Eurasian Avars

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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 by the growing power of the Turkish hordes, 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.

The Onogur dynasty was founded by Kubrat around 585/587, 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. 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.

The Bulgar warlords broke off the aliance 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.

The remaining Avars likely assimilated with the 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.

Language

A connection between the European Avars and the Caucasian Avars and Kabard is seriously questioned, but evidence is mounting in favour of the theory that the Avars who settled in Transylvania were only a "pseudo" (Kabar?) portion of other "true" Avars, who remained in the Caucasus region under Khazar control. The faction supposed to have remained in the Caucasus formed a powerful Khanate in the 10th century, contributing to the collapse of Khazaria from within that kingdom.

Anthropological origins

There are several popular points of origin suggested for the Avar peoples:

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

Avars were the first tribe to introduce stirrup to Europe.

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)


References

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