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Showing posts with label Origin of Bulgars and Huns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Origin of Bulgars and Huns. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Yuezhi and Bulgars

Yuezhi were an ancient Indo-European people who were first reported in Chinese sources as
Yuezhi migration from China to Bactria
The migrations of the Yuezhi through Central Asia
nomads living in an arid grassland area spanning the modern Chinese provinces of Xinjiang and Gansu (northwestern China), before the 2nd century BCE. In the second century BC Xiongnu defeated them and the main body of the Yuezhi, later called the Great Yuezhi,  moved westward into Sogdiana and Bactria, putting an end to Greek rule in both regions. They and related tribes are the Asi (Asiani) and Tocharians (Tochari) of Western sources. About 128 bce the Yuezhi were recorded living north of the Oxus River (Amu Darya), ruling Bactria as a dependency, but a little later the Great Yuezhi kingdom was in Bactria, and Sogdiana was occupied by the Dayuan (Tocharians). The remnant in Gansu were called Little Yuezhi. According to Otto Maenchen-Helfen some of the Yuezhi tribes migrated far to the west and were present in the steppes north of the Caucasus and on the shores of the Black Sea as early as 1st century BC.[1]

During the 1st century BCE, one of the five major Yuezhi tribes in Bactria, Kushanas (Chinese: 貴霜; Guishuang), began to subsume the other tribes and neighbouring peoples. A new dynasty, the Kushan, was subsequently founded by one of the five chieftains among whom Bactria was divided. The Kushan kingdom extended its power southward and eastward into India and northward into Central Asia. From the 3rd century, however, Kushan power declined, and about 400 ce the Kidara dynasty arose in Gandhara; the latter survived only to about 450 ce, when it was overwhelmed by the Hephthalites.

The name Yuezhi


The Chinese name "Yuezhi", written with the characters yuè () "moon" and shì () "clan", is translated as Moon people or Moon clan. The Kushanas, who were among the conquerors of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom during the 2nd century b.c., are widely believed to have originated as a dynastic clan or tribe of the Yuezhi.

Origin of the Yuezhi


The Yuezhi may have been an Europoid people, as indicated by the portraits of their kings on the coins that were struck following their exodus to Transoxiana (2nd–1st century BCE), portraits from statues in Khalchayan, Bactria in the 1st century BCE, some old place names in Gansu explainable in Tocharian languages, and especially the coins which they struck in India as Kushans (1st–3rd century CE).

Some authors as James P. Mallory and Victor H. Mair relate the Yuezhi with the Massagetae : "(Greater) Yuezhi or in the earlier pronunciation d'ad-ngiwat-tieg, has been seen to equate with the Massagetae who occupied the oases and steppelands of West Central Asia in the time of Herodotus; here Massa renders an Iranian word for "Great", hence "Great Getae". This identification was made by Alexander Cunningham and is supported by B.S. Dahiya (1980, 23) and Edgar Knobloch (2001, 15). Dahiya wrote about the Massagetae and Thyssagetae : "These Guti people had two divisions, the Ta-Yue-Che and Siao-Yue-Che, exactly corresponding to the Massagetae and Thyssagetae of Herodotus... Thyssagetae, who are known as the Lesser Getae, correspond with the Xiao Yuezhi, meaning Lesser Yuezhi."(Dahiya 1980, 23)[2]

The first theory on their origin was developed by W. B. Henning who connected the name of the Yuezhi with the Guti people from the Zagros Mountains in Iran/Iraq who supposedly left their homeland about 2000 BC heading to the Steppes of the heart of Asia, and eventually to the Gansu in China.[3] The only evidence presented by Henning on the basis of similar ceramics is considered to be unconvincing.[4] More convincing argument was made by H. W. Bailey who reconstructed the name of the Yuezhi in 9-10 century Khotan-Saka texts as Gara people. According to Bailey the forms of the name tu-γαρα or Great Gara are many, some of them are Θογαρα (Greek) but also thog-gar/ bho-gar in Tibetian.[5] Mallory and Mair suggest that the Yuezhi and Wusun were among the nomadic peoples, at least some of whom spoke Iranian languages, who moved into northern Xinjiang from the Central Asian steppe in the 2nd millennium BCE

