Xionites

Xionites

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Xionites

"Barbarians" according to Chinese cosmology of Han dynasty. Those in the east were called Dongyi (??), those in the west Xirong (??), those in the south Nanman (??), and those in the north Beidi (??).

Chionites, Chionitae or Xionites (Chinese: Xi?ng (?) or X?róng (??) meaning "Western Barbarians", Middle Persian: Xiyon, (Hiun/Hion)) were a nomadic tribe prominent in Transoxania and Bactria.^[1]

Chionites had arrived in the mid-4th century with the wave of immigration from Central Asia into Iran in late antiquity. They had been influenced by the Kushan and Bactrian culture, and had become a threat on the northeastern frontiers of the Sassanid Empire.^[1]^[2]

Nomenclature: Red Xyon and transference to Red Huns
Origins
History

Early history
Alchon

Coinage

Notes and references
See also
External links

Nomenclature: Red Xyon and transference to Red Huns

The name Xyon is familiar in Avestan and Pahlavi texts.^[3] In the Avestan tradition (Yts. 9.30-31, 19.87) the Xiiaona were characterized as enemies of Vishtaspa, the patron of Zoroaster.^[1] In the later Pahlavi tradition, the Red Huns and "White Huns" (Sveta-Hunas) are mentioned.^[1] The Red Huns of the Pahlavi tradition (7th A.D.)^[4] has been identified by Harold Walter Bailey as the Kermichiones or Ermechiones.^[1] According to Bailey, the name Xyon was transferred later to the Huns owing to similarity of sound, as Tur was adapted to Turk in Pahlavi tradition.^[5]

Origins

It is difficult to determine the ethnic composition of Chionites.^[1] In addition, there is no evidence that the Chionites were different from the Ephthalites. In other words, the Epthalites may have been a prominent tribe or clan of the Chionites.^[6]

According to A.S. Shahbazi (article dated 2005)^[7]:

According to Wolfgang Felix (article dated 1992)^[1]:

According to Richard Nelson Frye (book dated 1991)^[8]:

According to Carlile Aylmer Macartney (article dated 1944)^[9]:

According to Sir Harold Walter Bailey (article dated 1932)^[10]:

History

Early history

Asia in 400 AD, showing the Chionites and their neighbors.

In the earliest periods, Xi?ng (?) were more of a concern to the Chinese than to the Persians. They dominated the smaller Donghu nations beyond Tianshan in the East Asian steppes who were known as the Xiong (?)'s Serfs until the Xi?ng (?)'s hold over them was broken by the Chinese by the end of the Sino-Xiongnu War. Chionitae campaigns are better documented in connection to a number of events of the political history of Central Asia particularly during the second half of the 4th century AD until the mid 5th century AD. Their most famous rulers were called the Kidarites. At the end of the 4th century AD, a new wave of Hunnic tribes (Alchoni) invaded Bactria, pushing the Kidarites into Gandhara.^[11]

Alchon

Alchon or Al?on (Uarkhon) became the new name of the Chionites in 460 when Khingila I united the Uar with the Chionites under his Hephthal ruling élite. In India the Alchon were not distinguished from their immediate White Huns 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 but that they lived in cities. The Alchon were called Varkhon or Varkunites (OuarKhonitai) by Menander Protector (538-582) literally referring to the Uar & Hunnoi. Around 630, Theophylaktos Simokattes wrote that the European "Avars" were initially composed of two nations, the Uar and the Hunnoi tribes. He wrote that: "...the Barsilt, the Unogurs and the Sabirs were struck with horror... and honoured the Newcommers with brilliant gifts..."^[12] when the Avars first arrived in their lands in 555AD.

Although the power of the Alchon in Bactria was shattered in the 560's by a combination of Sassanid and proto-Turkic forces, the last Hephthal king Narana/Narendra managed to maintain some kind of rule between 570 and 600 AD over the 'nspk' or 'napki' or 'nezak' tribes that remained after most of the Alchon had fled to the west.

Coinage

Alchon Huns refers to a tribe which minted coins in Bactria in the 5th & 6th centuries. The name Khigi on one of the coins and Narendra on another has led some scholars of the area to believe that the Hephthalite Khagans Khingila and Narana were of the AlChoNo tribe inscribed in Bactrian script on the coins in question. 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).^[13]