Onogurs

Rouran epoch Göktürk epoch Uyghur epoch Kirghiz epoch

Rouran First Göktürk Tang rule Second Göktürk Uyghur Kirghiz Huns Western Göktürk Türgesh Karluk Khazar

Rouran 400–554
First Göktürk 552–630
Tang rule 630–682
Second Göktürk 682–744
Uyghur 744–840
Kirghiz 840–924
Huns 370–469
Western Göktürk 552–659
Türgesh 699–766
Karluk 766–800
Khazar 650–969

The Onogurs were a steppe people of the country north of the Caucasus and the Sea of Azov. Their name appears first about 463 and was still the name of a bishopric in the eighth century.^[1] By 568 they stood under the hegemony of the Göktürks, together with the Sabirs, the Utigurs and the Ogurs.^[2]

Arrival in the west

About 463 the Saragurs, the Ogurs and the Onogurs sent envoys to the eastern Romans.^[3] Priscus says that the Sabirs had driven them from their seats in a fight. The Abares had expelled the Sabirs in turn.^[4] An Armenian notice of the late fourth century tells of a “Hun” named Honagur who challenged Shapur of Iran.^[5] If the name means the Onogurs, they were within raiding distance of Iran before 463.^[5]

The Sui Shu counts the Enqu and the Alans among the Tiele peoples who lived east of Fulin, the Roman empire. It says that all the Tiele were divided between the eastern and the western Göktürks.^[6] Some scholars see the Onogurs in the Enqu.^[7]

Country and trade

The Onogurs may have settled by the Maeotis, the Sea of Azov, where the geographer of Ravenna still knew a patria Onogoria.^[8] Another proposal places a state named Onogur on the Danube after the fall of the Hunnic empire.^[9] Its name meant “ten tribes”. It took in the Bulgars, the Utigurs and the Kutrigurs.^[9]

Jordanes knew the Hunuguri because the trade in marten skins came from them.^[10] Theophylact records that the Onogurs had once built a city named Bakath. Earthquakes had destroyed it.^[11] The ending of the name is the Sogdian word for a city. It points to Iranian Central Asia.^[5] Agathias knew a place in Lazica called Onoguris, named after Onogurs who had been defeated there.^[5]

Language

Some count the Onogurs, like the Ogurs, among the speakers of an Oguric form of Turkic.^[7] Others grant that their name is Turkic. They regard the Onogurs and the Akatziri as two Ugric peoples and ancestors of the Magyars.^[12] The first group calls the claim that such peoples were Turkicised Ugrians unsubstantiated.^[7]

Under the Göktürks

Maniakh may have crossed the Volga on his journey to Constantinople in 568. His route leads through the lands of the Turkic-speaking Onogurs and Bulgars.^[13] Menander has Maniakh cross the Caucasus on his way to the emperor.^[14] The Onogurs fell, with the Ogurs, first under the Avars and then under the Göktürks.^[5]

In 576 the Göktürk prince Turxanthos warned the Roman envoy Valentinos with the example of the Alans and of a second people.^[14] Both had long trusted in their own strength and set themselves against the Göktürks. Now they obeyed them as slaves.^[14] Dindorf’s text of Menander names that second people the Utigurs.^[15] The passage has also been taken to name the Onogurs instead.^[16] A different suggestion finds the Unigurs there as well. It places their subjection between the embassies of 569 and 576, after a serious fight.^[17]

In the far west, the Onogur and Bulgar elements probably took part in the great Tiele revolt against Göktürk rule at the beginning of the seventh century.^[18] The breakdown of Göktürk power there was one of the conditions for the Bulgar state of Kubrat on the Kuban.^[19]

Onogurs and Bulgars

Later Byzantine writers, Theophanes and Nikephoros among them, join the two names as Onogundur-Bulgars.^[20] Scholars note that there is no direct evidence for when or how the Onogurs, or part of them, joined the Bulgars.^[21] The federation model counts the Bulgars among the ten tribes of the Onogurs.^[22] An episcopal list for Gothia of the mid-eighth century still has a bishopric of the Onogurs.^[20]

Before the seventh century the name stands on its own in every list that gives it. It appears beside the Ogurs, the Saragurs and the Bulgars rather than in place of them.

References

^ Golden 1992, p. 92,102
^ Golden 1992, p. 128
^ Golden 1992, p. 92
^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 30, p. 104
^ a b c d e Golden 1992, p. 101
^ Sui Shu (Book of Sui), juan 84
^ a b c Golden 1992, p. 95
^ Marquart 1903, p. 42-44
^ a b Yavuz 2025, p. 105
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 37, p. 60
^ Theophylact Simocatta; Chavannes 1903, p. 248
^ Marquart 1903, p. 44-45
^ Yavuz 2025, p. 284
^ a b c Menander Protector
^ Menander Protector; Dindorf 1871, p. 87
^ Golden 1992, p. 130
^ Marquart 1903, p. 505
^ Golden 1992, p. 134-135
^ Golden 1992, p. 135
^ a b Golden 1992, p. 102
^ Golden 1992, p. 103
^ Yavuz 2025, p. 137

Sources

Menander Protector
Theophylact Simocatta
Sui Shu (Book of Sui), juan 84
Jordanes (after Priscus and Ammianus Marcellinus)
Priscus

Literature

Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992)
Josef Marquart, Osteuropäische und ostasiatische Streifzüge (1903)
Emre-E. Yavuz, The Gokturk Empire: 2nd Edition (2025)
Édouard Chavannes, Documents sur les Tou-Kiue (Turcs) occidentaux (1903)
Karl Müller (ed.), Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, Bd. IV (darin: Menandri Protectoris fragmenta, griechisch mit lateinischer Übersetzung) (1851)
Ludwig Dindorf (ed.), Historici Graeci minores, Bd. II: Menander Protector et Agathias (1871)
Charles Christopher Mierow, The Gothic History of Jordanes in English Version, with an Introduction and a Commentary (1915)
anonymous, Chronicle of Pseudo-Zachariah Rhetor (ca. 568/569)