The Khazar Khaganate is the first parasitic state. Ukrainians are the descendants of the "unreasonable Khazars"
Neighboring peoples wrote a lot about the Khazars, but they themselves left practically no information about themselves. How unexpectedly the Khazars appeared on the historical stage, just as suddenly they left it.
God knows where
For the first time about the Khazars in the 5th century, the Armenian historian Moses Khorensky wrote that “the crowds of Khazars and Basils, united, crossed the Kura and scattered on this side.” The mention of the Kura River, apparently, says that the Khazars came to Transcaucasia from the territory of Iran. The Arab chronicler Yakubi confirms this, noting that “the Khazars again took possession of everything that the Persians had taken from them and kept in their hands until the Romans drove them out and installed a king over four Armenias.”
Until the 7th century, the Khazars behaved rather modestly, being part of various nomadic empires - for the longest time in the Turkic Khaganate. But by the middle of the century, they had grown stronger and bolder enough to create their own state - the Khazar Khaganate, which was destined to exist for more than three centuries.
ghost state
The Byzantine and Arabic chronicles describe in all colors the greatness of Itil, the beauty of Semender and the power of Belenjer. True, one gets the feeling that the chroniclers reflected only the rumor about the Khazar Khaganate. So, the anonymous author, as if retelling a legend, answers the Byzantine dignitary that there is such a country called "al-Khazar", which is separated from Constantinople by 15 days of travel, "but between them and us there are many peoples, and the name of their king is Joseph."
Attempts by archaeologists to establish what the mysterious “Khazaria” was actively began to be undertaken in the 20-30s of the XX century. But all to no avail. The Khazar fortress Sarkel (Belaya Vezha) turned out to be the easiest to find, since its location was known relatively accurately. Professor Mikhail Artamonov managed to excavate Sarkel, but he could not find traces of the Khazars. “The archaeological culture of the Khazars proper is still unknown,” the professor stated sadly and suggested continuing the search in the lower reaches of the Volga.
Russian Atlantis
Continuing Artamonov's research, Lev Gumilyov conducts his search for "Khazaria" on the unflooded islets of the Volga delta, but the list of finds attributed to the Khazar culture is small. Moreover, he never managed to find the legendary Itil.
Then Gumilyov changes his strategy and conducts underwater reconnaissance near the part of the Derbent wall, which goes into the Caspian. What he discovered strikes him: where the sea is now splashing, people lived and needed drinking water! Another medieval Italian geographer, Marina Sanuto, noted that “the Caspian Sea arrives from year to year, and many good cities are already flooded.”
Gumilyov concludes that the Khazar state should be sought under the thickness sea water and sediments of the Volga delta. However, the attack was not only from the side of the sea: a drought was approaching Khazaria from land, which completed what the Caspian had begun.
Scattering
What nature failed to do was carried out by the Russian-Varangian squads, which finally destroyed the once powerful Khazar Khaganate and dispersed its multinational composition around the world. Some of the refugees after the victorious campaign of Svyatoslav in 964 were met in Georgia by the Arab traveler Ibn Haukal.
Modern researcher Stepan Golovin notes a very wide geography of Khazar settlement. In his opinion, “the Khazars of the delta mixed with the Mongols, and the Jews partly hid in the mountains of Dagestan, partly moved back to Persia. Alans Christians survived in the mountains of Ossetia, while the Turkic Christian Khazars, in search of fellow believers, moved to the Don.
Some studies show that the Christian Khazars, having merged with the Don co-religionists, subsequently began to be called "roamers", and later Cossacks. However, more credible are the conclusions according to which the bulk of the Khazars became part of the Volga Bulgaria.
The Arab geographer of the 10th century Istakhri claims that "the language of the Bulgars is similar to the language of the Khazars". These close ethnic groups are united by the fact that they were the first to create their own states on the ruins of the Turkic Khaganate, which were headed by Turkic dynasties. But fate decreed that at first the Khazars subjugated the Bulgars to their influence, and then they themselves joined the new state.
Unexpected descendants
AT this moment There are many versions about the peoples-descendants of the Khazars. According to some, these are Eastern European Jews, others call the Crimean Karaites. But the difficulty is that we do not know what the Khazar language was: a few runic inscriptions have not yet been deciphered.
Writer Arthur Koestler supports the idea that the Khazar Jews, having moved to Eastern Europe after the fall of the Khaganate, became the core of the world Jewish diaspora. In his opinion, this confirms the fact that the descendants of the “Thirteenth Tribe” (as the writer called the Khazar Jews), being of non-Semitic origin, ethnically and culturally have little in common with the modern Jews of Israel.
Publicist Alexander Polyukh, in an attempt to identify the Khazar descendants, took a completely unusual path. It is based on scientific conclusions, according to which the blood type corresponds to the way of life of the people and determines the ethnic group. Thus, Russians and Belarusians, like most Europeans, in his opinion, more than 90% have blood type I (O), and ethnic Ukrainians are 40% carriers of group III (B).
Polyukh writes that group III(C) serves as a sign of peoples who led a nomadic lifestyle (where he also includes the Khazars), in which it approaches 100% of the population.
Further, the writer reinforces his conclusions with new archaeological finds of Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Valentin Yanin, who confirms that Kyiv at the time of its capture by the Novgorodians (IX century) was not a Slavic city, which is also evidenced by "birch bark letters".
Also, according to Polyukh, the conquest of Kyiv and the defeat of the Khazars, carried out by Oleg, suspiciously coincide in terms of timing. Here he makes a sensational conclusion: Kyiv is the possible capital of the Khazar Khaganate, and ethnic Ukrainians are the direct descendants of the Khazars.
Latest finds
However, sensational conclusions may be premature. In the early 2000s, 40 kilometers south of Astrakhan, Russian archaeologists discovered “Khazar traces” during excavations of the medieval city of Saksin. A series of radiocarbon analyzes dates the cultural layer to the 9th century, the heyday of the Khazar Khaganate. As soon as the settlement was outlined, its area was determined - two square kilometers. What major city besides Itil was built by the Khazars in the Volga delta?
Of course, it is too early to rush to conclusions, however, already now the pillars of Khazarology M. Artamonov and G. Fedorov-Davydov are almost sure that the capital of the Khazar Khaganate has been found. As for the Khazars, most likely they simply dissolved in the ethnic culture of neighboring peoples without leaving direct descendants behind them.
The ancient and medieval history of mankind keeps many mysteries. Even with the current level of technology, there are still gaps in the study of most issues.
Who were the Khazars? This is one of those problems with no exact answer. We know little about them, but even if we collect all the existing references to this people, even more questions arise.
Let's get to know this interesting people better.
Who are the Khazars
This tribe - the Khazars - was first mentioned in Chinese sources as part of the population of the great empire of the Huns. Researchers give several hypotheses regarding the origin of the ethnonym and the ancestral home of the Khazars.
Let's deal with the name first. The root "goats" in many languages of Central Asia means a number of words associated with nomadism. This version seems to be the most plausible, because the rest look like this. In Farsi, “Khazar” means “thousand”, the Romans called the emperor Caesar, and the Turks understand this word as oppression.
They try to determine the ancestral home from the earliest records in which the Khazars are mentioned. Where did their ancestors live, who were the closest neighbors? There are still no clear answers.
There are three equivalent theories. The first considers them the ancestors of the Uyghurs, the second - the Hunnic tribe of the Akatsirs, and the third is inclined to the version that the Khazars are the descendants of the tribal union of the Ogurs and Savirs.
Like it or not, it is difficult to answer. Only one thing is clear. The origin of the Khazars and the beginning of their expansion to the west is connected with the land they called Barsilia.
Mention in written sources
If we analyze the information from the notes of contemporaries, we also get confusion.
On the one hand, existing sources say that it was a powerful empire. On the other hand, the fragmentary information contained in the notes of travelers cannot illustrate anything at all.
The most complete source that reflects the state of affairs in the country is the correspondence of the kagan with the Spanish dignitary Hasdai ibn Shaprut. They communicated in writing on the subject of Judaism. The Spaniard was a diplomat who became interested in the Jewish empire, which, according to the merchants, existed near the Caspian Sea.
Three letters contain a legend about where the ancient Khazars came from - brief information about cities, political, social and economic state of affairs.
Other sources, such as Russian chronicles, Arabic, Persian and other references, basically describe only the causes, course and results of local military conflicts on the borders.
Geography of Khazaria
Kagan Joseph in his letter tells where the Khazars came from, where these tribes lived, what they did. Let's take a closer look at its description.
So, the empire spread in the period of its greatest prosperity from the Southern Bug to the Aral Sea and from the Caucasus Mountains to the Volga in the region of the latitude of the city of Murom.
