Alania was a medieval kingdom of the Iranian Alans ( Proto-Ossetians ) that flourished between the 9th–13th centuries in the Northern Caucasus , roughly in the location of the latter-day Circassia , Chechnya , Ingushetia , and modern North Ossetia–Alania . With its capital at Maghas , the location of which is still disputed, it became independent from the Khazars in the late 9th century. It was Christianized by a Byzantine missionary soon after, in the early 10th century.
209-654: Reaching its peak in the 11th century, under the rule of King Durgulel , it profited from controlling a vital trade route through the Darial Pass . It maintained close relations not only with the Byzantine Empire but also the Kingdom of Georgia , as well as the small Dagestani kingdom of Sarir ; the first two also employed Alan mercenaries, who were infamous horsemen. It was responsible for spreading Orthodox Christianity among neighbouring pagan peoples such as
418-636: A Byzantine -led coalition during the reign of the Khazar king Benjamin . According to the anonymous author of the Schechter Letter , many Alans were during this period adherents of Judaism . In the late 9th century, Alania became independent from the Khazars. In the early 10th century, the Alans fell under the influence of the Byzantine Empire due to King Constantine III of Abkhazia 's activities in
627-539: A "complex network of trade routes" that gave people the chance to exchange goods and culture. A maritime Silk Route opened up between Chinese-controlled Giao Chỉ (centred in modern Vietnam , near Hanoi ), probably by the 1st century. It extended, via ports on the coasts of India and Sri Lanka , all the way to Roman -controlled ports in Roman Egypt and the Nabataean territories on the northeastern coast of
836-596: A "silk" one in particular. William Dalrymple points out that in pre-modern times, maritime travel cost only a fifth of overland transport, and argues for the pre-13th century primacy of an India-dominated " Golden Road " extending from Rome to Japan. The southern stretches of the Silk Road, from Khotan ( Xinjiang ) to Eastern China, were first used for jade and not silk, as long as 5000 BCE , and are still in use for this purpose. The term "Jade Road" would have been more appropriate than "Silk Road" had it not been for
1045-755: A Chinese tomb of Shanxi province dated to the Sui dynasty (581–618). Both the Old Book of Tang and New Book of Tang , covering the history of the Chinese Tang dynasty (618–907), record that a new state called Fu-lin (拂菻; i.e. Byzantine Empire) was virtually identical to the previous Daqin (大秦; i.e. Roman Empire). Several Fu-lin embassies were recorded for the Tang period, starting in 643 with an alleged embassy by Constans II (transliterated as Bo duo li , 波多力, from his nickname "Kōnstantinos Pogonatos") to
1254-603: 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
1463-608: A confederation led by a certain Ajis. The climax of the invasion was the siege of Maghas, which began in November or December 1239 and lasted until February 1240. Aided by Alan auxiliaries, the fortress eventually fell and the population got massacred. Ajis himself was captured. Many Alans fled westwards until reaching Hungary probably still in 1239, where they became known as the Jassic people ( jászsok ) who preserved their language until
1672-822: A contemporary Greek seal where he styled himself by the Byzantine title exousiokrator . Alania is not mentioned in East Slavic chronicles, but archaeology indicates that the Alans maintained trade contacts with the Rus' principality of Tmutarakan . There is a stone grave cross, with a Cyrillic inscription from 1041, standing on the bank of the Bolshoi Yegorlyk River in present-day Stavropol Krai , immediately north of Alania. Two Russian crosses, datable to ca. 1200, were discovered by archaeologists in Arkhyz ,
1881-631: A contingent of Roman legionaries. The Romans may have been part of Antony 's army invading Parthia . Sogdiana (modern Bukhara ), east of the Oxus River, on the Polytimetus River, was apparently the most easterly penetration ever made by Roman forces in Asia. The margin of Chinese victory appears to have been their crossbows, whose bolts and darts seem easily to have penetrated Roman shields and armour. The Han dynasty army regularly policed
2090-729: 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 the Sasanian army in the Persian heartland,
2299-599: 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
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#17327657361572508-486: 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,
2717-573: 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- 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
2926-428: 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
3135-532: 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
3344-737: A leading astronomer and physician in Khanbaliq , at the court of Kublai Khan , Mongol founder of the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) and was even granted the noble title 'Prince of Fu lin' ( Chinese : 拂菻王; Fú lǐn wáng). The Uyghur Nestorian Christian diplomat Rabban Bar Sauma , who set out from his Chinese home in Khanbaliq (Beijing) and acted as a representative for Arghun (a grandnephew of Kublai Khan), traveled throughout Europe and attempted to secure military alliances with Edward I of England , Philip IV of France , Pope Nicholas IV , as well as
3553-547: 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
3762-405: A means of currency, just as valuable as silk yarn and textiles. Under its strong integrating dynamics on the one hand and the impacts of change it transmitted on the other, tribal societies previously living in isolation along the Silk Road, and pastoralists who were of barbarian cultural development, were drawn to the riches and opportunities of the civilisations connected by the routes, taking on
3971-486: A number of important technologies, and in addition to raiding vulnerable settlements for these commodities, they also encouraged long-distance merchants as a source of income through the enforced payment of tariffs. Sogdians played a major role in facilitating trade between China and Central Asia along the Silk Roads as late as the 10th century, their language serving as a lingua franca for Asian trade as far back as
4180-573: A powerful and influential among the neighboring rulers, he can muster 30,000 horsemen. He also said "The Alan kingdom consisted of an uninterrupted series of settlements; when the cock crows (in one of them), the answer comes from the other parts of the kingdom, because the villages are intermingled and close together." According to Ḥodūd al-ʿālam , Alania is described as a vast country with 1,000 settlements. The population consisted of both Christians and Pagans , mountaineers and nomads. The Alans (Alani) originated as an Iranian -speaking subdivision of
4389-437: 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
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#17327657361574598-506: 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
4807-648: 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
5016-458: 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
5225-473: 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
5434-593: 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
5643-414: 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
5852-625: Is cognate with the name of Iran ( Ērān ), which stems from the Old Persian *Aryānām ('of the Aryans') . In other sources, they're mentioned as “Ās”. In Russian chronicles and Hungarian sources they're called “Yas”. The Caucasian Alans occupied part of the Caucasian plain and the foothills of the main mountain chain from the headwaters of the Kuban river and its tributary, Zelenchuk in
6061-471: Is Christian at heart, but all his people are idolaters. Then you travel for ten days among rivers and woods before arriving at a fortress called the " Gate of the Alans ". It stands on the top of a mountain at the foot of which there is a road; high mountains surround it and a thousand men from among its inhabitants guard its walls day and night. After the downfall of Khazaria, the Alan kings frequently allied with
6270-571: Is a modern name, acquired from its similarity to the overland Silk Road. Like the overland routes, the ancient maritime routes through Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean had no particular name for the majority of its very long history. Despite the modern name, the Maritime Silk Road involved exchanges in a wide variety of goods over a very wide region, not just silk or Asian exports. It differed significantly in several aspects from
6479-587: 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
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6688-793: The Alans ], Lijian [Syria under the Greek Seleucids], Tiaozhi (Mesopotamia), and Tianzhu [northwestern India] ... As a rule, rather more than ten such missions went forward in the course of a year, and at the least five or six. ( Hou Hanshu , Later Han History). These connections marked the beginning of the Silk Road trade network that extended to the Roman Empire. The Chinese campaigned in Central Asia on several occasions, and direct encounters between Han troops and Roman legionaries (probably captured or recruited as mercenaries by
6897-603: 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
7106-656: The Berel burial ground in Kazakhstan , confirmed that the nomadic Arimaspians were not only breeding horses for trade but also produced great craftsmen able to propagate exquisite art pieces along the Silk Road. From the 2nd millennium BCE, nephrite jade was being traded from mines in the region of Yarkand and Khotan to China. Significantly, these mines were not very far from the lapis lazuli and spinel ("Balas Ruby") mines in Badakhshan , and, although separated by
7315-513: The Byzantines and various Georgian rulers for protection against encroachments by northern steppe peoples such as the Pechenegs and Kipchaks . John Skylitzes reports that Alda of Alania , after the death of her husband, "George of Abasgia" (i.e., George I of Georgia ), received Anakopia as a maritime fief from Emperor Romanus III . This happened in 1033, the year when the Alans and
7524-582: The Circassians and Vainakhs . The kingdom eventually declined from the 12th century and had largely ceased to function as a political entity by the early 13th century. In 1239/1240 the Mongols invaded , stormed and destroyed the capital, Maghas, in the process. The name Alania derives from the Old Iranian stem * Aryāna- , a derivative form of the Indo-Iranian stem * arya - (' Aryan '). It
7733-525: 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
7942-849: The Hungarian plain and the Carpathian Mountains to the Chinese Gansu Corridor, and linking the Middle East with Northern India and the Punjab , undoubtedly played an important role in the development of the Silk Road. Scythians accompanied the Assyrian Esarhaddon on his invasion of Egypt, and their distinctive triangular arrowheads have been found as far south as Aswan . These nomadic peoples were dependent upon neighbouring settled populations for
8151-779: The Karakum Desert . Both routes joined the main southern route before reaching ancient Merv , Turkmenistan. Another branch of the northern route turned northwest past the Aral Sea and north of the Caspian Sea , then and on to the Black Sea. A route for caravans, the northern Silk Road brought to China many goods such as "dates, saffron powder and pistachio nuts from Persia; frankincense , aloes and myrrh from Somalia ; sandalwood from India; glass bottles from Egypt, and other expensive and desirable goods from other parts of
8360-564: The Kushan Empire between the first and third centuries reinforced the role of the powerful merchants from Bactria and Taxila . They fostered multi-cultural interaction as indicated by their 2nd century treasure hoards filled with products from the Greco-Roman world, China, and India, such as in the archeological site of Begram . The Silk Road trade did not sell only textiles, jewels, metal and cosmetic, but also slaves, connecting
8569-937: The Magyars , Armenians , and Chinese. The Silk Road reached its peak in the west during the time of the Byzantine Empire ; in the Nile- Oxus section, from the Sassanid Empire period to the Il Khanate period; and in the sinitic zone from the Three Kingdoms period to the Yuan dynasty period. Trade between East and West also developed across the Indian Ocean , between Alexandria in Egypt and Guangzhou in China. Persian Sassanid coins emerged as
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8778-409: The Malay Peninsula , and the Mekong Delta ; through which passed the main routes of the Austronesian trade ships to Giao Chỉ (in the Tonkin Gulf ) and Guangzhou (southern China ), the endpoints (later also including Quanzhou by the 10th century CE). Secondary routes also passed through the coastlines of the Gulf of Thailand ; as well as through the Java Sea , Celebes Sea , Banda Sea , and
8987-414: The Maldives . It branches from here into routes through the Arabian Sea entering the Gulf of Oman (into the Persian Gulf ), and the Gulf of Aden (into the Red Sea ). Secondary routes also pass through the coastlines of the Bay of Bengal , the Arabian Sea, and southwards along the coast of East Africa to Zanzibar , the Comoros , Madagascar , and the Seychelles . The term "Maritime Silk Road"
9196-439: 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 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
9405-406: The Persian Gulf and Red Sea into Persia , Mesopotamia (sailing up the Euphrates River in modern-day Iraq ), Arabia , Egypt , Aksum (Ethiopia), and Somalia in the Horn of Africa . The Silk Road represents an early phenomenon of political and cultural integration due to inter-regional trade. In its heyday, it sustained an international culture that strung together groups as diverse as
9614-594: The Red Sea . The earliest Roman glassware bowl found in China was unearthed from a Western Han tomb in Guangzhou , dated to the early 1st century BCE, indicating that Roman commercial items were being imported through the South China Sea . According to Chinese dynastic histories , it is from this region that the Roman embassies arrived in China, beginning in 166 CE during the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Emperor Huan of Han . Other Roman glasswares have been found in Eastern-Han-era tombs (25–220 CE) further inland in Luoyang , Nanyang , and Nanjing . Soon after
9823-402: 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
10032-407: The Sarmatians . They were split by the invasion of the Huns into two parts, the European and the Caucasian. The Caucasian Alans occupied part of the North Caucasian plain and the foothills of the main mountain chain from the headwaters of the Kuban River in the west to the Darial Gorge in the east. Alania was an important buffer state during the Byzantine-Arab Wars and Khazar-Arab Wars of
10241-411: The Sasanian Empire that allowed the Byzantines to bypass the Sasanian merchants and trade directly with the Sogdians for purchasing Chinese silk. Although the Byzantines had already procured silkworm eggs from China by this point, the quality of Chinese silk was still far greater than anything produced in the West, a fact that is perhaps emphasized by the discovery of coins minted by Justin II found in
10450-458: The Silla Kingdom in Gyeongju , Korea. Chinese wealth grew as they delivered silk and other luxury goods to the Roman Empire, whose wealthy women admired their beauty. The Roman Senate issued, in vain, several edicts to prohibit the wearing of silk, on economic and moral grounds: the import of Chinese silk caused a huge outflow of gold, and silk clothes were considered decadent and immoral. I can see clothes of silk, if materials that do not hide
10659-408: 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 ,
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#173276573615710868-432: The Sulu Sea , reconnecting with the main route through the northern Philippines and Taiwan . The secondary routes also continue onward to the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea for a limited extent. The main route of the western regions of the Maritime Silk Road directly crosses the Indian Ocean from the northern tip of Sumatra (or through the Sunda Strait ) to Sri Lanka , southern India and Bangladesh , and
11077-455: 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,
11286-400: 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 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
11495-416: 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
11704-435: The Wusun . Zhang Qian's report suggested the economic reason for Chinese expansion and wall-building westward, and trail-blazed the Silk Road, making it one of the most famous trade routes in history and in the world. After winning the War of the Heavenly Horses and the Han–Xiongnu War , Chinese armies established themselves in Central Asia, initiating the Silk Route as a major avenue of international trade. Some say that
11913-472: The conquest of the Southern Song and Dali . They became known as asud in Mongolian or asu in Mandarin and were part of the privileged semu class, foreigners from western and central Asia who were employed in the administration and the higher echelons of the military. When Kubilai Khan , who had a daughter with an Alan woman himself, founded the Yuan Dynasty in 1271 he also established an influential Alan guard unit of 3.000 men that until 1309
12122-415: 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 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,
12331-465: The 1120s King David the Builder of Georgia visited the Darial to reconcile the Alans with the Kipchaks, who thereupon were allowed to pass through Alania to the Georgian soil . David's son, Demetre I , also journeyed, c. 1153, to Alania accompanied by the Arab historian Ibn al-Azraq . The alliance culminated in 1187, when the Alanian prince David Soslan married Queen Tamar of Georgia , a half-Alanian herself, with their descendants ruling Georgia until
12540-428: The 12th century, the route was used to ship bullion from Yunnan (gold and silver are among the minerals in which Yunnan is rich), through northern Burma, into modern Bangladesh , making use of the ancient route, known as the 'Ledo' route. The emerging evidence of the ancient cities of Bangladesh, in particular Wari-Bateshwar ruins, Mahasthangarh , Bhitagarh , Bikrampur , Egarasindhur, and Sonargaon , are believed to be
12749-476: The 16th century. After the invasion the Mongols installed two local vassal princes, called, according to the Yuan chronicle , Arslan and Hanghusi, to rule on their behalf. Both joined the Mongol army, but were killed in combat soon afterwards. With the departure of the army in 1240 Mongol influence quickly weakened, especially in the highlands. Appreciating their skill as horsemen, the Mongols deported thousands of Alans to Mongolia in their need of fresh warriors for
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#173276573615712958-519: The 19th century. The medieval Alanian princesses also married Byzantine and Russian Rurikid rulers more than once. For instance, Maria the Ossetian , who founded the Convent of Princesses in Vladimir , was the wife of Vsevolod the Big Nest and grandmother of Alexander Nevsky . By the early 13th century the kingdom of Alania had factually disintegrated into a large number of autonomous clans and villages ruled by infighting chiefs leading several dozen to several hundred retainers. This state of anarchy
13167-407: The 4th century. The Silk Road was initiated and spread by China's Han dynasty through exploration and conquests in Central Asia . With the Mediterranean linked to the Fergana Valley , the next step was to open a route across the Tarim Basin and the Hexi Corridor to China Proper . This extension came around 130 BCE, with the embassies of the Han dynasty to Central Asia following the reports of
13376-417: The 640s and 650s. During Emperor Taizong's reign alone, large campaigns were launched against not only the Göktürks , but also separate campaigns against the Tuyuhun , the oasis states , and the Xueyantuo . Under Emperor Taizong , Tang general Li Jing conquered the Eastern Turkic Khaganate . Under Emperor Gaozong , Tang general Su Dingfang conquered the Western Turkic Khaganate , an important ally of
13585-413: 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 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 ,
13794-410: The 8th century. Theophanes the Confessor left a detailed account of Leo the Isaurian 's mission to Alania in the early 8th century. Leo was instructed by Emperor Justinian II to bribe the Alan leader Itaxes into severing his "ancient friendship" with the Kingdom of Abkhazia , which had allied itself with Caliph Al-Walid I . He crossed the mountain passes and concluded an alliance with the Alans, but
14003-435: 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
14212-520: 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
14421-411: 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
14630-431: 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
14839-439: The Byzantine empire. After these conquests, the Tang dynasty fully controlled the Xiyu , which was the strategic location astride the Silk Road. This led the Tang dynasty to reopen the Silk Road, with this portion named the Tang-Tubo Road ("Tang-Tibet Road") in many historical texts. The Tang dynasty established a second Pax Sinica , and the Silk Road reached its golden age, whereby Persian and Sogdian merchants benefited from
