Avars

Avars, a tribe of Tatar origin, who made their appearance a hundred years later than the Bulgarians, in the countries about the Don, the Caspian Sea, and the Volga. One part of them remained in the Caucasus, another part pressed forward (about 555 A.D.) to the Danube, and settled in Dacia. Here they served in Justinian's army, and assisted the Lombards to overturn the kingdom of the Gepidæ; and, about the end of the 6th century, under the mighty Khan Bajan, they conquered Pannonia. Later, they mastered Dalmatia; made devastating incursions into Germany and Italy; and extended their dominion over the Slavs living on, and northwards from, the Danube, as well as over the Bulgarians as far as the Black Sea. These nations at last rose against them, and in 640 A.D. drove them out of Dalmatia. Confined to Pannonia, they were subdued by Charlemagne, and well-nigh extirpated by the Moravians, so that after 827 they disappear from history. They usually surrounded their settlements with fortifications of stakes driven into the ground, and earth, of which traces, under the name of Avarian Rings, are yet found in the countries formerly occupied by them. The results of recent criticism show that, in all probability, the Avars belonged to the same great Turanian stock as the Huns, and that their original residence was the land lying east of the Tobol, in Siberia.