Hephthalite
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| Hephthalites |
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 Map showing the extent of regions under Hephthalite dominion, c. AD 520. |
| Total population |
| Regions with significant populations |
| Central Asia South Asia |
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| Religions |
The Hephthalites (425 - 557 CE) (Persian: هفتالیان or هپتالیان) were a people of obscure origin (possibly Indo-Iranian/Indo-European[1]) who at certain periods played an important role in the history of Persia and India.[2][3] They were called Ephthalites by the Greeks, and Hunas by the Indians. According to Chinese chronicles they were originally a tribe living to the north of the Great Wall and were known as Hoa or Hoa-tun. Elsewhere they were called White Huns or (Sveta) Hunas. However, there is no definite evidence that they are related to the Huns.[3]
The Hephthalites were an agricultural people with a developed set of laws. They were first mentioned by the Chinese, who described them (A.D. 125) as living in Dzungaria. They displaced the Scythians and conquered Sogdiana and Khorasan before 425. They crossed (425) the Syr Darya (Jaxartes) River and invaded Persia. Held off at first by Bahram Gur, they later (483–85) succeeded in making Persia tributary. After a series of wars (503–13) they were driven out of Persia, permanently lost the offensive, and were finally (557) defeated by Khosru I. The White Huns also invaded India and succeeded in extending their domain to include the Ganges valley. They temporarily overthrew the Gupta empire but were eventually driven out of India in 528 by a Hindu coalition. Although in Persia they had little effect, in India the White Huns influenced society by altering the caste system and disrupting the hierarchy of the ruling families. Some of the White Huns remained in India as a distinct group.
The descendants of Hephthalites re-established their dynasty from 565 to 670 CE under the name of Ratbel-Shahan or Kabul-Shahan in the current territories of Afghanistan, mainly in Kabulistan.
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[edit] Origins
The origins of the Hephthalites are uncertain. Many theories have been discussed, of which the "Indo-European[4]" and "Turkic[citation needed]" theories are the most prominent ones.
In 1959 Kazuo Enoki put forward the hypothesis that they were probably East Iranians as some sources indicated that they were originally from Tokharestan, which is known to have been inhabited by Iranian peoples in antiquity. [5]. Richard Frye is cautiously accepting of Enoki's hypothesis, whilst at the same time stressing that the Hephthalites "were probably a mixed horde". [6] More recently Xavier Tremblay's very detailed examination of surviving Hephthalite personal names has indicated that Enoki's hypothesis that they were East Iranian may well be correct, but the matter remains unresolved in present scholarship. [7]
Our earliest information about the Ephthalites comes from the Chinese chronicles, in which it is stated that they were originally a tribe of the great Yuezhi (and thus related to their Indo-European neighbours), living to the north of the Great Wall, and in subjection to the Juan-Juan, as were also the Turks at one time. According to these chronicles, their original name was Hoa or Hoa-tun; subsequently they styled themselves Ye-tha-i-li-to after the name of their royal family, or more briefly Ye-tha[8].
Most scholars today[9][10][3][11] regard the Hephthalites - or at least their ruling elite - as speakers of an Eastern Iranian language or possibly another Indo-European language such as Tocharian.
Various theories about their origins are documented by ancient Chinese chroniclers, as well as by Procopius of Caesarea:
- They were related in some way to the Visha (Indo-Europeans known to the Chinese as the Yuezhi or Yüeh Chih),
- They were a branch of the Kao-ch`e,
- They were descendants of the general Pahua,
- They were descendants of Kang Kü
- Their origins cannot be made clear at all.
For some time, it was believed that the Hephthalites were speakers of the Bactrian language. However, modern researches have revealed that while Bactrian was the traditional language of administration, it was not the native tongue of the Hephthalites themselvs[10]. The usage of Turkic royal titles (such as Khaqan) is attested in ancient writings found in Afghanistan. While it indicates an important influence of Turco-Mongol peoples on the Hephthalites, it does not prove a Turkic or Mongolian origin of the tribe. According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, the Hephthalites "probably sprang from a strong Eastern Iranian element"[11].
[edit] Etymology
The term Haithalite was first used by Persian writers to refer to a 6th century empire on the northern and eastern periphery of their land.[citation needed] The élite Hephthal clan certainly appear to be quite distinct from the Huns who ravaged Europe in the fourth century AD. Although the Hephthalite empire was known in China, as Yanda (厌哒 or 嚈噠), Chinese chroniclers recognised that these terms actually came from only the leaders of the empire's polity - the polity which in contrast are documented as having called themselves Huá (滑) in the same sources.[citation needed] The name of their Hephthal ruling élite, some sources indicate originally applied to one of the 5 Yuezhi families from Kushan. India knew the Hephthalites by the Sanskrit name Sveta-Hūna (meaning White Huns). Armenian sources also mention a White Hun origin for the Parthian Arsaces. According to Simokattes, they were the Alchon, who united under the Hephthal as the "vultures descended on the people" around AD 460.[citation needed]
The term Haital means "Big/Powerful" in the dialect of Bukhara[12], but might also mean "seven"[citation needed]. The modern Chinese variation Yanda has been given various latinised renderings such as "Yeda", although the more archaic Korean pronunciation "Yeoptal" 엽달 is much more compatible with the Greek Hephthal and is certainly a much more archaic form.
Different spellings include Ephthalite, Epthalite, Ephtalite, Eptalite, Euthalite, Hepthalite, Hephtalite, and Heptalite.