15048-676: The Byzantine ruler Andronikos II Palaiologos . Andronikos II had two half-sisters who were married to great-grandsons of Genghis Khan , which made him an in-law with the Yuan-dynasty Mongol ruler in Beijing, Kublai Khan. The History of Ming preserves an account where the Hongwu Emperor , after founding the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), had a supposed Byzantine merchant named Nieh-ku-lun (捏古倫) deliver his proclamation about
15257-711: 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
15466-572: The Byzantines, exousiokrator . Notably, the Byzantines never referred to other foreign rulers by this title, using arkhon or exousiastes instead. In the last years of the Soviet Union , as nationalist movements swept throughout the Caucasus, many intellectuals in the North Ossetian ASSR called for the revival of the name "Alania". A leading Ossetian philologist T. A. Guriev was the main advocate of this idea, insisting that
15675-528: 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
15884-612: 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
16093-674: The Central Asian Silk Road through their ports in Barygaza (known today as Bharuch ) and Barbaricum (known today as the city of Karachi , Sindh , Pakistan ) and continued along the western coast of India. An ancient "travel guide" to this Indian Ocean trade route was the Greek Periplus of the Erythraean Sea written in 60 CE. The travelling party of Maës Titianus penetrated farthest east along
16302-611: The Chinese Emperor Wu became interested in developing commercial relationships with the sophisticated urban civilizations of Ferghana, Bactria, and the Parthian Empire : "The Son of Heaven on hearing all this reasoned thus: Ferghana (Dayuan "Great Ionians " ) and the possessions of Bactria ( Ta-Hsia ) and Parthian Empire ( Anxi ) are large countries, full of rare things, with a population living in fixed abodes and given to occupations somewhat identical with those of
16511-584: The Chinese people, but with weak armies, and placing great value on the rich produce of China" ( Hou Hanshu , Later Han History ). Others say that Emperor Wu was mainly interested in fighting the Xiongnu and that major trade began only after the Chinese pacified the Hexi Corridor . The Chinese were also strongly attracted by the tall and powerful horses (named " heavenly horses ") in the possession of
16720-460: 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,
16929-569: The Dayuan (literally the "Great Ionians," the Greek kingdoms of Central Asia ), which were of capital importance in fighting the nomadic Xiongnu. They defeated the Dayuan in the Han-Dayuan war . The Chinese subsequently sent numerous embassies, around ten every year, to these countries and as far as Seleucid Syria. Thus more embassies were dispatched to Anxi [Parthia], Yancai [who later joined
17138-492: The East included tea, dyes, perfumes, and porcelain ; among Western exports were horses, camels, honey, wine, and gold. Aside from generating substantial wealth for emerging mercantile classes, the proliferation of goods such as paper and gunpowder greatly affected the trajectory of political history in several theatres in Eurasia and beyond. The Silk Road was utilized over a period that saw immense political variation across
17347-727: The Empire as a whole. The Roman-style glassware discovered in the archeological sites of Gyeongju , the capital of the Silla kingdom (Korea) showed that Roman artifacts were traded as far as the Korean peninsula. The Greco- Roman trade with India started by Eudoxus of Cyzicus in 130 BCE continued to increase, and according to Strabo (II.5.12), by the time of Augustus , up to 120 ships were setting sail every year from Myos Hormos in Roman Egypt to India. The Roman Empire connected with
17556-702: The Ganges, they are only private citizens." His comments are interesting as Roman beads and other materials are being found at Wari-Bateshwar ruins , the ancient city with roots from much earlier, before the Bronze Age , presently being slowly excavated beside the Old Brahmaputra in Bangladesh. Ptolemy's map of the Ganges Delta , a remarkably accurate effort, showed that his informants knew all about
17765-579: The Gate in order to ravage the forts in Alania. In 758, as Ibn al-Faqih reports, the Gate was held by another Arab general, Yazid ibn Usayd . As a result of their united stand against the successive waves of invaders from the south, the Alans of the Caucasus fell under the overlordship of the Khazar Khaganate . They remained staunch allies of the Khazars in the 9th century, supporting them against
17974-489: The German term Seidenstraße (literally "Silk Road") and was first popularized in 1877 by Ferdinand von Richthofen , who made seven expeditions to China from 1868 to 1872. However, the term itself had been in use in decades prior to that. The alternative translation "Silk Route" is also used occasionally. Although the term was coined in the 19th century, it did not gain widespread acceptance in academia or popularity among
18183-540: 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
18392-605: 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
18601-509: The Han general dispatched envoy Gan Ying to Daqin (Rome). The Silk Road essentially came into being from the 1st century BCE, following these efforts by China to consolidate a road to the Western world and India , both through direct settlements in the area of the Tarim Basin and diplomatic relations with the countries of the Dayuan, Parthians and Bactrians further west. The Silk Roads were
18810-536: 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 is difficult, since no indigenous records in the Khazar language survive, and the state was polyglot and polyethnic . Whereas
19019-744: 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
19228-525: 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
19437-489: 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
19646-774: 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
19855-570: 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 ,
20064-578: The Khazars dominated the vast area extending from the Volga-Don steppes to the eastern Crimea and the northern Caucasus . Khazaria long served as 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
20273-551: 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
20482-521: 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
20691-562: The Kipchaks. Afterwards, they pushed further west, crushing a Rus alliance at the Kalka river in 1223 . The second Mongol invasion of Alania began in 1239 under Möngke and Güyük . While some Alanian fortresses, in particular Maghas, resisted the Mongols it seems that many local noblemen actually collaborated with the invaders to gain an advantage over their rivals. Those who resisted formed
20900-868: 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 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
21109-479: The North Caucasus. He sent an army into Alan territory and, with the Byzantine patriarch Nicholas Mystikos , converted the Alans to Christianity . The conversion is documented in the letters of Patriarch Nicholas Mysticus to the local archbishop, Peter, who was appointed here through King George II of Abkhazia 's efforts. Richard Foltz has suggested that only certain elite Alan families were Christianized,
21318-571: 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 a final mop-up operation in 659, but
