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Afghan Hephthalites
The paucity of record in Huns provides us fragmentary picture of their civilization and empire. Their background is uncertain. Its not known where did the word Hun, and its not known if it’s a race ethnic or a name. It could of derived from Indo-European word for Hunus, (Sanskriti for hundreds) Hundas, (Iranic word for Measurement) Hundred, (English word for 100). One thing is for sure the Huns were a confederation of central Asian tribes of diverse origin who appeared in different parts of Eurasia with their own kingdome and they were never counted as one group. Its not clear if the Huns ever called themselves Huns. It was until the end of 4th century that Europeans experienced beginning with Attila who reigned Europe from 455-453 AD, who could be one of Hephthalite descends who united other tribes along with him going towards west. Many nations have tried to assert themselves as ethnic or cultural successors to the Huns, but as for Afghans they never asserted and nor they ever argued themselves to be Huns. The facts that were gathered by Persians, Indians, Chinese, Balkens, Europeans, and Central Asian, we have come to know that Afghans played a big game in their Pre-Islamic times more then ever.
The root to European Huns could more or less be the Hephthalites, Ephthalites, abadhdalites, Abadhalite, Abadali has all the same meaning, it was the name given by Byzantine historians, they are also known as the White Huns. According Russian scholar Yu V. Gankovsky, from his book A History of Afghanistan: “My opinion is that the formation of the union of largely East-Iranian tribes which became the initial ethnic stratum of the Pashtun ethnogenesis dates from the middle of the first millennium AD and is connected with the dissolution of the Epthalite (White Huns) confederacy. In the areas north of the Hindu Kush some of the tribes of this confederacy participated in the formation of the nationalities who inhabit Middle Asia”. Ephthalites were Eastern Iranian people from tribe of Ephthlie (Or Abadhali), living in present-day Afghanistan speaking Eastern Iranian language (Bactrian, Scythian, Avestaian or Pashtu/Afghan). Ephthalites are one of the other biggest tribe of Afghanistan known as Abadhali.
The Hephthalites history goes back during conflicts with Kushan rule and Hephathalites being supporters of Sassanian, (220 AD). It was around end of Kushani rule (250 AD) that first conflicts were made with Sassanians who already captured western parts of Kushani Empire. From 300 –390 the Ephthalite tribe changed hands with Kushanshahi’s, Kidarites, Sassanians or Kushans. They remained calm until 400 AD. From 400 AD-440 AD Hephthalite tribe took control of Eastern Iran from Kidarites driving them to Peshawar near the Indian border where the Kidarites would recover (455-470 AD) and this time attacked Gupta Empire at the death of Gupta emperor taking control of northern India for 30 years (470-500AD).
From 450-480 AD the Hephthalites further took Sogdian (Samarkand), and Bokhara to the north. The Hephthalites moved closer and closer toward Persian territory, in 484 the Hephthalite chief Akhshunwar led his army attacked the Sassanian King Peroz (459-484) and the king was defeated and killed in Khurasan having captured Tehran to the west. The Hephthalites, at the time, became the superpower of the Middle Asia. They did not only destroyed part of Sassanian Empire in Iran but also intervened in their dynastic struggles when the Sassanid royal, Kavad (488-496), was fighting for the throne with Balash, brother of Peroz. Kavad married the niece of the Hephthalites chief and the Hephthalites aided him to regain his crown in 498. The Hephthalites chose Badakshan as their summer residence. Their chiefs lived north of the Hindu Kush, migrating seasonally from Bactria where they spent the winter.
With the stabilization at the western and northern border, the Hephthalites extended their influence to the North-East inoto the Tarim Basin and border of China. From 493 to 556 A.D., they invaded Khotan, Kashgar, Kocho, and Karashahr. The relationship with Juan-juan and China were tightened. The Chinese record indicated that between 507 and 531, the Hephthalites sent thirteen embassies to Northern Wei (439-534) by the king named Ye-dai-yi-li-tuo.
