Avar Khaganate

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Not to be confused with Avar Khanate.
Avar Khaganate
←
 
←
567–804 →
 
→
Capital Not specified
Language(s) Turkic Avar
Religion Tengriism
Government Khaganate
Khagan
 - 562-602 Bayan I
History
 - Established 567
 - Disestablished 804

The Avar Khaganate was a highly organized nomadic confederacy, a khaganate, established by the Avars. The Avars were a confederation of Eurasian tribes from the steppes of Central Asia. The Khaganate was founded in 567 and lasted until 804 in the Carpathian Basin.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Arrival in Europe

The Avars arrived in the northern region of Caucasia in 557. They sent an embassy to Constantinople, marking their first contact with the Byzantine Empire. In exchange for gold, they agreed to subjugate the "unruly gentes" on behalf of the Byzantines. They conquered and incorporated various nomadic tribes - Kutrigur Bulgars, Onogur/Utigur Bulgars, Sabir. They also defeated Antes. By 562 they controlled the steppes north of the Black Sea, and the lower Danube basin.[1] By the time of their arrival into the Balkans, the Avars were a heterogeneous group of c. 20,000 horsemen.[2] Having been bought off by the Emperor Justinian I, they pushed northwest into Germania. However, further expansion was halted by Frankish opposition.

Seeking rich pastoral lands, they initially demanded land south of the Danube River (in present-day Bulgaria), but this was denied them by the Byzantines, who used their contacts with the Göktürks as a threat against Avar aggression. They thus turned their attention to the Carpathian plain and the natural defenses it afforded.[3] However, the Carpathian basin was then occupied by the Gepids. In 567, the Avars signed an alliance with the Lombards, who were the enemies of the Gepids, and together they destroyed much of the Gepid Kingdom. The Avars then persuaded the Lombards to move into northern Italy, an invasion that marked the last Germanic mass movement in the Migration Period.

Continuing their successful policy of turning the various barbarians against each other, the Byzantines convinced the Avars to attack the Sclavenes in Scythia Minor - for their land was rich with booty and had never been conquered before.[4] After devastating much of the Sclavenes' land, the Avars returned to Pannonia, but not before many of the khagan's subjects deserted to the Byzantine Emperor. By 600 AD, the Avars had established a nomadic empire stretching from modern-day Austria in the west to the Pontic steppes in the east, ruling over a multitude of peoples.

Map showing the location of Avar Khaganate, c. 600 AD.

[edit] The Early Avar Period (580-670)

Europe around 600

By about 580 the Avar Khagan, Bayan, established supremacy over majority Slavic, Hunno-Bulgar, and Germanic tribes.[5] When the Byzantine Empire was unable to pay subsidies or hire Avar mercenaries, the Avars raided the Byzantines' Balkan territories. According to Menander, to sack Dalmatia in 568, Bayan commanded 10,000 Kutrigur Bulgar, effectively cutting Byzantium's land link with North Italy and the West. By 582, the Avars had captured Sirmium, an important fort in the former Roman province of Pannonia. When the Byzantines refused to increase the stipend amount as requested by Bayan's son and successor Bayan II (from 584), the Avars proceeded to capture Singidunum and Viminacium. However, during Maurice's Balkan campaigns in the 590s, Avars experienced setbacks. Being defeated in their homeland, some Avars defected to the Byzantines in 602,[6] but Emperor Maurice decided against returning home as was customary. He maintained his army camp beyond the Danube throughout the winter, which caused the army to revolt (602). This gave the Avars a desperately needed respite. The ensuing civil war prompted a Persian invasion and after 615 gave the Avars a free hand in the undefended Balkans. They attempted an invasion of northern Italy in 610. Payments in gold and goods reached the record sum of 200,000 solidi shortly before 626.[7]

In 626, the joint Avar and Sassanid Persian siege of Constantinople failed. Following this defeat, the Avars' prestige and power declined. The Byzantines and Franks[8] document a war between the Avars and their Wends (west Slavs) clients. In the 630s, Samo, the ruler of the first historically known Slavic polity - Samo's Tribal Union (or Samo's realm) - increased his authority over lands to the north and west of the khanate, at the expense of the Avars. He succeeded to rule over his realm till his death in 658.

