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Years · 7th century

627

Year of the pig toŋuz yıl

8 entries in Eastern steppe, Western steppe, China and Caucasus and Crimea.

Map of Eurasia in 627: the western Göktürk khaganate under Tong Yabgu from the Caucasus to the Tarim, the march of Jebu Xak'an through Derbent to Tiflis and of Heraclius to the siege of Tiflis, the eastern Göktürk khaganate under Ilig Khan with the revolt of the Tiele, the Tang, Tibet, Sasanian Persia and Byzantium — 627: In the west Tong Yabgu's army breaks through Derbent, and before Tiflis Jebu Xak'an meets the emperor Heraclius. In the east the Tiele rise against Ilig Khan, and a great snow kills the herds of his people. Modern map; the borders in the steppe are approximate.

Who ruled

Byzantium Heraclius 610–641
First Göktürk Khaganate Ilig Khan 620–630 · Töles Khan 620–630
Western Göktürk Khaganate Tong Yabgu 618–630

And beyond the steppe

China Tang Taizong 626–649
Iran Sasanian Khosrow II 591–628
Korea Goguryeo Yeongnyu 618–642
Byzantium Heraclian Heraclius 610–641

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
The Xueyantuo, the Uyghurs and the Bayirku rise against Ilig and drive off his Yugu Shad; Töles, sent against them, loses his army

Revolt of the Tiele (627) · Ilig Khan · Töles Khan · Xueyantuo Khaganate (Syr Tardush)

Also dated 626 (Cefu yuangui): The rising stands under the ninth year of Wude.

Western steppe

Tong Yabgu sends a gold belt and five thousand horses to fetch the princess; Ilig threatens to stop her on his road

Tong Yabgu · Ilig Khan · Western Göktürk Khaganate
The Karluks revolt against Tong Yabgu

Karluk · Tong Yabgu · Western Göktürk Khaganate

China

Economy · The Tang cavalry grows from five thousand horses to more than seven hundred thousand, supplied by the Göktürks (618–650)

Sogdians
A great snow, several feet on level ground, kills the Göktürk herds; the people starve

Ilig Khan · Climate and the steppe empires · The great snow of 627

Caucasus and Crimea

Börü Shad appears before Derbent with forty thousand men; Tong Yabgu meets Heraclius before Tiflis, which the allies take and sack after Nineveh

Tong Yabgu · Börü Shad · Derbent · Tiflis · Shad · Byzantium · Sasanian Persia · Khazar Khaganate · Western Göktürk Khaganate · The Caucasus campaign, 627–629 · Heraclius · Meeting of Heraclius and Ziebel (627) · Siege of Tiflis (627–629)

Also dated 626 (one modern reckoning): The meeting before Tiflis in 626, from Theophanes, whose years here run one too early. Also dated 628 (Movses Dasxuranci): The khan arrives in the thirty-eighth year of Khosrow, the year of his murder.

In Theophanes the forty thousand are the men Ziebel hands to Heraclius for the march into Persia; in the Armenian history the city falls in a second siege, without the emperor