the ‘inside’ other 125
presents an interesting hypothesis that besides Turks and extremely
influential Sogdians probably the Chinese were also an important
minority in the Uighur khaganate. He emphasizes the well known fact
that many of the khagans used to marry Chinese princesses and with
them Chinese imperial retinues entered the Uighur court. But sources
also mentioned that some eminent Chinese voluntarily settled among
the Uighurs. For example, a representative of the Liu family was hon-
ored by the emperor with a high title in 792 A.D., but after that left
for Karabalghasun where he was adopted by the khagan and took the
name of the ruling Uighur clan—Yaghlaqar.^155 It is difficult to state
with details what was the attitude towards him and other subjects of
the Chinese empire settled within the borders of the khaganate, but
it can be guessed that, as the Christians and the Muslims, they were
treated according to the laws of the ‘Steppe Empire’ that ordered toler-
ance towards those who used to follow a religion different from that
favored by the court.
In the second half of the sixth century, as it was mentioned above,
there were incidents with preaching other religions, Buddhism in
particular, within the Turkic khaganate. After the death of Muqan
(Makhan) khagan in 572 A.D. his brother Tuobo khagan accepted
Buddhism and this fact is seen by some scholars as an attempt to get
mainly political advantages while maneuvering between the two Chi-
nese dynasties in the Northern China—Zhou and Qi. But soon after
581 A.D., when the Sui dynasty replaced Qi, the Buddhist monks were
sent back to China.^156
Therefore, the above-mentioned tolerance^157 depended mostly on the
momentary political equilibrium and did not have a constant charac-
ter. This is confirmed by the attitude towards some aristocrats follow-
ing non traditional religions of the khaganate, who suffered because
of that. But in general, and especially among the Turkic and Khazar
high strata, there was favorable attitude toward the so-called world
religions, towards Buddhism, the Nestorian version of Christianity,
and Manichaeism, in particular.^158
(^155) Mackerras 1990, 321.
(^156) Gumilev 1967, 32.
(^157) For the notions of tolerance and their development from Antiquity to the early
Christians and in mediaeval Western Europe until the sixteenth century (mainly based
on sources from Catholic Europe!) see, Bejczy 1997, 365–384. 158
Ecsedy and Sunderman 1996, 478.