ГаниевРустам Талгатович кандидат исторических наук,
доцент кафедры истории россии,
директор Центральноазиатского
научно-исследовательского центра урФу
уральский федеральный университет
620000, екатеринбург, пр. ленина, 51
E-mail: rusthist@yandex.ru
Ganiev, Rustam Talgatovich PhD (History), Associate Professor
Chair of Russian History
Director
Central Asian Research Centre of UrFU
Ural Federal University
51, Lenin Ave., 620000 Yekaterinburg, Russia
Email: rusthist@yandex.ru
ANCIENT TURKS AND CLIMATE DISASTERS IN CENTRAL ASIA (534–679 AD) This paper is the first to analyse the effect climate disasters (AD 536, 581, 626, 679) had
on the historical processes in the east of Central Asia in the Early Middle Ages. Climate
disasters are abrupt, severe, and sometimes protracted periods of cooling and drought
that produce a negative effect on the economy of a nomadic society, the reason for
this being large explosive volcanic eruptions. Cooling and drought brought famine
to the nomads and caused illnesses. In addition to that, all the natural catastrophes
were accompanied by plague pandemics among the eastern Turks. The Turkic Empire
can be split into several chronological periods characterised by significant events that
changed the course of history of the nomadic state, namely, AD 534–545 — the rise
of the Turkic Empire; AD 581–583 — the division of the Turkic Empire into the Western
and the Eastern Empires; AD 627–630 — the Eastern Turks are conquered by China;
AD 679–687 — the second rise of the Eastern Turkic Empire. The research carried
out shows that there is a certain connection between the important historical events
and climate disasters in the history of the Turkic Empire (AD 534–745), this factor
making it possible for the author to come forth with the proposition that the climatic
factor did have an effect on the historical processes in the east of Central Asia, especially
on the territories that had a nomadic economy.
K e y w o r d s: Turks (Tujue); Eastern Turkic Khaganate; Turkic Khaganate; China;
climate change; dendrochronology; volcanic eruption; tree ring dating; ice core.
Abbott, D. H., Biscaye, P., Cole-Dai, J., & Breger, D. (2008). Magnetite and Silicate Spherules
from the GISP2 Core at the 536 A. D. Horizon. American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting. Abstract. Abbott, D. H., Breger, D., Biscaye, P. E., & Robert, A. J. (2014). Calendar-year Dating of the GISP2
Ice Core from the Early 6
th
Century Using Historical, Ion and Particulate Data. Volcanism, Impacts
and Mass Extinctions: Causes and Effects, G. Keller and A. Kerr (eds.). Geological Society of America Special Paper, 505, 411–420.
Baillie, M. G. L., & McAneney, J. (2015). Tree Ring Effects and Ice Core Acidities Clarify
the Volcanic Record of the First Millennium. Climate of the Past, 11 (1), 105–114.
Barash, S. I. (1989). Istoriya neurozhayev i pogody v Yevrope [History of Crop Failures and Weather
in Europe]. Leningrad: Gidrometeoizdat. (In Russian)
Conquerors and Chroniclers of Early Medieval Spain. (1999). Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
D’Arrigo, R., Jacoby, G., Frank, D., Pederson, N., Cook, E., Buckley, B., Nachin, B., Mijiddorj, R.,
& Dugarjav, C. (2001). 1738 Years of Mongolian Temperature Variability Inferred from a Tree-ring
Width Chronology of Siberian Pine. Geophysical Research Letters, 28 (3), 543–546.
179
Fei, J., Zhou, J., & Hou, Y. J. (2007). Circa A. D. 626 Volcanic Eruption, Climatic Cooling,
and the Collapse of the Eastern Turkic Empire. Climatic Change, 81, 3–4, 469–475.
Gao, C., Robock, A., & Ammann, C. (2008). Volcanic Forcing of Climate over the Past 1500 Years:
An Improved Ice Core-based Index for Climate Models. Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres,