Nezak

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Nezak (also Nizak , the name on coins had previously been read as Napki ) was the name of a local late antique dynasty that ruled what is now Afghanistan . Their capital was Kapisa . The name is documented on silver coins. Written sources also report on the Nezak, with a passage in the Chinese text Sui Shu (where the crown of the kings of Kabul is described) serving as the basis for equating the Nezak with the Nisai mentioned in Chinese sources .

They are considered to be a group of the so-called Iranian Huns from late ancient Central Asia , which, however, very probably had no direct relationship with the Huns in Europe. The concept of the Iranian Huns goes back to the numismatic research of Robert Göbl . Göbl assumed four groups (based on the evaluation of the coinage): the Kidarites , the Alchon group, the Nezak group and finally the Hephthalites .

The Nezak are documented for the late 5th century at the earliest, but their real power development probably only happened in the late 6th century after the collapse of the Hephthalite rule. In some research it is assumed that groups of the Alchon returning from India encountered the Nezak. At least Alchon-Nezak mixed coins from later coins speak for this.

In the early 7th century the Nezaks ruled securely parts of Gandhara , their rule seems to have ceased in the late 7th century; their last known ruler was called Ghar-ilchi (or Hejiezhi ) and seems to have ruled until 661. The successor to the Nezak was a Turkish dynasty known as the Kabul Shahis or Turk Shahis .

The Chinese traveler Xuanzang , who was staying in their capital, reported that the rulers belonged to a family of chali or kṣatriyas , which suggests a Hindu background. On the other hand, the Nezak dynasty referred to the ruler Khingila , who is counted by some researchers (most recently by Frantz Grenet) to the Hephthalites, but according to popular belief he belonged to the Alchon group.

The coinage is of remarkable quality. While the Alchon group often copied Sasanian coins, the Nezak coins are based on them, but of a very individual nature (often with a beef head crown and an inscription in Pahlevi ). The coin motif of the winged bull's head was probably created in the late 5th century; the so-called S and A groups of Nezak coinage ceased in the late 6th century. So-called western Turkish coins from the late 7th / early 8th centuries are based on Nezak coins.

literature

  • Michael Alram et al. a. (Ed.): The face of the stranger. The coinage of the Huns and Western Turks in Central Asia and India. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2016.
  • Michael Alram: Alchon and Nēzak. On the history of the Iranian Huns in Central Asia. In: La Persia e l'Asia centrale da Alessandro al X secolo. Rome 1996, pp. 517-554.
  • Michael Alram: The history of Eastern Iran from the Greek kings in Bactria and India to the Iranian Huns (250 BC-700 AD). In: Wilfried Seipel (Hrsg.): Weihrauch und Silk. Ancient cultures on the Silk Road. Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-900325-53-7 , pp. 119-140.
  • Robert Göbl: Documents on the history of the Iranian Huns in Bactria and India. 4 volumes. Wiesbaden 1967.
  • Khodadad Rezakhani: ReOrienting the Sasanians. East Iran in Late Antiquity. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2017, pp. 157ff.
  • Klaus Vondrovec: Coinage of the Nezak. In: M. Alram, D. Klimburg-Salter, M. Inaba, M. Pfisterer (Eds.): Coins, Art and Chronology II. The First Millennium CE in the Indo-Iranian Borderlands. Vienna 2010, pp. 169–190.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Klaus Vondrovec: Coinage of the Nezak. In: M. Alram, D. Klimburg-Salter, M. Inaba, M. Pfisterer (Eds.): Coins, Art and Chronology II. The First Millennium CE in the Indo-Iranian Borderlands. Vienna 2010, p. 169 and p. 173f.
  2. ↑ Khodadad Rezakhani: ReOrienting the Sasanians. East Iran in Late Antiquity. Edinburgh 2017, pp. 159f.
  3. ^ Robert Göbl: Documents on the history of the Iranian Huns in Bactria and India. 4 volumes. Wiesbaden 1967.
  4. ↑ See Klaus Vondrovec: Coinage of the Nezak. In: M. Alram, D. Klimburg-Salter, M. Inaba, M. Pfisterer (Eds.): Coins, Art and Chronology II. The First Millennium CE in the Indo-Iranian Borderlands. Vienna 2010, pp. 169–190, here p. 174.
  5. ^ Klaus Vondrovec: Coinage of the Nezak. In: M. Alram, D. Klimburg-Salter, M. Inaba, M. Pfisterer (Eds.): Coins, Art and Chronology II. The First Millennium CE in the Indo-Iranian Borderlands. Vienna 2010, pp. 169–190, here p. 174 and p. 182ff.
  6. ↑ Cf. also Khodadad Rezakhani: ReOrienting the Sasanians. East Iran in Late Antiquity. Edinburgh 2017, pp. 163f.
  7. ^ Exhibition The Face of the Stranger , Showcase 13 ; Khodadad Rezakhani: ReOrienting the Sasanians. East Iran in Late Antiquity. Edinburgh 2017, p. 158 and ibid. P. 164ff.
  8. ↑ Cf. also Khodadad Rezakhani: ReOrienting the Sasanians. East Iran in Late Antiquity. Edinburgh 2017, pp. 162-164.
  9. ↑ On the current state of research on the Alchon, see for example Klaus Vondrovec: Numismatic Evidence of the Alchon Huns reconsidered. In: Contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe 50, 2008, pp. 25–56.
  10. ^ Klaus Vondrovec: Coinage of the Nezak. In: M. Alram, D. Klimburg-Salter, M. Inaba, M. Pfisterer (Eds.): Coins, Art and Chronology II. The First Millennium CE in the Indo-Iranian Borderlands. Vienna 2010, p. 169 and p. 170–172.
  11. ↑ In summary, Klaus Vondrovec: Coinage of the Nezak. In: M. Alram, D. Klimburg-Salter, M. Inaba, M. Pfisterer (Eds.): Coins, Art and Chronology II. The First Millennium CE in the Indo-Iranian Borderlands. Vienna 2010, p. 187.
  12. ↑ See Klaus Vondrovec: Coinage of the Nezak. In: M. Alram, D. Klimburg-Salter, M. Inaba, M. Pfisterer (Eds.): Coins, Art and Chronology II. The First Millennium CE in the Indo-Iranian Borderlands. Vienna 2010, p. 181.