Abstract
The Most Important War of the Avar History: The İstanbul Siege in 626
Byzantine attacks onto the Avars at the beginning of the VII. Century caused serious troubles in the Avar Empire. Thus, the Avar kağan gathered a huge army composed of Avars, Slavs, Gepids and Bulgars, and marched on İstanbul. Their aim was basically to exterminate Byzantium and to conquer all of the Balkans. The siege in real sense started on July 31st. Persian forces, then allies of the Avars, came also to the opposite side of İstanbul. The attackers planned an operation from seaside with the Slavic "Monoxylas", but the Slavs were routed by Byzantine navy. A second test with monoxylas on August 3rd also failed. Then qagan focused on a general attack with infantry and made necessary preparations. On August 6th their general attack started. After two days of quarrels, the qaganal army proved to be unsuccessful before the Byzantine defense. Thus, the qagan retreated and, however, commented to be defeated.<
Keywords
Avars, Byzantium, Slavs, the İstanbul siege of 626.