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135-605: Hazar (also Khazar, a backformation of Russian: Хазар ) was the name of a Turkic people, the Khazars ( viz. ), who lived on the shores of the Caspian Sea and lent their tribal name to the body of water in several Turkic languages, including Turkmen . The current name of the city thus comes from the Turkmen name of the Caspian Sea. The former name, Çeleken (Cheleken), is the name of the former island, now peninsula, on which

270-765: A buffer state between the Byzantine Empire , the nomads of the northern steppes, and the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates, having previously served as the Byzantine Empire's proxy against the Sasanian Empire . The alliance was dissolved around the year 900 when Byzantium began encouraging the Alans to attack Khazaria. This move aimed to weaken Khazaria's control over Crimea and the Caucasus, for

405-527: A nomadic Turkic people that, in the late 6th century CE, established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia , southern Ukraine , Crimea , and Kazakhstan . They created what, for its duration, was the most powerful polity to emerge from the break-up of the Western Turkic Khaganate . Astride a major artery of commerce between Eastern Europe and Southwestern Asia , Khazaria became one of

540-431: A royal burial . At one period, travellers had to dismount, bow before the ruler's tomb, and then walk away on foot. Subsequently, the charismatic sovereign's burial place was hidden from view, with a palatial structure ("Paradise") constructed and then hidden under rerouted river water to avoid disturbance by evil spirits and later generations. Such a royal burial ground ( qoruq ) is typical of inner Asian peoples. Both

675-520: A shad/bäk and a qağan . The emergence of this system may be deeply entwined with the conversion to Judaism. According to Arabic sources, the lesser king was called îšâ and the greater king Khazar xâqân ; the former managed and commanded the military, while the greater king's role was primarily sacral, less concerned with daily affairs. The greater king was recruited from the Khazar house of notables ( ahl bait ma'rûfīn ) and, in an initiation ritual,

810-603: A clan. In terms of caste or class, some evidence suggests that there was a distinction, whether racial or social is unclear, between "White Khazars" (ak-Khazars) and "Black Khazars" (qara-Khazars). The 10th-century Muslim geographer al-Iṣṭakhrī claimed that the White Khazars were strikingly handsome with reddish hair, white skin, and blue eyes, while the Black Khazars were swarthy, verging on deep black as if they were "some kind of Indian ". Many Turkic nations had

945-616: A congeries of steppe nomads and peoples who came to be subordinated, and subscribed to a core Turkic leadership. Many Turkic groups, such as the Oğuric peoples , including Šarağurs , Oğurs, Onoğurs , and Bulğars who earlier formed part of the Tiele (Tiělè) confederation , are attested quite early, having been driven West by the Sabirs , who in turn fled the Asian Avars , and began to flow into

1080-598: A few of them managed to flee north. Despite their success, the Arabs had not yet defeated the Khazar army, and they retreated south of the Caucasus. In 724, the Arab general al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah al-Hakami inflicted a crushing defeat on the Khazars in a long battle between the rivers Cyrus and Araxes , then moved on to capture Tiflis , bringing Caucasian Iberia under Muslim suzerainty. The Khazars struck back in 726, led by

1215-589: A final mop-up operation in 659, but the two confederations of Bulğars and Khazars fought for supremacy on the western steppeland, and with the ascendency of the latter, the former either succumbed to Khazar rule or, as under Asparukh , Kubrat's son, shifted even further west across the Danube to lay the foundations of the First Bulgarian Empire in the Balkans ( c.  679 ). The Qağanate of

1350-486: A grape or raisin remained in the land, and not even alms for the poor were available. An attempt to rebuild may have been undertaken, since Ibn Hawqal and al-Muqaddasi refer to it after that date, but by Al-Biruni 's time (1048) it was in ruins. Although Poliak argued that the Khazar kingdom did not wholly succumb to Sviatoslav's campaign, but lingered on until 1224, when the Mongols invaded Rus' , by most accounts,

1485-413: A hundred talents for their ransom. These Alans therefore plundered the country without opposition, and with great ease, and proceeded as far as Armenia, laying waste all before them. Now, Tiridates was king of that country, who met them and fought them but was lucky not to have been taken alive in the battle; for a certain man threw a noose over him and would soon have drawn him in, had he not immediately cut

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1620-428: A joint Rus'-Byzantine attack on Khazaria in 1016, which defeated its ruler Georgius Tzul . The name suggests Christian affiliations. The account concludes by saying, that after Tzul's defeat, the Khazar ruler of "upper Media", Senaccherib, had to sue for peace and submission. In 1024 Mstislav of Chernigov (one of Vladimir's sons) marched against his brother Yaroslav with an army that included "Khazars and Kassogians" in

1755-532: A key role in the Khazar leadership, may reflect an Eastern Iranian or Tokharian word ( Khotanese Saka âşşeina-āššsena "blue"): Middle Persian axšaêna ("dark-coloured"): Tokharian A âśna ("blue", "dark"). The distinction appears to have survived the collapse of the Khazarian empire. Later Russian chronicles, commenting on the role of the Khazars in the magyarisation of Hungary, refer to them as "White Oghurs " and Magyars as " Black Oghurs ". Studies of

1890-547: A levy of one sable skin, squirrel pelt, sword, dirham per hearth or ploughshare, or hides, wax, honey and livestock, depending on the zone. Trade disputes were handled by a commercial tribunal in Atil consisting of seven judges, two for each of the monotheistic inhabitants (Jews, Muslims, Christians) and one for the pagans. Byzantine diplomatic policy towards the steppe peoples generally consisted of encouraging them to fight among themselves. The Pechenegs provided great assistance to

2025-437: A prince named Barjik , launching a major invasion of Albania and Azerbaijan; by 729, the Arabs had lost control of northeastern Transcaucasia and were thrust again into the defensive. In 730, Barjik invaded Iranian Azerbaijan and defeated Arab forces at Ardabil , killing the general al-Djarrah al-Hakami and briefly occupying the town. Barjik was defeated and killed the next year at Mosul , where he directed Khazar forces from

2160-506: A repulsed attempt to restore a kind of "Khazarian"-type dominion over Kiev. Ibn al-Athir 's mention of a "raid of Faḍlūn the Kurd against the Khazars" in 1030 CE, in which 10,000 of his men were vanquished by the latter, has been taken as a reference to such a Khazar remnant, but Barthold identified this Faḍlūn as Faḍl ibn Muḥammad and the "Khazars" as either Georgians or Abkhazians . A Kievian prince named Oleg, grandson of Jaroslav

2295-648: A retinue of some 4,000 attendants, dwelt, and Itil proper to the East, inhabited by Jews, Christians, Muslims and slaves and by craftsmen and foreign merchants. The Khazar Khaghanate played a key role in the trade between Europe and the Muslim world in the early middle ages. People taken captive during the viking raids in Europe, such as Ireland, could be transported to Hedeby or Brännö in Scandinavia and from there via

2430-458: A self-sufficient domestic Saltovo economy, a combination of traditional pastoralism – allowing sheep and cattle to be exported – extensive agriculture, abundant use of the Volga's rich fishing stocks, together with craft manufacture, with diversification in lucrative returns from taxing international trade given its pivotal control of major trade routes. The Khazar slave trade constituted one of

2565-473: A similar (political, not racial) division between a "white" ruling warrior caste and a "black" class of commoners; the consensus among mainstream scholars is that Istakhri was confused by the names given to the two groups. However, Khazars are generally described by early Arab sources as having a white complexion, blue eyes, and reddish hair. The ethnonym in the Tang Chinese annals, Ashina, often accorded

2700-593: A six-pointed star identical to the Star of David . The Khazar state was not the only Jewish state to rise between the fall of the Second Temple (67–70 CE) and the establishment of Israel (1948). A state in Yemen also adopted Judaism in the 4th century, lasting until the rise of Islam. The Khazar kingdom is said to have stimulated messianic aspirations for a return to Israel as early as Judah Halevi . In

2835-414: A throne mounted with al-Djarrah's severed head . In 737, Marwan Ibn Muhammad entered Khazar territory under the guise of seeking a truce. He then launched a surprise attack in which The Qaghan fled north and the Khazars surrendered. The Arabs did not have enough resources to influence the affairs of Transcaucasia. The Qağan was forced to accept terms involving his conversion to Islam, and subject himself to

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2970-534: Is a ghost word . In the fragmentary Tes and Terkhin inscriptions of the Uyğur empire (744–840) the form Qasar is attested, although uncertainty remains whether this represents a personal or tribal name, gradually other hypotheses emerged. Louis Bazin derived it from Turkic qas- ("tyrannize, oppress, terrorize") on the basis of its phonetic similarity to the Uyğur tribal name, Qasar. Róna-Tas connects qasar with Kesar ,

3105-594: Is a matter of intricate difficulty since no indigenous records in the Khazar language survived, and the state was polyglot and polyethnic . The native religion of the Khazars is thought to have been Tengrism like that of the North Caucasian Huns and other Turkic peoples . The polyethnic populace of the Khazar Khaganate appears to have been a multiconfessional mosaic of pagan , Tengrist, Jewish , Christian, and Muslim worshippers. Some of

3240-552: Is cognate with the name of the country Īrān (from the gen. plur. *aryānām ). The Alans were documented by foreign observers from the 1st century CE onward under similar names: Latin : Alānī ; Greek : Ἀλανοί Alanoi ; Chinese : 阿蘭聊 Alanliao ( Pinyin ; Alan + Liu ) in the 2nd century, 阿蘭 Alan in the 3rd century, later Alanguo ( 阿蘭國 ); Parthian and Middle Persian Alānān (plural); Arabic Alān (singular); Syriac Alānayē ; Classical Armenian Alank' ; Georgian Alaneti ('country of

3375-410: Is difficult, since no indigenous records in the Khazar language survive, and the state was polyglot and polyethnic . Whereas the royal or ruling elite probably spoke an eastern variety of Shaz Turkic , the subject tribes appear to have spoken varieties of Lir Turkic , such as Oğuric , a language variously identified with Bulğaric , Chuvash , and Hunnish . The latter based upon the assertion of

3510-492: Is most likely to have oily springs. Only, their scarceness makes this fact miraculous." In 1743, a Captain by the name of Woodruff of a British merchant company remarked that 36 Ogurdjali families resided on the island. They had 26 large boats and some oil wells . Prior to 1917, the Moscow Society, Cheleken-Dagestan Society, Kuzmin and Co, Bostondjoglo, South Caucasian Mining Society, and Second Moscow Group were among

3645-587: Is often associated with a Khazarian foundation. The construction of the Sarkel fortress , with technical assistance from Khazaria's Byzantine ally at the time, together with the minting of an autonomous Khazar coinage around the 830s, may have been a defensive measure against emerging threats from Varangians to the north and from the Magyars on the eastern steppe. By 860, the Rus' had penetrated as far as Kiev and, via

3780-524: Is sometimes associated with antisemitism and anti-Zionism . In Oghuz Turkic languages , the Caspian Sea is still named the " Khazar Sea ", an enduring legacy of the medieval Khazar state. Gyula Németh , following Zoltán Gombocz , derived Khazar from a hypothetical *Qasar reflecting a Turkic root qaz- ("to ramble, to roam") being an hypothetical retracted variant of Common Turkic kez- ; however, András Róna-Tas objected that * qaz-

3915-751: Is today North Caucasus – while some continued on to Europe and later North-Africa. They are generally regarded as part of the Sarmatians , and possibly related to the Massagetae . Modern historians have connected the Alans with the Central Asian Yancai of Chinese sources and with the Aorsi of Roman sources. Having migrated westwards and becoming dominant among the Sarmatians on

4050-603: The Alans , whose leader had converted to Christianity and entered into an alliance with Byzantium, which, under Leo VI the Wise , encouraged them to fight against the Khazars. By the 880s, Khazar control of the Middle Dnieper from Kiev, where they collected tribute from Eastern Slavic tribes, began to wane as Oleg of Novgorod wrested control of the city from the Varangian warlords Askold and Dir , and embarked on what

4185-679: The Aorsi ( Ancient Greek Αορσιοι ) ) had become a vassal state of the Kangju and was now known as Alan (< LHC: * ʔɑ-lɑn 阿蘭) Y. A. Zadneprovskiy suggests that the Kangju subjugation of Yancai occurred in the 1st century BCE, and that this subjugation caused various Sarmatian tribes, including the Aorsi, to migrate westwards, which played a major role in starting the Migration Period . The 3rd century Weilüe also notes that Yancai

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4320-782: The Aorsi , a powerful Sarmatian tribe living between the Don River and the Aral Sea , mentioned in Roman records, in particular Strabo . The Later Han dynasty Chinese chronicle, the Hou Hanshu , 88 (covering the period 25–220 and completed in the 5th century), mentioned a report that the Yancai nation (奄蔡 lit "Vast Steppes" or "Extensive Grasslands" < LHC * ʔɨam - sɑ ; a.k.a. Hesu (闔蘇), compare Latin Abzoae , identified with

4455-525: The Dnieper , Constantinople . Alliances often shifted. Byzantium, threatened by Varangian Rus' raiders, would assist Khazaria, and Khazaria at times allowed the northerners to pass through their territory in exchange for a portion of the booty. From the beginning of the 10th century, the Khazars found themselves fighting on multiple fronts as nomadic incursions were exacerbated by uprisings by former clients and invasions from former allies. The pax Khazarica

