Skip to content

Years · 7th century

603

Year of the pig toŋuz yıl

4 entries in Eastern steppe and Western steppe.

Map of Asia around 603: the Western Göktürk Khaganate from the Black Sea to the Tian Shan and the Eastern Göktürk Khaganate from the Khangai to the Khitan, the Tarim oasis states and the Hephthalite principalities as tributaries of the west, beside the Eastern Roman Empire, Sasanian Persia, the Sui, the Tuyuhun and Goguryeo, and between the steppe and China the wall of the Northern Qi, Yami's pasture in the Ordos and a hatched frontier zone — The khaganate divided around 603: the Western Göktürk Khaganate from the Black Sea to the Tian Shan and the Eastern Göktürk Khaganate from the Khangai to the Khitan, beside the Sui, now ruling all of China, 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. The Baidao plain belongs to the Göktürks, and the north of the Ordos is Yami's pasture. Modern map; the line between east and west is approximate.

Who ruled

First Göktürk Khaganate Yami Khan 603–609
Western Göktürk Khaganate Tardush 576–603 · Niri Khan 587–603 · Heshana Khan 603–611

And beyond the steppe

China Sui Emperor Wen 581–604
Iran Sasanian Khosrow II 591–628
Korea Goguryeo Yeongyang 590–618
Byzantium Phocas 602–610

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
Environment · Lake Telmen stands 4.8 metres above its present level, a humid phase before the drying that follows (600–700)

Climate and the steppe empires · Orkhon valley
Yami marches into Ötüken with Göktürk and Chinese troops

Yami Khan · Ötüken · Hegemony Wars in Northern China

Western steppe

A Tiele rising drives Tardush into exile, where he dies; the realm is finally divided

Tardush · Tiele · First Göktürk Khaganate · Western Göktürk Khaganate · The Göktürk Civil War · Heshana Khan · Fall of Tardush (603)

One reading has Tardush flee to the Tuyuhun and disappear; a second has him die in exile in northern Tibet