The history of the empire after Samo's death in 658 or 659 is largely unclear. It is generally assumed that it disappeared with Samo's death. Archaeological findings show that the Avars returned to their previous territories (at least to southernmost part of present-day Slovakia) and entered into a symbiosis with the Slavs, whereas territories to the north of the Avar empire were purely Wends territories. The first specific thing that is known about the fate of these Slavs and Avars in this area, is the existence of the Moravian and Nitrian principalities (see Great Moravia) in the late eighth century which were attacking the Avars, and the defeat of the Avars by the Franks under Charlemagne in 799 or 802–3.

At about the time of Samo's realm, the Great Khan Kubrat (Kurt), of the Dulo clan, led a successful uprising to end Avar authority over the Pannonian Plain, establishing what the Byzantines used to call Old Great Bulgaria. The civil war, possibly a succession struggle in Onoguria, between the joint Avar/Kutrigur Bulgar parties and Kubrat's Utigur Bulgar forces raged from 631-632. The power of the joint Avar and Kutrigur Bulgar forces was shattered and the Avars came under the control of "Patria Onoguria" ("the homeland of Onogurs", also known as Old Great Bulgaria. Chronicler Fredegarius recorded that 9,000 Bulgars sought asylum and fled to Bavaria, only to be slaughtered by King Dagobert I of the Franks. However, an element in Onoguria remained and came to be known as Cozariks (still noted in Transylvania even as late as the time of Menumorut). Following Khan Kubrat's death, they would vie for control again. One group on the eastern side of Onoguria migrated north up the Volga River where they established their own state of Volga Great Bolgary. Those remaining between Transylvania and the Ukraine were assimilated by the Khazars. Nevertheless, after their 7th-century struggles, the Avars managed to come out on top yet again; the Hrpt clan inherited rule over Onoguria and, in the face of Khazar expansion, in 677 control shifted from Balt-Avar to Bács.


[edit] Middle (670-720) and Late (720-804) Avar periods

Avars around 800

The Great Khan Kubrat, the ruler of Great Old Bulgaria, died in 665 and was succeeded, in what is present-day Ukraine, by Khan Batbayan of Bulgaria. By 670, the Khazars had shattered the unity of the Onogur Bulgar confederation, causing some of the Utigur Bulgars to leave Ukraine and migrate west. The Viennese chronicle states 677 as the year when the "Hungar"/(Onogur Bulgar) ethnicon established itself decisively in Pannonia. This new ethnic element (marked by hair clips for pigtails; curved, single-edged sabres; broad, symmetrical bows) marks the middle Avar-Bulgar period (670-720 AD). One group of Onogur Bulgars, led by Khan Kuber, after defeating the Avars in Sirmium, moved south and settled in the present-day region of Macedonia. Another group of Onogur/Utigur Bulgars, led by Khan Asparukh (the father of Khan Tervel), had already settled permanently in the Balkans (c. 679-681), forming Bulgaria. Although the Avar empire had diminished to half its original size, they consolidated their rule over the central parts of the mid-Danubian basin and extended their sphere of influence west to the Viennese Basin. With the death of Samo, some Slavic tribes again fell under Avar rule. New regional centers appeared, such as those near Ozora and Igar (county Fehér/Hungary). This strengthened the Avars' power base, although most of the Balkans now lay in the hands of Slavic tribes, since neither the Avars nor Byzantines were able to reassert control.

