title: Tovah Feldshuh

text: Terri Sue "Tovah" Feldshuh (born December 27, 1948) is an American actress, singer, and playwright. She has been a Broadway star for more than four decades, earning four Tony Award nominations. She has also received two Emmy Award nominations for "Holocaust" and "Law & Order", and appeared in such films as "A Walk on the Moon", "She's Funny That Way", and "Kissing Jessica Stein". In 2015–2016, she played the role of Deanna Monroe on AMC's television adaptation of "The Walking Dead".


title: Tovah Feldshuh

text: Feldshuh is of Jewish heritage, the daughter of Lillian ("née" Kaplan) and Sidney Feldshuh, who was a lawyer. Her brother David Feldshuh is the Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright of "Miss Evers' Boys".


title: Tovah Feldshuh

text: She was raised in Scarsdale, New York, in Westchester County, and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College. In her high-school years, she was a student at the National Music Camp (later named the Interlochen Arts Camp) as a star in their drama class. She studied acting at HB Studio in New York City.


title: Tovah Feldshuh

text: She started her career under theater director Michael Langham at the Guthrie Theater, where she was awarded the McKnight Fellowship in Acting.


title: Tovah Feldshuh

text: Feldshuh appeared on the stage under the name "Terri Fairchild" before deciding to incorporate her Hebrew name and her original surname as her professional name, Tovah Feldshuh. She said of her name changes: "I fell in love with a Christian boy, Michael Fairchild, who didn't want to kiss a Terri Sue. He said: 'Terri Sue doesn't fit you at all. What's that other name of yours? Tovah? Now that's a name!" In 1994, she joked that she could have changed her name to "Goody Two-shoes", since "tovah" is Hebrew for "good", while "Feldshuh" translates from German as "field shoe".


title: Tovah Feldshuh

text: She made her Broadway debut in the short-lived 1973 musical "Cyrano" starring Christopher Plummer. She appeared in the titular role in "Yentl" both off-Broadway at the Chelsea Theater Center and later on Broadway. Both productions are detailed in the book, "," which describes tensions between Feldshuh and director Robert Kalfin over the play's interpretation.


title: Tovah Feldshuh

text: Her other Broadway credits include "Saravá", "Lend Me a Tenor", and "Golda's Balcony" - William Gibson's work about the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. "Golda's Balcony" set a record as the longest-running one-woman play in Broadway history on January 2, 2005.


title: Tovah Feldshuh

text: Feldshuh made her cabaret debut at the Algonquin Hotel Oak Room with her act, "Tovah: Crossovah! From Broadway to Cabaret," which was followed by "Tovah: Out of Her Mind!" She took the latter show on the road to Philadelphia, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Hong Kong, and Sydney. The West End production sold out an eight-week run at the Duke of York's Theatre. The "Boston Globe" selected her as Best Cabaret Artist of 2000. In 2000, she co-wrote and performed in a one-woman play about actress Tallulah Bankhead titled "Tallulah Hallelujah!"


title: Tovah Feldshuh

text: She returned to Broadway in the Dan Gordon play "Irena's Vow" in March 2009. She had appeared off-Broadway in this play in September 2008. In 2012, Feldshuh performed as Mama Rose in a revival of "Gypsy."


title: Tovah Feldshuh

text: At the September 21, 2013, Broadway performance of "Pippin", Andrea Martin's last performance as Berthe (Pippin's grandmother) was announced to be the following day, and Feldshuh would be subsequently taking over the role. In 2014, she starred in "Gypsy" at the Bristol Riverside Theatre as Mama Rose.


title: Tovah Feldshuh

text: In July 2022, it was announced that Feldshuh would replace Jane Lynch as Mrs. Brice in the Broadway revival of "Funny Girl", beginning September 6, 2022.


title: Tovah Feldshuh

text: In 1973, Feldshuh appeared on television in a supporting role in "Scream, Pretty Peggy." In 1976, she also had a supporting role in "Ryan's Hope," and in the following year, she played Katharine Hepburn in "The Amazing Howard Hughes." Also in 1977, she appeared on "The Bob Newhart Show" as Veronica Kidd, in an episode called "The Heartbreak Kidd" (season five, episode 18), which aired February 5. However, Feldshuh came to international prominence as Helena Slomova in the 1978 miniseries "Holocaust," based on Gerald Green's novel. Between 1991 and 2007, Feldshuh had a recurring role as defense attorney Danielle Melnick on NBC's "Law & Order." (In 2018, Feldshuh was to reprise her role as Melnick, who would by then be a Cook County judge, in Dick Wolf's "Chicago Justice," a companion program to his "Chicago Fire," "Chicago P.D.," and "Chicago Med" that would be situated primarily in the Cook County, Illinois, court system.)


title: Tovah Feldshuh

text: Feldshuh's feature-film appearances have included "Lady in the Water," "The Triangle Factory Fire Scandal," "A Walk on the Moon," "Happy Accidents," "Brewster's Millions," "The Idolmaker," "The Blue Iguana," "A Day in October," "The Believer," "Love Comes Lately," "Just My Luck," and "Kissing Jessica Stein." She also appeared as Ruthie in the 2004 film "The Tollbooth."


title: Tovah Feldshuh

text: Feldshuh appeared in "Goyband," co-starring Adam Pascal, Amy Davidson, Cris Judd, Dean Edwards, Tibor Feldman, and Natasha Lyonne. She was also slated to star in the psychological thriller "Acts of Mercy." In 2009, Feldshuh recorded the song "Bein Nahar Prat" for Pioneers for a Cure, with the proceeds benefiting Ellen's Run.


title: Tovah Feldshuh

text: In 2012, she appeared as Mossad agent Rivka in the "Covert Affairs" episode "Wishful Beginnings". In 2014, she appeared in the film "She's Funny That Way."


title: Tovah Feldshuh

text: in March 2015, Feldshuh made her debut in a starring role on AMC's highly rated "The Walking Dead." Feldshuh had never seen the show before being cast as former politician Deanna Monroe, whose character Feldshuh says she based on Hillary Clinton. She also appeared in the six-part miniseries "Flesh and Bone," which debuted in 2015 on Starz.


title: Tovah Feldshuh

text: From 2015 to 2019, Feldshuh had a recurring role on the musical comedy "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" as Naomi Bunch, the image-conscious and hypercritical mother of the show's main character, Rebecca Bunch, played by Rachel Bloom.


title: Tovah Feldshuh

text: Feldshuh married New York attorney Andrew Harris Levy in 1977. Actress Ruth Gordon was her maid of honor. They have a son, Garson, an economist and graduate of Harvard and Oxford universities; and a daughter, Amanda, who graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. When Amanda married in 2014, Feldshuh gave her the advice, "You know how to have a successful marriage? Shut one eye, and don't leave. Some of it's fun and some of it isn't. It can be challenging, but you do not leave the field of play." Her nephew Noah Feldshuh is a member of alternative rock band X Ambassadors.


title: Tovah Feldshuh

text: For her charity work, she is the recipient of the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanities Award, Hadassah's Myrtle Wreath, and the Israel Peace Medal. The National Foundation for Jewish Culture honored her with the 2002 Jewish Image Award and the Performing Arts award in 2006.


title: Tovah Feldshuh

text: When doing research for her role as Irene Gut Opdyke in the play "Irena's Vow", Feldshuh traveled to Borshchiv, Ukraine, and discovered that her own ancestor, Moishe Feldshuh, had lived there in the early 20th century.


title: Tovah Feldshuh

text: In March 2015, Feldshuh hiked Mount Kilimanjaro with her son. She explained to "Variety" she was inspired after the 2014 death of her mother at age 103, and her own athletic role in "Pippin", in which she had to swing on a trapeze. "I really do feel we're only in this body once," she said. "I just want enough money to buy experience. I can forgo a dress, but the idea of taking a trip and trekking Mt. Kilimanjaro, or going on the Trans-Siberian railroad, or tracking lemurs in Madagascar — these things are very exciting to me. To see the world until I leave my own body. It's now or not at all."


title: Hephthalites

text: The Hephthalites (), 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 the 5th to 8th centuries CE. They formed an empire, the Imperial Hephthalites, and were militarily important from 450 CE, when they defeated the Kidarites, to 560 CE, when combined forces from the First Turkic Khaganate and the Sasanian Empire defeated them. After 560 CE, they established "principalities" in the area of Tokharistan, under the suzerainty of the Western Turks (in the areas north of the Oxus) and of the Sasanian Empire (in the areas south of the Oxus), before the Tokhara Yabghus took over in 625.


title: Hephthalites

text: The Imperial Hephthalites, based in Bactria, expanded eastwards to the Tarim Basin, westwards to Sogdia and southwards through Afghanistan, but they never went beyond the Hindu-Kush, which was occupied by the Alchon Huns, previously mistakenly regarded as an extension of the Hephthalites. They were a tribal confederation and included both nomadic and settled urban communities. 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 by the Nezak Huns and by the First Turkic Khaganate. All of these Hunnic peoples have often been linked to the Huns who invaded Eastern Europe during the same period, and/or have been referred to as "Huns", but scholars have reached no consensus about any such connection.


title: Hephthalites

text: The stronghold of the Hephthalites was Tokharistan (present-day southern Uzbekistan and northern Afghanistan) on the northern slopes of the Hindu Kush, and their capital was probably at Kunduz, having come from the east, possibly from the area of Badakhshan. By 479 the Hephthalites had conquered Sogdia and driven the Kidarites eastwards, and by 493 they had captured parts of present-day Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin (in present-day Northwest China). The Alchon Huns, formerly confused with the Hephthalites, expanded into Northern India as well.


title: Hephthalites

text: The sources for Hephthalite history are sparse and the opinions of historians differ. There is no king-list, and historians are not sure how the group arose or what language they initially spoke. They seem to have called themselves "Ebodalo" (ηβοδαλο, hence "Hephthal"), often abbreviated "Eb" (ηβ), a name they wrote in the Bactrian script on some of their coins. The origin of the name "Hephthalites" is unknown, it may stem either from a Khotanese word "*Hitala" meaning "Strong", from hypothetical Sogdian *"Heβtalīt", plural of *"Heβtalak", or from postulated Middle Persian "*haft āl" "the Seven Al".


title: Hephthalites

text: The Hephthalites called themselves "ēbodāl" (Bactrian cursive script: , Greek script: ηβοδαλο "Ebodalo") in their inscriptions, which was commonly abbreviated to ("ηβ", "Eb") in their coinage. , held in the private collection of Professor Dr. Aman ur Rahman and published by Nicholas Sims-Williams in 2011, shows an early Hepthalite ruler with a round beardless face and slanted almond-shaped eyes, wearing a radiate crown with a single crescent, and framed by the Bactrian script legend "ηβοδαλο ββγο" ("The Lord ["Yabghu"] of the Hephthalites"). The seal is dated to the end 5th century- early 6th century CE. The ethnic name "Ebodalo", and title "Ebodalo Yabghu", have also been discovered in contemporary Bactrian documents of the Kingdom of Rob describing administrative functions under the Hephthalites.


