4th–6th-century Bactrian-speaking nomadic people of Central Asia
Not to be confused with Zionites or Xiongnu.
Asia in 400 AD, showing the Xionites ("Chionites") and their neighbors.
Xionites, Chionites, or Chionitae (Middle Persian: Xiyōn or Hiyōn; Avestan: Xiiaona; Sogdian xwn; Pahlavi Xyōn) were a nomadic people in the Central Asian regions of Transoxiana and Bactria.[1]
The Xionites appear to be synonymous with the Huna peoples of the South Asian regions of classical/medieval India,[2] and possibly also the Huns of European late antiquity, who were in turn connected onomastically to the Xiongnu in Chinese history.[3]
They were first described by the Roman historian, Ammianus Marcellinus, who was in Bactria during 356–357 CE; he described the Chionitæ as living with the Kushans.[4] Ammianus indicates that the Xionites had previously lived in Transoxiana and, after entering Bactria, became vassals of the Kushans, were influenced culturally by them and had adopted the Bactrian language. They had attacked the Sassanid Empire,[1][5] but later (led by a chief named Grumbates), served as mercenaries in the Persian Sassanian army.
Within the Xionites, there seem to have been two main subgroups, which were known in the Iranian languages by names such as Karmir Xyon and Spet Xyon. The prefixes karmir ("red") and speta ("white") likely refer to Central Asian traditions in which particular colours symbolised the cardinal points. The Karmir Xyon were known in European sources as the Kermichiones or "Red Huns", and some scholars have identified them with the Kidarites and/or Alchon. The Spet Xyon or "White Huns" appear to have been the known in South Asia by the cognate name Sveta-huna, and are often identified, controversially, with the Hephtalites.
^Hyun Jin Kim, 2013, The Huns, Rome and the Birth of Europe, Cambridge UK/New York, Cambridge University Press, pp. 5, 36–38.
^Schuessler, Axel (2014). "Phonological Notes on Hàn Period Transcriptions of Foreign Names and Words" (PDF). Studies in Chinese and Sino-Tibetan Linguistics: Dialect, Phonology, Transcription and Text. Language and Linguistics Monograph Series. Taipei, Taiwan: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica (53). p. 257, 264. quote: "‘Xiōngnú’ (1-6 匈奴 hɨoŋ-nɑ < *hoŋ-nâ) may well be a regular Hàn period (or even pre-Hàn) rendering of ‘Huns’, i.e. foreign Hŏna or Hŭna, cf. Skt. Hūṇa (but with a long vowel). [...] 1-7 匈奴 Xiōngnú hɨoŋ-nɑ < *hoŋ-nâ 318 B.C.E. [SJ 13; 110:2886; HS 94A:3748] Skt. Hūṇa ‘Huns’."
^Original reports on the "Chionitae" by Ammianus Marcellinus: Mention with the Euseni/ Cuseni : 16.9.4. Mention with the Gelani: 17.5.1. Mention with Shapur II: 18.7.21 Mention at the siege of Amida: 19.2.3 and 19.1.7-19.2.1
Xionites, Chionites, or Chionitae (Middle Persian: Xiyōn or Hiyōn; Avestan: Xiiaona; Sogdian xwn; Pahlavi Xyōn) were a nomadic people in the Central Asian...
has found a connection between the Xionites and Göbl's first wave of Iranian Huns. Ca. 350 a group called the Xionites began to attack the Sassanid Empire...
("Red Xionites" or, more controversially, "Red Huns"), – a major subdivision of the Chionites (Xionites), alongside the Spet Xyon ("White Xionites"). In...
by the Uar (also known as the Ouar, Warr or Var) and the Xionites.[page needed] The Xionites had likely been speakers of Iranian and/or Turkic languages...
from Henan for the first time. In 722 BC, when Chang'an was devastated by Xionites invasions, the capital was moved back east to Luoyang. This began the Spring...
and in Sanskrit as the Sveta-huna, were a subgroup of the Huna and/or Xionites. The White Huns are sometimes regarded as synonymous with the Hephthalites...
Indo-Parthians from 20 to 225 AD and the Kushans from 110 BC to 225 AD, the Xionites (the Kidarites from 360 to 465 AD and the Hephthalites from 450 to 565...
toward the Caspian Sea. The Göktürks drove before them various peoples: Xionites, Uar, Oghurs and others. These seem to have merged into the Avars and Bulgars...
They formed part of the four major states known collectively as Xyon (Xionites) or Huna, being preceded by the Kidarites and by the Alkhon, and succeeded...
city. In 420 AD, the Indo-Sassanids were driven out of Afghanistan by the Xionite tribe known as the Kidarites, who were then replaced in the 460s by the...
[citation needed] During the 5th century AD, Bactria was controlled by the Xionites and the Hephthalites, but was subsequently reconquered by the Sassanid...
Central Asia. In AD 350–375 Samarqand was conquered by the nomadic tribes of Xionites, the origin of which remains controversial. The resettlement of nomadic...
cause of much concern to the Persians. Between 353 AD and 358 CE, the Xionites under Grumbates attacked in the eastern frontiers of Shapur II's empire...
In 350–375 AD, Sogdiana and Tashkent oasis were captured by the nomadic Xionite tribes who arrived from the steppe regions of Central Asia. The First Turkic...
Yun may refer to: Yǔn, Chinese name of Xionites, a nomadic tribe of Central Asia Yun (Chinese name) (云/雲), a Chinese family name Yun (ancient surname)...
Rouran) from Zhetysu to the Pamir region, Khingila united the Uars and the Xionites in 460AD, establishing the Hepthalite dynasty. According to the Syrian...
refer to: Alchon Huns Kidarites Hephthalites Huna people Huns White Huns Xionites This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Red Huns...
minor role in this campaign. The Hunas are thought to have included the Xionite and/or Hephthalite, the Kidarites, the Alchon Huns (also known as the Alxon...
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