Introduction of Huna

White Huns, Akhuns, Ephthalites, Hephthalites, Hephtal, Heftal, Haitila, Haital, Aptal, Eptla, Evdal, Abdal, Abdel, Eftal, (Ch.) Hsi-mo-ta-lo, (Ch.) Ye-ta, (Ch.)Ye-da, Tetal, Hion, Hyon, Hiyona, Khyon, Hun, White Hions, Sveta Huna, Red Huns, Hara (Hala) Huna, Kermihions, Karmir Hion, Kirmirxyun, (Ch.) Hua, War, Uar, Varhun, Warhun, Apar, Awar, Avar, Huns-Kidarites, Kidarites,  Kidaro,  Kidara, Kerder (Kurder), Kerderi, Khoalits, Khoalitoi, Khoali, Khoari, Jabula, Jauvla, Jauwla,  Kangar, Kangju, Qangui, Gaoguy-Uigur,  Alkhon, and other variations

Subdivisions

Chao-wu, Jamuk, Jauvla,  Johal, Jouhal, Joval, Jauvla, Jauhal, Jauhla, Jatt, Jat, Jabuli, Kabuli, Zabul, Zabuli, Zabulites, => all literaly meaning “falcon” in Turkic/Hunnic, but politically “Kabul”

Chionites, Chions,  Hiono,

Abdaly, Hephtal, all other versions

Although the Hephthalites dominated much of Central Asia and Northern India at the height of their power (approximately 460 to 570), little information about their civilization is available to us. Their name derives from the Byzantine "Ephthalites," and they were alternatively known as Ye-Ta to the Wei dynasty and Hunas to the Gupta Empire. They are also referred to as "White Huns" in some histories, a term derived from a quotation from Procopius' History of the Wars, in which he writes, "The Ephthalites 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 and countenances which are not ugly." We do not know what name these people used to refer to themselves.
Historians tend to fall into two camps when discussing Hephthalite origins. One theory is that the Hephthalites were once part of the Juan-juan confederacy of Turkic nomadic peoples; similarities in portraiture found on Hephthalite and Yuezhi coins is sometimes offered as evidence of a common Western China homeland for both these cultures. An alternate explanation put forth by Kazuo Enoki in the 1950s is that the Hephthalites were an Iranian group who settled in the Altai region, from whence they began their military expansion south into the Bactrian region. But whatever their origins might have been, by the year 500 branch empires of the Hephthalites controlled an area stretching south from Transoxiana to the Arabian Sea, and as far west as Khurasan (the eastern-most part of the Sassanian empire), and all of northern India to the east.

The Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata, supposed to have been edited around the 4th or 5th century, in one of its verses, mentions the Hunas with the Parasikas and other Mlechha tribes of the northwest including the Yavanas, Chinas, Kambojas, Darunas, Sukritvahas, Kulatthas etc. According to Dr V. A. Smith, the verse is reminiscent of the period when the Hunas first came into contact with the Sassanian dynasty of Persia. Brihat Katha Manjari of Kashmiri Pandit Kshmendra (11th century AD) also claims that king Vikramaditya had slaughtered theShakas, Barbaras, Hunas, Kambojas, Yavanas, Parasikas and the Tusharas etc. and hence unburdened the earth of these sinful Mlechhas. There is still another ancient Brahmanical text Katha-Saritsagara by Somadeva which also attests that king Vikramaditya had invaded the north-west tribes including the Kashmiras and had destroyed the Sanghas of the Mlechhas (reference to Sanghas here obviously alludes to the Sanghas of the Madrakas, Yaudheyas, Kambojas, Mallas or Malavas, Sibis, Arjunayans, Kulutas and Kunindas etc). Those who survived accepted his suzerainty and many of them joined his armed forces.There is mention of Chinese sources identifying them variously with either the Ch'e-shih of Turfan (now in the Uighur regionof China), K'ang Chu or Kangju from southern Kazakhstan or the widespread Yueh Zhi  tribes from Central China. These Yuehzhi were driven out of the Chinese territories that they occupied by  anotherband of tribes known as the Hsiung Nu. One of these tribes of the Yueh Zhi was the White Huns or Hepthelites. According to Richard Heli Chinese chroniclers state that they were known as the Ye-ti-li-do, or Yeda butthey are also known as the people of Hua by the same chroniclers. From these sources there is anambiguity that arises which might show that something was lost in translation between the term Huawhich converted to Hun instead and came to be associated with the Hunnic tribes .The Japanese researcher Kazuo Enoki  disregarded theories based solely on similarity of names due tothe fact that there is so much linguistic variation that we cannot say for certain that a particular namehas not lost something in translation. His approach towards understanding Hephthalite origins is to seewhere they were not in evidence instead of where they were by which he has stated that their originsmight have been from the Hsi-mo-ta-lo southwest of Badakshan near the Hindukush, a name whichstands for snowplain or Himtala in modern times and this might be the Sanskritised form of Hephthal(Heli, 2007)Of note here is the work of Professor Paul Harrison of Stanford University, who deciphered a copperscroll form Afghanistan in 2007. The scroll is dated from 492-93 CE and is from the period of the Hephthalites. It apparently mentions that they were Buddhists and had Iranian names and includesabout a dozen names including that of their overlord or King. (Heli, 2007)Where their name is concerned, they have been variously known as Sveta Hunas or Khidaritas inSanskrit, Ephtalites or Hephthalites in Greek, Haitals in Armenian, Heaitels in Arabic and Persian,  Abdeles by the Byzantine historian Theophylactos Simocattes while the Chinese name them the Ye-ta-li-to , after their first major ruler Ye-tha or Hephtal .The variety of names shows that there is ambiguity towards the specific identity of this particular race and that historically they don’t have a set origin that defines them separately from the various othertribes that existed within that region at the same time, mostly of Yuezhi origins.

As a matter of fact the abovementioned scholars are right. The main part of the Hepthelite consisted of the Little Yuezhi separated from the Yuezhi Tribe during Great Migration of Yuezhi during theirs defat by Xionghnu. But the Chionites and the Kushans of Bactria joined the newcomers: Main part of Great Yuezhi. They hoped that with the help of the Hephtalites they could reconquer their East-Iranian and North-North-western Indian territories. The Khidarites – who also joined the White Huns – belonged to the later Kushans, too. From the Sassanian rule a Ta Yüeh-chi /Great Yüeh-chi/ prince: Khidara and his tribe became independent in the beginning of the 4-th century A.D. and occupied the eastern part of Gandhara. This fact is proved by the Khidarita coins excavated there. But the pillar found in Allahabad, India proves this, too, as the following text is written on it: „near to the border of North India lives a prince called Devaputra Sahanushahi /”son of God – the king of the kings”/.[1] As this title always belonged to the Kushan rulers originated from the Great Yüeh-chis, it means that Khidara was their successor and the Khidarites were his nation. By the archeologists the pillar was made around 340 A.D.,  the Hephtalites and their „kindred tribes”: the Kushans, the Chionites and the Khidarites arrived to the Indian border at that time.

The Central Asian Huna consisted of four hordes in four cardinal directions. Northern Huna were the Black Huns, Southern Huna were the Red Huns, Eastern Huna were the Celestial Huns, and Western Huna were the White Huns or Hephthalites. In next chapters , we will read about all four stock of Huna and their ruling-elite. All four Huna  have been part of the Hephthalite group, who established themselves in central Asia by the 4^th and 5^th century. They sometimes call themselves "Hono" on their coins, but it seems that they are similar to the Huns who invaded the Western world.

They appeared in Northwestern India and parts of eastern Iran. During their invasion, the Hunas managed to capture the Sassanian king Peroz I, and exchanged him for a ransom. They used the coins of the ransom to counter mark and copy them, thereby initiating a coinage inspired from Sassanian designs.

The famous Chinese Buddhist monks: - one of them: Sung Yun who visited India at the time of the Hephtalite kingdom – and the other one: Hsuan Tsang who went there a few decades later, gave details about the White Huns in their accounts. But the Hephtalites had mixed with other nations before they arrived in India.