title: Hephthalites

text: Byzantine Greek sources referred to them as "Hephthalitae" (), "Abdel" or "Avdel". To the Armenians, the Hephthalites were "Hephthal", "Hep't'al" & "Tetal" and sometimes identified with the Kushans. To the Persians, Hephthalites are Hephtal, Hephtel, & Hēvtāls. To Arabs, Hephthalites were "Haital", "Hetal", "Heithal", "Haiethal", "Heyâthelites", "(al-)Hayațila" (هياطلة), and sometimes identified as Turks. According to Togan (1985), the form "Haytal" in Persian and Arabic sources in the first period was a clerical error for "Habtal", as Arabic "-b-" resembles "-y-".


title: Hephthalites

text: In Chinese chronicles, the Hephthalites are called "Ye-tha-i-li-to" (simp. 厌带夷栗陁; trad. 厭帶夷栗陀; pinyin: "Yàndàiyílìtuó"), or the more usual abbreviated form "Yada" 嚈噠 (pinyin: "Yèdā"), or 滑 (pinyin: "Huá"). The latter name has been given various Latinised renderings, including "Yeda", "Ye-ta", "Ye-tha"; "Ye-dā" and "Yanda". The corresponding Cantonese and Korean names "Yipdaat" and "Yeoptal" (), which preserve aspects of the Middle Chinese pronunciation (roughly "yep-daht", ) better than the modern Mandarin pronunciation, are more consistent with the Greek "Hephthalite". Some Chinese chroniclers suggest that the root "Hephtha-" (as in "Ye-ta-i-li-to" or "Yada") was technically a title equivalent to "emperor", while "Hua" was the name of the dominant tribe.


title: Hephthalites

text: In Ancient India, names such as Hephthalite were unknown. The Hephthalites were apparently part of, or offshoots of, people known in India as "Hunas" or "Turushkas", although these names may have referred to broader groups or neighbouring peoples. Ancient Sanskrit text "Pravishyasutra" mentions a group of people named "Havitaras" but it is unclear whether the term denotes Hephthalites. The Indians also used the expression "White Huns" ("Sveta Huna") for the Hephthalites.


title: Hephthalites

text: According to recent scholarship, the stronghold of the Hephthalites was always Tokharistan on the northern slopes of the Hindu Kush, in what is present-day southern Uzbekistan and northern Afghanistan. Their capital was probably at Kunduz, which was known to the 11th-century scholar al-Biruni as "War-Walīz", a possible origin of one of the names given by the Chinese to Hephthalites: 滑 (Middle Chinese (ZS) *"ɦˠuat̚" > standard Chinese: "Huá").


title: Hephthalites

text: The Hephthalites may have come from the East, through the Pamir Mountains, possibly from the area of Badakhshan. Alternatively, they may have migrated from the Altai region, among the waves of invading Huns.


title: Hephthalites

text: Following their westward or southward expansion, the Hephthalites settled in Bactria, and displaced the Alchon Huns, who expanded into Northern India. The Hephthalites came into contact with the Sasanian Empire, and were involved in helping militarily Peroz I seize the throne from his brother Hormizd III.


title: Hephthalites

text: Later, in the late 5th century, the Hephthalites expanded into vast areas of Central Asia, and occupied the Tarim Basin as far as Turfan, taking control of the area from the Ruanruans, who had been collecting heavy tribute from the oasis cities, but were now weakening under the assaults of the Chinese Wei Dynasty.


title: Hephthalites

text: There are several theories regarding the origins of the Hephthalites, with the Iranian and Altaic theories being the most prominent.


title: Hephthalites

text: According to most specialist scholars, the Hephthalites adopted Bactrian as their official language, just as the Kushans had done, following their settlement in Bactria/Tokharistan. Bactrian was an Eastern Iranian language, but was written in the Greek alphabet, a remnant of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom in the 3rd–2nd century BCE. Bactrian, beyond being an official language, was also the language of the local populations ruled by the Hephthalites.


title: Hephthalites

text: The Hephthalites inscribed their coins in Bactrian, an Iranian language written in the Greek script, the titles they held were Bactrian, such as XOAΔHO or Šao, and of probable Chinese origin, such as Yabghu, the names of Hephthalite rulers given in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh are Iranian, and gem inscriptions and other evidence shows that the official language of the Hephthalite elite was East Iranian. In 1959, Kazuo Enoki proposed that the Hephthalites were probably Indo-European (East) Iranians who originated in Bactria/Tokharistan, based on the fact that ancient sources generally located them in the area between Sogdia and the Hindu-Kush, and the Hephthalites had some Iranian characteristics. Richard Nelson Frye cautiously accepted Enoki's hypothesis, while at the same time stressing that the Hephthalites "were probably a mixed horde". According to the "Encyclopaedia Iranica" and "Encyclopaedia of Islam", the Hephthalites possibly originated in what is today Afghanistan.


title: Hephthalites

text: A few scholars, such as Marquart and Grousset proposed Proto-Mongolic origins. Yu Taishan traced the Hephthalites' origins to the Xianbei and further to Goguryeo.


title: Hephthalites

text: Other scholars such as de la Vaissière, based on a recent reappraisal of the Chinese sources, suggest that the Hephthalites were initially of Turkic origin, and later adopted the Bactrian language, first for administrative purposes, and possibly later as a native language — according to , this thesis is seemingly the "most prominent at present".


title: Hephthalites

text: In effect, the Hephthalites may have been a confederation of various people, speaking different languages. According to Richard Nelson Frye:


title: Hephthalites

text: According to Martin Schottky, the Hephthalites apparently had no direct connection with the European Huns, but may have been causally related with their movement. The tribes in question deliberately called themselves "Huns" in order to frighten their enemies. On the contrary, de la Vaissière considers that the Hepthalites were part of the great Hunnic migrations of the 4th century CE from the Altai region that also reached Europe, and that these Huns "were the political, and partly cultural, heirs of the Xiongnu". This massive migration was apparently triggered by climate change, with aridity affecting the mountain grazing grounds of the Altay Mountains during the 4th century CE. According to Amanda Lomazoff and Aaron Ralby, there is a high synchronicity between the "reign of terror" of Attila in the west and the southern expansion of the Hephthalites, with extensive territorial overlap between the Huns and the Hephthalites in Central Asia.


title: Hephthalites

text: The 6th-century Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea (History of the Wars, Book I. ch. 3), related them to the Huns in Europe, but insisted on cultural and sociological differences, highlighting the sophistication of the Hephthalites:


title: Hephthalites

text: The Hephthalites were first known to the Chinese in 456 CE, when a Hephthalite embassy arrived at the Chinese court of the Northern Wei. The Chinese used various names for the Hephthalites, such as "Hua" (滑), "Ye-tha-i-li-to" (simp. 厌带夷栗陁, trad. 厭帶夷粟陁) or more briefly "Ye-da" (嚈噠). Ancient imperial Chinese chronicles give various explanations about the origins of the Hephthalites:


title: Hephthalites

text: Kazuo Enoki made a first groundbreaking analysis of the Chinese sources in 1959, suggesting that the Hephthalites were a local tribe of the Tokharistan (Bactria) region, with their origin in the nearby Western Himalayas. He also used as an argument the presence of numerous Bactrian names among the Hephthalites, and the fact that the Chinese reported that they practiced polyandry, a well-known West Himalayan cultural trait.


title: Hephthalites

text: According to a recent reappraisal of the Chinese sources by de la Vaissière (2003), only the Turkic Gaoju origin of the Hephthalites should be retained as indicative of their primary ethnicity, and the mention of the Da Yuezhi only stems from the fact that, at the time, the Hephthalites had already settled in the former Da Yuezhi territory of Bactria, where they are known to have used the Eastern Iranian Bactrian language. The earliest Chinese source on this encounter, the near-contemporary chronicles of the Northern Wei ("Weishu") as quoted in the later "Tongdian", reports that they migrated southward from the Altai region circa 360 CE:


title: Hephthalites

text: The Gaoju (高車 lit. "High Cart"), also known as Tiele, were early Turkic speakers related to the earlier Dingling, who were once conquered by the Xiongnu. Weishu also mentioned the linguistic and ethnic proximity between the Gaoju and the Xiongnu. de la Vaissière proposes that the Hephthalites had originally been one Oghuric-speaking tribe who belonged the Gaoju/Tiele confederation. This and several later Chinese chronicles also report that the Hephthalites may have originated from the Da Yuezhi, probably because of their settlement in the former Da Yuezhi territory of Bactria. Later Chinese sources become quite confused about the origins of the Hephthalites, and this may be due to their progressive assimilation of Bactrian culture and language once they settled there.


title: Hephthalites

text: According to the "Beishi", describing the situation in the first half of the 6th century CE around the time Song Yun visited Central Asia, the language of the Hephthalites was different from that of the Ruanruan, Gaoju or other tribes of Central Asia, but that probably reflects their acculturation and adoption of the Bactrian language since their arrival in Bactria in the 4th century CE. The "Liangshu" and "Liang Zhigongtu" do explain that the Hephthalites originally had no written language and adopted the "hu" (local, "Barbarian") alphabet, in this case, the Bactrian script.


title: Hephthalites

text: Overall, de la Vaissière considers that the Hephthalites were part of the great Hunnic migrations of the 4th century CE from the Altai region that also reached Europe and that these Huns "were the political, and partly cultural, heirs, of the Xiongnu".


title: Hephthalites

text: The Hepthalites appear in several mural paintings in the area of Tokharistan, especially in banquet scenes at Balalyk tepe and as donors to the Buddha in the ceiling painting of the 35-meter Buddha at the Buddhas of Bamyan. Several of the figures in these paintings have a characteristic appearance, with belted jackets with a unique lapel of their tunic being folded on the right side, a style which became popular under the Hephthalites, the cropped hair, the hair accessories, their distinctive physionomy and their round beardless faces. The figures at Bamyan must represent the donors and potentates who supported the building of the monumental giant Buddha. These remarkable paintings participate "to the artistic tradition of the Hephthalite ruling classes of Tukharistan".


title: Hephthalites

text: The paintings related to the Hephthalites have often been grouped under the appellation of "Tokharistan school of art", or the "Hephthalite stage in the History of Central Asia Art". The paintings of Tavka Kurgan, of very high quality, also belong to this school of art, and are closely related to other paintings of the Tokharistan school such as Balalyk tepe, in the depiction of clothes, and especially in the treatment of the faces.


title: Hephthalites

text: This "Hephthalite period" in art, with the caftans with a triangular collar folded on the right, the particular cropped hairstyle, the crowns with crescents, have been found in many of the areas historically occupied and ruled by the Hephthalites, in Sogdia, Bamyan (modern Afghanistan), or in Kucha in the Tarim Basin (modern Xinjiang, China). This points to a "political and cultural unification of Central Asia" with similar artistic styles and iconography, under the rule of the Hephthalites.


