Huns

The Hunnic Empire stretched from the steppes of Central Asia into modern Germany, and from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea

The Huns were an early confederation of Central Asian equestrian nomads or semi-nomads,^[1] who had established a great empire in Eurasia, and had been ruling Asia and Europe for centuries. They played an important role in the world history, especially in the shaping of the European nationalities and the development of European history. The dreaded Huns were the trigger force behind the Great Migration that led to the collapse of the Roman Empire, thus opening the way to the independent historical developing of European nations.

They possibly had a Turkic^{[2][3][4][5][6]}, or Scythian core of aristocracy. Eastern scholars — Mongolian, Chinese and some Russian archeologists — don’t distinguish Scythians from Huns, because of their similar material and intellectual culture.^[7] The Hun Empire — according to the new scientific results — was the biggest state in the ancient times. They existed as organized state for at least thousand years, so that was the state being in power for the longest period of time. The Huns created a well-organized state across Eurasia, from the Great Wall to the river Rhone, and they were able to control the vast territory. Some of these Eurasian tribes moved into Europe in the 4th and 5th centuries, most famously under Attila the Hun. The empire collapsed in the 5th century AD, but Huns remaining in Asia are recorded by neighboring peoples to the south, east, and west as having occupied Central Asia roughly from the 4th century to the 6th century, with some surviving in the Caucasus until the early 8th century, and they gradually assimilated in various steppe people — Turkic, Turkish, Mongolians, Bulgarians, Hungarians and indirectly other nations — in Inner Asia and Eastern Europe. Their descendants have preserved their special culture and civilization until now.

Origin and identity

Hunnish Camp, as imagined in the 19th century "Young Folks' History of Rome" by Charlotte Mary Yonge.

Research and debate about the Asian ancestral origins of the Huns has been ongoing since the 18th century. For example philologists still debate to this day which ethnonym from Chinese or Persian sources is identical with the Latin Hunni or the Greek Hounnoi as evidence of the Huns' identity.^[8] The older views come in the context of the ethnocentric and nationalistic scholarship of past generations, which often presumed that ethnic homogeneity must underlie a socially and culturally homogeneous people.^[9]

Traditional theories of the origins of the Huns are based on Chinese records, and on indirect evidence such as archaeology and linguistics. These older theories contain various elements: that the name "Hun" first described a nomadic ruling group of warriors whose ethnic origins were in Central Asia, and was most likely in present day Mongolia; that possibly they were related to, or part of, the Xiongnu (first suggested by Joseph de Guignes in the 18th century); that the Xiongnu were defeated by the Chinese Han Empire; and that this is why they left Mongolia and moved west, eventually invading Europe 200 years later. Indirect evidence includes the transmission of grip laths for composite bows from Central Asia to the west.^[10]

This narrative is ingrained in western (and eastern) historiography, but the evidence is often indirect or ambiguous. No steppe people left relevant written records. There is no record of what happened between the time the Xiongnu left China and the arrival of the Huns in Europe. The last mention of the northern Xiongnu was their defeat by the Chinese in 151 at the lake of Barkol, after which they fled to the western steppe at Kangju (centered on the city of Turkistan in Kazakhstan). Chinese records between the 3rd and 4th century suggest that a small tribe called Yueban, remnants of northern Xiongnu, was distributed about the steppe of Kazakhstan.

Some recent evidence favors a political and cultural link between the Huns and the Xiongnu. The Central Asian (Sogdian and Bactrian) sources of the 4th century translate "Huns" as "Xiongnu", and "Xiongnu" as "Huns"; also, Xiongnu and Hunnic cauldrons are virtually identical, and were buried on similar spots (river banks) in Hungary and in the Ordos.^[11]

