Xionites,Chionites, orChionitae (Middle Persian:Xiyōn orHiyōn;Avestan:X́iiaona-;Sogdianxwn;PahlaviXyōn) were a nomadic people in theCentral Asian regions ofTransoxiana andBactria.[1]
The Xionites appear to be synonymous with theHuna peoples of theSouth Asian regions ofclassical/medieval India,[2] and possibly also theHuns ofEuropean late antiquity, who were in turn connectedonomastically to theXiongnu in Chinese history.[3]
They were first described by the Roman historian,Ammianus Marcellinus, who was in Bactria during 356–357 CE; he described theChionitæ as living with theKushans.[4] Ammianus indicates that the Xionites had previously lived inTransoxiana and, after entering Bactria, becamevassals of theKushans, were influenced culturally by them and had adopted theBactrian language. They had attacked theSassanid Empire,[1][5] but later (led by a chief namedGrumbates), served as mercenaries in thePersian Sassanian army.
Within the Xionites, there seem to have been two main subgroups, which were known in theIranian languages by names such asKarmir Xyon andSpet Xyon. The prefixeskarmir ("red") andspeta ("white") likely refer toCentral Asian traditions in which particularcolours symbolised the cardinal points. TheKarmir Xyon were known in European sources as theKermichiones or "Red Huns", and some scholars have identified them with theKidarites and/orAlchon. TheSpet Xyon or "White Huns" appear to have been the known inSouth Asia by the cognate nameSveta-huna, and are often identified, controversially, with theHephthalites.
The original culture of the Xionites and their geographicalurheimat are uncertain. They appear to have originally followedanimist religious beliefs,[citation needed] which mixed later with varieties ofBuddhism[citation needed] andShaivism.[citation needed] It is difficult to determine their ethnic composition.[1]
Differences between the Xionites, the Huns who invaded Europe in the 4th century, and the Turks were emphasised byCarlile Aylmer Macartney (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 theAlans, then living between theUrals and theVolga about 360 AD, and the first mention of theChyon was in 356 AD.[7]
At least some Turkic tribes were involved in the formation of the Xionites, despite their later character as anEastern Iranian people, 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".[8]
The proposition that the Xionites probably originated as an Iranian tribe was put forward by Wolfgang Felix inEncyclopedia Iranica (1992).[1]
In 2005, As-Shahbazi suggested that they were originally aHunnish people who had mixed with Iranian tribes in Transoxiana and Bactria, where they adopted theKushan-Bactrian language.[5] Likewise,Peter B. Golden wrote that the Chionite confederation included earlier Iranian nomads as well asProto-Mongolic andTurkic elements.[9]
The defeat of the Xiongnu in 89 CE byHan dynasty forces at theBattle of Ikh Bayan and subsequent Han campaigns against them, led byBan 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 theJaxartes), "Blue" or eastern (in Tianshan), "White" or western (possibly theHephthalites), aroundKhiva, and the "Red" or southern (Kidarites and/orAlchon), south of theOxus. 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 southernCentral Asia from the late 4th century AD until the mid-5th century AD.
Some Chionites are known to have ruled in Chach (modernTashkent), at the foot of theAltai Range, between the middle of the 4th century CE to the 6th century CE.[10] A special type of coinage has been attributed to them, where they appear in portraits as diademed kings, facing right, with atamgha in the shape of an X, and a circular Sogdian legend. They also often appear with a crescent over the head.[10] 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 ofBalalyk Tepe further south.[10]
Sometime between 194 and 214, according to theArmenian historianMoses of Khorene (5th century),Hunni (probably the Kidarites) captured the city ofBalkh (Armenian name:Kush) .[12] According to Armenian sources, Balkh became the capital of the Hunni.
At the end of the 4th century AD, the Kidarites were pushed intoGandhara, after a new wave of invaders from the north, the Alchon, entered Bactria.[13]
Early confrontations between theSasanian Empire ofShapur II with the Xionites were described byAmmianus 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 theEuseni, a name often amended toCuseni (meaning theKushans).[14][15]
Shapur made a treaty of alliance with the Chionites and the Gelani in 358 CE.[16]
In 460,Khingila I reportedly united aHephthalite ruling élite with elements of theUar and Xionites asAlchon (orAlχon).[citation needed] when.[citation needed]
At the end of the 5th century the Alchon invaded North India where they were known as theHuna.[citation needed] In India the Alchon were not distinguished from their immediate Hephthalite predecessors,[citation needed] and both are known as Sveta-Hunas there.[citation needed] Perhaps complimenting this term,Procopius (527–565) wrote that they were white skinned,[citation needed] 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 nameKhigi, inscribed in Bactrian script on one of the coins, andNarendra on another, have led some scholars[who?] to believe that the Hephthalite kings Khingila and Narana were of the AlChoNo tribe.[vague][citation needed] 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).[citation needed]
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.[18]
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.
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Although the power of the Huna in Bactria was shattered in the 560s by a combination ofSassanid andTurkic forces, the last Hephthalite king Narana/Narendra managed to maintain some kind of rule between 570 and 600 AD over thenspk,napki orNezak tribes that remained.
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Bailey argues that the Pahlavi nameXyon may be read as the IndianHuna owing to the similarity of sound.[19] In the Avestan tradition (Yts. 9.30-31, 19.87) theXiiaona were characterized as enemies ofVishtaspa, the patron ofZoroaster.[1]
In the later Pahlavi tradition, theKarmir Xyon ("Red Xyon") andSpet Xyon ("White Xyon") are mentioned.[1] The Red Xyon of the Pahlavi tradition (7th century)[20] have been identified by Bailey as theKermichiones orErmechiones.[1]
According to Bailey, theHara Huna of Indian sources are to be identified with theKarmir Xyon of the Avesta.[21] Similarly he identifies theSveta Huna of Indian sources with theSpet Xyon of theAvesta. While theHephthalite are not mentioned in Indian sources, they are sometimes also linked to theSpet Xyon (and therefore possibly to theSveta Huna).
More controversially, the namesKarmir Xyon andSpet Xyon are often rendered as "Red Huns" and "White Huns", reflecting speculation that the Xyon were linked to Huns recorded simultaneously in Europe.
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