page_title: Rouran Khaganate
section_title: Avars
hierarchical_section_title: Rouran Khaganate / History / Avars
caption_attribution_description: English: Locator map of the Rouran Empire, c. 500. (Partially based on Atlas of World History (2007) - The World 250-500, map)
context_page_description: The Rouran Khaganate, was a tribal confederation and later state founded by a people of Proto-Mongolic Donghu origin. The Rouran supreme rulers are noted for being the first to use the title of "khagan", having borrowed this popular title from the Xianbei. The Rouran Khaganate lasted from the late 4th century until the middle 6th century, when they were defeated by a Göktürk rebellion which subsequently led to the rise of the Turks in world history.
  Their Khaganate overthrown, some Rouran remnants possibly became Tatars while others migrated west and became the Pannonian Avars, who settled in Pannonia during the 6th century. However, this Rouran-Avars link remains a controversial theory. The Avars were pursued into the Byzantine Empire by the Göktürks, who referred to the Avars as a slave or vassal people, and requested that the Byzantines expel them. Other theories instead link the origins of the Pannonian Avars to peoples such as the Uar.
context_section_description: Some scholars claim that the Rouran then fled west across the steppes and became the Avars, though many other scholars contest this claim. The remainder of the Rouran fled into China, were absorbed into the border guards, and disappeared forever as an entity. The last khagan fled to the court of the Western Wei, but at the demand of the Göktürks, Western Wei executed him and the nobles who accompanied him.
caption: The Rouran Khaganate, c. 500
exif: {}