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Years · 6th century

576

Year of the monkey biçin yıl

6 entries in Eastern steppe, Western steppe, China, Caucasus and Crimea and Byzantium.

Map of the First Göktürk Khaganate around 576: the Göktürk realm across the steppe from the Black Sea, the Utigurs and the Alans to the Khitan, with the court at Ötüken, the Tarim oasis states and the Hephthalite principalities as tributaries, the Kirghiz, Tiele, Shiwei and Mohe at its northern and eastern edges, and beside it the Eastern Roman Empire, Sasanian Persia, the Tuyuhun, the Northern Zhou, the Northern Qi, the Chen and Goguryeo, and between the steppe and China the wall of the Northern Qi and a hatched frontier zone — The First Göktürk Khaganate around 576, the year of Istemi's death: the realm from the Black Sea to the Khitan, with the Tarim oasis states and the Hephthalite principalities as tributaries, beside the Eastern Roman Empire, Sasanian Persia, the Northern Zhou, the Northern Qi and the Chen. Between the steppe and China stand the wall of the Northern Qi (556) and a frontier zone held by neither side. Modern map; the western frontier is inferred and the frontiers are approximate.

Map of the Pontic steppe in 576: the Göktürk Khaganate from the Sea of Azov to the Aral Sea with Bosporos, the Utigurs and the Alans, and the Avars and their sphere west of the Don — c. 576: The Göktürks hold the steppe from the Sea of Azov eastward and take Bosporos. The Utigurs and the Alans stand under them. West of the Don lie the Avars and their sphere. Modern map. The western limits are readings.

Who ruled

Byzantium Justin II 565–578
First Göktürk Khaganate Taspar Khan 572–581
Northern Zhou Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou 560–578
Sasanian Persia Khosrow I 531–579
Western Göktürk Khaganate Istemi 552–576 · Tardush 576–603

And beyond the steppe

China Northern Zhou Emperor Wu 560–578 · Northern Qi Gao Wei 565–577
Iran Sasanian Khosrow I 531–579
Korea Goguryeo Pyeongwon 559–590
Byzantium Justinian Justin II 565–578

Eastern steppe

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

Western steppe

Culture · Sogdian colonists found the first towns of Semirech'e, Suyab and Navaket among them, as estates of nobles (450–600)

Suyab · Sogdians
Istemi dies; his son Tardush succeeds him as yabgu and moves the western seat to Suyab

Istemi · Tardush · Suyab · Western Göktürk Khaganate · Funeral of Istemi (576)

Menander gives no year; the death falls shortly before the embassy of Valentinos, which set out between December 575 and December 576

China

Economy · The Zhou give Taspar a hundred thousand pieces of silk a year and the Qi empty their treasury to match; the surplus goes west with the Sogdians (572–581)

Hegemony Wars in Northern China · Sogdians

Caucasus and Crimea

The embassy of Valentinos is received; Göktürk forces besiege Bosporus in the Crimea

First Göktürk Khaganate · Göktürk Succession Crisis (581) · Istemi · Türk-shad · Tardush · Byzantium · Embassy of Valentinos (576) · Subjugation of the Alans and Onogurs (before 576) · Funeral of Istemi (576)

Byzantium

Some hundred and six Göktürks are resident in Constantinople (575–576)

Istemi