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Hephthalites

February 23, 2024

The Hephthalites (Bactrian: ηβοδαλο, romanized: Ebodalo),[11] sometimes called the White Huns (also known as the White Hunas, in Iranian as the Spet Xyon and in Sanskrit as the Sveta-huna),[12][13] were a people who lived in Central Asia during the 5th to 8th centuries CE, part of the larger group of the Iranian Huns.[14][15] They formed an empire, the Imperial Hephthalites, and were militarily important from 450 CE, when they defeated the Kidarites, to 560 CE, when combined forces from the First Turkic Khaganate and the Sasanian Empire defeated them.[1][16] After 560 CE, they established "principalities" in the area of Tokharistan, under the suzerainty of the Western Turks (in the areas north of the Oxus) and of the Sasanian Empire (in the areas south of the Oxus), before the Tokhara Yabghus took over in 625.[16]

Hephthalites
ηβοδαλο
Ebodalo
Empire: 440s–560[1]
Principalities in Tokharistan and the Hindu-Kush until 710.[2]
Tamga of the Imperial Hephthalites, known as "Tamgha S2".[3][4]
Territory of the Hepthalite Empire, circa 500
StatusNomadic empire
Capital
Common languages
Religion
Historical eraLate antiquity
• Established
Empire: 440s
• Disestablished
560[1]
Principalities in Tokharistan and the Hindu-Kush until 710.[2]

The Imperial Hephthalites, based in Bactria, expanded eastwards to the Tarim Basin, westwards to Sogdia and southwards through Afghanistan, but they never went beyond the Hindu-Kush, which was occupied by the Alchon Huns, previously mistakenly regarded as an extension of the Hephthalites.[17] They were a tribal confederation and included both nomadic and settled urban communities. They formed part of the four major states known collectively as Xyon (Xionites) or Huna, being preceded by the Kidarites and by the Alkhon, and succeeded by the Nezak Huns and by the First Turkic Khaganate. All of these Hunnic peoples have often been linked[by whom?] to the Huns who invaded Eastern Europe during the same period, and/or have been referred to as "Huns", but scholars have reached no consensus about any such connection.

The stronghold of the Hephthalites was Tokharistan (present-day southern Uzbekistan and northern Afghanistan) on the northern slopes of the Hindu Kush, and their capital was probably at Kunduz, having come[clarification needed] from the east, possibly from the area of Badakhshan.[16] By 479 the Hephthalites had conquered Sogdia and driven the Kidarites eastwards, and by 493 they had captured parts of Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin (in present-day Northwest China). The Alchon Huns, formerly confused with the Hephthalites, expanded into Northern India as well.[18]

The sources for Hephthalite history are sparse and the opinions of historians differ. There is no king-list, and historians are not sure how the group arose or what language they initially spoke. They seem to have called themselves Ebodalo (ηβοδαλο, hence Hephthal), often abbreviated Eb (ηβ), a name they wrote in the Bactrian script on some of their coins.[19][20][21][22] The origin of the name "Hephthalites" is unknown, it may stem either from a Khotanese word *Hitala meaning "Strong",[23] from hypothetical Sogdian *Heβtalīt, plural of *Heβtalak,[24] or from postulated Middle Persian *haft āl "the Seven[25] Al".[26][a][b]

Name and ethnonyms edit

 
Hephthalite ruler
The Hephthalites called themselves ēbodāl, as seen in this seal of an early Hephthalite king with the Bactrian script inscription:
 
ηβοδαλο ββγο
ēbodālo bbgo
"Yabghu (Lord) of the Hephthalites"
He wears an elaborate radiate crown, and royal ribbons. End 5th century- early 6th century CE.[3][17][27][28]

The Hephthalites called themselves ēbodāl (Bactrian:  , Greek script: ηβοδαλο) in their inscriptions, which was commonly abbreviated to   (ηβ, "Eb") in their coinage.[29][27] An important and unique seal, held in the private collection of Professor Dr. Aman ur Rahman and published by Nicholas Sims-Williams in 2011,[30] shows an early Hepthalite ruler with a round beardless face and slanted almond-shaped eyes, wearing a radiate crown with a single crescent, and framed by the Bactrian script legend ηβοδαλο ββγο ("The Lord [Yabghu] of the Hephthalites").[31][c] The seal is dated to the end 5th century- early 6th century CE.[3][27] The ethnic name "Ebodalo", and title "Ebodalo Yabghu", have also been discovered in contemporary Bactrian documents of the Kingdom of Rob describing administrative functions under the Hephthalites.[33][34]

Byzantine Greek sources referred to them as Hephthalitae (Ἐφθαλῖται),[35] Abdel or Avdel. To the Armenians, the Hephthalites were Hephthal, Hep't'al & Tetal and sometimes identified with the Kushans. To the Persians, Hephthalites are Hephtal, Hephtel, & Hēvtāls. To Arabs, Hephthalites were Haital, Hetal, Heithal, Haiethal, Heyâthelites, (al-)Hayaṭila (هياطلة), and sometimes identified as Turks.[8] According to Zeki Velidi Togan (1985), the form Haytal in Persian and Arabic sources in the first period was a clerical error for Habtal, as Arabic -b- resembles -y-.[36]

In Chinese chronicles, the Hephthalites are called Yàndàiyílìtuó (Chinese: 厭帶夷栗陀), or in the more usual abbreviated form, Yèdā 嚈噠 or in the 635 Book of Liang as the Huá 滑.[37][38] The latter name has been given various Latinisations, including Yeda, Ye-ta, Ye-tha; Ye-dā and Yanda. The corresponding Cantonese and Korean names Yipdaat and Yeoptal (Korean: 엽달), which preserve aspects of the Middle Chinese pronunciation (IPA [ʔjɛpdɑt]) better than the modern Mandarin pronunciation, are more consistent with the Greek Hephthalite. Some Chinese chroniclers suggest that the root Hephtha- (as in Yàndàiyílìtuó or Yèdā) was technically a title equivalent to "emperor", while Huá was the name of the dominant tribe.[39]

In ancient India, names such as Hephthalite were unknown. The Hephthalites were part of, or offshoots of, people known in India as Hunas or Turushkas,[40] although these names may have referred to broader groups or neighbouring peoples. Ancient Sanskrit text Pravishyasutra mentions a group of people named Havitaras but it is unclear whether the term denotes Hephthalites.[41] The Indians also used the expression "White Huns" (Sveta Huna) for the Hephthalites.[42]

Geographical origin and expansion edit

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The Hephthalites came from Badakhshan or the Altai, and always had their historical stronghold in Bactria (Tokharistan), with their capital in Kunduz.[43]

According to recent scholarship, the stronghold of the Hephthalites was always Tokharistan on the northern slopes of the Hindu Kush, in what is present-day southern Uzbekistan and northern Afghanistan.[43] Their capital was probably at Kunduz, which was known to the 11th-century scholar al-Biruni as War-Walīz, a possible origin of one of the names given by the Chinese to Hephthalites: 滑 (Middle Chinese (ZS) *ɦˠuat̚ > standard Chinese: Huá).[43]

The Hephthalites may have come from the East, through the Pamir Mountains, possibly from the area of Badakhshan.[43] Alternatively, they may have migrated from the Altai region, among the waves of invading Huns.[44]

Following their westward or southward expansion, the Hephthalites settled in Bactria, and displaced the Alchon Huns, who expanded into Northern India. The Hephthalites came into contact with the Sasanian Empire, and were involved in helping militarily Peroz I seize the throne from his brother Hormizd III.[43]

Later, in the late 5th century, the Hephthalites expanded into vast areas of Central Asia, and occupied the Tarim Basin as far as Turfan, taking control of the area from the Rourans, who had been collecting heavy tribute from the oasis cities, but were now weakening under the assaults of the Chinese Northern Wei dynasty.[45]

Origins and characteristics edit

See also: Origins of the Huns
 
 
Murals from Dilberjin Tepe, thought to represent early Hephthalites.[46][47][48][49] The ruler wears a radiate crown which is comparable to the crown of the king on the "Yabghu of the Hephthalites" seal.[50]

There have been several theories regarding the origins of the Hephthalites, with the Iranian[51][52][53] and Altaic[54][55][56][57][58][59] theories being the main ones. The most prominent theory at present seems to be that the Hephthalites were initially of Turkic origin, and later adopted the Bactrian language.[60]

According to most specialist scholars, the Hephthalites adopted Bactrian as their official language, just as the Kushans had done, following their settlement in Bactria/Tokharistan.[58] Bactrian was an Eastern Iranian language, but was written in the Greek alphabet, a remnant of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom in the 3rd–2nd century BCE.[58] Bactrian, beyond being an official language, was also the language of the local populations ruled by the Hephthalites.[61][52]

The Hephthalites inscribed their coins in Bactrian, the titles they held were Bactrian, such as XOAΔHO or Šao,[62] and of probable Chinese origin, such as Yabghu,[34] the names of Hephthalite rulers given in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh are Iranian,[62] and gem inscriptions and other evidence shows that the official language of the Hephthalite elite was East Iranian.[62] In 1959, Kazuo Enoki proposed that the Hephthalites were probably Indo-European (East) Iranians who originated in Bactria/Tokharistan, based on the fact that ancient sources generally located them in the area between Sogdia and the Hindu-Kush, and the Hephthalites had some Iranian characteristics.[63] Richard Nelson Frye cautiously accepted Enoki's hypothesis, while at the same time stressing that the Hephthalites "were probably a mixed horde".[64] According to the Encyclopaedia Iranica and Encyclopaedia of Islam, the Hephthalites possibly originated in what is today Afghanistan.[5][65]

A few scholars, such as Marquart and Grousset proposed Proto-Mongolic origins.[66] Yu Taishan traced the Hephthalites' origins to the Xianbei and further to Goguryeo.[67]

Other scholars such as de la Vaissière, based on a recent reappraisal of the Chinese sources, suggest that the Hephthalites were initially of Turkic origin, and later adopted the Bactrian language, first for administrative purposes, and possibly later as a native language — according to Rezakhani (2017), this thesis is seemingly the "most prominent at present".[68][69][d]

 
 
The banquet scenes in the murals of Balalyk Tepe show the life of the Hephthalite ruling class of Tokharistan.[75][76][77]

In effect, the Hephthalites may have been a confederation of various people, speaking different languages. According to Richard Nelson Frye:

Just as later nomadic empires were confederations of many peoples, we may tentatively propose that the ruling groups of these invaders were, or at least included, Turkic-speaking tribesmen from the east and north, although most probably the bulk of the people in the confederation of Chionites and then Hephhtalites spoke an Iranian language. In this case, as normal, the nomads adopted the written language, institutions, and culture of the settled folks.[61]

Relation to European Huns edit

According to Martin Schottky, the Hephthalites apparently had no direct connection with the European Huns, but may have been causally related with their movement. The tribes in question deliberately called themselves "Huns" in order to frighten their enemies.[78] On the contrary, de la Vaissière considers that the Hepthalites were part of the great Hunnic migrations of the 4th century CE from the Altai region that also reached Europe, and that these Huns "were the political, and partly cultural, heirs of the Xiongnu".[79][80][81] This massive migration was apparently triggered by climate change, with aridity affecting the mountain grazing grounds of the Altay Mountains during the 4th century CE.[82] According to Amanda Lomazoff and Aaron Ralby, there is a high synchronicity between the "reign of terror" of Attila in the west and the southern expansion of the Hephthalites, with extensive territorial overlap between the Huns and the Hephthalites in Central Asia.[83]

The 6th-century Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea (History of the Wars, Book I. ch. 3), related them to the Huns in Europe, but insisted on cultural and sociological differences, highlighting the sophistication of the Hephthalites:

The Ephthalitae Huns, who are called White Huns [...] The Ephthalitae are of the stock of the Huns in fact as well as in name, however, they do not mingle with any of the Huns known to us, for they occupy a land neither adjoining nor even very near to them; but their territory lies immediately to the north of Persia [...] They are not nomads like the other Hunnic peoples, but for a long period have been established in a goodly land... They are the only ones among the Huns who have white bodies and countenances which are not ugly. It is also true that their manner of living is unlike that of their kinsmen, nor do they live a savage life as they do; but they are ruled by one king, and since they possess a lawful constitution, they observe right and justice in their dealings both with one another and with their neighbors, in no degree less than the Romans and the Persians[84]

Chinese chronicles edit

 
Probable Hephthalite royal couple in the murals of the Buddhas of Bamiyan circa 600 CE (the 38-meter Buddha they decorate is carbon dated to 544 – 595 CE).[85] Their characteristics are similar to the figures in Balalyk Tepe, such as the right side triangular lapel, hairstyles, faces and ornaments, and reflect Hephthalite styles.[76][86] The Bamiyan complex developed under Hephthalite rule.[87][88]

The Hephthalites were first known to the Chinese in 456 CE, when a Hephthalite embassy arrived at the Chinese court of the Northern Wei.[89] The Chinese used various names for the Hephthalites, such as Hua (滑), Ye-tha-i-li-to (simp. 厌带夷栗陁, trad. 厭帶夷粟陁) or more briefly Ye-da (嚈噠).[90][91] Ancient imperial Chinese chronicles give various explanations about the origins of the Hephthalites:[92][93][94]

  • They were descendants "of the Gaoju or the Da Yuezhi" according to the earliest chronicles such as the Book of Wei or the History of the Northern Dynasties.[92]
  • They were descendants "of the Da Yuezhi tribes", according to many later chronicles.[92]
  • The ancient historian Pei Ziye conjectured that the "Hua" (滑) may be descendants of a Jushi general of the 2nd century CE because that general was named "Bahua" (八滑). This etymological fantasy was adopted by the Book of Liang (Volume 30 and Volume 54).[92][95]
  • Another etymological fantasy appeared in the Tongdian, reporting an account by the traveller Wei Jie according to which the Hephthalites may have been the descendants of the Kangju because a Kangju general of the Eastern Han happened to be named "Yitian".[92]

Kazuo Enoki made a first groundbreaking analysis of the Chinese sources in 1959, suggesting that the Hephthalites were a local tribe of the Tokharistan (Bactria) region, with their origin in the nearby Western Himalayas.[92] He also used as an argument the presence of numerous Bactrian names among the Hephthalites, and the fact that the Chinese reported that they practiced polyandry, a well-known West Himalayan cultural trait.[92]

According to a recent reappraisal of the Chinese sources by de la Vaissière (2003), only the Turkic Gaoju origin of the Hephthalites should be retained as indicative of their primary ethnicity, and the mention of the Da Yuezhi only stems from the fact that, at the time, the Hephthalites had already settled in the former Da Yuezhi territory of Bactria, where they are known to have used the Eastern Iranian Bactrian language.[96] The earliest Chinese source on this encounter, the near-contemporary chronicles of the Northern Wei (Weishu) as quoted in the later Tongdian, reports that they migrated southward from the Altai region circa 360 CE:

The Hephthalites are a branch of the Gaoju (高車, "High Carts") or the Da Yuezhi, they originated from the north of the Chinese frontier and came down south from the Jinshan (Altai) mountains [...] This was 80 to 90 years before Emperor Wen (r. 440–465 CE) of the Northern Wei (i.e. circa 360 CE)
嚈噠國，或云高車之別種，或云大月氏之別種。其原出於塞北。自金山而南。[...] 至後魏 文帝時已八九十年矣

— Extract of the Weishu chronicles as copied in Tongdian.[96]

The Gaoju (高車 lit. "High Cart"), also known as Tiele,[97] were early Turkic speakers related to the earlier Dingling,[98][99] who were once conquered by the Xiongnu.[100][101] Weishu also mentioned the linguistic and ethnic proximity between the Gaoju and the Xiongnu.[102] De la Vaissière proposes that the Hephthalites had originally been one Oghuric-speaking tribe who belonged the Gaoju/Tiele confederation.[89][103][104] This and several later Chinese chronicles also report that the Hephthalites may have originated from the Da Yuezhi, probably because of their settlement in the former Da Yuezhi territory of Bactria.[89] Later Chinese sources become quite confused about the origins of the Hephthalites, and this may be due to their progressive assimilation of Bactrian culture and language once they settled there.[105]

According to the Beishi, describing the situation in the first half of the 6th century CE around the time Song Yun visited Central Asia, the language of the Hephthalites was different from that of the Rouran, Gaoju or other tribes of Central Asia, but that probably reflects their acculturation and adoption of the Bactrian language since their arrival in Bactria in the 4th century CE.[106] The Liangshu and Liang Zhigongtu do explain that the Hephthalites originally had no written language and adopted the hu (local, "Barbarian") alphabet, in this case, the Bactrian script.[106]

Overall, de la Vaissière considers that the Hephthalites were part of the great Hunnic migrations of the 4th century CE from the Altai region that also reached Europe and that these Huns "were the political, and partly cultural, heirs, of the Xiongnu".[79]

Appearance edit

 
Another painting of the Tokharistan school, from Tavka Kurgan.[107][108] It is closely related to Balalyk tepe, "especially in the treatment of the face". Termez Archaeological Museum.[107]

The Hepthalites appear in several mural paintings in the area of Tokharistan, especially in banquet scenes at Balalyk tepe and as donors to the Buddha in the ceiling painting of the 35-meter Buddha at the Buddhas of Bamyan.[77] Several of the figures in these paintings have a characteristic appearance, with belted jackets with a unique lapel of their tunic being folded on the right side, a style which became popular under the Hephthalites,[109] the cropped hair, the hair accessories, their distinctive physionomy and their round beardless faces.[110] The figures at Bamyan must represent the donors and potentates who supported the building of the monumental giant Buddha.[110] These remarkable paintings participate "to the artistic tradition of the Hephthalite ruling classes of Tukharistan".[76][77]

The paintings related to the Hephthalites have often been grouped under the appellation of "Tokharistan school of art",[111] or the "Hephthalite stage in the History of Central Asia Art".[112] The paintings of Tavka Kurgan, of very high quality, also belong to this school of art, and are closely related to other paintings of the Tokharistan school such as Balalyk tepe, in the depiction of clothes, and especially in the treatment of the faces.[107]

This "Hephthalite period" in art, with the caftans with a triangular collar folded on the right, the particular cropped hairstyle, the crowns with crescents, have been found in many of the areas historically occupied and ruled by the Hephthalites, in Sogdia, Bamyan (modern Afghanistan), or in Kucha in the Tarim Basin (modern Xinjiang, China). This points to a "political and cultural unification of Central Asia" with similar artistic styles and iconography, under the rule of the Hephthalites.[113]

History edit

 
The Hephthalites used the Bactrian script (top), an adaptation of the Greek script (bottom). Here, their endonym Ebodalo, "Hephthalites".

The Hephthalites were a vassal state to the Rouran Khaganate until the beginning of the 5th century.[114] There were close contacts between them, although they had different languages and cultures, and the Hephthalites borrowed much of their political organization from Rourans.[8] In particular, the title "Khan", which according to McGovern was original to the Rourans, was borrowed by the Hephthalite rulers.[8] The reason for the migration of the Hephthalites southeast was to avoid a pressure of the Rourans.

The Hephthalites became a significant political entity in Bactria around 450 CE, or sometime before.[18] It has been commonly assumed that the Hephthalites formed a third wave of migrations into Central Asia, after the Chionites (who arrived circa 350 CE) and the Kidarites (who arrived from around 380 CE), but recent studies suggest that instead there may have been a single massive wave of nomadic migrations around 350–360 CE, the "Great Invasion", triggered by climate change and the onset of aridity in the grazing grounds of the Altay region, and that these nomadic tribes vied for supremacy thereafter in their new territories in Southern Central Asia.[82][115] As they rose to prominence, the Hephthalites displaced the Kidarites and then the Alchon Huns, who expanded into Gandhara and Northern India.

 
 
The Hephthalites as vanquished enemies (face down on the floor), and then as allies (seated), in the Sasanian Bandian complex. The inscription next to the seated ruler reads: "I am Hephthalite, son … the Hephthalite is trustworthy".[116][117] 459-497 CE

The Hephthalites also entered into conflict with the Sasanians. The reliefs of the Bandian complex seem to show the initial defeat of the Hephthalites against the Sasanians in 425 CE, and then their alliance with them, from the time of Bahram V (420-438 CE), until they invaded Sasanian territory and destroyed the Bandian complex in 484 CE.[118][117]

In 456–457 a Hephthalite embassy arrived in China, during the reign of Emperor Wen of the Northern Wei.[82] By 458 they were strong enough to intervene in Persia.

