Eurasian Nomads Part 1 Hsiung-nu Period (250 BC-450 AD)

Eurasian Nomads: Part 1

Hsiung-nu Period (250 BC-450 AD)

by Perry Gray

Turkic-speaking tribes or Hsiung-nu, some of whom later went westward and became the Huns, probably led the first powerful steppe confederation in present-day Mongolia. The Hsiung-nu repeatedly invaded Han China, which responded by extending its political influence along the Silk Route far into Central Asia. The eastern Hsiung-nu divided into northern and southern branches, the latter falling under the influence of Chinese culture.

In 155 AD the Northern Hsiung-nu were destroyed and replaced by a people of Mongol stock, the Hsien-pi or Hsian-bei ancestors of the Tunguz people. These, in turn were replaced in 402 AD by another Mongol-speaking group, the Ruruan. While these Mongolian-speaking tribes controlled Mongolia, much of northern China continued to be ruled by the Hsiung-nu and other Turkic-speaking peoples. The last major state was that of the Toba or Tabgatch Turks, who controlled northern China as the Wei Dynasty. The word "To" means earth and "Ba" means descendants in northern Chinese dialect. There were three major Turkish empires of Central Asia; Hsiung-nu or Hunnic, Gok-Turks and Uighurs.

Hsiung-nu

The word "Hun" comes from the word "kun" (or khun) in Turkish meaning people or nation. The first historical mention of the Khuns was in 318 BC. The Hsiung-nu were also known as Hienyun and Xiong-nu. Hsiung-nu in Chinese is one of the Chinese derogatory monikers for Huns, and means “ferocious slaves”. There were more respectful names for Huns in Chinese, like “western nomads”, etc. Chinese also had plenty of derogatory terms for themselves too, but, in the scientific literature, unlike the “Hsiung-nu”, these terms are not used to designate Chinese. The word is used here to identify the nomads, who lived in close proximity to China, while Hun is used to identify western nomads.

(Of note, the classical Roman, Byzantine, and Armenian historians, upon whom most of European history is based, used archaic words to identify contemporary nomads such that the Huns are sometimes called Scythians as were other Turkic groups. Similarly, Saracen was used to identify Arabs.)

The Hsiung-nu consisted of 24 clans, including:

If we consider the first document in Chinese annual records, the states established by Hsiung-nu were:

Huns

These include Huns, Hsiung-nu, Hiung-nu, Xiong Nu, Khuni, Chuni, Suni, Sunni, Hunny, Gunny, Uygurs, [Uange, Bugu/Pugu, Bayegu/Baiyrku, Tunlo/Tongra, Sygye (Uygur tribes)], Seyanto (Sir + Yanto), Kibi, Tele/Dubo/Tubalar/Dabo, Guligan/Kurykan (Yakuts), Dolange (Telengits), Husye, Higye, Adye/Eduz, Baysi/Barsil, and other variations.

Huns were a genetic hybrid between Mongoloid, Altaic (Siberian), and Central Asian Türkic stocks. Typical Hunno-Bulgars probably had a squarish face, high cheekbones, and slanting eyes. The word 'Bulgar' comes from Türkic 'bulgha' (to mix). These nomadic groups were probably composed of Alans, Eastern Antes (an Iranian-Slavic blend), and Turks. There were, according to contemporary European sources, three major sub-divisions each corresponding to a different ethnic group. This may help to explain the later division of the Huns after Attila’s death.

Although in the past the Huns are thought to have been Mongolian emigrants, it is far more likely that they were of Turkic origin. This point has been repeated by thousands of historians, Sinologists, Turcologists, and other researchers. Most of our modern knowledge on the Huns is derived from the information left by their contemporary neighbors. This makes it difficult to separate fact from fiction, which is true for most of the groups listed here.

It is pretty definite that their language was Turkic. Chinese annals reveal that the Hunnic language was very close to that of the Toles, a Turkic tribe. The Byzantine writers said that the language of the Huns was the same as the languages of the Bulgars, Avars, and other tribes. The historians of that period accepted that these Turkic-speaking tribes were no different from the Huns because their languages were the same.

