280 Conclusion
was manifested by the culture of Sassanid Iran in states like Danube Bulgaria
or Khazaria. This is why the idea of a constant struggle between the nomadic
and the agricultural worlds does not reveal the true image of statehood in the
steppe world. The steppe peoples’ relations with China or Byzantium cannot
be seen as an example of this struggle, since they belong to different civiliza-
tional models and are alien to each other.
N. Kradin distinguishes four ways for the establishment of the steppe
empires: the Mongolian, Turkic, Hunnic and the Khazar way. With the
Mongolian way, steppe empires are created by a talented military commander
who manages to impose his rule over the majority of the nomadic tribes. One
such example is the empire of the Huns, created by Modun. With the Turkic
way, the state is created in a region, peripheral to the steppe empire. Examples
of this are the Turks and the Zhuzhans, and the Uyghurs and the Turks. The
Hunnic way is associated with the migration of nomads to the territory of an
agricultural state and the subsequent subjugation of its sedentary population
(the Avars, Bulgars and the Magyars). And with the Khazar way of empire
establishment, the nomadic empires emerge from the division of already exist-
ing larger empires. This is the way the Eastern and Western Turkic Khaganates
were initially established; subsequently, the Khazar Khaganate emerged on
the basis of the Western one, along with the other, defined as quasi-imperial,
nomadic structures.47
Firstly, the state alliance of the Huns emerged much earlier than the time of
Modun.48 It existed in a state of constant rivalry with the Yuezhi. During the
reign of Modun’s father, the Huns were subjected to the Yuezhi, and Modun
himself was taken hostage by them.49 The rise of the Hunnu Empire resembles
more closely the Turkic version in N. Kradin’s model. After becoming ruler of
the Huns, Modun subjugated not only nomadic, but also sedentary communi-
ties or ones with a mixed economy. They all shared a common worldview and
culture and professed the same ideology, being part of the Turan world. These
conquests provided the Huns with an economic independence.50 In fact, the
Turkic version of empire establishment is typical for the emergence of most
steppe empires. The Huns and Turks strived to subjugate the steppe tribes, as
well as the population of the “peripheral” areas with a mixed economy, which
47 Kradin and Skrynnikova 2006, 123–124.
48 This is noted by Kradin 2001a, 31–32.
49 This is a fact that N. Kradin does not pay much attention to in this monograph on the
Huns (Kradin 2001a, 47ff ). In his opinion, the state of the Huns was the first “nomadic”
empire in Central Asia (Kradin 2001a, 234).
50 Kyzlasov 1998, 48.