4590-739: The Germanic Goths expanded south-eastwards and broke the Alan dominance on the Pontic Steppe . The Alans however seem to have had a significant influence on the culture of the Goths, who became excellent horsemen and adopted the Alanic animal style art. (The Roman Empire, during the chaos of the 3rd century civil wars, suffered damaging raids by the Gothic armies with their heavy cavalry before

4725-976: The Hunnic defeat of the Goths on the Pontic Steppe around 375  CE , many of the Alans migrated westwards along with various Germanic tribes . They crossed the Rhine in 406   CE along with the Vandals and Suebi , settling in Orléans and Valence . Around 409 CE they joined the Vandals and Suebi in crossing the Pyrenees into the Iberian Peninsula , settling in Lusitania and Hispania Carthaginensis . The Iberian Alans, soundly defeated by

4860-617: The Illyrian Emperors adapted to the Gothic tactics, reorganized and expanded the Roman heavy cavalry, and defeated the Goths under Gallienus , Claudius II and Aurelian .) After the Gothic entry to the steppe, many of the Alans seem to have retreated eastwards towards the Don, where they seem to have established contacts with the Huns . Ammianus writes that the Alans were "somewhat like

4995-527: The Medes unexpectedly, and plundered their country, which they found full of people, and replenished with abundance of cattle, while nobody dared make any resistance against them; for Pacorus, the king of the country, had fled away for fear into places where they could not easily come at him, and had yielded up everything he had to them, and had only saved his wife and his concubines from them, and that with difficulty also, after they had been made captives, by giving

5130-713: The Pahlavi transcription of the Roman title Caesar . D. M. Dunlop tried to link the Chinese term for "Khazars" to one of the tribal names of the Uyğur, or Toquz Oğuz , namely the Qasar ( Ch. 葛薩 Gésà ). The objections are that Uyğur 葛薩 Gésà / Qasar was not a tribal name but rather the surname of the chief of the 思结 Sijie tribe ( Sogdian : Sikari ) of the Toquz Oğuz (Ch. 九姓 jĭu xìng ), and that in Middle Chinese

5265-523: The Pax Khazarica since the state became an international trading hub permitting Western Eurasian merchants safe transit across it to pursue their business without interference. The high status soon to be accorded this empire to the north is attested by Ibn al-Balḫî 's Fârsnâma (c. 1100), which relates that the Sasanian Shah, Ḫusraw 1, Anûsîrvân , placed three thrones by his own, one for

5400-773: The Pontic–Caspian steppe , the Alans are mentioned by Roman sources in the 1st century  CE . At that time they had settled the region north of the Black Sea and frequently raided the Parthian Empire and the South Caucasus provinces of the Roman Empire . From 215 to 250  CE the Goths broke their power on the Pontic Steppe , thereby assimilating a sizeable portion of the associated Alans. Upon

5535-548: The Rouran Khaganate of the hegemonic central Asian Avars in 552 and swept westwards, taking in their train other steppe nomads and peoples from Sogdiana . The ruling family of this confederation may have hailed from the Āshǐnà ( 阿史那 ) clan of the Western Turkic Khaganate , although Constantine Zuckerman regards Ashina and their pivotal role in the formation of the Khazars with scepticism. Golden notes that Chinese and Arabic reports are almost identical, making

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5670-456: The Samanid slave trade . The ruling elite wintered in the city and spent from spring to late autumn in their fields. A large irrigated greenbelt, drawing on channels from the Volga river, lay outside the capital, where meadows and vineyards extended for some 20 farsakhs (c. 60 miles). While customs duties were imposed on traders, and tribute and tithes were exacted from 25 to 30 tribes, with

5805-408: The Slavs , Merja and the Chud ' to unite to protect common interests against Khazarian exactions of tribute. It is often argued that a Rus' Khaganate modelled on the Khazarian state had formed to the east and that the Varangian chieftain of the coalition appropriated the title of qağan ( khagan ) as early as the 830s: the title survived to denote the princes of Kievan Rus' , whose capital, Kiev ,

5940-455: The Third Perso-Turkic War . A joint Byzantine-Tűrk operation breached the Caspian gates and sacked Derbent in 627. Together they then besieged Tiflis , where the Byzantines may have deployed an early variety of traction trebuchets ( ἑλέπόλεις ) to breach the walls. After the campaign, Tong Yabghu is reported, perhaps with some exaggeration, to have left some 40,000 troops behind with Heraclius. Although occasionally identified with Khazars,

6075-402: The Visigoths in 418 CE, subsequently surrendered their authority to the Hasdingi Vandals . In 428   CE, the Vandals and Alans crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into North Africa , where they founded a kingdom which lasted until its conquest by forces of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I in 534. Eventually in the 9th century those Alans who remained under Hunnic rule established

6210-416: The Volga trade route to Russia, where slaves and furs were sold to Muslim merchants in exchange for Arab silver dirham and silk , which have been found in Birka , Wollin and Dublin ; during the 8th- and 9th-century this trade route between Europe and the Abbasid Caliphate passed via the Khazar Kaghanate, until it was supplanted in the 10th-century by the route of Volga Bulgaria , Khwarazm , and

6345-467: The Volga – Caspian – Pontic zone from as early as the 4th century CE and are recorded by Priscus to reside in the Western Eurasian steppe lands as early as 463. They appear to stem from Mongolia and South Siberia in the aftermath of the fall of the Hunnic / Xiōngnú nomadic polities. A variegated tribal federation led by these Turks, probably comprising a complex assortment of Iranian , proto-Mongolic , Uralic , and Palaeo-Siberian clans, vanquished

6480-441: The emergence of a theory that the core of today's Ashkenazi Jews are descended from a hypothetical Khazarian Jewish diaspora that migrated westward from modern-day Russia and Ukraine into modern-day France and Germany. Linguistic and genetic studies have not supported the theory of a Khazar connection to Ashkenazi Jewry . The theory still finds occasional support, but most scholars view it with considerable scepticism. The theory

6615-422: The 2nd century BCE, the Alans were pushed west by the Kangju people (known to Graeco-Roman authors as the Ἰαξάρται Iaxártai in Greek, and the Iaxartae in Latin), the latter of whom were living in the Syr Darya basin, from where they expanded their rule from Fergana to the Aral Sea region. The first mentions of names that historians link with the Alani appear at almost the same time in texts from

6750-435: The 940s emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus was speculating in De Administrando Imperio about ways in which the Khazars could be isolated and attacked. The Byzantines during the same period began to attempt alliances with the Pechenegs and the Rus', with varying degrees of success. A further factor undermining the Khazar Qağanate was a shift in Islamic routes at this time, as Muslims in Khwarazmia forged trade links with

