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117-730: Tokharistan (formed from "Tokhara" and the suffix -stan meaning "place of" in Persian) is an ancient Early Middle Ages name given to the area which was known as Bactria in Ancient Greek sources. By the 6th century CE Tokharistan came under rule of the First Turkic Khaganate , and in the 7th and 8th centuries it was incorporated into the Tang dynasty , administered by the Protectorate General to Pacify

234-684: A Siberian Turkic language directly antecedent to the Orkhon Turkic of the Second Turkic Khaganate , the First Khaganate's early official texts and coins were written in Sogdian . It was the first Turkic state to use the name Türk politically. The Old Turkic script was invented at the first half of the sixth century. The Khaganate collapsed in 603, after a series of conflicts and civil wars which separated

351-787: A Sogdian diplomat, convinced Istämi (also known as Silziboulos in Greek writings ) of the Göktürks to send an embassy directly to the Byzantine Empire's capital Constantinople, which arrived in 568 and offered silk as a gift to emperor Justin II and where they discussed an alliance. In 569 an embassy led by Zemarchus occurred which was well received and likely solidified their alliance for war. Another set of embassies occurred in 575–576 led by Valentine which were received with hostility by Turxanthos due to alleged treachery. They required

468-631: A large Persian force. Tung Yabghu's murder in 630 forced the Göktürks to evacuate Transcaucasia. The Western Turkic Khaganate was modernized through an administrative reform of the Ashina clan (reigned 634–639) and came to be known as the Onoq . The name refers to the "ten arrows" that were granted by the khagan to ten leaders ( shads ) of its two constituent tribal confederations, the Duolu (five churs ) and Nushibi (five irkins ), whose lands were divided by

585-783: A lasting Norse heritage in northernmost Scotland, and it led to the combination of the Picts and Gaels under the House of Alpin , which became the Kingdom of Alba , the predecessor of the Kingdom of Scotland . The Vikings combined with the Gaels of the Hebrides to become the Gall-Gaidel and establish the Kingdom of the Isles . The Merovingians established themselves in the power vacuum of

702-417: A mouldboard, or curved metal ploughshare, and a coulter, a vertical blade in front of the ploughshare. The Romans had used light, wheel-less ploughs with flat iron shares that often proved unequal to the heavy soils of northern Europe. The return to systemic agriculture coincided with the introduction of a new social system called feudalism . This system featured a hierarchy of reciprocal obligations. Each man

819-625: A period of Frankish rule was initiated. The Frankish king Pepin the Short had, by the Donation of Pepin , given the pope the " Papal States " and the territory north of that swath of papally-governed land was ruled primarily by Lombard and Frankish vassals of the Holy Roman Emperor until the rise of the city-states in the 11th and 12th centuries. In the south, a period of chaos began. The Duchy of Benevento maintained its sovereignty in

936-648: A preemptive strike against the Uyghur and Tiele groups planning a revolt against their overlords, the Rouran Khanate . For this service he expected to be rewarded with a Rouran princess, thus marrying into the royal family. However, the Rouran khagan , Yujiulü Anagui , sent an emissary to Bumin to rebuke him, saying, "You are my blacksmith slave. How dare you utter these words?" As Anagui's "blacksmith slave" ( Chinese : 鍛 奴 ; pinyin : duànnú ) comment

1053-470: A retreat of agriculture centred around 500. The Romans had practiced two-field agriculture , with a crop grown in one field and the other left fallow and ploughed under to eliminate weeds. Systematic agriculture largely disappeared and yields declined. It is estimated that the Plague of Justinian which began in 541 and recurred periodically for 150 years thereafter killed as many as 100 million people across

1170-648: A unified cultural and educational milieu of far-ranging connections. As this was lost, it was replaced by the rule of local potentates, sometimes members of the established Romanized ruling elite, sometimes new lords of alien culture. In Aquitania , Gallia Narbonensis , southern Italy and Sicily, Baetica or southern Spain , and the Iberian Mediterranean coast, Roman culture lasted until the 6th or 7th centuries. The gradual breakdown and transformation of economic and social linkages and infrastructure resulted in increasingly localized outlooks. This breakdown

1287-504: A warning ahead, allowing the emperor and empress time to flee to the commandery seat at present-day Daixian in Shanxi . This was besieged by the Turkic army on September 11, 615, but Sui reinforcements and a false report from Princess Yicheng to her husband about a northern attack on the khaganate caused him to lift the siege before its completion. In 626, Illig Qaghan took advantage of

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1404-578: Is the position of Chalcedonian Christianity . Arianism found some favour in the Roman Empire before being eclipsed by the Chalcedonian position and then suppressed as heretical. During the migrations, or Völkerwanderung (wandering of the peoples), the earlier settled populations were sometimes left intact though usually partially or entirely displaced. Roman culture north of the Po River

1521-638: The Black Sea , creating formidable confederations which opposed the local Sarmatians . In Dacia (present-day Romania) and on the steppes north of the Black Sea the Goths , a Germanic people, established at least two kingdoms: Therving and Greuthung . The arrival of the Huns in 372–375 ended the history of these kingdoms. The Huns, a confederation of central Asian tribes, founded an empire. They had mastered

1638-708: The Burgundians and bands of the Alamanni . In the fit of anti-barbarian hysteria which followed, the Western Roman Emperor Honorius had Stilicho summarily beheaded (408). Stilicho submitted his neck, "with a firmness not unworthy of the last of the Roman generals ", wrote Gibbon. Honorius was left with only worthless courtiers to advise him. In 410, the Visigoths led by Alaric I captured

