Bo Fuzhun, also Bofuzhun (
Chinese language: 勃匐準 Bo-fu-zhun, ruled from 745 CE per Chinese sources) was a ruler of the
Turk Shahis. He is only known in name from Chinese imperial accounts and possibly numismatic sources. The identification of his coinage remains conjectural.
Chinese accounts
Bo Fuzhun appears in the Chinese annals of the
Old Book of Tang, which record many dynastic events and ethnological information about the polities of Central and Southern Asia in the 6th-8th century, which were nominally under Chinese suzerainty and part of the
Protectorate General to Pacify the West. According to the Old Book of Tang, in 745 CE,
Fromo Kesaro, king of the
Turk Shahis, sent a request to the Chinese court in order to abdicate in favour of his son Bo Fuzun (勃匐準). These events are again recorded in the Chinese annals Jiu Tangshu and Tang Huiyao.[2]
天寶四年,又冊其子勃匐準為襲罽賓及烏萇國王,仍授左驍衛將軍 In the 4th year of the Tianbao reign [745 CE][a] another imperial edict was issued to make his [ie
Fromo Kesaro's] son Bo Fuzun succeed him on the throne as the King of
Jibin and
Uddiyana. He was conferred the title of "General of Left Stalwart Guard".
According to Kuwayama [1] the coinage of Bo Fuzhun corresponds to the late Turk Shahi coinage marked "Śrī Vāsudeva", and designed in the style of the coinage of the
Sasanian Emperor
Khosrow II.[1] These coins follow the design of the coin of Khosrow II (ruled 590-628) issued in his regnal years 26,27,36 and 37.[1] "
Vāsudeva" would be a regnal name that he adopted as he obtained the throne of
Uddiyana (烏萇國).[1]
Relation with Khingal
There is a possibility that the
Khingal of the Arabs, a ruler of the Turk Shahis, is identical with the Bo Fuzhun.[5][6][7][8][9]
Alram, Michael (2014). "From the Sasanians to the Huns New Numismatic Evidence from the Hindu Kush". The Numismatic Chronicle. 174: 261–291.
JSTOR44710198. (
registration required)
Kuwayama, Shōshin (桑山正進) (1976s). "The Turki Śāhis and Relevant Brahmanical Sculptures in Afghanistan". East and West. 26 (3/4): 375–407.
ISSN0012-8376.
JSTOR29756318.
Payne, Richard (2016). "The Making of Turan: The Fall and Transformation of the Iranian East in Late Antiquity". Journal of Late Antiquity. 9. Johns Hopkins University Press: 4–41.
doi:
10.1353/jla.2016.0011.
S2CID156673274.