The Ancient Turkic-Roman Alliance | Göktürks & Byzantium (568-630)

May 29th, 1453. Mehmed the second of the Ottoman Empire has conquered Constantinople, the city of world’s desire. The Eastern Roman Empire is in ruins. Its emperor is missing in action, presumably dead. And the Turks have cemented their legacy as the dominant power in the region, with two hundred more years of conquest laying ahead of them. Generally, this event is regarded as a turning point in history, and the peak of Graeco-Turkic relations. But nearly one thousand years earlier, the situation was massively different. In those ancient times, the Greeks and Turks did not fight each other, they fought side by side.
Preceding the establishment of the Ottoman Empire in Bithynia, before the Seljuks invaded Anatolia, and even long before the Khazars fought alongside Roman armies against the invading Arabs, a mighty Turkic Empire was actively negotiating with the Romans in Constantinople: the Göktürk Empire. The first transcontinental stepp empire ever, it was also the first state to actively carry the name “Türk”. These “Celestial” Turks ruled supreme over the entire Eurasian Steppe Belt in the 6th and 7th centuries. As they reached the Eurasian frontier to the west, an incident with the Sassanian Persians led their leader, Istemi, to initiate diplomatic relations with the faraway Eastern Romans in Constantinople. A few decades, envoys and treaties later, the Göktürks and the Romans were fighting side by side against Persia - and eventually rode to victory.
This Turko-Roman alliance of Late Antiquity is well documented in several sources, but has been neglected in academia and practically hidden from the public. The time has come to unravel early Turko-Roman relations once and for all, and analyze both the circumstances, characteristics and legacy of this unlikely alliance.
Listen to the Podcast-version, narrated by myself, here: • The Turko-Roman War Ag...
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Chapters:
00:00 Unraveling forgotten history
02:23 Summary of the Göktürks
05:17 Summary of the Byzantines
08:26 The Sogdian Factor: Reasons for Turko-Roman Diplomacy
10:42 Turks in Constantinople, Greeks in Türkistan
13:56 Creating an Alliance: Justin II. and Istemi
16:30 Breaking an Alliance: Turko-Persian War
21:40 Tong Yabgu & Heraclius: United in Victory
26:39 End of the Turko-Roman Alliance...?

[@KhansDen]

Recently, I decided to make a full-fledged video of last month's podcast episodes about the same topic. Hope you enjoy.

[@vaneriklucasan8365]

An exquisitely crafted video you have made here @KhansDen .... Kudos! :)

[@charlesbulut9748]

I’m not sure why you referring Eastern Roman Empire as “Greeks”? Eastern Roman Empire were Roman and Greeks were their citizen just like many other ethnicities. This is just western history trying to implement “ Byzantium” was Greek nationality but it was not. That’s why Greeks today “trying” to claim Istanbul as their own. In reality Romans referred Greeks as citizens even slaves. We need to use right term for Eastern Roman Empire as Roman. Greek language famous and used widely yes but never Greek nation ruled it.

[@BodriyDyadka]

"Слава Богу, в землях Арабов, Персов, Византийцев и Русов последнее слово принадлежит тюркам" (персидский историк Раванди IX век)

[@sozak79]

Absolutely brilliant work…. Well done once again Khan’s Den

[@RedWolf75]

This is cooo snd intersting that the Turks and Romajs were initially allies.

[@maverikmiller6746]

I am really glad that there are people delving deeper into our Kaganates. Thank you very much.

[@JangoChained]

What you're doing is so important. Love it. Thanks for existing.

[@user-jk8ig9wr7w]

Συγχαρητήρια για την δουλειά σου ,είμαι Έλληνας,

[@joeshmoe8345]

Love this, thanks a bunch for sharing this with us Big Dog!

[@MuktiArno]

Nice topic. Thank you.

[@fierceperedur]

Excellent work! I learned some things I wasn't aware of. ❤

[@Userjunior2016]

Great video Thanks Emre

[@aktodos]

This video deserves much more attention well done Khan's Den team,Emre and all patrons 😌

[@AntonioTorcoli]

Excellent video

[@ffgffg645]

👍⭐️👍another great work

[@TuRK...]

Gögsümüzü Kabartıyorsun Kral 🇹🇷

[@satiroglu44]

Now that's sum epic stuff

[@user-fo2uh4rm5c]

This is a rare piece of video production, good for understanding the human history from all perspectives, not a biased one of the west.