Numerous tribes lived in this area. In the forest and forest-steppe regions, the sedentary way of farming was widespread, in the steppe - nomadic. In addition, there were a lot of vineyards near the Caspian Sea.
The largest cities mentioned by the kagan in his letter were as follows. The capital - Itil, was located in the lower reaches of the Volga. Sarkel (Russians called it Belaya Vezha) was located on the Don, and Semender and Belenjer - on the coast of the Caspian Sea.
The rise of the Khaganate begins after the death of the Turkic Empire, in the middle of the seventh century AD. By this time, the ancestors of the Khazars lived in the region of modern Derbent, in the flat Dagestan. From here comes the expansion to the north, west and south.
After the capture of the Crimea, the Khazars settled in this territory. She was identified with this ethnonym for a very long time. Even in the sixteenth century, the Genoese referred to the peninsula as "Gazaria".
Thus, the Khazars are an association of Turkic tribes who were able to create the most durable nomadic state in history.
Beliefs in the Khaganate
Due to the fact that the empire was at the crossroads of trade routes, cultures and religions, it became like a medieval Babylon.
Since the main population of the kaganate were Turkic peoples, the majority worshiped Tengri Khan. This belief is still preserved in Central Asia.
The nobility of the kaganate adopted Judaism, so it is still believed that the Khazars are Jews. However, this is not entirely true, because only a very small stratum of the population professed this religion.
Christians and Muslims were also represented in the state. As a result of unsuccessful campaigns against the Arab caliphs in the last decades of the existence of the kaganate, Islam gains greater freedom in the empire.
But why do they stubbornly believe that the Khazars are Jews? The most likely reason is the legend described by Joseph in a letter. He tells Hasdai that when choosing the state religion, an Orthodox and a rabbi were invited. The latter managed to outguess everyone and convince the kagan and his retinue that he was right.
Wars with neighbors
Campaigns against the Khazars are most fully described in Russian chronicles and Arabic military records. The caliphate fought for influence in the Caucasus, and the Slavs, on the one hand, opposed the southern slave traders who plundered the villages, on the other hand, they strengthened their eastern borders.
The first prince who fought with the Khazar Khaganate was He was able to recapture some lands and forced them to pay tribute to himself, and not to the Khazars.
More interesting information about the son of Olga and Igor. He, being a skilled warrior and a wise commander, took advantage of the weakness of the empire and dealt it a crushing blow.
The troops gathered by him went down the Volga and took Itil. Further, Sarkel on the Don and Semender on the Caspian coast were captured. This sudden and powerful expansion destroyed the once mighty empire.
After that, Svyatoslav began to gain a foothold in this territory. Vezha was built on the site of Sarkel, the Vyatichi, a tribe that bordered Russia on one side and Khazaria, on the other, were subject to tribute.
An interesting fact is that, despite all the apparent strife and wars, a detachment of Khazar mercenaries stood in Kyiv for a long time. The Tale of Bygone Years mentions the Kozary tract in the capital of Russia. It was located near the confluence of the Pochaina into the Dnieper River.
Where did the whole people go?
Conquests, of course, affect the population, but it is noteworthy that after the defeat of the main cities of the kaganate by the Slavs, information about this people disappears. They are no longer mentioned in a single word, in any annals.
The researchers consider the following to be the most plausible solution to this issue. Being a Turkic-speaking ethnic group, the Khazars were able to assimilate with their neighbors in the territory of the Caspian Sea.
Today, scientists believe that the bulk dissolved in this region, some remained in the Crimea, and most of the noble Khazars moved to Central Europe. There they were able to unite with the Jewish communities living on the territory of modern Poland, Hungary, Western Ukraine.
Thus, some families with Jewish roots and ancestors in these lands, can to some extent call themselves "descendants of the Khazars."
Footprints in archeology
Archaeologists unequivocally say that the Khazars are the Saltov-Mayak culture. It was singled out by Gauthier in 1927. Since that time, active excavations and research have been carried out.
The culture got its name as a result of the similarity of finds at two sites.
The first is a hill fort in Verkhny Saltov, Kharkov region, and the second is the Mayatsk hill fort in the Voronezh region.
In principle, the finds are correlated with the Alans ethnic group, who lived in this territory from the eighth to the tenth centuries. However, the roots of this people are in the North Caucasus, so it is associated directly with the Khazar Khaganate.
Researchers divide the finds into two types of burials. The forest variant is Alanian, and the steppe variant is Bulgar, which also includes the Khazars.
Possible descendants
The descendants of the Khazars are another white spot in the study of the people. The difficulty lies in the fact that it is almost impossible to trace the continuity.
The Saltovo-Mayak culture as such accurately reflects the life of the Alans and Bulgars. The Khazars are listed there conditionally, since there are very few of their monuments. In fact, they are random. Written sources "fall silent" after the campaign of Svyatoslav. Therefore, one has to rely on the joint hypotheses of archaeologists, linguists and ethnographers.
To date, the most likely descendants of the Khazars are the Kumyks. This is a Turkic-speaking This also includes partially Karaites, Krymchaks and Judaized mountain tribes of the Caucasus.
Dry residue
Thus, in this article we talked about the fate of such an interesting people as the Khazars. This is not just another ethnic group, but, in fact, a mysterious white spot in medieval history Caspian lands.
They are mentioned in many sources of Russians, Armenians, Arabs, Byzantines. The Kagan is in correspondence with the Caliphate of Cordoba. Everyone understands the power and strength of this empire...
And suddenly - the lightning campaign of Prince Svyatoslav and the death of this state.
It turns out that an entire empire can not only disappear within a short period, but sink into oblivion, leaving descendants only guesses.
Khazars remained only in history? No.
The Khazars still live in Crimea, or at least there is a people who think that they are descended from the Khazars. Only now the modern Khazars are known under the name of the Crimean Karaites, or Karai.
The Crimean Karaites are an amazing community that numbers only about 2,000 people.
Our editor Maxim Istomin, who recently visited the territory of Crimea, collected material about the Karaites, including official Karaite publications, and visited their shrines.
Modern
Khazars - Crimean Karaites
The illustration shows the seal and stamp of the last Karaite Crimean-Lithuanian Gahan (Kagan) Shapshal during his emigration from the Crimea to Lithuania in 1939.
In the illustration, the seal and stamp of the last Karaite Crimean-Lithuanian Gahan (Kagan) Shapshal during his emigration from the Crimea to Lithuania in 1939
On the illustration: Seal and stamp of the last Karaite Crimean-Lithuanian Gakhan (Kagan) Shapshal during his emigration from the Crimea to Lithuania in 1939.
This illustration is from the book of gakhan (kagan) Shapshal about the Karaites “The Karaites of the USSR in relation to ethnicity. Karaites in the service of the Crimean khans”, published by the organization of the Crimean Karaites “Krymkaraylar” in Simferopol in 2004.
In fact, the Karaite Crimean and Lithuanian hakhan was the only one in modern times direct heir to the power of the Khazar Khagan. Some sources indicate that until the beginning of the 20th century, the head of the Crimean Karaite community was called gaham (from the Hebrew "haham" - "wise man"), but Shapshal changed the spelling of the traditional term "gaham" to "gakhan", arguing that the highest religious title Karaites does not come from the Hebrew word "hakham", but from the Khazar word "kagan".
The fact that the Khazar people (now the Crimean Karaites) exists today is in itself interesting fact. Even more interesting story it becomes with the Crimean Karaites when you start to go into details.
amazing
Peculiarities of the Crimean Karaites community
We list some of them:
1. Our own among strangers, strangers among our own. For many centuries, the religion of the Karaites around the world has been identified with Judaism, which the Karaites in all lands and countries, including Crimea and Lithuania, resist, and the Crimean-Lithuanian Karaites, belonging to the world Karaite faith, also resist attempts to ascribe them to the Jewish people (unlike the Karaites of other parts of the world, who recognize their Jewish roots and separate from the Jews only on a religious basis). The Crimean-Lithuanian Karaites attribute their origin to the Turkic steppe nomads. And in order to separate themselves from other Karaites who recognize their ethnic connection with the Jewish homeland, the Karaites of Crimea call themselves Crimean (Crimean-Lithuanian) Karaites, or Karai. In general, the word Karaim from Hebrew means "reading" or "a person of a book, writings." The religion of the Karaites takes us back to ancient times.
2. Israel recognizes them as Jews, Hitler did not recognize them as Jews. During the Nazi occupation of Crimea, the Crimean-Lithuanian Karaites and, as some sources write, personally the last Gakhan (Kagan) (i.e. Khan of Khans) Karaite Haji Seraya Khan Shapshal (in Russian transcription Seraya Markovich Shapshal) achieved official recognition by the German authorities of the Crimean Lithuanian Karaites by non-Jewish people, thanks to which the Crimean-Lithuanian Karaites escaped Nazi repressions. But in Israel, the Karaites of all parts of the world are still considered, as the semi-official "Jewish Encyclopedia" writes, "Jewish sect", although they accept the special differences of the Crimean Karaites, as Jews who in ancient times assimilated with the Khazars. The Crimean Karaites believe that they were originally Khazar Turks who adopted the Karaite faith, born in the Middle East, which has nothing to do with Judaism, but rather close to early Christianity. Later, a number of Crimean Karaite families moved from the Crimea to the Lithuanian-Polish state, bordering the Crimean Khanate in the Middle Ages. Thus, according to the Crimean Karaites, the Crimean-Lithuanian Karaites or, as they are usually called, the Crimean Karaites, arose.
3. Faithful servants of the Crimean Khan. The Crimean Karaites also emphasize their incredible devotion to the Crimean Khanate and its rulers.. Their official publications indicate that even after the annexation of Crimea to Russia under Empress Catherine II and the expulsion of the last Crimean Khan, the Karaites voluntarily collected tribute in their community for the Crimean Khan and sent this money to the Khan in exile. The Karaites note their role under the Crimean khans as a kind of guard - the garrison of the fortress "Chufut-Kale", guarding the Crimean capital Bakhchisarai. The Karaites also controlled the khan's mint and a prison for the khan's captives. In the prison, guarded by the Karaites, many noble prisoners of the khan were kept, including Moscow hostage boyars.
4. Caste, which was allowed to live only in cave cities - fortresses. But the Karaites under the Crimean khans were also a kind of outcast prisoners, although they were an honorary caste. Under the Crimean khans and the Ottomans, the Karaites were allowed to live only in the fortresses "Chufut-Kale" and "Mangup", guarding the goods and prisoners of the Crimean khans. These fortresses, located on impregnable mountain plateaus, include cave cities.
The name of the main Karaite shrine - the fortress "Chufut-Kale" (translated from the Turkic "Jewish fortress") became common in the Crimea. But the Karaites prefer to call this impregnable mountain fortress, where Karaite chapels - kenas, still function, "Juft-Kale" (translated as "Double fortress" due to the structure of the walls). The Tatars called the fortress "Kyrk-Or" ("Forty fortresses" - because of its impregnability). Speaking about this fortress, the Karaites always mention that the last Khazar Khagan took refuge in this building before the final fall of the Khazar Khaganate a thousand years ago. However, the Khagans did not disappear a millennium ago, as many people think. And the Crimean Karaites do not think so.
5. The heir to the power of the Khazar Khagan of our days is the Gakhan of Karaite. The last Gakhan (Kagan) of the Karaite Shapshal ruled the Crimean-Lithuanian Karaites until his death in 1961, regularly visiting "Juft Kale". Although the Soviet authorities forced the kagan to renounce his title after the Second World War and become a simple Soviet scientist, he remained a kagan in the eyes of the Karaites even despite such an official renunciation.
We have listed the main amazing features communities of Crimean Karaites. And now more about the Khazars and their heirs - an amazing relic of the past - the Crimean-Lithuanian Karaites.
Khazars
- unusual steppe people
The Khazars remain widely known for common man people, despite the fact that this people left the historical arena many centuries ago, dissolving in the mass of other steppe ethnic groups. For Russia, the Khazars were remembered, first of all, by endless military skirmishes - which is also said in Pushkin's "Song of the Prophetic Oleg": "How now the prophetic Oleg is going to take revenge on the unreasonable Khazars, Their villages and fields for a violent raid, he doomed swords and fires.. ."
Also, the Khazars are still known to the general public by the fact that the Khazar state stood out sharply among other steppe dwellers with its state religion. The Khazars were Jews. The Karaites, on the other hand, believe that the Khazars were not Jews, but belonged to the Karaite religion.
Modern Israeli
publications about the Jewish state of the Khazars
The modern Israeli author Felix Kandel tells in his popular Essays on the Times and Events of Jewish History that the Jewish people, scattered throughout the Western world and adjacent territories and deprived of statehood, were extremely surprised at the existence of the steppe Jewish state:
“(Jews) depended on foreign rulers, they were representatives of a scattered and oppressed people scattered around the world, who had no political independence anywhere, and the Catholic clergy constantly emphasized that the Jews were a people despised by God and that all their former advantages had long passed to the Christians. That is why the Spanish Jews perceived with such excitement any rumors about the existence of independent Jewish states in unknown lands.
At the end of the ninth century, a certain man named Eldad appeared in Spain, who claimed to be descended from the tribe of Dan, one of the ten lost tribes of Israel. He said that the four tribes - Dan, Naftali, Gad and Asher - live richly and happily under the scepter of the Jewish king in the country of Kush (Abyssinia) beyond the legendary river Sambation. This news astonished the Spanish Jews and brought them into indescribable excitement. After all, everyone knew that the ten tribes of Israel made up the population of the kingdom of Israel, and when it was destroyed by the Assyrians in 722 BC, they were all taken captive - to Assyria, to Media, and from that moment on, the ten tribes of Israel, as it were, disappeared from faces of the earth. They were searched for, legends were created about them, from time to time strange people appeared, half-adventurers, half-dreamers who assured everyone that they came from those places where these missing tribes live independently under the rule of a just Jewish king - and they were believed, these people, because they really wanted to believe that not all the sons of the people live under someone else's power-whim. Eldad from the tribe of Dan also reported that "the tribe of Shimon and half of the tribe of Menashe live in the country of the Kuzarim, far from Jerusalem, at a distance of six months' journey, and they are numerous and innumerable, and the Ismailis pay tribute to them."
Obviously, Eldad, in his travels around the world, heard somewhere that Jews live in the “country of the Kuzarim”., but about the tribes of Shimon and Monashe - this is already his own addition.
Hasdai ibn Shaprut knew about the stories of Eldad from the tribe of Dan and - like all Spanish Jews - expected confirmation of this. And in the middle of the tenth century, he learned from visiting Persian merchants from the city of Khorasan that somewhere in the east, in the distant steppes, there is a powerful Jewish state. At first he did not believe these merchants - and, indeed, it was hard to believe - but soon the envoys from Byzantium confirmed this message. There is such a state fifteen days away from Byzantium, its name is al-Khazar, and King Yosef rules there.
“Ships come to us from their country,” the envoys said, “and they bring fish and skin and all kinds of goods ... They are friends with us and are revered by us ... There is a constant exchange of embassies and gifts between us and them. They have military force, power and troops that go to war from time to time.
This news about the existence somewhere in the east of a whole kingdom that lives according to the laws of Moses, the Jews accepted with delight. They immediately decided that the Khazars were the descendants of Yehuda, and that in this way the biblical prophecy was fulfilled: "The scepter will not depart from Yehuda."
Further, Felix Kandel, in his essays, which reflect the official idea of Jewish history in modern Israel and are recommended for study by the newly arrived Jewish settler - aliya, writes about the Khazars:
“Even when it later became clear that the Khazars were idolaters who converted to Judaism, this did not shake the sympathy for the unknown people. Jews read stories about the Khazars in subsequent centuries, there was a variety of Jewish literature on this topic, and the correspondence of Hasdai ibn Shaprut with King Yosef occupies an honorable place in it.
Hasdai ibn Shaprut immediately wrote a letter to the Khazar king:
“From me, Hasdai, the son of Isaac, the son of Ezra, from the descendants of the Jerusalem diaspora in Sfarada (Spain), the slave of my master, the king ... so that he lives and reigns in Israel for a long time ...”
He first sent this letter with a special envoy through Byzantium, but the local emperor kept the envoy for six months and then returned him, referring to the incredible dangers that lie in wait on the way to Khazaria - by sea and on land. Most likely, in Christian Byzantium they simply did not want to contribute to the rapprochement of European Jews with the Khazar Khaganate.
Persistent Hasdai ibn Shaprut then decided to forward the letter through Jerusalem, Armenia and the Caucasus, but at that moment an opportunity turned up - two Jews from Zagreb, who took his letter to Croatia, and from there it was sent to Hungary, then through Russia to the Khazars.
Hasdai ibn Shaprut wrote in his letter that if the information about the Jewish state is correct, then he himself would
“disregarded his honor and renounced his dignity, would have left his family and would have set off to wander over mountains and hills, over sea and land, until he came to the place where my lord the king is, to see his greatness, his glory and a high position to see how his servants live and how his ministers serve, and the peace of the surviving remnant of Israel ... How can I calm down and not think about the destruction of our magnificent Temple ... when we are told every day: “every nation has its own kingdom, but you are not remembered on earth.”