One area for backing up this claim is that of Hunnic names. It is difficult to explain the names belonging to Hsiung-nu because of fact that they were translated into Chinese in the form of Chinese names. The meanings of the names of European Huns can be explained in Turkish. One of the most striking features related to European Hunnic names is that they cannot be explained by any language but Turkish. Some of the names belonged to the German language due to cultural interaction, but the majority of them were Turkish.

Many now accept that the Bulgars are the descendants of the Huns. The legendary ancestor of the Bulgars is Kobrat Han, who was the son of Irnek. Irnek was the son or grandson of Attila. So the Bulgars are directly descended from the Huns. Their writings were a different version of the Turkish-Runic writing used in Mongolia. Two major hordes survived the fall of Attila’s empire; the Kutrigurs and the Uturgus or Utrigurs. This is based on the division of the Hunnic peoples among the sons of Attila following his death in 453 AD. To Ellak, eldest of brothers, was given a horde called Sabirs, to Tengiz (Dengizik), was given a horde called Kutrigurs and to Bel-Kermek (Hernach), youngest, was given a horde called Utrigurs.

The Byzantine writers said that the language of the Huns was the same as the languages of the Bulgars, Avars, Szeklers (see below) and other tribes that were flooding into Eastern Europe from Central Asia. The historians of that period accepted that these Turkic-speaking tribes were no different from the Huns because their languages were the same. There are many words written in Chinese chronicles, which were used by Huns in daily life. These are Turkic words.

One area for backing up this claim is that of Hunnic names. It is difficult to explain the names belonging to the Hsiung-nu because of fact that they were translated into Chinese in the form of Chinese names. The meanings of the names of European Huns can be comfortably explained in Turkish. One of the most striking features related to European Hunnic names cannot be explained any language but Turkish. Some of the names belonged to the German language due to cultural interaction, but the majority of them were Turkish, for example:

The Sabirs briefly established a powerful state north of the Caucasus. The name may have been used as early as 124 BC. Hence they may have been Sarmatian or Scythian in origin. They were closely associated with two other Turkish-speaking groups, the Sarogurs and the Onogurs.

Bulgars

The Kutrigurs and Utrigurs were both associated with the later name of Bulgar. Alternate names include Bolgars, Bolghars, Bulghars, Bulhi, Bushki, Ba-go, Bao-guo, Nenders, Pu-ku, Bu-gu, Venenders, and other variations. Plus subdivisions and ethnic affiliates including Barsils, Barsilts, Bersulas, Belendzhers, Bandzhars, Balandzhars, Chdar-Bulgars, Duchi-Bulgar, Esegels, Hajlandurs, Hajlandurkh, Khazars, Kupi-Bulgars, Kotrags, Kutigurs, Oghondors, Olhontor-Blkars, Onogurs, Pugurs, Unoguns, Unogundurs, Sabirs, Suvars, and other variations.

A new state, Old Great Bulgaria, was established early in the 7th Century by Kovrat (Kubrat) along the shores of Lake Maeotis and in the region of the Kuban. Kovrat was the ruler of the Onogurs or Onogunduri, Bulgars, and Kutrigurs. This may be indicative of a reunion of the Hunnic hordes (less the Sabir). Some historians prefer to use the alternate name, the Volga Bulgars.

According Byzantine history, Kovrat had five sons who separated despite his admonition that they should remain together and preserve the unity of his realm. Of these alleged five sons only two seem to have been historical figures, but the whole legend seems to have arisen from the dissolution of Kovrat's Great Bulgaria between the Don and the Kuban into five groups of peoples. The first son Bayan remained near the Kuban when, just after the middle of the seventh century, the Khazars reduced him to the position of a tribute-paying ally, and it is in this group that the Onogurs are included. The third son, Asparuch is also an historical figure. Upon the appearance of the Khazars he moved westward across the Don, the Dnieper, and the Dniester, with perhaps less than half the Onogurs, and settled in the Danube region in 679-680 AD, and the history of modern Bulgaria was thus begun.

One historical theory postulates that the five groups were:

This theory suggests that the Onogur tribes of Turkish origin, true Bulgars, went west to the Danube under Asparuch, while that part of the Onogurs of Finno-Ugrian origin remained by the Kuban and became subject to the Khazars just after the middle of the 7th Century. The two groups of Onogurs had been, although close relatives, essentially different peoples; the ease with which they separated now becomes more intelligible; and, if the theory is true, the beginnings of Magyar history become a bit clearer.