Early history of Yuezhi


The Yuezhi were recorded by the Chinese during the period of Warring States (495-221 B. C.) as
nomadic people living in the the lands of the Western Region, specifically around Dunhuang and Guazhou. The Yuezhi had occupied Dunhuang district and became very strong nation in the
Yuezhi in Dunhuang, China received tribute from Xiongnu Huns
Yuezhi in Dunhuang, China
Northwest China. Han Shu further records:
" The Great Yuezhi was a nomadic horde. They moved about following their cattle, and had the same customs as those of the Xiongnu. As their soldiers numbered more than hundred thousand, they were strong and despised the Xiongnu. In the past, they lived in the region between Dunhuang and Qilian [Mountain](south of Hexi Corridor)" 
The Yuezhi was so powerful that the Xiongnu monarch Touman even sent his eldest son Modu as a hostage to the Yuezhi. The Yuezhi often attacked their neighbour the Wusun to acquire slaves and pasture lands. Wusun originally lived together with the Yuezhi in the region between Dunhuang and Qilian Mountain. The Yuezhi attacked the Wusuns, killed their monarch Nandoumi and took his territory. The son of Nandoumi, Kunmo fled to the Xiongnu and was brought up by the Xiongnu monarch. Gradually the Xiongnu grew stronger and war broke out between them and the Yuezhi. There were at least four wars between the Yuezhi and Xiongnu according to the Chinese accounts. The first war broke out during the reign of the Xiongnu monarch Touman (who died in 209 B.C) who suddenly attacked the Yuezhi. The Yuezhi wanted to kill Modu, the son of Touman kept as a hostage to them, but Modu stole a good horse from them and managed to escape to his country. It appears that the Xiongnu did not defeat the Yuezhi in this first war. The second war took place in the 7th year of Modu era (203 B.C.). From this war, a large area of the territory originally belonging to the Yuezhi was seized by the Xiongnu and the hegemony of the Yuezhi started to shake. The third war probably was at 176 BC (or shortly before that) and the Yuezhi were badly defeated. The forth war was during the the period of Xiongnu monarch Laoshang (174 BC-166 BC) and was a disaster for the Yuezhi, their king was killed and a drinking cup was made out of his skull. Probably around 165 BC the majority of the Yuezhi migrated from the Tarim basin westward to Fergana. They finally settled in Transoxiana and Bactria.[6][7]

Bactria and Transoxiana


The Yuezhi were visited in Transoxiana by a Chinese mission, led by Zhang Qian in 126 BCE which sought an offensive alliance with the Yuezhi against the Xiongnu. The request for an alliance was denied by the son of the slain Yuezhi king, who preferred to maintain peace in Transoxiana rather than seek revenge. Zhang Qian spent a year in Transoxiana and Bactria and later wrote a detailed account about the situation in Central Asia at the time. He reported that the Great Yuezhi continue to live as nomads moving from place to place with their herds, and their customs are like those of the Xiongnu. They have some 100,000 or 200,000 archer warriors.[8]

The Chinese missions to Bactria and Transoxiana may have been driven by other incentives in addition to the possible alliance with the Yuezhi against the Xiongnu. The Chinese emperors during the Han period were interested in possessing the so called Heavenly Horses which had the property of sweating blood. The Chinese poet Li Bai wrote in his "Song of the Heaven Horse" that the horses of Heaven come out of the caves of the Yuezhi and their backs were tiger-striped.[9] In 101 BC the Han emperor Wu sent military expedition to Sogdiana to obtain the so-called Heavenly Horses. The quest for perfect horses may have been more spiritual than practical or military. The emperor Wu even composed a "hymn" as he waited the arrival of 30 "superior" horses. The desire to get Heavenly Horses was driven by the hope that they would carry him to Kunlun Mountains, the holy mountain that was the home of the immortals.[10] Some authorities see a connection between the Heavenly Horses and the yellow mares found in the first royal burial at Pazyryk,[11] and possibly the memory of Yuezhi survived with Pazyryk burials.[12][13]

Customs and language


It is hard to say if the Yuezhi (Yue-Chi) should be included in any of the recognized divisions of Turanian tribes such as Turks or Huns. Nothing whatever is known of their original language. Judging by the physical type represented on the Kushan's coins the Yue-Chi type is Turkish rather than Mongol or Ugro-Finnic. Some authorities think that the name Turushka or Turukha sometimes applied to them by Indian writers is another evidence of the connexion with the Turks. But the national existence and name of the Turks seem to date from the 5th century A.D., so that it is an anachronism to speak of the Yue-Chi as a division of them. The Yue-Chi and Turks, however, may both represent parallel developments of similar or even originally identical tribes. Some authors consider that the Yue-Chi are the same as the Getae and that the original form of the name was Ytit or Get, which is also supposed to appear in the Indian Jat.[14]

