The Huns [Hardcover]

This volume is a concise introduction to the history and culture of the Huns. This ancient people had a famous reputation in Eurasian Late Antiquity. However, their history has often been evaluated as a footnote in the histories of the later Roman Empire and early Germanic peoples. Kim addresses this imbalance and challenges the commonly held assumption that the Huns were a savage people who contributed little to world history, examining striking geopolitical changes brought about by the Hunnic expansion over much of continental Eurasia and revealing the Huns' contribution to European, Iranian, Chinese and Indian civilization and statecraft. By examining Hunnic culture as a Eurasian whole, The Hunsprovides a full picture of their society which demonstrates that this was a complex group with a wide variety of ethnic and linguistic identities. Making available critical information from both primary and secondary sources regarding the Huns' Inner Asian origins, which would otherwise be largely unavailable to most English speaking students and Classical scholars, this is a crucial tool for those interested in the study of Eurasian Late Antiquity.

Introduction
-Inner Asia: The Homeland of the Huns
-Nomads? The Huns, a heterogeneous agro-pastoralist society
-The Quest for Ethnicity and Origins: Who are the Huns?

Chapter 1: The Xiongnu Hun Empire
-Political Organisation of the Xiongnu Huns
-Political History of the Xiongnu Huns
-Southern Xiongnu and Xianbei conquest of China
-Archaeology of the Xiongnu

Chapter 2: The so-called two-hundred years interlude

Chapter 3: The Huns of Central Asia and South Asia: The Kidarite and Hephthalite White Huns
-Who were the White Huns?
-White Hunnic Expansion and the Kidarite Dynasty
-White Hunnic Empire at its zenith under the Hephthalite Dynasty
-Later Hunnic States in Central Asia and South Asia