The Hephtalites

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

Nice share, thanks. Where is it from? Encyclopaedia Iranica?

[Modu Tanhu]

Yeah it's from Encyclopedia Iranica

[ALTAR]

A thesis paper about Between 4th and 8th centuries the period of Sassanids Turk-Fars relations. It's in Turkish.

www.belgeler.com/blg/13o1/iv-ve-viii-yuzyillar-arasi-sasaniler-donemi-turk-fars-iliskileri-between-4th-and-8th-centuries-the-period-of-sassanids-turk-fars-relations

[Modu Tanhu]

The White Huns - The Hephthalites

The Origin of Hephthalites
The paucity of record in Hephthalites or Ephthalites provides us fragmentary picture of their civilization and empire. Their background is uncertain. They probably stemmed from a combination of the Tarim basin peoples and the Yueh-chih. There is a striking resemblance in the deformed heads of the early Yueh-chih and Hephthalite kings on their coinage. According to Procopius's History of the Wars, written in the mid 6th century - the Hephthalites

"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. They are the only ones among the Huns who have white bodies...."

Ephthalites was the name given by Byzantine historians and Hayathelaites by the Persian historian Mirkhond, and sometimes Ye-tai or Hua by Chinese historians. They are also known as the White Huns, different from the Hun who led by Attila invading the Roman Empire. They are described as a kindred steppe people originally occupied the pasture-lands in the Altai mountain of southwestern Mongolia.

Toward the middle of the 5th century, they expanded westward probably because of the pressure from the Juan-juan, a powerful nomadic tribe in Mongolia. Within decades, they became a great power in the Oxus basin and the most serious enemy of the Persian empire.

The Westward Expansion and War with Sassanian Empire
At the time when the Hephthalites gained power, Kushan and Gandhara were ruled by the Kidarites, a local dynisty of Hun or Chionites tribe. The Hephthalites entered Kabul and overthrew Kushan. The last Kidarites fled to Gandhara and settled at Peshawar. Around 440 the Hephthalites further took Sogdian (Samarkand) and then Balkh and Bactria.

The Hephthalites moved closer and closer toward Persian territory. In 484 the Hephthalite chief Akhshunwar led his army attacked the Sassanian King Peroz (459-484) and the king was defeated and killed in Khurasan. After the victory, the Hephthalite empire extended to Merv and Herat, which had been the regions of the Sassanid Empire. The Hephthalites, at the time, became the superpower of the Middle Asia. They not only destroyed part of Sassanian Empire in Iran but also intervened in their dynastic struggles when the Sassanid royal, Kavad (488-496), was fighting for the throne with Balash, brother of Peroz. Kavad married the niece of the Hephthalites chief and the Hephthalites aided him to regain his crown in 498.

After conquest of Sogdia and Kushan, the Hephthalites founded the capital, Piandjikent, 65 kilometers south-west of Samarkand in the Zaravshan valley. This city later reached its prosperity, produced one of the best mural paintings in the seventh century and later was destroyed by the Arabs. The Hephthalites chose Badakshan as their summer residence. Their chiefs lived north of the Hindu Kush, migrating seasonlly from Bactria where they spent the winter, to Badakshan, their summer residence. Under the Hephthalite control, the Bactrian script and language continued to be used and trade and commerce flourished as previously.

The Eastward Expansion to the Tarim Basin
With the stabilization at the western border, the Hephthalites extended their influence to the northwest into the Tarim Basin. From 493 to 556 A.D., they invaded Khotan, Kashgar, Kocho, and Karashahr. The relationship with Juan-juan and China were tightened. The Chinese record indicated that between 507 and 531, the Hephthalites sent thirteen embassies to Northern Wei (439-534) by the king named Ye-dai-yi-li-tuo.

Invasion to India
During the 5th century, the Gupta dynasty in India reigned in the Ganges basin with the Kushan empire occupied the area along the Indus. India knew the Hephthalite as Huna by the Sanskrit name. The Hephthaltes or Hunas waited till 470 rigth after the death of Gupta ruler, Skandagupta (455-470), and entered the Inda from the Kabul valley after the conquest of Kushan. They mopped on along the Ganges and ruined every city and town. The noble capital, Pataliputra, was reduced in population to a village. They persecuted Buddhists and burned all the monasteries. Their conquest was accomplished with extreme ferocity and the Gupta regime (414-470) was completely extinguished.