1755-585: The Dnieper . By the 9th century, the Slavs had expanded into sparsely inhabited territories to the south and east from these natural frontiers, peacefully assimilating the indigenous Illyrian and Finnic populations. From the 7th century, Byzantine history was greatly affected by the rise of Islam and the Caliphates . Muslim Arabs first invaded historically Roman territory under Abū Bakr , first Caliph of

1872-675: The Frankish leader Charles Martel at the Battle of Poitiers in 732. The Umayyads were overthrown in 750 by the Abbāsids and most of the Umayyad clan were massacred. A surviving Umayyad prince, Abd-ar-rahman I , escaped to Spain and founded a new Umayyad dynasty in the Emirate of Cordoba in 756. Charles Martel's son Pippin the Short retook Narbonne , and his grandson Charlemagne established

1989-562: The Gothic War (376–382) , the Goths revolted and confronted the main Roman army in the Battle of Adrianople (378). By this time, the distinction in the Roman army between Roman regulars and barbarian auxiliaries had broken down, and the Roman army was composed mainly of barbarians and soldiers recruited for a single campaign. The general decline in discipline also led to the use of smaller shields and lighter weaponry. Not wanting to share

2106-593: The Greek-speaking successor to the classical Roman Empire. The inhabitants continued to regard themselves as Romans, or Romaioi , until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. Despite this, to distinguish it from its predominantly Latin-speaking predecessor, historians began referring to the empire as "Byzantine", after the original name of Constantinople, Byzantium The Eastern Roman or "Byzantine" Empire aimed to retain control of

2223-779: The Hephthalites , who led the embassies to the Southern Liang court in the early 6th century CE. The name of " Tocharians " was mistakenly applied by early 20th century authors to the Indo-European people of the Tarim Basin , from the areas of Kucha and Agni . These scholars erroneously believed that these Indo-Europeans had originated in Tokharistan ( Bactria ), and hence applied the term "Tocharians" to them. This appellation remains in common usage although

2340-736: The Macedonian dynasty in 867 marked the end of the period of political and religious turmoil and introduced a new golden age of the empire. While the talented generals such as Nicephorus Phocas expanded the frontiers, the Macedonian emperors (such as Leo the Wise and Constantine VII ) presided over the cultural flowering in Constantinople, known as the Macedonian Renaissance . The enlightened Macedonian rulers scorned

2457-888: The Marca Hispanica across the Pyrenees in part of what today is Catalonia , reconquering Girona in 785 and Barcelona in 801. The Umayyads in Hispania proclaimed themselves caliphs in 929. Climatic conditions in Western Europe began to improve after 700. In that year, the two major powers in western Europe were the Franks in Gaul and the Lombards in Italy. The Lombards had been thoroughly Romanized, and their kingdom

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2574-632: The Moors (mostly Berbers and some Arabs ) invaded the Christian Visigothic Kingdom in the year 711, under their Berber leader Tariq ibn Ziyad . They landed at Gibraltar on 30 April and worked their way northward. Tariq's forces were joined the next year by those of his superior, Musa ibn Nusair . During the eight-year campaign most of the Iberian Peninsula was brought under Muslim rule—except for small areas in

2691-675: The Oxus . The region used the East Iranian Bactrian language , which was current from the 2nd to the 9th century CE. The most important city of Tokharistan was Balkh , which was at the center of the trade between Iran (the Sasanian Empire ) and India. The region of Tokharistan had been outside of Sasanian control for the three centuries preceding the Muslim conquest of Persia in 633–651 CE. During that time, Tokharistan

2808-610: The Plague of Justinian . The Emperor himself was afflicted, and within the span of less than a year, an estimated 200,000 Constantinopolites—two out of every five city residents—had died of the disease. Justinian's successors Maurice and Heraclius confronted invasions by the Avar and Slavic tribes. After the devastations by the Slavs and the Avars, large areas of the Balkans became depopulated. In 626 Constantinople, by far

2925-636: The Po River had been wiped out in the years after the end of the Western Roman Empire, between the 5th and 8th centuries, new political and social infrastructure began to develop. Much of this was initially Germanic and pagan. Arian Christian missionaries had been spreading Arian Christianity throughout northern Europe, though by 700 the religion of northern Europeans was largely a mix of Germanic paganism , Christianized paganism, and Arian Christianity. Chalcedonian Christianity had barely started to spread in northern Europe by this time. Through

3042-604: The Rashidun Caliphate , who entered Roman Syria and Roman Mesopotamia . The Byzantines and neighbouring Persian Sasanids had been severely weakened by a long succession of Byzantine–Sasanian wars , especially the climactic Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 . Under Umar , the second Caliph, the Muslims decisively conquered Syria and Mesopotamia , as well as Roman Palestine , Roman Egypt , parts of Asia Minor and Roman North Africa , while they entirely toppled

3159-663: The Tang campaigns against Karasahr in 644 and the Tang campaign against Kucha in 648, leading to the 657 conquest of the Western Turks by the Tang general Su Dingfang . Emperor Taizong of Tang was proclaimed Khagan of the Göktürks in 658. The Tang retained a member of the Ashina clan as a puppet khagan of the Türks. In 639, Ashina Jiesheshuai attempted to kill Emperor Taizong of Tang but failed, causing him to relocate

3276-555: The Xuanwu Gate Incident and drove on to Chang'an. On September 23, 626, Illig Qaghan and his iron cavalry reached the bank of the Wei River north of Bian Bridge (in present-day Xianyang , Shaanxi ). On September 25, 626, Tang Taizong allied with Iligh Khan and met with the khan on the border bridge, Tang Taizong accused Iligh Khan of crossing the border, the khan saw that Taizong was imposing, mistakenly thought that