6885-520: The Abbasid Revolution and the fall of the Umayyad dynasty in 750. In 758, the Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur attempted to strengthen diplomatic ties with the Khazars, ordering Yazid ibn Usayd al-Sulami , one of his nobles and the military governor of Armenia , to take a royal Khazar bride. Yazid married a daughter of Khazar Khagan Baghatur , but she died inexplicably, possibly during childbirth. Her attendants returned home, convinced that some members of another Arab faction had poisoned her, and her father

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7020-418: The Alani. The 1st century CE Jewish historian Josephus supplements this inscription. Josephus reports in the Jewish Wars (book   7, ch.   7.4) how Alans (whom he calls a " Scythian " tribe) living near the Sea of Azov crossed the Iron Gates for plunder (72   CE) and defeated the armies of Pacorus , king of Media , and Tiridates , King of Armenia , two brothers of Vologeses I (for whom

7155-434: The Alans for the purpose of uniting a heterogeneous group of tribes through the invocation of a common, ancestral 'Aryan' origin. Like the name of Iran (* Aryānām ), the adjective * aryāna is related to Airyanəm Waēǰō ('stretch of the Aryas'), the mythical homeland of the early Iranians mentioned in the Avesta . Some other ethnonyms also bear the name of the Alans: the Rhoxolāni ('Bright Alans'), an offshoot of

7290-566: The Alans were "formerly called Massagetae ," while Dio Cassius wrote that "they are Massagetae." It is likely that the Alans were an amalgamation of various Iranian peoples , including Sarmatians , Massagetae and Sakas . Scholars have connected the Alans to the nomadic state of Yancai mentioned in Chinese sources. The Yancai are first mentioned in connection with late 2nd century BCE diplomat Zhang Qian's travels in Chapter 123 of Shiji (whose author, Sima Qian , died c. 90 BCE). The Yancai of Chinese records has again been equated with

7425-403: The Alans whose name may be linked to religious practices, and the Alanorsoi ('White Alans'), perhaps a conglomerate of Alans and Aorsi . The personal names Alan and Alain (from Latin Alanus ) may have been introduced by Alan settlers to Western Europe during the first millennium CE. The Alans were also known over the course of their history by another group of related names including

7560-417: The Alans'); Hebrew Alan (pl. Alanim ). Rarer Latin spellings include Alauni or Halani . The name was also preserved in the modern Ossetian language as Allon . The ethnonym Alān is a dialectal variant of the Old Iranian * Aryāna , itself derived from the root arya -, meaning ' Aryan ', the common self-designation of Indo-Iranian peoples . It probably came in use in the early history of

7695-411: The Arabs refrained from repeating an attack on the Khazars until the early 8th century. The Khazars launched a few raids into Transcaucasian principalities under Muslim dominion, including a large-scale raid in 683–685 during the Second Muslim Civil War that rendered much booty and many prisoners. There is evidence from the account of al-Tabari that the Khazars formed a united front with the remnants of

7830-431: The Arabs under Hasan ibn al-Nu'man . The conflict escalated in 722 with an invasion by 30,000 Khazars into Armenia inflicting a crushing defeat. Caliph Yazid II responded, sending 25,000 Arab troops north, swiftly driving the Khazars back across the Caucasus, recovering Derbent, and advancing on Balanjar. The Arabs broke through the Khazar defence and stormed the city; most of its inhabitants were killed or enslaved, but

7965-409: The Byzantines in the 9th century in exchange for regular payments. Byzantium also sought alliances with the Göktürks against common enemies: in the early 7th century, one such alliance was brokered with the Western Tűrks against the Persian Sasanians in the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 . The Byzantines called Khazaria Tourkía , and by the 9th century referred to the Khazars as "Turks". During

8100-471: The Caliphate, while it also conformed to a general Eurasian trend to embrace a world religion . Whatever the impact of Marwan's campaigns was, warfare between the Khazars and the Arabs ceased for more than two decades after 737. Arab raids continued to occur until 741, but their control of the region was limited because maintaining a large garrison at Derbent further depleted their already overstretched army. A third Muslim civil war soon broke out, leading to

8235-402: The Caspian Sea. By the early 2nd century CE the Alans were in firm control of the Lower Volga and Kuban . These lands had earlier been occupied by the Aorsi and the Siraces , whom the Alans apparently absorbed, dispersed and/or destroyed, since they were no longer mentioned in contemporaneous accounts. It is likely that the Alans' influence stretched further westwards, encompassing most of

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8370-401: The Caucasian Kassogians/ Circassians and then back to Kiev. Sarkel fell in 965, with the capital city of Atil following, c. 968 or 969. In the Russian chronicle, the vanquishing of the Khazar traditions is associated with Vladimir's conversion in 986. According to the Primary Chronicle , in 986 Khazar Jews were present at Vladimir 's disputation to decide on the prospective religion of

8505-407: The Crimea (650–c. 950), and even extended their influence into the Byzantine peninsula of Cherson until it was wrested back in the 10th century. Khazar and Farghânian (Φάργανοι) mercenaries constituted part of the imperial Byzantine Hetaireia bodyguard after its formation in 840, a position that could openly be purchased by a payment of seven pounds of gold. During the 7th and 8th centuries,

8640-401: The Duōlù clan leader, and the Nǔshībì subconfederation, also consisting of five tribes. The Duōlù challenged the Avars in the Kuban River - Sea of Azov area while the Khazar Qağanate consolidated further westwards, led apparently by an Ashina dynasty. With a resounding victory over the tribes in 657, engineered by General Sū Dìngfāng (蘇定方) , Chinese overlordship was imposed to their East after

8775-422: The Empire sought an entente with the rising power of the Kievan Rus’ in the north—a region they hoped to convert to Eastern Christianity . Between 965 and 969, Sviatoslav I of Kiev, the ruler of Kievan Rus', along with his allies, conquered the capital, Atil , thus ending Khazaria's independence. Determining the origins and nature of the Khazars is closely bound with theories of their languages . Still, it

8910-485: The Göktürk identification is more probable since the Khazars only emerged from that group after the fragmentation of the former sometime after 630. Some scholars argued that Sasanian Persia never recovered from the devastating defeat wrought by this invasion. Once the Khazars emerged as a power, the Byzantines also began to form alliances with them, dynastic and military. In 695, the last Heraclian emperor , Justinian II , nicknamed "the slit-nosed" (ὁ ῥινότμητος) after he

9045-434: The Göktürks in Transoxiana. The Second Arab-Khazar War began with a series of raids across the Caucasus in the early 8th century. The Umayyads tightened their grip on Armenia in 705 after suppressing a large-scale rebellion. In 713 or 714, the Umayyad general Maslamah conquered Derbent and drove deeper into Khazar territory. The Khazars launched raids in response into Albania and Iranian Azerbaijan but were driven back by