For thirty years the northwestern India was ruled by Hephthalite kings. We learned some of the Hephthalite kings ruling India from coins. The most famous ones were Toramana and Mihrakula ruling India in the first half of the 6th century.

The Language
There are numerous debates about Hephthalite language. Most scholars believe it is Iranian for the Pei Shih states that the language of the Hephthalites differs from those of the Juan-juan (Mongoloid) and of the "various Hu" (Turkic); however there are some think the Hephthalites spoke Mongol tongues like the Hsien-pi (3rd century) and the Juan-juan (5th century) and the Avars (6th-9th century). According to the Buddhist pilgrims Sung Yun and Hui Sheng, who visited them in 520, they had no script, and the Liang shu specifically states that they have no letters but use tally sticks. At the same time there is numismatic and epigraphic evidence to show that a debased form of the Greek alphabet was used by the Hephthalites. Since the Kushan was conquested by Hephthalites, it is possible they retained many aspects of Kushan culture, including the adoption of the Greek alphabet.

The Religion
It is equally inconsistent while comparing the references to the Hephthalites' religion. Although Sung Yun and Hui Sheng reported that the Hephthalites did not believe in Buddhism, though there is ample archaeological evidence that this religion was practiced in territories under Hephthalite control. According to Liang shu the Hephthalites worshiped Heaven and also fire - a clear reference to Zoroastrianism. However the burials found seem to indicate the normal practice in disposing of the dead, which is against Zoroastrian belief.

The Customs
Very little was known about these Hephthalite nomads. Little art has left from them. According to Sung Yun and Hui Sheng who visited their Hephthalite chief at his summer residence in Badakshan and later in Gandhara,

The Hephthalites have no cities, but roam freely and live in tents. They do not live in towns; their seat of government is a moving camp. They move in search of water and pasture, journeying in summer to cool places and in winter to warmer ones....They have no belief in the Buddhist law and they serve a great number of divinities."

Other than the deformation of skulls, the other interesting feature of the Hephthalites is their polyandrous society. The records of brothers marrying to one wife had been reported from Chinese source.

The Extermination
Between 557 to 561 Persian King Chosroes allied with another steppe people who had appeared from inner Asia. Chorsoes wanted to profit from the situation to take revenge over the defeat of his grandfather Peroz; he married a daughter of the nomadic chief and allied himself with them against the Hephthalites. The chief Sinjibu was the boldest and strongest of all the tribes and he had the largest number of troops. It was he who conquered the Hephthalites and killed their king.

Mercileessly attacked on two sides, the Hephthalites were completely broken and disappeared by 565 that only small number of them survived. Some surviving groups living south of Oxus escaped Chosroes' grasp later fell to Arab invaders in the 7th century. One of the surviving groups fled to the west and may have been the ancestors of the later Avars in the Danube region. The decline of the Hephthalites marked a turning point in the story of the steppes. Another era was opening in Central Asia. For the allies of Chosroes were Western Turks, a new power was to dominate the steppe for next few centuries.

[Modu Tanhu]

Talessman's Atlas of World History
The Hephthalites, Hua, Hunas, and White Huns

The Hephthalites (sometimes called "White Huns", also known as Hoa or Hoa-tun by the Chinese, Ephthalites by the Greeks, and Hunas by the Indians) were a confederation of nomadic peoples in Central Asian during the 5th and 6th centuries AD. Their precise origins and composition remain obscure. They were likely of Iranian or Turkish decent (or a mixture of both). According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, they had no cities or system of writing, lived in felt tents, and practiced polyandry, while very little is known of their language.