3393-538: The arrival of Christian missionaries in 597 . The Lombards, who first entered Italy in 568 under Alboin , carved out a state in the north, with its capital at Pavia . At first, they were unable to conquer the Exarchate of Ravenna , the Ducatus Romanus , and Calabria and Apulia . The next two hundred years were occupied in trying to conquer these territories from the Byzantine Empire. The Lombard state

3510-745: The 10th to 12th century CE. Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period ), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages , is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Middle Ages of European history , following the decline of the Western Roman Empire , and preceding the High Middle Ages ( c. 11th to 14th centuries). The alternative term late antiquity , for

3627-450: The 6th century, but then lost their trading links. Administrative, educational and military infrastructure quickly vanished, and the loss of the established cursus honorum led to the collapse of the schools and to a rise of illiteracy even among the leadership. The careers of Cassiodorus (died c.  585 ) at the beginning of this period and of Alcuin of York (died 804) at its close were founded alike on their valued literacy. For

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3744-422: The 8th century was out, the Farmer's Law signalled the resurrection of agricultural technologies in the Roman Empire. As the 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica noted, "the technological base of Byzantine society was more advanced than that of contemporary western Europe: iron tools could be found in the villages; water mills dotted the landscape; and field-sown beans provided a diet rich in protein". The ascension of

3861-408: The Anglo-Saxons in the sixth century, with 597 given as the traditional date for its large-scale adoption. Western Britain ( Wales ), eastern and northern Scotland ( Pictland ) and the Scottish highlands and isles continued their separate evolution. The Irish descended and Irish-influenced people of western Scotland were Christian from the fifth century onward, the Picts adopted Christianity in

3978-428: The Chui River. The division fostered the growth of separatist tendencies. Soon, chieftain Kubrat of the Dulo clan , whose relation ship with the Duolu is possible but not proven, seceded from the Khaganate. The Tang dynasty campaigned against the khaganate and its vassals, the oasis states of the Tarim Basin. The Tang campaign against Karakhoja in 640 led to the retreat of the Western Turks, who were defeated during

4095-409: The Early Middle Ages, reducing the sprawling city to groups of inhabited buildings interspersed among large areas of ruins and vegetation. The death of Theodosius I in 395 was followed by the division of the empire between his two sons. The Western Roman Empire disintegrated into a mosaic of warring Germanic kingdoms in the 5th century, effectively making the Eastern Roman Empire in Constantinople

4212-490: The German church, with the result that, within a century, the German church was the strongest church in western Europe. Yet despite this, Charles Martel refused to overthrow the Frankish king. His son, Pepin the Short, inherited his power, and used it to further expand Frankish influence. Unlike his father, however, Pepin decided to seize the Frankish kingship. Given how strongly Frankish culture held to its principle of inheritance, few would support him if he attempted to overthrow

4329-407: The Göktürks into Europe. In 576 the Göktürks crossed the Kerch Strait into the Crimea . Five years later they laid siege to Chersonesus ; their cavalry kept roaming the steppes of Crimea until 590. As for the southern borders, they were drawn south of the Amu Darya , bringing the Ashina into conflict with their former allies, the Sasanian Empire. In 589, the Sasanian Empire attacked and defeated

4446-421: The Hephthalites, who were allies of the Rouran. This war tightened the Ashina clan's grip on the Silk Road . The alliance with China was further reinforced in 568 through the marriage of the Turkic princess Ashina , daughter of Muqan Qaghan, with Emperor Wu of the Xianbei -led Chinese Northern Zhou dynasty . The appearance of the Pannonian Avars in the West has been interpreted as a nomadic faction fleeing

4563-422: The Huihe (Uyghur). On March 27, 630, a Tang army under the command of Li Jing defeated the Eastern Turkic Khaganate under the command of Illig Qaghan at the Battle of Yinshan (陰山之戰 / 阴山之战 ). Illig Qaghan fled to Ishbara Shad, but on May 2, 630 Zhang Baoxiang 's army advanced to Ishbara Shad's headquarters. Illig Qaghan was taken prisoner and sent to Chang'an. The Eastern Turkic Khaganate collapsed and

4680-445: The Indo-European people of the Tarim Basin probably referred to themselves as Agni , Kuči and Krorän . In the Xi'an Stele , erected in 781 CE, the Church of the East monk Adam , author of the stele, mentioned in Syriac that his grandfather was a missionary-priest from Balkh ( Classical Syriac : ܒܠܚ , romanized:  Balḥ ) in Tokharistan ( ܬܚܘܪܝܣܬܢ Taḥuristan ). Geographically, Tokharistan corresponds to

4797-423: The North Atlantic region and increased migration . In the 19th century the Early Middle Ages were often labelled the Dark Ages , a characterization based on the relative scarcity of literary and cultural output from this time. The term is rarely used by academics today. The Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantine Empire , survived, though in the 7th century the Rashidun Caliphate and the Umayyad Caliphate conquered

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4914-428: The Roman Empire, including Rome and the Italian peninsula itself, but he also codified Roman law (with his codification remaining in force in many areas of Europe until the 19th century) and commissioned the building of the largest and most architecturally advanced edifice of the Early Middle Ages, the Hagia Sophia . However, his reign also saw the outbreak of a bubonic plague pandemic , now known retroactively as

5031-428: The Roman empire were a mixture of Roman Christian , Arian Christian , Nestorian Christian , and pagan . The Germanic peoples knew little of cities, money, or writing, and were mostly pagan, though they were increasingly converting to Arianism , a non-trinitarian form of Christianity that considers God the Son to have been created by, and thus inferior to, God the Father, rather than the two being co-eternal , which

