| NEZAK HUNS: 'Nezak Malka', 630-711, AE drachm 3.75g – 26.3 mm. King's bust in profile right with long mustache; wearing a winged crown with a buffalo’s head and a crescent, Pahlavi legend nycky MLK–a // fire altar between two attendants with wheel symbols either side of flames, Type 198, Zeno "a" group, perhaps minted by a local dynasty in the Kabul Valley, excellent strike and attractive patina, Mitch-1510. Rare. XF. The issuers of this type are often referred to as Hunas, Indo-Hepthalites, Turco-Hepthalites, Nezak Huns or sometimes White Huns. "Nezak Malka" the legend on this coin, is probably a title, not the name of a king. The Nezak Malkas were a Turco-Hephthalite dynasty who ruled Kabul, Ghazni and Gandhara as vassals of the Western Turk Yabghu enthroned at Qunduz. In 711, the scion of the junior branch of the Nezak dynasty in Zabulistan unseated his relative, the Nezak Malka at Kabul. In recent years, the dating of these coins has been placed firmly in the 7th century rather than the 6th as previously thought (Göbl, Mitchiner, etc.), thus placing the Nezak "Huns" in the Turkic period rather than the Hephthali |