Yueh-chih or Yuezhi

The Yueh-chih (pronounced U-Ay-Cher) and their affiliates, Kangju (or Kang-chu) and Wusun, all dwelled in modern Gansu and Shenxi Provinces. When they moved to Central Asia, because of repeated attacks by the Hsiung-nu, they used the city name of “Zhaowu” of Gansu as their family name, for sake of not forgetting their roots. This group of people became known as the Greater Yueh-chih and would later set up the Kushan Empire in Bactria and Afghanistan during the period of 141-128 BC. (Bactria, translated as 'da xia' in Chinese). Others known as the Lesser Yueh-chih remained in Gansu.

They probably were an Iranian people and included the Tocharoi, whose name was subsequently applied to the whole area (Tocharian kingdom). In 141-128 BC, the Yüeh-chih Major migrated southwest to the Oxus (the modern Amu Darya) Valley after being defeated by the Huns in 174-161 BC. Yüeh-chih overran the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, which was renamed Tocharistan.

In the 1st century AD the new rulers of Bactria extended their rule into north-western India; that movement is associated with a group known as the Kushans, under whom the country became a centre of Buddhism. In the latter half of the 4th Century the Hephthalites (originally a tribe of the Yueh-chih) settled in Bactria, and for almost two centuries they engaged in wars with the Sassanian Persians.

About 50 AD, Kujula Kadphises, one of the five Yueh-chih chiefs, K'iu-tsiu-k'io, (Kujula Kadphises) attacked and defeated the others, leaving his clan in control; the Kuei-shang (Kushans). The Kushan Empire stretched from Persia to Transoxiana to the Upper Indus. This Kushan Empire had its base in modern Afghanistan and Pakistan and it continued for hundreds of years till the Hephthalites (White Huns) came along.

Hephthalites

They were also called Ephthalites or Hephtal or Hunas or White Huns or Hayathelites or Ye-tai or He-ta or Cao. According to Chinese records, this group of people was called "Ye-tai". They were called Hephthalites by the Greeks, and Hunas by the Indians, and later known in the West as the Avars. The Turkish claim that their ancestors comprised of Huns plus the White Huns. White Hephthalites are a people of "obscure origins", possibly of Tibetan or Turkish stock. Late 6th Century, the Hephthalites were said to have moved west to the Russian steppe to form the Avar Khanate.

They were first mentioned by the Chinese, who described them (125 AD) as living in Dzungaria. Their name is derived from that of the royal clan, ephtha or ye-da. In the 4th Century, they were vassals of the Ruruan. In 425 AD, they crossed the Syr Darya (Jaxartes) River and invaded Persia. The White Huns also invaded India and succeeded in extending their domain to include the Ganges valley.

The paucity of record in Hephthalites provides only a fragmentary picture of their civilization and empire. Their background is uncertain. They probably stemmed from a combination of the Tarim Basin peoples and the Yueh-chih.

To the Chinese, they were the Ye-tai-i-li-do even though the Chinese chroniclers seem to realize that the people called themselves the people of Hua (the similarity to Hun may help explain the origin of "White Hun") and that the Chinese terms came actually from the name of the Hua leader. Contemporary Chinese chroniclers had their own theories about Ephthalite origins: they were related in some way to the Visha (Indo-Europeans known to the Chinese as the "Yueh Chih"); a branch of the Kao-ch`ê; and other groups.

The timing of the Hun migration to Europe in 370 AD and the White Hun in 440 AD to Transoxiana, Bactria, Khurasan, and eastern Persia is pretty close; however, the directions of movement are not the same. There is no definite evidence that they are related to the Huns.

Chionites/Kidarites

From the Middle Persian word xiyon, 'Hun', a Hunnic tribe that began encroaching upon the frontiers of Iran and the Kushan state circa 320 AD. A distinct people from the Hephtalites, the Chionites were also called 'Red' Huns. Shortly after 340 AD, the Chionites pushed the Kushans out of northern Pakistan. At the end of the 4th Century, a new wave of Hunnic tribes (Alchoni) invaded Bactria, pushing the Kidarites into Gandhara. The Kidarites in northern India continued to mint debased gold and copper coins until the end of the 5th Century. Yet another group, close on the heels of the Alchoni, settled in and around Kabul and Ghazni, as the Nezak Huns.