5148-439: The Roman military writer Ammianus Marcellinus . The core army of the Eastern Roman Empire was destroyed, Valens was killed, and the Goths were freed to lay waste to the Balkans , including the armories along the Danube. As Edward Gibbon comments, "The Romans, who so coolly and so concisely mention the acts of justice which were exercised by the legions, reserve their compassion and their eloquence for their own sufferings, when

5265-600: The Sasanids. In the mid 7th century, following the Muslim conquest of Persia , Islam penetrated into the Caucasus region, of which parts would later permanently become part of Russia . This expansion of Islam continued under Umar's successors and then the Umayyad Caliphate , which conquered the rest of Mediterranean North Africa and most of the Iberian Peninsula . Over the next centuries Muslim forces were able to take further European territory, including Cyprus , Malta , Septimania , Crete , and Sicily and parts of southern Italy . The Muslim conquest of Hispania began when

5382-419: The Sui capital, around 600, demanding Emperor Yangdi end his interference in the civil war . In retaliation, Sui diplomacy successfully incited a revolt of Tardu's Tiele vassals, which led to the end of Tardu's reign in 603. Among the dissident tribes were the Uyghurs and Xueyantuo . The civil war left the empire divided into eastern and western parts. The eastern part, still ruled from Otukan, remained in

5499-438: The Turks were "slaves" need not be taken literally, but probably represented a form of vassalage, or even unequal alliance. A disappointed Bumin allied with the Western Wei against the Rouran, their common enemy, by marrying Princess Changle . In 552, Bumin defeated Anagui and his forces north of Huaihuang (modern Zhangjiakou , Hebei ). Having excelled both in battle and diplomacy, Bumin declared himself Illig Khagan of

5616-456: The Türks. Much of Bactria (including Balkh ) remained a dependency of the Ashina until the end of the century. The Göktürks played a major role with the Byzantine Empire's relationship with the Persian Sasanian Empire . The first contact is believed to be 563 and relates to the incident in 558 where the slaves of the Turks (the Pannonian Avars ) ran away during their war with the Hephthalites . The second contact occurred when Maniah,

5733-498: The Türks. These khagans were not well respected among their peers and a new group of leaders known as the Turgesh were established by 699. In 657, the Tang emperor could impose indirect rule along the Silk Road as far as modern-day Iran . He installed two khagans to rule the ten arrows (tribes) of Göktürks. Five arrows of Tulu (咄陆) were ruled by khagans bearing the title of Xingxiwang (興昔亡可汗) while five arrows of Nushipi (弩失畢可汗) were ruled by Jiwangjue (繼往絕可汗). Five Tulu corresponded to

5850-400: The West . Today, Tokharistan is fragmented between Afghanistan , Uzbekistan and Tajikistan . Several languages have used variations of the word "Tokhara" to designate the region: Several portraits of ambassadors from the region of Tokharistan are known from the Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang , originally painted in 526–539 CE. They were at that time under the overlordship of

5967-449: The animals. According to the New Book of Tang , in 628, Taizong mentioned that "There has been a frost in midsummer. The sun had risen from same place for five days. The moon had had the same light level for three days. The field was filled with red atmosphere (dust storm)." Illig Qaghan was brought down by a revolt of his Tiele vassal tribes (626–630), allied with Emperor Taizong of Tang. This tribal alliance figures in Chinese records as

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6084-404: The area east of Lake Balkash while five arrows of Nushipi corresponded to the land east of the Aral Sea. Göktürks now carried Chinese titles and fought by their side in their wars. The era spanning from 657 to 699 in the steppes was characterized by numerous rulers – weak, divided, and engaged in constant petty wars under the Anxi Protectorate until the rise of Turgesh. The Second Turkic Khaganate

6201-412: The arrival of the Turks . In painting, there is "Tokharistan school of art" (see Northern Buddhist art ) with examples from Kalai Kafirnigan , Kafyr Kala or Ajina Tepe , as Buddhism and Buddhist art enjoyed a renaissance, possibly owing to the sponsorships and religious tolerance of the Western Turks ( Tokhara Yabghus ). Islamic art developed with the Samanid Empire and the Ghaznavids from

6318-408: The border to be prepared as compensation for the Tang dynasty, which Emperor Taizong did not accept, believing that this was too little. All in all, 67 incursions into China proper were recorded. Before mid-October 627, heavy snows on the Mongolian-Manchurian grassland covered the ground to a depth of several feet, preventing the nomads' livestock from grazing and causing a massive die-off among

6435-409: The characteristic findings of smallpox. Waves of epidemics wiped out large rural populations. Most of the details about the epidemics are lost, probably due to the scarcity of surviving written records. For almost a thousand years, Rome was the most politically important, richest and largest city in Europe. Around 100 AD, it had a population of about 450,000, and declined to a mere 20,000 during

6552-418: The city of Rome and for three days fire and slaughter ensued as bodies filled the streets, palaces were stripped of their valuables, and the invaders interrogated and tortured those citizens thought to have hidden wealth. As newly converted Christians, the Goths respected church property, but those who found sanctuary in the Vatican and in other churches were the fortunate few. The Goths and Vandals were only

6669-426: The culture and the imperial traditions of the Eastern Roman Empire attracted its northern neighbours—Slavs, Bulgars, and Khazars—to Constantinople , in search of either pillage or enlightenment. The movement of the Germanic tribes to the south triggered the great migration of the Slavs , who occupied the vacated territories. In the 7th century, they moved westward to the Elbe , southward to the Danube and eastward to