[@CelestialWolf246]

As Turk from qizik tribe. I am proud of my gokturk ancestors

[@mustafaerbilek5491]

Hello brother i.m turk from oghuz kayı tribe I.m proud of my Göktürk ancestors to

[@olalamalo]

Thank you very much, it is a great documentary💯🤟💯🇹🇷 Greetings to the GÖK Turks, greetings to the Ötüken warriors

[@user-zc6iv3sx8g]

Gracias por traer la historia a nuestras vidas. Desde Argentina Beatriz ❤

[@saidbayhan9724]

elinize sağlık beyler

[@oguzmen5451]

Great video - a topic of interest and something I see as a subtle turning point is Tonyukuk's role in convincing the Khan on straying away from Buddhism. If the alternate had happened and Göktürks had become settled (like the Uygur Khaganate) - world history could've been much different.

[@Reader_curiosity]

There is not a long time lag between the death of Tonyukuk and the emergence of the Uighur Khaganate. Tonyukuk died in 716 and the Uyghur Khaganate was established in 744. The other thing is that Buddhism was an approved religion in the first Goktürk, and there are temples and Buddhist texts translated into Turkish, and it is not a new religion for the Turks. The Gokturk era is an era full of political and tribal events and entities, and it does not represent a single case where there are Western Gokturks and Turkic tribal federations that enjoy great independence, etc. For example, Chinese records mention that the Turks in Western Goktürk practiced agriculture and some of them settled in the cities.

[@oguzmen5451]

@@Reader_curiosity As far as I'm aware the contact with Buddhism could be taken back to 200AD

[@jivanselbi3657]

once again thanks for this informative video, look forward to watch the next eopisode, we hardly know anything abıut Türk-shahi rule, probably they were in India/Pakistan & Afganistan

[@tonysburgers7223]

I love the Turk's history

[@almazchati4178]

I had heard about this alliance from a German historian of Byzantinum history of around 600 which covered early Islamic period as well. If that is the case the first Turkish/Islam contacts must have happened in the Caucasus. He says Sassanies were really weak, and it would have fallen to the Turks if Arabs had not acted earlier. It looks like they made an alliance with another nomadic people over the Romans. I think I read in Al-Biruni's India that Semerkant was newly established around 600 and it had a huge library of Latin and Greek books. Probably Islamization started much earlier than the year 750, because Bukhara became Muslim early on, and Sodgians were part of GokTurks campaigns in the east. Probably this hypothesis puts the origin of the Turks squarely around Volga/Ural region. It looks like there is a lot of material available for investigation.

[@billhill8570]

Great!

[@korkufilmleriscarymovies2283]

I believe in that even roman empire there were alot of Turks assimilated inside them .We can see alot of their traces in Türkiye even before 1071 .they just got assimilated between those Romans

[@mohammedsaysrashid3587]

It was an informative and wonderful historical coverage of Gokturk step tribe's, Turkik tribe's empires, theirs contacted to Ssassanian and Eastern Roman Empire's through global Silk roads. Temporary alliances with the Persian empire against the (Hephthalite empire) and later alliance with Byzantium empire against the Persian empire. Thank you 🙏(khan Den )channel for sharing ...

[@mitkodimitrov8396]

Why Dulo clan hate so much Ashina?Bulgarians and hungarians,follow Dulo and have bad history with turks,since the beginning,what is so different,between those steppes clans.Onogurs,kutrigurs,sabirs and so on,are bulgar tribes,wich follow Dulo

[@KhansDen]

Very good question. I suggest that the divide between Oghuric (Dulo, Bulgars, Huns) on the one side and Oghuz and Altaic (Göktürks, Uyghurs, later Oghuz Turks) on the other was caused by a variety of factors, including but notwithstanding language, religious affiliations (Shamanism vs. Tengrism) and cultural preferences. When East meets West, there is always trouble. Even within the Göktürk Khaganate, we can see that all revolts took place in the western realm and included Oghuric peoples. But that's speculation on my part. It's difficult to give a proper answer when so many sources are missing.

[@ryantinloy4965]

Great video thank you for sharing. In 14:09, may I ask what language was being spoken? I'm guessing Greek?

[@KhansDen]

Thank you. And yes, it's the transcription into modern Greek. I thought it would add some flair instead of just showing the message in pure text form.

[@volkanozturkmen6245]

In 375 AD and 562 AD, during the time of the Hunnic Empire and the Avar Khaganate, the Turks fought with Rome and Byzantium.

[@onurkagangocebe]

I want the old voice back pls.