Around 466 they probably took Transoxianan lands from the Kidarites with Persian help but soon took from Persia the area of Balkh and eastern Kushanshahr.[58] In the second half of the fifth century they controlled the deserts of Turkmenistan as far as the Caspian Sea and possibly Merv.[119] By 500 they held the whole of Bactria and the Pamirs and parts of Afghanistan. In 509, they captured Sogdia and they took 'Sughd' (the capital of Sogdiana).[75]

To the east, they captured the Tarim Basin and went as far as Urumqi.[75]

Around 560 CE their empire was destroyed by an alliance of the First Turkic Khaganate and the Sasanian Empire, but some of them remained as local rulers in the region of Tokharistan for the next 150 years, under the suzerainty of the Western Turks, followed by the Tokhara Yabghus.[58][75] Among the principalities which remained in Hephthalite hands even after the Turkic overcame their territory were: Chaganian, and Khuttal in the Vakhsh Valley.[75]

Ascendancy over the Sasanian Empire (442- c.530 CE) edit

See also: Hephthalite–Persian Wars
 
Early Hephthalite coinage: a close imitation of a coin type of the Sasanian Emperor Peroz I (third period coinage of Peroz I, after 474 CE).[18] Late 5th century CE. This coinage is typically distinguished from Sasanian issues by dots around the border and the abbreviation   (ηβ "ēb") in front of the crown of Peroz I, abbreviation of ηβοδαλο "ĒBODALO", for "Hepthalites".[29]
 
A rare Hephthalite coin. Obverse: Hephthalite prince wearing a belted caftan with single right lapel, and holding a drinking cup. Probable Bactrian legend ηβοδαλο "ĒBODALO" to the right.[e] Reverse: Sasanian-style bust imitating Khavadh I, whom the Hephthalites had helped to the Sasanian throne. Hephthalite tamgha   before the face of Khavad.[e][121] First half of the 6th century CE.

The Hephthalites were originally vassals of the Rouran Khaganate but split from their overlords in the early fifth century. The next time they were mentioned was in Persian sources as foes of Yazdegerd II (435–457), who from 442, fought 'tribes of the Hephthalites', according to the Armenian Elisee Vardaped.

In 453, Yazdegerd moved his court east to deal with the Hephthalites or related groups.

In 458, a Hephthalite king called Akhshunwar helped the Sasanian Emperor Peroz I (458–484) gain the Persian throne from his brother.[122] Before his accession to the throne, Peroz had been the Sasanian for Sistan in the far east of the Empire, and therefore had been one of the first to enter into contact with the Hephthalites and request their help.[123]

The Hephthalites may have also helped the Sasanians to eliminate another Hunnic tribe, the Kidarites: by 467, Peroz I, with Hephthalite aid, reportedly managed to capture Balaam and put an end to Kidarite rule in Transoxiana once and for all.[124] The weakened Kidarites had to take refuge in the area of Gandhara.

Victories over the Sasanian Empire (474–484 CE) edit

Later, however, from 474 CE, Peroz I fought three wars with his former allies the Hephthalites. In the first two, he himself was captured and ransomed.[18] Following his second defeat, he had to offer thirty mules loaded with silver drachms to the Hephthalites, and also had to leave his son Kavad as a hostage.[123] The coinage of Peroz I in effect flooded Tokharistan, taking precedence over all other Sasanian issues.[125]

In the third battle, at the Battle of Herat (484), he was vanquished by the Hepthalite king Kun-khi, and for the next two years the Hephthalites plundered and controlled the eastern part of the Sasanian Empire.[122][126] Perozduxt, the daughter of Peroz, was captured and became a lady as the Hephtalite court, as Queen of king Kun-khi.[126] She became pregnant and had a daughter who would later marry her uncle Kavad I.[123] From 474 until the middle of the 6th century, the Sasanian Empire paid tribute to the Hephthalites.

Bactria came under formal Hephthalite rule from that time.[3] Taxes were levied by the Hephthalites over the local population: a contract in the Bactrian language from the archive of the Kingdom of Rob, has been found, which mentions taxes from the Hephthalites, requiring the sale of land in order to pay these taxes. It is dated to 483/484 CE.[3]

Hephthalite coinage edit

With the Sasanian Empire paying a heavy tribute, from 474, the Hephthalites themselves adopted the winged, triple-crescent crowned Peroz I as the design for their coinage.[18] Benefiting from the influx of Sasanian silver coins, the Hephthalites did not develop their own coinage: they either minted coins with the same designs as the Sasanians, or simply countermarked Sasanian coins with their own symbols.[3] They did not inscribe the name of their ruler, contrary to the habit of the Alchon Huns or the Kidarites before them.[3] Exceptionally, one coin type deviates from the Sasanian design, by showing the bust of a Hepthalite prince holding a drinking cup.[3] Overall, the Sasanians paid "an enormous tribute" to the Hephthalites, until the 530s and the rise of Khosrow I.[82]

Protectors of Kavad edit

Following their victory over Peroz I, the Hepthalites became protectors and benefactors of his son Kavad I, as Balash, a brother of Peroz took the Sasanian throne.[123] In 488, a Hepthalite army vanquished the Sasaniana army of Balash, and was able to put Kavad I (488–496, 498–531) on the throne.[123]

In 496–498, Kavad I was overthrown by the nobles and clergy, escaped, and restored himself with a Hephthalite army. Joshua the Stylite reports numerous instances in which Kavadh led Hepthalite ("Hun") troops, in the capture of the city of Theodosiupolis of Armenia in 501–502, in battles against the Romans in 502–503, and again during the siege of Edessa in September 503.[122][127][128]

Hephthalites in Tokharistan (466 CE) edit

 
Hephthalite-style couple at a banquet, with man in single-lapel caftan. Inscription: "Dhenakk, the son of xwn (Hun)".[129] Bactria, second half of the 5th century CE.[130] St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum.[3]
 
A tax receipt in Bactrian for the Hephthalites in Tokharistan. Archives of the Kingdom of Rob, 483/484 CE.[3]

Around 461–462 CE, an Alchon Hun ruler named Mehama is known to have been based in Eastern Tokharistan, possibly indicating a partition of the region between the Hephthalites in western Tokharistan, centered on Balkh, and the Alchon Huns in eastern Tokharistan, who would then go on to expand into northern India.[131] Mehama appears in a letter in the Bactrian language he wrote in 461–462 CE, where he describes himself as "Meyam, King of the people of Kadag, the governor of the famous and prosperous King of Kings Peroz".[131] Kadag is Kadagstan, an area in southern Bactria, in the region of Baghlan. Significantly, he presents himself as a vassal of the Sasanian Empire king Peroz I, but Mehama was probably later able to wrestle autonomy or even independence as Sasanian power waned and he moved into India, with dire consequences for the Gupta Empire.[131][132][133]

The Hepthalites probably expanded into Tokharistan following the destruction of the Kidarites in 466. The presence of the Hepthalites in Tokharistan (Bactria) is securely dated to 484 CE, date of a tax receipt from the Kingdom of Rob mentioning the need to sell some land in order to pay Hephthalite taxes.[134] Two documents were also found, with dates from the period from 492 to 527 CE, mentioning taxes paid to Hephthalite rulers. Another, undated documents, mentions scribal and judiciary functions under the Hephthalites:

Sartu, the son of Hwade-gang, the prosperous Yabghu of the Hepthalite people (ebodalo shabgo); Haru Rob, the scribe of the Hephthalite ruler (ebodalo eoaggo), the judge of Tokharistan and Gharchistan.

— Document of the Kingdom of Rob.[135]

Hephthalite conquest of Sogdiana (479 CE) edit

 
Local coinage of Samarkand, Sogdia, with the Hepthalite tamgha on the reverse.[136]
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Territory of the Imperial Hephthalites and main Asian polities c. 500 CE

The Hephthalites conquered the territory of Sogdiana, beyond the Oxus, which was incorporated into their Empire.[137] They may have conquered Sogdiana as early as 479 CE, as this is the date of the last known embassy of the Sogdians to China.[137][138] The account of the Liang Zhigongtu also seems to record that from around 479 CE, the Hephthalites occupied the region of Samarkand.[138] Alternatively, the Hephthalites may have occupied Sogdia later in 509 CE, as this is the date of the last known embassy from Samarkand to the Chinese Empire, but this might not be conclusive as several cities, such as Balkh or Kobadiyan, are known to have sent embassies to China as late as 522 CE, while under Hephthalite control.[138] As early as 484, the famous Hephthalite ruler Akhshunwar, who defeated Peroz I, held a title that may be understood as Sogdian: "’xs’wnd’r" ("power-holder").[138]

The Hephthalites may have built major fortified Hippodamian cities (rectangular walls with an orthogonal network of streets) in Sogdiana, such as Bukhara and Panjikent, as they had also in Herat, continuing the city-building efforts of the Kidarites.[138] The Hephthalites probably ruled over a confederation of local rulers or governors, linked through alliance agreements. One of these vassals may have been Asbar, ruler of Vardanzi, who also minted his own coinage during the period.[139]

The wealth of the Sasanian ransoms and tributes may have been reinvested in Sogdia, possibly explaining the prosperity of the region from that time.[138] Sogdia, at the center of a new Silk Road between China to the Sasanian Empire and the Byzantine Empire became extremely prosperous under its nomadic elites.[140] The Hephthalites took on the role of major intermediary on the Silk Road, after their great predecessor the Kushans, and contracted local Sogdians to carry on the trade of silk and other luxury goods between the China Empire and the Sasanian Empire.[141]

Because of the Hephthalite occupation of Sogdia, the original coinage of Sogdia came to be flooded by the influx of Sasanian coins received as a tribute to the Hephthalites. This coinage then spread along the Silk Road.[137] The symbol of the Hephthalites appears on the residual coinage of Samarkand, probably as a consequence of the Hephthalite control of Sogdia, and becomes prominent in Sogdian coinage from 500 to 700 CE, including in the coinage of their indigenous successors the Ikhshids (642-755 CE), ending with the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana.[142][143]

Tarim Basin (circa 480–550 CE) edit

 
Kizil Caves swordsmen in Hephthalite style.[144][145] This mural was carbon dated to 432–538 CE.[146][147]
 
Painter in single-lapel caftan, Kizil Caves, circa 500 CE (enlarged detail).[148][149] The label at his feet is in Sanskrit (Gupta script) and reads: "Painting of Tutuka" (Citrakara Tututkasya).[150][151]

In the late 5th century CE they expanded eastward through the Pamir Mountains, which are comparatively easy to cross, as did the Kushans before them, due to the presence of convenient plateaus between high peaks.[152] They occupied the western Tarim Basin (Kashgar and Khotan), taking control of the area from the Rourans, who had been collecting heavy tribute from the oasis cities, but were now weakening under the assaults of the Chinese Northern Wei dynasty.[45] In 479 they took the east end of the Tarim Basin, around the region of Turfan.[45][153] In 497–509, they pushed north of Turfan to the Urumchi region.[153] In the early years of the 6th century, they were sending embassies from their dominions in the Tarim Basin to the Northern Wei dynasty.[45][153] They were probably in contact with Li Xian, the Chinese Governor of Dunhuang, who is known for having furnished his tomb with a Western-style ewer probably made in Bactria.[153]

The Hephthalites continued to occupy the Tarim Basin until the end of their Empire, circa 560 CE.[45][154]

As the territories ruled by the Hephthalites expanded into Central Asia and the Tarim Basin, the art of the Hephthalites, characterized by the clothing and hairstyles of the figures being represented, also came to be used in the areas they ruled, such as Sogdiana, Bamyan or Kucha in the Tarim Basin (Kizil Caves, Kumtura Caves, Subashi reliquary).[144][48][155] In these areas appear dignitaries with caftans with a triangular collar on the right side, crowns with three crescents, some crowns with wings, and a unique hairstyle. Another marker is the two-point suspension system for swords, which seems to have been an Hephthalite innovation, and was introduced by them in the territories they controlled.[144] The paintings from the Kucha region, particularly the swordsmen in the Kizil Caves, appear to have been made during Hephthalite rule in the region, circa 480–550 CE.[144][156] The influence of the art of Gandhara in some of the earliest paintings at the Kizil Caves, dated to circa 500 CE, is considered as a consequence of the political unification of the area between Bactria and Kucha under the Hephthalites.[157] Some words of the Tocharian languages may have been adopted from the Hephthalites in the 6th century CE.[158]

The early Turks of the First Turkic Khaganate then took control of the Turfan and Kucha areas from around 560 CE, and, in alliance with the Sasanian Empire, became instrumental in the fall of the Hepthalite Empire.[159]

Hephthalite embassies to Liang China (516–526 CE) edit

Main article: Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang
 
Hephthalite (滑, Hua) ambassador at the Chinese court of the Southern Liang in the capital Jingzhou in 516–526 CE, with explanatory text. Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang, painted by Pei Ziye or the future Emperor Yuan of Liang while he was a Governor of the Province of Jingzhou as a young man between 526 and 539 CE.[160] 11th century Song copy.[161][162]

An illustrated account of a Hepthalite (滑, Hua) embassy to the Chinese court of the Southern Liang in the capital Jingzhou in 516–526 CE is given in Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang, originally painted by Pei Ziye or the future Emperor Yuan of Liang while he was a Governor of the Province of Jingzhou as a young man between 526 and 539 CE,[160] and of which an 11th-century Song copy is preserved.[161][162][163] The text explains how small the country of the Hua was when they were still vassals of the Rouran Khaganate, and how they later moved to "Moxian", possibly referring to their occupation of Sogdia, and then conquered numerous neighbouring country, including the Sasanian Empire:[161][164][165][166][f]

When the Suolu (Northern Wei) entered (the Chinese frontier) and settled in the (valley of the river) Sanggan (i.e. in the period 398–494 CE), the Hua was still a small country and under the rule of the Ruirui. In the Qi period (479–502 CE), they left (their original area) for the first time and shifted to Moxian (possibly Samarkand), where they settled.[167] Growing more and more powerful in the course of time, the Hua succeeded in conquering the neighbouring countries such as Bosi (Sasanid Persia), Panpan (Tashkurgan?), Jibin (Kashmir), Wuchang (Uddiyana or Khorasan), Qiuci (Kucha), Shule (Kashgar), Yutian (Khotan) and Goupan (Karghalik), and expanded their territory by a thousand li...[166]

— "Hua" paragraph in Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang.[161]

The Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang mentions that no envoys from the Hephthalites came before 516 to the southern court, and it was only in that year that a Hephthalite King named Yilituo Yandai (姓厭帶名夷栗陁) sent an ambassador named Puduoda[] (蒲多达[], possibly a Buddhist name "Buddhadatta" or "Buddhadāsa").[162][168] In 520, another ambassador named Fuheliaoliao (富何了了) visited the Liang court, bringing a yellow lion, a white marten fur coat and Persian brocade as present.[162][168] Another ambassador named Kang Fuzhen (康符真), followed with presents as well (in 526 CE according to the Liangshu).[162][168] Their language had to be translated by the Tuyuhun.[168]

In Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang, the Hepthalithes are treated as the most important foreign state, as they occupy the leading position, at the front of the column of foreign ambassadors, and have by far the largest descriptive text.[169] The Hepthalites were, according to the Liangshu (Chap.54), accompanied in their embassy by three states: Humidan (胡蜜丹), Yarkand (周古柯, Khargalik) and Kabadiyan (呵跋檀).[170] The envoys from right to left were: the Hephthalites (滑/嚈哒), Persia (波斯), Korea (百濟), Kucha (龜茲), Japan (倭), Malaysia (狼牙脩), Qiang (鄧至), Yarkand (周古柯, Zhouguke, "near Hua"),[170] Kabadiyan (呵跋檀 Hebatan, "near Hua"),[170] Kumedh (胡蜜丹, Humidan, "near Hua"),[170] Balkh (白題, Baiti, "descendants of the Xiongnu and east of the Hua"),[170] and finally Merv (末).[169][161][171]

Most of the ambassadors from Central Asia are shown wearing heavy beards and relatively long hair, but, in stark contrast, the Hephthalite ambassador, as well as the ambassador from Balkh, are clean-shaven and bare-headed, and their hair is cropped short.[172] These physical characteristics are also visible in many of the Central Asian seals of the period.[172]

 
The Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang with descriptions of each ambassador, led by the representative of the Hephthalites (far right), 526–539 CE Southern Liang painting. National Museum of China.[161]

Other embassies edit

Overall, Chinese chronicles recorded twenty-four Hephthalite embassies: the first embassy in 456, and the others from 507 to 558 CE (including fifteen to the Northern Wei until the end of this dynasty in 535, and five to the Southern Liang in 516–541).[173][174] The last three are mentioned in the Zhoushu, which records that the Hepththalites had conquered Anxi, Yutian (Hotan region in Xinjiang) and more than twenty other countries, and that they sent embassies to the Chinese court of the Western Wei and Northern Zhou in 546, 553 and 558 CE respectively, after what the Hepthalites were "crushed by the Turks" and embassies stopped.[175]

The Hephthalites also requested and obtained a Christian bishop from the Patriarch of the Church of the East Mar Aba I circa 550 CE.[176]

Buddhas of Bamiyan (544–644 CE) edit

Buddhas of Bamiyan
 
Painted ceiling over the head of the smaller 38-meter Eastern Buddha
 
Sun God in Central Asian costume at the center of the ceiling.[177][178]
 
Rows of royal donors in Hephthalite costumes with sitting Buddhas, around the Sun God on the ceiling.
The Buddhas of Bamyan, carbon-dated to 544–595 CE and 591–644 CE respectively,[85] were built under Hephthalite rule in the region.[87][88] Murals of probable Hephthalite rulers as royal sponsors, around the central Sun God, appear in the paintings of the ceiling over the smaller Buddha.[76][77]

The complex of the Buddhas of Bamiyan was developed under Hephthalite rule.[87][88][179] After the dissolution of their empire in 550-560, the Hephthalites continued to rule in the geographical areas corresponding to Tokharistan and today's northern Afghanistan,[1][180][181] and particularly held a series of castles on the roads to Bamiyan.[182] Carbon dating of the structural components of the Buddhas has determined that the smaller 38 m (125 ft) "Eastern Buddha" was built around 570 CE (544–595 CE with 95% probability), while the larger 55 m (180 ft) "Western Buddha" was built around 618 CE (591–644 CE with 95% probability).[85] This corresponds to the period soon before or after the major defeat of the Hephthalites against the combined forces of Western Turk and Sasanian Empire (557 CE), or the following period during which they regrouped south of the Oxus as Principalities, but essentially before the Western Turks finally overran the region to form the Tokhara Yabghus (625 CE).

