The defeat of the Xiongnu in 89 CE by
Han dynasty forces at the
Battle of Ikh Bayan and subsequent Han campaigns against them, led by
Ban Chao 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), around
Khiva, and the "Red" or southern (
Kidarites and/or
Alchon), south of the
Oxus. 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 from the late 4th century AD until the mid-5th century AD.
Chionite rulers of Chach , with an appearance similar to that on the coinage of the Chionites of
Chach. 5th–7th 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. Sometime between 194 and 214, according to the
Armenian historian
Moses of Khorene (5th century),
Hunni (probably the Kidarites) captured the city of
Balkh (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, after a new wave of invaders from the north, the Alchon, entered Bactria.
Clashes with the Sasanians Early confrontations between the
Sasanian Empire of
Shapur II with the Xionites were described by
Ammianus Marcellinus: 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 II successfully waged war against the Xionites for ten years which concluded in a treaty alliance with the Chionites and the Gelani in 358 CE under which the Xionites would help Shapur II in his war against the Romans.
Alchon is suggested by a portrait of
Khingila, king of the
Alchon c. 430 – 490 AD. In 460,
Khingila I reportedly united a
Hephthalite ruling élite with elements of the
Uar 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 ruler, –560 CE. Although the power of the Huna in Bactria was shattered in the 560s by a combination of
Sassanid 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. In the Avestan tradition (Yts. 9.30-31, 19.87) the
Xiiaona were characterized as enemies of
Vishtaspa, the patron of
Zoroaster. have been identified by Bailey as the
Kermichiones or
Ermechiones. Similarly he identifies the
Sveta Huna of Indian sources with the
Spet Xyon of the
Avesta. While the
Hephthalite 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 ==