The Iranian Huns are not to be confused with the European Huns led by Attila. A few reports exist from Late antiquity, coming from China and India where they are referred to as Hunas.  Much of the information comes from the study of coins, of which many have been found. These coins raise many problems of chronology and interpretation. Furthermore, coins of the Iranian Huns cannot always be assigned to a definite ruler.

In the fourth century, various Central Asian tribes began to attack the Persian Sasanian Empire. The sources sometimes call these people 'Huns', but their origin is unclear. It is probable that they were not related to the Huns who appeared on the south Russian steppe about 375 AD and attacked the Roman Empire. The two terms should be clearly separated. Like 'Scythian', ‘Hun’ in its various forms was used loosely by ancient historians to refer to various steppe tribes of which they knew little.  In modern research, it is often accepted that the term 'Hun' was often used, because of its fame, for various mixed groups and is not to be understood as the name of a concrete ethnic group.

The name Kidarites comes from their first known ruler, Kidara (circa 350–385). They made coins in imitation of the Kushano-Sasanids, who had previously ruled the area. Many coin hoards have been found in the Kabul area, which allows us to date the start of their rule to about 380. Kidarite coins found in Gandhara suggest that their rule sometimes extended into northern India. Their coins are inscribed in Bactrian, Sogdian and Middle Persian and in the Brahmi script.