The Eftalite state

For about 150 years, from the 420s to the 570s, much of Central Asia was under Eftalite rule. Different sources call this people by different names (for example, Haytal). Eftalite power reached as far as today’s Afghanistan, Pakistan, northern India and Eastern Turkestan; its first centres were Paykand and Varakhsha near Bukhara. In 484 the Sasanian king Peroz was killed in a war with the Eftalites, after which the Sasanians paid them a regular tribute counted in silver. Provinces were governed by local dynasties, some of which minted their own silver or copper coins; the throne passed not from father to son but to a worthy member of the dynasty. The Eftalites tried to control Silk Road trade, with the Sogdians acting as middlemen, and Sogdian was the international language of trade. In this period large canals such as the Zogʻariq, Boʻzsuv and Dargʻom were built, and glassmaking flourished. In 563–567 the state was struck from the north by the Turk Khaganate and from the south by the Sasanians, and collapsed.