Sykes' History of Persia - Heritage Institute

492
HISTORY OF PERSIA
have felt any serious loss of prestige from a payment
which secured the possession of a fertile and strategically
valuable province.
The Coming of the Turks.—The Turks, the Tu-chueh
of the Chinese, derived their descent from the Assena
clan of the Huing-nu or Huns.^ In a.d. 433, owing to
the aggression of the third Toba Emperor, five hundred
families migrated to the borders of the kingdom of the
Jwen-Jwen, where they derived their name of Turk from
a hill shaped like a helmet, which is still termed Durko
in some of the many Turkish dialects. They served the
Jwen-Jwen as iron-workers, and gradually became so
strong, that their chief, Tumen, demanded a princess of
the paramount tribe in marriage. The demand was
refused, and in the war that ensued, the Jwen-Jwen were
so
utterly defeated that their name is never even heard
again.
The Turks first appear in Persian history about the
middle of the sixth century, at which period they were
organized in two divisions. The Eastern Turks owned
the northern districts, from Mongolia to the Ural Moun-
tains, and the Western Turks held sway from the Altai
Mountains to the Sir Daria. Tumen,
the first Il-Khan
or "Chief of the Tribe," ^ died in a.d. 533, and was
succeeded by his son Kolo, whose reign was very short,
and it was his brother, Mokan Khan, who entered into
relations with Noshirwan, in a.d. 554.
The Subjugation of the White Huns,—To return to the
White Huns, it would appear that Noshirwan, like
Justinian after the first peace, was able to take advantage
of the truce and the treaty of peace which followed it
to wage the series of campaigns that have placed him
on the pinnacle of fame. But, as there are no detailed
chronicles to which reference can be made for dates, a
general outline only can be given.
The Ephthalites, who had been crushed by Kobad,
were again invaded in their own country by Noshirwan,
1 Vide E. H. Parker's A Thousand Tears of the Tartars^ Bk. IV. ; also The Heart of
A stay p. 29.
2 This title is still applied to the chiefs of the Kurdish tribes of Kuchan and
Bujnurd.