Among the most famous paintings of the Buddhas of Bamyan, the ceiling of the smaller Eastern Buddha represents a solar deity on a chariot pulled by horses, as well as ceremonial scenes with royal figures and devotees.[177] The god is wearing a caftan in the style of Tokhara, boots, and is holding a lance, he is "The Sun God and a Golden Chariot Rising in Heaven".[183] His representation is derived from the iconography of the Iranian god Mithra, as revered in Sogdia.[183] He is riding a two-wheeled golden charriot, pulled by four horses.[183] Two winged attendants are standing to the side of the charriot, wearing a Corinthian helmet with a feather, and holding a shield.[183] In the top portion are wind gods, flying with a scarf held in both hands.[183] This great composition is unique, and has no equivalent in Gandhara or India, but there are some similarities with the painting of Kizil or Dunhuang.[183]

The central image of the Sun God on his golden chariot is framed by two lateral rows in individuals: Kings and dignitaries mingling with Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.[110] One of the personages, standing behind a monk in profile, much be the King of Bamyan.[110] He wears a crenelated crown with single crescent and korymbos, a round-neck tunic and a Sasanian headband.[110] Several of the figures, either royal couples, crowned individuals or richly dressed women, have the characteristic appearance of the Hephthalites of Tokharistan, with belted jackets with a unique lapel of their tunic being folded on the right side, the cropped hair, the hair accessories, their distinctive physionomy and their round beardless faces.[77][110][184] These figures must represent the donors and potentates who supported the building of the monumental giant Buddha.[110] They are gathered around the Seven Buddhas of the past and Maitreya.[185] The individuals in this painting are very similar to the individuals depicted in Balalyk Tepe, and they may be related to the Hepthalites.[77][186] They participate "to the artistic tradition of the Hephthalite ruling classes of Tukharestan".[187]

These murals disappeared with the destruction of the statues by the Taliban in 2001.[110]

Hephthalite royals on the tombs of Sogdian traders edit

 
 
Probable Hephthalite royal figures in the Tomb of Wirkak (580 CE).[188]

The Tomb of Wirkak is the tomb of a 6th-century Sogdian trader established in China, and discovered in Xi'an.[188] It seems that depictions of Hephthalite rulers are omnipresent in the pictorial decorations of the tomb, as royal figures with elaborate Sasanian-type crowns appearing in their palaces, nomadic yurts or while hunting.[188] Hephthalites rulers are shown short-haired, wearing tunics, and are often depicted together with their female consort.[188] The Sogdian trader Wirkak may therefore have primarily dealt with the Hephthalites during his young years (he was around 60 when the Hephthalites were finally destroyed by the alliance of the Sasanians and the Turks between 556 and 560 CE).[189] The Hephthalites also appear in four panels of the Miho funerary couch (c.570 CE) with somewhat caricatural features, and characteristics of vassals to the Turks.[190] On the contrary, the depictions in the tombs of later Sogdian traders, such as the Tomb of An Jia (who was 24 years younger than Wirwak), already show the omnipresence of the Turks of the First Turkic Khaganate, who were probably his main trading partners during his active life.[189]

End of the Empire and fragmentation into Hephthalite Principalities (560–710 CE) edit

 
Hephthalite coin of the Principality of Chaghaniyan, after the fall of the Hephthalite Empire, with crowned King and Queen, in Byzantine fashion, circa 550–650 CE.[191]

After Kavad I, the Hephthalites seem to have shifted their attention away from the Sasanian Empire, and Kavad's successor Khosrow I (531–579) was able to resume an expansionist policy to the east.[123] According to al-Tabari, Khosrow I managed, through his expansionsit policy, to take control of "Sind, Bust, Al-Rukkhaj, Zabulistan, Tukharistan, Dardistan, and Kabulistan" as he ultimately defeated the Hephthalites with the help of the First Turkic Khaganate.[123]

In 552, the Göktürks took over Mongolia, formed the First Turkic Khaganate, and by 558 reached the Volga. Circa 555–567,[g] the Turks of the First Turkic Khaganate and the Sasanians under Khosrow I allied against the Hephthalites and defeated them after an eight-day battle near Qarshi, the Battle of Gol-Zarriun, perhaps in 557.[h][193]

These events put an end to the Hephthalite Empire, which fragmented into semi-independent Principalities, paying tribute to either the Sasanians or the Turks, depending on the military situation.[1][180] After the defeat, the Hephthalites withdrew to Bactria and replaced king Gatfar with Faghanish, the ruler of Chaghaniyan. Thereafter, the area around the Oxus in Bactria contained numerous Hephthalites principalities, remnants of the great Hephthalite Empire destroyed by the alliance of the Turks and the Sasanians.[194] They are reported in the Zarafshan valley, Chaghaniyan, Khuttal, Termez, Balkh, Badghis, Herat and Kabul, in the geographical areas corresponding to Tokharistan and today's northern Afghanistan.[1][180][195] They also held a series of castles on the roads to Bamiyan.[196] Extensive Hephthalite kurghan necropoli have been excavated all over the region, as well as a possible one in the Bamiyan valley.[197]

The Sasanians and Turks established a frontier for their zones of influence along the Oxus river, and the Hephthalite Principalities functioned as buffer states between two Empires.[180] But when the Hephthalites chose Faghanish as their king in Chaganiyan, Khosrow I crossed the Oxus and put the Principalities of Chaghaniyan and Khuttal under tribute.[180]

When Khosrow I died in 579, the Hephthalites of Tokharistan and Khotan took advantage of the situation to rebel against the Sasanians, but their efforts were obliterated by the Turks.[180] By 581 or before, the western part of the First Turkic Khaganate separated and became the Western Turkic Khaganate. In 588, triggering the First Perso-Turkic War, the Turkic Khagan Bagha Qaghan (known as Sabeh/Saba in Persian sources), together with his Hephthalite subjects, invaded the Sasanian territories south of the Oxus, where they attacked and routed the Sasanian soldiers stationed in Balkh, and then proceeded to conquer the city along with Talaqan, Badghis, and Herat.[198] They were finally repelled by the Sasanian general Vahram Chobin.[180]

Raids into the Sasanid Empire (600–610 CE) edit

 
 
Hephthalites Principalities c. 557–710 CE

Circa 600, the Hephthalites were raiding the Sasanian Empire as far as Ispahan (Spahan) in central Iran. The Hephthalites issued numerous coins imitating the coinage of Khosrow II, adding on the obverse a Hephthalite signature in Sogdian and a Tamgha symbol  .

Circa 616/617 CE the Göktürks and Hephthalites raided the Sasanian Empire, reaching the province of Isfahan.[199] Khosrow recalled Smbat IV Bagratuni from Persian Armenia and sent him to Iran to repel the invaders. Smbat, with the aid of a Persian prince named Datoyean, repelled the Hephthalites from Persia, and plundered their domains in eastern Khorasan, where Smbat is said to have killed their king in single combat. Khosrow then gave Smbat the honorific title Khosrow Shun ("the Joy or Satisfaction of Khosrow"), while his son Varaztirots II Bagratuni received the honorific name Javitean Khosrow ("Eternal Khosrow").[200]

Western Turk takeover (625 CE) edit

 
Ambassador from Chaganian visiting king Varkhuman of Samarkand 648–651 CE. Afrasiyab murals, Samarkand.[11][201][202][203] Chaganian was an "Hephthalite buffer principality" between Denov and Termez.[11]
Main articles: Western Turks and Tokhara Yabghus

From 625 CE, the territory of the Hephthalites from Tokharistan to Kabulistan was taken over by the Western Turks, forming an entity ruled by Western Turk nobles, the Tokhara Yabghus.[180] The Tokhara Yabghus or "Yabghus of Tokharistan" (Chinese: 吐火羅葉護; pinyin: Tǔhuǒluó Yèhù), were a dynasty of Western Turk sub-kings, with the title "Yabghus", who ruled from 625 CE south of the Oxus river, in the area of Tokharistan and beyond, with some smaller polities surviving in the area of Badakhshan until 758 CE. Their legacy was extended to the southeast until the 9th century CE, with the Turk Shahis and the Zunbils.

Arab invasion (c.651 CE) edit

Circa 650 CE, during the Arab conquest of the Sasanian Empire, the Sasanian Empire ruler Yazdegerd III was trying to regroup and gather forces around Tokharistan and was hoping to obtain the help of the Turks, after his defeat to the Arabs in the Battle of Nihâvand (642 CE).[204] Yazdegerd was initially supported by the Hephthalite Principality of Chaghaniyan, which sent him troops to aid him against the Arabs. But when Yazdegerd arrived in Merv (in what is today's Turkmenistan) he demanded tax from the Marzban of Marw, losing his support and making him ally with the Hephthalite ruler of Badghis, Nezak Tarkan. The Hepthalite ruler of Badghis allied with the Marzban of Merv attack Yazdegerd and defeated him in 651.[204] Yazdegerd III barely escaped with his life but was murdered in the vicinity of Merv soon after, and the Arabs managed to capture the city of Merv the same year.[204]

In 652 CE, following the Siege of Herat (652) to which the Hephthalites participated, the Arabs captured the cities of northern Tokharistan, Balkh included, and the Hepthalites principalities were forced to pay tribute and accept Arab garrisons.[204] The Hephthalites again rebelled in 654 CE, leading to the Battle of Badghis.

In 659, Chinese chronicles still mentioned the "Hephtalite Tarkans" (悒達太汗 Yida Taihan, probably related to "Nezak Tarkan"), as some of the rulers in Tokharistan who remained theoretically subjects to the Chinese Empire, and whose main city was Huolu 活路 (modern Mazār-e Sherif, Afghanistan).[205][206]

The city of Merv became the base of the Arabs for their Central Asian operations.[204] The Arabs weakened during the 4-year civil war leading to the establishment of the Umayyad Caliphate in 661, but they were able to continue their expansion after that.[204]

Hephthalite revolts against the Ummayad Caliphate (689–710 CE) edit
 
Hephthalite copy of a Sasano-Arab coin of Abd Allah ibn Khazim with AH 69 (688 CE) date. In the margin: a Hephthalite countermark with crowned facing head and a late tamgha  . Circa 700 CE.

Circa 689 CE, the Hephthalite ruler of Badghis and the Arab rebel Musa ibn Abd Allah ibn Khazim, son of the Zubayrid governor of Khurasan Abd Allah ibn Khazim al-Sulami, allied against the forces of the Umayyad Caliphate.[207] The Hepthalites and their allies captured Termez in 689, repelled the Arabs, and occupied the whole region of Khorasan for a brief period, with Termez as the capital, described by the Arabs as "the headquarters of the Hephthalites" (dār mamlakat al-Hayāṭela).[208][209] The Arabs of the Umayyad Caliphate under Yazid ibn al-Muhallab re-captured Termez in 704.[207][205] Nezak Tarkan, the ruler of the Hephthalites of Badghis, led a new revolt in 709 with the support of other principalities as well as his nominal ruler, the Yabghu of Tokharistan.[208] In 710, Qutaiba ibn Muslim was able to re-establish Muslim control over Tokharistan and captured Nezak Tarkan who was executed on al-Hajjaj's orders, despite promises of pardon, while the Yabghu was exiled to Damascus and kept there as a hostage.[210][211][212]

In 718 CE, Chinese chronicles still mention the Hephthalites (悒達 Yida) as one of the polities under the suzerainty of the Turkic Tokhara Yabghus, capable of providing 50,000 soldiers at the service of its overlord.[205] Some remnants, not necessarily dynastic, of the Hephthalite confederation would be incorporated into the Göktürks, as an Old Tibetan document, dated to the 8th century, mentioned the tribe Heb-dal among 12 Dru-gu tribes ruled by Eastern Turkic khagan Bug-chor, i.e. Qapaghan Qaghan[213] Chinese chronicles report embassies from the "Hephtalite kingdom" as late as 748 CE.[205][214]

Military and weapons edit

 
 
 
Swords with ornate cloisonné designs, found in the paintings of the Kizil Caves, may be versions of daggers produced under Hephthalite influence.[144] The sword guards of the knights ( ) depicted in the "Cave of the Painters" at Kizil have typical Hunnish designs of rectangle or oval shapes with cloisonné ornamentation, and are dated to the 5th century CE.[215]
 
Gyerim-ro dagger

The Hephthalites were considered as a powerful military force.[216] Depending on sources, their main weapon was the bow, the mace or the sword.[216] Judging from their military achievements, they probably had a strong cavalry.[216] In Persia, according to the 6th century Armenian chronicler Lazar of P’arpec’i:

Even in time of peace the mere sight or mention of a Hephthalite terrified everybody, and there was no question of going to war openly against one, for everybody remembered all too clearly the calamities and defeats inflicted by the Hephthalites on the king of the Aryans and on the Persians.

— Armenian chronicler Lazar of P’arpec’i.[216]

"Hunnic" designs in weaponry are known to have influenced Sasanian designs during the 6th–7th century CE, just before Islamic invasions.[217] The Sasanians adopted Hunnish nomadic designs for straight iron swords and their gold-covered scabbards.[217] This is particularly the case of two-straps suspension design, in which straps of different lengths were attached to a P-shaped projection on the scabbard, so that the sword could be held sideways, making it easier to draw, especially when on horseback.[217] The two-point suspension system for swords is considered to have been introduced by the Hephthalites in Central Asia and in the Sasanian Empire and is a marker of their influence, and the design was generally introduced by them in the territories they controlled.[144] The first example of two-suspension sword in Sasanian art occurs in a relief of Taq-i Bustan dated to the time of Khusro II (590–628 CE), and is thought to have been adopted from the Hepthalites.[144]

Swords with ornate cloisonné designs and two-straps suspensions, as found in the paintings of Penjikent and Kizil and in archaeological excavations, may be versions of the daggers produced under Hephthalite influence.[218] Weapons with Hunnic designs are depicted in the "Cave of the Painters" in the Kizil Caves, in a mural showing armoured warriors and dated to the 5th century CE.[215] Their sword guards have typical Hunnish designs of rectangle or oval shapes with cloisonné ornamentation.[215] The Gyerim-ro dagger, found in a tomb in Korea, is a 5-6th century highly decorated dagger and scabbard of "Hunnic" two-straps suspension design, introduced by the Hephthalites in Central Asia.[219] The Gyerim-ro dagger is thought to have reached Korea either through trade or as a diplomatic gift.[220]

Lamellar helmets were also popularized by the steppe nomads, and were adopted by the Sasanian Empire when they took control of former Hephthalite territory.[221] This type of helmet appears in sculptures on pillar capitals at Ṭāq-e Bostān and Behistun, and on the Anahita coinage of Khosrow II (r. 590–628 CE).[221]

 
Sasanian sword and scabbard derived from "Hunnic" two-straps suspension designs, Sasanian Empire, 7th century CE.[217][144]

Religion and culture edit

 
The Buddhist "Hunter King" from Kakrak, a valley next to Bamyan is often presented as a result of Hephthalite influence, especially in reference to the "triple-crescent crown". Wall paintings from the 7th–8th century, Kabul Museum.[222][223]

They were said to practice polyandry and artificial cranial deformation. Chinese sources said they worshiped 'foreign gods', 'demons', the 'heaven god' or the 'fire god'. The Gokturks told the Byzantines that they had walled cities. Some Chinese sources said that they had no cities and lived in tents. Litvinsky tries to resolve this by saying that they were nomads who moved into the cities they had conquered. There were some government officials but central control was weak and local dynasties paid tribute.[224]

According to Song Yun, the Chinese Buddhist monk who visited the Hephthalite territory in 540 and "provides accurate accounts of the people, their clothing, the empresses and court procedures and traditions of the people and he states the Hephthalites did not recognize the Buddhist religion and they preached pseudo gods, and killed animals for their meat."[7] It is reported that some Hephthalites often destroyed Buddhist monasteries but these were rebuilt by others. According to Xuanzang, the third Chinese pilgrim who visited the same areas as Song Yun about 100 years later, the capital of Chaghaniyan had five monasteries.[62]

 
The triple-crescent crown in this Penjikent mural (top left corner), is considered as a Hephthalite marker. 7th-early 8th century.[225]

According to historian André Wink, "...in the Hephthalite dominion Buddhism was predominant but there was also a religious sediment of Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism."[9] Balkh had some 100 Buddhist monasteries and 30,000 monks. Outside the town was a large Buddhist monastery, later known as Naubahar.[62]

There were Christians among the Hephthalites by the mid-6th century, although nothing is known of how they were converted. In 549, they sent a delegation to Aba I, the patriarch of the Church of the East, asking him to consecrate a priest chosen by them as their bishop, which the patriarch did. The new bishop then performed obeisance to both the patriarch and the Sasanian king, Khosrow I. The seat of the bishopric is not known, but it may have been Badghis–Qadištan, the bishop of which, Gabriel, sent a delegate to the synod of Patriarch Ishoyahb I in 585.[226] It was probably placed under the metropolitan of Herat. The church's presence among the Hephthalites enabled them to expand their missionary work across the Oxus. In 591, some Hephthalites serving in the army of the rebel Bahram Chobin were captured by Khosrow II and sent to the Roman emperor Maurice as a diplomatic gift. They had Nestorian crosses tattooed on their foreheads.[10][227]

Hephthalite seals edit

 
Stamp seal with a bearded figure in Sasanian dress, wearing the kulāf denoting nobility and officials; and a figure with radiate crown,[i] both with royal ribbons. Attributed to the Hephthalites,[229] and recently dated to the 5th–6th century CE.[230] According to earlier sources, Bivar (1969) and Livshits (1969), repeated by the British Museum, the seal was dated to the 300–350 CE.[231][232] Stamp seal (BM 119999), British Museum.

Several seals found in Bactria and Sogdia have been attributed to the Hephthalites.

  • The "Hephthalite Yabghu seal" shows a Hephthalite ruler with a radiate crown, royal ribbons and a beardless face, with the Bactrian script title "Ebodalo Yabghu" (    ηβοδαλο ββγο, "The Lord of the Hephthalites"), and has been dated to the end of the 5th century-early 6th century CE.[3][27][34] This important seal was published by Judith A. Lerner and Nicholas Sims-Williams in 2011.[233]
  • Stamp seal (BM 119999) in the British Museum shows two facing figures, one bearded and wearing the Sasanian dress, and the other without facial hair and wearing a radiate crown, both being adorned with royal ribbons. This seal was initially dated to 300–350 CE and attributed to the Kushano-Sasanians,[231][234] but has been more recently attributed to the Hephthalites,[229] and dated to the 5th–6th century CE.[230] Paleographically, the seal can be attributed to the 4th century or first half of the 5th century.[235]
  • The "Seal of Khingila" shows a beardless ruler with radiate crown and royal ribbons, wearing a single-lapel caftan, in the name of Eškiŋgil (εϸχιγγιλο), which could correspond to one of the rulers named Khingila (χιγγιλο), or may be a Hunnic title meaning "Companion of the Sword", or even "Companion of the God of War".[236][237]

Local populations under the Hephthalites edit

The Hephthalites governed a confederation of various people, many of whom were probably of Iranian descent, speaking an Iranian language.[238] Several cities, such as Balkh, Kobadiyan and possibly Samarkand, were allowed to send regional embassies to China while under Hephthalite control.[138] Several portraits of regional ambassadors from the territories occupied by the Hephthalites (Tokharistan, Tarim Basin) are known from Chinese paintings such as the Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang, originally painted in 526–539 CE.[166] They were at that time under the overlordship of the Hephthalites, who led the embassies to the Southern Liang court in the early 6th century CE.[169][170] A century later, under the Tang dynasty, portraits of the local people of Tokharistan were again illustrated in The Gathering of Kings, circa 650 CE. Etienne de la Vaissière has estimated the local population of each major oasis in Tokharistan and Western Turkestan during the period to around several hundreds of thousands each, while the major oasis of the Tarim Basin are more likely to have had populations ranging in the tens of thousands each.[239]

The Alchon Huns (formerly considered as a branch of the Hephthalites) in South Asia edit

Main article: Alchon Huns
class=notpageimage|
Find spots of epigraphic inscriptions (red dots) indicating local control by the Alchon Huns in India between 500–530 CE.[240]

The Alchon Huns, who invaded northern India and were known there as "Hūṇas", have long been considered as a part or a sub-division of the Hephthalites, or as their eastern branch, but now tend to be considered as a separate entity, who may have been displaced by the settlement of the Hephthalites in Bactria.[241][242][243] Historians such as Beckwith, referring to Étienne de la Vaissière, say that the Hephthalites were not necessarily one and the same as the Hunas (Sveta Huna).[244] According to de la Vaissiere, the Hephthalites are not directly identified in classical sources alongside that of the Hunas.[245] They were initially based in the Oxus basin in Central Asia and established their control over Gandhara in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent by about 465 CE.[246] From there, they fanned out into various parts of northern, western, and central India.

In India, these invading people were called Hunas, or "Sveta Huna" (White Huns) in Sanskrit.[40] The Hūṇas are mentioned in several ancient texts such as the Rāmāyaṇa, Mahābhārata, Purāṇas, and Kalidasa's Raghuvaṃśa.[247] The first Hunas, probably Kidarites, were initially defeated by Emperor Skandagupta of the Gupta Empire in the 5th century CE.[248] In the early 6th century CE, the Alchon Hun Hunas in turn overran the part of the Gupta Empire that was to their southeast and had conquered Central and North India.[8] Gupta Emperor Bhanugupta defeated the Hunas under Toramana in 510, and his son Mihirakula was repulsed by Yashodharman in 528 CE.[249][250] The Hunas were driven out of India by the kings Yasodharman and Narasimhagupta, during the early 6th century.[251][252]

Possible descendants edit

A number of groups may have descended from the Hephthalites.[253][254]

  • Avars: suggestions have been made that the Pannonian Avars were Hepthalites who went to Europe after their collapse in 557 CE, but this is not adequately supported by archaeological or written sources.[255]
  • Pashtuns: The Hephthalites may have contributed to the ethnogenesis of Pashtuns. Yu. V. Gankovsky, a Soviet historian on Afghanistan, stated: "Pashtun began as a union of largely East Iranian tribes, which became the initial ethnic stratum of the Pashtun ethnogenesis dating from the middle of the first millennium CE, and is connected with the dissolution of the Hephthalite confederacy."[256] According to The Cambridge History of Iran the descendants of Hephthalites are Pashtuns.[257]
    • Durrani: The Durrani Pashtuns of Afghanistan were called "Abdali" before 1747. According to linguist Georg Morgenstierne, their tribal name Abdālī may have "something to do with" the Hephthalite.[258] This hypothesis was endorsed by historian Aydogdy Kurbanov, who indicated that after the collapse of the Hephthalite confederacy, they likely assimilated into different local populations and that the Abdali may be one of the tribes of Hephthalite origin.[8]
 
Coin of Tegin Shah, self-described as "Iltäbar (sub-King) of the Khalaj", dated to the year 728 CE, on the Hephthalite model, imitating Sasanian king Peroz I (438-457).[259][260]
  • Khalaj: The Khalaj people are first mentioned in the 7th–9th centuries in the area of Ghazni, Qalati Ghilji, and Zabulistan in present-day Afghanistan. They spoke Khalaj Turkic. Al-Khwarizmi mentioned them as a remnant tribe of the Hephthalites. However, according to linguist Sims-Williams, archaeological documents do not support the suggestion that the Khalaj were the Hephthalites' successors,[261] while according to historian V. Minorsky, the Khalaj were "perhaps only politically associated with the Hephthalites." Some of the Khalaj were later Pashtunized, after which they transformed into the Pashtun Ghilji tribe.[262]
  • Kanjina: a Saka tribe linked to the Indo-Iranian Kumijis[263][264] and incorporated into the Hephthalites. Kanjinas were possibly Turkicized later, as al-Khwarizmi called them "Kanjina Turks". However, Bosworth and Clauson contended that al-Khwarizmi was simply using "Turks" "in the vague and inaccurate sense".[265]
  • Karluks: (or Qarlughids) were reported as settled in Ghazni and Zabulistan, present-day Afghanistan, in the thirteenth century. Many Muslim geographers identified "Karluks" Khallukh ~ Kharlukh with "Khalajes" Khalaj from confusion, as the two names were similar and these two groups dwelt near each other.[266][267]
  • Abdal is a name associated with the Hephthalites. It is an alternate name for the Äynu people.

