Kursich

Kursich was a leader of the Huns. Together with Basich he led a raid into Media.^[1] The western envoy Romulus told Priscus of it at Attila’s court. In a famine the two leaders, sprung from the royal Scythians, crossed a desert, a marsh and mountains into Media. A Persian army drove them back. They went home by another road, past a place where flame burns out of a rock by the sea.^[1] Basich and Kursich later came to Rome with a great number of men to make an alliance.^[1]

One view places the raid in 395, when the Huns broke through the Caucasus.^[2] The group under Basich and Kursich then rode as far as Ctesiphon before the Persians drove it back.^[3]^[4] A second view dates the raid to about 415 to 420 or a little later.^[5]

Apa Kurçik

Stone fragments with runic writing, found in illicit digging in Syria between 2013 and 2015, commemorate one Apa Kurçik.^[6] One account identifies him with the Hun leader who invaded the Caucasus in 395 and 396.^[6] It renders the text: “His faithful companions let Kurçik rest in peace.” Since the Huns did reach Syria at that time, it holds, the text may be authentic. It would then prove the use of a script identical with the Orkhon script long before the Göktürks.^[6]

Name

The name occurs in Priscus only in this passage.^[7] Some scholars divide it as Kurs-ik, with a Turkish diminutive ending. They compare Kurs with Churs, a prince of Gardman in north-eastern Armenia, and count it among the names of the Huns of mixed origin.^[8] Others derive it from a Turkic word meaning brave-like or noble-like.^[4]

References

^ a b c Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 90
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 51–52
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 52
^ a b Golden 1992, p. 90
^ Thompson 1948, p. 30–31
^ a b c Yavuz 2025, p. 92
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 382
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 404, 422, 441

Sources

Priscus

Literature

Karl Müller (ed.), Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, Bd. IV (darin: Menandri Protectoris fragmenta, griechisch mit lateinischer Übersetzung) (1851)
Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen, The World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture (1973)
E. A. Thompson, A History of Attila and the Huns (1948)
Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992)
Emre-E. Yavuz, The Gokturk Empire: 2nd Edition (2025)