Khagan of the Avars

The Pannonian Avars (/ˈævɑːrz/; also known as the Obri in Ruthenian chronicles, the Abaroi or Varchonitai (Varchonites) or Pseudo-Avars in Byzantine sources) were a group of Eurasian nomads of unknown origin during the early Middle Ages. The name Pannonian Avars (after the area in which they eventually settled), is used to distinguish them from the Avars of the Caucasus, a separate people with whom the Pannonian Avars may or may not have been linked.

They established the Avar Khaganate, which spanned the Pannonian Basin and considerable areas of Central and Eastern Europe from the late 6th to the early 9th century.

Although the name Avar first appeared in the mid-5th century, the Pannonian Avars entered the historical scene in the mid-6th century, on the Pontic-Caspian steppe as a people who wished to escape the rule of the Göktürks.

The language or languages spoken by the Avars are now unknown. Classical philologist Samuel Szadeczky-Kardoss states that most of the Avar words used in contemporaneous Latin or Greek texts, appear to have their origins in possibly Mongolian or Turkic languages. Other theories propose a Tungusic origin. According to Szadeczky-Kardoss, many of the titles and ranks used by the Pannonian Avars were also used by the Turks, Proto-Bulgars, Uighurs and/or Mongols, including khagan (or kagan), khan, kapkhan, tudun, tarkhan, and khatun. There is also evidence, however, that ruling and subject clans spoke a variety of languages. Proposals by scholars include Caucasian,Iranian,Tungusic,Hungarian and Turkic. A few scholars suggest that Proto-Slavic became the lingua franca of the Avar Khaganate. Historian Gyula László has speculated that the late 9th century Pannonian Avars spoke a variety of Old Hungarian, thereby forming an Avar-Hungarian continuity with then newly arrived Hungarians; it has been heavily questioned and criticized whether this speculation is true.

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