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Years · 6th century

581

Year of the ox ud yıl

6 entries in Eastern steppe, Western steppe and China.

Map of Asia in 581: the undivided Göktürk Khaganate from the Black Sea to the Khitan with the court at Ötüken, the Tarim oasis states and the Hephthalite principalities as tributaries, beside the Eastern Roman Empire, Sasanian Persia, the Sui, the Chen, the Tuyuhun and Goguryeo, and between the steppe and China the wall of the Northern Qi and a hatched frontier zone — The Göktürk Khaganate in 581, the year of Taspar's death, still undivided from the Black Sea to the Khitan, with the court at Ötüken; beside it the Sui, whose rule began that year, the Chen, Sasanian Persia and the Eastern Roman Empire. Between the steppe and China stand the wall of the Northern Qi (556) and a frontier zone held by neither side. Modern map; the frontiers are approximate.

Who ruled

First Göktürk Khaganate Taspar Khan 572–581 · Amrak 581–582
Sasanian Persia Hormizd IV 579–590
Western Göktürk Khaganate Tardush 576–603

And beyond the steppe

China Northern Zhou Emperor Jing 579–581 · Sui Emperor Wen 581–604
Iran Sasanian Hormizd IV 579–590
Korea Goguryeo Pyeongwon 559–590
Byzantium Justinian Tiberius II 578–582

Eastern steppe

Environment · Extreme weather accompanies the first years of the civil war, by the tree rings (581–583)

The Göktürk Civil War · Göktürk–Persian war, 588–589
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
Taspar dies; the nobility assembles at Ötüken, overrides his wish for Töremen, and elects Amrak

Göktürk Succession Crisis (581) · Taspar Khan · Amrak · Ishbara Khan · Töremen Apa · Toy · Töre · Ötüken

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

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
Yang Jian takes the Zhou throne and founds the Sui; the Zhou court is slaughtered, Empress Ashina spared

Sui · Empress Ashina · Göktürk Succession Crisis (581) · Northern Zhou · Hegemony Wars in Northern China