Who ruled
- First Göktürk Khaganate Bagha Khan 587–588 · Tulan Khan 588–599
- Sasanian Persia Hormizd IV 579–590
- Western Göktürk Khaganate Tardush 576–603 · Niri Khan 587–603
And beyond the steppe
- China Sui Emperor Wen 581–604
- Iran Sasanian Hormizd IV 579–590
- Korea Goguryeo Pyeongwon 559–590
- Byzantium Justinian Maurice 582–602
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
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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Environment · Drought after natural disasters drives Bagha's army toward the cities of the Oxus
China
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Economy · Frontier markets are opened for the Göktürks; the Sui end the silk payments of the Zhou years
Persia
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Bagha crosses the Oxus, takes Balkh and Herat, is beaten by Bahram Chobin at the Hyrcanian rock in April and, reportedly, killed on the Oxus
Bagha Khan · Šāba · Sasanian Persia · First Göktürk Khaganate · Göktürk–Persian war, 588–589 · Bahram Chobin · Herat · Western Göktürk Khaganate
Also dated 589 (one modern reckoning): The defeat at Herat in 589, of an army led by Tardush's son Šāba, after Tabari and Theophylact.
