Nezak Huns

Territory

The Nezak Huns ruled over the State of Jibin, mostly referred to as Kapisi — formerly Cao — by contemporaneous Buddhist pilgrims. Kapisi composed eleven vassal-principalities during Xuanzang's visit in c. 630, including Lampā, Varṇu, Nagarahāra, and Gandhara; Taxila had been only recently lost to Kashmir.

History

Origins and establishment

The Nezaks are traditionally identified as the last of the four Hunnic states that existed in the Indian subcontinent, their predecessors being, in chronological order; the Kidarites, the Hephthalites, and the Alchons. They took control of Zabulistan after the defeat and eventual death of Sassanian Emperor Peroz I (r. 459–484) by the Hephthalites. Their capital was at modern-day Bagram.

The name of their founder was only recorded by the Chinese chronicles of the thirteenth diplomatic mission (658) as Xinnie — which has since been reconstructed as "Khingal" — who may have been identical with Khingila (430-495) of the Alchon Huns. The presence of the Nezak bull-head on some Alchon coins minted at Gandhara supports a link between the two groups too. However, Shōshin Kuwayama — primarily depending on Xuanzang's recording the rulers of Kapisi as Kshatriya, about two centuries later, the absence of Hunnic identifiers in Nezak coinage, and the lack of sources attesting to Hephthalite presence south of the Hindukush — rejects that the Nezaks were a Hunnic polity and instead, ascribes an indigenous origin to the dynasty. There remains no consensus among scholars in the regard — while Klaus Vondrovec, a numismatist specializing in ancient Central Asia, finds Kuwayama's arguments to be unpersuasive and cites the usage of Turkish titles, Inaba argues that the Nezaks could have indeed been indigenous and had to accept Turkish titles since they started out as a tributary state of the Hephthalites. Ziad and Matthias Pfisterer reject the existence of any means to speculate on the ethnic identity of the Nezaks—Khingila was a very common name in the history of Asia Minor, that was probably a title that commanded respect; and Hindu societies had a history of absorbing foreign warriors within the Kshatriya fold.

Overlap with Alchons and Sassanians

Between 528 and 532, the Alchons had to withdraw from mainland India into Kashmir and Gandhara under Mihirakula. A few decades later, they migrated further westward — via the Khyber Pass — into Kabulistan and encountered the Nezaks, as evidenced by the Alchon-Nezak crossover mints. Whether the Alchons co-ruled with the Nezaks, submitted to them, or nominally subdued them remains speculative.

Around the same time (c. 560), the Sasanian Empire under Khosrow I had allied with the Western Turks to defeat the Hepthalites and took control of Bactria, they may have also wrestled control of Zabulistan from the Nezaks, as suggested by the creation of Sasanian coin mints in the area of Kandahar during the reign of Ohrmazd IV (578-590). However, the Alchons or Nezaks appear to have recaptured Zabulistan by the end of the sixth century.

These interactions had little long-lasting impact on the territorial extent of the Nezaks; when Xuanzang visited them in about 630, they were arguably at their height. In 653, a Tang diplomatic mission recorded that the crown prince had acceded to the throne of Jibin; scholars assume this prince to be Ghar-ilchi, who five years later would be recorded as the twelfth Nezak ruler in the thirteenth diplomatic mission.

Decline: Rashidun and Umayyad invasions

In 654, an army of around 6,000 Arabs led by Abd al-Rahman ibn Samura of the Rashidun caliphate attacked Zabul and laid seize to Rukhkhaj and Zamindawar, eventually conquering Bost and Zabulistan—while records do not mention the names and dynastic affiliations of the subdued rulers, it is plausible that the Nezaks suffered severe territorial losses. In 661, an unnamed ruler — possibly, Ghar-Ilchi — was confirmed as Governor of Jibin under the newly formed Chinese Anxi Protectorate, and would broker a peace treaty with the Arabs, who were reeling from the First Fitna and lost their gains. In 665, Abd al-Rahman ibn Samura occupied Kabul after a months-long siege but was soon ousted; the city was reoccupied after another year-long siege. The Nezaks were mortally weakened though their ruler — who is not named in sources but might have been Ghar-ilchi — was spared upon converting to Islam.

They were replaced by the Turk Shahis, probably first in Kabul and later throughout the territory. According to Hyecho, a Korean Buddhist monk, who visited the region about 50 years after the events, the first Turk Shahi ruler of Kapisi — named Barha Tegin by Al-Biruni — was a usurper who served as a military commander (or vassal) in the service of the preceding king. Xuanzang, returning via Kapisa in 643, had noted Turks ruling over Vrijsthana/Fulishisatangna — a polity between Kapisi and Gandhara that was likely located in the region of modern-day Kabul — and Barha Tegin might have had belonged to them. Al-Baladhuri notes of the "Kabul Shah" to have purged all Muslims out of Kabul — whether he refers to the city or the region is unclear—in 668, drawing Arab forces into a renewed offensive; if the "Kabul Shah" alludes to the last Nezak, the resulting conflict might have provided the ground for the rise of Turk Shahis.

According to Kuwayama, the Nezaks probably survived as a local chieftaincy centred in or around the town of Kapisi for a few more decades; archaeological evidence obtained from the excavation of Begram points to a gradual decline.

Religion

During Xuanzang's visit, Buddhism was the dominant religion. The region had over a hundred monasteries, especially around the capital; the ruler commissioned an 18-foot (5.5 m)-high image of the Buddha every year and held an assembly for dispensing alms. Nevertheless, Buddhism had declined south of the capital — monasteries in Gandhara bore a deserted look — and religious pluralism was evident in the hundreds of temples for the "Devas" (Hindu deities) and many "heretical" (non-Buddhist) ascetics. Kuwayama interprets Xibiduofaluo-ci — a town mentioned by Xuanzang as lying to the south of the Capital — as the "town where the shrine for Svetasvatara was" and goes on to identify it with Tapa Skandar, from where a statue of Uma-Mahesvara had been excavated.

Further South, laid Mt. Aruna — Xuanzang, reproducing local lore, noted Aruna to have been envious of the riches of the God of one Mt. Zhunahira, in Zabul, esp. since he had once refused to cohabit with Zhuna. Kuwayama notes that the contemporaneous Annals of the Sui Dynasty — probably deriving from the now-lost accounts of a Sui ambassador c. 606 — noted one Mt. Congling as the shrine of Śunā/Zhuna, the principal deity of the Cao region; thus, he reads Xuanzang's account as alluding to a recent conflict where the adherents of Surya (Aruna), the solar God, had wrested over the site from the worshippers of Zhuna. He identifies the site with Khair Khaneh, a religious complex; excavations show that the complex had two phases of construction and statues of Surya have been recovered only from the later phase.

Link with Nezak Tarkhans

At least two rulers in Western Tokharistan used the appellation Nezak Tarkhan; like Shah, Tarkhan too was a popular title among rulers in Central Asia. One of these Nezak Tarkhans played an essential role in leading a revolt against Qutayba ibn Muslim — a commander of the Umayyad Caliphate who consolidated Muslim rule in Transoxania — in around 709 to 710 and was even promised aid by the Turk Shahis. Historians have speculated about possible relations with the Nezak Huns.