Huns

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Hun is a term that refers specifically to a group of Central Asian nomads of East Asia, who appear in Europe in the 4th century. It has become a general term meant to refer to any number of Central Asian equestrian nomads or semi-nomads. Most of these peoples are recorded by neighboring countries to the East south and west to have occupied Central Asia from the late 1st century CE to the mid 5th century CE.

Origins

Ever since Joseph de Guignes in the 18th century identified the Huns with the (H)siung-nu, the debate about the Asian ancestral origins has continued. Recent research has shown that none of the great confederations of steppe warriors was ethnically pure, and to make matters worse, many clans 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. Thus it is fruitless to speculate on the blood origins of the group; rather, the name "Huns" seems to have originally described a prestigious ruling group of steppe warriors whose exact original ethnic origins is unknown.

In some older literature it is sometimes asserted that the Huns are related to the Xiongnu, a nomadic group found in what is now Mongolia during the Han dynasty. However, the identification of the 混夷, pronounced Hun'i in modern Mandarin and of unknown sound during the Han, (perhaps meaning "mixed archers") to the west of China with the Huns is also plausible but lacks evidence. To avoid confusion this article will not deal with the Aparni "White Huns" (Akhun only in modern Turkish) of Procopius since only he calls them Huns while it is clear that they were of quite a different cultural & physical stock.

History

3rd-5th centuries

Dionisus Periegetes talks of people who may be Huns living next to the Caspian Sea in 200 AD which is coroborated in 214 AD by Choronei Mozes in his "History of Armenia" who introduces the Hunni near the Sarmatians and goes on to describe how they captured the city of Balk (which is Kush in Armenian) sometime between 194 and 214 explaining why the Greeks call that city Hunuk. With the Xiongnu out of the way, we meet a century of lull, then following attempts by the Liu family of Tiefu Huns to re-establish Hunnish states in western China (see Han Zhao) Chionites (OIONO/Xiyon) appear on the scene in Transoxiana as Kidara's Huns begin to press on the Kushans in 320 and the Jie ethnicity Hou/Later Zhao kingdom competes against the Liu family. Back west, The Romans invited the Huns east of the Ukraine to settle Pannonia in 361 and in 372, under the leadership of Balimir their king, the Huns push toward the west and defeat the Alans. Back east again, in the early 5th century Tiefu Xia is the last Hunnish dynasty in Western China and we meet the Alchon and Huna in Afghanistan & Pakistan. At this point deciphering Hunnish histories for the multi linguist becomes easier with relatively well documented events in Byzantine, Armenian, Iranian, Indian and Chinese sources.

Last remnants

Until recently the last comment about contemporary Huns was around 850 by the Armenian Agathangelus mentions also that there are Huns living amongst the peoples of the Caucasus Mtns. However, as this news article http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4435181.stm shows things have changed.

European Huns

Huns did not make a sudden appearance in Europe in the Fourth Century AD, but their affairs were of no concern to Europe until the Romans invited them to settle Pannonia in 361. Kama was a legendary ancestor-King of the Huns but there is no ruler among the Xiongnu whose name sounds much like "Kama Tarkhan". This suggests the Huns were not related to the Xiongnu. If this mythical ruler did exist, his realm would have spread from the Kuban Steppes to Bactria.

The establishment of the first Hun state marks one of the first well-documented appearances of the culture of horseback migration in history. Under the leadership of Attila the Hun, These tribespeople achieved superiority over their rivals (most of them highly cultured) by their state of military readiness, high mobility, and weapons like the Hun bow.

Attila's European Huns, like the eastern Xiongnu, incorporated groups of unrelated tributary peoples. In the European case Alans, Gepids, Scrir, Rugians, Sarmatians, Slavs and especially Gothic tribes all united under the Hun family military elite. Attila's Huns eventually settled Pannonia.

The memory of the Hunnish invasion was transmitted orally among the Germanic tribes, and are an important component in the Old Norse Völsunga saga and Hervarar saga, and the Old German Nibelungenlied, all portraying events in the Migrations period, almost one millennium before their 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 Völsunga saga and the Nibelungenlied, king Attila (Atli in Norse and Etzel in German) defeat the Frankish king Sigebert I (Sigurðr or Siegfried) and the Burgundian king Guntram I (Gunnar or Gunther), but is subsequently assassinated by Queen Fredegund (Gudrun or Kriemhild), the sister of the latter and wife of the former.

352-?	Kama Tarkhan
fl. ?-370	Balamber
fl. 370's-380s	Alypbi
c. 390 ?-c. 411	Uldin (Khan of the Western Huns)
? -412	Donatus (Khan of the Eastern Black Sea Huns & beyond)
c. 411	Charaton
? - ?	Octar
fl. 432	Ruga
c. 437-c. 444	Bleda with...
c. 437-453	Attila (Idil)
453-c. 455	Ellac
fl. c. 457	Tuldila
?-469	Dengizich with...
?- < 469	Hernach
fl. late 5thC.	Tingiz with...
fl. late 5thC.	Belkermak
fl. late 490s	Djurash
fl. early 500s	Tatra
?	Boyan Chelbir
fl. early500s - mid500s	Sandilch (Khan of the Utrigurs). Division into Utrigur, east Don, and Kutrigur, west Don, hordes
fl. 560s	Zabergan (Khan of the Kutrigurs)
c. 565-c. 600	Bayan (Avar Khagan) 1 (of the Avars)

Avars

Chaotic conditions followed the rise of Avar power in Europe in the 550s.

The Avar Onoghur dynasty (580s-685) had mixed Avar-Bulgar heritage, but the name Onogur possibly comes from the name "Hun". The English name "Hungary" derives from Onogur, allowing some space for their inclusion in the list of Hun Dynasties.

Germany

On July 27, 1901, during the Boxer Rebellion in China, Kaiser Wilhelm II gave the order to "make the name 'German' remembered in China for a thousand years, so that no Chinaman will ever again dare to even squint at a German". This speech, wherein 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 the later derogatory English usage of the latter term for their German enemy during World War I. This usage was reinforced by Allied propaganda throughout the war, prompting hatred of the Germans by invoking the idea that they were brutal savages.

Contemporary Usages

Celtic football supporters in Scotland frequently refer deprecatorily to supporters of the rival Glasgow Rangers F.C. as huns, the most likely basis for this slur being the hunnish behaviour of Rangers fans, particularly such notable occurences such as riots in Spain and disgracing their team during the 1972 European Cup Winners Cup final in Barcelona.