DNA analysis also appears consistent with the idea that the Huns represent the movement of eastern Eurasian lineages to the west. Skeletal remains from Kazakhstan (Central Asia), excavated from different sites dating between the 15th century BC to the 5th century AD, have been analysed for the hypervariable control region and haplogroup diagnostic single nucleotide polymorphisms of the mitochondrial DNA genome. The distribution of east and west Eurasian lineages through time in the region is concordant with the available archaeological information: prior to the 13th - 7th century BC, all samples belong to European lineages; while later an arrival of East Asian sequences that coexisted with the previous genetic substratum was detected. The presence of an ancient genetic substratum of European origin in West Asia may be related to the discovery of ancient mummies from Xinjiang with European features and to the existence of extinct Indo-European languages, Tocharian.^[12]

The modern view is^[8] that each of the large confederations of steppe warriors (such as the Scythians, Xiongnu, Huns, Avars, Khazars, Cumans, Mongols, etc.) were not ethnically homogeneous, but rather unions of multiple steppe ethnicities such as Turkic, Yeniseian, Tungusic, Ugric, Iranic, Mongolic, and others. In addition, many clans may have claimed to be Huns simply based on the prestige and fame of the name, or it was attributed to them by outsiders describing their common characteristics, believed place of origin, or reputation.^[8] Similarly, Greek or Latin chroniclers may have used "Huns" in a more general sense, to describe social or ethnic characteristics, believed place of origin, or reputation.^[8] "All we can say safely", says Walter Pohl,"is that the name Huns, in late antiquity, described prestigious ruling groups of steppe warriors".^[8]

Turkic theory

Further information: Hunnic language

The sparse records of the Hunnic language suggest that the Huns spoke a Turkic language of the Oghur branch.^[13] This school of thought emerged when Joseph de Guignes in the 18th century identified the Huns with the Xiongnu or H(s)iung-nu.^[14] It is supported by O. Maenchen-Helfen on the basis of his linguistic studies.^[15][16] English scholar Peter Heather called the Huns "the first group of Turkic, as opposed to Iranian, nomads to have intruded into Europe".^[17] Turkish researcher Kemal Cemal bolsters this assertion by showing similarities in words and names in both Turkic and Hunnic, and similarities in systems of governance of Hunnic and Turkic tribes. Hungarian historian Gyula Nemeth also supports this view.^[18] The standard discussion remains Pritsak 1982, "The Hunnic Language of the Attila Clan.".^[19] Uyghur historian Turghun Almas has suggested a link between the Huns and the Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking people who reside in Xinjiang, China. Furthermore much is not known of their language.^[20]

This article will not discuss the "White Huns" and "Red Huns", since there is no definite evidence that they were related to the classical "Huns".^[21][22]

History

2nd-5th centuries

See also Xiongnu.

Dionysius Periegetes describes a people who may be Huns living near the Caspian Sea in the 2nd century. By AD 139, the European geographer Ptolemy writes that the "Khuni" are next to the Dnieper River and ruled by "Suni". He lists the century, although it is not known for certain if these people were the Huns. The 5th century Armenian historian Moses of Khorene, in his "History of Armenia," introduces the Hunni near the Sarmatians and describes their capture of the city of Balkh ("Kush" in Armenian) sometime between 194 and 214, which explains why the Greeks call that city Hunuk.

Following the defeat of the Xiongnu by the Han, the Xiongnu history became unknown for a century; thereafter, the Liu family of southern Xiongnu Tiefu attempted to establish a state in western China (see Han Zhao). Chionites (OIONO/Xiyon) appear on the scene in Transoxiana in 320 immediately after Jin Zhun overthrew Liu Can, sending the Xiongnu into chaos. Later Kidara came along to lead the Chionites into pressing on the Kushans.

In the west, Ostrogoths came in contact with the Huns in AD 358. The Armenians mention Vund c.370: the first recorded Hunnic leader in the Caucasus region. The Romans invited the Huns east of Ukraine to settle Pannonia in 361, and in 372 they pushed west led by their king Balimir, and defeated the Alans. In the east, in the early 5th century, Tiefu Xia is the last southern Xiongnu dynasty in Western China and the Alchon / Huna appear in what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan. At this point deciphering Hunnic histories for the multi-linguist becomes easier with relatively well-documented events in Byzantine, Armenian, Persian, Indian, and Chinese sources.