According to Hyun Jin Kim the nomadic Yuezhi possessed political institutions that closely resemble the Xiongnu and later Hunnic models. The Chinese refer to the five xihou or Lords of the Yuezhi who rule the five tribes of their imperial confederation. According to Pulleyblank the Yuezhi were Indo-Europeans and they spoke a Tocharian type language.[15] The title xihou corresponds in the pronunciation to what would later become the Turkic title yubgu. This originally Yuezhi royal title appears on the coins of their rulers as IAPGU/yavuga,[16] and it came to the Xiongnu from the Yuezhi.[17] Among the Turks, the title yabgu gained a new lease of life. In the Turkish inscriptions of Mongolia, it refers to a noble ranking immediately after the qagan.[18] Kuyan/gayan was a "common Uechji" symbol for a terrestrial embodiment for the Moon and Milky Way.[19]

Some scholars have explained the words connecting the Yuezhi 月氏 or the Kushans as coming from the Turkic languages, thus concluding that the language of the Kushans was from the Türkic language branch. this theory is inadequate. In the Zhoushu 周書, ch. 50, it is recorded that: “The ancestors [of the Türks] came from the state of Suo 索.”34 It has been suggested that “Suo索” [sheak] is a transcription of “Sacae.” In other words, it may be possible that the ancestors of the Türks originally were kin of the Sacae. If this is true, it would not be difficult to understand why some words and titles connected with the Yuezhi 月氏 or the Kushans can be explaned by the Türkic languages. In the Rājataraṅgiṇī (I, 170) there is a reference to the fact that the Türkic ruler in Gandhāra claimed his ancestor was Kaniṣka, and maybe this is not merely boasting. Other scholars have judged that the language of the Kushans was the Iranian language. This theory is also inadequate, for the following reasons. First, they were a branch of the Sacae, a tribal union composed of at least four tribes, i.e., Asii, Gasiani, Tochari and Sacarauli. Of these there were some tribes who spoke the Iranian language, but also some who spoke Indo-European languages other than the Iranian language, e.g., the Tochari. Next, the tribes that spoke Tokharian were in close contact with the tribes that spoke the Iranian language, and the words connected to them that can be explained with Iranian possibly originally were Tokharian.[20]

Yury Zuev included the Yuezhi (Uechji) among the tribes of early Turks. He wrote that "in the Northern Caucasus they spoke East - Iranian language, and in the Kangju they spoke in Turkic."[21] His sketches about early Türkic tribes and state type confederations showed that "ideological views coincide in many respects and have a common foundation, which ascends to the last centuries BCE. Such foundation was the pantheon of the ancient confederations of Uechji (Yuezhi) and Kangars that left a trace in the ideological complexes of Ashtak Türks, Oguzes, Kypchaks, Az-kishes, Kimeks, Kangly, etc. Certain features of it still are in the folklore of the modern Türkic peoples. The tradition of the ideological continuity is permeating the history of these peoples from extreme antiquity until the new time."[22] Probably one of the most striking customs was the custom of the population to completely shave their heads. "The seven-tribe Uechji -"Tochars” were “White-headed” i.e. with completely shaven heads. "Bold-headness" was equivalent to Moon-headness."[23] Remember that the word Yuezhi is a Chinese exonym, formed from the characters yuè (月) "moon" and shì (氏) "clan" - hence they shaved their heads to resemble the Moon. The same custom is attested among the rulers of Bulgarian Dulo clan : "These five princes ruled the kingdom over the other side of the Danube for 515 years with shaven heads and after that came to this side of the Danube Asparuh knyaz and until now (rules).[24]

The Little Yuezhi


The Little Yuezhi remained in North China and were included into Xiongnu confederation under the name Chieh people (AY: Jie people). Chinese chronicles documented them as one of the 19 tribes of Xiongnu.[25] Obviously their number wasn't small at all, as it is usually assumed, because we are told that between 184 AD and 221 AD there was a serious revolt of the Little Yuezhi in Gansu and the Chinese couldn't suppress it for almost 40 years.[26] At the beginning of 4th century under the pressure of Rouran Khaganate the Little Yuezhi started migration toward Kazakhstan and Bactria under the name War-Huns.[27] In 349 AD there was a massacre of Chieh people in North China, Maenchen-Helfen points out that 200 000 of them were slain. Probably we can consider that as the final date of their migration from North China/Tarim basin toward Kazakhstan and Bactria. The Jie/Chieh who remained in north China became known as Buluoji Bulgars.[28]

The Kushans


About 135 bce a loose confederation of five Central Asian nomadic tribes known as the Yuezhi wrested Bactria from the Bactrian Greeks. These tribes united under the banner of the Kushān (Kuṣāṇa), one of the five tribes, and conquered the Afghan area. The zenith of Kushān power was reached in the 2nd century ce under King Kaniṣka (c. 78–144 ce), whose empire stretched from Mathura in north-central India beyond Bactria as far as the frontiers of China in Central Asia.
Missing Buddha of Yuezhi, Bamiyan valley, Afghanistan
Missing Buddha