9180-434: The Hazar iodine plant will have a design capacity of 300 tonnes of iodine, plus 4500 tonnes of bromine per year. 39°26′42″N 53°06′54″E  /  39.445°N 53.115°E  / 39.445; 53.115 This Turkmenistan location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Khazars ( Tokhara Yabghus , Turk Shahis ) The Khazars ( / ˈ x ɑː z ɑːr z / ) were

9315-574: The Huns, but in their manner of life and their habits they are less savage." Jordanes contrasted them with the Huns, noting that the Alans "were their equals in battle, but unlike them in their civilisation, manners and appearance". In the late 4th century, Vegetius conflates Alans and Huns in his military treatise –  Hunnorum Alannorumque natio , the "nation of Huns and Alans" – and collocates Goths, Huns and Alans, exemplo Gothorum et Alannorum Hunnorumque . The 4th century Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus noted that

9450-430: The Kabars, started a series of raids from the Etelköz into the Carpathian Basin, mostly against the Eastern Frankish Empire (Germany) and Great Moravia , but also against the Lower Pannonian principality and Bulgaria . Then they together ended up at the outer slopes of Carpathians, and settled there. By the 9th century, groups of Varangian Rus' , developing a powerful warrior-merchant system, began probing south down

9585-412: The Khazar Qağanate, and raided down to the Caspian sea . The Schechter Letter relates the story of a campaign against Khazaria by HLGW (recently identified as Oleg of Chernigov) around 941 in which Oleg was defeated by the Khazar general Pesakh . The Khazar alliance with the Byzantine empire began to collapse in the early 10th century. Byzantine and Khazar forces may have clashed in the Crimea, and by

9720-547: The Khazar government included dignitaries referred to by ibn Fadlan as Jawyshyghr and Kündür , but their responsibilities are unknown. It has been estimated that 25 to 28 distinct ethnic groups made up the population of the Khazar Qağanate, aside from the ethnic elite. The ruling elite seems to have been constituted out of nine tribes/clans, themselves ethnically heterogeneous, spread over perhaps nine provinces or principalities, each of which would have been allocated to

9855-616: The Khazars (namely, the Kabars ) joined the ancient Hungarians in the 9th century. The ruling elite of the Khazars was said by Judah Halevi and Abraham ibn Daud to have converted to Rabbinic Judaism in the 8th century, but the scope of the conversion to Judaism within the Khazar Khanate remains uncertain. Where the Khazars dispersed after the fall of the Khanate is subject to many conjectures. Proposals have been made regarding

9990-829: The Khazars after his brother Roman was killed by their allies, the Polovtsi /Cumans. After one more conflict with these Polovtsi in 1106, the Khazars fade from history. By the 13th century they survived in Russian folklore only as "Jewish heroes" in the "land of the Jews". ( zemlya Jidovskaya ). By the end of the 12th century, Petachiah of Ratisbon reported travelling through what he called "Khazaria", and had little to remark on other than describing its minim (sectaries) living amidst desolation in perpetual mourning. The reference seems to be to Karaites. The Franciscan missionary William of Rubruck likewise found only impoverished pastures in

10125-570: The Khazars and the Abbasids were ultimately broken by a series of raids which occurred in 799, the raids occurred after another marriage alliance failed. Around 830, a rebellion broke out in the Khazar khaganate. As a result, three Kabar tribes of the Khazars (probably the majority of ethnic Khazars) joined the Hungarians and moved through Levedia to what the Hungarians call the Etelköz ,

10260-551: The Khazars fought a series of wars against the Umayyad Caliphate and its Abbasid successor. The First Arab-Khazar War began during the first phase of Muslim expansion . By 640, Muslim forces had reached Armenia; in 642 they launched their first raid across the Caucasus under Abd ar-Rahman ibn Rabiah . In 652 Arab forces advanced on the Khazar capital, Balanjar , but were defeated , suffering heavy losses; according to Persian historians such as al-Tabari , both sides in

10395-625: The Khazars thus took shape out of the ruins of this nomadic empire as it broke up under pressure from the Tang dynasty armies to the east sometime between 630 and 650. After their conquest of the lower Volga region to the East and an area westwards between the Danube and the Dniepr , and their subjugation of the Onoğur - Bulğar union, sometime around 670, a properly constituted Khazar Qağanate emerges, becoming

10530-521: The Kievan Rus'. Whether these were Jews who had settled in Kiev or emissaries from some Jewish Khazar remnant state is unclear. Conversion to one of the faiths of the people of Scripture was a precondition to any peace treaty with the Arabs, whose Bulgar envoys had arrived in Kiev after 985. A visitor to Atil wrote soon after the sacking of the city that its vineyards and garden had been razed, that not

10665-497: The King of China, a second for the King of Byzantium, and a third for the king of the Khazars. Although anachronistic in retrodating the Khazars to this period, the legend, in placing the Khazar qağan on a throne with equal status to kings of the other two superpowers, bears witness to the reputation won by the Khazars from early times. Khazaria developed a dual kingship governance structure, typical among Turkic nomads, consisting of

10800-604: The Mediterranean, Middle East and China. In the 1st century CE, the Alans migrated westwards from Central Asia , achieving a dominant position among the Sarmatians living between the Don River and the Caspian Sea . The Alans are mentioned in the Vologases inscription which reads that Vologases I , the Parthian king between around   45 and 78 CE, in the 11th year of his reign (62 CE), battled Kuluk , king of

10935-581: The Persian historian Istakhri the Khazar language was different from any other known tongue. Alano-As was also widely spoken. Eastern Common Turkic, the language of the royal house and its core tribes, in all likelihood remained the language of the ruling elite in the same way that Mongol continued to be used by the rulers of the Golden Horde, alongside of the Qipčaq Turkic speech spoken by the bulk of

11070-485: The Rus' in 911, a Varangian foray, with Khazar connivance, through Arab lands led to a request to the Khazar throne by the Khwârazmian Islamic guard for permission to retaliate against the large Rus' contingent on its return. The purpose was to revenge the violence the Rus' razzias had inflicted on their fellow Muslim believers. The Rus' force was thoroughly routed and massacred. The Khazar rulers closed

11205-485: The Rus'-Oghuz campaigns left Khazaria devastated, with perhaps many Khazarian Jews in flight, and leaving behind at best a minor rump state . It left little trace, except for some placenames, and much of its population was undoubtedly absorbed in successor hordes. Al-Muqaddasi , writing ca.985, mentions Khazar beyond the Caspian sea as a district of "woe and squalor", with honey, many sheep and Jews. Kedrenos mentions

11340-486: The Sarmatian world, which by then possessed a relatively homogenous culture. In 135  CE , the Alans made a huge raid into Asia Minor via the Caucasus, ravaging Media and Armenia. They were eventually driven back by Arrian , the governor of Cappadocia , who wrote a detailed report ( Ektaxis kata Alanoon or 'War Against the Alans') that is a major source for studying Roman military tactics . From 215 to 250,