In Chinese chronicles they were originally known as Hoa or Hoa-tun and lived north of the Great Wall, in Dzungaria. Around 420 AD they subjugated Transoxiana, then invaded Persia but were overwhelmingly defeat by the Sassanids in 427 AD. They returned in the 450s and defeated the Sassanids, reducing Persia to tributary status for a time. At their height in the early 500s, most of central Asia was either ruled directly by the Hephthalites or paid tribute to their rulers, while a seperate Hephthalite Empire (the Hunas) ruled much of northern India.

Hephthalites Timeline

c. 125 AD - Chinese sources first document the Hephthalites as a tribe called the Hoa, living in Dzungaria (north of the Great Wall.

420 AD - Hephthalites subjugate Transoxiana and invade Persia.

427 AD - Sassanids win major victory over Hephthalites and drive them out of Persia.

454 AD - Hephthalites defeat the Sassanids and revenge their earlier loss.

460 AD -

470 AD - Hephthalites conquer the Kidarite Kingdom of Gandhara. Tegin (Toramana) becomes the Viceroy of this new realm, known in India as the Hunas.

475 AD - Sassanids are again defeated by the Hephthalites and forced to pay tribute.

479 AD - Hephthalites conquer Sogdiana to the north, and Kashgar and Khotan to the east.

480 AD - Hunas under Tegin (Toramana) invade the Gupta Empire.

493 AD - Hephthalites defeat the Turgesh Khaganate and extend their power to Dzungaria.

500 AD - Hephthalite armies restore the Sassanid Emperor Kubad to the Persian throne. Meanwhile in India, the Gupta Empire has collapsed and Huna armies have overrun much of Northern India.

508 AD - Hephthalites conquer Turfan and Karashar, giving them control over most of the Tarim Basin.

522 AD - Hephthalites are at the height of their power. The majority of central Asia either is under direct Hephthalite control, or pays tribute.

528 AD - The Hunas are defeated in Malwa by Yasodvarman.

532 AD - A coalition of Indian kingdoms drives the Hunas from the plains of North India.

557 - The Hephthalite Khaganate in Central Asia is destroyed an alliance of Persians and Göktürks.

557 - The Hephthalite Khaganate in Central Asia is destroyed an alliance of Persians and Göktürks.

562 - An Avar invasion of Thuringia is repulsed by the Franks.

- The Kingdom of Silla captures Imna and drives the Japanese from Korea .

565 - A Hephthalite Khanate is re-established in Afghanistan (first at Kapisa).

565 AD - The Sassanids ally with the Gokturks to destroy the Hephthalite Empire. Smaller Hephthalite principalities maintain their independence in Zabul, Kapisa, Tocharistan, and other areas.

570 AD -

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

Interesting - this is the first time I see that the Hephtalites of Turkestan and India are seen as two different branchs, whereas previously I had thought that they formed one formidable empire.

[Azadan Januspar]

Yes Ihsan seems like the same pattern always applied to any nomads in history in those regions. And Modu does the picture you hold says the Issyk inscription translated into Orkhun, or maybe vice versa? it's confusing you know.

[Temüjin]

actually Chionites/Kidarites/Hunas/Red Huns were always considered as different branch from the (H)ephtalites/White Huns but we cannot be completely certain. it's also possible Hunas were vassals of Ephtalites, but they were definitely different entities.

[Modu Tanhu]

Azadan the Issyk inscription is read with the Orkhun inscription that's what I mean with Orkhun translation. I should change it but I'm too lazy to open PhotoShop.

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

So perhaps we can compare these "Indo-Hephtalites" with the Yabghu Kingdom of Tokharestan during the Gokturk period, in which the Yabghus of Tokharestan were from the Gokturk A-shi-na dynasty but they were ruling the area autonomous (this is much the way a steppe empire is ruled). Even after the fall of the Western Gokturk Qaghanate between 630-655, and even in the 8th century up to the 750s, the Gokturk-origined Yabghus continued to rule Tokharestan. This is also the same way how the Khazar Empire was founded - their original Yabghus were from the A-shi-na dynasty, but when the Western Gokturk Qaghanate fell, they decided to hang around on their own.

[hjernespiser]

Ardavarz,
I moved your post to the Esik artifacts thread where there's past discussion about the Issyk inscription. steppes.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=board14&action=display&thread=407&page=5