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Xionites, Chionites, or Chionitae (
Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Per ...
: ''Xiyōn'' or ''Hiyōn''; Avestan: ''Xiiaona''; Sogdian ''xwn'';
Pahlavi Pahlavi may refer to: Iranian royalty *Seven Parthian clans, ruling Parthian families during the Sasanian Empire *Pahlavi dynasty, the ruling house of Imperial State of Persia/Iran from 1925 until 1979 **Reza Shah, Reza Shah Pahlavi (1878–1944 ...
''Xyon'') were a nomadic people in the
Central Asian Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the former S ...
regions of
Transoxiana Transoxiana or Transoxania (Land beyond the Oxus) is the Latin name for a region and civilization located in lower Central Asia roughly corresponding to modern-day eastern Uzbekistan, western Tajikistan, parts of southern Kazakhstan, parts of Tu ...
and
Bactria Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia in Amu Darya's middle stream, stretching north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Gissar range, covering the northern part of Afghanistan, southwe ...
. The Xionites appear to be synonymous with the
Huna people Hunas or Huna (Middle Brahmi script: ''Hūṇā'') was the name given by the ancient Indians to a group of Central Asian tribes who, via the Khyber Pass, entered the Indian subcontinent at the end of the 5th or early 6th century. The Huna King ...
s of the
South Asian South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geography, geographical and culture, ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, ...
regions of classical/medieval India, and possibly also the
Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...
of European late antiquity, who were in turn connected onomastically to the
Xiongnu The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, the supreme leader after 20 ...
in Chinese history. They were first described by the Roman historian,
Ammianus Marcellinus Ammianus Marcellinus (occasionally Anglicisation, anglicised as Ammian) (born , died 400) was a Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Ancient history, antiquity (preceding Procopius). His w ...
, who was in Bactria during 356–357 CE; he described the ''Chionitæ'' as living with the Kushans. Ammianus indicates that the Xionites had previously lived in Transoxiana and, after entering Bactria, became
vassal A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain. W ...
s of the Kushans, were influenced culturally by them and had adopted the
Bactrian language Bactrian (, , ) is an extinct Eastern Iranian language formerly spoken in the Central Asian region of Bactria (in present-day Afghanistan) and used as the official language of the Kushan, and the Hephthalite empires. Name It was long thought t ...
. They had attacked the
Sassanid Empire The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...
, but later (led by a chief named Grumbates), served as mercenaries in the
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
Sassanian army. Within the Xionites, there seem to have been two main subgroups, which were known in the
Iranian languages The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian languages are grouped ...
by names such as ''Karmir Xyon'' and ''Spet Xyon''. The prefixes ''karmir'' ("red") and ''speta'' ("white") likely refer to
Central Asian Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the former S ...
traditions in which particular colours symbolised the cardinal points. The ''Karmir Xyon'' were known in European sources as the ''Kermichiones'' or "Red Huns", and some scholars have identified them with the
Kidarites The Kidarites, or Kidara Huns, were a dynasty that ruled Bactria and adjoining parts of Central Asia and South Asia in the 4th and 5th centuries. The Kidarites belonged to a complex of peoples known collectively in India as the Huna, and in Euro ...
and/or Alchon. The ''Spet Xyon'' or "White Huns" appear to have been the known in
South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;;;;; ...
by the cognate name ''Sveta-huna'', and are often identified, controversially, with the
Hephtalites The Hephthalites ( xbc, ηβοδαλο, translit= Ebodalo), sometimes called the White Huns (also known as the White Hunas, in Iranian languages, Iranian as the ''Spet Xyon'' and in Sanskrit as the ''Sveta-huna''), were a people who lived in Cen ...
.