From 570-500 Kidarites remained to control northern India, Hephthalites had little worry about Eastern border it was then that Hephthalites had to face the strong Gupta Empire of India who recaptured power from Kidarites. From 505-520 AD Ephthalites joined hands with Kidarites and invaded India, they are also known as Indo-Hephthalites, or Alchons. The Indo-Hephthalites remained control of Northern India until 600 AD.
Between 557 to 561 Persian King Chosroes allied with A Turkic tribe from central Asia or Turkistan region. Chorsoes wanted to profit from the situation to take revenge over the defeat of his grandfather Peroz; he married a daughter of the nomadic chief and allied himself with them against the Hephthalite tribe. The chief Sinjibu was the strongest Turkic tribes and he had the largest number of troops. Attacked on the two sides, from the north by Turks and from the west by Sassanians the Hephthalite Empire were completely broken and surrendered, by 565 only the small Indo-Hephthalite Independent Kingdome survived in Northern India. Some surviving groups to the Oxus did not surrendered and escaped Chosroes' grasp fled to the west and may have been the ancestors of the later Avars in the Danube region. Another era was opening in Central Asia. For the allies of Chosroes were Turks, a new power was to dominate the central Asia for next few centuries.
Life Style:
Very little was known about these Hephthalite tribe. Little art has left from them. According to Sung Yun and Hui Sheng who visited their Hephthalite chief at his summer residence in Badakshan and later in Gandhara,"The Hephthalites have no cities, but roam freely and live in tents. They do not live in towns; their seat of government is a moving camp. They move in search of water and pasture, journeying in summer to cool places and in winter to warmer ones....They have no belief in the Buddhist law and they serve a great number of divinities." Other than the deformation of skulls, the other interesting feature of the Hephthalites is their male dominant society, polyandrous society. The records of brothers marrying to one wife had been reported from Chinese source.
The records of brothers marrying to one wife or polyandrous has been understood wrong by westerners. Women had almost no rule in Hephthalites time and nor did it ever did in history of Afghanistan. Polyandry from Greek word “poly” means many, and “andros” means man. Which can be looked at two ways, a female forming a stable sexual union with more than one male (which is a bizarre and strange way of living), or a woman with many past husbands. To say that Polyandry existed among Hephthalites where many brothers altogether married with one woman which means women enjoying greater freedom to choose and divorce is next to impossible in Hephthalites time when we know the fact that Ephthalites were male dominant society.
The type of Polyandry that was practiced by Ephthalites is type of fraternal polyandry where two brothers shared one wife, and that only happened when the first brother is either killed or disappeared. This tradition is only practiced by Afghans, where a women loses her husband, in Afghan tradition, the Sister in-law has the right to choose any of her brother-in-laws as her new husband, (After) her first husband past away and if the husband doesn’t have a brother, cousins (From father’s side) are the target. In recent years it has been the case with many Afghan women who lost their husbands during soviet and civil wars.
The Language:
The Hephthalites spoked Eastern Iranian language, there is debate however it could be Takhari/Tokhari or Pashtu. According to Japanese researcher Kazuo Enoki’s research On the Nationality of the Ephthalites: Enoki notes that Procopius' comments on their appearance while not decisive, are in favor of an Iranian theory. Similarly, the seventh century travels of Hsuan Chwang show that he found no physical difference between the descendants of the Ephthalites and their known Iranian neighbours. As for their language, commentators made clear that it was neither Turkish nor Mongol, which also seems to support an Eastern Iranian origin. At the same time there is numismatic and epigraphic evidence to show that a debased form of the old Italic alphabet was used by the Hephthalites. Since the Kushan had close economic ties with Rome they also used old Italic when conquested by Hephthalites, it is possible they retained many aspects of Kushan culture, including the adoption of the Old Italic alphabet.
The Religion:
It is equally inconsistent while comparing the references to the Hephthalites' religion. Although Sung Yun and Hui Sheng reported that the Hephthalites did not believe in Buddhism, though there is ample archaeological evidence that this religion was practiced in territories under Hephthalite control. According to Liang shu the Hephthalites worshiped Heaven and also fire - a clear reference to Zoroastrianism.
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