Avar Khaganate: A Visual History

The Avars arrived on the Pontic steppe around 558 fleeing the Turkic khaganate, took Byzantine subsidies, and under Bayan I settled the Carpathian Basin after destroying the Gepids in 567. From there they dominated the Slavs, raided the Balkans and, with the Persians, besieged Constantinople in 626. After that failure their power contracted but the khaganate survived, rich from tribute and plunder, until Charlemagne's campaigns of 791-796 sacked their ring fortresses. By 822 the Avars had vanished as a political people.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Avar Khaganate. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Avar territory

Timeline of the Avar Khaganate

1. 558
   Avars appear on the steppe
2. 567
   Gepids destroyed
3. 568
   Avars occupy Pannonia
4. 582
   Sirmium taken
5. 626
   Siege of Constantinople
6. 680
   Bulgars break away
7. 791
   Charlemagne's first campaign
8. 796
   The Ring captured
9. 822
   Last mention of the Avars

Arrival

Byzantine sources describe the Avars as arriving in the 550s with braided hair, asking Justinian for land and gold; whether they were the Rouran fleeing the Turks, or another people, is debated. The Turkic khagan demanded their return as his runaway slaves. Bayan allied with the Lombards to destroy the Gepids in 567 and, when the Lombards left for Italy in 568, took the whole Carpathian Basin.

Terror of the Balkans

For 60 years the Avars and their Slav subjects raided the Balkans, taking Sirmium in 582 and extracting up to 120,000 gold solidi a year from Constantinople. Slavic settlement of the Balkans happened under Avar overlordship. In 626, allied with Persia, they besieged Constantinople; the Byzantine navy destroyed the Slav boats and the siege collapsed, damaging Avar prestige. Samo's Slav revolt and Bulgar breakaways followed.

Charlemagne and the ring

The khaganate survived in Pannonia, its rulers hoarding centuries of Byzantine gold in fortified 'rings'. Charlemagne attacked in 791; civil war among the Avars helped, and in 795-796 Frankish and Lombard forces captured the main ring and sent 15 wagons of treasure to Aachen. The Avars converted, submitted and were squeezed by Bulgars and Slavs; the last Avar embassy to the Franks was in 822.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Rouran Khaganate (330 to 555)
• First Turkic Khaganate (552 to 603)
• Byzantine Empire (395 to 1453)
• Sasanian Empire (224 to 651)
• Francia (Frankish kingdoms) (481 to 843)
• Bulgarian Empire (681 to 1396)
• Khazar Khanate (650 to 969)
• Hunnic Empire (370 to 469)

8 surprising things about the Avar Khaganate

1. The Avars introduced the iron stirrup to Europe, transforming cavalry warfare.
2. Charlemagne's Avar treasure was so vast that Frankish prices rose and Einhard said the Franks became rich for the first time.
3. The Russian proverb 'to perish like the Avars' (pogibosha aki obre) recorded their total disappearance.
4. Byzantium paid the Avars perhaps 6 million solidi in tribute over 60 years, roughly 25 tonnes of gold.
5. The 626 siege of Constantinople is commemorated in the Akathist hymn still sung in Orthodox churches.
6. Avar graves in Hungary, over 60,000 excavated, are among the richest early medieval cemeteries in Europe.
7. The Avars gave the title 'khagan' to Europe; the Frankish sources call their ruler 'cacanus'.
8. Recent DNA studies show the Avar elite came from Mongolia, supporting the Rouran connection.

Sources

• Avar Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Pannonian Avars Wikipedia
• Avars World History Encyclopedia
• Walter Pohl, The Avars: A Steppe Empire in Central Europe (2018) Cornell University Press

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