[edit] Hephthalites in South Asia
In India, the Hephthalites were not distinguished from their immediate predecessors and are known by the same name Huna. The Huna had already established themselves in Afghanistan and NWFP in present day Pakistan by the first half of the fifth century, and the Gupta emperor Skandagupta had repelled a Hūna invasion in 455 before the Hephthal clan came along.
The Hephthalites with their capital at Bamiyan continued the pressure on India's northwest frontier (present day Pakistan), and broke through into northern India by the end of the fifth century, hastening the disintegration of the Gupta empire. They made their capital at the city of Sakala (modern day Sialkot) under their Emperor Mihirakula (or MehrGul meaning sunflower).
After the end of the sixth century little is recorded in India about the Hephthalites, and what happened to them is unclear; some historians surmise that the remaining Hephthalites were assimilated into northern India's population.
[edit] Descendants
Scholars believe the following groups in South Asia are descended either in full or in part from the Hepthalites:
- Jats
- Pashtuns
- Rajputs
- Rabari [reference 1) Mirella Ferrera, People of the World. Published by VMB publisher, Italey 2005 2) The Hunas (Huns) in India by Upendra Thakur. Page 238. published by The Chowkhamba Varanasi, India 1967. 3) Ibbetson,D publish 1916 ]
[edit] Contemporary references
Umberto Eco's novel Baudolino makes reference to the 'White Huns' who are portrayed as a fearsome warrior race.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ M. A. Shaban, "Khurasan at the Time of the Arab Conquest", in Iran and Islam, in memory of Vlademir Minorsky, Edinburgh University Press, (1971), p481; ISBN: 0 85224 200 x.
- ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Hephthalite", Online Edition, (LINK)
- ^ a b c M. Schottky, "Huns" - "Iranian Huns", in Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, (LINK)
- ^ M. A. Shaban, "Khurasan at the Time of the Arab Conquest", in Iran and Islam, in memory of Vlademir Minorsky, Edinburgh University Press, (1971), p481; ISBN: 0 85224 200 x.
- ^ Enoki, Kazuo: "On the Nationality of the Ephthalites" Memoirs of the Research Department of the Tokyo Bunko, 1959, No. 18, p56 - "Let me recapitulate the foregoing. The grounds upon which the Ephthalites are assigned an Iranian tribe are : (1) that their original home was on the east frontier of Tokharestan ; and (2) that their culture contained some Iranian elements. Naturally, the Ephthalites were sometimes regarded as another branch of the Kao-ch’e tribe by their contemporaries, and their manners and customs are represented as identical with those of the T’u-chueh, and it is a fact that they had several cultural elements in common with those of the nomadic Turkish tribes. Nevertheless, such similarity of manners and customs is an inevitable phenomenon arising from similarity of their environments. The Ephthalites could not be assigned as a Turkish tribe on account of this. The Ephthalites were considered by some scholars as an iranized tribe, but I would like to go further and acknowledge them as an Iranian tribe. Though my grounds, as stated above, are rather scarce, it is expected that the historical and linguistic materials concerning the Ephthalites are to be increased in the future and most of the newly-discovered materials seem the more to confirm my Iranian-tribe theory." Available here
- ^ Encyclopaedia Iranica: Central Asia in pre-Islamic Times (R. Frye)
- ^ Xavier Tremblay Pour une histore de la Sérinde. Le manichéisme parmi les peoples et religions d’Asie Centrale d’aprés les sources primaire, Vienna, 2001, Appendix D «Notes Sur L'Origine Des Hephtalites” , pp. 183-88 «Malgré tous les auteurs qui, depuis KLAPROTH jusqu’ ALTHEIM in SuC, p113 sq et HAUSSIG, Die Geschichte Zentralasiens und der Seidenstrasse in vorislamischer Zeit, Darmstadt, 1983 (cf. n.7), ont vu dans les Hephthalites des Turcs, l’explication de leurs noms par le turc ne s’impose jamais, est parfois impossible et n’est appuyée par aucun fait historique (aucune trace de la religion turque ancienne), celle par l’iranien est toujours possible, parfois évidente, surtout dans les noms longs comme Mihirakula, Toramana ou γοβοζοκο qui sont bien plus probants qu’ αλ- en Αλχαννο. Or l’iranien des noms des Hephtalites n’est pas du bactrien et n’est donc pas imputable à leur installation en Bactriane […] Une telle accumulation de probabilités suffit à conclure que, jusqu’à preuve du contraire, les Hepthalites étaient des Iraniens orientaux, mais non des Sogdiens.» Available here
- ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911, "Ephthalites", Online Edition, (LINK)
- ^ The White Huns - The Hephthalites
- ^ a b A.D.H. Bivar, "Hephthalites", in Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, (LINK)
- ^ a b G. Ambros/P.A. Andrews/L. Bazin/A. Gökalp/B. Flemming and others, "Turks", in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Online Edition 2006
- ^ The Persian Bukhani Kate dictionary states the meaning of Haital to mean "big, powerful" in the dialect of Bukhara.
[edit] External links
- Columbia Encyclopedia
- Hephthalite coins
- Hephthalite History and Coins of the Kashmir Smast Kingdom- Waleed Ziad
- The Hephthalites of Central Asia - by Richard Heli (long article with a timeline)
- The Hephthalites Article archived from the University of Washington's Silk Road exhibition - has a slightly adapted form of the Richard Heli timeline.
- (pdf) The Ethnonym Apar in the Turkish Inscriptions of the VIII. Century and Armenian Manuscripts - Mehmet Tezcan
