The Complete Record of Eurasian Sovereignty
435 rulers across 20 khaganates — from the first Qaghan title in 265 AD to the last in 1925. Turkic, Mongolic, European, Iranian, Chinese — one title, seventeen centuries.
435
Rulers
Across twenty khaganates
1660
Years
265 AD to 1925
20
Khaganates
Across Eurasia & Europe
About This Project
The Qaghan title was not the property of any single people. It began among the proto-Mongolic tribes of the eastern steppe in 265 AD, passed through the Göktürks who carried it to the Byzantine frontier, the Khazars who built a Jewish empire on the Volga, the Bulgars who founded what would become modern Bulgaria, and the Mongols who unified half the known world.
Ottoman sultans used it in their imperial titulature. Safavid and Qajar shahs of Iran bore it in court poetry. The Qing emperors of China were called Khaqan by their Turkic and Mongolian subjects. This is the complete record of everyone who held it — in full, for the first time, in one place.
"I am the punishment of God. If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you."
— Genghis Khan, Great Khan, r. 1206–1227
"O Turkish people, hear this — if the sky above did not collapse and the earth below did not give way, who could destroy your nation and your institutions?"
— Bilge Qaghan, Göktürk Khaganate, r. 716–734
Twenty Khaganates
552 – 744 AD
The first Turkic empire to spread the Qaghan title from China to the Byzantine Empire — ancestors of the Turkic peoples of today.
c. 650 – 969 AD
The only medieval state to adopt Judaism as a state religion — for three centuries the buffer between the Islamic Caliphate and Christian Europe.
681 – 802 AD
Bulgar Turkic khans who founded the Bulgarian state, defeated Byzantine emperors, and laid the foundations of modern Bulgaria.
1206 – 1635
The supreme rulers of the unified Mongol Empire and their successors who governed China as the Yuan Dynasty.
1453 – 1922 AD
Ottoman sultans used Hakan as a legitimizing imperial title, tracing their sovereignty through the Turkic-steppe tradition to the Göktürks.
1501 – 1925 AD
Persian shahs who bore the Khaqan title in royal titulature and court poetry — the last continuous institutional use of the title in history.
Plus 14 more khaganates — the Xianbei, Rouran, Avar, Uyghur, Kyrgyz, Türgesh, Rus', Golden Horde, Chagatai, Ilkhanate, Ogedeid, Khalkh, Tang, and Qing.
Explore All 20 KhaganatesAI-Powered Experience
Pose your questions to a council embodying the collective wisdom of 435 rulers — Göktürk qaghans, Mongol great khans, Khazar khagans, Ottoman sultans, Safavid shahs. Strategy, governance, conquest, philosophy — seventeen centuries speak with one voice.
Enter the Council"Great Council, what is the first lesson of true leadership?"
A leader must know his men before he commands them. The steppe does not yield to rank — it yields to those who have proven themselves worthy of trust through action, not title.
— The Council
Ask the council anything...
Begin Your Journey