21527-607: The Ossetians should accept the name of the Alans as their self-designation and rename North Ossetia into Alania. The term "Alania" quickly became popular in Ossetian daily life through the names of various enterprises, a TV channel, political and civic organizations, a publishing house, a soccer team , an airline company , etc. In November 1994, the name of "Alania" was officially added to the republican title ( Republic of North Ossetia–Alania ). Silk Road The Silk Road
21736-596: 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
21945-484: The Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 BCE, regular communications and trade between China, Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe blossomed on an unprecedented scale. The Roman Empire inherited eastern trade routes that were part of the Silk Road from the earlier Hellenistic powers and the Arabs. With control of these trade routes, citizens of the Roman Empire received new luxuries and greater prosperity for
22154-804: The Roman craze for Chinese silk (supplied through the Parthians), even though the Romans thought silk was obtained from trees. This belief was affirmed by Seneca the Younger in his Phaedra and by Virgil in his Georgics . Notably, Pliny the Elder knew better. Speaking of the bombyx or silk moth, he wrote in his Natural Histories "They weave webs, like spiders, that become a luxurious clothing material for women, called silk." The Romans traded spices, glassware, perfumes, and silk. Roman artisans began to replace yarn with valuable plain silk cloths from China and
22363-599: The Rus sacked the coast of Shirvan in modern-day Azerbaijan . The raids were possibly orchestrated by the Byzantine Empire and its Rus vassal in Tmutarakan , prince Mstislav , and might have been meant to intimidate the various Muslim emirates in the Caucasus in face of the planned Byzantine expansion in Armenia. The Rus raiders might have been arrivals from Scandinavia who entered Byzantium in 1030. The Alan king at that time seems to have been called Gabriel, known from
22572-485: 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
22781-430: 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
22990-535: The Silk Road from the Mediterranean world, probably with the aim of regularising contacts and reducing the role of middlemen, during one of the lulls in Rome's intermittent wars with Parthia, which repeatedly obstructed movement along the Silk Road. Intercontinental trade and communication became regular, organised, and protected by the "Great Powers." Intense trade with the Roman Empire soon followed, confirmed by
23199-610: The Silk Road slave trade to the Bukhara slave trade as well as the Black Sea slave trade , particularly slave girls. Byzantine Greek historian Procopius stated that two Nestorian Christian monks eventually uncovered the way silk was made. From this revelation, monks were sent by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian (ruled 527–565) as spies on the Silk Road from Constantinople to China and back to steal
23408-410: The Silk Road trade. The originating source seems sufficiently reliable, but silk degrades very rapidly, so it cannot be verified whether it was cultivated silk (which almost certainly came from China) or a type of wild silk , which might have come from the Mediterranean or Middle East. Following contacts between Metropolitan China and nomadic western border territories in the 8th century BCE, gold
23617-541: The Tarim Basin, in the modern day Xinjiang region, until replaced by Turkic influences from the Xiongnu culture to the north and by Chinese influences from the eastern Han dynasty , who spoke a Sino-Tibetan language . Some remnants of what was probably Chinese silk dating from 1070 BCE have been found in Ancient Egypt . The Great Oasis cities of Central Asia played a crucial role in the effective functioning of
23826-425: The Tartars"). Classic Alania finally came to an end in the late 14th century, when the Turco-Mongol warlord Tamerlane invaded. Crushing the Golden Horde at the Battle of the Terek River in 1395, he subsequently attacked several Alan chiefs, resulting in months of massacres and enslavement that are still remembered in a popular Ossetian folk song called "the mother of Zadalesk". The invasion of Tamerlane resulted in
24035-474: The West for land-based trade. The Tang captured the vital route through the Gilgit Valley from Tibet in 722, lost it to the Tibetans in 737, and regained it under the command of the Goguryeo General Gao Xianzhi . While the Turks were settled in the Ordos region (former territory of the Xiongnu ), the Tang government took on the military policy of dominating the central steppe. The Tang dynasty (along with Turkic allies) conquered and subdued Central Asia during
24244-402: 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 , the Duōlù clan leader, and
24453-441: The Xiong Nu) are recorded, particularly in the 36 BCE battle of Sogdiana (Joseph Needham, Sidney Shapiro). It has been suggested that the Chinese crossbow was transmitted to the Roman world on such occasions, although the Greek gastraphetes provides an alternative origin. R. Ernest Dupuy and Trevor N. Dupuy suggest that in 36 BCE, [A] Han expedition into Central Asia, west of Jaxartes River , apparently encountered and defeated
24662-480: The ambassador Zhang Qian (who was originally sent to obtain an alliance with the Yuezhi against the Xiongnu ). Zhang Qian visited directly the kingdom of Dayuan in Ferghana , the territories of the Yuezhi in Transoxiana , the Bactrian country of Daxia with its remnants of Greco-Bactrian rule, and Kangju . He also made reports on neighbouring countries that he did not visit, such as Anxi ( Parthia ), Tiaozhi ( Mesopotamia ), Shendu ( Indian subcontinent ) and
24871-409: The basis of its phonetic similarity to the Uyğur tribal name, Qasar. Róna-Tas connects qasar with Kesar , 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
25080-424: 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,
25289-405: 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
25498-489: The best known include the Eurasian Land Bridge and the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). In June 2014, UNESCO designated the Chang'an-Tianshan corridor of the Silk Road as a World Heritage Site , while the Indian portion remains on the tentative site list. The Silk Road derives its name from the lucrative trade in silk , first developed in China , and a major reason for the connection of trade routes into an extensive transcontinental network. It derives from
25707-431: The body, nor even one's decency, can be called clothes. ... Wretched flocks of maids labour so that the adulteress may be visible through her thin dress, so that her husband has no more acquaintance than any outsider or foreigner with his wife's body. The Western Roman Empire , and its demand for sophisticated Asian products, collapsed in the fifth century . The unification of Central Asia and Northern India within
25916-432: The bulk of the population continuing to follow their original pagan traditions. When Ibn Rustah visited Alania at some point between 903 and 913, its king was Christian by then. The Persian traveler came to Alania from Sarir , a Christian kingdom immediately to the east: You go to the left from the kingdom of Sarir and, after three days of journey through mountains and meadows, arrive in the kingdom of Al-Lan. Their king