The Kushāns were patrons of the arts and of religion. A major branch of the Silk Road—which carried luxury goods and facilitated the exchange of ideas between Rome, India, and China—passed through Afghanistan, where a transshipment centre existed at Balkh. Indian pilgrims traveling the Silk Road introduced Buddhism to China during the early centuries ce, and Buddhist Gandhāra art flourished during this period. The world’s largest Buddha figures (175 feet [53 metres] and 120 feet [about 40 metres] tall) were carved into a cliff at Bamiyan in the central mountains of Afghanistan during the 4th and 5th centuries ce; the statues were destroyed in 2001 by the country’s ruling Taliban. Further evidence of the trade and cultural achievement of the period has been recovered at the Kushān summer capital of Bagrām, north of Kabul, including painted glass from Alexandria; plaster matrices, bronzes, porphyries, and alabasters from Rome; carved ivories from India; and lacquers from China. A massive Kushān city at Delbarjin, north of Balkh, and a major gold hoard of superb artistry near Sheberghān, west of Balkh, also have been excavated.[29]

Connection to Bulgars and Huns


The Great Yuezhi entered Europe together with the Huns and in the beginning they were called with their old name Massagetae.[30] For example St Jerome tells us about the Great Hun raid of 395-6 into Armenia and Syria that " swarms of Huns and monstrous Massagetae filled the whole earth with slauther".[31] However despite the fact that Romans called the Huns Massagetae, the Huns and not the Massagetae, attacked the Alans, who threw themselves upon the Goths.[32] After the battle of Nedao the Huns and Massagetae, the latter called now with the name Bulgars, retreated to their "inner" territory east of the river  Dnieper, as we learn from Jordanes, where they reorganized on a smaller scale.[33][34]
Yuezhi and Bulgars were the same peple; Bulgarians
Bulgars were Yuezhi tribes

The results of the research on the origin of Bulgars lead to one particular region in middle Asia - the lower and middle reaches of the Syr Darya. During the second century AD, the culture of the Sarmatians on the lower reaches of Volga underwent significant changes. The burial rites became more homogeneous and were dominated by a number of new and uncharacteristic for the previous period features such as the northern orientation of the burials, the artificial deformation of the skulls. These features are also found in later Bulgar necropoles. The Huns, Bulgars and part of the Yuezhi share some common burial practices as the narrow burial pits, pits with a niche and the northern orientation of the burials.[35] Yuezhi/Kushans practiced the same annular type of artificial skull deformation as the Huns and Bulgars.[36-39]  The Huns and proto-Bulgarians practiced artificial cranial deformation[57] and its circular type can be used to trace the route that the Huns took from north China to the Central Asian steppes and subsequently to the southern Russian steppes. Circular modification appeared for the first time in Central Asia in the last centuries BC as an ethnic attribute of the early Huns. The distribution of the skulls parallels the movement of the Huns.[40]

Edwin G. Pulleyblank, Yury Zuev and some modern Bulgarian scholars identify the Bulgars Utigurs as one of the tribes of the Yuezhi.[41-43] According to Edwin G. Pulleyblank and Yury Zuev the Utigurs of Menander are Uti, and the word Uti was a real proto-type of a transcription Yuezhi < Uechji < ngiwat-tie < uti.[44]

                                                          

Huns, Bulgars, Yuezhi and Magyars 



Sources for Yuezhi and Bulgars:


1. The Yüeh-Chih Problem Re-Examined, Otto Maenchen-Helfen, Journal of the American Oriental Society Vol. 65, No. 2 page 81

2. SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS, Number 127 October, 2003, The Getes, page 22-24

3. The first Indo-Europeans in history, Henning, W.B. (1978)

4. https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/hhshu/notes13.html

5.  Indo-Scythian Studies: Being Khotanese Texts; Gara, H. W. Bailey, page 110

6. The Yuezhi and Dunhuang

7. Selections from the Han Narrative Histories, Ta Yue-she (Massagetae)

8. Watson, Burton (1993). Records of the Grand Historian of China: Han Dynasty II (revised ed.).

9. The Silk Road: A Very Short Introduction, James A. Millward

10. The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia, Frances Wood, page 55

11. Chinese and Indo-Europeans, E. G. Pulleyblank, page 31

12. EARLY TURKS: ESSAYS on HISTORY and IDEOLOGY, Yu. A. Zuev, Uechji, page 14

13. The Yueh-chin and their migrations, K. Enoki, G. Koshelenko, Z. Haidary,: The Yueh-chin and Pazyryk, page 177

14. http://www.theodora.com/encyclopedia/y/yuechi.html

15. THE PEOPLES OF THE STEPPE FRONTIER IN EARLY CHINESE SOURCES, Edwin G. Pulleyblank, University of British Columbia, (1999), Summary, page 35

16. The Huns, Rome and the Birth of Europe, Hyun Jin Kim, (2013, Cambridge University Press), page 256
17. Turks and Iranians: Aspects of Turk and Khazaro-Iranian Interaction, Peter B. Golden, page 17, footnote 89, Zuev, Early Turks, p.31 : "This title is first of all an Uechji title, or, in the opinion of the eminent scientist [F. Hirth, 1899, p. 48-50], it is a “true Tocharian” title. "

18. ENCYCLOPÆDIA IRANICA, JABḠUYA : "Although yabḡu is best known as a Turkish title of nobility, it was in use many centuries before the Turks appear in the historical record. ... Among the Turks, the title yabḡu gained a new lease of life."