6786-439: The culture of the newcomers, their warband loyalties, the remnants of classical culture, and Christian influences, produced a new model for society, based in part on feudal obligations . The centralized administrative systems of the Romans did not withstand the changes, and the institutional support for chattel slavery largely disappeared. The Anglo-Saxons in England had also started to convert from Anglo-Saxon polytheism after

6903-410: The current goals of the Byzantine Empire (who correspondingly lacked trust in the Turks as partners). When the fourth ruler of the khaganate, Taspar Qaghan , died in 581, the realm split in two over the succession. He had willed the title of khagan to Muqan's son Apa Qaghan , but the high council appointed Ishbara Qaghan instead. Factions formed around both leaders. Before long, four rivals claimed

7020-446: The decisive victory at Ongala in 680 the armies of the Bulgars and Slavs advanced to the south of the Balkan mountains, defeating again the Byzantines who were then forced to sign a humiliating peace treaty which acknowledged the establishment of the First Bulgarian Empire on the borders of the Empire. To counter these threats a new system of administration was introduced. The regional civil and military administration were combined in

7137-431: The difficult art of shooting composite recurve bows from horseback. The Goths sought refuge in Roman territory (376), agreeing to enter the Empire as unarmed settlers. However many bribed the Danube border-guards into allowing them to bring their weapons. The discipline and organization of a Roman legion made it a superb fighting unit. The Romans preferred infantry to cavalry because infantry could be trained to retain

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7254-401: The early part of the period, emphasizes elements of continuity with the Roman Empire , while Early Middle Ages is used to emphasize developments characteristic of the earlier medieval period. The period saw a continuation of trends evident since late classical antiquity , including population decline , especially in urban centres, a decline of trade, a small rise in average temperatures in

7371-418: The effect of weakening the power of the king as his kingdom grew, since the result was that the land became controlled not just by more princes and vassals, but by multiple layers of vassals. This also allowed his nobles to attempt to build their own power base, though given the strict salic tradition of hereditary kingship, few would ever consider overthrowing the king. This increasingly fragmented arrangement

7488-490: The end of the century. Roman Britain was in a state of political and economic collapse at the time of the Roman departure c. 400. A series of settlements (traditionally referred to as an invasion) by Germanic peoples began in the early fifth century, and by the sixth century the island would consist of many small kingdoms engaged in ongoing warfare with each other. The Germanic kingdoms are now collectively referred to as Anglo-Saxons . Christianity began to take hold among

7605-401: The face of the pretensions of both the Western and Eastern Empires. In the 9th century, the Muslims conquered Sicily . The cities on the Tyrrhenian Sea departed from Byzantine allegiance. Various states owing various nominal allegiances fought constantly over territory until events came to a head in the early 11th century with the coming of the Normans , who conquered the whole of the south by

7722-406: The figures in the Dilberjin Tepe or Balalyk Tepe paintings are characteristic of the Hephthalites (450–570 CE). In this context, parallels have been drawn with the figures from Kizil Caves in Chinese Turkestan , which seem to wear broadly similar clothing. The paintings of Balalyk Tepe would be characteristic of the court life of the Hephthalites in the first half of the 6th century CE, before

7839-400: The first of many bands of peoples that flooded Western Europe in the absence of administrative governance. Some lived only for war and pillage and disdained Roman ways. Other peoples had been in prolonged contact with the Roman civilization, and were, to a certain degree, romanized. "A poor Roman plays the Goth, a rich Goth the Roman," said King Theoderic of the Ostrogoths. The subjects of

7956-429: The first. Estimates of the population of the Roman Empire during the period from 150 to 400 suggest a fall from 65 million to 50 million, a decline of more than 20 percent. Some scholars have connected this de-population to the Dark Ages Cold Period (300–700), when a decrease in global temperatures impaired agricultural yields. Early in the 3rd century Germanic peoples migrated south from Scandinavia and reached

8073-471: The formation in combat, while cavalry tended to scatter when faced with opposition. While a barbarian army could be raised and inspired by the promise of plunder, the legions required a central government and taxation to pay for salaries, constant training, equipment, and food. The decline in agricultural and economic activity reduced the empire's taxable income and thus its ability to maintain a professional army to defend itself from external threats. In

8190-437: The former Roman provinces in Gaul, and Clovis I converted to Christianity following his victory over the Alemanni at the Battle of Tolbiac (496), laying the foundation of the Frankish Empire , the dominant state of early medieval Western Christendom . The Frankish kingdom grew through a complex development of conquest, patronage, and alliance building. Due to salic custom , inheritance rights were absolute, and all land

8307-419: The formerly Roman area, there was another 20 per cent decline in population between 400 and 600, or a one-third decline for 150–600. In the 8th century, the volume of trade reached its lowest level. The very small number of shipwrecks found that dated from the 8th century supports this (which represents less than 2 per cent of the number of shipwrecks dated from the 1st century). There was also reforestation and

8424-595: The glory, Eastern Emperor Valens ordered an attack on the Therving infantry under Fritigern without waiting for Western Emperor Gratian , who was on the way with reinforcements. While the Romans were fully engaged, the Greuthung cavalry arrived. Only one-third of the Roman army managed to escape. This represented the most shattering defeat that the Romans had suffered since the Battle of Cannae (216 BC), according to

8541-473: The hands of a general, or strategos. A theme , which formerly denoted a subdivision of the Byzantine army, came to refer to a region governed by a strategos. The reform led to the emergence of great landed families which controlled the regional military and often pressed their claims to the throne (see Bardas Phocas and Bardas Sklerus for characteristic examples). By the early 8th century, notwithstanding

8658-455: The heavy plough. Barbarian migration stabilized in much of Europe , although the Viking expansion greatly affected Northern Europe . Starting in the 2nd century, various indicators of Roman civilization began to decline, including urbanization , seaborne commerce, and population. Archaeologists have identified only 40 percent as many Mediterranean shipwrecks from the 3rd century as from