Hephthalite rulers edit

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ de la Vaissière proposes underlying Turkic Yeti-Al, later translated to Iranian Haft-Al
  2. ^ de la Vaissière also cited Sims-Williams, who noted that the initial η- ē of the Bactrian form ηβοδαλο Ēbodālo precluded etymology based on Iranian haft and consequently hypothetical underlying Turkic yeti "seven"
  3. ^ Similar crowns are known in other seals such as the seal of "Kedīr, the hazāruxt" ("Kedir the Chiliarch"), dated by Sims-Williams to the last quarter of the 5th century CE from the paleography of the inscription.[32] Reference for the exact datation: Sundermann, Hintze & de Blois (2009), p. 218, note 14
  4. ^ de la Vaissière (2012) pointed out that "[a] recently published seal gives the title of a fifth-century lord of Samarkand as 'king of the Oglar Huns.'"[70] (βαγο ογλαρ(γ)ο – υονανο). See the seal and this reading of the inscription in Hans Bakker (2020: 13, note 17), referencing from Sim-Williams (2011: 72-74).[71] "Oglar" is thought to derive from the Turk oǧul-lar > oǧlar "sons; princes" plus an Iranian adjective suffix -g.[72] Alternatively, and less likely, "Oglarg" could correspond to "Walkon", and thus the Alchon Huns, although the seal is closer to Kidarites coin types.[72] Another seal found in the Kashmir reads "ολαρ(γ)ο" (seal AA2.3).[71] The Kashmir seal was published by Grenet, ur Rahman, and Sims-Williams (2006:125-127) who compared ολαργο Ularg on the seal to the ethnonym οιλαργανο "people of Wilarg" attested in a Bactrian document written in 629 CE.[73] The style of the sealings is related to the Kidarites, and the title "Kushanshah" is known to have disappeared with the Kidarites.[74]
  5. ^ a b See another example (with coin description).[120]
  6. ^ A similar account of the rise and conquests of the Hua appears in the Liangshu (Volume 54)
  7. ^ The war is variously dated: 560–565 (Gumilyov, 1967); 555 (Stark, 2008, Altturkenzeit, 210); 557 (Iranica, "Khosrow II"); 558–561 (Bivar, "Hephthalites"); 557–563 (Baumer 2018, p. 174); 557–561 (Sinor 1990, p. 301); 560–563 (Litvinsky 1996, p. 143); 562–565 (Christian 1998, p. 252); c. 565 (Grousset 1970, p. 82); 567 (Chavannes, 1903, Documents, 236 and 229)
  8. ^ Michael J. Decker states the battle occurred in 563.[192]
  9. ^ The radiate crown is comparable to the crown of the king on the "Yabghu of the Hephthalites" seal.[228]