19. Yu. A. Zuev, EARLY TURKS: ESSAYS on HISTORY and IDEOLOGY, page 39

20. SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS, Number 212, 2011, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania, (Victor H. Mair, Editor) The Origin of the Kushans, YU Taishan, page 15

21. EARLY TÜRKS: ESSAYS on HISTORY and IDEOLOGY, Yu. A. Zuev, page 153

22. EARLY TÜRKS: ESSAYS on HISTORY and IDEOLOGY, Yu. A. Zuev, page 178

23. EARLY TÜRKS: ESSAYS on HISTORY and IDEOLOGY, Yu. A. Zuev, page 71

24. Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans: These five princes ruled the kingdom over the other side of the Danube for 515 years with shaven heads and after that came to this side of the Danube Asparuh knyaz and until now (rules).

25. The World of the Huns, Otto Maenchen-Helfen, р. 372-375

26. The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, Volume 1, Denis Sinor, р. 170

27. SOME REMARKS ON THE CHINESE “BULGAR”, SANPING CHEN, р. 7

28. Multicultural China in the Early Middle Ages, Sanping Chen, p. 83


30. SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS, Number 127 October, 2003, The Getes, page 22-24 : Da Yuezhi -> Ta-Yue-ti (Great Lunar Race) -> Ta-Gweti -> Massa-Getae

31. The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, Volume 1, Denis Sinor, p.182

32. The World of the Huns, Otto Maenchen-Helfen, page 4-6: "But considering that Themistius, Claudian, and later Procopius called the Huns Massagetae,..."

33. The Hunnic Language of the Attila Clan, OMELJAN PRITSAK, Harvard Ukrainian Studies 1(982), page 429

34. Encyclopædia Britannica, Bulgar people

35. Khazaria in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries, Boris Zhivkov , pages 30-33

36. The Kushan civilization, Buddha Rashmi Mani, page 5: "A particular intra-cranial investigation relates to an annular artificial head deformation (macrocephalic), evident on the skulls of diverse racial groups being a characteristic feature traceable on several figures of Kushan kings on coins."

37. The Huns, Rome and the Birth of Europe, Hyun Jin Kim, (2013, Cambridge University Press) page 33

38. The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, Volume 1, Denis Sinor, page 172: "A striking resemblance may also be noted in the deformed heads of the early Yueh-chih and Hepthalite kings on their coinage",

39. http://www.dandebat.dk/eng-dan11.htm

40.  Cranial vault modification as a cultural artifact, C. Torres-Rouff and L.T. Yablonsky, HOMO - Journal of Comparative Human Biology, Volume 56, Issue 1, 2 May 2005, Pages 1–16 ; free excerpts : http://s155239215.onlinehome.us/turkic/65_Craniology/YablonskyTracingHunsEn.htm

41. EARLY TURKS: ESSAYS on HISTORY and IDEOLOGY, Yu. A. Zuev, p.38 and p.62 : " The Utigurs of Menandr are Uti, associated with Aorses of the Pliny "Natural history" (VI, 39). The word Uti was a real proto-type of a transcription Uechji < ngiwat-tie < uti (Pulleyblank, 1966, p. 18)"

42. TEMPORA INCOGNITA НА РАННАТА БЪЛГАРСКА ИСТОРИЯ, В ТЪРСЕНЕ НА ПРАРОДИНАТА, Проф. Атанас Стаматов

43. ТАРИМ И БАКТРИЯ - В ТЪРСЕНЕ НА БЪЛГАРСКАТА ПРАРОДИНА, Петър Голийски, сборник Авитохол

44. Chinese and Indo-Europeans, E. G. Pulleyblank, 1966, Cambridge University Press

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

K I D A R I T E S

The Kidarites (Chinese: 寄多羅 Jiduolo[1]) were a dynasty of the "Ki" clan named after their ruler Kidara. They were part of the complex of Iranian-speaking tribes known collectively as Xionites or "Hunas". 
During the 4th-5th century they established the Kidarite kingdom.
Bulgars Kutrigurs originated from Kidarites Yuezhi Huns
Kidarites lands

History of Kidarites


The Kidarites, a nomadic clan, are supposed to have originated in China and arrived in Bactria with the great migrations of the first half of the 4th century.

