Who ruled
- First Göktürk Khaganate Amrak 581–582 · Ishbara Khan 582–587
- Sasanian Persia Hormizd IV 579–590
- Western Göktürk Khaganate Tardush 576–603
And beyond the steppe
- China Sui Emperor Wen 581–604
- Iran Sasanian Hormizd IV 579–590
- Korea Goguryeo Pyeongwon 559–590
- Byzantium Justinian Tiberius II 578–582 · Maurice 582–602
Eastern steppe
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Environment · Extreme weather accompanies the first years of the civil war, by the tree rings (581–583)
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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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Amrak abdicates in Ishbara's favour; Töremen, as Apa Khan, goes to war, supported by Tardush
Göktürk Succession Crisis (581) · Amrak · Ishbara Khan · Töremen Apa · Tardush
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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The Tarniach and the Kotzager flee from the Göktürks into Europe and join the Avar khan; the Avars gain ten thousand men
Flight of the Tarniach and Kotzager · Avars · Kutrigurs · Revolt of Turum
Also dated 598 (A second reading): The flight belongs to the last years of the century.
China
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Empress Ashina dies at Chang'an, aged thirty-one
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In Ishbara's great invasion of the Sui his army fights a Sui force of two thousand under Daxi Zhangru for three days at Zhoupan
Battle of Zhoupan (582) · Ishbara Khan · Sui · The Göktürk–Sui wars, 582–603