26125-399: 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 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
26334-444: The carriers of a mixed Sogdian-Türkic culture that often came from mixed families." Khazar ( Tokhara Yabghus , Turk Shahis ) The Khazars ( / ˈ x ɑː z ɑːr z / ) were 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,
26543-399: 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 the îšâ and the xâqân converted to Judaism sometime in the 8th century, while the rest, according to
26752-411: 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
26961-437: The commerce between East and West. At the same time, the Chinese empire welcomed foreign cultures, making it very cosmopolitan in its urban centres. In addition to the land route, the Tang dynasty also developed the maritime Silk Route. Chinese envoys had been sailing through the Indian Ocean to India since perhaps the 2nd century BCE, yet, it was during the Tang dynasty that a strong Chinese maritime presence could be found in
27170-438: 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 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
27379-413: The continent, exemplified by major events such as the Black Death and the Mongol conquests . The network was highly decentralized, and security was sparse: travelers faced constant threats of banditry and nomadic raiders, and long expanses of inhospitable terrain. Few individuals traveled the entire length of the Silk Road, instead relying on a succession of middlemen based at various stopping points along
27588-599: The course of the Brahmaputra River, crossing through the Himalayas then bending westward to its source in Tibet . It is doubtless that this delta was a major international trading center, almost certainly from much earlier than the Common Era. Gemstones and other merchandise from Thailand and Java were traded in the delta and through it. Chinese archaeological writer Bin Yang and some earlier writers and archaeologists, such as Janice Stargardt, strongly suggest this route of international trade as Sichuan – Yunnan – Burma – Bangladesh route. According to Bin Yang, especially from
27797-407: The court of Emperor Taizong of Tang . The History of Song describes the final embassy and its arrival in 1081, apparently sent by Michael VII Doukas (transliterated as Mie li yi ling kai sa , 滅力伊靈改撒, from his name and title Michael VII Parapinakēs Caesar) to the court of Emperor Shenzong of the Song dynasty (960–1279). However, the History of Yuan claims that a Byzantine man became
28006-518: 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
28215-500: 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
28424-424: The east. The Ossetes remained in a state of near-total isolation until 1774, when they requested protection from the Russian Empire , resulting in the foundation of Vladikavkaz in 1784 and the beginning of the Russian conquest of the Caucasus . The nomenclature used by the rulers of Alania is unknown. Where they are mentioned by historical records, they are variously called "lord", "prince", "king", "tsar", and by
28633-409: The establishment of a new dynasty to the Byzantine court of John V Palaiologos in September 1371. Friedrich Hirth (1885), Emil Bretschneider (1888), and more recently Edward Luttwak (2009) presumed that this was none other than Nicolaus de Bentra, a Roman Catholic bishop of Khanbilaq chosen by Pope John XXII to replace the previous archbishop John of Montecorvino . Although the Silk Road
28842-450: 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 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
29051-596: The far larger and geographically wider nature of the silk trade; the term is in current use in China. The Silk Road consisted of several routes. As it extended westwards from the ancient commercial centres of China, the overland, intercontinental Silk Road divided into northern and southern routes bypassing the Taklamakan Desert and Lop Nur . Merchants along these routes were involved in "relay trade" in which goods changed "hands many times before reaching their final destinations". The northern route started at Chang'an (now called Xi'an ), an ancient capital of China that
29260-402: The flight of the Alans deep into the Caucasian mountains and the end of the Alans' presence in the steppes north of the Caucasus. The few who remained were eventually absorbed into the Circassian Kabardians and the Turkic Karachays and Balkars . The retreat into the mountains resulted in the ethnogenesis of a new people: the Ossetes, represented by the Digor in the west and the Iron in
29469-425: 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, 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
29678-458: The formidable Pamir Mountains , routes across them were apparently in use from very early times. Genetic study of the Tarim mummies , found in the Tarim Basin , in the area of Loulan located along the Silk Road 200 kilometres (124 miles) east of Yingpan, dating to as early as 1600 BCE, suggest very ancient contacts between East and West. These mummified remains may have been of people who spoke Indo-European languages , which remained in use in
29887-594: 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 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
30096-446: The head of the Persian Gulf and across to Petra and on to Alexandria and other eastern Mediterranean ports from where ships carried the cargoes to Rome . The southwestern route is believed to be the Ganges / Brahmaputra Delta, which has been the subject of international interest for over two millennia. Strabo, the 1st-century Roman writer, mentions the deltaic lands: "Regarding merchants who now sail from Egypt ... as far as
30305-444: The heartland of medieval Alania. The Alans and Georgians probably collaborated in the Christianization of the Vainakhs and Dvals in the 12th and 13th centuries, Georgian missionaries were active in Alania and the Alan contingents were frequently employed by the Georgian monarchs against their Muslim neighbors. The Alanian-Georgian alliance was cemented in the 1060s, when the Alans struck across Muslim Arran and sacked Ganja . In
30514-561: The international trade centers in this route. The Maritime Silk Road or Maritime Silk Route is the maritime section of the historic Silk Road that connected Southeast Asia , East Asia , the Indian subcontinent , the Arabian Peninsula , eastern Africa , and Europe . It began by the 2nd century BCE and flourished until the 15th century CE. The Maritime Silk Road was primarily established and operated by Austronesian sailors in Southeast Asia who sailed large long-distance ocean-going sewn-plank and lashed-lug trade ships . The route
30723-617: The journey by sea from various points. Crossing the high mountains, it passed through northern Pakistan , over the Hindu Kush mountains, and into Afghanistan , rejoining the northern route near Merv, Turkmenistan . From Merv, it followed a nearly straight line west through mountainous northern Iran , Mesopotamia , and the northern tip of the Syrian Desert to the Levant , where Mediterranean trading ships plied regular routes to Italy , while land routes went either north through Anatolia or south to North Africa . Another branch road travelled from Herat through Susa to Charax Spasinu at