When Shi Le established the Later Zhao state, it is thought that many of the Uar (Chinese 滑 Huá) fled (c. 320 CE) from the area around Pingyang (平陽; modern Linfen, Shanxi) and fled west along the Silk Road. This put pressure on the Xionites, who increasingly encroached upon Khorasan and the frontiers of the Kushan state.


The Kidarite king Grumbat mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus was a cause of much concern to the Persians. Between 353 AD and 358 AD, the Xionites under Grumbat attacked in the eastern frontiers of Shapur II's empire along with other nomad tribes. After a prolonged struggle they were forced to conclude a peace, and their king Grumbat accompanied Shapur II in the war against the Romans. Victories of the Xionites during their campaigns in the Eastern Caspian lands are described by Ammianus Marcellinus:Grumbates Chionitarum rex novus aetate quidem media rugosisque membris sed mente quadam grandifica multisque victoriarum insignibus nobilis. ("Grumbates, the new king of the Xionites, while he was middle aged, and his limbs were wrinkled, he was endowed with a mind that acted grandly, and was famous for his many, significant victories." –Ammianus Marcellinus, 18.6.22.)
The southern or "Red" Kidarite vassals to the Kushans in the North-Western Indus valley became known as Kermikhiones.
A "Kidarite dynasty", south of the Oxus, was at war with the Sassanids in the fifth century. Peroz I fought Kidara and then his son Kungas, forcing Kungas to leave Bactria. They entered Kabul and replaced the last of the Kushan Empire rulers. However, the Kidarites in turn were soon overwhelmed by the Hephthalites.[2]

Kidar Bulgars involved in causing Hunnic migrations across the Volga into Europe were identified with Kidarites by David Marshall Lang.[3]

Origin of Kidarites


According to the Chinese sources Kidarites appeared in Kazakhstan and Bactria in 4th century and
Kidarites Yuezhi archer riding on reverse - same as Bulgars Kutrigurs archers
Archer riding on reverse
were branch of the Little Yuezhi. Some of them inherited the Kushan Empire and were called little Kushans.[4][5] Kidarites were also called Red Huns,[6][7] they practiced artificial cranial deformation[8] and were displayed on Sogdian coins as archers riding on the reverse.[9] The Little Yuezhi remained in North China and were included into Xiongnu confederation under the name Jie (sometimes also Chieh) people. Chinese chronicles documented them as one of the 19 tribes of Xiongnu.[10] Obviously their number wasn't small at all, as it is usually assumed, because we are told that between 184 AD and 221 AD there was a serious revolt of the Little Yuezhi in Gansu and the Chinese couldn't suppress it for almost 40 years.[11] In 349 AD there was a massacre of Jie Chieh people in North China, Maenchen-Helfen points out that 200 000 of them were slain. Probably it can 

be considered as the final date of the Little Yuezhi migration from North China/Tarim basin toward Kazakhstan and Bactria.

Kidarite kingdom


The Kidarite kingdom was created either in the second half of the 4th century, or in the twenties of the 5th century. Ammianus Marcellinus who visited Bactria between AD 356-357 - prior to the Xionite/Kidarite invasions of eastern Iran - and stated that the 'Chionitae' (Xionites) were living with the Kushans.

The only 4th century evidence are gold coins discovered in Balkh dating from c. 380, where 'Kidara' is usually interpreted in a legend in the Bactrian language. Most numismatic specialists favor this idea. All the other data we currently have on the Kidarite kingdom are from Chinese and Byzantine
sources from the middle of the 5th century.

They may have risen to power during the 420s in Northern Afghanistan before conquering Peshawar and part of northwest India, then turning north to conquer Sogdiana in the 440s, before being cut from their Bactrian nomadic roots by the rise of the Hephthalites in the 450s. Many small Kidarite kingdoms seems to have survived in northwest India up to the conquest by the Hephthalites during the last quarter of the 5th century are known through their coinage.

The Kidarites are the last dynasty to regard themselves (on the legend of their coins) as the inheritors of the Kushan empire, which had disappeared as an independent entity two centuries earlier.

Kidara Ifl. c. 320 CE
Kungas330's ?
Varhran Ifl. c. 340
Grumbatc. 358-c. 380
Kidara (II ?)fl. c. 360
Brahmi Buddhatalafl. c. 370
(Unknown)fl. 388/400
Varhran (II)fl. c. 425
Gobozikofl. c. 450
Salanaviramid 400's
Vinayadityalate 400's
Kandikearly 500's


The Kidarites were the first "Hunas" to bother India. Indian records note that the Hūna had established themselves in modern Afghanistan and the North-West Frontier Province in present-day Pakistan by the first half of the 5th century, and the Gupta emperor Skandagupta had repelled a Hūna invasion in 455.

