Our Coverage
Twenty polities, five eras, one title. See how each khaganate rose, governed and passed on power, from the first recorded use on the Mongolian steppe to its final institutional form in 1925.
01 · c. 220–555 AD
The earliest steppe peoples to formally institutionalize the Qaghan title — proto-Mongolic ancestors whose traditions flowed directly into the Mongolian imperial system.
02 · 552–925 AD
The Göktürks and their successors spread the Qaghan title across the full breadth of Eurasia, from the Chinese frontier to the Byzantine Empire, and produced the script that the Mongols later adopted.
First Turkic empire to spread the Qaghan title from China to the Byzantine frontier.
ExploreCentral Asian Turkic power that led the most effective resistance against Arab expansion.
ExploreThe most sophisticated pre-Mongol steppe empire — creators of the script the Mongols later adopted.
ExploreDestroyers of the Uyghur Khaganate and final rulers of the pre-Mongol steppe succession.
Explore03 · 567–1076 AD
Steppe peoples who carried the Qaghan title into Europe — threatening Constantinople, halting the Arab advance, and leaving lasting marks on the Balkans and Eastern Europe.
Brought the Qaghan title to Central Europe, threatening Byzantium and the Frankish kingdoms for two centuries.
ExploreThe only medieval state to adopt Judaism as a state religion — buffer between the Caliphate and Christendom.
ExploreBulgar Turkic founders of the Bulgarian state — the Nominalia preserves the oldest Bulgarian ruler list.
ExploreEarly Rus' rulers used the Kagan title in diplomatic and literary contexts — debated but documented.
Explore04 · 1206–1930
The center of our research. From Genghis Khan's unification of the steppe in 1206 to the final dissolution of the Khalkh khanates, the Mongolian Qaghans built and administered the largest contiguous empire in history.
Supreme rulers of the Mongol Empire and their successors who governed China as the Yuan Dynasty.
ExploreThe vast western khanate stretching from the Urals to the Danube, dominating Eastern Europe.
ExploreRulers of Central Asia from the Amu Darya to the Tian Shan, preserving nomadic Mongol traditions.
ExploreMongol rulers of Persia, Iraq, and Anatolia who transformed and were transformed by Islamic civilization.
ExploreDescendants of Ögedei Khan who briefly held sway over the heartland before absorption by rival branches.
ExploreThe last surviving Mongolian khanates of the northern steppe, enduring into the modern era.
Explore05 · 626–1925 AD
Rulers from outside the steppe tradition who adopted or were conferred the Qaghan title as the highest possible mark of universal sovereignty — demonstrating the title's trans-cultural prestige across fourteen centuries.
Tang emperors acclaimed Heavenly Qaghan by the Göktürks — a unique dual legitimacy spanning Chinese and steppe worlds.
ExploreOttoman Sultans used Hakan as a legitimizing element tracing authority through the Turkic-steppe tradition.
ExploreSafavid and Qajar Shahs used Khaqan as a secondary imperial title in court poetry and royal titulature.
ExploreQing emperors were called Khaqan-i Chin by Turkic subjects — direct heirs to the Mongolian imperial tradition.
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