y***@albanian.com
2005-01-09 18:38:49 UTC
Classical Sources
In the mid 5th C., Priskos Rhetor was the first to deal with the Avar
tribe which existed in the West Siberian region. This supports the
theory of origin from the Balkhash region which is further supported by
the Chinese records concerning the related Hua tribes. According to
Priscos's account, the Avar-Huns forced the Sabirs out of this land and
over the Volga around 461-463CE because "a fog rose from the sea scaring
people" and this was followed by countless "vultures descending upon the
people". Then in 550, Zakharias Rhetor the church historian mentioned an
"Avar" community in the west. Also in the mid 6th century, Menandros
wrote about Avars. At the same time Procopius made a distinction in his
History of the Wars, Books I and II, between White Huns and European
Huns which Simokattes in the early half of the 7thC. defines as the
real- and pseudo- avars respectively.
Based upon Simokattes's and other information, the Avars who entered
Europe are thought to have been a combination of a (Uighur people called
Hund(?) and (because of the anthropological evidence as well as
etymology on Avar Khagaan names like Bayan meaning "prosperous" in
Mongol but meaning female in most western Altaic tongues) a Mongolian
people called Var(?) who united around Balk sometime between 410-470CE.
Developments in Central Eurasia
Avars were once equated with the Juan Juan resulting in much confusion
as the latter have become frequently referred to as Avars. Though this
equation has since proven to be a gross generalisation since the Juan
Juan continued to exist after being overthrown by the Asena until 557
while Sarosios was already well established as Khagan of the Avars in
Europe by that time. There is, however, evidence that an element of the
European Avars may have been, at least for a little while, a small part
of the Juan Juan confederacy.
Besides their generally circulated suggestion of their relationship to
the Hephthalites, another well-circulated story of more enigmatic origin
has it that the Uygurs were conquered by a Mongolian people in the 5th
century (see Uar and Hua). Forming a confederation in present Central
Eurasia, they tried to survive in the competition with other Turkic
tribes (see Juan Juan), by which they were eventually expelled. The
survivors of this group of Turkic/Mongol people migrated toward East
Europe where they established the Avars Khaganate 502-530CE, starting an
era of conquest.
Developments in Central & S.E. Europe
Allies of the Byzantine Empire, they fought against the Slavs and the
Bulgars, controlling the area between the Volga River and the Elbe River
as far as the Baltic Sea. However, the situation changed resulting in an
attempt to invade Italy in 610 and they attacked Constantinople in 619
and 626. The emperor Heraclius, the Bulgars and some Slavic peoples
(Croats (Hrvati) and Serbs Срби Srbi) fought them and pushed them to
Illyria and in the 630'sCE Khagan Kubrat of the Onoghur became the first
Khagan of the second Avar dynasty.
From the late 7th century, writings begin to mention peoples using a
'K-B/V-R' root ethnonym in the same areas inhabited by Avars. The root
K-B/V-R has been explained as "rebel" or "mix" as well as "rotate" and
"wander". Dissident Kuber Avar-Huns are mentioned migrating southward
following a rebellion against the main body of Avars not long after
Batbayan-Bezmer succeeded his father Kubrat as Khagan. It may reasonably
be deduced that those western Avars who mixed with the Bulgar-Huns
and/or severed ties with/rebelled against the main eastern horde in the
Caucasus which was under Khazar rule, became known by the 'K-B/V-R'
variation of the name.
Little is known about Kabar/Avars from between the late 7th to late 8th
centuries except that most of their neighbours still called them Avars.
Excavations of their graves have yielded evidence that they were a
Mongolian people who carried objects usually associated with Hebraic
culture and it has been suggested that their center of control was
actually in Khazaria rather than the Ukraine or Pannonia. As Kabarids
(or Kavarites) they also seem to have left their ethnonym in certain
towns they founded like for example the Kopyrev Konets district of Kiev
in the Ukraine which has been explained from their ethnonym. In 791 they
invaded Europe once again. The so-called Avar Ring was defeated by
Franks led by Charlemagne in the 9th century whereupon the three major
tribes invited the Magyar seven-tribe confederacy to liberate them. The
three Avar tribes which Magyar sources call Kavar or Kabar (there is no
other mention of Avars in original Magyar sources) were settled in
Transylvania. Their Szekely descendants preserved the popular Avar
Dragon Totem well into the 15th century.
