The Kidarites, or Kidara Huns,[1] were a dynasty that ruled Bactria and adjoining parts of Central Asia and India in the 4th and 5th centuries. The Kidarites belonged to a complex group of peoples known collectively in India as the Huna, and in Europe as the Chionites (from the Iranian names Xwn/Xyon), and may even be considered as identical to the Chionites.[2] The 5th century Byzantine historian Priscus called them Kidarite Huns, or "Huns who are Kidarites".[3][4] Chinese annals referred to them as the Ta Yüeh-chih, or Lesser Yüeh-chih.[5] The Huna/Xionite tribes are often linked, albeit controversially, to the Huns who invaded Eastern Europe around the same period. They are entirely different from the Hephthalites, who replaced them about a century later.[4]

The Kidarites were named after Kidara (Chinese: 寄多羅 Jiduoluo, MC: Kjie-ta-la)[6][7] one of their main rulers. The Kidarites appear to have been a part of a Huna horde known in Latin sources as the "Kermichiones" (from the Iranian Karmir Xyon) or "Red Huna". The Kidarites established the first of four major Xionite/Huna states in Central Asia, followed by the Alchon, the Hephthalites and the Nezak.

In 360–370 CE, a Kidarite kingdom was established in Central Asian regions previously ruled by the Sasanian Empire, replacing the Kushano-Sasanians in Bactria.[8][9] Thereafter, the Sasanian Empire was limited to Merv.[9] Next, circa 390-410 CE, the Kidarites invaded northwestern India, where they replaced the remnants of the Kushan Empire in the area of Punjab.

Origins

Portrait of Kidara, king of the Kidarites, circa 350–386. The coinage of the Kidarites imitated Sasanian imperial coinage, with the exception that they displayed clean-shaven faces, instead of the beards of the Sasanians, a feature relating them to Altaic rather than Iranian lineage.[9][10]

A nomadic people, the Kidarites appear to have originated in the Altai Mountains region. The terms Huns/Chionites seem to reflect the general ethnic appellation of these people, whereas Kidarites should be understood as a dynastic designation derived from the name of their king, Kidara.[11] On Kidarite coins their rulers are depicted as beardless or clean-shaven – a feature of Altaic cultures at the time (as opposed, for example, to the Iranian cultures of South Central Asia).[10] They may have been Oghuric speakers originally, as may have been the Chionites and the Hephthalites, before adopting the Bactrian language.[12] The Kidarites were depicted as mounted archers on the reverse of coins.[13] They were also known to practice artificial cranial deformation.[14]

The Kidarites appear to have been synonymous with the Karmir Xyon ("Red Xionites" or, more controversially, "Red Huns"),[15][16] – a major subdivision of the Chionites (Xionites), alongside the Spet Xyon ("White Xionites"). In a recently discovered seal with the image of a ruler similar to those of the Kidarite coins, the ruler named himself in Bactrian "King of the Huns and Great Kushan Shah" (uonano shao o(a)zarko (k)oshanoshao). The discovery was reportedly made in Swat.[17][18]

Fire attendants with the kaftan tunic worn over trousers tucked into knee-high boots, and holding swords, on the coinage of Kidara

The name of their eponymous ruler Kidara (fl. 350–385) may be cognate with the Turkic word Kidirti meaning "west", suggesting that the Kidarites were originally the westernmost of the Xionites, and the first to migrate from Inner Asia.[19] Chinese sources suggest that when the Uar (滑 Huá) were driven westward by the Later Zhao state, circa 320, from the area around Pingyang (平陽; modern Linfen, Shanxi), it put pressure on Xionite-affiliated peoples, such as the Kidarites, to migrate. Another theory is that climate change in the Altai during the 4th century caused various tribes to migrate westward and southward.[19]

Contemporary Chinese and Roman sources suggest that, during the 4th century, the Kidarites began to encroach on the territory of Greater Khorasan and the Kushan Empire – migrating through Transoxiana into Bactria,[20] where they were initially vassals of the Kushans and adopted many elements of Kushano-Bactrian culture. The Kidarites also initially put pressure on the Sasanian Empire, but later served as mercenaries in the Sassanian army, under which they fought the Romans in Mesopotamia, led by a chief named Grumbates (fl. 353–358 CE). Some of the Kidarites apparently became a ruling dynasty of the Kushan Empire, leading to the epithet "Little Kushans".[21][22]

Kidarite kingdom

First appearance in literary sources

Inclusion of the Kidarite tamgha
Coin in the name of Kushano-Sasanian king Varahran, struck under Kidarite ruler Kirada, circa 340-345. The Kidarite tamga symbol () appears to the right of the standing king. Balkh mint.

