One of the nations in the Hunnish tribal confederacy. The Akatziroi were ruled by a king called Karadach

Karadach

Karadach was a warlord of the Akatziroi during the reign of Attila. A vassal of the Hunnish king, Karadach was courted by Roman diplomats as a potential ally against the Huns, but to no avail. He was succeeded by Dengizich....

 or Karidachus, and appear in the account of Priscus

Priscus

Priscus of Panium was a late Roman diplomat, sophist and historian from Rumelifeneri living in the Roman Empire during the 5th century. He accompanied Maximinus, the ambassador of Theodosius II, to the court of Attila in 448...

. Dengizich

Dengizich

Dengizich , ruler of the Akatziroi, was a son of Attila. The other forms of his name are Denzic and Dintzic...

 ruled them after Karadach.

Some scholars have speculated that the Akatziroi were in fact early Khazars

Khazars

The Khazars were semi-nomadic Turkic people who established one of the largest polities of medieval Eurasia, with the capital of Atil and territory comprising much of modern-day European Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the northern Caucasus , parts of...

, hypothesizing that their name derives from the Turkic "Ak-Khazar", or "White Khazar", the name of the group of tribes composing the warrior aristocracy

Aristocracy

Aristocracy , is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy...

 of the Khazar nation. Alternatively, some have suggested that the name refers to the Thraco-Dacian tribe of the Agathyrsi

Agathyrsi

Agathyrsi were a people of Scythian, Thracian, or mixed Thraco-Scythic origin, who in the time of Herodotus occupied the plain of the Maris , in the mountainous part of ancient Dacia now known as Transylvania, Romania...

.