Bumin Qaghan

Bumin was head of the Ashina clan, who smelted iron for the Rouran Khaganate on the slopes of the Altai. In 546 he defeated the Tiele tribes who were preparing to attack the Rouran and brought them under his rule, then asked the Rouran khagan Anagui for his daughter's hand. Anagui refused, calling him "my blacksmith slave".

Bumin allied with the Western Wei dynasty and in 552 crushed the Rouran; Anagui took his own life. Bumin took the title Il Qaghan but died the same year. His brother Istemi ruled the west and his sons the east. The Orkhon inscriptions remember him as the founder: "When the blue sky above and the dark earth below were made, between them mankind was made; over mankind my ancestors Bumin Qaghan and Istemi Qaghan sat."