Hephtalite King Gatfar/Ghadfar, Bukharan mint, 500-580 CE
Gatfar was the last of the rulers of the Hephthalite Empire. He was defeated by the Sassanid-Turk alliance and the Hephthalites fragmented into individual, semi-independent principalities.
University of Washington's page on the Hephthalites estimates their total population at around 50-60,000 individuals total. The Sassanid military alone would have been larger than the total Hephthalite population and the Sassanid Empire had millions of people. The book History of Civilizations of Central Asia Vol. III gives a similar Hephthalite number for the Tokharistan region, citing that the region housed 5-6,000 Hephthalite soldiers and a total of around 50-60,000 people. The First Turkic Empire may have had a population as high as 3 million and is sometimes reported to have fielded armies larger than the entire Hephthalite population. The plight of the White Huns against the Sassanids/Turks is reminiscent of the situation the Xiongnu found themselves in dealing with the Chinese, where they were fighting enemies on multiple fronts that massively outnumbered them. Some Chinese sources speak of "Yeda" being able to field 100,000 soldiers. Yeda may have referred to the Hephthalites, if it does this is the biggest estimate of their population size I've seen.
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| Hephtalite King Gathfar/Ghadfar in the triple crescent crown, 500-580 CE. Sogdian, legend at right, Bukharan tamga at left. References: 'On the Hephtalite King Gatfar', pp. 247/248, by Michael Fedorov, in: Iran, vol. LI, 2013. 16 mm. Copper. |
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