Hunnish, Mongolian or Turkish peoples are all related to one another.

From the sixth century onward the nomads populating Turkestan started to be known as the Turks.

In A.D. 552 the Turks suddenly exploded in all directions. One Turkish army destroyed the great Mongolian Juan-juan empire and set up a new steppe empire reaching from Turkestan to India and Manchuria.

Another army penetrated to the gates of India, and a third force invaded the Caucasus in A.D. 576, then split apart from the main power and established the first independent Turkish Khanate in Europe - known as the Khazar Khanate.

The name Khan derives from the Turkish word Kagan, the ruler of a nomadic empire.