Caucasian Avars and their Language
A connection between the European Avars and the Caucasian Avars and
Kabard is severely questioned, but evidence is mounting in favor 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 which is 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 three popular points of origin suggested for the Avar peoples
one is in the Caucasus as a branch of the Protoiberians, another is in
the Hindu Kush around present day Kabul, and another, associating them
with the Parni, is the region beyond the Jaxartes (Transiaxartesia)
around Lake Balkhash in north-east Kazakhstan. 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 mongolian [Istvan Erdelyi's
"Kabari (Kavari) v Karpatskom Basseyne" specifically page 179 from
Sovietskaya Archeologiya 4 (1983)], but many items usually associated
with Hebrews have been found with them [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)]. 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
"Amerinoid" (?source) loosely described as 'similar to a Mongolian Type
with prominent noses'.
Speculations on Religion
In the east, the inhabitants of Khwarezmia, recognized as being under
the Avars by 410CE, were said to observe a form of Mosaic law (see
Sabians) which might explain the apparent Hebrew artifacts found in
excavations of their Carpathian basin graves. Later while western Avar
areas like Avaristan, apparently became a Christian kingdom their former
eastern haunts became strongly islamicized. Arguments also exist that
Avars were originally Magians, and others suggest a basic form of
typical Eurasian Shamanism. These days the only surviving people still
known as Avars mostly practice forms of Jafarite islam.
Noahite Origins
The Avars have been included with various Turkic peoples in attempts to
trace them a descent from Noah. Joseph ben Gorion's 10thC. historical
work "Sefer Yosippon" mentions Avar (עבר) as one of the ten children of
the Biblical Togarmah. There is also a suggestion that the Avar-Huns
descend from the Biblical Patriarch Eber (also written עבר) via
Abraham's third wife Keturah whose descendants had moved to Central
Eurasia mentioned in the 12thC. ["Chronicles of Jerahmeel" by Jerahmeel
ben Solomon]. There are also references to the descent of various
Avar-Hunnic tribes from Magog who also had a descendant called Heber (עבר).
A Common Ethnonym
The obviously quite common eponym may be explained by a widely accepted,
theory that the word Avar has a common root with the Turkish word avare,
meaning wanderer or vagabond. Thus, it is suggested that terms like
"Avar" used for various peoples might derive from a common Turanian
etymology with a meaning of human movement like "freeman/ nomad" along
with many similar words from many ancient languages like for example
Hebrew. For more speculations about Avar peoples in western Central
Eurasia before the 5th C. CE see AparDi, Aparytae, Abar-noi, Abaris.
Notes:
Hua is:
• the self designation (endonymic ethnicon) used by the
Hephthalites
• the name of a country in China prior to being destroyed by
the Chin Emperor Huaguo .
---------------------
The writings of Procopius of Caesarea (500 ? - 565 ?), in Palestine, are
the primary source of information for the rule of the emperor Justinian.
He was the author of a history in eight books of the wars fought by the
Justinian I, a panegyric on Justinian's public works throughout the
empire, and a book known as the Secret History that claims to report the
scandals Procopius could not include in his published history
("anecdotes").
------------------------
The term Hephthalite derives from Greek, supposedly a rendering of
"Hayathelite", the name used by Persian writers to refer to a 6th
century empire on the northern and eastern periphery of their land.
In China they were known as 厌哒 or 厭達 (py Yanda) also written
Ye-ti-i-li-do/Yeda/Yoptal but are documented as having called themselves
Hua or Huer (滑).
----------------------------
Uighurs (also: Uyghurs, Uigurs, Uygurs) (Chinese: Weiwur 維吾爾 or 维吾
尔 in pinyin: wéiwúěr) are a Turkic ethnic group of people living in
northwestern China (mainly in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region,
where they are the dominant ethnic group together with Chinese Han
people), Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. The other branch of
Uighurs lives in Taoyuan county of Hunan province in Southcentral China.
Uighurs form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the
People's Republic of China.
------------------------------
Juan Juan (wg), Ruanruan (py), Ru Ru (py) or Rouran 柔然 (py) was the
name of a confederacy of nomadic tribes on the northern borders of China
proper from late 4th century until late 6th century. The term Rouran (柔
然) was a Chinese language transcription of the pronunciation of the
name the confederacy used to refer to itself.
------------------------------
According to Theophylaktos Simokattes, Uar, along with the Hunnoi, are
the names associated with the two biggest tribes of "Procopius's White
Huns". They were called Varkhon or Varkunites (Ouarkhonitai) by
Menander, perhaps inspired by the name of the God Vulcan, and settled
Europe in the Balkans and Pannonia. They are supposed to have united
around 460 under the rule of one of the five Yuezhi families - the
Hephthal.
--------------------------------
The Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire was the eastern section of
the Roman Empire, with its capital at Constantinople (modern Istanbul),
which remained in existence after the fall of Rome in the 5th century.