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February 23, 2024
hephthalites, bactrian, ηβοδαλο, romanized, ebodalo, sometimes, called, white, huns, also, known, white, hunas, iranian, spet, xyon, sanskrit, sveta, huna, were, people, lived, central, asia, during, centuries, part, larger, group, iranian, huns, they, formed,. The Hephthalites Bactrian hbodalo romanized Ebodalo 11 sometimes called the White Huns also known as the White Hunas in Iranian as the Spet Xyon and in Sanskrit as the Sveta huna 12 13 were a people who lived in Central Asia during the 5th to 8th centuries CE part of the larger group of the Iranian Huns 14 15 They formed an empire the Imperial Hephthalites and were militarily important from 450 CE when they defeated the Kidarites to 560 CE when combined forces from the First Turkic Khaganate and the Sasanian Empire defeated them 1 16 After 560 CE they established principalities in the area of Tokharistan under the suzerainty of the Western Turks in the areas north of the Oxus and of the Sasanian Empire in the areas south of the Oxus before the Tokhara Yabghus took over in 625 16 HephthaliteshbodaloEbodaloEmpire 440s 560 1 Principalities in Tokharistan and the Hindu Kush until 710 2 Tamga of the Imperial Hephthalites known as Tamgha S2 3 4 SASANIANEMPIREHEPHTHALITESALCHONHUNSNEZAKHUNSYuebanMagyarsOghursTOCHARIANSGUPTAEMPIREZHANGZHUNGVAKATAKASROURANKHAGANATEGaoju Turks Territory of the Hepthalite Empire circa 500StatusNomadic empireCapitalKunduz Walwalij Drapsaka or Badian Balkh Pakhlo Common languagesBactrian official 5 Sogdian Sogdiana Chorasmian Prakrit 6 Turkic 5 ReligionBuddhism 7 Manichaeism 8 Zoroastrianism 9 Nestorian Christianity 10 Historical eraLate antiquity EstablishedEmpire 440s Disestablished560 1 Principalities in Tokharistan and the Hindu Kush until 710 2 Preceded by Succeeded byKidaritesSasanian EmpireKangjuAlchon Huns Nezak HunsFirst Turkic KhaganateSasanian EmpireTurk ShahisZunbilsPrincipality of ChaghaniyanThe Imperial Hephthalites based in Bactria expanded eastwards to the Tarim Basin westwards to Sogdia and southwards through Afghanistan but they never went beyond the Hindu Kush which was occupied by the Alchon Huns previously mistakenly regarded as an extension of the Hephthalites 17 They were a tribal confederation and included both nomadic and settled urban communities They formed part of the four major states known collectively as Xyon Xionites or Huna being preceded by the Kidarites and by the Alkhon and succeeded by the Nezak Huns and by the First Turkic Khaganate All of these Hunnic peoples have often been linked by whom to the Huns who invaded Eastern Europe during the same period and or have been referred to as Huns but scholars have reached no consensus about any such connection The stronghold of the Hephthalites was Tokharistan present day southern Uzbekistan and northern Afghanistan on the northern slopes of the Hindu Kush and their capital was probably at Kunduz having come clarification needed from the east possibly from the area of Badakhshan 16 By 479 the Hephthalites had conquered Sogdia and driven the Kidarites eastwards and by 493 they had captured parts of Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin in present day Northwest China The Alchon Huns formerly confused with the Hephthalites expanded into Northern India as well 18 The sources for Hephthalite history are sparse and the opinions of historians differ There is no king list and historians are not sure how the group arose or what language they initially spoke They seem to have called themselves Ebodalo hbodalo hence Hephthal often abbreviated Eb hb a name they wrote in the Bactrian script on some of their coins 19 20 21 22 The origin of the name Hephthalites is unknown it may stem either from a Khotanese word Hitala meaning Strong 23 from hypothetical Sogdian Hebtalit plural of Hebtalak 24 or from postulated Middle Persian haft al the Seven 25 Al 26 a b Contents 1 Name and ethnonyms 1 1 Geographical origin and expansion 2 Origins and characteristics 2 1 Relation to European Huns 2 2 Chinese chronicles 2 3 Appearance 3 History 3 1 Ascendancy over the Sasanian Empire 442 c 530 CE 3 1 1 Victories over the Sasanian Empire 474 484 CE 3 1 2 Hephthalite coinage 3 1 3 Protectors of Kavad 3 2 Hephthalites in Tokharistan 466 CE 3 3 Hephthalite conquest of Sogdiana 479 CE 3 4 Tarim Basin circa 480 550 CE 3 5 Hephthalite embassies to Liang China 516 526 CE 3 5 1 Other embassies 3 6 Buddhas of Bamiyan 544 644 CE 3 7 Hephthalite royals on the tombs of Sogdian traders 3 8 End of the Empire and fragmentation into Hephthalite Principalities 560 710 CE 3 8 1 Raids into the Sasanid Empire 600 610 CE 3 8 2 Western Turk takeover 625 CE 3 8 3 Arab invasion c 651 CE 3 8 3 1 Hephthalite revolts against the Ummayad Caliphate 689 710 CE 4 Military and weapons 5 Religion and culture 6 Hephthalite seals 7 Local populations under the Hephthalites 8 The Alchon Huns formerly considered as a branch of the Hephthalites in South Asia 9 Possible descendants 10 Hephthalite rulers 11 See also 12 Notes 13 References 14 Sources 15 Further reading 16 External linksName and ethnonyms edit nbsp Hephthalite rulerThe Hephthalites called themselves ebodal as seen in this seal of an early Hephthalite king with the Bactrian script inscription nbsp hbodalo bbgoebodalo bbgo Yabghu Lord of the Hephthalites He wears an elaborate radiate crown and royal ribbons End 5th century early 6th century CE 3 17 27 28 The Hephthalites called themselves ebodal Bactrian nbsp Greek script hbodalo in their inscriptions which was commonly abbreviated to nbsp hb Eb in their coinage 29 27 An important and unique seal held in the private collection of Professor Dr Aman ur Rahman and published by Nicholas Sims Williams in 2011 30 shows an early Hepthalite ruler with a round beardless face and slanted almond shaped eyes wearing a radiate crown with a single crescent and framed by the Bactrian script legend hbodalo bbgo The Lord Yabghu of the Hephthalites 31 c The seal is dated to the end 5th century early 6th century CE 3 27 The ethnic name Ebodalo and title Ebodalo Yabghu have also been discovered in contemporary Bactrian documents of the Kingdom of Rob describing administrative functions under the Hephthalites 33 34 Byzantine Greek sources referred to them as Hephthalitae Ἐf8alῖtai 35 Abdel or Avdel To the Armenians the Hephthalites were Hephthal Hep t al amp Tetal and sometimes identified with the Kushans To the Persians Hephthalites are Hephtal Hephtel amp Hevtals To Arabs Hephthalites were Haital Hetal Heithal Haiethal Heyathelites al Hayaṭila هياطلة and sometimes identified as Turks 8 According to Zeki Velidi Togan 1985 the form Haytal in Persian and Arabic sources in the first period was a clerical error for Habtal as Arabic b resembles y 36 In Chinese chronicles the Hephthalites are called Yandaiyilituo Chinese 厭帶夷栗陀 or in the more usual abbreviated form Yeda 嚈噠 or in the 635 Book of Liang as the Hua 滑 37 38 The latter name has been given various Latinisations including Yeda Ye ta Ye tha Ye da and Yanda The corresponding Cantonese and Korean names Yipdaat and Yeoptal Korean 엽달 which preserve aspects of the Middle Chinese pronunciation IPA ʔjɛpdɑt better than the modern Mandarin pronunciation are more consistent with the Greek Hephthalite Some Chinese chroniclers suggest that the root Hephtha as in Yandaiyilituo or Yeda was technically a title equivalent to emperor while Hua was the name of the dominant tribe 39 In ancient India names such as Hephthalite were unknown The Hephthalites were part of or offshoots of people known in India as Hunas or Turushkas 40 although these names may have referred to broader groups or neighbouring peoples Ancient Sanskrit text Pravishyasutra mentions a group of people named Havitaras but it is unclear whether the term denotes Hephthalites 41 The Indians also used the expression White Huns Sveta Huna for the Hephthalites 42 Geographical origin and expansion edit nbsp nbsp Sasanian Empire nbsp Kunduz nbsp Samarkand nbsp Chaganian nbsp Herat nbsp Merv nbsp Kashgar nbsp Balkh nbsp UdabhandaAlchon Huns nbsp BamyanBactria nbsp Ghazni nbsp Kabul nbsp Yeda nbsp WakhanBADAKHSHANclass notpageimage The Hephthalites came from Badakhshan or the Altai and always had their historical stronghold in Bactria Tokharistan with their capital in Kunduz 43 According to recent scholarship the stronghold of the Hephthalites was always Tokharistan on the northern slopes of the Hindu Kush in what is present day southern Uzbekistan and northern Afghanistan 43 Their capital was probably at Kunduz which was known to the 11th century scholar al Biruni as War Waliz a possible origin of one of the names given by the Chinese to Hephthalites 滑 Middle Chinese ZS ɦˠuat gt standard Chinese Hua 43 The Hephthalites may have come from the East through the Pamir Mountains possibly from the area of Badakhshan 43 Alternatively they may have migrated from the Altai region among the waves of invading Huns 44 Following their westward or southward expansion the Hephthalites settled in Bactria and displaced the Alchon Huns who expanded into Northern India The Hephthalites came into contact with the Sasanian Empire and were involved in helping militarily Peroz I seize the throne from his brother Hormizd III 43 Later in the late 5th century the Hephthalites expanded into vast areas of Central Asia and occupied the Tarim Basin as far as Turfan taking control of the area from the Rourans who had been collecting heavy tribute from the oasis cities but were now weakening under the assaults of the Chinese Northern Wei dynasty 45 Origins and characteristics editSee also Origins of the Huns nbsp nbsp Murals from Dilberjin Tepe thought to represent early Hephthalites 46 47 48 49 The ruler wears a radiate crown which is comparable to the crown of the king on the Yabghu of the Hephthalites seal 50 There have been several theories regarding the origins of the Hephthalites with the Iranian 51 52 53 and Altaic 54 55 56 57 58 59 theories being the main ones The most prominent theory at present seems to be that the Hephthalites were initially of Turkic origin and later adopted the Bactrian language 60 According to most specialist scholars the Hephthalites adopted Bactrian as their official language just as the Kushans had done following their settlement in Bactria Tokharistan 58 Bactrian was an Eastern Iranian language but was written in the Greek alphabet a remnant of the Greco Bactrian kingdom in the 3rd 2nd century BCE 58 Bactrian beyond being an official language was also the language of the local populations ruled by the Hephthalites 61 52 The Hephthalites inscribed their coins in Bactrian the titles they held were Bactrian such as XOADHO or Sao 62 and of probable Chinese origin such as Yabghu 34 the names of Hephthalite rulers given in Ferdowsi s Shahnameh are Iranian 62 and gem inscriptions and other evidence shows that the official language of the Hephthalite elite was East Iranian 62 In 1959 Kazuo Enoki proposed that the Hephthalites were probably Indo European East Iranians who originated in Bactria Tokharistan based on the fact that ancient sources generally located them in the area between Sogdia and the Hindu Kush and the Hephthalites had some Iranian characteristics 63 Richard Nelson Frye cautiously accepted Enoki s hypothesis while at the same time stressing that the Hephthalites were probably a mixed horde 64 According to the Encyclopaedia Iranica and Encyclopaedia of Islam the Hephthalites possibly originated in what is today Afghanistan 5 65 A few scholars such as Marquart and Grousset proposed Proto Mongolic origins 66 Yu Taishan traced the Hephthalites origins to the Xianbei and further to Goguryeo 67 Other scholars such as de la Vaissiere based on a recent reappraisal of the Chinese sources suggest that the Hephthalites were initially of Turkic origin and later adopted the Bactrian language first for administrative purposes and possibly later as a native language according to Rezakhani 2017 this thesis is seemingly the most prominent at present 68 69 d nbsp nbsp The banquet scenes in the murals of Balalyk Tepe show the life of the Hephthalite ruling class of Tokharistan 75 76 77 In effect the Hephthalites may have been a confederation of various people speaking different languages According to Richard Nelson Frye Just as later nomadic empires were confederations of many peoples we may tentatively propose that the ruling groups of these invaders were or at least included Turkic speaking tribesmen from the east and north although most probably the bulk of the people in the confederation of Chionites and then Hephhtalites spoke an Iranian language In this case as normal the nomads adopted the written language institutions and culture of the settled folks 61 Relation to European Huns edit According to Martin Schottky the Hephthalites apparently had no direct connection with the European Huns but may have been causally related with their movement The tribes in question deliberately called themselves Huns in order to frighten their enemies 78 On the contrary de la Vaissiere considers that the Hepthalites were part of the great Hunnic migrations of the 4th century CE from the Altai region that also reached Europe and that these Huns were the political and partly cultural heirs of the Xiongnu 79 80 81 This massive migration was apparently triggered by climate change with aridity affecting the mountain grazing grounds of the Altay Mountains during the 4th century CE 82 According to Amanda Lomazoff and Aaron Ralby there is a high synchronicity between the reign of terror of Attila in the west and the southern expansion of the Hephthalites with extensive territorial overlap between the Huns and the Hephthalites in Central Asia 83 The 6th century Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea History of the Wars Book I ch 3 related them to the Huns in Europe but insisted on cultural and sociological differences highlighting the sophistication of the Hephthalites The Ephthalitae Huns who are called White Huns The Ephthalitae are of the stock of the Huns in fact as well as in name however they do not mingle with any of the Huns known to us for they occupy a land neither adjoining nor even very near to them but their territory lies immediately to the north of Persia They are not nomads like the other Hunnic peoples but for a long period have been established in a goodly land They are the only ones among the Huns who have white bodies and countenances which are not ugly It is also true that their manner of living is unlike that of their kinsmen nor do they live a savage life as they do but they are ruled by one king and since they possess a lawful constitution they observe right and justice in their dealings both with one another and with their neighbors in no degree less than the Romans and the Persians 84 Chinese chronicles edit nbsp Probable Hephthalite royal couple in the murals of the Buddhas of Bamiyan circa 600 CE the 38 meter Buddha they decorate is carbon dated to 544 595 CE 85 Their characteristics are similar to the figures in Balalyk Tepe such as the right side triangular lapel hairstyles faces and ornaments and reflect Hephthalite styles 76 86 The Bamiyan complex developed under Hephthalite rule 87 88 The Hephthalites were first known to the Chinese in 456 CE when a Hephthalite embassy arrived at the Chinese court of the Northern Wei 89 The Chinese used various names for the Hephthalites such as Hua 滑 Ye tha i li to simp 厌带夷栗陁 trad 厭帶夷粟陁 or more briefly Ye da 嚈噠 90 91 Ancient imperial Chinese chronicles give various explanations about the origins of the Hephthalites 92 93 94 They were descendants of the Gaoju or the Da Yuezhi according to the earliest chronicles such as the Book of Wei or the History of the Northern Dynasties 92 They were descendants of the Da Yuezhi tribes according to many later chronicles 92 The ancient historian Pei Ziye conjectured that the Hua 滑 may be descendants of a Jushi general of the 2nd century CE because that general was named Bahua 八滑 This etymological fantasy was adopted by the Book of Liang Volume 30 and Volume 54 92 95 Another etymological fantasy appeared in the Tongdian reporting an account by the traveller Wei Jie according to which the Hephthalites may have been the descendants of the Kangju because a Kangju general of the Eastern Han happened to be named Yitian 92 Kazuo Enoki made a first groundbreaking analysis of the Chinese sources in 1959 suggesting that the Hephthalites were a local tribe of the Tokharistan Bactria region with their origin in the nearby Western Himalayas 92 He also used as an argument the presence of numerous Bactrian names among the Hephthalites and the fact that the Chinese reported that they practiced polyandry a well known West Himalayan cultural trait 92 According to a recent reappraisal of the Chinese sources by de la Vaissiere 2003 only the Turkic Gaoju origin of the Hephthalites should be retained as indicative of their primary ethnicity and the mention of the Da Yuezhi only stems from the fact that at the time the Hephthalites had already settled in the former Da Yuezhi territory of Bactria where they are known to have used the Eastern Iranian Bactrian language 96 The earliest Chinese source on this encounter the near contemporary chronicles of the Northern Wei Weishu as quoted in the later Tongdian reports that they migrated southward from the Altai region circa 360 CE The Hephthalites are a branch of the Gaoju 高車 High Carts or the Da Yuezhi they originated from the north of the Chinese frontier and came down south from the Jinshan Altai mountains This was 80 to 90 years before Emperor Wen r 440 465 CE of the Northern Wei i e circa 360 CE 嚈噠國 或云高車之別種 或云大月氏之別種 其原出於塞北 自金山而南 至後魏 文帝時已八九十年矣 Extract of the Weishu chronicles as copied in Tongdian 96 The Gaoju 高車 lit High Cart also known as Tiele 97 were early Turkic speakers related to the earlier Dingling 98 99 who were once conquered by the Xiongnu 100 101 Weishu also mentioned the linguistic and ethnic proximity between the Gaoju and the Xiongnu 102 De la Vaissiere proposes that the Hephthalites had originally been one Oghuric speaking tribe who belonged the Gaoju Tiele confederation 89 103 104 This and several later Chinese chronicles also report that the Hephthalites may have originated from the Da Yuezhi probably because of their settlement in the former Da Yuezhi territory of Bactria 89 Later Chinese sources become quite confused about the origins of the Hephthalites and this may be due to their progressive assimilation of Bactrian culture and language once they settled there 105 According to the Beishi describing the situation in the first half of the 6th century CE around the time Song Yun visited Central Asia the language of the Hephthalites was different from that of the Rouran Gaoju or other tribes of Central Asia but that probably reflects their acculturation and adoption of the Bactrian language since their arrival in Bactria in the 4th century CE 106 The Liangshu and Liang Zhigongtu do explain that the Hephthalites originally had no written language and adopted the hu local Barbarian alphabet in this case the Bactrian script 106 Overall de la Vaissiere considers that the Hephthalites were part of the great Hunnic migrations of the 4th century CE from the Altai region that also reached Europe and that these Huns were the political and partly cultural heirs of the Xiongnu 79 Appearance edit nbsp Another painting of the Tokharistan school from Tavka Kurgan 107 108 It is closely related to Balalyk tepe especially in the treatment of the face Termez Archaeological Museum 107 The Hepthalites appear in several mural paintings in the area of Tokharistan especially in banquet scenes at Balalyk tepe and as donors to the Buddha in the ceiling painting of the 35 meter Buddha at the Buddhas of Bamyan 77 Several of the figures in these paintings have a characteristic appearance with belted jackets with a unique lapel of their tunic being folded on the right side a style which became popular under the Hephthalites 109 the cropped hair the hair accessories their distinctive physionomy and their round beardless faces 110 The figures at Bamyan must represent the donors and potentates who supported the building of the monumental giant Buddha 110 These remarkable paintings participate to the artistic tradition of the Hephthalite ruling classes of Tukharistan 76 77 The paintings related to the Hephthalites have often been grouped under the appellation of Tokharistan school of art 111 or the Hephthalite stage in the History of Central Asia Art 112 The paintings of Tavka Kurgan of very high quality also belong to this school of art and are closely related to other paintings of the Tokharistan school such as Balalyk tepe in the depiction of clothes and especially in the treatment of the faces 107 This Hephthalite period in art with the caftans with a triangular collar folded on the right the particular cropped hairstyle the crowns with crescents have been found in many of the areas historically occupied and ruled by the Hephthalites in Sogdia Bamyan modern Afghanistan or in Kucha in the Tarim Basin modern Xinjiang China This points to a political and cultural unification of Central Asia with similar artistic styles and iconography under the rule of the Hephthalites 113 History edit nbsp The Hephthalites used the Bactrian script top an adaptation of the Greek script bottom Here their endonym Ebodalo Hephthalites The Hephthalites were a vassal state to the Rouran Khaganate until the beginning of the 5th century 114 There were close contacts between them although they had different languages and cultures and the Hephthalites borrowed much of their political organization from Rourans 8 In particular the title Khan which according to McGovern was original to the Rourans was borrowed by the Hephthalite rulers 8 The reason for the migration of the Hephthalites southeast was to avoid a pressure of the Rourans The Hephthalites became a significant political entity in Bactria around 450 CE or sometime before 18 It has been commonly assumed that the Hephthalites formed a third wave of migrations into Central Asia after the Chionites who arrived circa 350 CE and the Kidarites who arrived from around 380 CE but recent studies suggest that instead there may have been a single massive wave of nomadic migrations around 350 360 CE the Great Invasion triggered by climate change and the onset of aridity in the grazing grounds of the Altay region and that these nomadic tribes vied for supremacy thereafter in their new territories in Southern Central Asia 82 115 As they rose to prominence the Hephthalites displaced the Kidarites and then the Alchon Huns who expanded into Gandhara and Northern India nbsp nbsp The Hephthalites as vanquished enemies face down on the floor and then as allies seated in the Sasanian Bandian complex The inscription next to the seated ruler reads I am Hephthalite son the Hephthalite is trustworthy 116 117 459 497 CE The Hephthalites also entered into conflict with the Sasanians The reliefs of the Bandian complex seem to show the initial defeat of the Hephthalites against the Sasanians in 425 CE and then their alliance with them from the time of Bahram V 420 438 CE until they invaded Sasanian territory and destroyed the Bandian complex in 484 CE 118 117 In 456 457 a Hephthalite embassy arrived in China during the reign of Emperor Wen of the Northern Wei 82 By 458 they were strong enough to intervene in Persia Around 466 they probably took Transoxianan lands from the Kidarites with Persian help but soon took from Persia the area of Balkh and eastern Kushanshahr 58 In the second half of the fifth century they controlled the deserts of Turkmenistan as far as the Caspian Sea and possibly Merv 119 By 500 they held the whole of Bactria and the Pamirs and parts of Afghanistan In 509 they captured Sogdia and they took Sughd the capital of Sogdiana 75 To the east they captured the Tarim Basin and went as far as Urumqi 75 Around 560 CE their empire was destroyed by an alliance of the First Turkic Khaganate and the Sasanian Empire but some of them remained as local rulers in the region of Tokharistan for the next 150 years under the suzerainty of the Western Turks followed by the Tokhara Yabghus 58 75 Among the principalities which remained in Hephthalite hands even after the Turkic overcame their territory were Chaganian and Khuttal in the Vakhsh Valley 75 Ascendancy over the Sasanian Empire 442 c 530 CE edit See also Hephthalite Persian Wars nbsp Early Hephthalite coinage a close imitation of a coin type of the Sasanian Emperor Peroz I third period coinage of Peroz I after 474 CE 18 Late 5th century CE This coinage is typically distinguished from Sasanian issues by dots around the border and the abbreviation nbsp hb eb in front of the crown of Peroz I abbreviation of hbodalo EBODALO for Hepthalites 29 nbsp A rare Hephthalite coin Obverse Hephthalite prince wearing a belted caftan with single right lapel and holding a drinking cup Probable Bactrian legend hbodalo EBODALO to the right e Reverse Sasanian style bust imitating Khavadh I whom the Hephthalites had helped to the Sasanian throne Hephthalite tamgha nbsp before the face of Khavad e 121 First