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The Eurasian Avars were a nomadic people of Eurasia , supposedly of proto- Mongolian Turkic stock, who migrated from eastern Asia 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 . History Avars were driven westward when the Gokturks defeated the Hephthalite s 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 turned against the Eastern Roman Empire which had employed Avar mercenaries to combat attacks from other Steppe tribes. Avars sought new allies and in 626 , the Avars and the Persians besieged but failed to capture Constantinople . Following their defeat at Constantinople the Avars retreated to Pannonia. By the early in the north (later Great Moravia ), and the Balaton Principality in the central parts of Pannonia. 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 . List of Avar Rulers 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. References
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