Walter Pohl (1) (1953–)

So, why even read about the Avars? In as much as they had a brief efflorescence as a parasite on the Byzantine Empire before collapsing into a shadow existence, only to be finally rubbed out by Charlemagne, and leaving no real cultural traces behind. For me, a lot of that has to deal with my own curiosity about the deep history of my ethnic background, being mostly of Croatian and Hungarian descent. However, the author makes the case that, as an equestrian empire, the Avars were actually quite successful in terms of staying power, lasting some 250 years as an organization, if not a nation. Part of the issue here is that historians during the time of peak nationalism had no real sense of what to do with the Avar Khanate, as they were not the progenitors of a modern European state, though, from the perspective of demography, it's arguable that they were the enablers of the Western nations of Slavdom.

As for why the Avars so quickly evaporated once Charlemagne kicked in the door, even though his policy was to keep them as a tributary principality, Pohl suggests that they were hanging by a thread, as reforestation and disease might have been leading to a dwindling horse stock, the foundation of Avar power. This is not to mention that the answer to the question of what happens to a disgruntled Avar is that they become a Bulgarian, meaning that there was a ready home for dissidents. Reading between the lines, Pohl also gives one the thought that, for all the pretentions of the Avars to having a manifest destiny, even their contemporaries saw them as cheap knock-offs of the Huns, and not really worthy of respect; particularly since the Avar elite could not manage the trick of learning the organizational techniques that the Magyars and Bulgars did and eventually founding nations.

While not the lightest read, particularly since we mostly know of the Avars from their graves and what their enemies wrote about them, this is a very worthwhile book that provides a lot of food for thought.… (meer)