Xianbei

Xianbei (Pinyin), can also be written as Hsien-Pi (Wade-Giles) and other variations with an hyphen or space between the two syllables of any of the two transliterations. They were also known as Xianbi.

The Xianbei were the northern branch of the Donghu (or Tung Hu, the Eastern Hu), a proto-Tunguz group mentioned in Chinese histories as existing as early as the 4th Century BC. The language of the Donghu, like that of the Xiongnu, is unknown to modern scholars. The Donghu were among the first peoples conquered by the Xiongnu.

It was a significant tribal confederation, including Tungusic nomadic people from Manchuria, who threatened north-eastern China in the 3rd Century AD and overran the northern plains in the following century. The Toba were a branch of the Xianbei and is often used as a synonym because the first ruler of the Northern Wei Dynasty was Tuoba Yituo (also known as the Wei and the Tabgatch Turks, or Topa-in the Wade–Giles system).

It is believed that the Tuoba/Xianbei developed an independent cultural identity separating them from the larger cultural milieu of Eastern Hu peoples in the 1st Century BC. Two major subdivisions of the Donghu had developed: the Xianbei in the north and the Wuhuan in the south. No mention of the Xianbei appears in the annals of Chinese history until later, yet it is the Xianbei's own legends that have helped to establish an approximate place of origin for this people. The Xianbei creation myth has their earliest ancestors emerging from a sacred cave, the location of which was lost to the Xianbei themselves. The cave, known today as Gaxian cave site, and the inscription were discovered in 1980 by archaeologists. This find and other historical and archaeological evidence have helped to verify that the Xianbei probably emigrated south from this area sometime in the early 1st Century AD.

By the mid-3rd Century CE, Xianbei controlled much of northern China. In 258, a Xianbei confederation was formed, and a few decades later came to the aid of the Western Jin dynasty, who were under attack from an army led by a Liu Yuan, a man of Xiongnu descent who made an unsuccessful bid to re-establish the Xiongnu empire. As a reward, the Western Jin granted the Xianbei leader, a fiefdom and military rank. This, however, was not enough to put an end to Xiongnu ambitions. They sacked the Western Jin capital in 311 AD and established the brief reign later referred to in Chinese histories as the Former Qin.

By the late 380s the Former Qin dynasty had effectively collapsed after a failed attempt to conquer southern China, and the hostage Xianbei leader, Tuoba Gui, took the opportunity to establish his own reign as King of the State of Wei in 386, later known as the Northern Wei Dynasty (A.D. 386-533). Northern Wei armies drove back the Ruruan, and reconstructed the Great Wall. As the empire grew, however, the dynasty adopted Chinese culture replacing Xianbei tribal customs, an evolution not accepted by all Xianbei. This led to a division of the empire into western and eastern halves.

The Wuhuan also were prominent in the 2nd Century, but they disappeared thereafter; possibly they were absorbed in the Xianbei western expansion. In the 6th Century AD, the Wuhuan were driven out of Inner Asia into the Russian steppe.

Juan-Juan (Ruruan)

This Mongol federation of various tribes - including many Turks - took over the role previously held by the Hsiung-nu before they disintegrated. They were also known also Jwen-Jwen, Jou-Jan, Jeu-Jen, Geougen, Ju-Juan, Ruruans and Kermikhions. Juan Juan (Wade-Giles), Ruanruan (Pinyin), Ru Ru (Pinyin) or Rouran (Pinyin) were the names rendered into Chinese of the pronunciation of the confederacy name. Some writers consider the Korean pronunciation Yuyon as a more archaic form and closer to the original pronunciation. The derogatory term Juan Juan or Ruan Ruan (meaning "Wriggling insects") and Ru Ru (meaning "Fodder") remained in modern usage despite being derived by Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei, who waged war against the confederacy.

The Ruruans were very much a kin of the Hsiung-nu who had fled to the Altai Mountains after losing the wars to the Northern Wei in China, and in another sense, we could call the Ruruans a third group of the Huns in addition to the Western Huns who invaded Europe and the Eastern Huns who served in Toba's army as well as rebelled against the Northern Wei Dynasty. At war with the Northern Wei, and with the Hephthalites only nominally their vassals, the Juan-Juan Khanate was a somewhat nebulous entity.

