Kidarite
| Kidarite kingdom | ||||||||||
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Tamga of the Kidarites
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 The Kidarite kingdom in 400 CE.
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| Capital | Bactria, Peshwar, Taxila | |||||||||
| Languages | Bactrian (written) | |||||||||
| Government | Nomadic empire | |||||||||
| Kushanshah | ||||||||||
| • | fl. 320 | Kidara | ||||||||
| • | fl. 425 | Varhran I | ||||||||
| • | fl. 500 | Kandik | ||||||||
| Historical era | Late Antiquity | |||||||||
| • | Established | 320 | ||||||||
| • | Disestablished | 500 | ||||||||
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| Today part of |
 Turkmenistan Tajikistan Uzbekistan Afghanistan Pakistan
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The Kidarites (Chinese: 寄多羅 Jiduolo) were a dynasty of the "Ki" clan named after their ruler Kidara. They were part of the complex of tribes known collectively as Xionites or "Hunas". Referred to as the "Red Huns", they established the first of four major "Hunic" states in Southern Asia, the following ones being in chronological order: the Hephthalites, the Alchon, and the Nezak.
In 360-370 CE, they established the Kidarite kingdom in the eastern regions of the Sasanian Empire, when they replaced the Kushano-Sasanians in Bactria and northwestern Pakistan. Thereafter the Sasanian Empire roughly stopped at Merv.
The Kidarites, a nomadic clan, are supposed to have originated in the Altai region and arrived in Bactria with the great migrations of the second half of the 4th century. When Shi Le established the Later Zhao state, it is thought that many of the Uar (Chinese 滑 Huá) fled (c. 320 CE) from the area around Pingyang (平陽; modern Linfen, Shanxi) and fled west along the Silk Road. This put pressure on the Xionites, who increasingly encroached upon Khorasan and the frontiers of the Kushan state. Another theory is that climate gravely deteriorated in the Altai region in 4th century, leading Hunnic tribes to migrate to the West and the South.
The name "Kidarites" may be derived from a Turkic runic term "Kidirti" meaning "West", thus explaining that the Kidarites were the first of the Huns to migrate (as they were the westernmost tribe) and to appear in Central Asia and put pressure on the Sasanian Empire and the Kushan Empire.
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Wikipedia