Étienne de la Vaissière, Is There a “Nationality of the Hephtalites”?
This paper deals with the Chinese sources on the Hephtalites, showing
that the oldest one was not fully analyzed. It demonstrates that the
Hephtalites arrived in Central Asia in the fourth century and that
there was only one wave of nomadic invasions. The Hephtalites should be
regarded as a tribal and political confederation, and certainly not as
a linguistic or ethnic one.