30932-427: 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
31141-435: 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 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
31350-482: 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 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
31559-402: 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
31768-402: The maritime spice networks between Southeast Asia and South Asia , and the West Asian maritime networks in the Arabian Sea and beyond, coinciding with these ancient maritime trade roads by the current era. Austronesian thalassocracies controlled the flow of trade in the eastern regions of the Maritime Silk Road, especially the polities around the straits of Malacca and Bangka ,
31977-425: The maritime route faced different perils like weather and piracy , but they were not affected by political instability and could simply avoid areas in conflict. Central Eurasia has been known from ancient times for its horse riding and horse breeding communities, and the overland Steppe Route across the northern steppes of Central Eurasia was in use long before that of the Silk Road. Archeological sites, such as
32186-410: The missions and explorations of the Chinese imperial envoy Zhang Qian , which brought the region under unified control . The Chinese took great interest in the security of their trade products, and extended the Great Wall of China to ensure the protection of the trade route. By the first century CE, Chinese silk was widely sought-after in Rome, Egypt, and Greece. Other lucrative commodities from
32395-424: 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
32604-411: 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 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
32813-413: The other going north of the Tian Shan mountains through Turpan , Talgar , and Almaty (in what is now southeast Kazakhstan ). The routes split again west of Kashgar, with a southern branch heading down the Alai Valley towards Termez (in modern Uzbekistan) and Balkh (Afghanistan), while the other travelled through Kokand in the Fergana Valley (in present-day eastern Uzbekistan) and then west across
33022-419: 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 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 ;
33231-431: The overland Silk Road, and thus should not be viewed as a mere extension of it. Traders traveling through the Maritime Silk Road could span the entire distance of the maritime routes, instead of through regional relays as with the overland route. Ships could carry far larger amounts of goods, creating greater economic impact with each exchange. Goods carried by the ships also differed from goods carried by caravans. Traders on
33440-416: The overland routes, which prompted European polities to seek alternatives while themselves gaining leverage over their trade partners. This marked the beginning of the Age of Discovery , European colonialism , and the further intensification of globalization . In the 21st century, the name "New Silk Road" is used to describe several large infrastructure projects along many of the historic trade routes; among
33649-447: 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
33858-411: 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
34067-413: 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
34276-411: 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
34485-499: The plight of his metropolis in a lengthy epistolary sermon written during the tenure of Patriarch Germanus II (1222–40). The French-Flemish monk and traveller William of Rubruck mentions Alans numerous times in the account of his 1253–1255 journey through Eurasia to the Great Khan , e.g. Alans living as Mongol subjects in Crimea , Old Astrakhan , the Khan's capital Karakoram , and also still as freemen in their Caucasian homeland ("the Alans or Aas, who are Christians and still fight
34694-403: 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 a royal burial . At one period, travellers had to dismount, bow before the ruler's tomb, and then walk away on foot. Subsequently,
34903-400: 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
35112-443: The public until the 20th century. The first book entitled The Silk Road was by Swedish geographer Sven Hedin in 1938. The use of the term 'Silk Road' is not without its detractors. For instance, Warwick Ball contends that the maritime spice trade with India and Arabia was far more consequential for the economy of the Roman Empire than the silk trade with China , which at sea was conducted mostly through India and on land
35321-404: 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
35530-431: 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 the Persian historian Istakhri the Khazar language was different from any other known tongue. Alano-As was also widely spoken. Eastern Common Turkic,
35739-424: 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 the westernmost successor state of
35948-440: 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
36157-407: 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 the junior West Turkic Khaganate some decades later, when on the death of Taspar Qağan , a succession dispute led to
36366-403: The silkworm eggs , resulting in silk production in the Mediterranean, particularly in Thrace in northern Greece, and giving the Byzantine Empire a monopoly on silk production in medieval Europe. In 568, the Byzantine ruler Justin II was greeted by a Sogdian embassy representing Istämi , ruler of the First Turkic Khaganate , who formed an alliance with the Byzantines against Khosrow I of
36575-490: 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
36784-415: 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 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
36993-426: 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 the name(s) of the Khazars, in the variety of ways it has been expressed. After their conversion it is reported that they adopted
37202-506: The term Silk Routes , on the grounds that it more accurately describes the intricate web of land and sea routes connecting Central , East , South , Southeast , and West Asia as well as East Africa and Southern Europe . The Silk Road derives its name from the highly lucrative trade of silk textiles that were primarily produced in China. The network began with the expansion of the Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE) into Central Asia around 114 BCE, through
37411-417: 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,
37620-436: 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 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
37829-437: 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
38038-439: 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
38247-401: The trade route against nomadic bandit forces generally identified as Xiongnu . Han general Ban Chao led an army of 70,000 mounted infantry and light cavalry troops in the 1st century CE to secure the trade routes, reaching far west to the Tarim Basin. Ban Chao expanded his conquests across the Pamirs to the shores of the Caspian Sea and the borders of Parthia . It was from here that