In the same letter, Hasdai ibn Shaprut asked the king many questions - about the size of the state, about its natural conditions, about cities, about his army, but the most important questions are: “what tribe is he from,” this king, “how many kings reigned before him and what are their names, and how many years each of them reigned, and what language do you speak.
The Khazar Khagan Yosef received this letter, and two versions of his answer have survived to this day: a short and lengthy version of his letter. It was written in Hebrew, and it is possible that he did not write it; the kagan himself, and one of his close associates were Jews. Yosef reported that his people come from the clan of Togarma. Togarma was the son of Japhet and the grandson of Noah. Togarma had ten sons, and one of them was called Khazar. It was from him that the Khazars went.
At first, Yosef reported, the Khazars were few in number,
“They waged war with peoples who were more numerous and stronger than them, but with the help of God they drove them away and occupied the whole country ... After that, generations passed until one king appeared among them, whose name was Bulan. He was a wise and God-fearing man who trusted in God with all his heart. He eliminated fortune-tellers and idolaters from the country and sought protection and patronage from God.
After Bulan, who converted to Judaism, King Yosef listed all the Khazar Khagans-Jews, and all of them have Jewish names: Obadiah, Hezkiyahu, Menashe, Hanukkah, Yitzhak, Zvulun, again Menashe, Nissim, Menahem, Benjamin, Aaron, and finally the author of the letter — Yosef. He wrote about his country, that in it
“no one hears the voice of the oppressor, there is no enemy and there are no bad accidents ... The country is fertile and fat, consists of fields, vineyards and orchards. All of them are irrigated from rivers. We have a lot of different fruit trees. With the help of the Almighty, I live peacefully.”
Yosef was the last ruler of the powerful Khazar Khaganate, and when he sent his letter to distant Spain - no later than 961, he did not yet know that the days of his kingdom were already numbered.
At the end of the eighth and beginning of the ninth century, the Khazar Khagan Ovadia made Judaism the state religion. This could not have happened by chance, from scratch: there must have already been a sufficient number of Jews in Khazaria, in today's language - a kind of “critical mass” close to the court of the ruler, who influenced the adoption of such a decision.
Even under Bulan, who was the first to accept Judaism, many Jews moved to the Eastern Ciscaucasia, fleeing the persecution of Muslims. Under Ovadia, as the Arab historian Masudi noted,
“many Jews moved to the Khazars from all Muslim cities and from Rum (Byzantium), because the king of Rum persecuted the Jews in his empire in order to seduce them into Christianity.”
Jews settled entire quarters of the Khazar cities, especially in the Crimea. Many of them also settled in the capital of Khazaria - Itil. Kagan Yosef wrote about those times: Obadiah “corrected the kingdom and strengthened the faith according to the law and rule. He built houses of assembly and houses of learning, and gathered a multitude of wise men of Israel, gave them much silver and gold, and they explained to him the twenty-four books of the Holy Scriptures, the Mishnah, the Talmud, and the whole order of prayers.
This reform of Ovadias apparently did not go smoothly. The Khazar aristocracy in the outlying provinces rebelled against the central government. She had Christians and Muslims on her side; the rebels called on the help of the Magyars from beyond the Volga, and Ovadia hired nomadic Guzes. The Byzantine emperor and historian Constantine Porfirorodny wrote about this:
“When they separated from their power and an internecine war broke out, the central government prevailed, and some of the rebels were killed, while others fled.”
But although the central government won, it is possible that Obadiah himself and both of his sons died in this struggle: otherwise how to explain the fact that after Obadiah power passed not to his direct heir, but to his brother?
Judaism continued to be the state religion, and the Jews lived in peace on the territory of the Khazar Khaganate. All historians of those times noted the religious tolerance of the Khazar Jewish rulers. Jews, Christians, Muslims and pagans lived peacefully under their rule. The Arab geographer Istakhri wrote in the Book of Countries:
“The Khazars are Mohammedans, Christians, Jews and pagans; Jews are a minority, Mohammedans and Christians a majority; however, the king and his courtiers are Jews... You cannot choose a person who does not belong to the Jewish religion as a kagan.”
The Arab historian Masudi wrote in the book "Gold pans" that in the capital of the Khazar kingdom
“seven judges, two of them for Muslims, two for the Khazars, who judge according to the law of the Torah, two for the local Christians, who judge according to the law of the Gospel, and one of them is for the Slavs, Russians and other pagans, he judges according to the pagan law, then is in the mind."
And in the "Book of Climates" by the Arab scientist Mukaddasi, it is quite simply said:
“The country of the Khazars lies on the other side of the Caspian Sea, very vast, but dry and barren. There are many sheep, honey and Jews in it.
There were attempts to make Christianity the state religion of Khazaria. For this purpose, the famous Cyril, the creator of Slavic writing, went there in 860. He took part in a dispute with a Muslim and a Jew, and although it is written in his Life that he won the dispute, the kagan still did not change religion, and Cyril returned with nothing.
“Our eyes are fixed on the Lord our God, and on the wise men of Israel, on the academy that is in Jerusalem, and on the academy that is in Babylon,”
- Hagan Yosef wrote in his letter. Upon learning that the Muslims in their lands had destroyed the synagogue, the Khazar Khagan even ordered the destruction of the minaret of the main mosque in Itil and the execution of the muezzins. At the same time, he said:
“If I, really, were not afraid that in the countries of Islam there would not be a single undestroyed synagogue, I would definitely destroy the mosque.”
After the adoption of Judaism, Khazaria developed the most hostile relations with Byzantium. First, Byzantium set the Alans against the Khazars, then the Pechenegs, then the Kiev prince Svyatoslav, who defeated the Khazars.
Today, historians explain the reasons for the fall of the Khazar Khaganate in different ways.. Some believe that this state has weakened as a result of constant wars with its surrounding enemies.
Others claim that the adoption by the Khazars of Judaism - a peaceful religion - contributed to a decrease fighting spirit nomadic warlike tribes.
There are historians today who explain this by the fact that the Jews, with their religion, turned the Khazars from a "nation of warriors" into a "nation of merchants."
The Russian chronicle writes about this simply, without going into the reasons:
“In the year 6473 (965). Svyatoslav went to the Khazars. Hearing this, the Khazars went out to meet them, led by their prince Kagan, and agreed to fight, and in the battle Svyatoslav the Khazars defeated their city and took the White Tower ... "
In other words, Svyatoslav took the capital of the Khazars Itil, took Semender on the Caspian Sea, took the Khazar city of Sarkel on the Don - later known as Belaya Vezha - and returned to Kyiv.
"The Russ destroyed it all and plundered everything that belonged to the Khazar people",
- wrote an Arab historian. After that, for several more years in a row, the Guz tribes freely plundered the defenseless land.
The Khazars soon returned to their destroyed capital, Itil, restored it, but, as Arab historians note, not Jews, but Muslims already lived there. At the end of the tenth century, the son of Svyatoslav Vladimir again went to the Khazars, took possession of the country and imposed tribute on them. And again the cities of Khazaria were destroyed, the capital turned into ruins; only the Khazar possessions in the Crimea and on the banks of Sea of Azov. In 1016, the Greeks and Slavs destroyed the last Khazar fortifications in the Crimea and captured their Khagan Georgy Tsulu, who was already a Christian.
Some researchers now believe that the Khazar Khaganate did not completely disintegrate at the end of the tenth century, but continued to exist as an independent, small state until the invasion of the Mongols. In any case, in the eleventh century, the Khazars are still mentioned in the Russian chronicle, as participants in a conspiracy against Prince Oleg Tmutarakansky, but this is the last mention of them in European sources. And only in the descriptions of Jewish travelers of subsequent centuries, the Crimean peninsula was still called Khazaria for a long time. (Quote from history.nfurman.com. There is also a printed version of the book of these essays, published in Israel in Russian).
So writes Felix Kandel.
And here we are smoothly moving from the Khazars to the Crimean Karaites. According to the official publications of the Crimean-Lithuanian Karaites, they are the descendants of the Khazars who took refuge after their defeat in the Crimea. Crimea became the last territory in which the Khazar state administration was preserved, and the last Khazar Khagan was located here.
What the Crimeans themselves write Karaites about their origin and history. See our review
Opinion of a Turkish traveler of the 17th century. Chelebi about the Karaites;
A modern Israeli view of the Karaites;
Modern Ukrainian publication about the family nest of Karaites;
Modern Karaite official publications do not confirm the fact of the conversion of the Khazar Khagans to Christianity and reject any connection with Judaism and Jews. Moreover, the Crimean Karaites emphasize their difference from the Jews even in everyday life.