half of the 6th century CE The Hephthalites were originally vassals of the Rouran Khaganate but split from their overlords in the early fifth century The next time they were mentioned was in Persian sources as foes of Yazdegerd II 435 457 who from 442 fought tribes of the Hephthalites according to the Armenian Elisee Vardaped In 453 Yazdegerd moved his court east to deal with the Hephthalites or related groups In 458 a Hephthalite king called Akhshunwar helped the Sasanian Emperor Peroz I 458 484 gain the Persian throne from his brother 122 Before his accession to the throne Peroz had been the Sasanian for Sistan in the far east of the Empire and therefore had been one of the first to enter into contact with the Hephthalites and request their help 123 The Hephthalites may have also helped the Sasanians to eliminate another Hunnic tribe the Kidarites by 467 Peroz I with Hephthalite aid reportedly managed to capture Balaam and put an end to Kidarite rule in Transoxiana once and for all 124 The weakened Kidarites had to take refuge in the area of Gandhara Victories over the Sasanian Empire 474 484 CE edit Later however from 474 CE Peroz I fought three wars with his former allies the Hephthalites In the first two he himself was captured and ransomed 18 Following his second defeat he had to offer thirty mules loaded with silver drachms to the Hephthalites and also had to leave his son Kavad as a hostage 123 The coinage of Peroz I in effect flooded Tokharistan taking precedence over all other Sasanian issues 125 In the third battle at the Battle of Herat 484 he was vanquished by the Hepthalite king Kun khi and for the next two years the Hephthalites plundered and controlled the eastern part of the Sasanian Empire 122 126 Perozduxt the daughter of Peroz was captured and became a lady as the Hephtalite court as Queen of king Kun khi 126 She became pregnant and had a daughter who would later marry her uncle Kavad I 123 From 474 until the middle of the 6th century the Sasanian Empire paid tribute to the Hephthalites Bactria came under formal Hephthalite rule from that time 3 Taxes were levied by the Hephthalites over the local population a contract in the Bactrian language from the archive of the Kingdom of Rob has been found which mentions taxes from the Hephthalites requiring the sale of land in order to pay these taxes It is dated to 483 484 CE 3 Hephthalite coinage edit With the Sasanian Empire paying a heavy tribute from 474 the Hephthalites themselves adopted the winged triple crescent crowned Peroz I as the design for their coinage 18 Benefiting from the influx of Sasanian silver coins the Hephthalites did not develop their own coinage they either minted coins with the same designs as the Sasanians or simply countermarked Sasanian coins with their own symbols 3 They did not inscribe the name of their ruler contrary to the habit of the Alchon Huns or the Kidarites before them 3 Exceptionally one coin type deviates from the Sasanian design by showing the bust of a Hepthalite prince holding a drinking cup 3 Overall the Sasanians paid an enormous tribute to the Hephthalites until the 530s and the rise of Khosrow I 82 Protectors of Kavad edit Following their victory over Peroz I the Hepthalites became protectors and benefactors of his son Kavad I as Balash a brother of Peroz took the Sasanian throne 123 In 488 a Hepthalite army vanquished the Sasaniana army of Balash and was able to put Kavad I 488 496 498 531 on the throne 123 In 496 498 Kavad I was overthrown by the nobles and clergy escaped and restored himself with a Hephthalite army Joshua the Stylite reports numerous instances in which Kavadh led Hepthalite Hun troops in the capture of the city of Theodosiupolis of Armenia in 501 502 in battles against the Romans in 502 503 and again during the siege of Edessa in September 503 122 127 128 Hephthalites in Tokharistan 466 CE edit nbsp Hephthalite style couple at a banquet with man in single lapel caftan Inscription Dhenakk the son of xwn Hun 129 Bactria second half of the 5th century CE 130 St Petersburg State Hermitage Museum 3 nbsp A tax receipt in Bactrian for the Hephthalites in Tokharistan Archives of the Kingdom of Rob 483 484 CE 3 Around 461 462 CE an Alchon Hun ruler named Mehama is known to have been based in Eastern Tokharistan possibly indicating a partition of the region between the Hephthalites in western Tokharistan centered on Balkh and the Alchon Huns in eastern Tokharistan who would then go on to expand into northern India 131 Mehama appears in a letter in the Bactrian language he wrote in 461 462 CE where he describes himself as Meyam King of the people of Kadag the governor of the famous and prosperous King of Kings Peroz 131 Kadag is Kadagstan an area in southern Bactria in the region of Baghlan Significantly he presents himself as a vassal of the Sasanian Empire king Peroz I but Mehama was probably later able to wrestle autonomy or even independence as Sasanian power waned and he moved into India with dire consequences for the Gupta Empire 131 132 133 The Hepthalites probably expanded into Tokharistan following the destruction of the Kidarites in 466 The presence of the Hepthalites in Tokharistan Bactria is securely dated to 484 CE date of a tax receipt from the Kingdom of Rob mentioning the need to sell some land in order to pay Hephthalite taxes 134 Two documents were also found with dates from the period from 492 to 527 CE mentioning taxes paid to Hephthalite rulers Another undated documents mentions scribal and judiciary functions under the Hephthalites Sartu the son of Hwade gang the prosperous Yabghu of the Hepthalite people ebodalo shabgo Haru Rob the scribe of the Hephthalite ruler ebodalo eoaggo the judge of Tokharistan and Gharchistan Document of the Kingdom of Rob 135 Hephthalite conquest of Sogdiana 479 CE edit nbsp Local coinage of Samarkand Sogdia with the Hepthalite tamgha on the reverse 136 nbsp nbsp CHAM PA500SASANIANEMPIREBYZANTINEEMPIRENORTHERNWEIHYMYARSOUTHERNQIAlchonHunsNezaksTOCHA RIANSZHANGZHUNGFUNANTUYUHUNGUPTAEMPIREHEPHTHALITESROURAN KHAGANATEKyrgyzsGaojuTurksYuebanMagyarsSabirsAlansKutrigursVenedaeFinnishUgriansYakutsBashkirsAntesGOGU RYEOAKSUM class notpageimage Territory of the Imperial Hephthalites and main Asian polities c 500 CE The Hephthalites conquered the territory of Sogdiana beyond the Oxus which was incorporated into their Empire 137 They may have conquered Sogdiana as early as 479 CE as this is the date of the last known embassy of the Sogdians to China 137 138 The account of the Liang Zhigongtu also seems to record that from around 479 CE the Hephthalites occupied the region of Samarkand 138 Alternatively the Hephthalites may have occupied Sogdia later in 509 CE as this is the date of the last known embassy from Samarkand to the Chinese Empire but this might not be conclusive as several cities such as Balkh or Kobadiyan are known to have sent embassies to China as late as 522 CE while under Hephthalite control 138 As early as 484 the famous Hephthalite ruler Akhshunwar who defeated Peroz I held a title that may be understood as Sogdian xs wnd r power holder 138 The Hephthalites may have built major fortified Hippodamian cities rectangular walls with an orthogonal network of streets in Sogdiana such as Bukhara and Panjikent as they had also in Herat continuing the city building efforts of the Kidarites 138 The Hephthalites probably ruled over a confederation of local rulers or governors linked through alliance agreements One of these vassals may have been Asbar ruler of Vardanzi who also minted his own coinage during the period 139 The wealth of the Sasanian ransoms and tributes may have been reinvested in Sogdia possibly explaining the prosperity of the region from that time 138 Sogdia at the center of a new Silk Road between China to the Sasanian Empire and the Byzantine Empire became extremely prosperous under its nomadic elites 140 The Hephthalites took on the role of major intermediary on the Silk Road after their great predecessor the Kushans and contracted local Sogdians to carry on the trade of silk and other luxury goods between the China Empire and the Sasanian Empire 141 Because of the Hephthalite occupation of Sogdia the original coinage of Sogdia came to be flooded by the influx of Sasanian coins received as a tribute to the Hephthalites This coinage then spread along the Silk Road 137 The symbol of the Hephthalites appears on the residual coinage of Samarkand probably as a consequence of the Hephthalite control of Sogdia and becomes prominent in Sogdian coinage from 500 to 700 CE including in the coinage of their indigenous successors the Ikhshids 642 755 CE ending with the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana 142 143 Tarim Basin circa 480 550 CE edit nbsp Kizil Caves swordsmen in Hephthalite style 144 145 This mural was carbon dated to 432 538 CE 146 147 nbsp Painter in single lapel caftan Kizil Caves circa 500 CE enlarged detail 148 149 The label at his feet is in Sanskrit Gupta script and reads Painting of Tutuka Citrakara Tututkasya 150 151 In the late 5th century CE they expanded eastward through the Pamir Mountains which are comparatively easy to cross as did the Kushans before them due to the presence of convenient plateaus between high peaks 152 They occupied the western Tarim Basin Kashgar and Khotan taking control of the area from the Rourans who had been collecting heavy tribute from the oasis cities but were now weakening under the assaults of the Chinese Northern Wei dynasty 45 In 479 they took the east end of the Tarim Basin around the region of Turfan 45 153 In 497 509 they pushed north of Turfan to the Urumchi region 153 In the early years of the 6th century they were sending embassies from their dominions in the Tarim Basin to the Northern Wei dynasty 45 153 They were probably in contact with Li Xian the Chinese Governor of Dunhuang who is known for having furnished his tomb with a Western style ewer probably made in Bactria 153 The Hephthalites continued to occupy the Tarim Basin until the end of their Empire circa 560 CE 45 154 As the territories ruled by the Hephthalites expanded into Central Asia and the Tarim Basin the art of the Hephthalites characterized by the clothing and hairstyles of the figures being represented also came to be used in the areas they ruled such as Sogdiana Bamyan or Kucha in the Tarim Basin Kizil Caves Kumtura Caves Subashi reliquary 144 48 155 In these areas appear dignitaries with caftans with a triangular collar on the right side crowns with three crescents some crowns with wings and a unique hairstyle Another marker is the two point suspension system for swords which seems to have been an Hephthalite innovation and was introduced by them in the territories they controlled 144 The paintings from the Kucha region particularly the swordsmen in the Kizil Caves appear to have been made during Hephthalite rule in the region circa 480 550 CE 144 156 The influence of the art of Gandhara in some of the earliest paintings at the Kizil Caves dated to circa 500 CE is considered as a consequence of the political unification of the area between Bactria and Kucha under the Hephthalites 157 Some words of the Tocharian languages may have been adopted from the Hephthalites in the 6th century CE 158 The early Turks of the First Turkic Khaganate then took control of the Turfan and Kucha areas from around 560 CE and in alliance with the Sasanian Empire became instrumental in the fall of the Hepthalite Empire 159 Hephthalite embassies to Liang China 516 526 CE edit Main article Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang nbsp Hephthalite 滑 Hua ambassador at the Chinese court of the Southern Liang in the capital Jingzhou in 516 526 CE with explanatory text Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang painted by Pei Ziye or the future Emperor Yuan of Liang while he was a Governor of the Province of Jingzhou as a young man between 526 and 539 CE 160 11th century Song copy 161 162 An illustrated account of a Hepthalite 滑 Hua embassy to the Chinese court of the Southern Liang in the capital Jingzhou in 516 526 CE is given in Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang originally painted by Pei Ziye or the future Emperor Yuan of Liang while he was a Governor of the Province of Jingzhou as a young man between 526 and 539 CE 160 and of which an 11th century Song copy is preserved 161 162 163 The text explains how small the country of the Hua was when they were still vassals of the Rouran Khaganate and how they later moved to Moxian possibly referring to their occupation of Sogdia and then conquered numerous neighbouring country including the Sasanian Empire 161 164 165 166 f When the Suolu Northern Wei entered the Chinese frontier and settled in the valley of the river Sanggan i e in the period 398 494 CE the Hua was still a small country and under the rule of the Ruirui In the Qi period 479 502 CE they left their original area for the first time and shifted to Moxian possibly Samarkand where they settled 167 Growing more and more powerful in the course of time the Hua succeeded in conquering the neighbouring countries such as Bosi Sasanid Persia Panpan Tashkurgan Jibin Kashmir Wuchang Uddiyana or Khorasan Qiuci Kucha Shule Kashgar Yutian Khotan and Goupan Karghalik and expanded their territory by a thousand li 166 Hua paragraph in Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang 161 The Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang mentions that no envoys from the Hephthalites came before 516 to the southern court and it was only in that year that a Hephthalite King named Yilituo Yandai 姓厭帶名夷栗陁 sent an ambassador named Puduoda 蒲多达 possibly a Buddhist name Buddhadatta or Buddhadasa 162 168 In 520 another ambassador named Fuheliaoliao 富何了了 visited the Liang court bringing a yellow lion a white marten fur coat and Persian brocade as present 162 168 Another ambassador named Kang Fuzhen 康符真 followed with presents as well in 526 CE according to the Liangshu 162 168 Their language had to be translated by the Tuyuhun 168 In Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang the Hepthalithes are treated as the most important foreign state as they occupy the leading position at the front of the column of foreign ambassadors and have by far the largest descriptive text 169 The Hepthalites were according to the Liangshu Chap 54 accompanied in their embassy by three states Humidan 胡蜜丹 Yarkand 周古柯 Khargalik and Kabadiyan 呵跋檀 170 The envoys from right to left were the Hephthalites 滑 嚈哒 Persia 波斯 Korea 百濟 Kucha 龜茲 Japan 倭 Malaysia 狼牙脩 Qiang 鄧至 Yarkand 周古柯 Zhouguke near Hua 170 Kabadiyan 呵跋檀 Hebatan near Hua 170 Kumedh 胡蜜丹 Humidan near Hua 170 Balkh 白題 Baiti descendants of the Xiongnu and east of the Hua 170 and finally Merv 末 169 161 171 Most of the ambassadors from Central Asia are shown wearing heavy beards and relatively long hair but in stark contrast the Hephthalite ambassador as well as the ambassador from Balkh are clean shaven and bare headed and their hair is cropped short 172 These physical characteristics are also visible in many of the Central Asian seals of the period 172 nbsp The Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang with descriptions of each ambassador led by the representative of the Hephthalites far right 526 539 CE Southern Liang painting National Museum of China 161 Other embassies edit Overall Chinese chronicles recorded twenty four Hephthalite embassies the first embassy in 456 and the others from 507 to 558 CE including fifteen to the Northern Wei until the end of this dynasty in 535 and five to the Southern Liang in 516 541 173 174 The last three are mentioned in the Zhoushu which records that the Hepththalites had conquered Anxi Yutian Hotan region in Xinjiang and more than twenty other countries and that they sent embassies to the Chinese court of the Western Wei and Northern Zhou in 546 553 and 558 CE respectively after what the Hepthalites were crushed by the Turks and embassies stopped 175 The Hephthalites also requested and obtained a Christian bishop from the Patriarch of the Church of the East Mar Aba I circa 550 CE 176 Buddhas of Bamiyan 544 644 CE edit Buddhas of Bamiyan nbsp Painted ceiling over the head of the smaller 38 meter Eastern Buddha nbsp Sun God in Central Asian costume at the center of the ceiling 177 178 nbsp Rows of royal donors in Hephthalite costumes with sitting Buddhas around the Sun God on the ceiling The Buddhas of Bamyan carbon dated to 544 595 CE and 591 644 CE respectively 85 were built under Hephthalite rule in the region 87 88 Murals of probable Hephthalite rulers as royal sponsors around the central Sun God appear in the paintings of the ceiling over the smaller Buddha 76 77 The complex of the Buddhas of Bamiyan was developed under Hephthalite rule 87 88 179 After the dissolution of their empire in 550 560 the Hephthalites continued to rule in the geographical areas corresponding to Tokharistan and today s northern Afghanistan 1 180 181 and particularly held a series of castles on the roads to Bamiyan 182 Carbon dating of the structural components of the Buddhas has determined that the smaller 38 m 125 ft Eastern Buddha was built around 570 CE 544 595 CE with 95 probability while the larger 55 m 180 ft Western Buddha was built around 618 CE 591 644 CE with 95 probability 85 This corresponds to the period soon before or after the major defeat of the Hephthalites against the combined forces of Western Turk and Sasanian Empire 557 CE or the following period during which they regrouped south of the Oxus as Principalities but essentially before the Western Turks finally overran the region to form the Tokhara Yabghus 625 CE Among the most famous paintings of the Buddhas of Bamyan the ceiling of the smaller Eastern Buddha represents a solar deity on a chariot pulled by horses as well as ceremonial scenes with royal figures and devotees 177 The god is wearing a caftan in the style of Tokhara boots and is holding a lance he is The Sun God and a Golden Chariot Rising in Heaven 183 His representation is derived from the iconography of the Iranian god Mithra as revered in Sogdia 183 He is riding a two wheeled golden charriot pulled by four horses 183 Two winged attendants are standing to the side of the charriot wearing a Corinthian helmet with a feather and holding a shield 183 In the top portion are wind gods flying with a scarf held in both hands 183 This great composition is unique and has no equivalent in Gandhara or India but there are some similarities with the painting of Kizil or Dunhuang 183 The central image of the Sun God on his golden chariot is framed by two lateral rows in individuals Kings and dignitaries mingling with Buddhas and Bodhisattvas 110 One of the personages standing behind a monk in profile much be the King of Bamyan 110 He wears a crenelated crown with single crescent and korymbos a round neck tunic and a Sasanian headband 110 Several of the figures either royal couples crowned individuals or richly dressed women have the characteristic appearance of the Hephthalites of Tokharistan with belted jackets with a unique lapel of their tunic being folded on the right side the cropped hair the hair accessories their distinctive physionomy and their round beardless faces 77 110 184 These figures must represent the donors and potentates who supported the building of the monumental giant Buddha 110 They are gathered around the Seven Buddhas of the past and Maitreya 185 The individuals in this painting are very similar to the individuals depicted in Balalyk Tepe and they may be related to the Hepthalites 77 186 They participate to the artistic tradition of the Hephthalite ruling classes of Tukharestan 187 These murals disappeared with the destruction of the statues by the Taliban in 2001 110 Hephthalite royals on the tombs of Sogdian traders edit nbsp nbsp Probable Hephthalite royal figures in the Tomb of Wirkak 580 CE 188 The Tomb of Wirkak is the tomb of a 6th century Sogdian trader established in China and discovered in Xi an 188 It seems that depictions of Hephthalite rulers are omnipresent in the pictorial decorations of the tomb as royal figures with elaborate Sasanian type crowns appearing in their palaces nomadic yurts or while hunting 188 Hephthalites rulers are shown short haired wearing tunics and are often depicted together with their female consort 188 The Sogdian trader Wirkak may therefore have primarily dealt with the Hephthalites during his young years he was around 60 when the Hephthalites were finally destroyed by the alliance of the Sasanians and the Turks between 556 and 560 CE 189 The Hephthalites also appear in four panels of the Miho funerary couch c 570 CE with somewhat caricatural features and characteristics of vassals to the Turks 190 On the contrary the depictions in the tombs of later Sogdian traders such as the Tomb of An Jia who was 24 years younger than Wirwak already show the omnipresence of the Turks of the First Turkic Khaganate who were probably his main trading partners during his active life 189 End of the Empire and fragmentation into Hephthalite Principalities 560 710 CE edit nbsp Hephthalite coin of the Principality of Chaghaniyan after the fall of the Hephthalite Empire with crowned King and Queen in Byzantine fashion circa 550 650 CE 191 After Kavad I the Hephthalites seem to have shifted their attention away from the Sasanian Empire and Kavad s successor Khosrow I 531 579 was able to resume an expansionist policy to the east 123 According to al Tabari Khosrow I managed through his expansionsit policy to take control of Sind Bust Al Rukkhaj Zabulistan Tukharistan Dardistan and Kabulistan as he ultimately defeated the Hephthalites with the help of the First Turkic Khaganate 123 In 552 the Gokturks took over Mongolia formed the First Turkic Khaganate and by 558 reached the Volga Circa 555 567 g the Turks of the First Turkic Khaganate and the Sasanians under Khosrow I allied against the Hephthalites and defeated them after an eight day battle near Qarshi the Battle of Gol Zarriun perhaps in 557 h 193 These events put an end to the Hephthalite Empire which fragmented into semi independent Principalities paying tribute to either the Sasanians or the Turks depending on the military situation 1 180 After the defeat the Hephthalites withdrew to Bactria and replaced king Gatfar with Faghanish the ruler of Chaghaniyan Thereafter the area around the Oxus in Bactria contained numerous Hephthalites principalities remnants of the great Hephthalite Empire destroyed by the alliance of the Turks and the Sasanians 194 They are reported in the Zarafshan valley Chaghaniyan Khuttal Termez Balkh Badghis Herat and Kabul in the geographical areas corresponding to Tokharistan and today s northern Afghanistan 1 180 195 They also held a series of castles on the roads to Bamiyan 196 Extensive Hephthalite kurghan necropoli have been excavated all over the region as well as a possible one in the Bamiyan valley 197 The Sasanians and Turks established a frontier for their zones of influence along the Oxus river and the Hephthalite Principalities functioned as buffer states between two Empires 180 But when the Hephthalites chose Faghanish as their king in Chaganiyan Khosrow I crossed the Oxus and put the Principalities of Chaghaniyan and Khuttal under tribute 180 When Khosrow I died in 579 the Hephthalites of Tokharistan and Khotan took advantage of the situation to rebel against the Sasanians but their efforts were obliterated by the Turks 180 By 581 or before the western part of the First Turkic Khaganate separated and became the Western Turkic Khaganate In 588 triggering the First Perso Turkic War the Turkic Khagan Bagha Qaghan known as Sabeh Saba in Persian sources together with his Hephthalite subjects invaded the Sasanian territories south of the Oxus where they attacked and routed the Sasanian soldiers stationed in Balkh and then proceeded to conquer the city along with Talaqan Badghis and Herat 198 They were finally repelled by the Sasanian general Vahram Chobin 180 Raids into the Sasanid Empire 600 610 CE edit nbsp HephthalitePrincipalities nbsp Ispahan BYZANTINEEMPIRE SUI TANGCHINA LaterGuptas AlchonHuns WESTERNTURKS raids nbsp SASANIANEMPIRE nbsp Hephthalites Principalities c 557 710 CE Circa 600 the Hephthalites were raiding the Sasanian Empire as far as Ispahan Spahan in central Iran The Hephthalites issued numerous coins imitating the coinage of Khosrow II adding on the obverse a Hephthalite signature in Sogdian and a Tamgha symbol nbsp Circa 616 617 CE the Gokturks and Hephthalites raided the Sasanian Empire reaching the province of Isfahan 199 Khosrow recalled Smbat IV Bagratuni from Persian Armenia and sent him to Iran to repel the invaders Smbat with the aid of a Persian prince named Datoyean repelled the Hephthalites from Persia and plundered their domains in eastern Khorasan where Smbat is said to have killed their king in single combat Khosrow then gave Smbat the honorific title Khosrow Shun the Joy or Satisfaction of Khosrow while his son Varaztirots II Bagratuni received the honorific name Javitean Khosrow Eternal Khosrow 200 Western Turk takeover 625 CE edit nbsp Ambassador from Chaganian visiting king Varkhuman of Samarkand 648 651 CE Afrasiyab