Origins and culture

The original culture of the Xionites and their geographical urheimat are uncertain. They appear to have originally followed
animist Animism (from Latin: ' meaning 'breath, Soul, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct Spirituality, spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—Animal, animals, Plant, plants, Ro ...
religious beliefs, which mixed later with varieties of
Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
and
Shaivism Shaivism (; sa, शैवसम्प्रदायः, Śaivasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu traditions, which worships Shiva as the Supreme Being. One of the largest Hindu denominations, it incorporates many sub-traditions rangi ...
. It is difficult to determine their ethnic composition. Differences between the Xionites, the Huns who invaded Europe in the 4th century, and the Turks were emphasised by
Carlile Aylmer Macartney Carlile Aylmer Macartney FBA (1895–1978) was a British academic specialising in the history and politics of East-Central Europe and in particular the history of Austria and Hungary. He was also a supporter of Hungarian interests and causes in ...
(1944), who suggested that the name "Chyon", originally that of an unrelated people, was "transferred later to the Huns owing to the similarity of sound". The Chyon who appeared in the 4th century, in the steppes on the northeastern frontier of Persia were probably a branch of the Huns that appeared shortly afterwards in Europe. The Huns appear to have attacked and conquered the Alans, then living between the Urals and the Volga about 360 AD, and the first mention of the Chyon was in 356 AD. At least some Turkic tribes were involved in the formation of the Xionites, despite their later character as an
Eastern Iranian people The Iranian peoples or Iranic peoples are a diverse grouping of Indo-European peoples who are identified by their usage of the Iranian languages and other cultural similarities. The Proto-Iranians are believed to have emerged as a separate ...
, according to Richard Nelson Frye (1991): "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... spoke an Iranian language.... This was the last time in the history of Central Asia that Iranian-speaking nomads played any role; hereafter all nomads would speak Turkic languages". The proposition that the Xionites probably originated as an Iranian tribe was put forward by Wolfgang Felix in ''Encyclopedia Iranica'' (1992). In 2005, As-Shahbazi suggested that they were originally a Hunnish people who had mixed with Iranian tribes in Transoxiana and Bactria, where they adopted the Kushan-Bactrian language. Likewise,
Peter B. Golden Peter Benjamin Golden (born 1941) is an American historian who is Professor Emeritus of History, Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University. He has written many books and articles on Turkic peoples, Turkic and Central Asian Studies, ...
that the Chionite confederation included earlier Iranian nomads as well as
Proto-Mongolic Proto-Mongolic is the hypothetical ancestor language of the modern Mongolic languages. It is very close to the Middle Mongol language, the language spoken at the time of Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire. Most features of modern Mongolic languag ...
and Turkic elements.


History

The defeat of the Xiongnu in 89 CE by Chinese forces at the
Battle of Ikh Bayan The Battle of Altai Mountains (), was a major expedition launched against the Northern Xiongnu by the Han Dynasty in June AD 89. The battle was a success for the Han under Dou Xian (d. AD 92).''Book of Later Han'', vols. 04, 19, 23, 88, 89, ...
and subsequent Chinese campaigns against them, led by
Ban Chao Ban Chao (; 32–102 CE), courtesy name Zhongsheng, was a Chinese diplomat, explorer, and military general of the Eastern Han Dynasty. He was born in Fufeng, now Xianyang, Shaanxi. Three of his family members—father Ban Biao, elder brother ...
may have been a factor in the ethnogenesis of the Xionites and their migration into Central Asia. Xionite tribes reportedly organised themselves into four main hordes: "Black" or northern (beyond the Jaxartes), "Blue" or eastern (in Tianshan), "White" or western (possibly the
Hephthalites The Hephthalites ( xbc, ηβοδαλο, translit= Ebodalo), sometimes called the White Huns (also known as the White Hunas, in Iranian as the ''Spet Xyon'' and in Sanskrit as the ''Sveta-huna''), were a people who lived in Central Asia during th ...
), around
Khiva Khiva ( uz, Xiva/, خىۋا; fa, خیوه, ; alternative or historical names include ''Kheeva'', ''Khorasam'', ''Khoresm'', ''Khwarezm'', ''Khwarizm'', ''Khwarazm'', ''Chorezm'', ar, خوارزم and fa, خوارزم) is a district-level city ...
, and the "Red" or southern (
Kidarites The Kidarites, or Kidara Huns, were a dynasty that ruled Bactria and adjoining parts of Central Asia and South Asia in the 4th and 5th centuries. The Kidarites belonged to a complex of peoples known collectively in India as the Huna, and in Euro ...
and/or Alchon), south of the
Oxus The Amu Darya, tk, Amyderýa/ uz, Amudaryo// tg, Амударё, Amudaryo ps, , tr, Ceyhun / Amu Derya grc, Ὦξος, Ôxos (also called the Amu, Amo River and historically known by its Latin name or Greek ) is a major river in Central Asi ...
. Artefacts found from the area they inhabited dating from their period indicate their totem animal seems to have been the (rein)deer. The Xionites are best documented in southern
Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
from the late 4th century AD until the mid-5th century AD.