11475-594: The Sasanian army in the Persian heartland, the Western Turkic Qağanate dissolved under pressure from the encroaching Tang dynasty armies and split into two competing federations, each consisting of five tribes, collectively known as the "Ten Arrows" ( On Oq ). Both briefly challenged Tang hegemony in eastern Turkestan. To the West, two new nomadic states arose in the meantime, Old Great Bulgaria under Kubrat ,

11610-514: The Turkic tribesmen that constituted the military force of this part of the Činggisid empire. Similarity, Oğuric, like Qipčaq Turkic in the Jočid realm, functioned as one of the languages of government. One method for tracing their origins consists in the analysis of the possible etymologies behind the ethnonym "Khazar". The tribes that were to comprise the Khazar empire were not an ethnic union, but

11745-647: The Volga by 549, ejecting the Avars, who were then forced to flee to the sanctuary of the Hungarian plain . The Ashina clan appeared on the scene by 552, when they overthrew the Rourans and established the Göktürk Qağanate , whose self designation was Tür(ü)k . By 568, these Göktürks were probing for an alliance with Byzantium to attack Persia . An internecine war broke out between the senior eastern Göktürks and

11880-552: The above-mentioned inscription was made): Now there was a nation of the Alans, which we have formerly mentioned somewhere as being Scythians, and living around Tanais and Lake Maeotis . This nation about this time laid a design of falling upon Media , and the parts beyond it, in order to plunder them; with which intention they treated with the king of Hyrcania ; for he was master of that passage which king Alexander shut up with iron gates. This king gave them leave to come through them; so they came in great multitudes, and fell upon

12015-606: The battle used catapults against the opposing troops. A number of Russian sources give the name of a Khazar khagan from this period as Irbis and describe him as a scion of the Göktürk royal house, the Ashina. Whether Irbis ever existed is open to debate, as is whether he can be identified with one of the many Göktürk rulers of the same name. Due to the outbreak of the First Muslim Civil War and other priorities,

12150-462: The bek sent out a body of troops, they would not retreat under any circumstances. If they were defeated, every one who returned was killed. Settlements were governed by administrative officials known as tuduns . In some cases, such as the Byzantine settlements in southern Crimea , a tudun would be appointed for a town nominally within another polity's sphere of influence . Other officials in

12285-538: The city is located. The word comes from Persian chahar kan چهارکن, meaning "four wells" or "four riches", referring to the wealth of petroleum found on the peninsula. This city and area are rich in petroleum oil reserves. As far back as the 1st century, the Greek philosopher Strabo said, "They say, diggers opened oily springs near the Okh River. Indeed, if a country has alkaline, asphalt, sticky, sulfurous waters, it

12420-542: The collapse of Khazar power in attributing its eclipse to the enfeebling effects of "false" religion. The decline was contemporary to that suffered by the Transoxiana Sāmānid empire to the east, both events paving the way for the rise of the Great Seljuq Empire , whose founding traditions mention Khazar connections. Whatever successor entity survived, it could no longer function as a bulwark against

12555-512: The connection a strong one, and conjectures that their leader may have been Yǐpíshèkuì ( 乙毗射匱 ), who lost power or was killed around 651. Moving west, the confederation reached the land of the Akatziroi , who had been important allies of Byzantium in fighting off Attila 's army. An embryonic state of Khazaria began to form sometime after 630, when it emerged from the breakdown of the larger Göktürk Khaganate . Göktürk armies had penetrated

12690-405: The cord with his sword and escaped. So the Alans, being still more provoked by this sight, laid waste the country, and drove a great multitude of the men, and a great quantity of the other booty from both kingdoms, along with them, and then retreated back to their own country. The fact that the Alans invaded Parthia through Hyrcania shows that at the time many Alans were still based north-east of

12825-615: The day for the Vandals in an armed encounter with the Franks at the crossing of the Rhine on December   31, 406). According to Gregory, another group of Alans, led by Goar , crossed the Rhine at the same time, but immediately joined the Romans and settled in Gaul. Under Beorgor ( Beorgor rex Alanorum ), they moved throughout Gaul, till the reign of Petronius Maximus , when they crossed

12960-632: The distinctive kaftan or riding habit of the nomadic Khazars, the tzitzakion (τζιτζάκιον), and this was adopted as a solemn element of imperial dress. The orderly hierarchical system of succession by "scales" ( lestvichnaia sistema :лествичная система) to the Grand Principate of Kiev was arguably modelled on Khazar institutions, via the example of the Rus' Khaganate . The proto-Hungarian Pontic tribe, while perhaps threatening Khazaria as early as 839 (Sarkel), practiced their institutional model, such as

13095-609: The dual rule of a ceremonial kende-kündü and a gyula administering practical and military administration, as tributaries of the Khazars. A dissident group of Khazars, the Qabars , joined the Hungarians in their migration westwards as they moved into Pannonia . Elements within the Hungarian population can be viewed as perpetuating Khazar traditions as a successor state. Byzantine sources refer to Hungary as Western Tourkia in contrast to Khazaria, Eastern Tourkia. The gyula line produced

13230-470: The established Russian oil companies. By 1925, after the establishment of Soviet Turkmenistan , wells had been nationalized and oil production decreased. By the late 1950s, oil production index went up again. Dragon Oil , a petroleum extraction firm owned by Emirates National Oil Company , is the major employer in Hazar and operates the oil loading terminal there. Following planned renovations and upgrades,

13365-570: The ethnonym "Khazars" was always prefaced with Tūjué , then still reserved for Göktürks and their splinter groups, ( Tūjué Kěsà bù :突厥可薩部; Tūjué Hésà :突厥曷薩) and "Khazar's" first syllable is transcribed with different characters (可 and 曷) than 葛, which is used to render the syllable Qa- in the Uyğur word Qasar . While it is far from given that the Khazars are not signifying a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual cluster of peoples and clans, some more nomadic, some less, it doesn't exclude that some clans, or splintergroups, or even rulers has identified with

13500-593: The foremost trading empires of the early medieval world, commanding the western marches of the Silk Road and playing a key commercial role as a crossroad between China , the Middle East , and Kievan Rus' . For some three centuries ( c.  650 –965), the Khazars dominated the vast area extending from the Volga-Don steppes to the eastern Crimea and the northern Caucasus . Khazaria long served as

13635-924: The fortress of Amadiya north of Mosul . His project was opposed by the rabbinical authorities and he was poisoned in his sleep. One theory maintains that the Star of David, until then a decorative motif or magical emblem, began to assume its national value in late Jewish tradition from its earlier symbolic use by Menachem. Alans Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European The Alans ( Latin : Alani ) were an ancient and medieval Iranic nomadic pastoral people who migrated to what

