Avars
a people, probably of Turanian origin, who at an early period may have migrated from the region E. of the Tobol in Siberia to that about the Don, the Caspian Sea, and the Volga. A part advanced to the Danube in 555 A. D., and settled in Dacia. They served in Justinian's army, aided the Lombards in destroying the kingdom of the Gepidæ, and in the 6th century conquered under their khan, Bajan, the region of Pannonia.
They then won Dalmatia, pressed into Thuringia and Italy against the Franks and Lombards, and subdued the Slavs dwelling on the Danube, as well as the Bulgarians on the Black Sea. But they were intimately limited to Pannonia, where they were overcome by Charlemagne, and nearly extirpated by the Slavs of Moravia. After 827 they disappear from history. Traces of their fortified settlements are found, and known as Avarian rings.