title: Hephthalites

text: The Hephthalites were a vassal state to the Rouran Khaganate until the beginning of the 5th century. There were close contacts between them, although they had different languages and cultures, and the Hephthalites borrowed much of their political organization from Rourans. In particular, the title "Khan", which according to McGovern was original to the Rourans, was borrowed by the Hephthalite rulers. The reason for the migration of the Hephthalites southeast was to avoid a pressure of the Rourans.


title: Hephthalites

text: The Hephthalites became a significant political entity in Bactria around 450 CE, or sometime before. It has been commonly assumed that the Hephthalites formed a third wave of migrations into Central Asia, after the Chionites (who arrived circa 350 CE) and the Kidarites (who arrived from around 380 CE), but recent studies suggest that instead there may have been a single massive wave of nomadic migrations around 350–360 CE, the "Great Invasion", triggered by climate change and the onset of aridity in the grazing grounds of the Altay region, and that these nomadic tribes vied for supremacy thereafter in their new territories in Southern Central Asia. As they rose to prominence, the Hephthalites displaced the Kidarites and then the Alchon Huns, who expanded into Gandhara and Northern India.


title: Hephthalites

text: The Hephthalites also entered into conflict with the Sasanians. The reliefs of the Bandian complex seem to show the initial defeat of the Hephthalites against the Sasanians in 425 CE, and then their alliance with them, from the time of Bahram V (420-438 CE), until they invaded Sasanian territory and destroyed the Bandian complex in 484 CE.


title: Hephthalites

text: In 456–457 a Hephthalite embassy arrived in China, during the reign of Emperor Wen of the Northern Wei. By 458 they were strong enough to intervene in Persia.


title: Hephthalites

text: Around 466 they probably took Transoxianan lands from the Kidarites with Persian help but soon took from Persia the area of Balkh and eastern Kushanshahr. In the second half of the fifth century they controlled the deserts of Turkmenistan as far as the Caspian Sea and possibly Merv. By 500 they held the whole of Bactria and the Pamirs and parts of Afghanistan. In 509, they captured Sogdia and they took 'Sughd' (the capital of Sogdiana).


title: Hephthalites

text: Around 560 CE their empire was destroyed by an alliance of the First Turkic Khaganate and the Sasanian Empire, but some of them remained as local rulers in the region of Tokharistan for the next 150 years, under the suzerainty of the Western Turks, followed by the Tokhara Yabghus. Among the principalities which remained in Hephthalite hands even after the Turkic overcame their territory were: Chaganian, and Khuttal in the Vakhsh Valley.


title: Hephthalites

text: The Hephthalites were originally vassals of the Rouran Khaganate but split from their overlords in the early fifth century. The next time they were mentioned was in Persian sources as foes of Yazdegerd II (435–457), who from 442, fought 'tribes of the Hephthalites', according to the Armenian Elisee Vardaped.


title: Hephthalites

text: In 458, a Hephthalite king called Akhshunwar helped the Sasanian Emperor Peroz I (458–484) gain the Persian throne from his brother. Before his accession to the throne, Peroz had been the Sasanian for Sistan in the far east of the Empire, and therefore had been one of the first to enter into contact with the Hephthalites and request their help.


title: Hephthalites

text: The Hephthalites may have also helped the Sasanians to eliminate another Hunnic tribe, the Kidarites: by 467, Peroz I, with Hephthalite aid, reportedly managed to capture Balaam and put an end to Kidarite rule in Transoxiana once and for all. The weakened Kidarites had to take refuge in the area of Gandhara.


title: Hephthalites

text: Later, however, from 474 CE, Peroz I fought three wars with his former allies the Hephthalites. In the first two, he himself was captured and ransomed. Following his second defeat, he has to offer thirty mules loaded with silver drachms to the Hephthalites, and also had to leave his son Kavad as a hostage. The coinage of Peroz I in effect flooded Tokharistan, taking precedence over all other Sasanian issues.


title: Hephthalites

text: In the third battle, at the Battle of Herat (484), he was vanquished by the Hepthalite king Kun-khi, and for the next two years the Hephthalites plundered and controlled the eastern part of the Sasanian Empire. Perozduxt, the daughter of Peroz, was captured and became a lady as the Hephtalite court, as Queen of king Kun-khi. She became pregnant and had a daughter who would later marry her uncle Kavad I. From 474 until the middle of the 6th century, the Sasanian Empire paid tribute to the Hephthalites.


title: Hephthalites

text: Bactria came under formal Hephthalite rule from that time. Taxes were levied by the Hephthalites over the local population: a contract in the Bactrian language from the archive of the Kingdom of Rob, has been found, which mentions taxes from the Hephthalites, requiring the sale of land in order to pay these taxes. It is dated to 483/484 CE.


title: Hephthalites

text: With the Sasanian Empire paying a heavy tribute, from 474, the Hephthalites themselves adopted the winged, triple-crescent crowned Peroz I as the design for their coinage. Benefiting from the influx of Sasanian silver coins, the Hephthalites did not develop their own coinage: they either minted coins with the same designs as the Sasanians, or simply countermarked Sasanian coins with their own symbols. They did not inscribe the name of their ruler, contrary to the habit of the Alchon Huns or the Kidarites before them. Exceptionally, one coin type deviates from the Sasanian design, by showing the bust of a Hepthalite prince holding a drinking cup. Overall, the Sasanians paid "an enormous tribute" to the Hephthalites, until the 530s and the rise of Khosrow I.


title: Hephthalites

text: Following their victory over Peroz I, the Hepthalites became protectors and benefactors of his son Kavad I, as Balash, a brother of Peroz took the Sasanian throne. In 488, a Hepthalite army vanquished the Sasaniana army of Balash, and was able to put Kavad I (488–496, 498–531) on the throne.


title: Hephthalites

text: In 496–498, Kavad I was overthrown by the nobles and clergy, escaped, and restored himself with a Hephthalite army. Joshua the Stylite reports numerous instances in which Kavadh led Hepthalite ("Hun") troops, in the capture of the city of Theodosiupolis of Armenia in 501–502, in battles against the Romans in 502–503, and again during the siege of Edessa in September 503.


title: Hephthalites

text: Around 461–462 CE, an Alchon Hun ruler named Mehama is known to have been based in Eastern Tokharistan, possibly indicating a partition of the region between the Hephthalites in western Tokharistan, centered on Balkh, and the Alchon Huns in eastern Tokharistan, who would then go on to expand into northern India. Mehama appears in in the Bactrian language he wrote in 461–462 CE, where he describes himself as "Meyam, King of the people of Kadag, the governor of the famous and prosperous King of Kings Peroz". Kadag is Kadagstan, an area in southern Bactria, in the region of Baghlan. Significantly, he presents himself as a vassal of the Sasanian Empire king Peroz I, but Mehama was probably later able to wrestle autonomy or even independence as Sasanian power waned and he moved into India, with dire consequences for the Gupta Empire.


title: Hephthalites

text: The Hepthalites probably expanded into Tokharistan following the destruction of the Kidarites in 466. The presence of the Hepthalites in Tokharistan (Bactria) is securely dated to 484 CE, date of from the Kingdom of Rob mentioning the need to sell some land in order to pay Hephthalite taxes. Two documents were also found, with dates from the period from 492 to 527 CE, mentioning taxes paid to Hephthalite rulers. Another, undated documents, mentions scribal and judiciary functions under the Hephthalites:


title: Hephthalites

text: The Hephthalites conquered the territory of Sogdiana, beyond the Oxus, which was incorporated into their Empire. They may have conquered Sogdiana as early as 479 CE, as this is the date of the last known embassy of the Sogdians to China. The also seems to record that from around 479 CE, the Hephthalites occupied the region of Samarkand. Alternatively, the Hephthalites may have occupied Sogdia later in 509 CE, as this is the date of the last known embassy from Samarkand to the Chinese Empire, but this might not be conclusive as several cities, such as Balkh or Kobadiyan, are known to have sent embassies to China as late as 522 CE, while under Hephthalite control. As early as 484, the famous Hephthalite ruler Akhshunwar, who defeated Peroz I, held a title that may be understood as Sogdian: "’xs’wnd’r" ("power-holder").


title: Hephthalites

text: The Hephthalites may have built major fortified Hippodamian cities (rectangular walls with an orthogonal network of streets) in Sogdiana, such as Bukhara and Panjikent, as they had also in Herat, continuing the city-building efforts of the Kidarites. The Hephthalites probably ruled over a confederation of local rulers or governors, linked through alliance agreements. One of these vassals may have been Asbar, ruler of Vardanzi, who also minted his own coinage during the period.


title: Hephthalites

text: The wealth of the Sasanian ransoms and tributes may have been reinvested in Sogdia, possibly explaining the prosperity of the region from that time. Sogdia, at the center of a new Silk Road between China to the Sasanian Empire and the Byzantine Empire became extremely prosperous under its nomadic elites. The Hephthalites took on the role of major intermediary on the Silk Road, after their great predecessor the Kushans, and contracted local Sogdians to carry on the trade of silk and other luxury goods between the China Empire and the Sasanian Empire.


title: Hephthalites

text: Because of the Hephthalite occupation of Sogdia, the original coinage of Sogdia came to be flooded by the influx of Sasanian coins received as a tribute to the Hephthalites. This coinage then spread along the Silk Road. The symbol of the Hephthalites appears on the residual coinage of Samarkand, probably as a consequence of the Hephthalite control of Sogdia, and becomes prominent in Sogdian coinage from 500 to 700 CE, including in the coinage of their indigenous successors the Ikhshids (642-755 CE), ending with the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana.


title: Hephthalites

text: In the late 5th century CE they expanded eastward through the Pamir Mountains, which are comparatively easy to cross, as did the Kushans before them, due to the presence of convenient plateaus between high peaks. They occupied the western Tarim Basin (Kashgar and Khotan), taking control of the area from the Ruanruans, who had been collecting heavy tribute from the oasis cities, but were now weakening under the assaults of the Chinese Northern Wei dynasty. In 479 they took the east end of the Tarim Basin, around the region of Turfan. In 497–509, they pushed north of Turfan to the Urumchi region. In the early years of the 6th century, they were sending embassies from their dominions in the Tarim Basin to the Northern Wei dynasty. They were probably in contact with Li Xian, the Chinese Governor of Dunhuang, who is known for having furnished his tomb with a Western-style ewer probably made in Bactria.