White Huns


As a result of "Wusun vultures" descending upon them in Transoxiana, the Kidarite powerbase moved in 460 from southern "Red" Balkh to western "White" Khiva, where the Hephthalite dynasty was established by Khingila I. However different sources give different names for this relocation: "The Hsiao-yüeh-chih (Little Yuezhi) have their capital at Peshawar. The King was originally the son of Chi-to-lo, king of the Ta-yüeh-chih(Great Yuezhi). Chi-to-lo was forced to move westwards by the attack of the Hsiung-nu and later made his son guard this city. For this reason, the kingdom was named the Hsiao-yüeh-chih."[12]


The Greek envoy Rhetor often referred to the "White Huns" as "Kidarite Xionites" when they united with the Uar under the Hepthalite clan. While in India, the Kidarite Xionites became known as Sveta-Hūna meaning "White Huns". They were said to have been of fair complexion according to Procopius, although according to the Central Asian order of cosmic precedence, "White Huns" would simply mean "Western Huns".

Although they fought against the Sassanians, early 5th century "OIONO" coins (thought to have been minted by Xionite rulers) imitate Sassanian drachmas (for more information on coins see Xionites).

The Kidarite Xionites flourished under the Hephthalites, until something forced them to migrate from Khiva to Atil under Kandik in the mid-6th century. Not long afterwards, the Hephthalites remaining in Central Asia submitted to Gokturk rule in 567AD.

Relation to the Huns of Europe


The Huns already present on the Black Sea Steppes might not have been as closely related to the northern Karakum Desert Kidarites and the related Xionites or Hunas as is usually presumed.[13] Though the Chronicles of Kiev mention how the Ki clan founded Kiev after subjugating the eastern Hunno-Bulgars who subsequently became known as the Kazarig.

References and notes on Kidarites: 


1. Sasanian Persia, Touraj Daryaee (2009),  London and New York: I.B.Tauris, p. 17 

2.  The Empire of the Steppes, Grousset, Rene (1970), Rutgers University Press, p. 68–69 

3.  The Bulgarians: from pagan times to the Ottoman conquest (1976), David Marshall Lang, pages 31 and 204: "The Armenian geographer states that the principal tribes of Bulgars were called Kuphi-Bulgars, Duchi-Bulgars, Oghkhundur-Bulgars, and Kidar-Bulgars, by the last-named of which he meant the Kidarites, a branch of the Huns. "

4.  COINS OF THE TOCHARI, KUSHÂNS, OR YUE-TI, A. Cunningham, The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Numismatic Society

5.  A NOTE ON KIDARA AND THE KIDARITES, WILLIAM SAMOLIN, Central Asiatic Journal, Vol. 2, No. 4 (1956), pp. 295-297, „The Yueh-chih origin of Kidara is clearly established...“ 

6.  Kuṣāṇa Coins and Kuṣāṇa Sculptures from Mathurā, Gritli von Mitterwallner, Frederic Salmon Growse, page 49 

8.  The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Attila, Michael Maas, page 185 

9. History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Ahmad Hasan Dani, B. A. Litvinsky, page 120

10. The World of the Huns, Otto Maenchen-Helfen, pages 372-375 
 
11.  The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, Volume 1, Denis Sinor, page 170 

13.  The Huns, Hyun Jin Kim, p. 49: "Kidarites's name ... may simply indicate that they were the western Huns" 

ENOKI, K., « On the Date of the Kidarites (I) », Memoirs of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko, 27, 1969, p. 1–26. 

GRENET, F. « Regional Interaction in Central Asia and North-West India in the Kidarite and Hephtalite Period », in SIMS-WILLIAMS, N. (ed.), Indo-Iranian Languages and Peoples, (Proceedings of the British Academy), London, 2002, p. 203–224.

A History of the First Bulgarian Empire



                                     История на Първата Българска Империя




                                                            Децата на Хуните



                                         Петимата синове на хан Кубрат




В началото на 7-ми век хуните и българите които заедно са навлезнали в Европа преди повече от 2 века продължават да живеят полу-номаден начин на живот в степите на южна Украйна около бреговете на Азовско море. Към средата на 6-ти век множеството хуно-български племена са управлявани от хан Кубрат от династичният род Дуло. От този род произхожда и Атила наричан Бич Божи от римляните. Кубрат е основател на стара велика България която след неговата смърт започва да се разпада в началото на втората половина на седми век поради разпри между синове му и външния натиск от запад от страна на хазарите. Въпреки, че Кубрат завещава на синовете си да живеят в мир и съгласие и никога да не се разделят след неговата смърт петимата братя бързо се изпокарват, разделят хората помежду си и всеки поема своя път.



