Welcome to Qaghan
We study the decisions of 435 rulers across 20 khaganates, from 265 AD to 1925, and turn them into clear, practical counsel for the choices leaders face today.
435
Rulers
Profiled and analyzed
1660
Years
Of leadership evidence
20
Khaganates
From the Pacific to the Danube
Who We Are
The Qaghan title was never the property of a single people. It began among the proto-Mongolic tribes of the eastern steppe in 265 AD and passed to the Göktürks, who carried it to the Byzantine frontier; the Khazars, who built a Jewish state on the Volga; the Bulgars, who founded what became modern Bulgaria; and the Mongols, who unified half the known world.
Ottoman sultans, Safavid and Qajar shahs, and Qing emperors carried it forward. We document every ruler who held the title and analyze the decisions they faced on power, alliances, succession and reform, so that their experience can inform the decisions leaders make today.
"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
Our Coverage
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 KhaganatesStart Here