The Byzantine period is usually considered to extend from 395 to 1453.
In the mid 5th C., Priskos Rhetor was the first to deal with the Avar
tribe which existed in the West Siberian region. This supports the
theory of origin from the Balkhash region which is further supported by
the Chinese records concerning the related Hua tribes. According to
Priscos's account, the Avar-Huns forced the Sabirs out of this land and
over the Volga around 461-463CE because "a fog rose from the sea scaring
people" and this was followed by countless "vultures descending upon the
people". Then in 550, Zakharias Rhetor the church historian mentioned an
"Avar" community in the west. Also in the mid 6th century, Menandros
wrote about Avars. At the same time Procopius made a distinction in his
History of the Wars, Books I and II, between White Huns and European
Huns which Simokattes in the early half of the 7thC. defines as the
real- and pseudo- avars respectively.
Based upon Simokattes's and other information, the Avars who entered
Europe are thought to have been a combination of a (Uighur people called
Hund(?) and (because of the anthropological evidence as well as
etymology on Avar Khagaan names like Bayan meaning "prosperous" in
Mongol but meaning female in most western Altaic tongues) a Mongolian
people called Var(?) who united around Balk sometime between 410-470CE.
Developments in Central Eurasia
Avars were once equated with the Juan Juan resulting in much confusion
as the latter have become frequently referred to as Avars. Though this
equation has since proven to be a gross generalisation since the Juan
Juan continued to exist after being overthrown by the Asena until 557
while Sarosios was already well established as Khagan of the Avars in
Europe by that time. There is, however, evidence that an element of the
European Avars may have been, at least for a little while, a small part
of the Juan Juan confederacy.
Besides their generally circulated suggestion of their relationship to
the Hephthalites, another well-circulated story of more enigmatic origin
has it that the Uygurs were conquered by a Mongolian people in the 5th
century (see Uar and Hua). Forming a confederation in present Central
Eurasia, they tried to survive in the competition with other Turkic
tribes (see Juan Juan), by which they were eventually expelled. The
survivors of this group of Turkic/Mongol people migrated toward East
Europe where they established the Avars Khaganate 502-530CE, starting an
era of conquest.
Developments in Central & S.E. Europe
Allies of the Byzantine Empire, they fought against the Slavs and the
Bulgars, controlling the area between the Volga River and the Elbe River
as far as the Baltic Sea. However, the situation changed resulting in an
attempt to invade Italy in 610 and they attacked Constantinople in 619
and 626. The emperor Heraclius, the Bulgars and some Slavic peoples
(Croats (Hrvati) and Serbs Срби Srbi) fought them and pushed them to
Illyria and in the 630'sCE Khagan Kubrat of the Onoghur became the first
Khagan of the second Avar dynasty.
From the late 7th century, writings begin to mention peoples using a
'K-B/V-R' root ethnonym in the same areas inhabited by Avars. The root
K-B/V-R has been explained as "rebel" or "mix" as well as "rotate" and
"wander". Dissident Kuber Avar-Huns are mentioned migrating southward
following a rebellion against the main body of Avars not long after
Batbayan-Bezmer succeeded his father Kubrat as Khagan. It may reasonably
be deduced that those western Avars who mixed with the Bulgar-Huns
and/or severed ties with/rebelled against the main eastern horde in the
Caucasus which was under Khazar rule, became known by the 'K-B/V-R'
variation of the name.
Little is known about Kabar/Avars from between the late 7th to late 8th
centuries except that most of their neighbours still called them Avars.
Excavations of their graves have yielded evidence that they were a
Mongolian people who carried objects usually associated with Hebraic
culture and it has been suggested that their center of control was
actually in Khazaria rather than the Ukraine or Pannonia. As Kabarids
(or Kavarites) they also seem to have left their ethnonym in certain
towns they founded like for example the Kopyrev Konets district of Kiev
in the Ukraine which has been explained from their ethnonym. In 791 they
invaded Europe once again. The so-called Avar Ring was defeated by
Franks led by Charlemagne in the 9th century whereupon the three major
tribes invited the Magyar seven-tribe confederacy to liberate them. The
three Avar tribes which Magyar sources call Kavar or Kabar (there is no
other mention of Avars in original Magyar sources) were settled in
Transylvania. Their Szekely descendants preserved the popular Avar
Dragon Totem well into the 15th century.