8775-668: The king. Instead, he sought the assistance of Pope Zachary , who was himself newly vulnerable due to fallout with the Byzantine Emperor over the Iconoclastic Controversy . Pepin agreed to support the pope and to give him land (the Donation of Pepin , which created the Papal States ) in exchange for being consecrated as the new Frankish king. Given that Pepin's claim to the kingship was now based on an authority higher than Frankish custom, no resistance

8892-509: The largest city of early medieval Europe, withstood a combined siege by Avars and Persians. Within several decades, Heraclius completed a holy war against the Persians, taking their capital and having a Sassanid monarch assassinated. Yet Heraclius lived to see his spectacular success undone by the Muslim conquests of Syria , three Palaestina provinces , Egypt , and North Africa which was considerably facilitated by religious disunity and

9009-710: The last king of a united empire, Charles the Fat , died in 887, which resulted in a permanent split of the empire into West Francia and East Francia . West Francia would be ruled by Carolingians until 987 and East Francia until 911, after which time the partition of the empire into France and Germany was complete. Around 800 there was a return to systematic agriculture in the form of the open field , or strip, system. A manor would have several fields, each subdivided into 1-acre (4,000 m ) strips of land. An acre measured one "furlong" of 220 yards by one "chain" of 22 yards (that is, about 200 m by 20 m). A furlong (from "furrow long")

9126-589: The leadership of Alfred the Great and his descendants, Wessex would at first survive, then coexist with, and eventually conquer the Danes. It would then establish the Kingdom of England and rule until the establishment of an Anglo-Danish kingdom under Cnut , and then again until the Norman Invasion of 1066. Viking raids and invasion were no less dramatic for the north. Their defeat of the Picts in 839 led to

9243-496: The members of the Byzantine delegation at the funeral of Istämi to lacerate their faces to humiliate them. The subsequent hostility shown by the new ruler Tardu would be matched in Byzantine writings. With the insults reflecting a breakdown of the alliance, the likely cause is that the anger was due to the Turks not having their expectations met from their agreements and realising they were being used when they no longer aligned with

9360-598: The new khanate at Otukan , but died only months later. His son, Muqan Qaghan , defeated the Hephthalite Empire . Bumin's brother Istämi (d. 576) bore the title " Yabgu of the West". This western branch of the Ashina clan was de facto independent while the eastern khagan was formally recognized as the senior. In 557, Istämi forged an alliance with the Sassanid Empire of Iran to defeat and destroy

9477-620: The ninth century under the descendants of Merfyn Frych of Gwynedd , establishing a hierarchy that would last until the Norman invasion of Wales in 1081. The first Viking raids on Britain began before 800, increasing in scope and destructiveness over time. In 865 a large, well-organized Danish Viking army (called the Great Heathen Army ) attempted a conquest, breaking or diminishing Anglo-Saxon power everywhere but in Wessex. Under

9594-571: The north-northwest ( Asturias ) and largely Basque regions in the Pyrenees . This territory, under the Arab name Al-Andalus , became part of the expanding Umayyad empire. The unsuccessful second siege of Constantinople (717) weakened the Umayyad dynasty and reduced their prestige. After their success in overrunning Iberia, the conquerors moved northeast across the Pyrenees. They were defeated by

9711-573: The orbit of the Sui and retained the name Göktürk. The Shibi Khan (609–619) and Illig Qaghan (620–630) attacked the Central Plain at its weakest moment during the transition between the Sui and Tang . Shibi Khan's surprise attack against Yanmen Commandery during an imperial tour of the northern frontier almost captured Emperor Yang , but his ethnic Han wife Princess Yicheng—who had been well treated by Empress Xiao during an earlier visit—sent

9828-445: The ox by the horse after the introduction of the padded horse collar in the 12th century. Because the system required a major rearrangement of real estate and of the social order, it took until the 11th century before it came into general use. The heavy wheeled plough was introduced in the late 10th century. It required greater animal power and promoted the use of teams of oxen. Illuminated manuscripts depict two-wheeled ploughs with both

9945-704: The period roughly between the late 8th and mid-11th centuries in Scandinavia and Britain , following the Germanic Iron Age (and the Vendel Age in Sweden). During this period, the Vikings , Scandinavian warriors and traders raided and explored most parts of Europe , south-western Asia , northern Africa , and north-eastern North America . First Turkic Khaganate Although the Göktürks spoke

10062-826: The polity into the Eastern Turkic Khaganate and Western Turkic Khaganate . The Tang China conquered the Eastern Turkic Khaganate in 630 and the Western Turkic Khaganate in 657 in a series of military campaigns. The Second Turkic Khaganate emerged in 682 and lasted until 744, when it was overthrown by the Uyghur Khaganate . The origins of the Turkic Khanate trace back to 546, when Bumin Qaghan made

10179-664: The practice of simony , local princes typically auctioned off ecclesiastical offices, causing priests and bishops to function as though they were yet another noble under the patronage of the prince. In contrast, a network of monasteries had sprung up as monks sought separation from the world. These monasteries remained independent from local princes, and as such constituted the "church" for most northern Europeans during this time. Being independent from local princes, they increasingly stood out as centres of learning, of scholarship, and as religious centres where individuals could receive spiritual or monetary assistance. The interaction between

10296-516: The proliferation of heretical movements (notably Monophysitism and Nestorianism ) in the areas converted to Islam. Although Heraclius's successors managed to salvage Constantinople from two Arab sieges (in 674–77 and 717), the empire of the 8th and early 9th century was rocked by the great Iconoclastic Controversy , punctuated by dynastic struggles between various factions at court. The Bulgar and Slavic tribes profited from these disorders and invaded Illyria , Thrace and even Greece . After