murals Samarkand 11 201 202 203 Chaganian was an Hephthalite buffer principality between Denov and Termez 11 Main articles Western Turks and Tokhara Yabghus From 625 CE the territory of the Hephthalites from Tokharistan to Kabulistan was taken over by the Western Turks forming an entity ruled by Western Turk nobles the Tokhara Yabghus 180 The Tokhara Yabghus or Yabghus of Tokharistan Chinese 吐火羅葉護 pinyin Tǔhuǒluo Yehu were a dynasty of Western Turk sub kings with the title Yabghus who ruled from 625 CE south of the Oxus river in the area of Tokharistan and beyond with some smaller polities surviving in the area of Badakhshan until 758 CE Their legacy was extended to the southeast until the 9th century CE with the Turk Shahis and the Zunbils Arab invasion c 651 CE edit Circa 650 CE during the Arab conquest of the Sasanian Empire the Sasanian Empire ruler Yazdegerd III was trying to regroup and gather forces around Tokharistan and was hoping to obtain the help of the Turks after his defeat to the Arabs in the Battle of Nihavand 642 CE 204 Yazdegerd was initially supported by the Hephthalite Principality of Chaghaniyan which sent him troops to aid him against the Arabs But when Yazdegerd arrived in Merv in what is today s Turkmenistan he demanded tax from the Marzban of Marw losing his support and making him ally with the Hephthalite ruler of Badghis Nezak Tarkan The Hepthalite ruler of Badghis allied with the Marzban of Merv attack Yazdegerd and defeated him in 651 204 Yazdegerd III barely escaped with his life but was murdered in the vicinity of Merv soon after and the Arabs managed to capture the city of Merv the same year 204 In 652 CE following the Siege of Herat 652 to which the Hephthalites participated the Arabs captured the cities of northern Tokharistan Balkh included and the Hepthalites principalities were forced to pay tribute and accept Arab garrisons 204 The Hephthalites again rebelled in 654 CE leading to the Battle of Badghis In 659 Chinese chronicles still mentioned the Hephtalite Tarkans 悒達太汗 Yida Taihan probably related to Nezak Tarkan as some of the rulers in Tokharistan who remained theoretically subjects to the Chinese Empire and whose main city was Huolu 活路 modern Mazar e Sherif Afghanistan 205 206 The city of Merv became the base of the Arabs for their Central Asian operations 204 The Arabs weakened during the 4 year civil war leading to the establishment of the Umayyad Caliphate in 661 but they were able to continue their expansion after that 204 Hephthalite revolts against the Ummayad Caliphate 689 710 CE edit nbsp Hephthalite copy of a Sasano Arab coin of Abd Allah ibn Khazim with AH 69 688 CE date In the margin a Hephthalite countermark with crowned facing head and a late tamgha nbsp Circa 700 CE Circa 689 CE the Hephthalite ruler of Badghis and the Arab rebel Musa ibn Abd Allah ibn Khazim son of the Zubayrid governor of Khurasan Abd Allah ibn Khazim al Sulami allied against the forces of the Umayyad Caliphate 207 The Hepthalites and their allies captured Termez in 689 repelled the Arabs and occupied the whole region of Khorasan for a brief period with Termez as the capital described by the Arabs as the headquarters of the Hephthalites dar mamlakat al Hayaṭela 208 209 The Arabs of the Umayyad Caliphate under Yazid ibn al Muhallab re captured Termez in 704 207 205 Nezak Tarkan the ruler of the Hephthalites of Badghis led a new revolt in 709 with the support of other principalities as well as his nominal ruler the Yabghu of Tokharistan 208 In 710 Qutaiba ibn Muslim was able to re establish Muslim control over Tokharistan and captured Nezak Tarkan who was executed on al Hajjaj s orders despite promises of pardon while the Yabghu was exiled to Damascus and kept there as a hostage 210 211 212 In 718 CE Chinese chronicles still mention the Hephthalites 悒達 Yida as one of the polities under the suzerainty of the Turkic Tokhara Yabghus capable of providing 50 000 soldiers at the service of its overlord 205 Some remnants not necessarily dynastic of the Hephthalite confederation would be incorporated into the Gokturks as an Old Tibetan document dated to the 8th century mentioned the tribe Heb dal among 12 Dru gu tribes ruled by Eastern Turkic khagan Bug chor i e Qapaghan Qaghan 213 Chinese chronicles report embassies from the Hephtalite kingdom as late as 748 CE 205 214 Military and weapons edit nbsp nbsp nbsp Swords with ornate cloisonne designs found in the paintings of the Kizil Caves may be versions of daggers produced under Hephthalite influence 144 The sword guards of the knights nbsp depicted in the Cave of the Painters at Kizil have typical Hunnish designs of rectangle or oval shapes with cloisonne ornamentation and are dated to the 5th century CE 215 nbsp Gyerim ro daggerThe Hephthalites were considered as a powerful military force 216 Depending on sources their main weapon was the bow the mace or the sword 216 Judging from their military achievements they probably had a strong cavalry 216 In Persia according to the 6th century Armenian chronicler Lazar of P arpec i Even in time of peace the mere sight or mention of a Hephthalite terrified everybody and there was no question of going to war openly against one for everybody remembered all too clearly the calamities and defeats inflicted by the Hephthalites on the king of the Aryans and on the Persians Armenian chronicler Lazar of P arpec i 216 Hunnic designs in weaponry are known to have influenced Sasanian designs during the 6th 7th century CE just before Islamic invasions 217 The Sasanians adopted Hunnish nomadic designs for straight iron swords and their gold covered scabbards 217 This is particularly the case of two straps suspension design in which straps of different lengths were attached to a P shaped projection on the scabbard so that the sword could be held sideways making it easier to draw especially when on horseback 217 The two point suspension system for swords is considered to have been introduced by the Hephthalites in Central Asia and in the Sasanian Empire and is a marker of their influence and the design was generally introduced by them in the territories they controlled 144 The first example of two suspension sword in Sasanian art occurs in a relief of Taq i Bustan dated to the time of Khusro II 590 628 CE and is thought to have been adopted from the Hepthalites 144 Swords with ornate cloisonne designs and two straps suspensions as found in the paintings of Penjikent and Kizil and in archaeological excavations may be versions of the daggers produced under Hephthalite influence 218 Weapons with Hunnic designs are depicted in the Cave of the Painters in the Kizil Caves in a mural showing armoured warriors and dated to the 5th century CE 215 Their sword guards have typical Hunnish designs of rectangle or oval shapes with cloisonne ornamentation 215 The Gyerim ro dagger found in a tomb in Korea is a 5 6th century highly decorated dagger and scabbard of Hunnic two straps suspension design introduced by the Hephthalites in Central Asia 219 The Gyerim ro dagger is thought to have reached Korea either through trade or as a diplomatic gift 220 Lamellar helmets were also popularized by the steppe nomads and were adopted by the Sasanian Empire when they took control of former Hephthalite territory 221 This type of helmet appears in sculptures on pillar capitals at Ṭaq e Bostan and Behistun and on the Anahita coinage of Khosrow II r 590 628 CE 221 nbsp Sasanian sword and scabbard derived from Hunnic two straps suspension designs Sasanian Empire 7th century CE 217 144 Religion and culture edit nbsp The Buddhist Hunter King from Kakrak a valley next to Bamyan is often presented as a result of Hephthalite influence especially in reference to the triple crescent crown Wall paintings from the 7th 8th century Kabul Museum 222 223 They were said to practice polyandry and artificial cranial deformation Chinese sources said they worshiped foreign gods demons the heaven god or the fire god The Gokturks told the Byzantines that they had walled cities Some Chinese sources said that they had no cities and lived in tents Litvinsky tries to resolve this by saying that they were nomads who moved into the cities they had conquered There were some government officials but central control was weak and local dynasties paid tribute 224 According to Song Yun the Chinese Buddhist monk who visited the Hephthalite territory in 540 and provides accurate accounts of the people their clothing the empresses and court procedures and traditions of the people and he states the Hephthalites did not recognize the Buddhist religion and they preached pseudo gods and killed animals for their meat 7 It is reported that some Hephthalites often destroyed Buddhist monasteries but these were rebuilt by others According to Xuanzang the third Chinese pilgrim who visited the same areas as Song Yun about 100 years later the capital of Chaghaniyan had five monasteries 62 nbsp The triple crescent crown in this Penjikent mural top left corner is considered as a Hephthalite marker 7th early 8th century 225 According to historian Andre Wink in the Hephthalite dominion Buddhism was predominant but there was also a religious sediment of Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism 9 Balkh had some 100 Buddhist monasteries and 30 000 monks Outside the town was a large Buddhist monastery later known as Naubahar 62 There were Christians among the Hephthalites by the mid 6th century although nothing is known of how they were converted In 549 they sent a delegation to Aba I the patriarch of the Church of the East asking him to consecrate a priest chosen by them as their bishop which the patriarch did The new bishop then performed obeisance to both the patriarch and the Sasanian king Khosrow I The seat of the bishopric is not known but it may have been Badghis Qadistan the bishop of which Gabriel sent a delegate to the synod of Patriarch Ishoyahb I in 585 226 It was probably placed under the metropolitan of Herat The church s presence among the Hephthalites enabled them to expand their missionary work across the Oxus In 591 some Hephthalites serving in the army of the rebel Bahram Chobin were captured by Khosrow II and sent to the Roman emperor Maurice as a diplomatic gift They had Nestorian crosses tattooed on their foreheads 10 227 Hephthalite seals edit nbsp Stamp seal with a bearded figure in Sasanian dress wearing the kulaf denoting nobility and officials and a figure with radiate crown i both with royal ribbons Attributed to the Hephthalites 229 and recently dated to the 5th 6th century CE 230 According to earlier sources Bivar 1969 and Livshits 1969 repeated by the British Museum the seal was dated to the 300 350 CE 231 232 Stamp seal BM 119999 British Museum Several seals found in Bactria and Sogdia have been attributed to the Hephthalites The Hephthalite Yabghu seal shows a Hephthalite ruler with a radiate crown royal ribbons and a beardless face with the Bactrian script title Ebodalo Yabghu nbsp nbsp hbodalo bbgo The Lord of the Hephthalites and has been dated to the end of the 5th century early 6th century CE 3 27 34 This important seal was published by Judith A Lerner and Nicholas Sims Williams in 2011 233 Stamp seal BM 119999 in the British Museum shows two facing figures one bearded and wearing the Sasanian dress and the other without facial hair and wearing a radiate crown both being adorned with royal ribbons This seal was initially dated to 300 350 CE and attributed to the Kushano Sasanians 231 234 but has been more recently attributed to the Hephthalites 229 and dated to the 5th 6th century CE 230 Paleographically the seal can be attributed to the 4th century or first half of the 5th century 235 The Seal of Khingila shows a beardless ruler with radiate crown and royal ribbons wearing a single lapel caftan in the name of Eskiŋgil eϸxiggilo which could correspond to one of the rulers named Khingila xiggilo or may be a Hunnic title meaning Companion of the Sword or even Companion of the God of War 236 237 Local populations under the Hephthalites editThe Hephthalites governed a confederation of various people many of whom were probably of Iranian descent speaking an Iranian language 238 Several cities such as Balkh Kobadiyan and possibly Samarkand were allowed to send regional embassies to China while under Hephthalite control 138 Several portraits of regional ambassadors from the territories occupied by the Hephthalites Tokharistan Tarim Basin are known from Chinese paintings such as the Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang originally painted in 526 539 CE 166 They were at that time under the overlordship of the Hephthalites who led the embassies to the Southern Liang court in the early 6th century CE 169 170 A century later under the Tang dynasty portraits of the local people of Tokharistan were again illustrated in The Gathering of Kings circa 650 CE Etienne de la Vaissiere has estimated the local population of each major oasis in Tokharistan and Western Turkestan during the period to around several hundreds of thousands each while the major oasis of the Tarim Basin are more likely to have had populations ranging in the tens of thousands each 239 nbsp Kabadiyan ambassador to the Chinese court of Emperor Yuan of Liang in his capital Jingzhou in 516 520 CE Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang 11th century Song copy He accompanied the Hephthalite ambassador to China nbsp Kumedh ambassador to the Chinese court of Emperor Yuan of Liang in his capital Jingzhou in 516 520 CE Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang 11th century Song copy nbsp Ambassador from Kucha 龜茲國 Qiuci guo one of the main Tocharian cities in the Tarim Basin visiting the Chinese Southern Liang court in Jingzhou circa 516 520 CE Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang 11th century Song copy nbsp Ambassadors from Kabadiyan 阿跋檀 Balkh 白題國 and Kumedh 胡密丹 visiting the court of the Tang dynasty The Gathering of Kings 王会图 circa 650 CEThe Alchon Huns formerly considered as a branch of the Hephthalites in South Asia editMain article Alchon Huns nbsp nbsp nbsp Sanjeli nbsp Eran nbsp Gwalior nbsp Sondani nbsp Choti Sadri nbsp Kura nbsp Kausambi Toramana seals RisthalALCHONHUNSHEPHTHALITESNEZAKHUNSSASA NIANSGUPTASVAKATAKASZHANGZHUNGKINGDOMNorthern WeiTochariansclass notpageimage Find spots of epigraphic inscriptions red dots indicating local control by the Alchon Huns in India between 500 530 CE 240 The Alchon Huns who invaded northern India and were known there as Huṇas have long been considered as a part or a sub division of the Hephthalites or as their eastern branch but now tend to be considered as a separate entity who may have been displaced by the settlement of the Hephthalites in Bactria 241 242 243 Historians such as Beckwith referring to Etienne de la Vaissiere say that the Hephthalites were not necessarily one and the same as the Hunas Sveta Huna 244 According to de la Vaissiere the Hephthalites are not directly identified in classical sources alongside that of the Hunas 245 They were initially based in the Oxus basin in Central Asia and established their control over Gandhara in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent by about 465 CE 246 From there they fanned out into various parts of northern western and central India In India these invading people were called Hunas or Sveta Huna White Huns in Sanskrit 40 The Huṇas are mentioned in several ancient texts such as the Ramayaṇa Mahabharata Puraṇas and Kalidasa s Raghuvaṃsa 247 The first Hunas probably Kidarites were initially defeated by Emperor Skandagupta of the Gupta Empire in the 5th century CE 248 In the early 6th century CE the Alchon Hun Hunas in turn overran the part of the Gupta Empire that was to their southeast and had conquered Central and North India 8 Gupta Emperor Bhanugupta defeated the Hunas under Toramana in 510 and his son Mihirakula was repulsed by Yashodharman in 528 CE 249 250 The Hunas were driven out of India by the kings Yasodharman and Narasimhagupta during the early 6th century 251 252 Possible descendants editA number of groups may have descended from the Hephthalites 253 254 Avars suggestions have been made that the Pannonian Avars were Hepthalites who went to Europe after their collapse in 557 CE but this is not adequately supported by archaeological or written sources 255 Pashtuns The Hephthalites may have contributed to the ethnogenesis of Pashtuns Yu V Gankovsky a Soviet historian on Afghanistan stated Pashtun began as a union of largely East Iranian tribes which became the initial ethnic stratum of the Pashtun ethnogenesis dating from the middle of the first millennium CE and is connected with the dissolution of the Hephthalite confederacy 256 According to The Cambridge History of Iran the descendants of Hephthalites are Pashtuns 257 Durrani The Durrani Pashtuns of Afghanistan were called Abdali before 1747 According to linguist Georg Morgenstierne their tribal name Abdali may have something to do with the Hephthalite 258 This hypothesis was endorsed by historian Aydogdy Kurbanov who indicated that after the collapse of the Hephthalite confederacy they likely assimilated into different local populations and that the Abdali may be one of the tribes of Hephthalite origin 8 nbsp Coin of Tegin Shah self described as Iltabar sub King of the Khalaj dated to the year 728 CE on the Hephthalite model imitating Sasanian king Peroz I 438 457 259 260 Khalaj The Khalaj people are first mentioned in the 7th 9th centuries in the area of Ghazni Qalati Ghilji and Zabulistan in present day Afghanistan They spoke Khalaj Turkic Al Khwarizmi mentioned them as a remnant tribe of the Hephthalites However according to linguist Sims Williams archaeological documents do not support the suggestion that the Khalaj were the Hephthalites successors 261 while according to historian V Minorsky the Khalaj were perhaps only politically associated with the Hephthalites Some of the Khalaj were later Pashtunized after which they transformed into the Pashtun Ghilji tribe 262 Kanjina a Saka tribe linked to the Indo Iranian Kumijis 263 264 and incorporated into the Hephthalites Kanjinas were possibly Turkicized later as al Khwarizmi called them Kanjina Turks However Bosworth and Clauson contended that al Khwarizmi was simply using Turks in the vague and inaccurate sense 265 Karluks or Qarlughids were reported as settled in Ghazni and Zabulistan present day Afghanistan in the thirteenth century Many Muslim geographers identified Karluks Khallukh Kharlukh with Khalajes Khalaj from confusion as the two names were similar and these two groups dwelt near each other 266 267 Abdal is a name associated with the Hephthalites It is an alternate name for the Aynu people According to Orhan Koprulu Abdal of Turkey might be descended from the Hepthalites Albert von Le Coq mentions the relation between Abdals of Adana and Aynus of East Turkestan by them having some common words and by both referring to themselves as Abdals and speaking an exclusive language among themselves 268 Some Abdal elements can also be found in the composition of Azerbaijanis Turkmen Ata Chowdur Ersary Saryk Kazakhs Uzbek Lokays Turks and Volga Bulgars Savirs 269 Hephthalite rulers editAkhshunwar circa 458 CE Kun khi circa 484 CE 126 Yandai Yilituo circa 516 CE only known from his Chinese name 厭帶夷栗陁 162 163 Hwade gang only known from the archives of the Kingdom of Rob 33 Ghadfar Ghatifar circa 567 568 CE 270 Faghanish 568 ruling in Chaghaniyan Nezak Tarkan circa 650 710 See also editHistory of Afghanistan Huna people Kidarites Red Huns Alchon Huns Kushan Empire Xionites Nezak Huns Iranian HunsNotes edit de la Vaissiere proposes underlying Turkic Yeti Al later translated to Iranian Haft Al de la Vaissiere also cited Sims Williams who noted that the initial h e of the Bactrian form hbodalo Ebodalo precluded etymology based on Iranian haft and consequently hypothetical underlying Turkic yeti seven Similar crowns are known in other seals such as the seal of Kedir the hazaruxt Kedir the Chiliarch dated by Sims Williams to the last quarter of the 5th century CE from the paleography of the inscription 32 Reference for the exact datation Sundermann Hintze amp de Blois 2009 p 218 note 14 de la Vaissiere 2012 pointed out that a recently published seal gives the title of a fifth century lord of Samarkand as king of the Oglar Huns 70 bago oglar g o yonano See the seal and this reading of the inscription in Hans Bakker 2020 13 note 17 referencing from Sim Williams 2011 72 74 71 Oglar is thought to derive from the Turk oǧul lar gt oǧlar sons princes plus an Iranian adjective suffix g 72 Alternatively and less likely Oglarg could correspond to Walkon and thus the Alchon Huns although the seal is closer to Kidarites coin types 72 Another seal found in the Kashmir reads olar g o seal AA2 3 71 The Kashmir seal was published by Grenet ur Rahman and Sims Williams 2006 125 127 who compared olargo Ularg on the seal to the ethnonym oilargano people of Wilarg attested in a Bactrian document written in 629 CE 73 The style of the sealings is related to the Kidarites and the title Kushanshah is known to have disappeared with the Kidarites 74 a b See another example with coin description 120 A similar account of the rise and conquests of the Hua appears in the Liangshu Volume 54 The war is variously dated 560 565 Gumilyov 1967 555 Stark 2008 Altturkenzeit 210 557 Iranica Khosrow II 558 561 Bivar Hephthalites 557 563 Baumer 2018 p 174 557 561 Sinor 1990 p 301 560 563 Litvinsky 1996 p 143 562 565 Christian 1998 p 252 c 565 Grousset 1970 p 82 567 Chavannes 1903 Documents 236 and 229 Michael J Decker states the battle occurred in 563 192 The radiate crown is comparable to the crown of the king on the Yabghu of the Hephthalites seal 228 References edit a b c d e Benjamin Craig 16 April 2015 The Cambridge World History Volume 4 A World with States Empires and Networks 1200 BCE 900 CE Cambridge University Press p 484 ISBN 978 1 316 29830 5 Nicholson Oliver 19 April 2018 The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity Oxford University Press p 708 ISBN 978 0 19 256246 3 a b c d e f g h i j k Alram et al 2012 2013 exhibit 10 Hephthalites In Bactria Archived 29 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine Alram 2008 a b c Bivar A D H Hephthalites Encyclopaedia Iranica Retrieved 8 March 2017 Southern Mark R V 2005 Contagious Couplings Transmission of Expressives in Yiddish Echo Phrases Greenwood Publishing Group p 46 ISBN 9780275980870 a b Chinese Travelers in Afghanistan Abdul Hai Habibi alamahabibi com 1969 Retrieved 9 August 2012 a b c d e f Kurbanov 2010 p page needed a b Al Hind the Making of the Indo Islamic World Early medieval India Andre Wink p 110 E J Brill a b David Wilmshurst 2011 The Martyred Church A History of the Church of the East East and West Publishing pp 77 78 a b c Dani Litvinsky amp Zamir Safi 1996 p 177 Dignas Beate Winter Engelbert 2007 Rome and Persia in Late Antiquity Neighbours and Rivals Cambridge University Press p 97 ISBN 978 0 521 84925 8 Goldsworthy Adrian 2009 The Fall of the West The Death Of The Roman Superpower Orion ISBN 978 0 297 85760 0 Rezakhani Khodadad 25 April 2014 Hephthalites Iranologie com Retrieved 5 October 2023 Schottky Martin 20 August 2020 HUNS Encyclopaedia Iranica Online Brill retrieved 5 October 2023 a b c Rezakhani 2017a p 208 a b Alram 2014 p 279 a b c d e Maas 2015 p 287 Rezakhani 2017 p 213 Rezakhani 2017 p 217 Alram 2014 pp 278 279 Whitfield Susan 2018 Silk Slaves and Stupas Material Culture of the Silk Road University of California Press p 185 ISBN 978 0 520 95766 4 Bailey H W 1979 Dictionary of Khotan Saka Cambridge Cambridge University Press p 482 Gharib B 1995 Sogdian dictionary Tehran Iran Farhangan publications p xvi Kurbanov 2010 p 27 quote Sept Aryas Tremblay X Pour une histoire de la Serinde Le manicheisme parmi les peuples et religions d Asie Centrale d apres les sources primaires Veroffentlichungen der Kommission fur Iranistik 28 Verlag der Osterreichischen Akademieder Wissenschaften Vienne 2001 185 cited in Etienne de la Vaissiere Theophylact s Turkish Exkurs Revisited in De Samarcande a Istanbul etapes orientales Hommages a Pierre Chuvin II Paris CNRS Editions 2015 p 93 94 of pp 91 102 a b c d Rezakhani 2017a p 208 A seal bearing the legend hbodalo bbgo Yabghu governor of the Hephthal shows the local Bactrian form of their name ebodal which is commonly abbreviated to hb on their coins Rezakhani 2017 p 214 a b Heidemann Stefan 2015 THe Hephthalite Drachms Minted in Balkh A Hoard A Sequence And A New Reading PDF The Numismatic Chronicle 175 340 Lerner amp Sims Williams 2011 p page needed Lerner amp Sims Williams 2011 pp 83 84 Seal AA 7 Hc007 Most striking are the eyes which are almond shaped and slanted Lerner 2010 Plate I Fig 7 a b Translations of Nicholas Sims Williams quoted in Solovev Sergej 20 January 2020 Attila Kagan of the Huns from the kind of Velsung Litres p 313 ISBN 978 5 04 227693 4 a b c Rezakhani 2017 p 135 Rezakhani 2017a p 209 Kurbanov Aydogdy 2013 The Hephthalites Disappeared Or Not in Studia et Documenta Turcologica 1 Presa Universitară Clujeană p 88 of 87 94 Balogh 2020 pp 44 47 Theobald Ulrich 26 November 2011 Yeda 嚈噠 Hephthalites or White Huns