The Hephtalites while still living in the Oxus valley in the 4-th century, the Indian Puranas – written in Sanskrit – first of all the Vishnu Purana and the Aitareya Brahmana refer to them and call them „Hunas”.[2] In the beginning of the 5-th century the famous poet-writer: Kalidasa writes about them in his Sanskrit epic: the Raghuvamsha  /Raghu’s nation/:

               „Tatra Hunavarodhanam bhartrishu vyaktavikman

                Kapolapataladeshi babhuva Raghuceshtitam” //68//

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.

Yabgu

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yabgu (Old Turkic: , yabγu,^[1] Traditional Chinese: 葉護, Simplified Chinese: 叶护, Jabgu, Djabgu, literally, "pioneer"^{[citation needed]}, "guide"^{[citation needed]}) was a state office in the early Turkic states, roughly equivalent to viceroy. The title carried autonomy in different degrees, and its links with the central authority of Khagan varied from economical and political subordination to superficial political deference.

The position of Yabgu was traditionally given to the second highest member of a ruling clan (Ashina), with the first member being the Kagan himself. Frequently, Yabgu was a younger brother of the ruling Kagan, or a representative of the next generation, called Shad (blood prince). Mahmud Kashgari defined the title Yabgu as "position two steps below Kagan", listing heir apparent Shad a step above Yabgu.^[2]

As the Khaganate decentralized, the Yabgu gained more autonomous power within the suzerainty, and historical records name a number of independent states with "Yabgu" being the title of the supreme ruler. One prominent example was the Oguz Yabgu state in Middle Asia, which was formed after the fragmentation of the Second Türkic Kaganate in the 840es. Another prominent example was the Karluk Yabgu, the head of the Karluk confederation which in the 766 occupied Suyab in the Jeti-su area, and eventually grew into a powerful Karakhanid state.^[3]

Etymology[edit]

Although believed by some to be a derivation from early Turkic davgu,^[4] most scholars believe that that the word Yabgu is of Indo-European origin, and was perhaps borrowed by the Türks from the Kushan political tradition, preserved by the Hephtalites.^[5]

Friedrich Hirth suggested that the earliest title "Yabgu" was recorded in literary Chinese with regard to Kushan contexts with transliteration Xihou "e-khu (yephou)" (Chinese: 翖侯; literally: "United/Allied/Confederated Prince").^[2] However, the Chinese does not make clear whether the title was the one bestowed on foreign leaders or rather a descriptive title indicating that they were allied, or united.

The Chinese word sihou (<*xiap-g’u) is a title. The second part of this compound, hou (<g’u), meant a title of second hereditary noble of the five upper classes. Sihou (<*xiap-g’u) corresponds to the title yavugo on the Kushan (Ch. Uechji) coins from Kabulistan, and yabgu of the ancient Türkic monuments [Hirth F. "Nachworte zur Inschrift des Tonjukuk" // ATIM, 2. Folge. StPb. 1899, p. 48-50]. This title is first of all a Kushan title, also deemed to be "true Tocharian" title.^[6] In the 11 BC the Chinese Han captured a Kushan from the Hunnu state, who was a "chancellor" (Ch. sijan) with the title yabgu (sihou). After 4 years he returned to the Hunnu shanyu, who gave him his former post of a «second [after Shanyu] person in the state", and retained the title yabgu (sihou). The bearer of this high title did not belong to the Hunnu dynastic line, well-known and described in detail in the sources. Probably, he was a member of the numerous Kushan (Uechji) autonomous diasporas in the Hunnu confederation. This history suggests, that in the Usun state Butszü-sihou, who saved the life of a baby Gunmo in the 160es BC, also was an yabgu.^[7]

It remains unclear whether the title indicates an alliance with the Chinese or simply with each other. A few scholars, such as Sims-Williams considered the Turkic "Yabgu" to be originally derived from the Chinese "Xihou".^[8] Another theory postulalates a Sogdian origin for both titles, "Yabgu" and "Shad". The rulers of some Sogdian principalities are known to have title "Ikhshid".^[9]

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