13770-640: The junior West Turkic Khaganate some decades later, when on the death of Taspar Qağan , a succession dispute led to a dynastic crisis between Taspar's chosen heir, the Apa Qağan , and the ruler appointed by the tribal high council, Āshǐnà Shètú (阿史那摄图), the Ishbara Qağan . By the first decades of the 7th century, the Ashina yabgu Tong managed to stabilise the Western division, but upon his death, after providing crucial military assistance to Byzantium in routing

13905-533: The kings of medieval Hungary through descent from Árpád , while the Qabars retained their traditions longer, and were known as "black Hungarians" ( fekete magyarság ). Some archaeological evidence from Čelarevo suggests the Qabars practised Judaism since warrior graves with Jewish symbols were found there, including menorahs , shofars , etrogs , lulavs , candlesnuffers, ash collectors, inscriptions in Hebrew, and

14040-524: The lower Volga area where Ital once lay. Giovanni da Pian del Carpine , the papal legate to the court of the Mongol Khan Guyuk at that time, mentioned an otherwise unattested Jewish tribe, the Brutakhi , perhaps in the Volga region. Although connections are made to the Khazars, the link is based merely on a common attribution of Judaism. The 10th century Zoroastrian Dênkart registered

14175-595: The name Ho-su 闔蘇, reconstructed in ‘Old Chinese’ as ĥa̱p-sa̱ĥ, can be compared with Abzoae found in Pliny VI, 38 (see also Pulleyblank (1968), p. 252). Also Humbach (1969), pp. 39–40, accepts the identification, though with some reserve. Around 370, according to Ammianus, the peaceful relations between the Alans and Huns were broken, after the Huns attacked the Don Alans, killing many of them and establishing an alliance with

14310-424: The name Irene. Constantine and Irene had a son, the future Leo IV (775–780) , who thereafter bore the sobriquet, "the Khazar". Leo died in mysterious circumstances after his Athenian wife bore him a son, Constantine VI , who on his majority co-ruled with his mother, the dowager. He proved unpopular, and his death ended the dynastic link of the Khazars to the Byzantine throne. By the 8th century, Khazars dominated

14445-484: The name(s) of the Khazars, in the variety of ways it has been expressed. After their conversion it is reported that they adopted the Hebrew script, and it is likely that, although speaking a Turkic language, the Khazar chancellery under Judaism probably corresponded in Hebrew . Determining the origins and nature of the Khazars is closely bound with theories of their languages , but analysis of their languages' origins

14580-506: The passage down the Volga to the Rus', sparking a war. In the early 960s, Khazar ruler Joseph wrote to Hasdai ibn Shaprut about the deterioration of Khazar relations with the Rus': "I protect the mouth of the river (Itil-Volga) and prevent the Rus arriving in their ships from setting off by sea against the Ishmaelites and (equally) all (their) enemies from setting off by land to Bab ." The Rus' warlords launched several wars against

14715-540: The period leading up to and after the siege of Constantinople in 626, Heraclius sought help via emissaries, and eventually personally, from a Göktürk chieftain of the Western Turkic Khaganate, Tong Yabghu Qağan , in Tiflis , plying him with gifts and the promise of marriage to his daughter, Epiphania . Tong Yabghu responded by sending a large force to ravage the Persian empire, marking the start of

14850-642: The permanent standing army indicate that it numbered as many as one hundred thousand. They controlled and exacted tribute from 25 to 30 different nations and tribes inhabiting the vast territories between the Caucasus, the Aral Sea, the Ural Mountains, and the Ukrainian steppes. Khazar armies were led by the Qağan Bek (pronounced as Kagan Bek) and commanded by subordinate officers known as tarkhans . When

14985-464: The physical remains, such as skulls at Sarkel , have revealed individuals belonging to the Slavic, other European, and a few Mongolian types. The import and export of foreign wares, and the revenues derived from taxing their transit, was a hallmark of the Khazar economy, although it is said also to have produced isinglass . Distinctively among the nomadic steppe polities, the Khazar Qağanate developed

15120-935: The possibility of a Khazar factor in the ethnogenesis of numerous peoples, such as the Hazaras , Hungarians , the Kazakhs , the Cossacks of the Don region and Ukraine , the Muslim Kumyks , the Turkic-speaking Krymchaks and their Crimean neighbours the Crimean Karaites , the Moldavian Csángós , the Mountain Jews , and even some Subbotniks (based on their Ukrainian and Cossack origin). The late 19th century saw

15255-502: The pressure east and south of nomad expansions. By 1043, Kimeks and Qipchaqs , thrusting westwards, pressured the Oğuz , who in turn pushed the Pechenegs west towards Byzantium's Balkan provinces. Khazaria nonetheless left its mark on the rising states and some of their traditions and institutions. Much earlier, Tzitzak , the Khazar wife of Leo III , introduced into the Byzantine court

15390-404: The recently converted Volga Bulgarian Muslims, a move which may have caused a drastic drop, perhaps up to 80%, in the revenue base of Khazaria, and consequently, a crisis in its ability to pay for its defence. Sviatoslav I finally succeeded in destroying Khazar imperial power in the 960s, in a circular sweep that overwhelmed Khazar fortresses like Sarkel and Tamatarkha , and reached as far as

15525-499: The regionally powerful kingdom of Alania . It survived until the Mongol invasions of the 13th century CE. Various scholars regard these Alans as the ancestors of the modern Ossetians. The Alans spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into the modern Ossetian language . The name Alan represents an Eastern Iranian dialectal form of Old Iranian term Aryan , and so

15660-553: The rule of the Caliphate, but the accommodation was short-lived because a combination of internal instability among the Umayyads and Byzantine support undid the agreement within three years, and the Khazars re-asserted their independence. The suggestion that the Khazars adopted Judaism as early as 740 is based on the idea that, in part, it was, a re-assertion of their independence from the rule of both regional powers, Byzantium and

15795-544: The subject populations, were protected by a Khwârazmian guard corps, or comitatus , called the Ursiyya . But unlike many other local polities, they hired soldiers (mercenaries) (the junûd murtazîqa in al-Mas'ûdî ). At the peak of their empire, the Khazars ran a centralised fiscal administration, with a standing army of some 7–12,000 men, which could, at need, be multiplied two or three times that number by inducting reserves from their nobles' retinues. Other figures for

15930-457: The survivors. These Alans successfully invaded the Goths in 375 together with the Huns. They subsequently accompanied the Huns in their westward expansion. Following the Hunnic invasion in 370, other Alans, along with other Sarmatians , migrated westward. One of these Alan groups fought together with the Goths in the decisive Battle of Adrianople in 378   CE, in which emperor Valens