European Huns

A 14th century chivalric-romanticized painting of "the huns" laying siege to a city. Note anachronistic details in weapons, armor and city type. Hungarian Chronicon Pictum, 1360.

The Huns appeared in Europe in the 4th century, apparently from Central Asia. They first appeared north of the Black Sea, around 370, under king Balamber. In a time of only a couple years their European Empire streched from Asia to the Danube. First they crushed the Gothic and allied tribes coalition of king Germanarix, who commited suicide after losing the battle, so cutting the Goths in two, forcing a large number of them to seek refuge in the Roman Empire; later, the Huns appeared west of the Carpathians in Pannonia, probably sometime between 400 and 410, perhaps triggering the massive migration of Germanic tribes westward across the Rhine in December 406.

The establishment of the 5th century Hunnic Empire marks a historically early instance of horseback migration. Under the leadership of Attila the Hun, the Huns achieved hegemony over several rivals by using the composite bow, their highly maneuverable hit-and-run tactics with their horsemanship, and a well-organized system of taxation. Supplementing their wealth by plundering wealthy Roman cities to the south, the Huns maintained the loyalties of a number of tributary tribes.

The Huns, led by Attila, invade Italy, as visualised in a 19th century painting by V. Checa.

After Attila

Attila's Huns incorporated groups of unrelated tributary peoples. After his rule civil war has broken out immedietly among his sons: Ellac, Dengizich and Ernak. Ellak's horde was victorious, but in Europe their former subjugated tribes of Gepids, Scirii, Rugians, Sarmatians, and some Goths all united under Ardaric's Gepidic coalition and rebelled against the Huns of Ellak at the Battle of Nedao in 454, at modern day Nedava. After Ellak's loss and death, the remaining Huns (Sabir-Huns) migrated back to the Scythian steppes north of Black Sea to their kinspeople, and were split into two hordes: the later Kutrigurs and Utigurs, one under Attila's second son Dengizich, one under the third Ernak. Dengezich has started campaigns against the Byzantines, lasted until 469, when he was killed in battle. His people then was angry to Hernac's Huns not helped them in their struggle, and war has broken out amongst them. But not long after that, they've joined to Ernac's Bolgarian Empire, what he has established in 455, in the Volga region with the Utrigurs, Sabirs, etc.. But after Ernak, in A.D. 528, his son, the Hun leader, Gordas, became Orthodox in Constantinople and tried to impose this religion on his people by force, they rebelled and killed him. The leader of the revolt, his brother Muageris (Moger), was elected as king of the Huns. The people of Moger took over the leadership of the union from the Sabirs^[23]. The Hunnic tribes' independence, under Attila's descendants rule, lasted until 568, when the Uar-Hunnites (European Avars) came, and counquered them. Later regained their independence under Kubrat, who united Kutrigurs and Utigurs in single rule, creating a powerful steppe confederation state of Onoguria. After Kubrat died, Batbayan, the eldest of his five sons, was left in charge of the state but under strong Khazar pressure, Kubrat's other sons soon departed, taking their own tribes, conquered and assimilated into some other people.

