Faghanish was a

Hephthalite The Hephthalites ( xbc, ηβοδαλο, translit= Ebodalo), sometimes called the White Huns (also known as the White Hunas, in Iranian as the ''Spet Xyon'' and in Sanskrit as the ''Sveta-huna''), were a people who lived in Central Asia during th ...

prince, who was the ruler of

Chaghaniyan Chaghaniyan ( Middle Persian: ''Chagīnīgān''; fa, چغانیان ''Chaghāniyān''), known as al-Saghaniyan in Arabic sources, was a medieval region and principality located on the right bank of the Oxus River, to the south of Samarkand. His ...

in the mid-6th century. Originally a subordinate of the Hephthalite king, he became a vassal of the Sasanian Empire in c. 560 after the Hephthalite Empire was broken into several minor kingdoms when they suffered a crushing defeat to a combined Sasanian-Turkic army at Gol-Zarriun.

Biography

Faghanish was a descendant of the powerful Hephthalite king

Khushnavaz ''Akhshunwar'' ( Sogdian: əxšōnδār, Middle Persian: ''Xašnawāz'') was a ruling title used by the Hephthalite kings in the 5th and 6th-centuries. The title is of Eastern Iranian origin; according W.B. Henning, its original form was ʾxšʾw ...

, who had defeated and killed the

Sasanian The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the History of Iran, last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th cen ...

king (

shah Shah (; fa, شاه, , ) is a royal title that was historically used by the leading figures of Iranian monarchies.Yarshater, EhsaPersia or Iran, Persian or Farsi, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) It was also used by a variety of ...

)

Peroz I Peroz I ( pal, 𐭯𐭩𐭫𐭥𐭰, Pērōz) was the Sasanian King of Kings () of Iran from 459 to 484. A son of Yazdegerd II (), he disputed the rule of his elder brother and incumbent king Hormizd III (), eventually seizing the throne afte ...

in 484. Faghanish served a local ruler of Chaghaniyan under the suzerainty of the senior Hephthalite king. In c. 560, a combined Sasanian and

Turkic Turkic may refer to: * anything related to the country of Turkey * Turkic languages, a language family of at least thirty-five documented languages ** Turkic alphabets (disambiguation) ** Turkish language, the most widely spoken Turkic language * ...

force defeated the Hephthalite king Ghadfar and his men at a place called Gol-Zarriun, near

Bukhara Bukhara (Uzbek language, Uzbek: /, ; tg, Бухоро, ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan, with a population of 280,187 , and the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara ...

Sogdia Sogdia ( Sogdian: ) or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian civilization between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, and in present-day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Sogdiana was also a province of the Achaemenid Em ...

. The Hephthalite Empire was destroyed as a result, and broke into several minor kingdoms, such as the one ruled by Faghanish in Chaghaniyan. Ghadfar and what was left of his men fled southward to Sasanian territory, where they took refuge. Meanwhile, the Turkic

Yabgu Yabghu ( otk, 𐰖𐰉𐰍𐰆, yabγu,Entr"𐰖𐰉𐰍𐰆 Turkic states, roughly equiv ...

Istemi reached an agreement with the Hephthalite nobility, and appointed Faghanish as the new Hephthalite king. This was much to the dislike of the Sasanian shah

Khosrow I Anushirvan (), who considered the Turkic collaboration with the Hephthalites to pose a danger for his rule in the east, and thus marched towards the Sasanian-Turkic border in Hyrcania">Gurgan Gorgan ( fa, گرگان ; also romanized as ''Gorgān'', ''Gurgān'', and ''Gurgan''), formerly Esterabad ( ; also romanized as ''Astarābād'', ''Asterabad'', and ''Esterābād''), is the capital city of Golestan Province, Iran. It lies appro ...

. When he reached the place, he was met by a Turkic delegate of Istemi that presented him gifts. There Khosrow asserted his authority and military potency, and persuaded the Turks to make an alliance with him. The alliance contained a treaty that made it obligatory for Faghanish to be sent to the Sasanian court in Ctesiphon and gain the approval of Khosrow for his status as Hephthalite king. Faghanish and his kingdom of Chaghaniyan thus became a vassal of the Sasanian Empire, which set the Amu Darya, Oxus as the eastern frontier the Sasanians and Turks. Faghanish's fate after that is unknown, he may have been the ancestor of the

principality of Chaghaniyan The Principality of Chaghaniyan, known in Arabic sources as al-Saghaniyan, was a part of the Hephthalite Confederation from the 5th to the 7th century CE. After this, it was ruled by a local, presumably Iranian dynasty, which governed the Chaghan ...

that ruled from the early 7th century to the late 8th century.

References

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Faghanish Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown 6th-century monarchs in Asia Hephthalites History of Khorasan Vassal rulers of the Sasanian Empire Khosrow I Rulers of Chaghaniyan