title: Hephthalites

text: As the territories ruled by the Hephthalites expanded into Central Asia and the Tarim Basin, the art of the Hephthalites, characterized by the clothing and hairstyles of the figures being represented, also came to be used in the areas they ruled, such as Sogdiana, Bamyan or Kucha in the Tarim Basin (Kizil Caves, Kumtura Caves, Subashi reliquary). In these areas appear dignitaries with caftans with a triangular collar on the right side, crowns with three crescents, some crowns with wings, and a unique hairstyle. Another marker is the two-point suspension system for swords, which seems to have been an Hephthalite innovation, and was introduced by them in the territories they controlled. The paintings from the Kucha region, particularly the swordsmen in the Kizil Caves, appear to have been made during Hephthalite rule in the region, circa 480–550 CE. The influence of the art of Gandhara in some of the earliest paintings at the Kizil Caves, dated to circa 500 CE, is considered as a consequence of the political unification of the area between Bactria and Kucha under the Hephthalites. Some words of the Tocharian languages may have been adopted from the Hephthalites in the 6th century CE.


title: Hephthalites

text: The early Turks of the First Turkic Khaganate then took control of the Turfan and Kucha areas from around 560 CE, and, in alliance with the Sasanian Empire, became instrumental in the fall of the Hepthalite Empire.


title: Hephthalites

text: An illustrated account of a Hepthalite (滑, Hua) embassy to the Chinese court of the Southern Liang in the capital Jingzhou in 516–526 CE is given in "Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang", originally painted by Pei Ziye or the future Emperor Yuan of Liang while he was a Governor of the Province of Jingzhou as a young man between 526 and 539 CE, and of which an 11th-century Song copy is preserved. The text explains how small the country of the Hua was when they were still vassals of the Rouran Khaganate, and how they later moved to "Moxian", possibly referring to their occupation of Sogdia, and then conquered numerous neighbouring country, including the Sasanian Empire:


title: Hephthalites

text: The "Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang" mentions that no envoys from the Hephthalites came before 516 to the southern court, and it was only in that year that a Hephthalite King named Yilituo Yandai (姓厭帶名夷栗陁) sent an ambassador named Puduoda[] (蒲多达[], possibly a Buddhist name "Buddhadatta" or "Buddhadāsa"). In 520, another ambassador named Fuheliaoliao (富何了了) visited the Liang court, bringing a yellow lion, a white marten fur coat and Persian brocade as present. Another ambassador named Kang Fuzhen (康符真), followed with presents as well (in 526 CE according to the "Liangshu"). Their language had to be translated by the Tuyuhun.


title: Hephthalites

text: In "Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang", the Hepthalithes are treated as the most important foreign state, as they occupy the leading position, at the front of the column of foreign ambassadors, and have by far the largest descriptive text. The Hepthalites were, according to the "Liangshu" (Chap.54), accompanied in their embassy by three states: Humidan (胡蜜丹), Yarkand (周古柯, Khargalik) and Kabadiyan (呵跋檀). The envoys from right to left were: the Hephthalites (滑/嚈哒), Persia (波斯), Korea (百濟), Kucha (龜茲), Japan (倭), Malaysia (狼牙脩), Qiang (鄧至), Yarkand (周古柯, "Zhouguke", "near "Hua""), Kabadiyan (呵跋檀 "Hebatan", "near "Hua""), Kumedh (胡蜜丹, "Humidan", "near "Hua""), Balkh (白題, "Baiti", "descendants of the Xiongnu and east of the "Hua""), and finally Merv (末).


title: Hephthalites

text: Most of the ambassadors from Central Asia are shown wearing heavy beards and relatively long hair, but, in stark contrast, the Hephthalite ambassador, as well as the ambassador from Balkh, are clean-shaven and bare-headed, and their hair is cropped short. These physical characteristics are also visible in many of the Central Asian seals of the period.


title: Hephthalites

text: Overall, Chinese chronicles recorded twenty-four Hephthalite embassies: the first embassy in 456, and the others from 507 to 558 CE (including fifteen to the Northern Wei until the end of this dynasty in 535, and five to the Southern Liang in 516–541). The last three are mentioned in the "Zhoushu", which records that the Hepththalites had conquered Anxi, Yutian (Hotan region in Xinjiang) and more than twenty other countries, and that they sent embassies to the Chinese court of the Western Wei and Northern Zhou in 546, 553 and 558 CE respectively, after what the Hepthalites were "crushed by the Turks" and embassies stopped.


title: Hephthalites

text: The complex of the Buddhas of Bamyan was developed under Hephthalite rule. Carbon dating of the structural components of the Buddhas has determined that the smaller "Eastern Buddha" was built around 570 CE (544–595 CE with 95% probability), while the larger "Western Buddha" was built around 618 CE (591–644 CE with 95% probability). This corresponds to the period soon before or after the major defeat of the Hephthalites against the combined forces of Western Turk and Sasanian Empire (557 CE), or the following period during which they regrouped south of the Oxus as Principalities, but essentially before the Western Turks finally overran the region to form the Tokhara Yabghus (625 CE).


title: Hephthalites

text: Among the most famous paintings of the Buddhas of Bamyan, the ceiling of the smaller Eastern Buddha represents a solar deity on a chariot pulled by horses, as well as ceremonial scenes with royal figures and devotees. The god is wearing a caftan in the style of Tokhara, boots, and is holding a lance, he is "The Sun God and a Golden Chariot Rising in Heaven". His representation is derived from the iconography of the Iranian god Mithra, as revered in Sogdia. He is riding a two-wheeled golden charriot, pulled by four horses. Two winged attendants are standing to the side of the charriot, wearing a Corinthian helmet with a feather, and holding a shield. In the top portion are wind gods, flying with a scarf held in both hands. This great composition is unique, and has no equivalent in Gandhara or India, but there are some similarities with the painting of Kizil or Dunhuang.


title: Hephthalites

text: The central image of the Sun God on his golden chariot is framed by two lateral rows in individuals: Kings and dignitaries mingling with Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. , standing behind a monk in profile, much be the King of Bamyan. He wears a crenalated crown with single crescent and korymbos, a round-neck tunic and a Sasanian headband. Several of the figures, either , or , have the characteristic appearance of the Hephthalites of Tokharistan, with belted jackets with a unique lapel of their tunic being folded on the right side, the cropped hair, the hair accessories, their distinctive physionomy and their round beardless faces. These figures must represent the donors and potentates who supported the building of the monumental giant Buddha. They are gathered around the Seven Buddhas of the past and Maitreya. The individuals in this painting are very similar to the individuals depicted in Balalyk Tepe, and they may be related to the Hepthalites. They participate "to the artistic tradition of the Hephthalite ruling classes of Tukharestan".


title: Hephthalites

text: The Tomb of Wirkak is the tomb of a 6th century Sogdian trader established in China, and discovered in Xi'an. It seems that depictions of Hephthalite rulers are omnipresent in the pictorial decorations of the tomb, as royal figures with elaborate Sasanian-type crowns appearing in their palaces, nomadic yurts or while hunting. Hephthalites rulers are shown short-haired, wearing tunics, and are often depicted together with their female consort. The Sogdian trader Wirkak may therefore have primarily dealt with the Hephthalites during his young years (he was around 60 when the Hephthalites were finally destroyed by the alliance of the Sasanians and the Turks between 556 and 560 CE). The Hephthalites also appear in four panels of the Miho funerary couch (c.570 CE) with somewhat caricatural features, and characteristics of vassals to the Turks. On the contrary, the depictions in the tombs of later Sogdian traders, such as the Tomb of An Jia (who was 24 years younger than Wirwak), already show the omnipresence of the Turks of the First Turkic Khaganate, who were probably his main trading partners during his active life.


title: Hephthalites

text: After Kavad I, the Hephthalites seem to have shifted their attention away from the Sasanian Empire, and Kavad's successor Khosrow I (531–579) was able to resume an expansionist policy to the east. According to al-Tabari, Khosrow I managed, through his expansionsit policy, to take control of "Sind, Bust, Al-Rukkhaj, Zabulistan, Tukharistan, Dardistan, and Kabulistan" as he ultimately defeated the Hephthalites with the help of the First Turkic Khaganate.


title: Hephthalites

text: In 552, the Göktürks took over Mongolia, formed the First Turkic Khaganate, and by 558 reached the Volga. Circa 555–567, the Turks of the First Turkic Khaganate and the Sasanians under Khosrow I allied against the Hephthalites and defeated them after an eight-day battle near Qarshi, the Battle of Bukhara, perhaps in 557.


title: Hephthalites

text: These events put an end to the Hephthalite Empire, which fragmented into semi-independent Principalities, paying tribute to either the Sasanians or the Turks, depending on the military situation. After the defeat, the Hephthalites withdrew to Bactria and replaced king Gatfar with Faghanish, the ruler of Chaghaniyan. Thereafter, the area around the Oxus in Bactria contained numerous Hephthalites principalities, remnants of the great Hephthalite Empire destroyed by the alliance of the Turks and the Sasanians. They are reported in the Zarafshan valley, Chaghaniyan, Khuttal, Termez, Balkh, Badghis, Herat and Kabul, in the geographical areas corresponding to Tokharistan and today's northern Afghanistan.


title: Hephthalites

text: The Sasanians and Turks established a frontier for their zones of influence along the Oxus river, and the Hephthalite Principalities functioned as buffer states between two Empires. But when the Hephthalites chose Faghanish as their king in Chaganiyan, Khosrow I crossed the Oxus and put the Principalities of Chaghaniyan and Khuttal under tribute.


title: Hephthalites

text: When Khosrow I died in 579, the Hephthalites of Tokharistan and Khotan took advantage of the situation to rebel against the Sasanians, but their efforts were obliterated by the Turks. By 581 or before, the western part of the First Turkic Khaganate separated and became the Western Turkic Khaganate. In 588, triggering the First Perso-Turkic War, the Turkic Khagan Bagha Qaghan (known as Sabeh/Saba in Persian sources), together with his Hephthalite subjects, invaded the Sasanian territories south of the Oxus, where they attacked and routed the Sasanian soldiers stationed in Balkh, and then proceeded to conquer the city along with Talaqan, Badghis, and Herat. They were finally repelled by the Sasanian general Vahram Chobin.


title: Hephthalites

text: Circa 600, the Hephthalites were raiding the Sasanian Empire as far as Ispahan (Spahan) in central Iran. The Hephthalites issued numerous coins imitating the coinage of Khosrow II, adding on the obverse a Hephthalite signature in Sogdian and a Tamgha symbol .


title: Hephthalites

text: Circa 606/607 CE the Second Perso-Turkic War started, when the Göktürks and Hephthalites again invaded the Sasanian Empire. Khosrow recalled Smbat IV Bagratuni from Persian Armenia and sent him to Iran to repel the invaders. Smbat, with the aid of a Persian prince named Datoyean, repelled the Hephthalites from Persia, and plundered their domains in eastern Khorasan, where Smbat is said to have killed their king in single combat. Khosrow then gave Smbat the honorific title "Khosrow Shun" ("the Joy or Satisfaction of Khosrow"), while his son Varaztirots II Bagratuni received the honorific name "Javitean Khosrow" ("Eternal Khosrow").