Най големият, Баян, остава там където е роден. Усилията му да спре хазарското нашествие били неуспешни и неговите земи станали плячка на хазарите; той им се подчинил и бил принуден да им плаща данък. Хронистите наричат българите останали под властта на хазарите 'вътрешни' или още 'черни' българи. Арабски пътешественици и историци споменават черните българи и буртасите (друга българска група) като самостоятелни от хазарската власт народности. За тях пишат още и византиийските летописци като патриарх Никифор и Теофан Изповедник, според които два века след разпадането на Велика България българите все още живеят на своите земи и са фактор в региона. Черните българи са споменати и в руския летопис "Повест временьх лет" (932) където се описва война с тях и опустошаването на един български град от русите, които са съюзници на Византия. Българите отговорили с нападения в района на град Херсон (дн. Украйна). Тази им действия говорят, че черните българи са имали самостоятелна държава след разпадането на хазарският хаганат. Екзекуторът на държавата на черните българи е същият Василий II Българоубиец отговорен и за екзекуцията на Дунавска България. През 1016г. Василий изпраща флот срещу размирните българи в Хазария който разгромява армията им, пленява техният архонт Георги Цуло (Дуло?) и го откарва в Константинопол.



Вторият брат, Котраг, поема на север към устието на Волга където по-късно основава Волжска България. Името Котраг вероятно подсказва, че той е управлявал племето котригури/кутригури. По-късно към тях се присъединяват и други български и сродни на българите племена: берсили, сабири, есегели, бутраси. Сред завареното местно население имало славяни, арменци, фини и др. Столица на Волжска България станал град Болгар, построен където се вливат Волга и Кама. Град Болгар с течение на времето станал важен търговски център. През девети век жителите на Волжска България започват да приемат ислямската религия вероятно заради конкретни политически цели. Едната от тях е освобождаване на Волжска България от васалната зависимост от Хазарския хаганат с помощта на мощния тогава Арабски халифат. Волжска България просъществува до 13 век и въпреки решителната си победа в така наречаната Овнешка битка в крайна сметка е разрушена от монголо-татарите.



Четвъртият син, Кубер, се придвижва на запад към Панония където се присъединява към аварите и другите прабългари в централната дунавска равнина. Че там е имало прабългари е извън всякакво съмнение и е почти сигурно, че те са придружавали аварите при голямата обсада на Константинопол през 626г. Вероятно са били от същия родов клон, тъй като по-онова време Кубратовите българи заговорничели с императора срещу аварите. Четвъртият син на Кубрат дошъл, за да се присъедини именно към тях. Панонските прабългари останали подвласни на аварите до началото на IX в., когато ще чуем отново за тях. Куберовите прабългари се опитват чрез въстание да извършат преврат и да завземат централната власт. Обаче бунта срещу аварската власт е неуспешен и Куберовите българи се насочват на юг, към земите на Византия. Аварите ги преследват но биват победени от българите в шест последователни сражения. Кубер сключва мирно споразумение с Византия и се заселва в Керамисийското поле (Прилепско поле), намиращо се в днешната Република Македония. От 675 до 677 г. Кубер прави опит да превземе Солун и градът е обсаден от големи групи прабългари, съюзени с бунтуващите се славяни от околните земи. Продължилата дълго време обсада обаче е неуспешна.





Най малкият, Алцек, мигрира още по далеч и завършва дните си в Равена, Италия. Хронистите обаче използвали Равена като синоним на Италия. В действителност най-младият син стигнал по-далеч. По времето на лангобардския крал Гримуалд (662—671 г.) българина Алцек навлязъл мирно в Италия и предложил на краля да стане негов васал. Гримуалд го изпратил заедно с войската му в Беневент, при сина си Ромуалд, който му предоставил за заселване три села близо до своята столица — Сепинум, Бовианум и Изерния. Той се заселил там с хората си и „до ден днешен“ (един век по-късно) те продължили да говорят отчасти на родния си език.





Така българите се разделили и се разпръснали из Европа, от Волга до Италия. Остава ни само да разкажем за най-могъщия им клон, единствения, оцелял сред бурите на столетията. Аспарух, третият син на хан Кубрат, не така буен, както по-младите си братя, но по-предприемчив в сравнение с по-старите прекосява Днепър и Днестър и достига брега на долни Дунав.



Бележка:

По това време Източната Римска Империя, наричана още и с името Византия била управлявана от император Константин. Византия е литературно понятие въведено след 16-ти век за означаване на Източната Римска Империя.


Източници: 

A History of the First Bulgarian Empire, Steven Runciman