The first evidence are gold coins discovered in Balkh dating from the mid-4th century. The Kushano-Sasanian ruler Varahran during the second phase of his reign, had to introduce the Kidarite tamga () in his coinage minted at Balkh in Bactria, circa 340–345.[23] The tamgha replaced the nandipada symbol which had been in use since Vasudeva I,[23] suggesting that the Kidarites had now taken control, first under their ruler Kirada.[24] Then ram horns were added to the effigy of Varahran on his coinage for a brief period under the Kidarite ruler Peroz, and raised ribbons were added around the crown ball under the Kidarite ruler Kidara.[25][26][23][24] In effect, Varahran has been described as a "puppet" of the Kidarites.[27] By 365, the Kidarite ruler Kidara I was placing his name on the coinage of the region, and assumed the title of Kushanshah.[24] In Gandhara too, the Kidarites minted silver coins in the name of Varahran, until Kidara also introduced his own name there.[24]

Archaeological, numismatic, and sigillographic evidence demonstrates the Kidarites ruled a realm just as refined as that of the Sasanians. They swiftly adopted Iranian imperial symbolism and titulature, as demonstrated by a seal; "Lord Ularg, the king of the Huns, the great Kushan-shah, the Samarkandian, of the Afrigan (?) family."[28]

Most other data we currently have on the Kidarite kingdom are from Chinese and Byzantine sources from the middle of the 5th century. The Kidarites were the first Huna to bother India. Indian records note that the Hūna had established themselves in modern Afghanistan and the North-West Frontier Province by the first half of the 5th century, and the Gupta emperor Skandagupta had repelled a Hūna invasion in 455. The Kidarites are the last dynasty to regard themselves (on the legend of their coins) as the inheritors of the Kushan empire, which had disappeared as an independent entity two centuries earlier.[original research?]

Migration into Bactria

Kidara, circa 425–457. AR Drachm (29mm, 3.76 g, 3h). Mint C in Gandhara. Crowned bust facing slightly right. Brahmi legend around the head: Ki-da-ra Ku-ṣa-ṇa-ṣa/ Fire altar flanked by attendants.[29] The use of the 3/4 portrait is sometimes attributed to the influence of the coinage of Byzantine Empire ruler Arcadius (377–408 CE).[30]

Around 350, the Sasanian Emperor Shapur II (ruled 309 to 379) had to interrupt his conflict with the Romans, and abandon the siege of Nisibis,[19] in order to face nomadic threats in the east: he was attacked in the east by Scythian Massagetae and other Central Asian tribes.[32] Around this time, Xionite/Huna tribes, most likely the Kidarites, whose king was Grumbates, make an appearance as an encroaching threat upon Sasanian territory as well as a menace to the Gupta Empire (320–500).[7]

After a prolonged struggle (353–358) they were forced to conclude an alliance, and their king Grumbates accompanied Shapur II in the war against the Romans, agreeing to enlist his light cavalrymen into the Persian army and accompanying Shapur II. The presence of "Grumbates, king of the Chionitae" and his Xionites with Shapur II during campaigns in the Western Caspian lands, in the area of Corduene, is described by the contemporary eyewitness Ammianus Marcellinus:[33]

The presence of Grumbates alongside Shapur II is also recorded at the successful Siege of Amida in 359, in which Grumbates lost his son:[19]

"Grumbates, king of the Chionitae, went boldly up to the walls to effect that mission, with a brave body of guards; and when a skilful reconnoitrer had noticed him coming within shot, he let fly his balista, and struck down his son in the flower of his youth, who was at his father's side, piercing through his breastplate, breast and all; and he was a prince who in stature and beauty was superior to all his comrades. "

Later the alliance fell apart, and by the time of Bahram IV (388–399) the Sasanians had lost numerous battles against the Kidarites.[19] The migrating Kidarites then settled in Bactria, where they replaced the Kushano-Sasanids, a branch of the Sasanids that had displaced the weakening Kushans in the area two centuries before.[8] It is thought that they were in firm possession of the region of Bactria by 360.[19] Since this area corresponds roughly to Kushanshahr, the former western territories of the Kushans, Kidarite ruler Kidara called himself "Kidara King of the Kushans" on his coins.[36]

According to Priscus, the Sasanian Empire was forced to pay tribute to the Kidarites, until the rule of Yazdgird II (ruled 438–457), who refused payment.[37]

The Kidarites based their capital in Samarkand, where they were at the center of Central Asian trade networks, in close relation with the Sogdians.[9] The Kidarites had a powerful administration and raised taxes, rather efficiently managing their territories, in contrast to the image of barbarians bent on destruction given by Persian accounts.[9]

Fortresses

Fortress of Kafir-kala (Uzbekistan).[38]

Kafir-kala is an ancient fortress 12 kilometers south of the city center of Samarkand in Uzbekistan, protecting the southern border of the Samarkand oasis.[39] It consists in a central citadel built in mud-bricks and measuring 75 × 75 meters at its base has six towers and is surrounded by a moat, still visible today.[39] Living quarters were located outside the citadel.[39] The citadel was first occupied by the Kidarites in the 4th-5th century, whose coinage and bullae have been found.[40][41]