title: Hephthalites

text: From 625 CE, the territory of the Hephthalites from Tokharistan to Kabulistan was taken over by the Western Turks, forming an entity ruled by Western Turk nobles, the Tokhara Yabghus. The Tokhara Yabghus or "Yabghus of Tokharistan" (), were a dynasty of Western Turk sub-kings, with the title "Yabghus", who ruled from 625 CE south of the Oxus river, in the area of Tokharistan and beyond, with some smaller polities surviving in the area of Badakhshan until 758 CE. Their legacy was extended to the southeast until the 9th century CE, with the Turk Shahis and the Zunbils.


title: Hephthalites

text: Circa 650 CE, during the Arab conquest of the Sasanian Empire, the Sasanian Empire ruler Yazdegerd III was trying to regroup and gather forces around Tokharistan and was hoping to obtain the help of the Turks, after his defeat to the Arabs in the Battle of Nihâvand (642 CE). Yazdegerd was initially supported by the Hephthalite Principality of Chaghaniyan, which sent him troops to aid him against the Arabs. But when Yazdegerd arrived in Merv (in what is today's Turkmenistan) he demanded tax from the "Marzban" of Marw, losing his support and making him ally with the Hephthalite ruler of Badghis, Nezak Tarkan. The Hepthalite ruler of Badghis allied with the "Marzban" of Merv attack Yazdegerd and defeated him in 651. Yazdegerd III barely escaped with his life but was murdered in the vicinity of Merv soon after, and the Arabs managed to capture the city of Merv the same year.


title: Hephthalites

text: In 652 CE, following the Siege of Herat (652) to which the Hephthalites participated, the Arabs captured the cities of northern Tokharistan, Balkh included, and the Hepthalites principalities were forced to pay tribute and accept Arab garrisons. The Hephthalites again rebelled in 654 CE, leading to the Battle of Badghis.


title: Hephthalites

text: In 659, Chinese chronicles still mentioned the "Hephtalite Tarkans" (悒達太汗 "Yida Taihan", probably related to "Nezak Tarkan"), as some of the rulers in Tokharistan who remained theoretically subjects to the Chinese Empire, and whose main city was Huolu 活路 (modern Mazār-e Sherif, Afghanistan).


title: Hephthalites

text: The city of Merv became the base of the Arabs for their Central Asian operations. The Arabs weakened during the 4-year civil war leading to the establishment of the Umayyad Caliphate in 661, but they were able to continue their expansion after that.


title: Hephthalites

text: Circa 689 CE, the Hephthalite ruler of Badghis and the Arab rebel Musa ibn Abd Allah ibn Khazim, son of the Zubayrid governor of Khurasan Abd Allah ibn Khazim al-Sulami, allied against the forces of the Umayyad Caliphate. The Hepthalites and their allies captured Termez in 689, repelled the Arabs, and occupied the whole region of Khorasan for a brief period, with Termez as they capital, described by the Arabs as "the headquarters of the Hephthalites" ("dār mamlakat al-Hayāṭela"). The Arabs of the Umayyad Caliphate under Yazid ibn al-Muhallab re-captured Termez in 704. Nezak Tarkan, the ruler of the Hephthalites of Badghis, led a new revolt in 709 with the support of other principalities as well as his nominal ruler, the Yabghu of Tokharistan. In 710, Qutaiba ibn Muslim was able to re-establish Muslim control over Tokharistan and captured Nizak Tarkan who was executed on al-Hajjaj's orders, despite promises of pardon, while the Yabghu was exiled to Damascus and kept there as a hostage.


title: Hephthalites

text: In 718 CE, Chinese chronicles still mention the Hephthalites (悒達 "Yida") as one of the polities under the suzerainty of the Turkic Tokhara Yabghus, capable of providing 50,000 soldiers at the service of its overlord. Some remnants, not necessarily dynastic, of the Hephthalite confederation would be incorporated into the Göktürks, as an Old Tibetan document, dated to the 8th century, mentioned the tribe "Heb-dal" among 12 "Dru-gu" tribes ruled by Eastern Turkic khagan "Bug-chor", i.e. Qapaghan Qaghan Chinese chronicles report embassies from the "Hephtalite kingdom" as late as 748 CE.


title: Hephthalites

text: The Hephthalites were considered as a powerful military force. Depending on sources, their main weapon was the bow, the mace or the sword. Judging from their military achievements, they probably had a strong cavalry. In Persia, according to the 6th century Armenian chronicler Lazar of P’arpec’i:


title: Hephthalites

text: "Hunnic" designs in weaponry are known to have influenced Sasanian designs during the 6th–7th century CE, just before Islamic invasions. The Sasanians adopted Hunnish nomadic designs for straight iron swords and their gold-covered scabbards. This is particularly the case of two-straps suspension design, in which straps of different lengths were attached to a P-shaped projection on the scabbard, so that the sword could be held sideways, making it easier to draw, especially when on horseback. The two-point suspension system for swords is considered to have been introduced by the Hephthalites in Central Asia and in the Sasanian Empire and is a marker of their influence, and the design was generally introduced by them in the territories they controlled. The first example of two-suspension sword in Sasanian art occurs in a relief of Taq-i Bustan dated to the time of Khusro II (590–628 CE), and is thought to have been adopted from the Hepthalites.


title: Hephthalites

text: Swords with ornate cloisonné designs and two-straps suspensions, as found in the paintings of Penjikent and Kizil and in archaeological excavations, may be versions of the daggers produced under Hephthalite influence. Weapons with Hunnic designs are depicted in the "Cave of the Painters" in the Kizil Caves, in a mural showing armoured warriors and dated to the 5th century CE. Their sword guards have typical Hunnish designs of rectangle or oval shapes with cloisonné ornamentation.


title: Hephthalites

text: Lamellar helmets were also popularized by the steppe nomads, and were adopted by the Sasanian Empire when they took control of former Hephthalite territory. This type of helmet appears in sculptures on pillar capitals at Ṭāq-e Bostān and Behistun, and on of Khosrow II (r. 590–628 CE).


title: Hephthalites

text: They were said to practice polyandry and artificial cranial deformation. Chinese sources said they worshiped 'foreign gods', 'demons', the 'heaven god' or the 'fire god'. The Gokturks told the Byzantines that they had walled cities. Some Chinese sources said that they had no cities and lived in tents. Litvinsky tries to resolve this by saying that they were nomads who moved into the cities they had conquered. There were some government officials but central control was weak and local dynasties paid tribute.


title: Hephthalites

text: According to Song Yun, the Chinese Buddhist monk who visited the Hephthalite territory in 540 and "provides accurate accounts of the people, their clothing, the empresses and court procedures and traditions of the people and he states the Hephthalites did not recognize the Buddhist religion and they preached pseudo gods, and killed animals for their meat." It is reported that some Hephthalites often destroyed Buddhist monasteries but these were rebuilt by others. According to Xuanzang, the third Chinese pilgrim who visited the same areas as Song Yun about 100 years later, the capital of Chaghaniyan had five monasteries.


title: Hephthalites

text: According to historian André Wink, "...in the Hephthalite dominion Buddhism was predominant but there was also a religious sediment of Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism." Balkh had some 100 Buddhist monasteries and 30,000 monks. Outside the town was a large Buddhist monastery, later known as Naubahar.


title: Hephthalites

text: There were Christians among the Hephthalites by the mid-6th century, although nothing is known of how they were converted. In 549, they sent a delegation to Aba I, the patriarch of the Church of the East, asking him to consecrate a priest chosen by them as their bishop, which the patriarch did. The new bishop then performed obeisance to both the patriarch and the Sasanian king, Khosrow I. The seat of the bishopric is not known, but it may have been Badghis–Qadištan, the bishop of which, Gabriel, sent a delegate to the synod of Patriarch Ishoyahb I in 585. It was probably placed under the metropolitan of Herat. The church's presence among the Hephthalites enabled them to expand their missionary work across the Oxus. In 591, some Hephthalites serving in the army of the rebel Bahram Chobin were captured by Khosrow II and sent to the Roman emperor Maurice as a diplomatic gift. They had Nestorian crosses tattooed on their foreheads.


title: Hephthalites

text: The Hephthalites governed a confederation of various people, many of whom were probably of Iranian descent, speaking an Iranian language. Several cities, such as Balkh, Kobadiyan and possibly Samarkand, were allowed to send regional embassies to China while under Hephthalite control. Several portraits of regional ambassadors from the territories occupied by the Hephthalites (Tokharistan, Tarim Basin) are known from Chinese paintings such as the "Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang", originally painted in 526–539 CE. They were at that time under the overlorship of the Hephthalites, who led the embassies to the Southern Liang court in the early 6th century CE. A century later, under the Tang dynasty, portraits of the local people of Tokharistan were again illustrated in "The Gathering of Kings", circa 650 CE. Etienne de la Vaissière has estimated the local population of each major oasis in Tokharistan and Western Turkestan during the period to around several hundreds of thousands each, while the major oasis of the Tarim Basin are more likely to have had populations ranging in the tens of thousands each.


title: Hephthalites

text: The Alchon Huns, who invaded northern India and were known there as "Hūṇas", have long been considered as a part or a sub-division of the Hephthalites, or as their eastern branch, but now tend to be considered as a separate entity, who may have been displaced by the settlement of the Hephthalites in Bactria. Historians such as Beckwith, referring to Étienne de la Vaissière, say that the Hephthalites were not necessarily one and the same as the Hunas ("Sveta Huna"). According to de la Vaissiere, the Hephthalites are not directly identified in classical sources alongside that of the Hunas. They were initially based in the Oxus basin in Central Asia and established their control over Gandhara in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent by about 465 CE. From there, they fanned out into various parts of northern, western, and central India.


