Eurasian Avars
From Freepedia
- The Caucasian Avars are a modern people of Caucasus, mainly of Dagestan.
The Eurasian Avars were a nomadic people of Eurasia who migrated into central and eastern Europe in the 6th century. The Avar rule persisted over much of the Pannonian plain up to the early 9th century.
The Avars originated in western Asia. They are considered to be a proto-Mongolian Turkic group. See more about their anthropological origins below.
Contents |
History
Avars were driven westward when the Gokturks defeated the Hephthalites in the 550s and the 560s. They entered Europe in the sixth century and, having been bought off by the Eastern Emperor Justinian I, pushed north into Germany (as Attila the Hun had done a century before).
Finding the country unsuited to their nomadic lifestyle (and the Franks stern opponents), they turned their attention to the Pannonian plain, which was then being contested by two Germanic tribes, the Lombards and the Gepids. Siding with the Lombards, they destroyed the Gepids in 567 and established a state in the Danube River area. Their harassment soon (ca. 568) forced the Lombards into northern Italy, a migration that marked the last Germanic migration in the Migrations Period. The Avar leader from c. 565 to c. 600 was called Bayan.
Under pressure from the Turks at the close of the 6th century, the new leadership in Byzantium began to distinguish the Pannonian Avars as pseudo-avars whose real designation should be Varchonites. Avars sought new allies and in 626, the Avars and the Persians besieged but failed to capture Constantinople. Avars turned against the Eastern Roman Empire which had employed Avar mercenaries to combat attacks from other steppe tribes. Following their defeat at Constantinople the Avars retreated to Pannonia.
As the Hegemony of the Western Turkic Empire crumbled, the Onogur dynasty was founded by Kubrat around 630, a man of Avar-Bulgar heritage from the Bulgar clan Dulo. He united the Avars, the Bulgars and probably also the Uar (Hephthalites) in a powerful Khaganate that also ruled over areas of today's Ukraine. The Bulgar warlords broke off the alliance with the Avars soon after Kubrat's death. The Avar state persisted in Pannonia throughout the 7th and 8th century, and the Avars are presumed to have mostly controlled the Slavs who had lived in the area since a few decades before the Avar arrival.
By the early 9th century, internal discord and the external pressure started to undermine the Avar state. The Avars were finally liquidated during the 810s by the Franks under Charlemagne and the Bulgars under Krum. Their presence in Pannonia is still certain in 871 but then that name is no longer used by chroniclers and in 881 the Kavars in the same areas with the same enemies appear. Like the Avars, Kavars are mentioned also as a branch in the East in Khazar lands, though they are noted as revulsing the Khazar yoke. In 896 they seize the Pannonian basin once and for all under the nominal leadership of the Magyars.
The Avars are also likely to have merged with Slavs, who had formed new states in the region: the principality of Nitra in the north (later Great Moravia), and the Balaton Principality in the central parts of Pannonia. Indeed, Menumorut himself is thought by some to have been the nephew of a Moravian.
List of Avar Rulers
| 552-562 | Kandik aka Khingila asked the Alan King Sarosios for introduction to Byzanteum as refugees from Central Asia. |
| 562-602 | Bayan I settles pannonia in 568 and established Avar Puppet Houdbaad of Onogunduri -Kutigurs & Utigurs in 580s |
| 602-617 | Bayan II of Avars |
| 617-630 | N... (established Regent Organa 600s-635 over Onogunduri) |
| 635-660 | Kubrat |
| 660-680 | Bayan III Eldest son of Kubrat rules from Crimea to avoid Khazar Mercenaries |
| c680-685 | Kouber (4th Son of Kubrat) deposed by Khazar candidate |
| 685-791 | 1st Khazar Avar alliance. |
| 729/730 | Surakat (Khazar puppet establishes Caucasian Avaristan) |
| 791-795 | Yugurus during Avar civil war |
| 795-? | Kajd Tudun |
| 803-? | Zodan the puppet of Krum who claimed European Eastern Avaria through relation to Kuber. |
| ?-814 | Theodorus (Carolingian Puppet) faced opposition by Khazar candidates. |
| 814-? | Abraham (Khazar puppet) supported against Carolingians |
| ?-835 | Isaac Tudun (Khazar puppet) |
| 835-899 | Menumorut led Kavars in Bihor to independence from Khazars and allied with the Magyars |
| 899 | ?Kursan |
Language
For a long time it was supposed that the Avars and their Kavar successors originally spoke Turkic languages, but were of Mongoloid appearance. The Avar name Bayan in Caucasian Avar language mean Victor "Behun" it also could be translated as "Bo"=Army-Country of Huns. The word "Hun" or "Khun" in Caucasian Avar language means "To Hold" "To Belong". The Hun word for leader or king "Kagan" in Caucasian Avar language pronounced "QuaKhun" means "To Whom The Power Belongs" or "The Power Holder". So saying that the Avar name Bayan only makes sense in Mongolian, has no grounds. Also the later Kavars are speculated to have spoken a Cuman dialect akin to that of the Pechenegs. However, evidence is mounting in favour of the theory that the Avars who settled in Transylvania (called pseudo-avars by early geographers) were only a branch acting under the auspicies of "true" Avars, who remained in the Khazar region of the Caucasus and who in turn had origins further east. The Kabar faction supposed to have remained in the Caucasus formed the powerful Khanate of Avaristan in the 10th century, contributing to the collapse of Khazaria from within that kingdom. This has led some to speculate a connection between the European Avars and the Caucasian Avars and the Kabard.
Anthropological origins
There are several popular points of origin suggested for the Avar peoples:
- the Caucasus - as a branch of the Proto-Iberians or Alarodians
- the Hindu Kush, around present-day Kabul - associated with the Juan-Juan, Uar and Hepthalites
- the region beyond the Jaxartes (Transiaxartesia), around Lake Balkhash in today's eastern Kazakhstan - associated with the Parni
Perhaps a suitable synthesis of these ideas may be that they were originally inhabitants of Khwarezmia, and had thus influence in all three areas.
The skeletons found in European Avar graves are mostly Mongolian1, but many items usually associated with Hebrews have been found with them2. Whether they had some kind of Hebraic origin connected to the quasi-"Jewish" tribes discovered in China and were a major influence in Khazaria, or were simply influenced by the alleged Khazar conversion, is a question demanding further investigation. Others have described them as "Armenoid", loosely described as 'similar to a Mongolian type with prominent noses'.
Legacy
Some theorize that Avars were the first tribe to introduce the stirrup to Europe. However, the subject is under debate and other candidates for the importers include the Huns.
References
- Note 1: Istvan Erdelyi's "Kabari (Kavari) v Karpatskom Basseyne", specifically page 179 from Sovietskaya Archeologiya 4 (1983)
- Note 2: A. Scheiber "Jewish inscriptions in Hungary from the 3rd Century to 1686" (1983); V.L.Vikhnovich "From the Jordan to the Dneiper" from Jewish Studies 31 (1991)
- E. Breuer "Chronological Studies to Early-Medieval findings at Danube Region. An Introduction to Byzantine Art at Barbaric Cemeteries." (Tettnang 2005)
