The Hephthalites (or Ephthalites), also known as the White Huns, were a nomadic confederation in Central Asia during the late antiquity period.
Their precise origins and composition remain obscure.
According to Chinese chronicles, they were originally a tribe living to the north of the Great Wall in Dzungaria and were known as Hoa or Hoa-tun and later as Yanda or Ye-ti-i-li-do.
Elsewhere they are called the "White Huns", known to the Greeks as Ephthalite, Abdel or Avdel, to the Indians as Sveta Huna ("white Huns"), Chionite or Turushka, to the Armenians as Haital, and to the Persians and Arabs as Haytal or Hayatila.According to most specialist scholars, the spoken language of the Hephthalites was an East Iranian language but different from the Bactrian language that was utilized as the "official language" and minted on coins.By 479, the Hephthalites conquer Sogdiana and drive the Kidarites westwards, and by 493 they have capture dareas of present-day northwestern China (Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin).
By the end of the 5th century, the Hephthalites have overthrown the Indian Gupta Empire to their southeast and conquered northern and central India.
The Hephthalite Empire, at the height of its power in the first half of the 6th century, is located in the territories of present-day Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, India and China.
The stronghold of the Hephthalite power is Tokharistan on the northern slopes of the Hindukush, present-day northeastern Afghanistan.In the 6th century, the Hephthalites are defeated and driven out of India by the Indian kings Yasodharman and Narasimhagupta.They may be the eponymous ancestors of the modern Pashtun tribal union of the Abdali, the largest tribal union in Afghanistan.