The last Karaite Gahan (Kagan) Shapshal in his already mentioned book about the Karaites “Karaites of the USSR in relation to ethnic. Karaites in the service of the Crimean khans" writes that "... among the Karaites and Tatars, the most favorite national dish is a combination of lamb with katyk (sour milk), while believing Jews do not allow mixing meat with milk in food" . Shapshal was an apologist for the doctrine of the Turkic origin of the Karaites, which is official for the Karaite leadership today.
Continued on.
There is a widespread accusation these days that the Jewish people are not the native people of the land of Israel, but in fact they are white Europeans, descendants of an Eastern European group of peoples called Khazars, and have nothing to do in the Middle East.
Not surprisingly, these ideas are very popular among anti-Semites, and they have even infiltrated some Christian circles, who believe that the Jewish people are not related to the ancient Israelites, that they have no real history in Israel or rights to the land of Israel.
This theory was reinforced in large part by a book published in 1978 by a man named Arthur Koestler, who was actually a Jew! He was an atheist who rejected the Bible, yet he experienced anti-Semitism just like any other Jew. He believed that if he could simply prove that the Jewish people today are not associated with the twelve tribes of the Bible, then the taint of anti-Semitism would be eradicated. He collected a lot of data and presented it in his book "The Thirteenth Tribe".
Koestler was a writer and intellectual, interested in Zionism and history, and, among other things, put forward a theory that, in his opinion, would change the attitude of the world towards Jews, but, ironically, it was the anti-Semites who received his theory with jubilation. Delegate Saudi Arabia at the UN said that the theory presented in Koestler's book "denies Israel's right to exist", and the neo-Nazi magazine The Thunderbolt announced it “the political bomb of the century .
His book does contain many historical facts, but was not well received by scholars. Ann Applebaum, after reading the biography, states her conclusion in New York Book Review : “He understood the term 'intellectual' in a much wider sense than we understand today, and felt comfortable covering a huge number of areas in which he had no professional competence at all.” Ultimately, the genetic and other scientific studies available today show that his key claim was wrong. For the vast majority of Jews today, one can trace the genetic connection to the Levant region rather than to the Khazars.
What is the history of the Khazars?
A group of people from an area north of Turkey, beyond Georgia, were called the Khazars, and they did convert to Judaism about 1,300 years ago. We do have Jewish historical records and archaeological evidence that the Khazars at a certain time period, in the eighth century, en masse converted to rabbinical Judaism.
This story is told in the 12th century in Yehuda Halevi's famous book Kuzari, written during a tense dialogue between the three monotheistic religions. Greek philosophy spread widely after most of the key texts were translated into Arabic, a language that most people understood at the time, because Islam had conquered vast territories. In fact, in the ninth century, 90% of the Jews lived in Muslim countries, and the book of Halevi was written, like many other Jewish works in the Middle Ages, in the so-called "Judeo-Arabic" language, that is, in Arabic written in Hebrew letters. Debate and controversy were very popular, because respected people of all traditions have been discussing ontology - questions of truth - trying to figure out who God is and what we are all doing here. Halevi's book says that it describes how the Khazar king Bulan listened to the speeches of a Greek philosopher, a Christian, a Muslim and a Jew, each of whom defended his beliefs and argued why his understanding of God was the right way. The king was eventually convinced by the Jewish apologetics, and the entire nation subsequently converted to Judaism. Note, rabbinic Judaism, without Yeshua.
How did the mass conversion affect Israel?
As is often the case, just because one is true does not invalidate the other. The people of Israel did not evaporate, although the Khazars did convert to rabbinic Judaism, and were accepted into the society of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob ... just as happened with many other proselytes, starting with the Exodus. “Many different tribes” the Egyptians went out with the Israelites; Canaanites like Rahab, Moabites like Ruth also joined them along the way, and later many Persians joined the Jews, as recorded in the book of Esther (Esther 8:17). A careful reading of the Scriptures reveals that many other peoples joined the house of Israel, without compromising the existence of the twelve tribes or statehood, even before Yeshua appeared on the scene. He knew full well that he was among the people of Israel, and spoke to them as such, even though many people from other nations had joined Israel over the years.
Yeshua speaks of serious attempts at proselytism by the Pharisees (although, admittedly, not in a very positive way):
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who go round the sea and the dry land in order to convert at least one; and when that happens, make him a son of hell, twice as bad as you.” (Mat. 23:15)
The trouble was, the Pharisees were enthusiastic about converting non-Jews to their twisted and artificial version of Judaism, rather than to God's intended covenant of Sinai. They were more interested in strict rules than in worship in Spirit and truth. This problem was further exacerbated in the eighth century. Shortly after Yeshua, the Pharisees sect became stronger than the others (Sadducees, Essenes, Zealots) and eventually acquired exclusive control over the definition of what it means to be a Jew. In the centuries that followed, they became Sages who wrote the Talmud and other rabbinical literature that is followed today, and built their version of the Torah around two issues: the non-existent Temple and the Messiah they were trying to avoid. New systems and laws were invented and passed down from generation to generation to perpetuate their religion, which was separated from the God of Israel and the New Testament. The irony is that the Talmud was in the process of being codified and completed around the same time that the conversion of the Khazars was taking place. At the time, there was considerable tension within Judaism over whether rabbinical writings had the same authority as the Bible. The Karaite movement, which was quite strong at the time, accepted that only the Bible had divine authority, but the movement eventually declined, and the resulting rabbinic Judaism concentrated more on the Talmud than the Bible.
So while Yehuda Halevi does an admirable job of explaining each faith through imaginary adherents and apologists, although he presented Judaism in such a beautiful and easy-to-understand manner, the fact is that the Khazars were offered a religion of whitewashed coffins. Here's what they got. Moreover, as the wheel of history progressed, the situation became even worse due to persecution by those who claimed to be “Christians.” Sadly, the ruthless persecution of the Jewish people by the church, wherever they may be, has increasingly removed many people from the truth of the gospel.
What can God say about this?
No other group of people survived such a long exile without complete disappearance. You hear about "Russian Jews", "Moroccan Jews" and "American Jews", but you don't hear about "Italian Medes" or "Ukrainian Chaldeans". The sands of time have long covered the traces of these civilizations. However, the Jewish people survived. Why? Nothing but the saving hand of their God could save the Jewish people. Neither assimilation and intermarriage, nor repeated attempts at complete violent extermination have been able to erase Jewish culture and heritage. Not even Israel's mistakes can stop God's intentions for them or make His promises invalid.
“Thus says the Lord, who gave the sun to light by day, the moon and the stars to light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; The Lord of Hosts is His name. If these ordinances cease to operate before Me, says the Lord, then the tribe of Israel will cease to be a people before Me forever.” (Jer. 31:35-36)
In other words, as long as the sun, moon, and stars are in the sky, the people of Israel will continue to exist as a nation. This is God's promise. The Khazars did indeed convert to Judaism as a whole people in the eighth century, but the house of Israel has accepted many people from other nations before, even Yeshua himself has a partially non-Jewish ancestry. This fact in no way destroyed God's chosen people. The House of Israel still stands, and God's promises to it still stand. In fact, there are many end-time promises that say that the people of Israel will return to the land of Israel when the Messiah comes again (Ezek. 20:40-41, Ezek. 37, Zech. 12, Amos 9, and many others).
Along with many other believers of his time who saw God's promises to restore Israel, Isaac Newton wrote down long lists of those biblical references to verses that prophesied the return of the Jews to Israel, noting that it was mentioned “almost all the prophets”. Back in the seventeenth century, Newton even calculated the dates of their return based on the numbers given in the book of Daniel, stating that the call to return and rebuild Jerusalem would come out in 1895 or 1896 (in fact, this happened in 1897 at the Basel Congress), and that the very the event may occur in 1944. He was very close! Throughout history, God has been absolutely faithful in keeping His promises, and if He said He would bring His people back to this land, then we can be sure He will. From the very beginning, God knows how everything will end, and He also knows who the real people of Israel are. We can be sure that He knows who needs to be gathered back into His land.
Science Supports the Bible
Koestler was undoubtedly a brilliant, prolific, and award-winning writer, but despite citing some authoritative sources in his book, he ended up being more warmly received by conspiracy theorists than scientists. Koestler wrote: “I was trying to show that anthropological evidence, together with history, refutes the popular belief in the Jewish race, which descended from the biblical tribe.” According to biographer Michael Scammell, he was “convinced that if he could prove that most of the Eastern European Jews (ancestors of today’s Ashkenazim) descended from the Khazars, the racial grounds for anti-Semitism would be eliminated and anti-Semitism itself might disappear.”[Cm. Note 2, page 546]. Here, of course, there is some truth about the genetic connection with the Khazars, but not to the extent that Koestler is trying to convince us. His main source, Douglas Dunlop, an expert on the Khazars, was much more cautious in his statements. But it is a fact that we can use science and genetic testing these days to solve this mystery and test this theory in the lab, and some people have already done so.
genetics expert Dr. Carl Skoretsky has been involved in several research projects concerning the genetics of the Jewish people. In an interview, he confirmed that DNA markers in those who identify themselves as Jews show a high degree kinship with each other and great closeness to each other, whatever their origin (Morocco, Lithuania, Iraq, India, Europe, etc.), which indicates a common origin, and that the non-Jewish peoples closest genetically to them are Levantine peoples: Druze, Palestinians, Cypriots, Syrians.