title: Hephthalites

text: In India, these invading people were called Hunas, or "Sveta Huna" ("White Huns") in Sanskrit. The Hūṇas are mentioned in several ancient texts such as the Rāmāyaṇa, Mahābhārata, Purāṇas, and Kalidasa's Raghuvaṃśa. The first "Hunas", probably Kidarites, were initially defeated by Emperor Skandagupta of the Gupta Empire in the 5th century CE. In the early 6th century CE, the Alchon Hun "Hunas" in turn overran the part of the Gupta Empire that was to their southeast and had conquered Central and North India. Gupta Emperor Bhanugupta defeated the Hunas under Toramana in 510, and his son Mihirakula was repulsed by Yashodharman in 528 CE. The "Hunas" were driven out of India by the kings Yasodharman and Narasimhagupta, during the early 6th century.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: SCUM Manifesto is a radical feminist manifesto by Valerie Solanas, published in 1967. It argues that men have ruined the world, and that it is up to women to fix it. To achieve this goal, it suggests the formation of SCUM, an organization dedicated to overthrowing society and eliminating the male sex. The "Manifesto" has been described as a satire or parody, especially due to its parallels with Freud's theory of femininity, though this is disputed, even by Solanas herself.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: The term "SCUM" appeared on the cover of the first edition from Olympia Press as "S.C.U.M." and was said to stand for "Society for Cutting Up Men". Solanas objected, insisting that it was not an acronym, although the expanded term appeared in a "Village Voice" ad she had written in 1967.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: The "Manifesto" was little-known until Solanas in 1968. This event brought significant public attention to the "Manifesto" and Solanas herself. While feminist Ti-Grace Atkinson defended Solanas and considered the "Manifesto" a valid criticism of patriarchy, others, such as Betty Friedan, considered Solanas' views to be too radical and polarizing.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: Solanas wrote "SCUM Manifesto" between 1965 and 1967. In 1967, she self-published the first edition by making two thousand mimeographed copies and selling them on the streets of Greenwich Village in New York City. Solanas charged women one dollar and men two dollars each. By the following spring, about 400 copies had been sold. Solanas signed a publishing contract with Maurice Girodias in August 1967 for a novel and asked him to accept the "SCUM Manifesto" in its place later that year.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: The first commercial edition of the "Manifesto" was published by Olympia Press in New York in 1968. It includes a preface by Maurice Girodias and an essay titled "Wonder Waif Meets Super Neuter" by Paul Krassner. According to Jansen, there are subtle differences between the 1968 Olympia Press edition and Solanas' original mimeographed version. In an interview with "The Village Voice", Solanas commented on the Olympia Press edition, complaining that ""none" of the corrections ... [she] wanted made were included and that many other changes in wording were made—all for the worse—and that there were many 'typographical errors': words and even extended parts of sentences left out, rendering the passages they should've been in incoherent." In 1977, Solanas self-published a "correct" edition which was closer to the original version and included an introduction written by her.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: The "SCUM Manifesto" has been reprinted at least 10 times in English and translated into Croatian, Czech, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Portuguese, Dutch, and Danish. It has also been excerpted in several feminist anthologies, including "" (1970), a collection of radical feminist writing edited by Robin Morgan. Verso Books published an edition in 2004 with an introduction by feminist philosopher Avital Ronell. Jon Purkis and James Bowen describe the "SCUM Manifesto" as a "pamphlet which has become one of the longest surviving perennials of anarchist publishing".


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: Solanas' sister, Judith A. Solanas Martinez, is the reported copyright holder of the "SCUM Manifesto" by 1997 renewal.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: Solanas begins by presenting a theory of the male as an "incomplete female" who is genetically deficient due to the Y chromosome. According to Solanas, this genetic deficiency causes the male to be emotionally limited, egocentric, and incapable of mental passion or genuine interaction. She describes the male as lacking empathy and unable to relate to anything apart from his own physical sensations.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: The "Manifesto" continues by arguing that the male spends his life attempting to become female, and thereby overcome his inferiority. He does this by "constantly seeking out, fraternizing with and trying to live through and fuse with the female." Solanas rejects Freud's theory of penis envy, and argues that men have "pussy envy". Solanas then accuses men of turning the world into a "shitpile" and presents a long list of grievances.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: The bulk of the "Manifesto" consists of a list of critiques of the male sex. They are divided into the following sections:


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: Due to the aforementioned grievances, the "Manifesto" concludes that the elimination of the male sex is a moral imperative. It argues that women must replace the "money-work system" with a system of complete automation, as this will lead to the collapse of the government and the loss of men's power over women.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: In order to accomplish these goals, the "Manifesto" proposes that a revolutionary vanguard of women be formed. This vanguard is referred to as SCUM. The "Manifesto" argues that SCUM should employ sabotage and direct action tactics rather than civil disobedience, as civil disobedience is only useful for making small changes to society. In order to destroy the system, violent action is necessary: "If SCUM ever marches, it will be over the President's stupid, sickening face; if SCUM ever strikes, it will be in the dark with a six-inch blade."


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: The "Manifesto" ends by describing a female-dominated utopian future with, eventually, no men. There would be no money, and disease and death would have been eliminated. It argues that men are irrational to defend the current system and should accept the necessity of their destruction.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: Various critics, scholars, and journalists have analyzed the "Manifesto" and Solanas' statements regarding it. Prof. James Martin Harding said she a "radical program". Prof. Dana Heller said the author had an "anarchic social vision" and the "Manifesto" had "near-utopian theories" and a "utopian vision of a world in which mechanization and systems of mass (re)production would render work, sexual intercourse, and the money system obsolete."


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: According to "Village Voice" reviewer B. Ruby Rich, "SCUM was an uncompromising global vision" that criticized men for many faults including war and not curing disease; many but not all points were "quite accurate"; some kinds of women were also criticized, subject to women's changing when men are not around; and sex (as in sexuality) was criticized as "exploitative". According to Janet Lyon, the "Manifesto" "pitt[ed] ... 'liberated' women ... against 'brainwashed' women".


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: Feminist critic Germaine Greer said that Solanas argued that both genders were separated from their humanity and that men want to be like women. Alice Echols says the "Manifesto" articulates gender as absolute rather than relative.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: Heller argued that the "Manifesto" shows women's separation from basic economic and cultural resources and, because of psychological subordination to men, women's perpetuation of that separation. Robert Marmorstein of the "Voice" said that SCUM's main message included that "men have fouled up the world" and "are no longer necessary (even biologically)". Jansen said Solanas considered men "biological[ly] inferior". According to Laura Winkiel, the "Manifesto" wants heterosexual capitalism overthrown and the means of production taken over by women. Rich and Jansen said that technology and science would be welcome in the future.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: Jansen describes the plan for creating a women's world as mainly nonviolent, as based on women's nonparticipation in the current economy and having nothing to do with any men, thereby overwhelming police and military forces. If solidarity among women was insufficient, some women could take jobs and "unwork", causing systemic collapse; and describes the plan as anticipating that by eliminating money, there'd be no further need to kill men. Jansen and Winkiel say that Solanas imagined a women-only world.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: "Daily News" reporters Frank Faso and Henry Lee, two days after Solanas shot Warhol, said Solanas "crusades for a one-sex world free of men". Winkiel says the "Manifesto" imagines a violent revolutionary coup by women. Prof. Ginette Castro found the "Manifesto" was "the feminist charter on violence", supporting terrorist hysteria. According to Jansen, Solanas posited men as animals who will be stalked and killed as prey, the killers using weapons as "phallic symbols turned "against" men".


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: Rich, Castro, reviewer Claire Dederer, Friedan, Prof. Debra Diane Davis, Deborah Siegel, Winkiel, Marmorstein, and Greer said that Solanas' plan was largely to eliminate men, including by men murdering each other. Rich thought it might be Swiftian satire and that men's retraining was an alternative in the "Manifesto". Castro did not take the elimination of men as serious, and Marmorstein included criminal sabotage of men.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: According to Jansen, it called for reproduction only of females, and not even of females once the problems of aging and death were solved so that a next generation would no longer be needed. According to Lyon, the "Manifesto" is irreverent and witty, according to Siegel the "Manifesto" "articulated bald female rage" and Jansen says the "Manifesto" is "shocking" and breathtaking. Rich described Solanas as a "one-woman scorched-earth squad" and Siegel says the stance was "extreme" and "reflected a more general disaffection with nonviolent protest in America overall."


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: Rich says the "Manifesto" brought out women's "despair and anger" and advanced feminism. According to Winkiel, U.S. radical feminism emerged because of this "declaration of war against capitalism and patriarchy". Heller suggests the "Manifesto" is chiefly socialist-materialist. Echols has argued that Solanas had "unabashed misandry", and people associated with Andy Warhol (whom she shot) and various media saw it as "man-hating".


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: Laura Winkiel, an associate professor of English at the University of Colorado at Boulder, argues that the "SCUM manifesto parodies the performance of patriarchal social order it refuses". Winkiel further suggests that the manifesto is "an illicit performance, a mockery of the 'serious' speech acts of patriarchy". The SCUM women mock the way in which certain men run the world and legitimize their power, Winkiel contends. Similarly, sociologist Ginette Castro states: If we examine the text more closely, we see that its analysis of patriarchal reality is a parody [...] The content itself is unquestionably a parody of the Freudian theory of femininity, where the word woman is replaced by man [...] All the cliches of Freudian psychoanalytical theory are here: the biological accident, the incomplete sex, "penis envy" which has become "pussy envy," and so forth [...] Here we have a case of absurdity being used as a literary device to expose an absurdity, that is, the absurd theory which has been used to give "scientific" legitimacy to patriarchy [...] What about her proposal that men should quite simply be eliminated, as a way of clearing the dead weight of misogyny and masculinity? This is the inevitable conclusion of the feminist pamphlet, in the same way that Jonathan Swift's proposal that Irish children (as useless mouths) should be fed to the swine was the logical conclusion of his bitter satirical pamphlet protesting famine in Ireland. Neither of the two proposals is meant to be taken seriously, and each belongs to the realm of political fiction, or even science fiction, written in a desperate effort to arouse public consciousness.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: Writer Chavisa Woods presents a similar opinion: "The SCUM Manifesto is a masterwork of literary protest art, which is often completely misread. Much of it is actually a point-by-point re-write of multiple of Freud's writings. It is a parody." James Penner reads the manifesto as a satirical text. He states, "Like other feminist satires, the 'SCUM Manifesto' attempts to politicize women by attacking particular masculine myths that are embedded in American popular culture." He adds, "As a work of satire, the 'SCUM Manifesto' is rhetorically effective in that it deconstructs the reader's received notions of masculinity and femininity."


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: English professor Carl Singleton notes the "outrageous nature" of the manifesto and Solanas' increasing mental instability, which, he argues, led many people to trivialize the text. Singleton adds, "Others saw the document as a form of political satire in the style of Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal"." Similarly, Jansen compared it to "A Modest Proposal", describing it as having "satiric brilliance" and calling Solanas "cool and mordantly funny". The bulletin of the Project of Transnational Studies echoes the comparison to Jonathan Swift, stating, "A more common strategy is to read "SCUM" as an instance of political fiction or parody in the vein of Jonathan Swift."


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: Writing for "Spin" in September 1996, Charles Aaron calls the "SCUM Manifesto" a "riotous, pre-feminist satire". Film director Mary Harron called the manifesto a "brilliant satire" and described its tone as "very funny". According to Rich of "The Village Voice", the work possibly was "satire" and could be read as "literal or symbolic". Winkiel said, "The humor and anger of satire invites women to produce this feminist script by taking on the roles of the politically performative SCUM females." Paul Krassner, who was a personal acquaintance of Solanas, called the manifesto a "dittoed document of pathological proselytization with occasional overtones of unintentional satire".


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: Solanas' first publisher, Maurice Girodias, thought of it as "a joke" and described the manifesto, according to J. Hoberman, as "a Swiftian satire on the depraved behavior, genetic inferiority, and ultimate disposability of the male gender".


