On this word see
Erdal, Marcel, Old Turkic Word Formation: A Functional Approach to the Lexicon, vol. I
(Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1991), 230. It is also possible that originally bokok was not a
personal name but a title. In the famous Xiongnu couplet preserved in the History of the
Jin Dynasty (Chin. Jinshu 晉書) in Chinese transliteration the title *Bok-kok occurs. See
Vovin, Alexander, “Did the Xiong-nu speak a Yeniseian Language?” Central Asiatic Journal
44.1 (2000): 93. As titles are often borrowed from one language of the Inner Asian steppes
into another, an old loan word from Xiongnu—obviously a Yeniseian language according
to Vovin—in a Turkic language would not come as a surprise.
258 The reading oŋ tegin bägi is not certain. Cf. the proposal to read täg tegin bäg instead
in Zieme, Peter, “Uygur yazısıyla yazılmış uygur yazıtlarına dair bazı düşünceler,” Türk
Dili Araştırmaları Yıllığı—Belleten 1982– 1983 (1986): 234. Then one would assume that the
person referred to must be male.
259 Reading in Balati, Liu, “Yiduhu gaochang wang,” 64 (line 81): bokok tözlüg pundarik čäčäk
täg tegin bägini. In Zieme, Buddhistische Stabreimdichtungen, note to text no. 20.70, bokok