In the early 8th century, a new archaeological culture appeared in the Carpathian basin: the so-called "griffin and tendril" culture. Some scholars (such as the “double conquest” theory of archaeologist Gyula László) attempt to attribute it to the arrival of new settlers (such as early Magyars), however, it is still under debate. Hungarian archaeologists Laszló Makkai and András Móczy attribute this to an internal evolution of Avar culture, resulting from the integration of the Bulgar émigrés from the previous generation (i.e., 670s): "the material culture — art, clothing, equipment, weapons — of the late Avar/Bulgar period evolved autonomously from these new foundations". Many regions that had once been important centres of Avar empire had lost their significance, whilst new ones arose. Whilst Avaric material culture found over much of the northern Balkans might indicate an existing Avar presence, it probably more accurately represents the presence of independent Slavs who had adopted Avaric customs.[9]

[edit] Collapse

The gradual decline of Avar power was brought to a rapid crash within a decade. A series of Frankish campaigns in the 790s led by Charlemagne ended with their conquest of the Avar realm, taking most of Pannonia up to the Tisza River. While fighting the Avars, the Franks had called for Slavic-Croatian support.[10] Croatian prince Vojnomir of Pannonian Croatia launched a joint counterattack with the help of Frankish troops under Charlemagne in 791.[11] The offensive was successful and the Avars were driven out of Croatia and Pannonia.[11] Later during the 790s, when Charlemagne again campaigned against the Avars, he won a major victory in 796.[12]

The song "De Pippini regis Victoria Avarica" celebrating the defeat of the Avars at the hands of Pepin of Italy in 796 survives. The Franks baptised many Avars and integrated them into the Frankish Empire (...(sc. Avaros) autem, qui obediebant fidei et baptismum sunt consecuti...). In 804, the First Bulgarian Empire conquered the southeastern Avar lands — Transylvania and southeastern Pannonia to the Middle Danube River. Many Avars became subjects of the Bulgarian Empire. The Franks turned the Avar lands under their control into a military march. The eastern half of this march was then granted to the Slavic Prince Pribina, who established the Balaton principality in 840 AD. The western part of Awarenmark continued to exist until 871, when it was integrated into the Carantanian and Eastern marches.

After the fall of the Avar Empire, the name Avar, and the self-identified constructed ethnicity it carried, disappeared within a generation.[citation needed] An Avar presence in Pannonia is certain in 871, but thereafter the name is no longer used by chroniclers: "It simply proved impossible to keep up an Avar identity after Avar institutions and the high claims of their tradition had failed."[13] The Avars had already been mixing with the more numerous Slavs for generations. In turn, they came under the rule of external polities — that of the Franks, Bulgaria, and Great Moravia.[14][page needed] But while by the middle of the 9th century all remains of the Avar polity had disappeared, the Avars in the region known as solitudo avarorum (currently called the Alföld) as a people vanished in an arc of three generations. They slowly merged with the Slavs to create a bilingual Turkic–Slavic-speaking people who were subjected to Frankish domination; it is this composite people that the invading Magyars found in the late 9th century.[15]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Pohl
  2. ^ Curta, Florin. The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region, c. 500–700. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. ISBN 0 521 80202 4.
  3. ^ History of Transylvania, Volume I. László Makkai, András Mócsy. Columbia University Press. 2001
  4. ^ Florin Curta. The Making of the Slavs
  5. ^ Pohl 1998:18.
  6. ^ Walter Pohl, Die Awaren (Munich) 2.ed.2002., page 158.
  7. ^ Walter Pohl, Die Awaren (Munich) 1.ed.1988.
  8. ^ Curta, Florin. The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region, c. 500–700. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. ISBN 0 521 80202 4.
  9. ^ László Makkai and András Mócsy, editors, 2001. History of Transylvania, II.4 "The period of Avar rule"
  10. ^ Sinor, Denis (1990). The Cambridge history of early Inner Asia. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 219. ISBN 0-521-24304-1. 
  11. ^ a b Dvornik, Francis (1959). The Slavs: their early history and civilization. American Academy of Arts and Sciences. p. 69. 
  12. ^ Fine, John Van Antwerp (1991). The early medieval Balkans: a critical survey from the sixth to the late twelfth century. University of Michigan Press. p. 78. ISBN 0-472-08149-7. 
  13. ^ Pohl 1998:19.
  14. ^ The early medieval Balkans. John Fine, Jr
  15. ^ András Róna-Tas, Hungarians and Europe in the early Middle Ages: an introduction to early Hungarian history, Central European University Press, 1999, p. 264

[edit] See also

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