Nezak-Alchons

The Nezak Huns ( Pahlavi: 𐭭𐭩𐭰𐭪𐭩 ''nycky''), also Nezak Shahs, formed a major principality in the south of the Hindu Kush region, active from circa 484 to 665 CE. Despite being traditionally identified as the last of the Hunnic states, their ethnicity remains disputed and speculative. The Nezaks ruled for about two centuries, spanning multiple generations. Notwithstanding an obscure history, they left behind significant coinage — with a characteristic water-buffalo-head crown — documenting their polity's prosperity.

They rose to power in the wake of the Sasanian defeat at the hands of Hephthalites. The founder, Khingala, might have been a Huna ally or an indigenous ruler, who had accepted tributary status. Nothing particular is known about the intermediary rulers; they received regular diplomatic missions from the Tang dynasty throughout, and some of them coexisted with the Alchon Huns from about the mid-sixth century. The polity disintegrated in the mid-seventh century, faced with increasing invasions from the Arab frontier and the throne was usurped by a vassal, who went on to establish the Turk Shahis.

Etymology

In contemporary sources, the word "Nezak" either appears as the Arabic ''nīzak'' or the Pahlavi ''nyčky''. The former was used only in describing the Nezak Tarkhans, while the latter was used in the coinage of the Nezaks. The etymology remains disputed: Frantz Grenet sees a possible — yet not firmly established — connection with Middle Persian ''nēzag'' ("spear") while János Harmatta traces back to the unattested Saka *''näjsuka-'' "fighter, warrior" from *''näjs-'' "to fight".

Two Middle Chinese words have also been proposed as probable transcriptions of Nezak: ''Nasai'' (捺塞) and ''Nishu'' (泥孰), but they have phonetic dissimilarities. From a review of Chinese chronicles, Minoru Inaba, a historian of medieval Central Asia at Kyoto University, concludes ''Nishu'' to have been both a personal name and titular epithet across multiple Turkic tribes.

Sources

The Nezaks were the last of the four major "Hunic" states known collectively as Xionites or "Hunas", their predecessors being, in chronological order, the Kidarites, the Hephthalites, and the Alchons. Assumed to have existed primarily on the basis of a distinct coin series, they ruled over the State of Jibin, also referred to as Kapisi (formerly Cao) by contemporaneous Buddhist pilgrims.

Literature

Literature from Nezak courts does not survive, and the only mentions are recorded in Chinese chronicles. The end of the dynasty is also recorded by Arabic historians. No epigraphic inscriptions are known apart from coinage.

The earliest mention of the region is from Jñānagupta, a Buddhist pilgrim, who stayed at Kapisi in 554, on way to Tokharistan. The most comprehensive description comes from the Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang who visited Kapisi c. 630 CE. He met the King in Udabhandapura and then travelled with him to Ghazni, and then to Kabul. Xuanzang described him as belonging to the ''shali'' (刹利) / ''suli'' (窣利) race, and as a fierce and intelligent warrior commanding rude subjects.

Besides, thirteen missions from Jibin to the Tang Court are recorded in the Cefu Yuangui and Old Book of Tang from 619 till 665; though the specific name of the ruling dynasty is not mentioned, historians assume them to be referring to the Nezaks. The most comprehensive listing among them, dated to 658 CE, is the record of the thirteenth mission, which declared Jibin as the " Xiuxian Area Command" and gave an account of a local dynasty of twelve rulers, starting from ''Xinnie'' ("Khingal") and ending with ''Hexiezi'' ("Ghar-ilchi"):

Besides, miscellaneous compilations of the Tang Dynasty mention the Kings of Jibin to wear a bull-head crown. The last mention of the dynasty in Chinese Chronicles is believed to be in 661-662 CE, when the chronicles record that the king of Jibin received a formal investiture from the Chinese court, as Military Administrator and Commander-in-Chief of the Xiuxian Area and eleven prefectures.

Coinage

Phase I

The Nezaks started to mint their own coins on the model of Sasanian coinage, but incorporated Alkhon iconography as well as their own styles. The result was quite unique, as would be noted by Xuanzang. There were four types of drachms and obols in circulation. Coins exhibit progressive debasement, as silver decreased in favour of alloys incorporating more and more copper.