Little is known of their ruling elite, which may have been an offshoot of the Xianbei (those that opposed the sinicization of the Wei). The Ruruans subdued modern regions of Xinjiang, Mongolia, Central Asia and parts of Siberia and Manchuria by the late 4th Century. Their frequent intervention and invasions had profoundly affected neighbouring countries although its power was broken by a newer alliance of Gok-Turks, the Chinese Northern Qi and Northern Zhou dynasties and tribes in Central Asia in 560s AD. The Northern Wei Dynasty, for instance, had established six major garrisons bordering the Ruruans, which later became the foci of native Xianbei uprising against sinicized Xianbei in early 6th Century.

Analogy of the Xiongnu-Hun relationship has once rendered a gross generalization that the Ruruans re-emerged in Europe as the Avars. However the Avars were well established in Europe in 550s whereas the Ruruans still appeared in Chinese sources in 560s. Nonetheless according to the story that the Uar, one of the tribes under this confederacy, was placed at the head of the Uighurs in 460, an element of the European Avars may have been, at least for a little while, a small part of the Ruruans confederacy.

Avars

Avar is a much wider designation since many other nomads are called the Avars, too. Note that Avar could be construed as ancient characters of [ah] [hua] to mean that this group of people could have something to do with Hua or Xia people, the original Chinese inhabitants in southern Shanxi. They may have been the survivors of the Hephthalites, which may explain their mixed ethnic origins.

They established dominion over various Germanic and particularly the Slav tribes. The subject matter about the origin of Avar people has been one of the issues that caused great trouble for the historians and the linguists. It cannot be stated that there is a common opinion about this issue. However, the Turkish identity of the Avar Khanate has become much more definite as the research continues.

On the other hand, since Ruruan people were considered as Mongolians, it was natural that the European Avar people were of the same race. A tribe named the Var-guni (Bar-guni) was determined to exist in Mongolia and resembled the Avars. In addition, it was stated that the human skeletons that were excavated from the tombs pertaining to the Avar era in Hungary were mostly Mongoloid. Furthermore, the allegation stating that Bayan, the name of a famous Avar khan, was a Mongolian word reinforced this conviction.

The Avars, who left their homeland in Central Asia, had an important place in the history of Europe. They first came to Caucasus and the north of the Black Sea, made an agreement with the Byzantines and fought against, and defeated, Turkish tribes such as the Sabirs and Onogurs on behalf of the Byzantines in the 6th Century AD.

The Byzantine historian Simokattes stated that a group composed of nearly 20 thousand people immigrated to the west pursuant to the abolition of the Ruruan kaganate in Mongolia (552/555) by the Gok-Turk Kaganate. This statement caused the establishment of a relation between the nomadic group that sent an envoy from the eastern borders of the Byzantine Empire in 558 AD.

They expanded to the banks of the Danube River, over the lands of the Ants/Antes, a Slavic tribe. From time to time, they made raids throughout the Balkans and even as far as the Peloponnese in Greece. They besieged Constantinople (modern Istanbul) in 626 AD together with the Bulgars, and as part of a joint campaign with the Sassanian Persians. The borders of the Avar Empire extended from the Dnieper to the Elbe River and from the North Sea to the Adriatic Sea during the reign of their famous ruler Bayan Khan.

The Avar Empire collapsed between 776-803 AD due to the concurrent attacks of Kurum/Krum Khan, the leader of the Bulgars and Charlemagne (Charles the Great). Present excavations and research in Hungary and Central Europe reveal that the Avars had an exemplary organization within the state and the army and attained a high level of civilization.

Eurasian Nomads: Part 1

Background

Indo-European Period (4,000 BC-300 AD)

Hsiung-nu Period (250 BC-450 AD)

Turkic Kaganate (552-744)

Eurasian Nomads: Part 2

Magyars

Székely

Pechenegs

The Uighur Empire (744-840)

Xueyantuo

Kirghiz or Kyrgyz

Kipchaks

Kimeks

Tatars or Tartar

Steppe Kingdoms (840-1278)

Khitan or Kidan

Tanguts

Jurchen or Jurchid

Turks or Turkmen

Mongol World Empire (1206-1368)

Steppe Peoples' Political Decline (14th C. onward)

Descriptions of Non-Mongolian Physiques

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