Avars

Walter Pohl is Professor Emeritus of Medieval History at the University of Vienna, Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America, and was Director of the Institute of Medieval Research at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He is the editor of Medieval Worlds, coeditor of Emerging Powers in Eurasian Comparison, and author of numerous books in German.

Walter Pohl has succeeded in stripping much of this veil of mystery from the Avars.... a heterogeneous group from central Asia who dominated the Byzantine Danube frontier in a complicated relationship that saw raids, wars, trade, and the payment of large annual sums of tribute. In tracing the history of the Avars and the peoples they dominated or fought and traded with, this is an illuminating history of southeast Europe in the early Middle Ages.(Speculum) This volume contains a wealth of information and informed discussion; it will repay careful study by anyone involved in the late Roman and early medieval period, and will remain the standard guide into the foreseeable future.(English Historical Review) Walter Pohl picks his way judiciously though the minefield of primary sources—fragmentary and contradictory—and secondary interpretations of varied value. His solid medievalist training coupled with common sense often balk at the most fanciful interpretations. The documentation assembled by Pohl is impressive; the use he made of it commands respect. Future research on all questions concerning the Avars, henceforth cannot bypass this very important book.(Journal of Asian History) Though the book was first published in German in 1988, this English version includes many revisions and updates and will be the definitive English-language study of the Avar empire for years to come. It will be invaluable for those interested in medieval history or in the impact of nomadic steppe empires on sedentary civilizations.(Choice) The book clearly stands as a monumental starting point of any future research on the Avars. Pohl and Cornell University Press deserve praise for publishing this important work of scholarship in English.(Studies in Late Antiquity) One wonders how it could have taken thirty years for the appearance of this, the first English edition of Walter Pohl's seminal work. But now that it is finally accessible to a much wider readership, it must be made clear that The Avars is more than just a translation.(Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association)

• List of MapsTimelinePreface1. Approaching the Avars1.1. Marginal Europeans?1.2. Sources and Prejudices1.3. Steppe Research and Its Methodological Problems2. The Avar Migration2.1. Constantinople 5582.2. The Empire and the Steppe Peoples2.3. Fugitives from the East2.4. Avars or Pseudo-Avars?2.5. The Advance of the Avars2.6. Byzantium and the Turks2.7. The Discovery of Europe2.8. Decisive Years2.9. 568: A Turning Point3. The New Power, 567–903.1. The First Attack on Sirmium3.2. Between Peace and War3.3. Baian's Alliance with Byzantium3.4. The Conquest of Sirmium3.5. 583/84: Avar Raids and Symbolic Politics3.6. 585/86: Slavic Raids and the Bookolabras Affair3.7. 587: The War in Thrace3.8. The Carpathian Basin in the Later Sixth Century: The Archaeological Evidence3.9. Cultures around Keszthely4. Avars and Slavs4.1. Slavs before the Avars: Perceptions and Origins4.2. The Saint and the Barbarians4.3. Slavic Campaigns and Memories of Avars on the Greek Peninsula4.4. The Obor and His Slavs4.5. Avar Rule and Slavic Expansion4.6. Becoming Slavs5. The Balkan Wars of Maurice, 591–6025.1. Maurice's Campaign and the Date of the Wars5.2. The Avars on the Offensive5.3. 593: Attacks on the Slavs North of the Danube5.4. 594: The Limits of the Slavic War5.5. 595: The Illyrian War5.6. The Avars' Western Policy and the Slavs5.7. 598: Only the Plague Can Stop the Avars5.8. 599: The Khagan under Pressure5.9. 600–602: The End of Imperial Politics on the Danube6. Life and Organization in the Avar Empire6.1. Nomads, Warriors, Steppe Peoples6.2. "Their Life Is War"6.3. The Early Avar Khaganate6.4. The Avars and Byzantium6.5. Avar Gold: Prestige, Gifts, Representation6.6. Logades and Warriors6.7. Forms of Production and Distribution6.8. Exchanges and Their Limits6.9. Religion and Ritual6.10. The Development of Identities in the Avar Empire7. The Seventh Century7.1. Consolidation and New Offensives7.2. The Surprise Attack on the Emperor7.3. 626: The Siege of Constantinople7.4. Samo7.5. Croat Migrations?7.6. Alciocus and Kuvrat7.7. Kuver and Asparukh7.8. Continuity and Cultural Change8. The Century of the Griffin8.1. Ways of Life in Archaeological Evidence8.2. The Hierarchy of the Late Avar State8.3. Limes Certus: The Avars and the West8.4. The Collapse of Avar Power8.5. Why Did the Avars Disappear?8.6. ConclusionAppendix: Amount of Subsidies Paid by Byzantiumto the AvarsAbbreviationsNotesSourcesBibliographyIndex