Philhellenism among the Hunnic Elites (Fifth to Eighth Centuries CE)

March 11, 2026 Although the Kušāns construed a (pan-)Iranian identity as evinced by geography, shared historical and cultural backgrounds, imperial discourse, language choice, religious pluralism, and literary culture, some of the post-Kušānites (e.g., the Huns, Hephthalites), however—both in reaction to this model and in order to forge a specific counter-identity—had recourse to Greek cultural practices (including imagery and possibly theatrical performances) to underscore their own identities vis-à-vis the Sasanian/Iranian world. Silverware, the most prestigious and politically controlled artistic product of the period in Bactria-Gandhara (and eventually Sogdiana), offers a broad repertoire of Greek subjects but never any allusion to the Iranian heroic cycle then in the process of formation, as may be seen in extant wall paintings. Some Jewish elites were also part of this cultural orientation. Images of the “Roman wolf” on coins and wall paintings in the seventh and eighth centuries bear witness to a “Philoroman” (in fact, Philobyzantine) tendency, consistent with the attested diplomatic contacts of the time. After the completion of the Muslim conquest in the second half of the eighth century, the Bactrian and Sogdian languages ceased to be in use (with the exception of Sogdian in merchant colonies and in Christian and Manichaean communities). References to the Hellenistic culture were thereafter limited to the spheres of science and philosophy (as in other parts of the Islamic West). Iranian traditions carried forward by the milieu of the dehqāns were hardly able to retain eastern Iranian specificities: they merged into the al-‘Ajam, Iranian culture lato-sensu, whose literary languages were Arabic and later Persian. Emerging local dynasties forged Sasanian pedigree and did not claim links to earlier local polities (with the exception of Khorezm). Grenet, Franz. "Philhellenism among the Hunnic Elites (Fifth to Eighth Centuries CE)" Ancient Iran and Central Asia: Interactions and Shifting Identities (March 11, 2026). https://yarshater.ucla.edu/media/vide...