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: According to a 1968 article in the "Daily News", "those who profess to know Valerie say she isn't joking ... [but] that deep down she likes men." In 1968, speaking to Marmorstein, she characterized herself on the SCUM thing as dead serious. Alexandra DeMonte, however, argues that Solanas "later claimed that her manifesto was simply a satire".


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: Solanas organized "a public forum on SCUM" at which about 40 people, mostly men she characterized as "creeps" and "masochists", showed up. SCUM had no members besides her. According to Greer, "little evidence [existed] that S.C.U.M. ever functioned" other than as Solanas.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: In a 1977 interview for "The Village Voice", Solanas stated that SCUM was "just a literary device. There's no organization called SCUM—there never was, and there never will be." Solanas said that she "thought of it as a state of mind ... [in that] women who think a certain way are in SCUM ... [and] [m]en who think a certain way are in the men's auxiliary of SCUM."


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: The phrase "Society for Cutting Up Men" is on the cover of the 1967 self-published edition, after the title. This edition precedes all commercial editions. Additionally, in the August 10, 1967 issue of "The Village Voice", a letter to the editor appears that was signed by a Valerie Solanas (of SCUM, West 23rd Street) that responds to a previous letter signed by a Ruth Herschberger (published in the August 3, 1967 issue) that asks why women do not rebel against men. Solanas' response reads: "I would like to inform her and other proud, independent, females like her of the existence of SCUM (Society for Cutting Up Men), a recently conceived organization which will be getting into high gear (and I mean high) within a few weeks.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: Although "SCUM" originally stood for "Society for Cutting Up Men", this phrase actually occurs nowhere in the text. Heller argued that "there is no reliable evidence that Solanas intended SCUM to stand as an acronym for 'Society for Cutting Up Men'." Susan Ware "et al." state that it was Solanas' publisher Girodias who claimed that SCUM was an acronym for "Society for Cutting Up Men", something Solanas never seems to have intended. Gary Dexter contends that Solanas called it the "SCUM Manifesto" without periods after the letters of "SCUM". Dexter adds: "The spelling out of her coded title by Girodias was one more act of patriarchal intervention, an attempt to possess."


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: The word "SCUM" is used in the text in reference to a certain type of women, not to men. It refers to empowered women, "SCUM - dominant, secure, self-confident, nasty, violent, selfish, independent, proud, thrill-seeking, free-wheeling, arrogant females, who consider themselves fit to rule the universe, who have free-wheeled to the limits of this 'society' and are ready to wheel on to something far beyond what it has to offer". According to Avitel Ronell, that "SCUM" was intended as an acronym was a "belated add-on", which Solanas later rejected.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: The "Manifesto", according to Lyon, is "notorious and influential" and was "one of the earliest ... [and] one of the most radical" tracts produced by "various strands of the American women's liberation movement". Lyon said that "by 1969 it had become a kind of bible" for Cell 16, in Boston. According to a 2012 article by Arthur Goldwag on the Southern Poverty Law Center Hatewatch blog, "Solanas continues to be much-read and quoted in some feminist circles." Whether the "Manifesto" should be considered a feminist classic is challenged by Heller because the "Manifesto" rejected a hierarchy of greatness, but she said it "remains an influential feminist text."


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: Laura Winkiel argues that Solanas' shooting of Andy Warhol and Mario Amaya was directly tied to the "Manifesto". After shooting Warhol, Solanas told a reporter, "Read my manifesto and it will tell you what I am." Heller, however, states that Solanas "intended no connection between the manifesto and the shooting". Harding suggests that "there is no clear indication in Solanas' ambiguous statement to reporters that the contents of the manifesto would explain the specifics of her actions, at least not in the sense of providing a script for them." Harding views the "SCUM Manifesto" as an "extension, not the source, of performative acts, even a violent one act like the shooting of Warhol."


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: Winkiel argues that revolutionary Roxanne Dunbar moved to the U.S. "convinced that a women's revolution had begun", forming Cell 16 with a program based on the "Manifesto". According to Winkiel, although Solanas was "outraged" at the women's movement's "appropriat[ion]" of the "Manifesto", "the shooting [of Warhol] represented the feminist movement's righteous rage against patriarchy".


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: Dunbar and Ti-Grace Atkinson considered the "Manifesto" as having initiated a "revolutionary movement". Atkinson (according to Rich) called Solanas the "'first outstanding champion of women's rights'" and probably (according to Greer) having been "radicalized" by the language of the "Manifesto" to leave the National Organization for Women (NOW), and (according to Winkiel) women organized in support of Solanas.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: Solanas was viewed as too mentally ill and too bound up with Warhol, according to Greer, "for her message to come across unperverted." According to Prof. Davis, the "Manifesto" was a "forerunner" as a "call to arms among pragmatic American feminists" and was "enjoy[ing] ... wide contemporary appeal". According to Winkiel, the "Manifesto" "was ... influential in the spread of 'womansculture' and lesbian separatism" and is also "credited with beginning the antipornography movement." Friedan opposed the "Manifesto" as bad for the feminist movement and NOW.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: "Scum Manifesto" was adapted into a 1976 short film directed by Carole Roussopoulos and Delphine Seyrig. In the film, Seyrig reads several passages from a French translation of Solanas's manifesto.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: Warhol later satirized the whole event in a subsequent movie, "Women in Revolt", calling a group similar to Solanas's S.C.U.M., "P.I.G." (Politically Involved Girlies).


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: Solanas's creative work and relationship with Warhol is depicted in the 1996 film, "I Shot Andy Warhol", a significant portion of which relates to the "SCUM Manifesto", and Solanas's disputes on notions of authorship with Warhol.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: "Viva Los Muertos!", an episode of the animated comedy TV series "The Venture Bros.", features a character named Val who directly quotes the "SCUM Manifesto" throughout the episode.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: The SCUM manifesto was presented as a plot device in the FX television series "", first seen in the episode "", which first aired on October 17, 2017. A fictionalized version of Valerie Solanas, played by the actress Lena Dunham, recited the manifesto throughout the episode.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: The title story of the Michael Blumlein short story collection, "The Brains of Rats", employs the "Manifesto" to illustrate the male protagonist's hatred of himself and his gender.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: In 2006, Swedish author Sara Stridsberg published a semi-fictional biography of Valerie Solanas, "Drömfakulteten" (The Dream Faculty), in which the "Manifesto" is referred to on several occasions. Parts of the "Manifesto" are also cited in the book.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: Nick Cave said that Solanas in the "Manifesto" "talks at length about what she considers maleness and the male psyche ... basically men being halfway between humans and apes, these kind of lumbering lumps of meat, predatory lumps of meat", and that "it's quite wonderful to read ... [and] was an aspect of that I felt rang true." Cave wrote a novel, "The Death of Bunny Munro", for which he "invented a character that was Valerie Solanas's male incarnate."


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: Solanas is quoted in the sleeve notes of the Manic Street Preachers debut album "Generation Terrorists". Solanas directly inspired the Manic Street Preachers song "Of Walking Abortion" from their third album "The Holy Bible", with the song title being taken from Solanas' work. Liverpool punk band Big in Japan composed the song "Society for Cutting Up Men" directly inspired by the manifesto.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: The Italian progressive rock band Area - International POPular Group devoted a song to Solanas' manifesto, called SCUM, which appears in their fifth album "Maledetti (Maudits)". The British band S.C.U.M. was named after the manifesto. On Matmos' 2006 album "The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast", one of the tracks is "Tract for Valerie Solanas", which features excerpts of the "SCUM Manifesto". British alternative band Young Knives released a song called "Society for Cutting Up Men" in December 2017.


title: SCUM Manifesto

text: The SCUM Manifesto was included in a set of computer art provocations by Micro Arts Group (UK) in 1984. The animation 'The Money Work System' featured some of the SCUM Manifesto statements and a sad-looking man who experiences them. The title refers to the suggested Universal Basic Income UBI system promoted by Solanas to end the wage slavery that defines the modern gender condition. This was programmed for home micros, and was distributed on cassette, and later on the UK's Prestel teletext system to national TVs. Prestel was a precursor to the web.


title: Dion Dublin

text: Dion Dublin (born 22 April 1969) is an English former professional footballer, television presenter and pundit. He is a club director of Cambridge United.


title: Dion Dublin

text: As a player he was a centre-forward, notably playing in the Premier League for Manchester United, Coventry City and Aston Villa. He also had spells in the Scottish Premiership with Celtic, in the Conference with Wycombe Wanderers, and in The Football League with Cambridge United, Barnet, Millwall, Leicester City and Norwich City. He was capped four times for England.


title: Dion Dublin

text: Following on from his retirement, Dublin moved into the entertainment business. He is also an amateur percussionist, and invented a percussion instrument called "The Dube". In 2011, he accompanied Ocean Colour Scene in a gig at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. In 2015, he joined the presenting team on the BBC One daytime show "Homes Under the Hammer" and has appeared as a regular pundit for BBC Sport namely on "Football Focus", "Match of the Day" or "Final Score". He also occasionally provides co-commentary on live televised FA Cup games.


title: Dion Dublin

text: Born in Leicester, while at school Dublin played for several Leicestershire youth teams including Wigston Fields and Thurmaston Magpies. Dublin then went on to begin his professional footballing career with Norwich City after leaving school in 1985, but he never made a first-team appearance and was released from the club in 1988.


title: Dion Dublin

text: In August 1988, he joined Cambridge United on a free transfer, as a centre-forward, which had been his position at Norwich City. However, due to injuries he had to make a number of appearances at centre-half. His prolific goalscoring helped United to successive promotions. During the 1988–89 season, Dublin was then loaned out for short spells with Barnet and Wycombe Wanderers. The 1989–90 season saw Cambridge promoted from the Fourth Division via the play-offs, when Dublin became the first ever scorer in a Wembley play-off final.


title: Dion Dublin

text: In the 1990–91 season, the club were champions of the Third Division, and the club also reached the quarter-final of the FA Cup in both seasons, with Dublin scoring at Arsenal in 1991. In the 1991–92 season, he played a big part in helping Cambridge to their highest ever finishing position in the football league, by finishing in fifth place in the last season of the old Second Division, but when Cambridge failed to win promotion to the top flight via the play-offs Dublin was put up for sale. He has since spoken many times of his affection for Cambridge United.


title: Dion Dublin

text: Having seen Dublin in a cup tie, Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson signed him for £1 million on 7 August 1992, fighting off competition from Chelsea and Everton. Dublin was something of a surprise purchase for United, after Ferguson had tried to sign Alan Shearer from Southampton but lost out to Blackburn Rovers.


title: Dion Dublin

text: He scored in United's fourth Premier League game of the 1992–93 season, a last minute winner in United's first Premier league victory – 1–0 against Southampton at The Dell. However, on 2 September, he suffered a broken leg against Crystal Palace in a 1–0 win at Old Trafford, after a tackle by Eric Young, and was out of action for six months. By the time he had recovered, however, United had signed Eric Cantona and the Frenchman was firmly established as first choice strike partner to Mark Hughes. United won the league that season for the first time since 1967, but Dublin failed to make the 10 Premier League appearances required to automatically gain a title winner's medal. However, he was given a medal as a result of special dispensation from the Premier League.