Chionite rulers of Chach

Some Chionites are known to have ruled in Chach (modern
Tashkent Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of ...
), at the foot of the
Altai Range The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob have their headwaters. The massif merges with the ...
, between the middle of the 4th century CE to the 6th century CE. A special type of coinage has been attributed to them, where they appear in portraits as diademed kings, facing right, with a tamgha in the shape of an X, and a circular Sogdian legend. They also often appear with a crescent over the head. It has been suggested that the facial characteristics and the hairstyle of these Chionite rulers as they appear on their coinage, are similar to those appearing on the murals of Balalyk Tepe further south. File:Chach. Uncertain ruler. Circa AD 625-725.jpg, Chionite coinage of Chach File:Chach. Uncertain ruler Chanurnak or Chanubek. Circa AD 625-725.jpg, Chionite coinage of Chach File:Portrait on a coin of Chach.jpg, Portrait on a coin of Chach.


Kidarites

Sometime between 194 and 214, according to the
Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
historian
Moses of Khorene Movses Khorenatsi (ca. 410–490s AD; hy, Մովսէս Խորենացի, , also written as ''Movses Xorenac‘i'' and Moses of Khoren, Moses of Chorene, and Moses Chorenensis in Latin sources) was a prominent Armenian historian from the late an ...
(5th century), ''Hunni'' (probably the Kidarites) captured the city of
Balkh ), named for its green-tiled ''Gonbad'' ( prs, گُنبَد, dome), in July 2001 , pushpin_map=Afghanistan#Bactria#West Asia , pushpin_relief=yes , pushpin_label_position=bottom , pushpin_mapsize=300 , pushpin_map_caption=Location in Afghanistan ...
(Armenian name: ''Kush'') . According to Armenian sources, Balkh became the capital of the Hunni. At the end of the 4th century AD, the Kidarites were pushed into
Gandhara Gandhāra is the name of an ancient region located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely in present-day north-west Pakistan and parts of south-east Afghanistan. The region centered around the Peshawar Vall ...
, after a new wave of invaders from the north, the Alchon, entered Bactria.


Clashes with the Sasanians

Early confrontations between the
Sasanian Empire The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the History of Iran, last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th cen ...
of
Shapur II Shapur II ( pal, 𐭱𐭧𐭯𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭩 ; New Persian: , ''Šāpur'', 309 – 379), also known as Shapur the Great, was the tenth Sasanian King of Kings (Shahanshah) of Iran. The longest-reigning monarch in Iranian history, he reigned fo ...
with the Xionites were described by
Ammianus Marcellinus Ammianus Marcellinus (occasionally Anglicisation, anglicised as Ammian) (born , died 400) was a Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Ancient history, antiquity (preceding Procopius). His w ...
: he reports that in 356 CE, Shapur II was taking his winter quarters on his eastern borders, "repelling the hostilities of the bordering tribes" of the Xionites and the ''Euseni'', a name often amended to ''Cuseni'' (meaning the Kushans). Shapur made a treaty of alliance with the Chionites and the Gelani in 358 CE.


Alchon

In 460,
Khingila I Khingila I ( Bactrian: χιγγιλο ''Khingilo'', Brahmi script: ''Khi-ṇgi-la'', Middle Chinese: 金吉剌 ''Jīnjílà'', Persian: شنگل ''Shengel''; c.430-490) was the founding king of the Hunnic Alkhan dynasty ( Bactrian: αλχανο ...
reportedly united a
Hephthalite The Hephthalites ( xbc, ηβοδαλο, translit= Ebodalo), sometimes called the White Huns (also known as the White Hunas, in Iranian as the ''Spet Xyon'' and in Sanskrit as the ''Sveta-huna''), were a people who lived in Central Asia during th ...
ruling élite with elements of the
Uar The United Arab Republic (UAR; ar, الجمهورية العربية المتحدة, al-Jumhūrīyah al-'Arabīyah al-Muttaḥidah) was a sovereign state in the Middle East from 1958 until 1971. It was initially a political union between Eg ...
and Xionites as ''Alchon'' (or ''Alχon''). when. At the end of the 5th century the Alchon invaded North India where they were known as the Huna. In India the Alchon were not distinguished from their immediate Hephthalite predecessors, and both are known as Sveta-Hunas there. Perhaps complimenting this term, Procopius (527–565) wrote that they were white skinned, had an organized kingship, and that their life was not wild/nomadic and they lived in cities. The Alchon were noted for their distinctive coins, minted in Bactria in the 5th and 6th centuries. The name ''Khigi'', inscribed in Bactrian script on one of the coins, and ''Narendra'' on another, have led some scholars to believe that the Hephthalite kings Khingila and Narana were of the AlChoNo tribe. They imitated the earlier style of their Hephthalite predecessors, the Kidarite Hun successors to the Kushans. In particular the Alchon style imitates the coins of Kidarite Varhran I (syn. Kushan Varhran IV). The earliest coins of the Alchon have several distinctive features: 1) the king's head is presented in an elongated form to reflect the Alchon practice of head binding; 2) The characteristic bull/lunar tamgha of the Alchon is represented on the obverse of the coins.