[@Reader_curiosity]

Five hundred years later, the Seljuk Turkish empire took control of the Iranian and Anatolian plateaus. The Seljuks did not stop at mere military and political control, but also millions of Oghuz tribes migrated to Anatolia and Iran. A demographic shift occurred in Anatolia and it turned into the Turkestan of Asia Minor. While there is a large percentage of the Turkish population in Iran, ranging between 25-35%, despite There have been several attempts to transform the Turks into Persians and Aryans since the era of Reza Pahlavi. Regarding the first question raised in the episode about why the content of the correspondence contained in Byzantine historical sources between Gokturk and the Byzantines is not presented in artistic, documentary, and other works. The answer: There are two ideological trends that appear to be in conflict, but they have many commonalities. The first trend: It is the anti-Turkic trend that is keen to distort the historical image of the Turks and present it in the worst light. The second trend: is the trend of Islamists and neo-Ottomans. These people limit general Turkish history to the Ottoman era only and consider the rest to be unimportant and non-existent. They are keen to present Turkish history in a superficial, distorted and fragmented manner from its historical contexts. Of course, the coalition of nationalist parties will win in the upcoming Turkish presidential and parliamentary elections, and therefore some raise concerns about the possibility of stopping the series of the founder, Othman and the Conqueror, and others, and that will never happen. Rather, the nationalist parties will support the continued production of series about the period of the emergence of the Ottoman Empire, and will also support the production of artistic works that present all periods of Ottoman history, but in a more objective and far from sanctifying manner. The nationalist parties will also support Turkish drama to present all Turkish history in the eras of Gokturk, the Hephthalites, and the Khazars. The Uyghurs, the Timurids, the Safavids, the Huns, the Anatolian beyliks, and others. As for the question about why the delegation from the Sogd region chose to go to Gokturk instead of going to the Sassanians? According to many historical studies, the Sogdian delegation that went to Gokturk and asked for an alliance with them were from the Kidara Huns, and they considered the Hephthalites historical enemies because the Hephthalites overthrew their kingdom. This incident is repeated historically in the same context, for example, Anatolian Beyliks’ alliance with Tamerlane against the Ottomans. The Uighurs allied with Genghis Khan against the Tangut dynasty. The Khitan allied with Genghis Khan against the Jurchen dynasty. And other.... Shahnameh epic, the reason for the outbreak of conflict between Gokturk and the Hephthalites was because the Hephthalites attacked trade convoys belonging to Gokturk.

[@onderismail2144]

❤❤ ❤ my Ancestors

[@johnclapp5447]

❤

[@korkufilmleriscarymovies2283]

Türkler tarihte 2 tane devletin topraklarına yerleşince halkın arasında eriyip gitmişler .bunlardan biri Çin ikincisi Roma

[@HeerHalewijn]

I'd like a video about pre-admixture Scythians meeting Proto-Turkic parent populations and causing the Proto-Turkic ethnogenesis.

[@chicagogyrl4846]

The background music is not necessary, and ruins the video.

[@TheLevkara]

😊😊😊😊❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@KatariaGujjar]

25:18 - 25:38 "tong sent an army of *one thousand* Turks ... described as 'hazar/khazar'. I just realized, that _hazar هزار_ in Persian means one thousand. Same word is used in Tajik and Urdu. Maybe that's how Khazars got their name? In Hungarian, the word is _ezer_ . Armenian: _haz_ Kurdish: _hezar_

[@ericponce8740]

Justin II was the nephew of Justinian The Great.

[@KhansDen]

True. Duly noted. Thx for the correction. For some reason, I always mix them up.

[@Nahrin_Assyrian]

Oh common 😁

[@golgumbazguide...4113]

Explore Golgumbaz Deccan india

[@denizucar3947]

Turkic history in India is terribly underrated..

[@denizucar3947]

Turkic history in India is terribly underrated.

[@Ersen_abiniz]

l am very proud of my anchestors because l have Y DNA haplogrup Q, elite rulers of Xiongnu. Also l have %3 devils cave peoples genome.

[@Goldenskies__]

And You look 100% Iranian. Congrats.

[@astrodas1910]

@@Goldenskies__ He looks nothing like Iranian. Iranians are brown skinned to begin with. And if you mean the northern Iran who has light skin, they're Turk.

