Was the Hephthalite Empire in Central Asia the Cradle of the Justinianic Plague?

Abstract The origins and early diffusion of the Justinianic Plague likely involved the Hephthalite and Alkhan Huns as an essential conduit for the bacterium’s dispersal from Central Asia. Written and dna evidence together support this route of transmission. The plague is an enzootic bacterial disease, and dna suggests that the animal reservoirs hosting the lineage that gave rise to the pandemic lived near the Tianshan mountains. Written sources from the Roman Empire describe the plague’s appearance via the Red Sea, which suggests importation across the Indian Ocean. Connections emerge between the Hephthalite military campaigns both to the north and to the south, the presence of plague-bearing animals like camels and marmots, and routes of ancient trade. Several Buddhist sources echoing the situation in the last period of Hephthalite domination in India (c. 540 c.e.) report mass deaths, allegedly from massacres, which, according to associated details, can be reinterpreted as an epidemic. The proposed journey of the plague involved two major stages, first from Central Asia to India and then across maritime routes to Africa and the Red Sea. This hypothesis aligns with the available sources, offering a plausible model that is most consistent with written and genetic evidence.