In a word, Ashkenazi Jews are very close to Sephardic Jews, and they are all closely related to the population of the Middle East.
Along with many other studies, his research showed that “in contrast to the previously proposed theory of an Eastern European origin for the Ashkenazi Levites, modern evidence suggests that geographically the Levite ancestry stretches back to the founder who lived in the Middle East, and probably among the Jews before the Diaspora era”.
Loyalty of God
God is not a liar. If He said that He would gather His people, Israel, again, then He would do just that. He can see our DNA without a lab, and He knows who He is bringing back to the Land of Israel. He will make sure that His Word is fulfilled, because He has put His Word before His name. He's so sure that he'll do what he said, that his whole reputation is based on it. God is happy to do this, risk His glory and honor to make His word come true, because He will never let any of His words just fall to the ground.
- He promised to keep Israel as a nation as long as the sun, moon, and stars were in their places (Jer. 31:34-35).
- He promised to bring them back to the Land (Israel), and no one can uproot them from there anymore (Amos 9:15).
- And He promised that one day they would recognize His Son, Yeshua, as the Messiah (Zech. 12:10).
God knows the people of Israel and knows where each of them is. He cannot be deceived and His plans cannot be thwarted. You can be sure of it. God is restoring Israel, just the way He said, step by step, promise by promise.
“I bow before Your holy temple and praise your name for your mercy and for your truth, for you have magnified your word above all your name.” (Ps. 137:2)
Scammell, Michael. Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic, Random House, 2009, p.547
Anne Applebaum, “Did the Death of Communism Take Koestler and Other Literary Figures with it?” The New York Review of Books, 3/28/2010
Yehuda Halevi pointed out the primary sources on which he based his speeches (Scholcken Books 1971, p. 35). This is a common statement: “The narrator then establishes the context of the dialogue, based on the evidence recorded in the historical chronicles of the time, recalling what he heard about the arguments used by the Jewish sage about four hundred years ago that convinced the king of the Khazars to accept the Jewish religion.”(Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
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Archaeological evidence of the conversion of the Khazars to Judaism: Kiev letter found in the Cairo geniz - a letter from the Khazars, written in Hebrew (collection of all types of Jewish scriptures and documents - throw away anything from Hebrew letters forbidden). The Kiev letter is known to be a document of recommendation confirming the trust in the holder of the letter, assuring the reader that he is worthy of the support of the Jewish communities he visited. The owner of the document probably did not speak Hebrew, and therefore, most likely, the letter was written by a Jewish clerk in Hebrew and certified by the leader of the Jewish community of the Khazars, who approved it in the Turkic language. At the bottom, in the Turkic original, it says “I read it”, signed by a kohen, which indicates the support of a well-known Khazar Jewish official, but the fact that it was written in Turkic indicates that the head of the community did not even know the basics of Hebrew, so this is one of the pieces of evidence that historians refer to in their conclusion that the conversion of the Khazars was most likely rather superficial. In addition, the testimonies of travelers Benjamin Tudelsky and Petahia from Regensburg speak of a very small number of Jewish schools and ritual baths among the Khazars, which indicates that they probably did not even practice circumcision - the basis of the foundations for converting to Judaism. Most of the evidence suggests that they were not very religious and probably remained pluralistic. Not only did Judaism not penetrate deep enough into Khazar culture, but it is also difficult to find evidence of any Khazar influence on Jewish culture and communities. Many believe that there is a connection with the Hungarian Jewish community, but there is certainly no widespread influence on the entire Jewish diaspora. Dr. Henry Abramson, Lectures on Jewish History.
Snobelen, “The Mystery of this Restitution of all things” Isaac Newton on the Return of the Jews
Newton, Observations, 113-4
Interview with an expert genetics dr om Carl Skoretsky
Phylogenetic applications of whole Y-chromosome sequences and the Near Eastern origin of Ashkenazi Levites . Rootsi, Skorecki et al, Nature Communications 4, Article number: 2928 (2013)
660 YEARS TOGETHER AND 50 YEARS OF LIES
“How Prophetic Oleg is now going to take revenge on the unreasonable Khazars ...” Usually, it is precisely these Pushkin lines that limit all acquaintance of modern Russians with the history of Russian-Khazar relations, which goes back about 500 years.
Why did it happen so? In order to understand this, we need first of all to remember what these relationships were like.
KhAZARS AND RUSSIA
The Khazar Khaganate was a gigantic state that occupied the entire Northern Black Sea region, most Crimean Sea of Azov, North Caucasus Lower Volga and Caspian Trans-Volga. As a result of numerous military battles, Khazaria became one of the most powerful powers of that time. The most important trade routes of Eastern Europe were in the power of the Khazars: the Great Volga route, the route "from the Varangians to the Greeks", the Great Silk Road from Asia to Europe. The Khazars managed to stop the Arab invasion of Eastern Europe and restrain the nomads rushing to the west for several centuries. The huge tribute collected from numerous conquered peoples ensured the prosperity and well-being of this state. Ethnically, Khazaria was a conglomerate of Turkic and Finno-Ugric peoples who led a semi-nomadic lifestyle. In winter, the Khazars lived in cities, in the warm season they wandered and cultivated the land, and also staged regular raids on their neighbors.
At the head of the Khazar state was a kagan, who came from the Ashina dynasty. His power rested on military force and on the deepest popular reverence. In the eyes of ordinary pagan Khazars, the kagan was the personification of God's power. He had 25 wives from the daughters of rulers and peoples subject to the Khazars, and 60 more concubines. Kagan was a kind of guarantee of the well-being of the state. In the event of a serious military danger, the Khazars brought out their kagan in front of the enemy, the mere sight of which, it was believed, could put the enemy to flight.
True, in case of any misfortune - military defeat, drought, famine - the nobility and the people could demand the death of the kagan, since the disaster was directly associated with the weakening of his spiritual power. Gradually, the power of the kagan weakened, he became more and more a "sacred king", whose actions were fettered by numerous taboos.
Approximately in the 9th century in Khazaria, real power passes to the ruler whose sources title it differently - bek, infantry, king. Soon there are deputies and the king - kundurkagan and dzhavshigar. However, some researchers insist on the version that these are only the titles of the same kagan and king...
For the first time, Khazars and Slavs clashed in the second half of the 7th century. It was a counter movement - the Khazars expanded their possessions to the west, pursuing the retreating Proto-Bulgarians of Khan Asparuh, and the Slavs colonized the Don region. As a result of this clash, quite peaceful, judging by the data of archeology, part of the Slavic tribes began to pay tribute to the Khazars. Among the tributaries were glades, northerners, radimichi, vyatichi and the mysterious tribe “s-l-viyun” mentioned by the Khazars, which, perhaps, were the Slavs who lived in the Don region. The exact size of the tribute is unknown to us; various information on this subject has been preserved (squirrel skin "from the smoke", "slit from the ral"). However, it can be assumed that the tribute was not particularly heavy and was perceived as a payment for security, since there were no recorded attempts by the Slavs to somehow get rid of it. It is with this period that the first Khazar finds in the Dnieper region are associated - among them the headquarters of one of the kagans was excavated.
Similar relations persist after the adoption of Judaism by the Khazars - according to various dates, this happened between 740 and 860. In Kyiv, which was then a border town of Khazaria, around the 9th century, a Jewish community arose. A letter about the financial misadventures of one of its members, a certain Yaakov bar of Hanukkah, written at the beginning of the 10th century, is the first authentic document reporting the existence of this city. The researchers were most interested in two of the nearly a dozen signatures under the letter - "Judas, nicknamed Severyata" (probably from the tribe of northerners) and "Guests, son of Kabar Cohen." Judging by them, among the members of the Jewish community of Kyiv there were people with Slavic names and nicknames. It is highly probable that they were even Slavic proselytes. At the same time, Kyiv received a second name - Sambatas. This is the origin of this name. The Talmud mentions the mysterious Sabbath river Sambation (or Sabbation), which has miraculous properties. This turbulent, rock-rolling river is completely irresistible. weekdays, but with the onset of the time of Sabbath rest, she calms down and becomes calm. Jews living on one side of the Sambation cannot cross the river, as this would be a violation of Shabbos, and can only talk with their fellow tribesmen on the other side of the river when it calms down. Since the exact location of the Sambation was not indicated, members of the outlying Kiev community identified themselves with those same pious Jews.