[@Ersen_abiniz]

@@astrodas1910 don't argue with this greek or srmenians brother. Greeks say themself indo-european but they have very fark skin and curly haair like north afrikans with Y DNA Haplogrup E1V-13 🤣

[@Ersen_abiniz]

@@Goldenskies__ l wonder what is your face shape ot skin colour , cultural enlargetment's son

[@bhushanmuneshwar]

shakil choudhary ji I request you to join science journey stream for right knowledge about Dr B R Ambedkar

[@plasebox]

Schitians are Turks

[@user-fo2uh4rm5c]

The rise of the Ottoman Empire.

[@33em]

Hay ben seni de, Osmanlıyı da...

[@cartesian_doubt6230]

Ruling over empty grasslands is hardly deserving of the name empire.

[@KhansDen]

If these grasslands had really been so "empty", so easy to administer, conquer, and rule (as implied), it would not have taken thousands of years until finally a sedentary non-steppe people in the form of the Russian Empire, now armed with guns and artillery, conquered the steppe in the 18th and 19th century.

[@lilo7741]

There was harsh competition in the steppe because economy was based on horsemanship and pastures which meant speed of movement and changing resources. all the people who had adopted that semi nomadic lifestyle there were competing with each other and had to. It took a disciplined society to establish order and unity there which was purely based on military success and strategic thinking. These conditions eventually matured a society who essentially became a military society which could adapt to any condition and establish order and rule anywhere they went to. And when they (I.e. pecheneg/avar/cuman/bulgar Turks) encountered sedentary people like Slavs or Georgians they were countered. The Turks had established an empire in Central Europe by the 6th century. They came after the Huns and were called Avars who had fled the Turkic Khaganate which had the Caucasus under its control. Secondly all the empires and states in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and India fell to the Turks. One By one and were ruled for a period of a 1000 years by these people. So maybe you can now see that what you see as rule over empty grassland was actually the military training of a people who were ripened to become transcontinental conquerors.

[@cjclark1208]

Roman and by extension, Byzantines, make no permanent allies just out of convenience or necessity nothing more nothing less.

[@Alaybayev]

Gokturks 🇰🇬🇰🇿🇺🇿🇹🇲

[@volkanozturkmen6245]

Göktürks🇹🇷🇦🇿🇹🇲🇰🇿🇰🇬🇺🇿

[@Alaybayev]

@@volkanozturkmen6245 lol, turkish have no relation to Gokturks, your maximum is Oguz tribes. But 95% turkish people even don’t have any relation to Oguz people

[@user-lv3xr4wj3i]

​​​@@Alaybayev? OGUZ İS YABGU WERE ANCESTOR GÖKTÜRK 🤬?.

[@Can-vl8sl]

@@Alaybayev Kyrgyz were enemies of the Gokturks. Turkic khans fought many wars against the Kyrgyz. Also, Oghuzs were the people of the Western Turkic Khanate, Turkmens, Turks, Azerbaijanis, Salar, Gagauz are the descendants of Turgesh and Oghuz Yabgu.

[@Can-vl8sl]

@@Alaybayev In the Battle of Sayan Mountains, Great Turk Bilge Qaghan and Kul Tigin killed the Kyrgyz Khan Bars Bek and the Kyrgyz army was destroyed. You Kyrgyz have nothing to do with Gokturks.

[@sto_karfi842]

Turkey is afraid of the Roman ghost and will never escape that curse...

[@Umay205]

No, we are not afraid. The Huns destroyed Western Rome and the Ottomans destroyed Eastern Rome. Why should we be afraid when the Turks have always won?

[@TUNC66]

Atilla TurkHun was a Turk who defeated Rome.

[@thefunder1]

It was Crusaders that crippled ERE for good. The rest was child's play for Ottomans. ​@@Umay205

[@zafernurullahoglu-gw9te]

Stop portraying the Gokturks and Huns as mongolites. Turks of Ural origin R1 A hablogroup . As at that time Gokturk region and today Anatolian, Caspian or Balkans & Kırım Turks... Ignorant people who try to hide the Aryan history thesis slander of European historians, who try to hide that Sintaşta and Andronovo culture is Turkish culture, defend the lie that Turks came from the same region (eastern Siberian forests) as the Mongols and Tungus. Our historians, who have earned their reputation through the mouth of European historians, continue this lie. There is no similarity between the Turkish language and the Mongolian Tungus language. It's just a group of words that are transitive in time. Turks are white people of Ural origin. He ruled the Altai Mountains and beyond over time and taught civilization to the Mongolian, Tungus and Chinese regions. The white race is physically REcessive. Mongolid, Yellow race, Indian, Middle Eastern and Anatolian genes are dominant, respectively. Over time, with marriages, we evolved into all these various looks...

[@lilo7741]

Mongols are so different than Turks.