Who ruled
- First Göktürk Khaganate Mukan Khan 553–572
- Northern Zhou Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou 560–578
- Sasanian Persia Khosrow I 531–579
- Western Göktürk Khaganate Istemi 552–576
And beyond the steppe
- China Northern Zhou Emperor Ming 557–560 · Northern Qi Emperor Fei 559–560 · Emperor Xiaozhao 560–561 · Northern Zhou Emperor Wu 560–578
- Iran Sasanian Khosrow I 531–579
- Korea Goguryeo Pyeongwon 559–590
- Byzantium Justinian Justinian I 527–565
Eastern steppe
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Environment · Late Antique Little Ice Age: the cold phase the Altai tree rings define from 536 to about 660 (536–660)
Climate and the steppe empires · First Göktürk Khaganate · Avars
The coldest decade in the Altai is the 540s
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Mukan drives the Khitan off to the east and annexes the Qigu, the Kirghiz, in the north
Mukan's Eastern and Northern Wars · Mukan Khan · Khitan · Yenisei Kirghiz
The Zhou Shu gives no year; one reckoning puts the annexation of the Kirghiz about 560
Western steppe
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Culture · Sogdian colonists found the first towns of Semirech'e, Suyab and Navaket among them, as estates of nobles (450–600)
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Technology · New canal irrigation spreads through the Chach oasis and the towns grow with it, in the decades in which the Göktürk empire sets a tudun over Chach from Otrar
The literature gives the sixth century, not a year; 560 stands for it
Tarim and Sogdiana
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Istemi takes Bukhara; the Hephthalite realm is destroyed in concert with Khosrow I
Battle of Bukhara · Istemi · Hephthalites · Bukhara · Khosrow I · Sogdiana
Also dated 557 (one modern reckoning): A second reckoning sets the end between 563 and 567; the fall is dated about 560 here.
Persia
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Istemi meets Khosrow at Gurgan; the border fixed along the Oxus; Faganish surrendered; a daughter of Istemi married to Khosrow
