THE EMPIRE OF THE STEPPES A History of Central Asia , RENE GROUSSET Translated from the French by Naomi Walford RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PRESS New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London Foreword Attila and the Huns, Jenghiz Khan and the Mongols, Tamerlane and the Golden Horde-these almost legendary names are familiar to the educated layman. Unquestionably, he has also read of the Hungarians, and the Bulgars, and the Ottoman Turks. If he has an interest in ancient history, he may have an acquaintance with the Cimmerians, the Scythians, even the Sarmatians. He may have heard also of the Avars and the Khazars. But it is improbable that he will know of the Onogurs, Kutrigurs, and Utrigurs-Bulgar tribes to be encountered in the steppes of southern Russia-or the Pechenegs, Cumans, and Uzes, the last-named related to the Seljuk and Ottoman Turks. These were all nomads, peoples of the vast steppes of Asia and Russia, and a major force in history. Their historical significance lies not so much in the empires they established, empires which in most instances and certainly in the steppes proved ephemeral. Rather, it was the pressures of their movements eastward and westward, brought to bear on China, Persia, India, and Europe, which substantially affected the historical development of these lands. The early history of the steppe nomads is shrouded in obscurity, an obscurity which lifts somewhat only after their con­ Sixth paperback printing, 1999 tact with cultures possessing written histories. But even when in­ formation about them becomes relatively more plentiful, linguistic Copyright © 1970 by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey complexities make its interpretation extremely difficult. Thus, French edition © 1970 by Payot while the number of specialized monographs and technical studies devoted to them is impressive, general works embracing the many Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number 77-108-759 disciplines involved, or syntheses on a grand scale encompassing ISBN 0-8135-0627-1 0-8135-1304-9 (pbk) the sprawling history of these peoples, are exceedingly scarce. All rights reserved Among these very few, Rene Grousset's monumental L'Empire des Manufactured in the United States of America Steppes is uniquely great. Grousset's classic work was first published in 1939, and has since V l'NNERSITY OF UTAH UBRARIEI 66 High Plateaus of Asia Until the Thirteenth Century Early History of the Steppes: Scythians and Huns 67 Shensi and Kansu, with their capital at Changan ( 534-557). Both period ( seventh century), and it seems not to have ended until were to be overthrown by their ministers, and it was thus that the the ninth century. It is of particular interest at this stage because, Pei-Ch'i dynasty ( 550-577) was founded at Changteh in place of as Nandor Fettich points out, it presents striking similarities to the eastern Wei, while the western Wei were superseded by the the Avar culture of Hungary in the sixth to the eighth centuries, Pei-Chou dynasty ( 557-581) at Changan. But these royal houses, as also with the proto-Hungarian or Levedian culture of the ninth having become Chinese, no longer form a part of steppe history. century.148 Though this may not be a valid argument for regard­ What does affect that history, however, is the gradual slackening ing the Juan-juan as the direct ancestors of the Avars of Europe, of the Turkic vigor-so marked among the first Tabgatch rulers­ it is at least proof that both had gravitated around the same cul­ and its dilution and submergence in the Chinese masses. It is a tural center. pattern to be repeated over and over again through the centuries, After the Juan-juan, it is appropriate to consider a kindred with the Khitan, the Jurchids, the Jenghiz-Khanites, and the horde, that of the Ephthalites, who, during the same period, were Manchus. It was the influence of Buddhism that played so large masters of western Turkestan. a part in the softening process among the Toba, as it did later among the Jenghiz-Khanites and later still among the Khalkhas. THE EPIITHALITE HUNS These ferocious warriors, once touched by the grace of the bodhisattva, became so susceptible to the humanitarian precepts The Ephthalite Huns were a Turko-Mongol horde; in this case, of the sramanas as to forget not only their native belligerence but it seems, more Mongol than Turk 149 and originating, according to even neglect their self-defense. Sung Yiin, in the Kinshan hills-that is to say, in the Altai­ whence they had come down to the steppes of present-day Rus­ sian Turkestan. Their name, given as Ephthalites by Byzantine THE LAST M1NUs1NsK GcJLTURE historians, Hayathelites by the Persian historian Mirkhond, and Leaving these completely Sinicized Turks to their destiny, we Ye-tai by the historians of China, seems to derive from the name return to the still-nomad hordes on the