page_title: Kidarites
section_title: Conflict with Sasanian emperor Peroz I and the Hephthalites
hierarchical_section_title: Kidarites / Kidarite kingdom / Expansion to northwest India / Conflict with Sasanian emperor Peroz I and the Hephthalites
caption_attribution_description: English: Kidarites ruler King B Late 4th-early 5th century CE. AR Drachm (28mm, 4.05 g, 3h). Crowned bust facing / Fire altar with attendants and ribbons; ‘PYRWC’ in Pahlavi in exergue.
context_page_description: The Kidarites were a dynasty that ruled Bactria and adjoining parts of Central Asia and South Asia in the 4th and 5th centuries CE. The Kidarites belonged to a complex of peoples known collectively in India as the Huna and/or in Europe as the Xionites. The 5th century Byzantine historian Priscus called them Kidarites Huns, or "Huns who are Kidarites". The Huna/Xionite tribes are often linked, albeit controversially, to the Huns who invaded Eastern Europe during a similar period. They are entirely different from the Hephthalites, who replaced them about a century later.
  The Kidarites were named after Kidara one of their main rulers. The Kidarites appear to have been a part of a Huna horde known in Latin sources as the Kermichiones or "Red Huna". The Kidarites established the first of four major Xionite/Huna states in Central Asia, followed by the Hephthalites, the Alchon, and the Nezak.
  In 360–370 CE, a Kidarite kingdom was established in Central Asian regions previously ruled by the Sasanian Empire, replacing the Kushano-Sasanians in Bactria. Thereafter, the Sasanian Empire roughly stopped at Merv.
context_section_description: Around 457, the Kidarites were again in conflict against the Sasanians under Yazdegerd II. A "Kidarite dynasty", south of the Oxus, was at war with the Sassanids in the fifth century. The Sasanian Emperor Peroz I (ruled 459–484) fought Kidara and then his son Kungas, forcing Kungas to leave Bactria. The Kidarites, who had established themselves in parts of Transoxiana during the reign of the Sasanian king Shapur II, and had a long history of conflicts with the Sasanians. The latter stopped paying tributes to the Kidarites in the early 460s, thus starting a new war between these two states. 
  During the start of the war, however, Peroz did not have enough manpower to fight them, and therefore asked for financial aid by the Byzantine Empire, who declined his request. Peroz then offered peace to the leader of the Kidarites, Kunkhas, and offered him his sister in marriage. However, Peroz tried to trick Kunkhas, and sent a woman of low status instead. After some time Kunkhas found out about Peroz's false promise, and then in turn tried to trick him, by requesting him to send military experts to strengthen his army. However, when a group of 300 military experts arrived to the court of Kunkhas at Balaam (either the same city as Balkh or a city in Sogdia), they were either killed or disfigured and sent back to Iran, with the information that Kunkhas did this due to Peroz's false promise.
  What happened after remains obscure. It is only known that by 467, Peroz, with Hephthalite aid, reportedly managed to capture Balaam (possibly Balkh) and put an end to Kidarite rule in Transoxiana once and for all. Although the Kidarites still controlled some places such as Gandhara and Punjab, they would never be an issue for the Sasanians again.
caption: Kidarites ruler "King B", late 4th–early 5th century CE.[49] A vase has been placed to the right of the Zoroastrian fire altar, the Indian/Hindu purnaghata, or "Vase of plenty".[50]
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