nephthalites

Updated: May 22, 2025

It is a name the Persian form of which is Haithal or Haiathleh, the Armenian Hephthagh, and the Greek "Ephthalites," or sometimes "Nephthalites." Different conjectures have been formed as to its origin: but none of them can be regarded as more than an ingenious theory.

George Rawlinson - The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 7: The Sassanian or New Persian Empire : The History, Geography, And Antiquities Of Chaldaea, Assyria, Babylon, Media, Persia, Parthia, And Sassanian or New Persian Empire; With Maps and Illustrations.

Among their southern conquests the most splendid was that of the Nephthalites, or white Huns, a polite and warlike people, who possessed the commercial cities of Bochara and Samarcand, who had vanquished the Persian monarch, and carried their victorious arms along the banks, and perhaps to the mouth, of the Indus. On the side of the West, the Turkish cavalry advanced to the Lake Mæotis.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 4