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The Huns were a confederation of Central Asian equestrian nomads or semi-nomads. Some of these Eurasian tribes moved into Europe in the 4th century, the most famous leader being Attila. Huns remaining in Asia are recorded by neighboring peoples to the south, east, and west as having occupied Central Asia roughly from the 4th century to the 6th century (with some surviving in the Caucasus until the early 8th century).

Successor nations

Many nations have tried to assert themselves as ethnic or cultural successors to the Huns. The Bulgarian khans, for instance, believed they were descended from Attila. Indeed, the language of Volga Bulghars, currently known as the Chuvash language, is the most divergent of all the Turkic languages, which testifies to its separate existence for centuries before the dissolution of the Proto-Turkic unity happened. "Formerly, scholars considered Chuvash not properly a Turkic language at all but, rather, the only surviving representative of a separate subdivision of the Altaic languages probably spoken by the Huns".

The Magyars (Hungarians) also have laid claims to the Hunnish heritage. Considering that the Huns who invaded Europe represented a loose coalition of various peoples, it is not entirely out of the question that Magyars were present among those ethnic groups as well.

Until the early 20 c. it was a quite received view among Hungarian historians that the Székely people (the Hungarians' "brother nation" who live in Transylvania) are the descendants of the Huns.

The names "Hun" and "Hungarian" sound alike, but they have different linguistic background (etymology). The name "Hungarian" is derived from a Turkish phrase "onogur" which means "ten tribes", which possibly refers to a tribal covenant between the different Hungarian tribes that moved into the area of today's Hungary at the end of the 9 century.

In 2005, a group of about 2,500 Hungarians petitioned the government to be a recognized minority of direct descendants of Attila. It was a failed bid, but gained publicity for the group, who had been formed in the early 1990s, and appear to represent a special Hun(garian)-centric brand of mysticism. The self-proclaimed Huns are not known to possess more special knowledge about Hun culture or language than would be available from historical and modern-mystical Hungarian sources.

While there is no question that the Huns left descendants all over Eastern Europe, the disintegration of the Hun empire after the death of Attila meant they never regained their lost glory. One reason was that the Huns never fully established the mechanisms of a state, such as bureaucracy and taxes, unlike the Magyars or Golden Horde, who did. Once disorganized, the Huns naturally were absorbed by more organized polities.

Historiography

The term "Hun" has been also used to describe peoples with no historical connection to what scholars consider "Hun".

On July 27, 1901, during the Boxer Rebellion in China, Kaiser Wilhelm II gave the order to "make the name 'German' remembered in China for a thousand years, so that no Chinaman will ever again dare to even squint at a German". This speech, wherein Wilhelm invoked the memory of the 5th-century Huns, coupled with the Pickelhaube or spiked helmet worn by German forces until 1916, that was reminiscent of ancient Hun (and Hungarian) helmets, gave rise to the later derogatory English usage of the latter term for their German enemy during World War I. This usage was reinforced by Allied propaganda throughout the war, prompting hatred of the Germans by invoking the idea that they were brutal savages. The usage resurfaced during World War II.

In modern Mongolian, "Hün" means "Person", which stems from the modern Mongols' strong identification with the historical Huns, who are known in modern Mongolian as "Hunu." Most Mongolians today consider the Huns to be proto-Mongols. In the development of the Mongolian language, a Turkic-Alatic language -- which is the family to which most scholars speculate the Hun language belonged -- the word for "person" is identical for the name of the tribe with which they identify their ancestors having belonged to, the Huns. A "Hun" is "a person" in Mongolian. This mirrors the American Navajos' use of the term 'Dine' to signify "person," as well as to refer to the entire tribe.

Further reading

• de la Vaissière, E. "Huns et Xiongnu", Central Asiatc Journal, 2005-1, p. 3-26.
• Lindner, Rudi Paul. "Nomadism, Horses and Huns", Past and Present, No. 92. (Aug., 1981), pp. 3–19.
• Otto J. Mänchen-Helfen (ed. Max Knight): The World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1973) ISBN 0-520-01596-7
• Otto J. Mänchen-Helfen: Huns and Hsiung-Nu (published in Byzantion, vol. XVII, 1944-45, pp. 222-243)
• Otto J. Mänchen-Helfen: The Legend of the Origin of the Huns (published in Byzantion, vol. XVII, 1944-45, pp. 244-251)
• E. A. Thompson: A History of Attila and the Huns (London, Oxford University Press, 1948)
• J. Webster: The Huns and Existentialist Thought (Loudonville, Siena College Press, 2006)

1. (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1997)
2. BBC News - "Hungary blocks Hun minority bid" - By Nick Thorpe, April 12, 2005

• Ancient peoples
• Ancient peoples of Russia
• Ancient Roman enemies
• Eurasian nomads
• History of Hungary
• Huns
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• Turkic peoples
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