38456-441: The trades of marauders or mercenaries. "Many barbarian tribes became skilled warriors able to conquer rich cities and fertile lands and to forge strong military empires." The Sogdians dominated the east–west trade after the 4th century up to the 8th century. They were the main caravan merchants of Central Asia. A.V. Dybo noted that "according to historians, the main driving force of the Great Silk Road were not just Sogdians, but
38665-405: 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 the Khazars thus took shape out of
38874-432: 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
39083-422: 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
39292-486: The way. In addition to goods, the network facilitated an unprecedented exchange of religious ( especially Buddhist ), philosophical, and scientific thought, much of which was syncretised by societies along the way. Likewise, a wide variety of people used the routes. Diseases such as plague also spread along the Silk Road, possibly contributing to the Black Death. From 1453 onwards, the Ottoman Empire began competing with other gunpowder empires for greater control over
39501-402: The west, to the Daryal gorge in the east. According to the 10th century historian al-Mas'udi , indicates that the Alan kingdom stretched from Daghestan to Abkhazia . According to Hudud al-'Alam , In the north, the Alans bordered on the Hungarians and the Bulgars. In the east they gave their name to the Daryal gorge , called “Gate of the Alans”. According to Al-masudi , The Alan ruler was
39710-414: The world." In exchange, the caravans sent back bolts of silk brocade , lacquer-ware , and porcelain . The southern route or Karakoram route was mainly a single route from China through the Karakoram mountains, where it persists in modern times as the Karakoram Highway , a paved road that connects Pakistan and China . It then set off westwards, but with southward spurs so travelers could complete
39919-406: 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 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
40128-420: Was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 km (4,000 mi), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the Eastern and Western worlds . The name "Silk Road" was first coined in the late 19th century, but some 20th- and 21st-century historians instead prefer
40337-417: Was also utilized by the dhows of the Persian and Arab traders in the Arabian Sea and beyond, and the Tamil merchants in South Asia . China also started building their own trade ships ( chuán ) and followed the routes in the later period, from the 10th to the 15th centuries CE. The network followed the footsteps of older Austronesian jade maritime networks in Southeast Asia, as well as
40546-447: 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
40755-420: 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
40964-456: Was described by the Hungarian monk Julian , who in 1236 observed that "there are as many princes as villages, none of whom owes allegiance to another. The war there is incessant, leader against leader, village against village." The Mongols, led by the generals Jebe and Subutai , met the Alans for the first time in 1222 after passing through Shirvan and Daghestan. They were confronted by a Kipchak-Alan alliance, which they defeated by scheming with
41173-406: 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
41382-443: Was excavated and found to have not only Greek bronzes but also Chinese silks. Similar animal-shaped pieces of art and wrestler motifs on belts have been found in Scythian grave sites stretching from the Black Sea region all the way to Warring States era archaeological sites in Inner Mongolia (at Aluchaideng) and Shaanxi (at Keshengzhuang [ de ] ) in China. The expansion of Scythian cultures, stretching from
41591-420: Was handled by numerous intermediaries such as the Sogdians . Going as far as to call the whole thing a "myth" of modern academia, Ball argues that there was no coherent overland trade system and no free movement of goods from East Asia to the West until the period of the Mongol Empire . He notes that traditional authors discussing east–west trade such as Marco Polo and Edward Gibbon never labelled any route
41800-458: Was initially formulated during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han (141–87 BCE), it was reopened by the Tang Empire in 639 when Hou Junji conquered the Western Regions , and remained open for almost four decades. It was closed after the Tibetans captured it in 678, but in 699, during Empress Wu 's period, the Silk Road reopened when the Tang reconquered the Four Garrisons of Anxi originally installed in 640, once again connecting China directly to
42009-418: Was introduced from Central Asia, and Chinese jade carvers began to make imitation designs of the steppes, adopting the Scythian -style animal art of the steppes (depictions of animals locked in combat). This style is particularly reflected in the rectangular belt plaques made of gold and bronze, with other versions in jade and steatite . An elite burial near Stuttgart , Germany, dated to the 6th century BCE,
42218-444: Was invaded by Umar II 's forces. A Khazar chieftain, Barjik , hastened to their succour and, in 722, the joint Alan-Khazar army inflicted a defeat on the Arab general Tabit al-Nahrani . The Khazars erected Skhimar and several other strongholds in Alania at this period. In 728 Maslamah ibn Abd al-Malik , having penetrated the Gate of the Alans , devastated the country of the Alans. Eight years later, Marwan ibn Muhammad passed by
42427-431: Was moved further east during the Later Han to Luoyang . The route was defined around the 1st century BCE when Han Wudi put an end to harassment by nomadic tribes. The northern route travelled northwest through the Chinese province of Gansu from Shaanxi Province and split into three further routes, two of them following the mountain ranges to the north and south of the Taklamakan Desert to rejoin at Kashgar , and
42636-425: 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
42845-413: Was prevented from returning to Byzantium through Abasgia . Although the Abkhazians spared no expense to have him imprisoned, the Alans refused to convey the Byzantine envoy to his enemies. After several months of adventures in the Northern Caucasus, Leo extricated himself from the precarious situation and returned to Constantinople . After Leo assumed the imperial title, the land of his mountaineer allies
43054-418: 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
43263-428: Was said to number 30.000 men. Converted to Catholicism by a Franciscan missionary in 1299, they stayed loyal to the Yuan until the fall of the dynasty in 1368, when they escorted Toghon Temür to Mongolia. They continued to play a significant factor in Mongolian politics until a failed rebellion in 1510, although remaining, while now completely Mongolized, distinct clans to this day. Bishop Theodore of Alania described
43472-471: 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 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),
43681-406: 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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