The very first contact between the Khazars and the Rus (by the name "Rus" I mean numerous Scandinavians, mostly Swedes, who rushed at that time in search of glory and prey) falls on the beginning of the 9th century. The latest source - "The Life of Stefan of Surozh" - records the campaign of the "Prince of the Rus Bravlin" on the Crimean coast. Since the path “from the Varangians to the Greeks” was not yet functioning, most likely Bravlin followed the then established path “from the Varangians to the Khazars” - through Ladoga, Beloozero, the Volga and the transfer to the Don. The Khazars, occupied at that moment by the civil war, were forced to let the Rus pass. In the future, the Rus and Khazars begin to compete for control of the trans-Eurasian trade route that passed through the Khazar capital of Itil and Kyiv. Mostly Jewish merchants, who were called "radanites" ("knowing the way"), cruised along it. The Russian embassy, taking advantage of the fact that a civil war was blazing in Khazaria, arrived in Constantinople around 838 and offered an alliance to the Byzantine Emperor Theophilus, who ruled in 829-842. However, the Byzantines preferred to maintain an alliance with the Khazars, having built for them the Sarkel fortress, which controlled the route along the Don and the Volga-Don portage.
Around 860, Kyiv emerged from the Khazar influence, where the Russian-Varangian prince Askold (Haskuld) and his co-ruler Dir settled. According to the deaf references preserved in the annals, it can be established that it cost Askold and Dir a lot - for almost 15 years, the Khazars, using mercenary troops consisting of Pechenegs and the so-called "black Bulgarians" who lived in the Kuban, tried to return Kyiv. But he was lost forever. Around 882, Prince Oleg, who came from the north, kills Askold and Dir and captures Kyiv. Having settled in a new place, he immediately begins the struggle for the subjugation of the former Khazar tributaries. The chronicler impassively records: in 884 " go Oleg to the northerners, but defeat the northerners, and lay tribute to the light, and will not give them tribute to pay tribute". In the following year, 885, Oleg subordinated the Radimichi to Kiev, forbidding them to pay tribute to the Khazars: “... do not give a goat, but give me. And vzasha Olgovi according to shlyag like and Kozaro dayah". The Khazars respond to this with a real economic blockade. Hoards of Arab coins, found in abundance on the territory of the former Kievan Rus, testify that approximately in the middle of the 80s of the 9th century, Arab silver ceased to flow to Russia. New hoards appear only around 920. In response, the Rus and the Slavic merchants subordinate to them are forced to reorient themselves towards Constantinople. After Oleg's successful campaign against Byzantium in 907, peace and a treaty of friendship are concluded. From now on, caravans of Russian merchants annually arrive in the capital of Byzantium. The path "from the Varangians to the Greeks" was born, becoming the main one for trade relations. In addition, the Volga Bulgaria lying at the confluence of the Volga and Kama is flourishing, intercepting the role of the main trading intermediary from the Khazaria. However, the latter is still the largest shopping mall: merchants from many countries come to Itil, including the Rus, who live in the same quarter with the rest of the "sakaliba", - this is how the Slavs and their neighbors, for example, the same Volga Bulgars, were called in the 10th century.
However, sometimes not only merchants appear. A few years after Oleg's campaign against Byzantium, most likely around 912, a huge army of the Rus, numbering almost 50,000 soldiers, demands from the Khazar king to let them through to the Caspian Sea, promising half of the booty for this. The king (some historians believe that it was Benjamin, the grandfather of Joseph, the correspondent of Hasdai ibn Shaprut) agreed to these conditions, unable to resist, since several vassal rulers rebelled against him at that moment. However, when the Rus returned and, according to the agreement, sent the king his half of the booty, his Muslim guards, who may have been on the campaign at the time of the conclusion of the agreement, suddenly became indignant and demanded permission to fight the Rus. The only thing the king could do for his recent allies was to warn them of the danger. However, this did not help them either - almost the entire army of the Rus was destroyed in that battle, and the remnants were finished off by the Volga Bulgars.
It may be that it was in that battle that Prince Oleg also found his death. One of the chronicle versions of his death says: Oleg died “beyond the sea” (we will discuss the possible causes of several versions of the death of this statesman below). Long time this episode was the only one that overshadowed the relations between Khazaria and Kievan Rus, headed by the Rurik dynasty. But in the end, thunder struck, and it was the Byzantines who apparently decided to transfer the title of their main ally in the region to someone else. Emperor Romanus Lekapinus, who usurped the throne, decided to raise his popularity by persecuting the Jews, whom he ordered to force to be baptized. For his part, the Khazar king Joseph, it seems, also carried out an action against disloyal, in his opinion, subjects. Then Roman persuaded a certain “king of the Rus” Kh-l-gu to attack the Khazar city of Samkerts, better known as Tmutarakan. (This is about the campaign against the Khazars of the Prophetic Oleg.) The revenge of the Khazars was truly terrible. The Khazar commander Pesakh, who bore the title, which various researchers read as Bulshtsi or "Balikchi", at the head of a large army, first ravaged the Byzantine possessions in the Crimea, reaching Kherson, and then headed against Kh-l-gu. He forced the latter not only to hand over the loot, but also to set off on a campaign against ... Roman Lekapin.
This campaign, which took place in 941 and is better known as the campaign of Igor Rurikovich, ended in complete failure: the boats of the Rus met ships throwing the so-called "Greek fire" - the then miracle weapon, and sank many of them. The landing force, which ravaged the coastal provinces of Byzantium, was destroyed by the imperial troops. However, Igor's second campaign, which took place around 943, ended more successfully - the Greeks, without bringing the matter to a collision, paid off with rich gifts.
In the same years, a large army of Russ reappeared on the Caspian Sea and captured the city of Berdaa. However, the uprising of the local population and epidemics led to the failure of this campaign.
It would seem that from the moment of Kh-l-gu's campaign, relations between the Rus and Khazaria are completely spoiled. The next news about them refers to approximately 960 - 961 years. The Khazar king Joseph, in a letter to the court Jew of the Cordoba caliph Abd-arRahman III Hasday ibn Shaprut, categorically states that he is at war with the Rus and does not allow them to pass through the territory of his country. “If I had left them alone for one hour, they would have conquered the entire country of the Ismailis, all the way to Baghdad,” he emphasizes. However, this statement is contradicted both by the information reported by Hasdai himself - his letter to Joseph and the latter's answer proceeded through the territory of Russia - and by the numerous mentions of the authors of the general Russian colony in Itil. Both powers are likely to maintain mutual neutrality and try on a future fight.
It turns out to be associated with the name of Prince Svyatoslav of Kiev. Most researchers agree that the main reason for the campaign against Khazaria was the desire of the Kiev prince to eliminate the very burdensome Khazar mediation in the eastern trade of the Rus, which significantly reduced the income of merchants and the feudal elite of Kievan Rus, closely associated with them. Thus, The Tale of Bygone Years records under the year 964: “And [Svyatoslav] went to the Oka river and the Volga and climbed the Vyatichi and said to the Vyatichi: “To whom do you give tribute?” They decide: “We give Kozaram a shlyag from the ral.” In the entry under the year 965, it is noted: “Svyatoslav went to the goats, hearing the goats from the dosha against his prince Kagan and stepping down, he beats and used to fight, overcoming Svyatoslav the goat and taking their city of Bela Vezha. And defeat the yas and kasog. Record for 966: "Vyatichi defeat Svyatoslav and pay tribute to them." Combining chronicle references, information from Byzantine and Arab authors, and archaeological data, one can imagine the following picture. The Rus army, which came from Kyiv, or possibly from Novgorod, wintered in the land of the Vyatichi. In 965, the Russians, having built boats, moved down the Don and somewhere near Sarkel (annalistic Belaya Vezha) defeated the Khazar army. Having occupied Sarkel and continued his campaign down the Don, Svyatoslav subjugated the Don Alans, known as Ases-Yases. Having entered the Sea of Azov, the Rus crossed it and captured the cities on both banks of the Kerch Strait, subjugating the local Adyghe population or making an alliance with it. Thus, an important segment of the path “from the Slavs to the Khazars” passed under the control of the Kievan prince, and burdensome duties were probably reduced by the Khazars after the defeat.
In 966, Svyatoslav returned to Kyiv and never returned to the Don region again, turning his attention to Bulgaria. Returning from there, he died in 972. Thus, the Khazar Khaganate had a chance not only to survive, but also to regain its former power.
