Pannonian Avars
The Pannonian Avars (/ˈævɑːrz/) were an alliance of several groups of Eurasian nomads of various origins.[8][9][10][11][12][13] The peoples were also known as the Obri in chronicles of Rus, the Abaroi or Varchonitai[14] (Greek: Βαρχονίτες, romanized: Varchonítes), or Pseudo-Avars[15] in Byzantine sources, and the Apar (Old Turkic: 𐰯𐰺) to the Göktürks (Kultegin Inscription: Apar – Avars were called "Apar"). They established the Avar Khaganate, which spanned the Pannonian Basin and considerable areas of Central and Eastern Europe from the late 6th to the early 9th century.[16]
For the modern ethnic group native to the North Caucasus, see Avars (Caucasus). For other uses, see Avar (disambiguation).
Avar Khaganate
- Turkic, Mongolic and/or Tungusic languages (ruling class)[2][3][4]
- Proto-Slavic (possibly late lingua franca)[5]
Originally shamanism and animism, Christianity after 796
567
796
after 822[1]
The name Pannonian Avars (after the area in which they settled) is used to distinguish them from the Avars of the Caucasus, a separate people with whom the Pannonian Avars may or may not have had links. Although the name Avar first appeared in the mid-5th century, the Pannonian Avars entered the historical scene in the mid-6th century,[17] on the Pontic–Caspian steppe as a people who wished to escape the rule of the Göktürks. They are probably best known for their invasions and destruction in the Avar–Byzantine wars from 568 to 626 and influence on the Slavic migrations to Southeastern Europe.
Recent archaeogenetic studies indicate that the Pannonian Avars were of primarily Ancient Northeast Asian ancestry similar to those of modern-day people from Mongolia and the Amur River region in Manchuria, pointing to an initial rapid migration of nomadic tribes into the centre of Europe from the Eastern Eurasian Steppe. The Pannonian Avars' core may have been descended from the remnants of the Rouran Khaganate, which were accompanied by other Steppe groups.[18][19][20][21][22][23][note 1] Linguistic evidence suggests that the later Avar population shifted to Slavic as lingua franca.[24][25][26]
History[edit]
Arrival in Europe[edit]
In 557, the Avars sent an embassy to Constantinople, presumably from the northern Caucasus. This marked their first contact with the Byzantine Empire. In exchange for gold, they agreed to subjugate the "unruly gentes" on behalf of the Byzantines: subsequently they conquered and incorporated various nomadic tribes—Kutrigurs and Sabirs—and defeated the Antes.
Pohl 1998, p. 18: [...] the first thing the Avars did when they came near the Caucasus on their flight from Central Asia was to send an embassy to the aging emperor Justinian. That took place sometime in winter 558/59, and they struck the usual deal: the Avars were to fight for the Empire against unruly gentes and in turn would receive annual payments and other benefits. Indeed, for 20 years to come the Avars, under their Khagan Baian, fought Utigurs and Antes, Gepids and Slavs, whereas their policy towards the Empire relied more on negotiation than on war."
By 562 the Avars controlled the lower Danube basin and the steppes north of the Black Sea.[68] By the time they arrived in the Balkans, the Avars formed a heterogeneous group of about 20,000 horsemen.[69] After the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I bought them off, they pushed northwestwards into Germania. However, Frankish opposition halted the Avars' expansion in that direction. Seeking rich pastoral lands, the Avars initially demanded land south of the Danube in present-day Bulgaria, but the Byzantines refused, using their contacts with the Göktürks as a threat against Avar aggression.[70] The Avars turned their attention to the Carpathian Basin and to the natural defenses it afforded.[71] The Carpathian Basin was occupied by the Gepids. In 567 the Avars formed an alliance with the Lombards—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 persuaded the Avars to attack the Sclavenes in Scythia Minor, a land rich with goods.[69] After devastating much of the Sclavenes' land, the Avars returned to Pannonia after many of the khagan's subjects deserted to the Byzantine emperor.
The recorded Avar khagans were:[104]
Language[edit]
The language or languages spoken by the Avars are unknown.[8][10][106][107] Classical philologist Samu Szádeczky-Kardoss states that most of the Avar words used in contemporaneous Latin or Greek texts appear to have their origins in possibly Mongolian or Turkic languages.[108][109] Other theories propose a Tungusic origin.[3] According to Szádeczky-Kardoss, many of the titles and ranks used by the Pannonian Avars were also used by Turks, Proto-Bulgars, Uighurs and/or Mongols, including khagan (or kagan), khan, kapkhan, tudun, tarkhan, and khatun.[109] There is also evidence, however, that ruling and subject clans spoke a variety of languages. Proposals by scholars include Caucasian,[10] Iranian,[2] Tungusic,[110][111][112] Hungarian and Turkic.[14][113] A few scholars speculated that Proto-Slavic became the lingua franca of the Avar Khaganate.[114] Historian Gyula László has suggested that the late 9th-century Pannonian Avars spoke a variety of Old Hungarian, thereby forming an Avar-Hungarian continuity with then-newly arrived Hungarians.[115] Based on archeologic and linguistic data, Florin Curta and Johanna Nichols concluded that there is no convincing evidence for the presence of any Turkic or Mongolic languages among the Avars, but evidence for the presence of Iranian languages, further strengthened by Iranian-derived loanwords and toponyms in the region and among languages within the range of the Avars.[116]
Shimunek (2017) proposes that the elite core of the Avars spoke a "Para-Mongolic language" of the "Serbi–Awar" group, that is a sister branch of the Mongolic languages. Together, the Serbi–Awar and Mongolic languages make up the Serbi–Mongolic languages.[41]
Avar-Hungarian continuity theory[edit]
Gyula László suggests that late Avars, arriving to the khaganate in 670 in great numbers, lived through the time between the destruction and plunder of the Avar state by the Franks during 791–795 and the arrival of the Magyars in 895. László points out that the settlements of the Hungarians (Magyars) complemented, rather than replaced, those of the Avars. Avars remained on the plough fields, good for agriculture, while Hungarians took the river banks and river flats, suitable for pasturage. He also notes that while the Hungarian graveyards consist of 40–50 graves on average, those of the Avars contain 600–1,000. According to these findings, the Avars not only survived the end of the Avar polity but lived in great masses and far outnumbered the Hungarian conquerors of Árpád.
He also shows that Hungarians occupied only the centre of the Carpathian basin, but Avars lived in a larger territory. Looking at those territories where only the Avars lived, there are only Hungarian geographical names, not Slavic or Turkic as would be expected interspersed among them. This is further evidence for the Avar-Hungarian continuity. Names of the Hungarian tribes, chieftains and the words used for the leaders, etc., suggest that at least the leaders of the Hungarian conquerors were Turkic speaking. However, Hungarian is not a Turkic language, rather Uralic, and so they must have been assimilated by the Avars that outnumbered them.
László's Avar-Hungarian continuity theory posits that the modern Hungarian language descends from that spoken by the Avars rather than the conquering Magyars.[119] Based on DNA evidence from graves, the original Magyars most resembled modern Bashkirs, a Turkic people located near the Urals, whereas the Khanty and Mansi, whose languages most resemble Hungarian, live some ways to the northeast of the Bashkirs.[120][121][122]