10413-402: The provinces were invaded and desolated by the arms of the successful Barbarians." The empire lacked the resources, and perhaps the will, to reconstruct the professional mobile army destroyed at Adrianople, so it had to rely on barbarian armies to fight for it. The Eastern Roman Empire succeeded in buying off the Goths with tribute. The Western Roman Empire proved less fortunate. Stilicho ,

10530-648: The reinforcements of the Tang Dynasty had arrived, plus two years ago, he had seen Li Shimin, who was still the crown prince at that time, in Binzhou (彬州), and was asked to duel. The khan was afraid and agreed to retreat in an alliance, which is called the Weishui Alliance (渭水之盟) or the Alliance of Bian Qiao (便橋會盟 / 便桥会盟). On the third day after the meeting, the khan sent 3,000 horses and 10,000 sheep to

10647-483: The rulers of Western Europe as illiterate barbarians and maintained a nominal claim to rule over the West. Although this fiction had been exploded with the coronation of Charlemagne in Rome (800), the Byzantine rulers did not treat their Western counterparts as equals. Generally, they had little interest in political and economic developments in the barbarian (from their point of view) West. Against this economic background

10764-423: The shrinking territory of the empire, Constantinople remained the largest and the wealthiest city west of China , comparable only to Sassanid Ctesiphon , and later Abbasid Baghdad . The population of the imperial capital fluctuated between 300,000 and 400,000 as the emperors undertook measures to restrain its growth. The only other large Christian cities were Rome (50,000) and Thessalonica (30,000). Even before

10881-489: The sixth century under the influence of Columba , and the Welsh had been Christian since the Roman era. The Kingdom of Northumbria was the pre-eminent power c. 600–700, absorbing several weaker Anglo-Saxon and Brythonic kingdoms, while Mercia held a similar status c. 700–800. Wessex would absorb all of the kingdoms in the south, both Anglo-Saxon and Briton. In Wales consolidation of power would not begin until

10998-422: The southern part of the Roman territory. Many of the listed trends reversed later in the period. In 800, the title of Emperor was revived in Western Europe with Charlemagne , whose Carolingian Empire greatly affected later European social structure and history. Europe experienced a return to systematic agriculture in the form of the feudal system , which adopted such innovations as three-field planting and

11115-412: The third was fallow. Compared to the earlier two-field system, a three-field system allowed for significantly more land to be put under cultivation. Even more important, the system allowed for two harvests a year, reducing the risk that a single crop failure will lead to famine. Three-field agriculture created a surplus of oats that could be used to feed horses. This surplus allowed for the replacement of

11232-586: The title. They were successfully played off against each other by the Sui and Tang dynasties. Istämi's son, Tardu the leader of the western Türks, made a bid for total independence. He now seized the title and led an army east to claim the seat of imperial power, Otukan. In order to buttress his position, Ishbara of the Eastern Khaganate, acknowledged the suzerainty of Emperor Yang of Sui in order to seek their protection. Tardu attacked Chang'an ,

11349-706: The trade routes between Europe and the Orient, which made the Empire the richest polity in Medieval Europe. Making use of their sophisticated warfare and superior diplomacy, the Byzantines managed to fend off assaults by the migrating barbarians. Their dreams of subduing the Western potentates briefly materialized during the reign of Justinian I in 527–565. Not only did Justinian restore some western territories to

11466-575: The upper Oxus valley, between the mountain ranges of the Hindu-Kush to the south and the Pamir-Alay to the north. The area reaches west as far as the Badakshan mountains, south as far as Bamiyan . Arab sources considered Kabul as part of the southern border of Tokharistan, and Shaganiyan as part of its northern border. In a narrow sense, Tokharistan may only refer to the region south of

11583-585: The western empire's half-Vandal military commander, stripped the Rhine frontier of troops to fend off invasions of Italy by the Visigoths in 402–03 and by other Goths in 406–07. Fleeing before the advance of the Huns , the Vandals , Suebi , and Alans launched an attack across the frozen Rhine near Mainz ; on 31 December 406, the frontier gave way and these tribes surged into Roman Gaul . There soon followed

11700-505: The westward expansion of the Göktürks, although the specifics are a matter of irreconcilable debate given the lack of clear sources and chronology. Rene Grousset links the Avars with the downfall of the Hephthalites rather than the Rouran, while Denis Sinor argues that Rouran-Avar identification is "repeated from article to article, from book to book with no shred of evidence to support it". Istämi's policy of western expansion brought

11817-592: The world. Some historians such as Josiah C. Russell (1958) have suggested a total European population loss of 50 to 60 per cent between 541 and 700. After the year 750, major epidemic diseases did not appear again in Europe until the Black Death of the 14th century. The disease smallpox , which was eradicated in the late 20th century, did not definitively enter Western Europe until about 581 when Bishop Gregory of Tours provided an eyewitness account that describes

11934-690: Was Suyab in the Chu River valley, about 6 km south east of modern Tokmok . In 627 Tung Yabghu, assisted by the Khazars and Emperor Heraclius , launched a massive invasion of Transcaucasia which culminated in the taking of Derbent and Tbilisi (see the Third Perso-Turkic War for details). In April 630 Tung's deputy Böri Shad sent the Göktürk cavalry to invade Armenia , where his general Chorpan Tarkhan succeeded in routing