title: Dion Dublin

text: In the 1993–94 season, Dublin regained his fitness, but his first team chances were restricted by the successful partnership of Cantona and Hughes. In December 1993, Ferguson agreed a deal with Everton manager Howard Kendall, that would have seen Dublin moving to Goodison Park, but a member of Everton's board of directors, apparently feeling that Dublin was not worth the money Kendall had offered United, intervened to prevent the transfer going through – this dispute sparked Kendall's resignation as manager. Dublin would remain a United player for another nine months, but never managed to claim a regular place in the first team.


title: Dion Dublin

text: He managed five league appearances that season, scoring once in a 3–2 home win over Oldham Athletic in early April, his goal helping secure a vital victory in the title run-in during a spell when United started to drop points and Blackburn Rovers were closing in on them. He also managed a further goal in the Football League Cup second round first leg, as United were beaten 2–1 by Stoke City at the Victoria Ground. The goal against Oldham was the only competitive goal that Dublin scored for United at Old Trafford. He was left out of the FA Cup winning team against Chelsea and failed to make enough appearances to merit another Premier League title winners medal. In September 1994, he was sold to Coventry City for £2 million – a record signing for Coventry City at the time – and also one of the largest fees received by Manchester United.


title: Dion Dublin

text: In four years with Coventry, Dublin established himself as one of the Premier League's top strikers and during the 1997–98 season won the first of his four full England caps. That season, he equalled the Coventry City record for most goals in a top division season, with 23 goals in all competitions.


title: Dion Dublin

text: Following Phil Neal's departure in 1995, the arrival of Ron Atkinson and Gordon Strachan would see Dublin fit into an attacking team in the typical Atkinson mould. It included the likes of Noel Whelan, John Salako and Darren Huckerby to add to the already attack minded Peter Ndlovu. The addition of Gary McAllister, following UEFA Euro 1996, should have provided mid-table stability, but the team's defensive frailties often undermined Dublin's scoring at the other end. This culminated in possibly one of the greatest escapes in Premier League history in May 1997. Despite having won away to Liverpool (Dublin scoring in the dying seconds) and at home to Chelsea at the start of April, the "Sky Blues" could only manage two points from their following three games. City went into the final day second from bottom of the table, needing not only to beat Tottenham away from home, but also for results elsewhere in the league to go their way for them to escape relegation. They achieved the most unlikely of escapes; first-half goals from Dublin and Paul Williams gave Coventry a 2–1 win at White Hart Lane, while Sunderland lost at Wimbledon and Middlesbrough could only manage a draw at Leeds. Coventry finished the season in 17th place, one point outside the relegation zone.


title: Dion Dublin

text: The following season, the Sky Blues improved at home and enjoyed a season of mid-table security. Dublin formed an impressive partnership with Darren Huckerby which not only produced some memorable goals, but also propelled the Sky Blues to the FA Cup Sixth Round against Sheffield United; a game they narrowly lost in a penalty shoot-out.


title: Dion Dublin

text: On 8 November 1997, Dublin scored one of the most bizarre goals in Premier League history. Early in the match against Newcastle, goalkeeper Shay Given collected a cross from the right and placed the ball in front of him. The ball was still in play, and Dublin, who had attempted to meet the cross and was now behind Given, reappeared and calmly slotted the ball into the empty goal. This led to the joke: ""Shay Given, the only Irishman who doesn't know where Dublin is."" The match ended 2-2, with Dublin also scoring City's second goal in the second half.


title: Dion Dublin

text: The 1997–98 season also saw Dublin share elite status as the Premier League's top scorer with Blackburn's Chris Sutton and Liverpool's Michael Owen – each Englishman scoring 18 league goals. During this season, Blackburn manager Roy Hodgson tabled a bid which Dublin rejected. He remained at Highfield Road and contributed to Coventry's best finish to date in the Premiership (11th).


title: Dion Dublin

text: Dublin was controversially excluded from the England 1998 FIFA World Cup squad, despite being the Premier League's joint top-scorer in the 1997–98 season. However, his exploits at club level were still attracting significant attention, and in the autumn of 1998, he chose to move to Aston Villa for £5.75 million. In his first four games for the club, he would score seven goals, including a memorable hat-trick against Southampton in only his second game for Villa. As a result, he is one of only six players to score in the first four consecutive games for a Premier League club.


title: Dion Dublin

text: In December 1999, while playing for Aston Villa against Sheffield Wednesday, he sustained a life-threatening broken neck, as a result of which he permanently has a titanium plate holding three neck vertebrae together. Just days before suffering this injury, it was reported in the "News of the World" that Dublin would soon be sold by Aston Villa for a fee of around £6 million as the club looked to finance a fall in its share value as a result of manager John Gregory's heavy expenditure on players.


title: Dion Dublin

text: In April 2000, a week after returning to the team, he helped Aston Villa reach their first FA Cup final in 43 years, which they lost 1–0 against Chelsea, scoring a penalty in the semi-final shoot-out against Bolton Wanderers.


title: Dion Dublin

text: Faced with competition for a first-team place by new signings Juan Pablo Ángel and Peter Crouch, Dublin spent several weeks on loan at First Division Millwall towards the end of the 2001-02 season. In his time there, he scored two goals, against Stockport County and Grimsby Town in five league matches to help them into the play-offs, where despite Dublin's goal in the first leg of the semi-final, against Villa's arch rivals Birmingham City, Millwall lost 2–1 on aggregate.


title: Dion Dublin

text: Following Millwall's elimination from the play-offs, Dublin returned to Aston Villa in time for their final game of the season, against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. He replaced Darius Vassell in the 84th minute and scored Villa's third goal in a 3-1 win.


title: Dion Dublin

text: Dublin once again found himself a first-choice striker at the start of the 2002-03 season, partnering Darius Vassell up front. In March 2003, he was sent off at Villa Park for a headbutt on Robbie Savage in the Birmingham derby match, which ended 2–0 to Birmingham City.


title: Dion Dublin

text: When his contract expired in the summer of 2004, he was given a free transfer. He was signed by Leicester City, who had been relegated from the Premier League to the Championship. In his first season with the club, he scored only four goals in 38 competitive matches. During the 2005–06 season, Dublin lost his place as the team's main striker, but continued to appear as a defender. His contract at Leicester City was terminated by mutual consent on 30 January 2006.


title: Dion Dublin

text: He was snapped up quickly by then Celtic manager Gordon Strachan, to cover for the loss of Chris Sutton, on a contract until the end of the season. At Celtic, Dublin achieved double success, with Scottish League Cup and Scottish Premier League winner's medals. On 19 March 2006, Dublin came on as a substitute and scored the final goal as Celtic defeated Dunfermline 3–0 to win the Scottish League Cup final, and also played enough matches with Celtic to merit a title medal. In the league, he made three league starts and eight substitute appearances for Celtic, scoring once against Kilmarnock on 9 April 2006 in a 4–1 win at Rugby Park. Despite one or two decent performances for the Parkhead outfit, Dublin was released by Strachan in May 2006.


title: Dion Dublin

text: On 20 September 2006, Norwich City announced that Dublin had joined them until the end of the 2006–07 season. It marked a return, almost 20 years after leaving, for Dublin to the club where he began his career. He made his debut on 23 September 2006 when he came on as substitute against Plymouth Argyle. He scored his first competitive goal in Norwich City colours in a 3–3 draw against Queens Park Rangers on 14 October 2006 at Loftus Road. Steve Wilson cited Dublin as the main inspiration behind Norwich's 4–1 FA Cup 3rd Round win at Tamworth, in which the striker scored two goals and set up numerous chances for other teammates.


title: Dion Dublin

text: Dublin was an important figure in Norwich securing safety from relegation to League One and the supporters recognised his contribution by voting him in second place in the Norwich City player of the year award, and on 23 May 2007 he ended speculation about his future by signing a new one-year contract at Norwich, keeping him at the club until the end of the 2007–08 season. On 2 September 2007, while working as a pundit on a match between Aston Villa and Chelsea, Dublin said that this season would be his last as a professional footballer, citing the fact that his "bones have started to talk to him" as the reason, meaning that he did not think his body can handle another season.


title: Dion Dublin

text: In the spring of 2008, Dublin was approached by Jimmy Quinn, then manager of Cambridge United, about joining his old club for the 2008–09 season. However, the player would not change his mind about retiring. He was voted the club's Player of the Year and awarded the Barry Butler trophy on 26 April 2008 in his final season as a footballer, at his penultimate game, and on his final appearance at Carrow Road. Dublin played his final game on 4 May 2008, featuring in Norwich's 4–1 loss to Sheffield Wednesday in front of 36,208 fans at Hillsborough – the highest Championship attendance that season. When he was taken off in the 66th minute, Dublin received a standing ovation from both sets of supporters and players, and referee Mark Clattenburg.


title: Dion Dublin

text: Dublin earned his first cap for England on 11 February 1998, playing the whole 90 minutes in the 2–0 friendly defeat to Chile at Wembley Stadium. In the run-up to the 1998 FIFA World Cup, Dublin played in the King Hassan II International Cup Tournament in May, starting in the 1–0 win against Morocco, and coming off the bench in 0–0 draw with Belgium, a game England lost on penalties. Despite showing good form and versatility throughout the season, including finishing joint top scorer in the Premier League with 18 goals, Glenn Hoddle included Les Ferdinand ahead of Dublin in his 22-man squad for the tournament in France. On 18 November, he started in the 2–0 friendly win against the Czech Republic at Wembley Stadium. This turned out to be Dublin's last cap for his country. He won four caps for England but did not score any goals.


title: Dion Dublin

text: Since retiring from football, Dublin has worked in the media as a pundit for Sky Sports. As well as appearing on "Ford Super Sunday" with Richard Keys, Dublin has commentated on a number of games including the UEFA Champions League games with Martin Tyler. He has also been a member of the panel on BBC Radio 5 Live's "Fighting Talk". He has also co-presented "606" on BBC Radio 5 Live, Match of the Day 2 and was also a regular on BBC One's "Late Kick Off" in the East region. He joined Lucy Alexander and Martin Roberts on "Homes Under the Hammer" in 2015.


title: Dion Dublin

text: Also for the BBC, he has appeared as a regular pundit for BBC Sport namely on "Football Focus", "Match of the Day" or "Final Score". He also occasionally provides co-commentary on live televised FA Cup games.


title: Dion Dublin

text: In August 2021 it was announced that Dublin would be a competitor on BBC's "Celebrity MasterChef". He reached the final.


title: Dion Dublin

text: Away from football, during his spell with Norwich, he invented a percussion instrument called The Dube, a form of cajón. In 2011, he accompanied Ocean Colour Scene during a gig at the University of East Anglia.