Then the Hun name slowly faded out of history, until the 9th century, when the Hungarian nomads (possibly descendants of the remnants of the Onogurs (though this is disputed), and Sabirs^[24]), united under the tribe of Magyar, stormed into Europe from the steppes of Scythia (after Charlemagne and his sons attacked their western Hunnic kins and allies, the Avars, to revenge Attila, pillaged and tried to wipe out them), united with the Avar remnants and started terrorizing the European nations by defeating and destroying all of their armies they could stand against them, thus "raging on the brow of the dust-blasted Europe", and became greatly dreaded by their raidings as far as center Hispania, "where the fast and powerful Huns had never reached", forcing all to pay tax to them, for about a hundred years.^[25] In these times of need, the Europeans were so desperate and stuck with horror that their only hope was in God, praying for grace: "From the arrows of the Hungarians, deliver us, O Lord...".^[26] In the midst of these events, by the end of the century, the Hungarians had conquered the "domains of King Attila" around the Hunnic capital Etzelburg (Buda), then "all inhabitants of the surrounding land dreaded from them unutterably, since they've heard that their king Arpad and his father Almos were descended of the lineage of King Attila. So then none of them have believed, that they could live other way than by the mercy of Arpad and his nobles, so the main of them submitted of their own accord..."^[27], and so they established their country Hungary, what still presents in our days.

See for more details on this post-Attila period of Hunnic history in the sources and chronicles of: Procopius, Jordanes, Annales Fuldenses, Annales Alemannici, Annals of Salzburg, Liutprand of Cremona's Antapodosis, Regino of Prüm's chronicle, Widukind of Corvey's Saxon Cronicle, Gesta Hungarorum, Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum, Chronicon Pictum, Nestor the Chronicler's Primary Chronicle, Legends of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Aventinus's Chronicon Bavaria, Constantine VII's De Administrando Imperio, Leo VI the Wise's Tactica.

Traditions and Memory

Memory of the Hunnic conquest was transmitted orally among Germanic peoples and is an important component in the Old Norse Völsunga saga and Hervarar saga, and the Middle High German Nibelungenlied, all of which portray Migration period events a millennium before their written recordings. In the Hervarar saga, the Goths make first contact with the bow-wielding Huns and meet them in an epic battle on the plains of the Danube.

In the Nibelungenlied, Kriemhild marries Attila (Etzel in German) after her first husband Siegfried was murdered by Hagen with the complicity of her brother, King Gunther. She then uses her power as Etzel's wife to take a bloody revenge in which not only Hagen and Gunther but all Burgundian knights find their death at festivities to which she and Etzel had invited them. After defending quite successfully for days against the Huns who outnumber them by an enormous ratio, the remaining tired Burgundians are finally defeated not by the Huns but by Rüdeger (Austrian), who dies in the fight too, and Dietrich von Bern (Ostrogoths), both being vassals to Etzel and actually very reluctant to fight against their Burgundian friends but caught in personal dilemmas forcing them to do so.

In the Völsunga saga, Attila (Atli in Norse and Etzel in German) defeats the Frankish king Sigebert I (Sigurðr or Siegfried) and the Burgundian King Guntram (Gunnar or Gunther), but is later assassinated by Queen Fredegund (Gudrun or Kriemhild), the sister of the latter and wife of the former.

The Hungarians have also many legends and traditions of the Huns (see Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum, Chronicon Pictum, Gesta Hungarorum), and in their national anthem -dedicated to the Huns' honor- describing themselves as "blood of Bendeguz" (Attila's father's name Mundzuk in their language, and, along with Attila, is a common name in present-day Hungary). And their capital bears the name of Buda, Attila's brother (Bleda), who founded it around Aquincum, capital of Eastern-Pannonia, but after Attila was intrigued to kill his brother, he made command to rename it to Attila's city, his Germanic subjects then called that way: Etzelburg, but the Huns remained at the original.

Successor nations

Locations of Hun successor states in 500 AD.

Many nations have tried to assert themselves as ethnic or cultural successors to the Huns. For instance, the Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans may indicate that they believed themselves to have been descended from Attila. The Bulgars certainly were part of the Hun tribal alliance for some time, and some have hypothesized that the Chuvash language (which is believed to have descended from the Bulgar language) is the closest surviving relative of the Hunnic language.^[28]

The Magyars (Hungarians) also have laid claims to Hunnic heritage. Because the Huns who invaded Europe represented a loose coalition of various peoples, it is possible that Magyars were part of it. Until the early 20th century, many Hungarian historians believed that the Székely people were the descendants of the Huns.