Caucasian Avars and their Language
A connection between the European Avars and the Caucasian Avars and
Kabard is severely questioned, but evidence is mounting in favor 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 which is 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 three popular points of origin suggested for the Avar peoples
one is in the Caucasus as a branch of the Protoiberians, another is in
the Hindu Kush around present day Kabul, and another, associating them
with the Parni, is the region beyond the Jaxartes (Transiaxartesia)
around Lake Balkhash in north-east Kazakhstan. 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 mongolian [Istvan Erdelyi's
"Kabari (Kavari) v Karpatskom Basseyne" specifically page 179 from
Sovietskaya Archeologiya 4 (1983)], but many items usually associated
with Hebrews have been found with them [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)]. 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
"Amerinoid" (?source) loosely described as 'similar to a Mongolian Type
with prominent noses'.
Speculations on Religion
In the east, the inhabitants of Khwarezmia, recognized as being under
the Avars by 410CE, were said to observe a form of Mosaic law (see
Sabians) which might explain the apparent Hebrew artifacts found in
excavations of their Carpathian basin graves. Later while western Avar
areas like Avaristan, apparently became a Christian kingdom their former
eastern haunts became strongly islamicized. Arguments also exist that
Avars were originally Magians, and others suggest a basic form of
typical Eurasian Shamanism. These days the only surviving people still
known as Avars mostly practice forms of Jafarite islam.
Noahite Origins
The Avars have been included with various Turkic peoples in attempts to
trace them a descent from Noah. Joseph ben Gorion's 10thC. historical
work "Sefer Yosippon" mentions Avar (עבר) as one of the ten children of
the Biblical Togarmah. There is also a suggestion that the Avar-Huns
descend from the Biblical Patriarch Eber (also written עבר) via
Abraham's third wife Keturah whose descendants had moved to Central
Eurasia mentioned in the 12thC. ["Chronicles of Jerahmeel" by Jerahmeel
ben Solomon]. There are also references to the descent of various
Avar-Hunnic tribes from Magog who also had a descendant called Heber (עבר).
A Common Ethnonym
The obviously quite common eponym may be explained by a widely accepted,
theory that the word Avar has a common root with the Turkish word avare,
meaning wanderer or vagabond. Thus, it is suggested that terms like
"Avar" used for various peoples might derive from a common Turanian
etymology with a meaning of human movement like "freeman/ nomad" along
with many similar words from many ancient languages like for example
Hebrew. For more speculations about Avar peoples in western Central
Eurasia before the 5th C. CE see AparDi, Aparytae, Abar-noi, Abaris.
Notes:
Hua is:
• the self designation (endonymic ethnicon) used by the
Hephthalites
• the name of a country in China prior to being destroyed by
the Chin Emperor Huaguo .
---------------------
The writings of Procopius of Caesarea (500 ? - 565 ?), in Palestine, are
the primary source of information for the rule of the emperor Justinian.
He was the author of a history in eight books of the wars fought by the
Justinian I, a panegyric on Justinian's public works throughout the
empire, and a book known as the Secret History that claims to report the
scandals Procopius could not include in his published history
("anecdotes").
------------------------
The term Hephthalite derives from Greek, supposedly a rendering of
"Hayathelite", the name used by Persian writers to refer to a 6th
century empire on the northern and eastern periphery of their land.
In China they were known as 厌哒 or 厭達 (py Yanda) also written
Ye-ti-i-li-do/Yeda/Yoptal but are documented as having called themselves
Hua or Huer (滑).
----------------------------
Uighurs (also: Uyghurs, Uigurs, Uygurs) (Chinese: Weiwur 維吾爾 or 维吾
尔 in pinyin: wéiwúěr) are a Turkic ethnic group of people living in
northwestern China (mainly in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region,
where they are the dominant ethnic group together with Chinese Han
people), Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. The other branch of
Uighurs lives in Taoyuan county of Hunan province in Southcentral China.
Uighurs form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the
People's Republic of China.
------------------------------
Juan Juan (wg), Ruanruan (py), Ru Ru (py) or Rouran 柔然 (py) was the
name of a confederacy of nomadic tribes on the northern borders of China
proper from late 4th century until late 6th century. The term Rouran (柔
然) was a Chinese language transcription of the pronunciation of the
name the confederacy used to refer to itself.
------------------------------
According to Theophylaktos Simokattes, Uar, along with the Hunnoi, are
the names associated with the two biggest tribes of "Procopius's White
Huns". They were called Varkhon or Varkunites (Ouarkhonitai) by
Menander, perhaps inspired by the name of the God Vulcan, and settled
Europe in the Balkans and Pannonia. They are supposed to have united
around 460 under the rule of one of the five Yuezhi families - the
Hephthal.
--------------------------------
The Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire was the eastern section of
the Roman Empire, with its capital at Constantinople (modern Istanbul),
which remained in existence after the fall of Rome in the 5th century.
The Byzantine period is usually considered to extend from 395 to 1453.