Kut- Turkic ConceptConcept"The Divine Fortune"
Also known as: Qut
Titles & Epithets
Domains
Symbols
Description
When Tengri's favor rests upon a ruler, his armies prevail and his people prosper. When the favor withdraws, empires crumble. The Orkhon inscriptions name this invisible force kut, and the Kutadgu Bilig built an entire philosophy of governance upon it.
Mythology & Lore
What the Inscriptions Tell
The Kül Tegin and Bilge Kagan inscriptions, carved in the Orkhon valley in the eighth century, explain the rise and fall of the Göktürk khaganate in terms of a single force. When Tengri granted kut to the Ashina kagans, they ruled the steppe from east to west. When later kagans abandoned Ötüken and went south to serve the Chinese emperor, kut departed. For fifty years the Türk people had no state and no kagan. Tengri had withdrawn his gift.
When Ilterish Kagan rose against the Chinese and returned to Ötüken, the inscriptions say Tengri restored kut. The khaganate was reborn. The word runs through the stone texts like a pulse: kut given, kut withdrawn, kut restored. A kagan can have armies and still lack kut. He can sit on a throne and rule nothing, because Tengri has turned away.
The Kutadgu Bilig
Yusuf Khass Hajib named his book after it. The Kutadgu Bilig, written in Kashgar between 1069 and 1070, takes kut as its central subject: the fortune that makes a ruler worthy, not merely powerful. Yusuf's argument is that kut must be earned through just governance and can be lost through tyranny. The title itself means "the wisdom that brings kut."