The obverse features a male bust occupying the center; the shape of the bust as well as the facial profile varies widely. The figure always adorns a symmetrically-winged crown — derived from Sasanian ruler Peroz I's third phase of mints (c. 474 - 484) under Hephthalite captivity — which is supplemented on top with a water buffalo-head; this "buffalo-crown" would become the defining characteristic of the Nezaks. He also wears a necklace with two flying ribbons of slightly varying shapes, and an earring with two beads.

A wing-shaped vegetal appendage is found just beneath the bust and was certainly borrowed from Alchon coinage. Circumscribed on the right side is a Pahlavi legend — transcribed to ''nycky MLK,'' meaning "King of the Nezak" —, that leads to the dynastic nomenclature. This legend is always followed by an "ā" (𐭠) or a "š" (𐭮), which has led to suggestions that they might correspond to the mints of Ghazni and Kabul respectively or vice versa and grouping of the coinage into two types; there is a consensus among scholars that the latter started earlier. Some samples feature a Brahmi ''akshara'' of uncertain significance beneath the ribbons.

On the reverse, the Sasanian-type, consisting in the lit Zoroastrian fire-altar with two attendants carrying barsom-bundles, was adopted, but unique "sun-wheels" were added above their heads. The flame shape varies widely from triangle to feather to bush. Two Brahmi ''aksharas'' are present in some samples.

Phase II: Alchon-Nezak crossovers and derivatives

Hoards containing Alchon overstrikes against Nezak flans by one Toramana II have been discovered around Kabul. Further, a class of drachms and unprecedented coppers — since termed the Alchon-Nezak crossover — have Nezak busts adorned in Alchon-styled crescent crowns alongside a variably contracted version of the Pahlavi legend and the Alchon tamgha () on the obverse.

These crossovers evolved into a distinct series where the characteristic Pahlavi legend was replaced with a new legend (''Śri Sāhi'') either in Bactrian or in Brahmi. Finds from around the Sakra region — a sacred complex in ancient Gandhara — feature votive mints of these two kinds as well as derivatives in abundance where the structures on the reverse as well as the Alchon tamgha are seen to lose their meaning and degenerate into geometrical motifs but the design of the Nezak-inspired bust is conserved at large. However, whether these coins were issued by the later Nezaks or early Turk Shahis remains debated.

History

Origins and Establishment (c. 484 CE)

The Nezaks took control of Zabulistan sometime after the defeat and eventual death of Sassanian Emperor Peroz I () against the Hephthalites. Their capital town was at modern-day Bagram. The name of their founder is only recorded by the Chinese chronicles of the thirteenth diplomatic mission (658 CE) as ''Xinnie'', since reconstructed as "Khingal", who may have been identical with the Khingila (430-495 CE) of the Alchon Huns. The presence of Nezak bull's head in some Alchon coins minted at Gandhara supports a linkage between the two groups.

In contrary, Shōshin Kuwayama — primarily depending on Xuanzang's recording the rulers of Kapisi as Kshatriya, about two centuries hence and absence of Hunnic identifiers in coinage—ascribes an indigenous origin to the dynasty, naming it after "Khingal". Vondrovec finds his arguments to be unpersuasive in light of coinage records prominently bearing "Nezak Shah" while Inaba proposes a reading that fits to both evidence: the Nezaks were indeed indigenous but being a tributary state of the Hephthalites, had to accept Turkish titles. Waleed Ziad as well as Matthias Pfisterer reject that there exists any way to speculate the ethnic identity of the Nezaks — Khingila is a very common name in the history of Asia Minor and was probably a title that commanded respect while Hindu societies had a history of absorbing alien warriors within the Kshatriya fold.

