Chionites

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The Chionites were a group of nomads in Central Asia from late antiquity . Her name is possibly derived from the Middle Persian word X (i) yon ("Hun").

The appearance of this first group of the Iranian Huns is to be set about a generation before the appearance of the European Huns , who crossed the Volga in 375. The Chionites were probably not related to these; However, the ethnic composition of the "Hunnic" groups that appeared between the 4th and 6th centuries on the northeast border of the Sassanid Empire (Chionites, Kidarites , Alchon and Nezak groups and the Hephthalites ) has not been fully clarified. The concept of the Iranian Huns goes back to the research of Robert Göbl . Göbl did not include the Chionites (although they are mentioned in written sources) in his considerations based on numismatic evaluations, since no coinage has been passed down from them and he mainly assumed this criterion. The term "Huns" is not to be understood as an ethnic term, but as a collective term for Central Asian groups that were not necessarily related to one another in the true sense.

Most recent research suggests that the Kidarite dynasty emerged from the Chionites. The thesis was put forward that the Chionites and Kidarites were not two separate groups, but that the Kidarites were rather a clan of the Chionites or were descended from them. Wolfgang Felix describes them in the Encyclopaedia Iranica as probably of Iranian origin ("probable Iranian origin"), but precise statements are hardly possible. Some researchers, such as James Howard-Johnston , assume that the X (i) yon or the Chionites conceal parts of the Xiongnu that migrated west from East Asia, but this hypothesis is very controversial. Some researchers (such as Richard Nelson Frye and Peter Benjamin Golden ) suspected that the Chionites were largely a Turkic people , but later also took up and integrated parts of defeated foreign-language tribes. However, none of these theories are currently widely accepted.

One thing is certain: the Chionites are mentioned at the time of the Persian Sassanid king Shapur II (r. 309–379) by the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus , the most important source for this time, as Chionitae in the region in which the Persians were supreme at the time exercised over the former Kushana provinces. In 350 these nomads, especially the Chionites, attacked Shapur II. In several campaigns, the Persian king was able to secure the north-eastern border of his empire, with Shapur (as an inscription found proves) in 356 acting against the invaders from the region of today's Kabul . After the war, however, the Chionites were with some certainty the new masters of Bactria with a Balkh , since the coinage of the Kushana Shahs seems to cease there. Their king at the time was called Grumbates , who subordinated himself to Shapur II and was present at the siege of the Roman fortress Amida in 359, as is evident from the history of Ammianus. According to Ammianus Marcellinus, the Chionites burned their dead during the siege of Amida in 359, to the astonishment of the Persians (Ammian 19,1,7ff.), Which was inconceivable for Zoroastrian Persians due to their religious ideas; nevertheless, their ethnic identity (the burning actually speaks against belonging to an Iranian people) is not clarified.

The further history of the Chionites is unclear. They were apparently replaced by the Kidarites at the end of the 4th century , who in turn were followed by the Hephthalites , but the details remain in the dark. It is quite possible that the unknown invaders against whom Bahram V successfully fought in 427 were still Chionites.

In the Persian tradition (as in the Avesta ) the Chionites are mentioned several times as Xyon and referred to as enemies of Iran, although it is unclear whether the mentions always refer to the historical Chionites.

literature

  • Carlo G. Cereti: Xiiaona and Xyon in Zoroastrian Texts. In: M. Alram, D. Klimburg (eds.): Coins Art and Chronology II: The First Millennium CE in the Indo-Iranian Borderlands. Vienna 2010, pp. 59–72.
  • Wolfgang Felix: Chionites. In: Ehsan Yarshater (ed.): Encyclopædia Iranica . Volume 5: Carpets - coffee. Bibliotheca Persica Press, New York 1992, ISBN 0-939214-79-2 , pp. 485-487 ( online ).
  • Daniel T. Potts: Nomadism in Iran. From Antiquity to the Modern Era. Oxford University Press, Oxford u. a. 2014, p. 127ff.
  • Khodadad Rezakhani: ReOrienting the Sasanians. East Iran in Late Antiquity. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2017, pp. 87-93.

Remarks

  1. ^ Robert Göbl: Documents on the history of the Iranian Huns in Bactria and India. 4 volumes. Wiesbaden 1967.
  2. ↑ See Timo Stickler : The Huns. Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-53633-5 , p. 29ff.
  3. ^ Daniel T. Potts: Nomadism in Iran. From Antiquity to the Modern Era. Oxford et al. a. 2014, p. 129.
  4. ^ Richard Nelson Frye: Pre-Islamic and early Islamic cultures in Central Asia . In " Turko-Persia in historical perspective , ed. By Robert L. Canfield, Cambridge 1991, p. 49; Peter B. Golden: Turks and Iranians: a cultural sketch. In: Lars Johanson, Christiane Bulut (ed.): Turkic -Iranian Contact Areas: Historical and Linguistic Aspects. Wiesbaden 2005, p. 19.
  5. ↑ See also John Matthews: The Roman Empire of Ammianus. Duckworth, London 1989, ISBN 0-7156-2246-3 , p. 61 ff.
  6. ^ Wolfgang Felix: Chionites. In: Encyclopædia Iranica . Volume 5. New York 1992, p. 486.
  7. ↑ Cf. generally Wolfgang Felix's article Chionites in the Encyclopædia Iranica .
  8. ↑ Cf. Nikolaus Schindel: Wahram V. In: Nikolaus Schindel (Ed.): Sylloge Nummorum Sasanidarum . Vol. 3/1. Vienna 2004, p. 365f.
  9. ↑ Khodadad Rezakhani: ReOrienting the Sasanians. East Iran in Late Antiquity. Edinburgh 2017, p. 88.
  10. ^ Wolfgang Felix: Chionites. In: Encyclopædia Iranica . Volume 5. New York 1992, pp. 485f.