In 2005, a group of about 2,500 Hungarians petitioned the government for recognition of minority status as direct descendants of Attila. The bid failed, but gained some publicity for the group, which formed in the early 1990s and appears to represent a special Hun(garian)-centric brand of mysticism. The self-proclaimed Huns are not known to possess any distinctly Hunnic culture or language beyond what would be available from historical and modern-mystical Hungarian sources.^[29]

While it is clear that the Huns left descendants all over Eastern Europe, the disintegration of the Hun Empire meant they never regained their lost glory. One reason was that the Huns never fully established the mechanisms of a state, such as bureaucracy and taxes, unlike the Magyars or Golden Horde. Once disorganized, the Huns were absorbed by more organized polities.

20th Century use in reference to Germans

Hunnic Cavalry, 1870s engraving after a drawing by Johann Nepomuk Geiger (1805-1880).

The term "Hun" has been also used to describe peoples with no historical connection to what scholars consider to be "Huns", in particular to Germany and Germans.

On July 27, 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion in China, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany gave the order to "make the name "Germany" be remembered in China for a thousand years, so that no Chinese will ever again dare to even squint at a German."^[30]

This speech, wherein Kaiser Wilhelm invoked the memory of the 5th century Huns, coupled with the Pickelhaube or spiked helmet worn by German forces until 1916, that was reminiscent of ancient Hun (and Hungarian) helmets, gave rise to later English use of the term for the German enemy during World War I.

Another reason given for the English use of the term was the motto "Gott mit uns" (God with us) on German soldiers' belt buckles during World War I. "uns" was mistaken for Huns, and entered into slang.

This usage was reinforced by Allied propaganda throughout the war, and many pilots of the Royal Flying Corps referred to their foe as "The Hun". The usage resurfaced during World War II, although its use was less widespread than in the previous war. Rather, WWII British troops often used the more facetious and less clearly perjorative "Jerry" with regard to their German opponents.

Current Research

In the recent years, the role of the Hunnic research increased in the scene of international science. In the last decade new publications and monographs had been printed about the history and civilization of the Huns. According to the new archaeology findings, analyses of the ancient Chinese chronicles and other Eastern historical sources, we must think over some theories of the people in question. And in May 14-17. 2005 was the scientific I. International Hun Conference, in Suhbator, Mongolia with Chinese, Russian, Mongol, Hungarian and other scientists. Since these times, the international scientific profession began to accept a number of older and newer theories of the Hunnic research. The new standpoint is that the Hiungnus and the Huns are the same nation, and it is more and more likely that the Huns were not fully disappeared after Attila, but their descendants are the Hungarians, at least a part of that people (This is mainly the Chinese opinion as yet: "As a nationality, the Huns have disappeared, but many Huns have survived. A number of scholars consider the Hungarians are descendants of the Huns," said Wang Shiping, a researcher of the Shaanxi Historical Museum. The opinion was echoed by some Hungarian researchers. They say their homeland is closely related with the Huns since in present-day Hungary was the center of Hun Empire.). Still there is a debate over the antropology of the Xiongnu, but from the new archaeological findings, it is likely that the Xiongnus were not Mongol nor Turkish, but mainly Europid people, with Mongoloid features in the east region.

Another important current research is in progess:

In the nineties of XX. century, there was the discovery of Tongwancheng ^[31] (meaning "Unite All Nations"), in China, the southern Xiongnu capital of the Maotun descendant Chinese emperor Helian Bobo (Emperor Wulie) of Xia, what the Chinese want to restorate (already began) and nominate to UNESCO World Heritage. ^[32] Before the discovery of the ancient Xiongnu capital, it was forgotten for about a thousand years. "It is the first ruined city of the Xiongnu (Huns) ever found", said Dai Yingxin, a well-known Chinese archaeologist, "The Xiongnu was a nomadic ethnic group, who for 10 centuries were tremendously influential in northern China." The 1600 years old ruined site lies in the north-east part of China, in the province of Shaanxi, adjacent to the Inner-Mongolia Autonomious Region. "Construction of the Tongwancheng Town is another great feat made by human beings, reflecting people's strong desire for survival and development on desert," said Hou Yongjian, professor of Shaanxi University. "The unique architectural feature and integrity of the Tongwancheng Town shown by aviation remote sensing and archaeological excavation have been generally recognized by experts both at home and abroad, that's why the Shaanxi provincial government selects the Tongwancheng capital site as a candidate for the world cultural and natural heritage list," said Liu Fulai, a research member at the Shaanxi Archaeological Research Institute specializing in history of the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420-581). Its discovery provides vital information for the study of the Xiongnu tribesmen, who have, to date, remained a mystery to both Chinese and foreign archaeologists because of a lack of adequate historical material and evidence relating to their culture. "The ruined town will give important clues to the study of the Huns who disappeared nearly 1,000 years ago," said Zhang Tinghao, director of the Shaanxi Cultural Relics Bureau. "It is the most substantial, magnificent and well-preserved city to be built by any ethnic group in the history of China," said Zhu Shiguang, president of the China Ancient City Society. "The Huns played an important role in the world history, especially in the shaping of the European nationalities and the development of European history," said Lin Gan, a professor specializing in the study of Huns at the Inner Mongolian University. The excavations and the restorations have began, and new artifacts have been found. As the town site is under the threat of desertification, the State Council designated Tongwancheng town as a cultural relic under top state protection in 1996. Systematic restoration on Tongwancheng town has been launched. Repair of the Yong'an Platform, where Helian Bobo, emperor of the Da Xia regime, reviewed parading troops, has been finished and restoration on the 31-meter-tall turret will begin soon, said Gao Zhan who is in charge of routine management of this cultural relics. The new artifacts' analysis has started also already, and for them a new museum has been opened in 2007: the Inner-Mongolian Hun Museum. Since the discovery there was a few expeditions from Europe also, and a number are in planned phase now. One of them was with the leading of Hungarian historian and orientologist Dr. Borbála Obrusánszky, associate of the Hungarian Science Academy, and two other specialists. They started in Mongolia, then headed to China. They surveyed the current works in Tongwancheng, and met a number of Mongol and Chinese scholars and researchers, including the historians of the Inner-Mongol Science University, like Ucsiraltu, linguist professor of the Inner-Mongol University, the specialists of the Xi'an University (Shaanxi Normal University), like professor Hou Yongjian, historical geographist of the Xi'an University, and exchanged their knowledge and published the results in the scientific journal of the universities. ^[33] (The above informations are from there and from the report on the subject in the National Geographic ^[34] and from a report on another expedition in the Amsterdam Studies ^[35].)

With the above and others, the international cooperation of Hunnic research is started, so new results are expected on the subject of the Huns' history, but even like it is only on the very beginning.

See also

• Hunnic Empire
• Turkic Khaganate
• Oghur
• Uar
• Avars
• Xionites
• Hephthalites
• Indo-Sassanids
• List of Hunnic Rulers

References and notes

Further reading

Classics

• Otto J. Mänchen-Helfen (ed. Max Knight): The World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1973) ISBN 0-520-01596-7
• The Legend of the Origin of the Huns (published in Byzantion, vol. XVII, 1944-45, pp. 244-251)
• E. A. Thompson: A History of Attila and the Huns (London, Oxford University Press, 1948)

Other

• de la Vaissière, E. "Huns et Xiongnu", Central Asiatic Journal, 2005-1, p. 3-26.
• Lindner, Rudi Paul. "Nomadism, Horses and Huns", Past and Present, No. 92. (Aug., 1981), pp. 3–19.
• J. Webster: The Huns and Existentialist Thought (Loudonville, Siena College Press, 2006)
• Coinage and History of the White Huns- Waleed Ziad- Articles from the 'Journal of the Oriental Numismatic Society', 2004-2006