16065-647: The territory between the Carpathians and the Dnieper River . The Hungarians faced their first attack by the Pechenegs around 854, though other sources state that an attack by Pechenegs was the reason for their departure to Etelköz. The new neighbours of the Hungarians were the Varangians and the eastern Slavs . From 862 onwards, the Hungarians (already referred to as the Ungri ) along with their allies,

16200-437: The throne. The Khazarian spouse thereupon changed her name to Theodora . Busir was offered a bribe by the Byzantine usurper, Tiberius III , to kill Justinian. Warned by Theodora, Justinian escaped, murdering two Khazar officials in the process. He fled to Bulgaria, whose Khan Tervel helped him regain the throne. Upon his reinstalment, and despite Busir's treachery during his exile, he sent for Theodora; Busir complied, and she

16335-495: The time of the Egyptian vizier Al-Afdal Shahanshah (d. 1121), one Solomon ben Duji, often identified as a Khazarian Jew, attempted to advocate for a messianic effort for the liberation of, and return of all Jews to, Palestine. He wrote to many Jewish communities to enlist support. He eventually moved to Kurdistan where his son Menachem some decades later assumed the title of Messiah and, raising an army for this purpose, took

16470-620: The two great furnishers of slaves to the Muslim market to slavery in the Abbasid Caliphate (the other being the Iranian Sâmânid amîrs ), supplying it with captured Slavs and tribesmen from the Eurasian northlands. It profited from the latter which enabled it to maintain a standing army of Khwarezm Muslim troops. The capital Atil reflected the division: Kharazān on the western bank where the king and his Khazar elite, with

16605-408: The variations Asi , As , and Os ( Romanian Iasi or Olani , Bulgarian Uzi , Hungarian Jász , Russian Jasy , Georgian Osi ). It is this name at the root of the modern Ossetian . The Alans were formed out of the merger of the Massagetae , a Central Asian Iranian nomadic people, with some old tribal groups. Related to the Asii who had invaded Bactria in

16740-422: The waterways controlled by the Khazars and their protectorate, the Volga Bulgarians , partially in pursuit of the Arab silver that flowed north for hoarding through the Khazarian-Volga Bulgarian trading zones, partially to trade in furs and ironwork. Northern mercantile fleets passing Atil were tithed, as they were at Byzantine Cherson . Their presence may have prompted the formation of a Rus' state by convincing

16875-399: The westernmost successor state of the formidable Göktürk Qağanate after its disintegration. According to Omeljan Pritsak , the language of the Onoğur-Bulğar federation was to become the lingua franca of Khazaria as it developed into what Lev Gumilev called a "steppe Atlantis" ( stepnaja Atlantida / Степная Атлантида). Historians have often referred to this period of Khazar domination as

17010-526: The îšâ and the xâqân converted to Judaism sometime in the 8th century, while the rest, according to the Persian traveller Ahmad ibn Rustah , probably followed the old Tūrkic religion. The ruling stratum, like that of the later Činggisids within the Golden Horde , was a relatively small group that differed ethnically and linguistically from its subject peoples, meaning the Alano-As and Oğuric Turkic tribes, who were numerically superior within Khazaria. The Khazar Qağans, while taking wives and concubines from

17145-447: Was caught in a pincer movement between steppe Pechenegs and the strengthening of an emergent Rus' power to the north, both undermining Khazaria's tributary empire. According to the Schechter Text , the Khazar ruler King Benjamin (ca.880–890) fought a battle against the allied forces of five lands whose moves were perhaps encouraged by Byzantium. Although Benjamin was victorious, his son Aaron II faced another invasion, this time led by

17280-420: Was crowned as Augusta, suggesting that both prized the alliance. Decades later, Leo III (ruled 717–741) made a similar alliance to co-ordinate strategy against a common enemy, the Muslim Arabs . He sent an embassy to the Khazar qağan Bihar and married his son, the future Constantine V (ruled 741–775), to Bihar's daughter, a princess referred to as Tzitzak , in 732. On converting to Christianity, she took

17415-406: Was enraged. The Khazar general Ras Tarkhan invaded regions which were located south of the Caucasus in 762–764, devastating Albania, Armenia, and Iberia, and capturing Tiflis. Thereafter, relations between the Khazars and the Abbasids became increasingly cordial, because the foreign policies of the Abbasids were generally less expansionist than the foreign policies of the Umayyads, relations between

17550-417: Was killed. As the Roman Empire continued to decline , the Alans split into various groups; some fought for the Romans while others joined the Huns, Visigoths or Ostrogoths . A portion of the western Alans joined the Vandals and the Suebi in their invasion of Roman Gaul . Gregory of Tours mentions in his Liber historiae Francorum ("Book of Frankish History") that the Alan king Respendial saved

17685-425: Was mutilated and deposed, was exiled to Cherson in the Crimea , where a Khazar governor ( tudun ) presided. He escaped into Khazar territory in 704 or 705 and was given asylum by qağan Busir Glavan (Ἰβουζῆρος Γλιαβάνος), who gave him his sister in marriage, perhaps in response to an offer by Justinian, who may have thought a dynastic marriage would seal by kinship a powerful tribal support for his attempts to regain

17820-445: Was nearly strangled until he declared the number of years he wished to reign, on the expiration of which he would be killed by the nobles . The deputy ruler would enter the presence of the reclusive greater king only with great ceremony, approaching him barefoot to prostrate himself in the dust and then light a piece of wood as a purifying fire, while waiting humbly and calmly to be summoned. Particularly elaborate rituals accompanied

17955-418: Was reportedly kidnapped by "Khazars" in 1079 and shipped off to Constantinople , although most scholars believe that this is a reference to the Cumans - Kipchaks or other steppe peoples then dominant in the Pontic region. Upon his conquest of Tmutarakan in the 1080s Oleg Sviatoslavich, son of a prince of Chernigov, gave himself the title " Archon of Khazaria". In 1083 Oleg is said to have exacted revenge on

18090-577: Was then known to be Alans, although they were no longer vassals of the Kangju. Dutch Sinologist A. F. P. Hulsewé noted that: Chavannes (1905), p. 558, note 5, approves of the identification of Yen-ts’ai with the ‘Αορσοι mentioned by Strabo, as proposed by Hirth (1885), p. 139, note 1 ; he believes this identification to be strengthened by the later name Alan, which explains Ptolemy's "Alanorsi". Marquart (1905), pp. 240–241, did not accept this identification, but Pulleyblank (1963), pp. 99 and 220, does, referring for additional support to HSPC 70.6b where

18225-406: Was to prove to be the foundation of a Rus' empire. The Khazars had initially allowed the Rus' to use the trade route along the Volga River, and raid southwards. See Caspian expeditions of the Rus' . According to Al-Mas'udi , the qağan is said to have given his assent on the condition that the Rus' give him half of the booty. In 913, however, two years after Byzantium concluded a peace treaty with

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