12051-402: Was divided equally among the sons of a dead land holder. This meant that, when the king granted a prince land in reward for service, that prince and all of his descendants had an irrevocable right to that land that no future king could undo. Likewise, those princes (and their sons) could sublet their land to their own vassals, who could in turn sublet the land to lower sub-vassals. This all had

12168-805: Was almost entirely displaced by the migrations. Whereas the peoples of France, Italy, Spain and Portugal continued to speak the dialects of Vulgar Latin that today constitute the Romance languages , the language of the smaller Roman-era population of what is now England disappeared with barely a trace in the territories settled by the Anglo-Saxons, although the Brittanic kingdoms of the west remained Brythonic speakers. The new peoples greatly altered established society, including law, culture, religion, and patterns of property ownership. The pax Romana had provided safe conditions for trade and manufacture, and

12285-627: Was bound to serve his superior in return for the latter's protection. This made for confusion of territorial sovereignty since allegiances were subject to change over time and were sometimes mutually contradictory. Feudalism allowed the state to provide a degree of public safety despite the continued absence of bureaucracy and written records. Manors became largely self-sufficient, and the volume of trade along long-distance routes and in market towns declined during this period, though never ceased entirely. Roman roads decayed and long-distance trade depended more heavily on water transport. The Viking Age spans

12402-489: Was composed in poor Latin in 643: the Edictum Rothari . It was primarily the codification of the oral legal tradition of the people. The Lombard state was well-organized and stabilized by the end of the long reign of Liutprand (717–744), but its collapse was sudden. Unsupported by the dukes, King Desiderius was defeated and forced to surrender his kingdom to Charlemagne in 774. The Lombard kingdom ended and

12519-421: Was considered to be the distance an ox could plough before taking a rest; the strip shape of the acre field also reflected the difficulty in turning early heavy ploughs. In the idealized form of the system, each family got thirty such strips of land. The three-field system of crop rotation was first developed in the 9th century: wheat or rye was planted in one field, the second field had a nitrogen-fixing crop, and

12636-418: Was crowned "Roman Emperor" by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day, 800. Upon Charlemagne's death, his empire had united much of modern-day France, western Germany and northern Italy. The years after his death illustrated how Germanic his empire remained. Rather than an orderly succession, his empire was divided in accordance with Frankish inheritance custom, which resulted in instability that plagued his empire until

12753-564: Was founded by Ilterish Qaghan after rebelling against the Tang in 681. The population of the First Turkic Khaganate displayed genetic heterogeneity. Türk remains analysed displayed on average c. 62% Ancient Northeast Asian , c. 27% Western Steppe Herders , and c. 11% BMAC -associated ancestry. A sample belonging to the Ashina tribe , the ruling clan of the Göktürks, was found to be nearly entirely derived from Ancient Northeast Asians (96-98%) and also displayed affinity for

12870-526: Was highlighted by Charles Martel , who as Mayor of the Palace was effectively the strongest prince in the kingdom. His accomplishments were highlighted, not just by his famous defeat of invading Muslims at the Battle of Tours , which is typically considered the battle that saved Europe from Muslim conquest, but by the fact that he greatly expanded Frankish influence. It was under his patronage that Boniface expanded Frankish influence into Germany by rebuilding

12987-631: Was incorporated into the Jimi system of Tang. Emperor Taizong said, "It's enough for me to compensate my dishonor at Wei River." The Western khagan Sheguy and Tong Yabghu Qaghan constructed an alliance with the Byzantine Empire against the Sasanian Empire and defeated the Sasanians in 628, successfully restoring the southern borders along the Tarim and Amu Darya rivers. Their capital

13104-750: Was offered to Pepin. With this, the Merovingian line of kings ended, and the Carolingian line began. Pepin's son Charlemagne continued in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. He further expanded and consolidated the Frankish kingdom (now commonly called the Carolingian Empire ). His reign also saw a cultural rebirth, commonly called the Carolingian Renaissance . Though the exact reasons are unclear, Charlemagne

13221-474: Was often fast and dramatic as it became unsafe to travel or carry goods over any distance; there was a consequent collapse in trade and manufacture for export. Major industries that depended on trade, such as large-scale pottery manufacture, vanished almost overnight in places like Britain. Tintagel in Cornwall , as well as several other centres, managed to obtain supplies of Mediterranean luxury goods well into

13338-461: Was recorded in Chinese chronicles, some claim that the Göktürks were indeed blacksmith servants for the Rouran elite, and that "blacksmith slavery" may have indicated a form of vassalage within Rouran society. According to Denis Sinor , this reference indicates that the Türks specialized in metallurgy, although it is unclear if they were miners or, indeed, blacksmiths. Whatever the case, that

13455-652: Was relatively Romanized, at least when compared to the Germanic kingdoms in northern Europe. It was highly decentralized at first, with the territorial dukes having practical sovereignty in their duchies, especially in the southern duchies of Spoleto and Benevento . For a decade following the death of Cleph in 575, the Lombards did not even elect a king; this period is called the Rule of the Dukes . The first written legal code

13572-516: Was stable and well developed. The Franks, in contrast, were barely any different from their barbarian Germanic ancestors. The Kingdom of the Franks was weak and divided. Impossible to guess at the time, but by the end of the century, the Lombardic kingdom would be extinct, while the Frankish kingdom would have nearly reassembled the Western Roman Empire. Though much of Roman civilization north of

13689-715: Was under the rule of dynasties of Hunnish or Turkic origin, such as the Kidarites , the Alchon Huns and the Hephthalites . At the time of the Arab conquest, Tokharistan was under the control of the Western Turks , through the Tokhara Yabghus . Numerous artefacts exist from the art of early medieval Tokharistan, which shows influence from the Buddhist art of Gandhara. Many authors have suggested that

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