Hephthalites

The Hephthalites, or White Huns, were a nomadic tribe who conquered large parts of the eastern middle-east and may have originally been part of the Xionites.


Nezak

Although the power of the Huna in Bactria was shattered in the 560s by a combination of
Sassanid The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...
and Turkic forces, the last Hephthalite king Narana/Narendra managed to maintain some kind of rule between 570 and 600 AD over the ''nspk'', ''napki'' or Nezak tribes that remained.


Identity of the ''Karmir Xyon'' and ''White Xyon''

Bailey argues that the Pahlavi name ''Xyon'' may be read as the Indian '' Huna'' owing to the similarity of sound.Bailey, H. W. ''Iranian Studies'', Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London. BSOAS, vol. 6, No. 4 (1932) In the Avestan tradition (Yts. 9.30-31, 19.87) the ''Xiiaona'' were characterized as enemies of Vishtaspa, the patron of
Zoroaster Zoroaster,; fa, زرتشت, Zartosht, label=New Persian, Modern Persian; ku, زەردەشت, Zerdeşt also known as Zarathustra,, . Also known as Zarathushtra Spitama, or Ashu Zarathushtra is regarded as the spiritual founder of Zoroastria ...
. In the later Pahlavi tradition, the ''Karmir Xyon'' ("Red Xyon") and ''Spet Xyon'' ("White Xyon") are mentioned. The Red Xyon of the Pahlavi tradition (7th century) have been identified by Bailey as the ''Kermichiones'' or ''Ermechiones''. According to Bailey, the ''Hara Huna'' of Indian sources are to be identified with the ''Karmir Xyon'' of the Avesta.(Bailey, 1954, pp.12-16; 1932, p. 945), Similarly he identifies the ''Sveta Huna'' of Indian sources with the ''Spet Xyon'' of the ''Avesta''. While the
Hephthalite The Hephthalites ( xbc, ηβοδαλο, translit= Ebodalo), sometimes called the White Huns (also known as the White Hunas, in Iranian as the ''Spet Xyon'' and in Sanskrit as the ''Sveta-huna''), were a people who lived in Central Asia during th ...
are not mentioned in Indian sources, they are sometimes also linked to the ''Spet Xyon'' (and therefore possibly to the ''Sveta Huna''). More controversially, the names ''Karmir Xyon'' and ''Spet Xyon'' are often rendered as "Red Huns" and "White Huns", reflecting speculation that the Xyon were linked to Huns recorded simultaneously in Europe.


See also

*
Huna people Hunas or Huna (Middle Brahmi script: ''Hūṇā'') was the name given by the ancient Indians to a group of Central Asian tribes who, via the Khyber Pass, entered the Indian subcontinent at the end of the 5th or early 6th century. The Huna King ...
*
Hephthalite Empire The Hephthalites ( xbc, ηβοδαλο, translit= Ebodalo), sometimes called the White Huns (also known as the White Hunas, in Iranian as the ''Spet Xyon'' and in Sanskrit as the ''Sveta-huna''), were a people who lived in Central Asia during th ...
*
Uar The United Arab Republic (UAR; ar, الجمهورية العربية المتحدة, al-Jumhūrīyah al-'Arabīyah al-Muttaḥidah) was a sovereign state in the Middle East from 1958 until 1971. It was initially a political union between Eg ...
* Iranian Huns


References


Sources

* * * *


External links

* {{Huns Nomadic groups in Eurasia Ancient history of Afghanistan Historical Iranian peoples Iranian nomads Bactria Huns