Overlap with Alchons and Sassanians (mid-late 6th century onward)

Around 528/532 CE, the Alchons underwent a reversal in fortunes and had to withdraw from mainland India into Kashmir and Gandhara under Mihirakula. Göbl had proposed that a few decades hence, they migrated further westward via the Khyber pass into Kabulistan; scholars agree, on the evidence of the Alchon-Nezak crossover mints, that this migration did occur and brought them in contact with the Nezaks. Whether the Alchons co-ruled with the Nezaks or submitted to them or nominally subdued them remains speculative; in the case of the latter, it would have been quite short-lived because when Xuanzang visited them c. 630, less than a century later, the Nezaks were in their prime.

Around the same time (c. 560 CE), the Sasanian Empire under Khosrow I allied with the Western Turks to defeat the Hepthalites, and took control of Bactria. They may also have usurped control of Zabulistan from the Nezaks on the same occasion, as suggested by the creation of Sasanian coin mints in the area of Kandahar during the reign of Ohrmazd IV (578-590 CE). The Alchon-Nezaks (?) probably took back Zabulistan from the Sasanians by the end of the 6th century CE. As of Xuanzang's visit in 629 C.E., Kapisi was composed of eleven vassal-principalities including Lampā (modern day Laghman Province), Varṇu (modern day Bannu District), Nagarahāra, and Gandhara; Taxila was noted to have been recently lost to Kashmir and Lampā was the latest addition.

Decline: Rashidun and Umayyad invasions

In 653 CE, a Tang diplomatic mission recorded that the crown-prince of Jibin had become the new king; this prince is assumed to be Ghar-ilchi, who would be recorded as the twelfth Nezak ruler in the thirteenth diplomatic mission, five years hence. He was also likely to be the unnamed ruler who was confirmed as Governor of Jibin under the newly formed Chinese Anxi Protectorate in 661 CE and would broker a peace-treaty with the Arabs, the same year.

Nonetheless, in 664-665 CE, Abd al-Rahman ibn Samura launched a new expedition to reconquer the lost territories and expand beyond them. Kabul was occupied in 665 CE after a siege of a few months but soon revolted, only to be reoccupied after another year-long siege. These events mortally weakened the Nezaks though their ruler — not named in sources; might had been Ghar-ilchi — was spared upon converting to Islam.

Replacement by the Turk Shahis (c. 666 CE)

Eventually, the Nezaks were replaced by the Turk Shahis, probably first in Kabul and later throughout the territory. According to Hyecho, who visited the region about 50 years after the events, the first Turk Shahi ruler of Kapisi — named Barha Tegin by Al-Biruni — was an usurper, who used to be a military commander (or vassal) in the service of the last Nezak King. Xuanzang, returning via Kapisa in 643 C.E., had noted of Turks ruling over Vrijsthana/Fulishisatangna — a polity between Kapisi and Gandhara, believed to be around modern-day Kabul — and Barha Tegin might have had belonged to them.

Nonetheless, the precise circumstances surrounding this usurpation remain unclear. Kuwayama believes that the Nezaks had probably survived as a local chieftaincy centered in or around the town of Kapisi for a few more decades since the archaeological evidence obtained from the excavation of Begram points to a gradual decline.

Religion

During Xuanzang's visit, Buddhism was the dominant religion with over a hundred monasteries — especially around the capital —, yet there was religious pluralism with hundreds of temples for the "Devas" rahmins -? and many for heretic ascetics. The ruler commissioned an eighteen-feet-high image of the Buddha every year, and held an assembly for dispensing alms; nonetheless, monasteries were increasingly deserted in Gandhara etc. and Buddhism declined south of the capital. Xuanzang also alluded to a conflict between two heretic sects — those who worshipped "Zhuna" and those who worshipped Sun — that had resulted in the migration of former to the neighboring polity of Zabul.

Link with Nezak Tarkhans

" Nezak Tarkhan" was used as an appellation by at least two rulers in Western Tokharistan; Tarkhan was a popular title (like Shah) in Central Asia. One of them played an important role in leading a revolt against the Arab commander Qutayba ibn Muslim circa 709/710 CE and was even promised aid by the Turk Shahis. Historians have speculated about possible relations with the eponymous Huns.

Notes

References

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Dynasties of Afghanistan
History of Ghazni Province
Nomadic groups in Eurasia
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Historical Iranian peoples
Ancient history of Afghanistan
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