Asian steppes. In connec­ of the royal clan Ephtha or Ye-ta. 100 Byzantine historians knew tion with the Toba, we spoke of the presumably Mongol horde them also by the designation-here somewhat erroneous-of of the Juan-juan, who, throughout the fifth century and the first White Huns. half of the sixth, dominated Outer Mongolia. What we know of At the beginning of the fifth century A.D., the Ephthalites were their political history is derived solely from the Chinese annals no more than a secondary horde, vassal of the greater one­ of the Wei and Sui dynasties, and before we can profitably dis­ Mongol, likewise-of the Juan-juan, which dominated Mongolia. cuss their civilization we must wait for systematic excavations in In the second quarter of the fifth century, these same Ephthalites their ancient domains. Meanwhile, let us merely note that beyond acquired considerable importance by the expansion of their do­ and to the northwest of their territory a new culture was flourish­ minion westward. Their rule extended from the upper Yulduz in ing at about this period on the Yenisei in Siberia, round Minu­ the east ( northwest of Kara Shahr) across the Ili basin to Bal­ sinsk. This culture, known as that of the "Nomad Horsemen," has khash, over the Chu and Talas steppes and the Syr Darya region left behind ornaments, belt plaques, buckles, and mounts of as far as the Aral Sea. According to some sources, one of their bronze, also stirrups, bits, knives, daggers, sabers, lances, saddles, khan's residences was near the town of Talas. By about 440 they and so on, all fairly plentifully represented in the Minusinsk had also occupied Sogdiana or Transoxiana (Samarkand) and, museum and also in Helsinki ( Tovostin Collection). 147 This cul­ it seems, the country of Balkh, Bactria, or Tokharistan. ture appears to be contemporaneous with the Juan-juan; it must Several Orientalists, Noeldeke in particular, believe that it was have survived them by some time, since at the village of Tyutshta during the reign of King Bahram Gor of Persia ( 420-438) that it is associated with Chinese coins of the beginning of the T'ang the Ephthalites settled in Bactria. They are thought even to have 69 68 High Plateaus of Asia Until the Thirteenth Century Early History of the Steppes: Scythians and Huns invaded the Sassanian province of Khurasan, whence Bahram the last Kushan rulers.155 These events are confirmed by the Gor drove them back at the battle of Kusmehan near Merv. Chinese, though ascribed to an earlier date and consequently to Marquart, on the other hand, believes that Bahram Gor and later somewhat different causes. Chinese sources, in which information his successor Yezdegerd II ( 438-457) had to defend themselves seems to date from as far back as the years 436-451, record that not against Ephthalite aggression but against that of the "a king of the Yiieh-chih" from "Po-lo"-which here no doubt de­ Khionites, another Hunnic tribe who led a nomadic existence notes the Tukhara of Balkh-had just left Bactria under Ephtha­ north of Merv. 151 However this may be, it was certainly the lite pressure and moved to Gandhara, where he settled at Pesha­ Ephthalites who during the reign of the Sassanid king Peroz war, bringing under his sway his cousins the Yiieh-chih of Kabul: ( 459-484) attacked Khurasan and finally defeated and killed that that is, the last of the Kushans. The Chinese call this king Ki-to-lo, 156 monarch. The Ephthalite chief who won this victory was known which corresponds exactly to our Kidara. Thus it must have by Arabo-Persian historians under the name of Akhshunwar or been the Ephthalites rather than the Sassanians who forced the Akhshunwaz, apparently a corruption of the Sogdian title Kidarites to leave Bactria and take refuge in Kabul. The Kidarites, khshevan or king. 152 however, were soon followed by the Ephthalites, who lost no time After their victory over King Peroz, the Ephthalite Huns oc­ in crossing the Hindu Kush by the same route. Thus the whole cupied not only the frontier district of Talekan ( western Talekan, of the old Yiieh-Chih territory-Bactria, Kabul, and Kandahar­ between Balkh and Merv), which until then had been the frontier passed into Ephthalite hands. In addition, from the heights of the town of the Sassanid Empire in the northwest, but also Merv and Kabul valley the Ephthalite vanguard sprang forth-as the Herat.153 Furthermore, they intervened in the palace quarrels of Kushans had done before them-to the conquest of India. the Persian Sassanid dynasty. It was in this way that the Sassanid The greater part of India-the whole Ganges basin, the Malwa, Kavadh, driven from the throne of Ctesiphon, took refuge with Gujarat, and the northern Deccan-formed at that time a huge them, married the niece of their khan, and received from him an empire under the national dynasty of the Gupta emperors, a army, with whose aid he regained his crown ( 498 or 499).