ChinaKnowledge de Enoki K December 1970 The Liang shih kung t u on the origin and migration of the Hua or Ephthalites Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia 7 1 2 37 45 a b Alexander Berzin History of Buddhism in Afghanistan Study Buddhism Dinesh Prasad Saklani 1998 Ancient Communities of the Himalaya Indus Publishing p 187 ISBN 978 81 7387 090 3 Dani Litvinsky amp Zamir Safi 1996 p 169 a b c d e Rezakhani 2017a pp 208 209 Kageyama 2016 p 200 a b c d e Millward 2007 pp 30 31 Kurbanov 2010 pp 135 136 Bernard P DelbarjinELBARJiN Encyclopaedia Iranica a b Ilyasov 2001 pp 187 197 Dani Litvinsky amp Zamir Safi 1996 p 183 Lerner amp Sims Williams 2011 p 36 Enoki 1959 a b Sinor Denis 1990 The establishment and dissolution of the Turk empire The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia volume 1 Cambridge University Press p 300 ISBN 978 0 521 24304 9 Retrieved 19 August 2017 Asia Major volume 4 part 1 Institute of History and Philology of the Academia Sinica University of Indiana 1954 Retrieved 19 August 2017 M A Shaban 1971 Khurasan at the Time of the Arab Conquest In C E Bosworth ed Iran and Islamin memory of the late Vlademir Minorsky Edinburgh University Press p 481 ISBN 0 85224 200 X Christian David 1998 A History of Russia Inner Asia and Mongolia Oxford Basil Blackwell p 248 Kurbanov 2010 p 14 Adas Michael 2001 Agricultural and Pastoral Societies in Ancient and Classical History Temple University Press p 90 ISBN 978 1 56639 832 9 a b c d e Baumer 2018 pp 97 99 Talbot Tamara Abelson Rice Mrs David 1965 Ancient arts of Central Asia Thames and Hudson p 93 ISBN 978 0 19 520001 0 Rezakhani 2017 p 135 The suggestion that the Hephthalites were originally of Turkic origin and only later adopted Bactrian as their administrative and possibly native language de la Vaissiere 2007 122 seems to be most prominent at present a b Frye 2002 p 49 a b c d e Litvinsky 1996 pp 138 154 Enoki 1959 pp 23 28 Frye R CENTRAL ASIA iii In Pre Islamic Times Encyclopaedia Iranica G Ambros P A Andrews L Bazin A Gokalp B Flemming et al Turks in Encyclopaedia of Islam Online Edition 2006 Enoki 1959 pp 17 18 Yu Taishan 2011 History of the Yeda tribe Hephthalites Further Issues Eurasian Studies I 66 119 Rezakhani 2017 p 135 The suggestion that the Hephthalites were originally of Turkic origin and only later adopted Bactrian as their administrative and possibly native language de la Vaissiere 2007 122 seems to be most prominent at present de la Vaissiere 2003 pp 119 137 de la Vaissiere 2012 p 146 a b Bakker Hans T 12 March 2020 The Alkhan A Hunnic People in South Asia Barkhuis p 13 note 17 ISBN 978 94 93194 00 7 a b Wan Xiang August 2013 A study on the Kidarites Reexamination of documentary sources Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 19 286 Grenet Frantz ur Rahman Aman Sims Williams Nicholas 2006 A Hunnish Kushanshah Journal of Inner Asian Art and Archaeology 1 125 131 doi 10 1484 J JIAAA 2 301930 Kurbanov Aydogdy 2013a Some information related to the art history of the hephthalite time 4th 6th centuries AD in Central Asia and Neighbouring countries Isimu 16 99 112 a b c d e Higham Charles 14 May 2014 Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations Infobase Publishing pp 141 142 ISBN 978 1 4381 0996 1 a b c d Kurbanov 2010 p 67 a b c d e f Azarpay Guitty Belenickij Aleksandr M Marsak Boris Il ic Dresden Mark J 1981 Sogdian Painting The Pictorial Epic in Oriental Art University of California Press pp 92 93 ISBN 978 0 520 03765 6 Schottky M Iranian Huns Encyclopaedia Iranica a b de la Vaissiere 2003 p 122 de la Vaissiere 2012 pp 144 155 The Huns are beyond doubt the political and ethnic inheritors of the old Xiongnu empire Cosmo Nicola Di Maas Michael 26 April 2018 Empires and Exchanges in Eurasian Late Antiquity Rome China Iran and the Steppe ca 250 750 Cambridge University Press pp 196 197 ISBN 978 1 108 54810 6 In 2005 Etienne de la Vaissiere in a seminal article used some new or little known sources to argue that the Xiongnu had in fact called themselves Huns and that after the dissolution of their empire a considerable part of the northern Xiongnu remained in the Altai region In the middle of the fourth century two large groups of Huns departed from there one southward to the lands north of Persia Kidarites Alkhan Hephthalites and the other one westward to Europe Although based on limited sources the contention that the imperial and post imperial Xiongnu the Hunnic dynasties north and east of the Sasanians and the European Huns are directly linked is well argued a b c d de la Vaissiere 2012 pp 144 146 Lomazoff Amanda Ralby Aaron August 2013 The Atlas of Military History Simon and Schuster p 246 ISBN 978 1 60710 985 3 Procopius History of the Wars Book I Ch III The Persian War a b c Blansdorf Catharina Nadeau Marie Josee Grootes Pieter M Huls Matthias Pfeffer Stephanie Thiemann Laura 2009 Dating of the Buddha Statues AMS 14 C Dating of Organic Materials PDF In Petzet Michael ed The Giant Buddhas of Bamiyan Safeguarding the remains PDF Monuments and Sites Vol 19 Berlin Bassler p 235 Table 4 ISBN 978 3 930388 55 4 Archived from the original on 4 February 2023 Retrieved 17 November 2020 Eastern Buddha 549 AD 579 AD 1 s range 68 2 probability 544 AD 595 AD 2 s range 95 4 probability Western Buddha 605 AD 633 AD 1 s range 68 2 591 AD 644 AD 2 s range 95 4 probability Azarpay Guitty Belenickij Aleksandr M Marsak Boris Il ic Dresden Mark J 1981 Sogdian Painting The Pictorial Epic in Oriental Art University of California Press pp 92 93 ISBN 978 0 520 03765 6 would argue for their association with the artistic tradition of the Hepthalite ruling classes of Tukharistan that survived the downfall of Hephthalite power in 557 AD a b c Liu Xinru 9 July 2010 The Silk Road in World History Oxford University Press p 64 ISBN 978 0 19 979880 3 a b c Litvinsky 1996 p 158 a b c de la Vaissiere 2003 p 121 Du You Tongdian Vol 193 folio 5b 6a Ephthalites Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th ed 1911 a b c d e f g de la Vaissiere 2003 pp 119 122 Annex 1 Enoki 1959 pp 1 14 Kurbanov 2010 pp 2 32 Balogh 2020 p 46 a b de la Vaissiere 2003 pp 120 121 Annex 1 Xin Tangshu vol 217a txt 回紇 其先匈奴也 俗多乘高輪車 元魏時亦號高車部 或曰敕勒 訛為鐵勒 tr Uyghurs their predecessors were the Xiongnu Because customarily they ride high wheeled carts In Yuan Wei time they were also called Gaoju i e High Cart tribe Or called Chile or mistakenly as Tiele Weishu Vol 103 Gaoju txt 高車 蓋古赤狄之餘種也 諸夏以為高車丁零 tr Gaoju probably the remnant stock of the ancient Red Di The various Xia i e Chinese considered them Gaoju Dingling i e Dingling with High Cart Cheng Fanyi The Research on the Identification between the Tiele 鐵勒 and the Oguric tribes in Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi ed Th T Allsen P B Golden R K Kovalev A P Martinez 19 2012 Harrassowitz Verlag Wiesbaden p 87 Sima Qian Shiji vol 110 txt 後北服渾庾 屈射 丁零 鬲昆 薪犁之國 tr Later in the north Modu Chanyu subjugated the nations of Hunyu Qushe Dingling Gekun and Xinli Lee Joo Yup Kuang Shuntu 2017 A Comparative Analysis of Chinese Historical Sources and Y DNA Studies with Regard to the Early and Medieval Turkic Peoples Inner Asia 19 p 199 201 of pp 197 239 Weishu vol 103 txt 高車 其語略與匈奴同而時有小異 或云其先匈奴之甥也 tr The Gaoju their language and the Xiongnu s are similar though differ a little or to say it differently they are the sororal nephews sons in laws of their Xiongnu predecessors Golden 1992 pp 93 96 Golden P B 2006 Some Thoughts on the Origins of the Turks and the Shaping of the Turkic Peoples in Contact and exchange in the ancient world ed Victor H Mair Honolulu University of Hawai i Press p 137 138 of 136 140 de la Vaissiere 2003 p 123 a b de la Vaissiere 2003 pp 120 122 a b c Grenet Frantz 15 May 2004 Tavka k istorii drevnix tamozennyx sooruzenij Uzbekistana Taskent Samarkand Izd A Kadyri Institut Arxeologii A N Uzb 141 p 68 ill 13 pl couleurs h t Texte bilingue ouzbek russe resume en anglais Tavka contribution a l histoire des anciens edifices frontaliers de l Ouzbekistan Abstracta Iranica in French 25 doi 10 4000 abstractairanica 4213 ISSN 0240 8910 Rakhmanov Shaymardankul A 2016 Wall Paintings from Tavka Uzbekistan Journal of Inner Asian Art and Archaeology 7 31 54 doi 10 1484 J JIAAA 4 2017003 ISSN 1783 9025 Kageyama 2016 p 200 Il yasov s article references figurines wearing caftans with triangular shaped collars on the right side This is believed to be a style of garment that became popular in Central Asia under Hephthalite rule a b c d e f g h Margottini 2013 pp 12 13 Kurbanov 2014 p 322 Ilyasov 2001 p 187 Kageyama 2007 p 12 Grousset Rene 1970 The Empire of the Steppes a History of Central Asia Translated by Naomi Walford New Brunswick NJ Rutgers University Press p 67 Sundermann Hintze amp de Blois 2009 p 216 note 5 KURBANOV AYDOGDY 2010 THE HEPHTHALITES ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL ANALYSIS PDF Berlin Department of History and Cultural Studies of the Free University p 39 a b Potts Daniel T 2014 Nomadism in Iran From Antiquity to the Modern Era Oxford University Press p 137 ISBN 978 0 19 933079 9 KURBANOV AYDOGDY 2010 THE HEPHTHALITES ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL ANALYSIS PDF Berlin Department of History and Cultural Studies of the Free University p 39 Kurbanov 2010 pp 164 167 Alram et al 2012 2013 exhibit 10 HEPHTHALITES IN BACTRIA Alram 2008 coin type 47 and 48 a b c Chegini amp Nikitin 1996 pp 38ff a b c d e f g Rezakhani 2017 pp 125 156 Zeimal 1996 p 130 Zeimal 1994 p 253 a b c Adylov amp Mirzaahmedov 2006 p 36 The third incursion cost him his own life and his camp was captured together with his daughter who was taken as a wife by the Hephtalite king Kun khi British Museum notice on Hephthalite troops The British Museum Joshua the Stylite Chronicle composed in Syriac in AD 507 1882 pp 1 76 Kageyama 2016 p 203 Grenet Frantz Riboud Penelope 2003 A Reflection of the Hephthalite Empire The Biographical Narra tive in the Reliefs of the Tomb of the Sabao Wirkak 494 579 PDF Bulletin of the Asia Institute 17 138 a b c Rezakhani 2017 pp 140 141 Alram et al 2012 2013 exhibit 8 Alkhan Contemporaries Of Khingila Archived 15 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine Rezakhani 2017 pp 120 122 Rezakhani 2017 p 126 Solovyov Sergei 2020 Attila Kagan of the Huns from the kind of Velsung Litres p 313 ISBN 978 5 04 227693 4 Alram 2008 coin type 46 a b c Pei 裴 Chengguo 成国 2017 The Silk Road and the economy of Gaochang evidence on the Circulation of silver coins Silk Road 15 57 note 5 a b c d e f g de la Vaissiere 2003 pp 128 129 and note 35 Adylov amp Mirzaahmedov 2006 pp 34 36 de la Vaissiere 2012 pp 144 160 Sogdiana under its nomadic elites became the principal center of agricultural wealth and population in Central Asia and paragraph on The Shift of the Trade Routes Millward James A 2013 The Silk Road A Very Short Introduction Oxford University Press USA p 28 ISBN 978 0 19 978286 4 Rezakhani 2017 p 138 Fedorov Michael 2007 ON THE PORTRAITS OF THE SOGDIAN KINGS IKHSHiDS OF SAMARQAND Iran 45 155 doi 10 1080 05786967 2007 11864723 ISSN 0578 6967 JSTOR 25651416 S2CID 194538468 a b c d e f g h Kageyama 2016 pp 200 205 Kurbanov 2014 p 324 MUZIO CIRO LO 2008 Remarks on the Paintings from the Buddhist Monastery of Fayaz Tepe Southern Uzbekistan Bulletin of the Asia Institute 22 202 note 45 ISSN 0890 4464 JSTOR 24049243 MIA Berlin Turfan Collection Kizil depts washington edu Hartel amp Yaldiz 1982 pp 55 56 and 74 Rowland 1974 p 104 Hartel amp Yaldiz 1982 pp 74 Kausch Anke 2001 Seidenstrasse von China durch die WŸsten Gobi und Taklamakan Ÿber den Karakorum Highway nach Pakistan in German DuMont Reiseverlag p 258 ISBN 978 3 7701 5243 8 Millward 2007 p 38 a b c d Whitfield Susan 13 March 2018 Silk Slaves and Stupas Material Culture of the Silk Road Univ of California Press pp 201 202 ISBN 978 0 520 95766 4 Millward 2007 p 375 CHINESE IRANIAN RELATIONS xiv E Iranian Art Encyclopaedia Iranica Kurbanov 2014 p 329 Kageyama 2016 p 200 Kageyama quoting the research of S Hiyama Study on the first style murals of Kucha analysis of some motifs related to the Hephthalite s period Adams Douglas Q 2013 A Dictionary of Tocharian B Revised and Greatly Enlarged Rodopi p 261 Ksum entry ISBN 978 94 012 0936 6 Hiyama Satomi 2015 Reflection on the Geopolitical Context of the Silk Road in the First and Second Indo Iranian Style Wall Paintings in Kucha Silk Road Meditations 2015 International Conference on the Kizil Cave Paintings Collection of Research Papers p 81 a b Yu Taishan 2018 p 93 a b c d e f de la Vaissiere 2003 pp 127 128 a b c d e f de la Vaissiere 2003 p 130 note 31 a b Balogh 2020 p 88 I 072 de la Vaissiere 2003 p 125 Balogh 2020 pp 51 52 I 032 a b c Balogh 2020 p 52 Growing more and more powerful in the course of time the Hua succeeded in conquering the neighbouring countries such as Bosi Sasanid Persia Panpan Tashkurgan Jibin Kashmir Wuchang Uddiyana or Khorasan Qiuci Kucha Shule Kashgar Yutian Khotan and Goupan Karghalik and expanded their territory by a thousand li Balogh 2020 p 47 When the Suolu Northern Wei entered the Chinese frontier and settled in the valley of the river Sanggan i e in the period 398 494 CE the Hua was still a small country and under the rule of the Ruirui In the Qi period 479 502 CE they left their original area for the first time and shifted to Moxian possibly Samarkand where they settled a b c d Balogh 2020 pp 88 89 I 072 A Liangshu I 072 B Liang zhigongtu a b c Lung Rachel 2011 Interpreters in Early Imperial China John Benjamins Publishing pp 29 n 14 99 ISBN 978 90 272 2444 6 a b c d e f Balogh 2020 p 73 Ge Zhaoguang 2019 Imagining a Universal Empire a Study of the Illustrations of the Tributary States of the Myriad Regions Attributed to Li Gonglin PDF Journal of Chinese Humanities 5 128 a b Lerner amp Sims Williams 2011 p 35 Kuwayama S 2002 Across the Hindukush of the First Millennium Institute for Research in Humanities Kyoto University p 129 hdl 2433 120966 Yu Taishan 2018 pp 89 90 de la Vaissiere 2003 p 126 Nicholson Oliver 19 April 2018 The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity Oxford University Press p 708 ISBN 978 0 19 256246 3 a b Alram et al 2012 2013 exhibit 14 KABULISTAN AND BACTRIA AT THE TIME OF KHORASAN TEGIN SHAH Archived 25 January 2021 at the Wayback Machine Margottini 2013 pp 9 10 Nicholson Oliver 19 April 2018 The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity Oxford University Press p 708 ISBN 978 0 19 256246 3 The Bamiyan Buddhas dated from Hephthalite times a b c d e f g h Baumer 2018 p 99 Hyun Jin Kim 2015 The Huns Routledge p 56 ISBN 9781317340911 Neelis Jason 19 November 2010 Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks Mobility and Exchange Within and Beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia BRILL p 170 ISBN 978 90 04 18159 5 a b c d e f Margottini 2013 pp 8 15 Kageyama 2016 p 209 Rowland 1974 p 93 Kurbanov 2010 p 67 Seizing large areas the Hephthalites met with various kinds of art and of course to some extent acted as intermediary in the transfer of artistic traditions of one nation to another It is here in the opinion of Albaum that the similarity of some of the figures in paintings from Balalyk tepe and those from Bamiyan must be sought which then was part of the Hephthalite state Such similarities are exemplified by the right side triangular lapel hair accessories and some ornamental motifs Azarpay Guitty Belenickij Aleksandr M Marsak Boris Il ic Dresden Mark J 1981 Sogdian Painting The Pictorial Epic in Oriental Art University of California Press pp 92 93 ISBN 978 0 520 03765 6 A striking parallel to the Balalyk tepe murals is offered by files of donors represented on the right and left walls of the vault of the 34 m Buddha at Bamiyan The remarkable overall stylistic and iconographic resemblance between the two sets of paintings would argue for their association with the artistic tradition of the Hephthalite ruling classes of Tukharestan that survived the downfall of Hephthalite power in A D 577 a b c d Grenet Frantz Riboud Penelope 2003 A Reflection of the Hephthalite Empire The Biographical Narra tive in the Reliefs of the Tomb of the Sabao Wirkak 494 579 PDF Bulletin of the Asia Institute 17 133 143 a b Grenet Frantz Riboud Penelope 2003 A Reflection of the Hephthalite Empire The Biographical Narra tive in the Reliefs of the Tomb of the Sabao Wirkak 494 579 PDF Bulletin of the Asia Institute 17 141 142 GRENET FRANTZ RIBOUD PENELOPE 2003 A Reflection of the Hephtalite Empire The Biographical Narrative in the Reliefs of the Tomb of the Sabao Wirkak 494 579 Bulletin of the Asia Institute 17 138 ISSN 0890 4464 JSTOR 24049311 Kurbanov 2013 p 370 Decker 2022 p 164 Maas 2015 p 284 Harmatta amp Litvinsky 1996 p 368 Hyun Jin Kim 2015 The Huns Routledge p 56 ISBN 9781317340911 Neelis Jason 19 November 2010 Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks Mobility and Exchange Within and Beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia BRILL p 170 ISBN 978 90 04 18159 5 McNicoll Anthony Ball Warwick 1996 Excavations at Kandahar 1974 and 1975 The First Two Seasons at Shahr i Kohna Old Kandahar Conducted by the British Institute of Afghan Studies British Archaeological Reports Limited ISBN 978 0 86054 826 3 Along with other Central Asian nomadic nations the Hephthalites practices kurghan burial and extensive Hephthalite necropoli have been excavated in Afghanistan at Sadiqabad near Charikar and Shakh Tepe near Qunduz A kurghan necropolis has also been recorded in the Bamiyan Valley which by association with the Bamiyan monuments might also be Hephthalite or Yabghu Note 25 See Levi 1972 69 70 It is surprising that in view of the importance of these tumulus burials and their possible association with Hephthalites in the Bamiyan Valley they have gone unremarked in all the main authorities on Bamiyan e g Klimburg Salter 1989 Rezakhani 2017 p 177 Pourshariati Parvaneh 2011 Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire The Sasanian Parthian Confederacy and the Arab Conquest of Iran I B Tauris p 139 Martindale John R Jones A H M Morris John 1992 Varaztiroch The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire Volume III AD 527 641 Cambridge University Press pp 1363 1364 ISBN 0 521 20160 8 Baumer 2018 p 243 Afrosiab Wall Painting NORTHEAST ASIAN HISTORY FOUNDATION Whitfield Susan 2004 The Silk Road Trade Travel War and Faith British Library Serindia Publications Inc p 110 ISBN 978 1 932476 13 2 a b c d e f Beckwith 2009 p 123 a b c d Grenet F NEZAK Encyclopaedia Iranica Citing Tangshu XLIII B pp 6 9 and Chavannes Documents p 69 n 2 a href Template Cite encyclopedia html title Template Cite encyclopedia cite encyclopedia a CS1 maint postscript link Theobald Ulrich 23 October 2011 The Western Territories xiyu 西域 ChinaKnowledge de a b Beckwith 2009 p 132 a b Bosworth C E BAḎḠiS Encyclopaedia Iranica Kennedy 2007 pp 243 254 Gibb 1923 pp 36 38 Shaban 1970 pp 66 67 Esin E 1977 Tarkhan Nizak or Tarkhan Tirek An Enquiry concerning the Prince of Badhghis Who in A H 91 A D 709 710 Opposed the Omayyad Conquest of Central Asia Journal of the American Oriental Society 97 3 330 doi 10 2307 600737 ISSN 0003 0279 JSTOR 600737 Venturi Federica 2008 An Old Tibetan document on the Uighurs A new translation and interpretation Journal of Asian History 1 42 21 Nicholson Oliver 19 April 2018 The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity Oxford University Press p 708 ISBN 978 0 19 256246 3 a b c Kubik Adam 2008 The Kizil Caves as an terminus post quem of the Central and Western Asiatic pear shape spangenhelm type helmets The David Collection helmet and its place in the evolution of multisegmented dome helmets Historia i Swiat nr 7 2018 141 156 Histiria I Swiat 7 143 144 a b c d Litvinsky 1996 pp 139 140 a b c d Metropolitan Museum of Art item 65 28a b www metmuseum org Retrieved 13 December 2020 Kageyama 2016 p 200 Its scabbard is beautifully decorated with cloisonne and has a trapezoidal shape that widens at the end The same dagger style is found in Kazakhstan and similar works also appear in paintings from Pendzhikent and Kizil as well as Sogdian funerary reliefs from Anyang19 These highly decorated works may be more elaborate versions of the dagger with two suspension mounts produced under Hephthalite influence Kagayama Etsuko 2016 Change of suspension systems of daggers and swords in eastern Eurasia Its relation to the Hephthalite occupation of Central Asia PDF Institute for Research in the Humanities Kyoto University 46 199 212 via ZINBUN Imported Luxuries and Exotic Imagery The Metropolitan Museum of Art a b Skupniewicz Patryk 2017 Crowns hats turbans and helmets The headgear On the Helmet on the Capital at Ṭaq e Bostan again In Maksymiuk Katarzyna Karamian Gholamreza eds Iranian history volume I Pre Islamic Period Tehran Publishing House of Siedlce University of Natural Sciences and Humanities p 221 ISBN 978 83 62447 19 0 Compareti Matteo 2008 The Painting of the Hunter King at Kakrak Royal Figure or Divine Being Studio Editoriale Gordini 133 Kurbanov 2014 pp 329 330 Litvinsky 1996 pp 144 147 Kageyama 2007 p 20 drawing e The drawing referenced by Kageyama is located in Marsak Boris 1990 Les Fouilles de Pendjikent Comptes Rendus des Seances de l Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres 134 298 doi 10 3406 crai 1990 14842 Erica C D Hunter 1996 The Church of the East in Central Asia Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 78 3 129 142 at 133 134 Mehmet Tezcan 2020 On Nestorian Christianity Among the Hephthalites or the White Huns In Li Tang amp Dietmar W Winkler eds Artifact Text Context Studies on Syriac Christianity in China and Central Asia Lit Verlag pp 195 212 Lerner amp Sims Williams 2011 pp 35 36 a b Kurbanov 2010 p 69 item 1 a b Livshits V A 2000 Sogdian Sanak a Manichaean Bishop of the 5th Early 6th Centuries Bulletin of the Asia Institute 14 48 ISSN 0890 4464 JSTOR 24049013 a b Stamp seal bezel British Museum The British Museum Naymark 2001 p 167 Lerner amp Sims Williams 2011 pp 83 84 Kurbanov 2010 p 320 A cornelian in the British museum showing two facing busts with an inscription written in Ancient Sogdian of the period AD 300 350 and which was the seal of Indamic Queen of Zacanta Naymark 2001 pp 167 169 Kurbanov 2014 pp 319 320 page 320 note 1 quoting Etienne de la Vaissiere 2003 Is There a Nationality of the Hephtalites p 129 de la Vaissiere 2003 p 129 Frye 2002 p 49 Just as later nomadic empires were confederations of many peoples we may tentatively propose that the ruling groups of these invaders were or at least included Turkic speaking tribesmen from the east and north although most probably the bulk of the people in the confederation of Chionites and then Hephhtalites spoke an Iranian language In this case as normal the nomads adopted the written language institutions and culture of the settled folks de la Vaissiere Etienne 2017 Early Medieval Central Asian Population Estimates Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 60 6 788 doi 10 1163 15685209 12341438 ISSN 0022 4995 Bakker Hans T 26 November 2016 Monuments of Hope Gloom and Glory in the Age of the Hunnic Wars 50 years that changed India 484 534 Speech 24th Gonda Lecture Amsterdam doi 10 5281 zenodo 377032 Archived from the original on 8 July 2018 Retrieved 8 July 2018 Rezakhani 2017 pp 105 124 Compareti Matteo 2014 Some Examples of Central Asian Decorative Elements in Ajanta and Bagh Indian Paintings PDF The Silk Road Foundation Rezakhani 2017a p 207 Beckwith 2009 p 406 de la Vaissiere Etienne 2005 Huns et Xiongnu Central Asiatic Journal 49 3 26 Atreyi Biswas 1971 The Political History of the Huṇas in India Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers ISBN 9780883863015 Upendra Thakur 1967 The Huṇas in India Chowkhamba Prakashan pp 52 55 Ancient India History and Culture by Balkrishna Govind Gokhale p 69 full citation needed Ancient Indian History and Civilization by Sailendra Nath Sen p 220 full citation needed Encyclopaedia of Indian Events and Dates by S B Bhattacherje p A15 full citation needed India A History by John Keay p 158 full citation needed History of India in Nine Volumes Vol II by Vincent A Smith p 290 full citation needed Kurbanov 2010 pp 238 243 West 2009 pp 275 276 Graff David A 10 March 2016 The Eurasian Way of War Military Practice in Seventh Century China and Byzantium Routledge pp 139 149 ISBN 978 1 317 23709 9 Gankovsky Yu V et al 1982 A History of Afghanistan Moscow Progress Publishers p 382 Fisher William Bayne Yarshater Ehsan 1968 The Cambridge History of Iran Cambridge University Press p 216 ISBN 978 0 521 20092 9 Morgenstierne Georg 1979 The Linguistic Stratification of Afghanistan Afghan Studies 2 23 33 The Countenance of the other The Coins of the Huns and Western Turks in Central Asia and India 2012 2013 exhibit Chorasan Tegin Shah Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna 2012 2013 Retrieved 22 July 2017 ALRAM MICHAEL 2014 From the Sasanians to the Huns New Numismatic Evidence from the Hindu Kush The Numismatic Chronicle 174 279 ISSN 0078 2696 JSTOR 44710198 Bonasli Sonel 2016 The Khalaj and their language Endangered Turkic Languages II A Aralik 273 275 span, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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