Göktürk-Byzantine Embassies: Maniakh and Zemarchus (568-569)

In the mid-6th century the Göktürks took Sogdia and came to control the central stretch of the Silk Road. The Iranian shah Khosrow I refused to let Turkic silk be sold through his country. On the advice of the Sogdian merchant Maniakh, İstemi Khagan (Silziboulos in Greek sources) then sent an embassy to Constantinople in 568.

Emperor Justin II received the envoys and in August 569 sent Zemarchus of Cilicia on a return embassy. According to the account preserved by the Byzantine historian Menander Protector, when the envoys reached Turkic land they were purified in a ceremony that led them between two fires. The khagan's camp lay in the hollow of the "Golden Mountain"; Zemarchus describes with wonder the gilded thrones, golden peacocks, silver vessels and patterned silk hangings.

Zemarchus accompanied the khagan for part of a campaign against Iran and attended a banquet at Talas. These embassies began an alliance between the Göktürks and Byzantium against Iran and are the first detailed description of the Turks in European sources.