Who ruled
- Byzantium Heraclius 610–641
- First Göktürk Khaganate Ilig Khan 620–630 · Töles Khan 620–630
- Western Göktürk Khaganate Tong Yabgu 618–630 · Baghatur Khan 628–630 · Si Yabgu Khan 628–632
- Xueyantuo Khaganate (Syr Tardush) Yinan Khan 628–645
And beyond the steppe
- China Tang Taizong 626–649
- Iran Sasanian Ardashir III 628–630
- 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)
-
Töles Khan, flogged by Ilig in 627 and refused troops since, leads his people over to the Tang
Töles Khan · Ilig Khan · Tang conquest of the eastern Khaganate, 626–630 · Defection of Töles (628)
The Jiu Tang Shu sets the crossing in the twelfth month of the third year of Zhenguan; one reading dates the submission to 21 April 628
-
December · Tang cavalry strike the Göktürks in winter
Ilig Khan · Töles Khan · Tang · Hegemony Wars in Northern China
The Jiu Tang Shu has the decree to Li Jing in 629 and the night attack on Dingxiang in the first month of 630
Western steppe
-
Culture · The pilgrim Xuanzang visits Tong Yabgu's court at Suyab
Suyab · Tong Yabgu · Life of Xuanzang · Record of the Western Regions · Xuanzang's visit to Tong Yabgu
Also dated 628 (one modern reckoning): Xuanzang set out in the autumn of 627 and met the khan a year before the murder of 628.
Huili's life of the pilgrim sets his departure in the eighth month of 629; the audience fell in the following winter
China
-
Economy · The Tang cavalry grows from five thousand horses to more than seven hundred thousand, supplied by the Göktürks (618–650)
