THE BLUE HUNS

 

The Xionites (250-500 CE)

The earliest possible date for the presence of the Xionites in Transoxania-Ferghana (modern Uzbekistan and Tajikistan) is 250 CE, although their entrance into the historical record in that region is dated to 300 CE. At that time, the Kushan emperor, Mahi (300-305 CE), made an alliance with the Xionites against the Sassanid Persian Empire—the Sassanids had conquered most of the western regions of the Kushan Empire, while the eastern regions of the Kushan Empire had fallen to the Guptas (an imperial Indo-Aryan state), leaving the Kushans in control of a small rump state in Kabulistan/Zabulistan (the Kabul Valley in eastern Afghanistan), Gandhara (northwestern Pakistan), and the Khyber Pass that linked the two through the Hindu Kush Mountains. This alliance was maintained by the last two Kushan emperors—Shaka (305-335 CE) and Kipunada (335-350 CE)—and a Xionite horde was able to establish itself in Bactria (northern Afghanistan). This horde was called the Karmir-Xiyon ("Red Xionites") by the Persians, a name that seems to recognize the Hunnic use of color corespondences (discussed on the gallery page), and the Persians also subsequently applied this name to the Kidarites, Alxonites, and Nezaks (see page for the Red Huns). The last Persian governor of Bactria (kushanshah), Varahran/Warahran (330-365 CE), was defeated and made a vassal of Kipunada (ca. 335 CE), but in 345 CE Kipunada was overthrown by Kirada (335-345 CE), the chief of the Xionite horde in Bactria, although Kipunada was allowed to remain the governor of the city of Taxila in Gandhara until his death. For a summary of the history of the Hunnic state thus created, please see my Red Huns page.

 

The Xionite king Grumbates/Krumbates launched a series of devastating raids into northeastern Iran (ca. 353-357 CE) that forced the Sassanian emperor (shahanshah), Shapur II (309-379 CE), to launch a counterattack (ca. 356-357 CE). Shapur seems to have secured the northeastern frontier of the Persian Empire, although (ironically) Shapur subsequently employed Grumbates and his horde as mercenaries, traveling with them back to Mesopotamia, where the Roman writer Ammianus Marcellinus noted their participation in Shapur's war against the Romans (ca. 358-363 CE)(Grumbates even lost a son at the siege of Amida, ca. 360/361 CE, and Ammianus Marcellinus recorded his observation of the funeral rites of the Xionites).

 

Thereafter, we do not get a lot of detail about the Xionites in any historical sources—Persian sources periodically mention raiders or mercenaries in Sassanian service that are believed to be references to the Xionites, but otherwise they seem to have funneled hordes into Bactria, where they essentially joined the dynasties of the Red Huns (Kidarites and Alxonites), and are therefore subsumed by the historical record of the southern Hunnic dynasties. The probable reasons for this relative dearth of information is easy to deduce—the Xionites were probably busy establishing their control over the city-states of Transoxania-Ferghana (great cities like Bukhara, Baykand, Nasaf, Kish, Samarkand, Kasan, Tashkent, and Uzkand) and getting rich by taxing the merchants that traveled the Silk Road (although it wasn't known by that name at that time), which passed out of the Tarim Basin into Ferghana, then traveled through Transoxania into Persia. Indeed, the ability to take control of this natural chokepoint along the great east-west overland trade network was probably the primary motivating factor that led the original Hunnic hordes out of eastern Kazakhstan. Nevertheless, some time between 442 and 500 CE, the Hephthalites emerged as a more militarily dynamic expansionist regime that seems to have taken over the Xionite Kingdom. The name, Xionite, ceased to be used after 500 CE, and thereafter the history of the eastern Hunnic peoples is subsumed by the Hephthalites (see my White Hun page).

 

Yueban Kingdom (160-489 CE)

Between 125 BCE and 80 CE, the Han Dynasty of China waged war on the Mongolic Xiongnu of Mongolia. This war ended in defeat for the Xiongnu, resulting in the division of their empire into a northern and southern horde. The much weakened northern horde then fell victim to the Mongolic Xianbei from the steppes of Manchuria (ca. 93-380 CE). Both of these defeats resulted in an exodus of Xiongnu tribes that migrated off the Mongolian Plateau and onto the Kazakh steppe. As I discussed on the gallery page, these migrations were one of the major catalysts that led to the ethnogenesis of the Huns and the Turks. The Yueban Kingdom is poorly documented. Four tribes of Xiongnu (the Chuyue, Chumi, Chumuhun, and Chuban) settled in the Zhetysu region of southeastern Kazakhstan in 160 CE. There, they dominated some local tribes of Tokharians (the Azi and Tukhsi) and Ugrians (a branch of the Uar). This horde was referred to as the Yueban or Urpen (Pinyin Classical Chinese, “Weak Xiongnu”) by contemporary Chinese writers—it is unlikely the people of this state referred to themselves by this name, but history has not recorded any autonym. We also do not know for certain whether it was a kingdom or some sort of confederation, although many historians refer to it as the Yueban Kingdom for lack of a viable alternative. The Wusun, an eastern Aryan nomad group, were also driven west by the Xianbei, although not until the fifth century CE (probably between 402 and 436 CE), and they settled to the east of the Yueban Kingdom, on the steppes between Lake Balkhash (in the north) and the Tian Shan Mountains (in the south). We do not know the exact relationship of the Wusun with the Yueban, but most historians assume that the Wusun were incorporated into the Yueban state soon after their arrival in Central Asia. Regardless, the Tiele Turks—vassals of the Xianbei—attacked the Yueban state in 487-489 CE, and the Tiele seem to have occupied the region until they were driven out by the Hephthalites (ca. 495-496 CE). It is assumed that any remnants of the Yueban horde were assimilated by the Hephthalites, since neither the Yueban or Wusun are ever mentioned again in any history of the region.

 

The ethnogenesis of the Xionites/Blue/Eastern Huns is as shrouded in mystery as the ethnogenesis of the Black/northern Huns, but since it is believed that the Xionites arose in eastern Kazakhstan before migrating into Transoxania-Ferghana, this would place them in close proximity to the Yueban Kingdom when it was first formed. I discuss the Yueban in greater detail under my Eastern Aryan Nomads gallery—due to their association with the Wusun—so I won't repeat that information here. However, I believe the Yueban Kingdom should be considered a Hunnic state, and should be categorized alongside the Xionites as Blue/Eastern Huns.