Unfortunately, trouble never comes alone. In the same year 965, the Guzes attacked Khazaria from the east. The ruler of Khorezm, to whom the Khazars turned for help, demanded conversion to Islam as a payment. Apparently, the position of the Khazars was so desperate that all of them, except for the kagan, agreed to change their faith in exchange for help. And after the Khorezmians drove away the "Turks", the Khagan himself accepted Islam.
The power of Khazaria was finally defeated as a result of the campaign of a large army of the Normans, who around 969 devastated the lands of the Volga Bulgars, Burtases and Khazars. Since the local population and the Arab geographers did not really distinguish between the Rus and the Vikings, in the eastern historiography the participants in this campaign were referred to as "Russ".
The outstanding Arab geographer and traveler Ibn Khaukal in his work “The Book of the Earth’s Appearance” described the results of this campaign as follows: “In the Khazar side there is a city called Samandar ... I asked about this city in Jurjan in the year (3) 58 (968 - 969 years.- Note. auth.)... and the one whom I questioned said: “There are vineyards or a garden such that it was alms for the poor, and if anything was left there, then only a leaf on a stem. The Russians came upon it, and neither grapes nor raisins were left in it. And this city was inhabited by Muslims, representatives of other religions and idolaters, and they left, and due to the dignity of their land and their good income, not even three years will pass, and it will become as it was. And there were mosques, churches and synagogues in Samandar, and these [Rus] made their raid on everyone who was on the banks of Itil, from among the Khazars, Bulgars, Burtases, and captured them, and the people of Itil sought refuge on the island of Bab-al-Abvab (modern Derbent) and fortified on it, and part of them - on the island of Siyah-Kuh (modern Mangyshlak), living in fear (option: And the Russians came to all this, and destroyed everything that was the creation of Allah on the Itil River from Khazars, Bulgars and Burtases and took possession of them)... Bulgar... a small city... and the Rus devastated it, and came to Khazaran, Samandar and Itil in the year 358 and immediately went to the country of Rum and Andalus.
The eastern campaign of Prince Svyatoslav and the events connected with it drew a line under the long-term rivalry between Kievan Rus and the Khazar Khaganate for hegemony in Eastern Europe. This campaign led to the establishment of a new balance of power in the Volga region, the Don region, the North Caucasus and the Crimea. The results of the campaigns of 965-969 were as follows. The Khazar Khaganate did not cease to exist, but weakened and lost most of its dependent territories. The power of the kagan extended, apparently, only to his own domain and, perhaps, to part of the coastal Dagestan, where the fugitives from Derbent and Mangyshlak returned.
Very soon, the Khorezmians, represented by the emir of Urgench al-Mamun, decided that the conversion of the Khazars to Islam was insufficient payment for the assistance provided, and occupied the lands of the khanate. Probably, it was from this time that a group of Khazar Christians and Jews appeared in Urgench, whose presence was recorded by travelers of the 12th-14th centuries. The descendants of these Khazars could be the Adakly-Khyzir (or Khyzir-eli) tribe that existed until recently in Khorezm. We do not have data on the belonging of Tmutarakan in the 70s - 80s. The most common point of view is that the city passed into the hands of the Kasogs. His submission to Byzantium is also possible. However, the existence of a Khazar principality in the city cannot yet be completely ruled out, as evidenced by the colophon from the collection of the famous Karaite historian and collector of manuscripts A. Firkovich, which is considered a fake.
As for Sarkel and the Don region in general, these lands could either remain under the control of the Rus, or go back to the Khazars. Another option is the existence of an Asco-Bulgarian principality there.
In 986, Prince Vladimir of Kyiv, who had recently made a campaign against the Volga Bulgars, moved down the Volga. According to the testimony of the 11th-century author Jacob Mnich, who wrote “Memory and Praise to the Holy Prince Vladimir”, Vladimir “went against Kozary, I won and put tribute on us.” The allies of the Kiev prince in this enterprise, apparently, were the Guzes, who helped him in the campaign against the Volga Bulgarians. Maybe then Vladimir met with the “Khazar Jews”, who tried to convert the prince to Judaism.
Most likely, it was this campaign that led to the disappearance of the Khazar Khaganate. After that, we no longer hear anything about the Khazar state with its center in Itil. However, this did not bring much benefit to Kievan Rus. The place of the Khazars was taken by the Pechenegs and Polovtsy, who forced the Eastern Slavs to leave the previously inhabited lands in the lower reaches of the Dnieper, on the Middle and Lower Don.
However, the Rus had to take part in another campaign against the Khazars. According to the Byzantine historians Skilitsa and Kedrin, in January 1016, Emperor Basil II sent a fleet under the command of Mong to Khazaria (as Crimea was then called). The purpose of the expedition was to suppress the uprising of the ruler of the Crimean possessions of Byzantium (possibly autonomous or semi-autonomous, as Skilitsa calls him "archon") George Tsula. The seals of Tsula found in the Crimea call him the strategos of Kherson and the strategos of the Bosporus. Mong was able to cope with the recalcitrant strategist only with the help of Vladimir Svyatoslavich's "brother", a certain Sfeng. Probably Sfeng was an educator - the "uncle" of Mstislav Tmutarakansky, and the Byzantines confused his position with family ties. Tsula was captured in the first encounter. Whether it was an uprising of a rebellious strategist or an attempt by the Khazars to form their own state, it is impossible to establish for sure. Probably, it was from these times that Khazaria was mentioned as part of the Byzantine imperial title, recorded in the decree of Vasileus Manuel I Komnenos of 1166.
THE KHAZARS AND RUSSIA AFTER THE KHAZARIA
After the fall of the Khazar Khaganate in historical writings speaks of several groups of Khazars. Only one of them was connected with Russia - the Khazars who lived in Tmutarakan.
After Vladimir's campaign against the Khazars or after the capture of Korsun in 988, Tmutarakan and the Don region pass into the hands of the Kiev prince, who immediately installs one of his sons as prince there. According to the traditional version, it was Mstislav. In 1022 (or, according to another date, in 1017), Mstislav made a campaign against the Kasogs, who were then led by Prince Rededya (Ridade). Having “slaughtered” Rededya “before the regiments of the Kassogians”, Mstislav annexed his lands to his own and felt so strong that in 1023 he came to Russia with the Khazar-Kasogian squad to demand his share of Vladimir’s inheritance. After the bloody clash at Listven in 1024, when it was the onslaught of his squad that brought victory to Mstislav, the Tmutarakan prince achieved the division of Russia into two parts along the Dnieper. After the death of Mstislav in 1036, due to his lack of heirs ( The only son Eustathius died in 1032) all his lands went to his brother. After the death of Yaroslav the Wise in 1054, Tmutarakan and the Don lands became part of the Chernigov Principality of Svyatoslav Yaroslavich. But in 1064, Svyatoslav's nephew Rostislav Vladimirovich appeared in Tmutarakan. He expelled his cousin Gleb, withstood the struggle with his uncle, who was trying to drive his nephew from the throne, and led an active struggle to expand his own possessions.
According to an annalistic entry from 1066, Rostislav "earned tribute from the Kasogs and other countries." One of these "countries" is named by Tatishchev. According to him, these were jars, most likely from the Don. The seal of the prince has been preserved, proudly calling him "the archon of Matrakha, Zikhia and all Khazaria." The latter title contained a claim to dominion over the Crimean possessions of Byzantium, which, before the fall of the kaganate, may have been subordinate to the Tmutarakan tarkhan. This could not but cause alarm among the Greeks and, apparently, was the reason for the poisoning of Rostislav by the Kherson catepan, who came to him for negotiations, in the same 1066.
After the death of Rostislav, Tmutarakan was successively in the hands of Gleb (until 1071) and Roman Svyatoslavich. His brother Oleg fled to the latter in 1077, and Tmutarakan became involved in inter-princely civil strife. In 1078-1079 the city became the base for the unsuccessful campaigns of the Svyatoslav brothers against Chernihiv. During the second campaign, the bribed Polovtsians killed Roman, and Oleg had to flee to Tmutarakan.
Upon Oleg's return to Tmutarakan, the Khazars (who, apparently, were fed up with the constant wars that had a disastrous effect on city trade, and they probably organized the murder of Roman) seized the prince and sent him to Constantinople. Oleg spent four years in Byzantium, two of which were in exile on the island of Rhodes. In 1083 he returned and, according to the chronicle, "cut the Khazars." But not all of them were "excised". So, for example, the Arab geographer Al-Idrisi even mentions the city and country of the Khazars, who lived near Tmutarakan. Perhaps he meant Belaya Vezha, which was subordinate to Tmutarakan: after the Russians left the city in 1117, the Khazar population could remain there. But, perhaps, it was about the territory to the east of Tmutarakan. This can be confirmed by the deaf mention of Veniamin Tudelsky about the existence of a Jewish community in Alania, which was subordinate to the exilarch in Baghdad. Probably, the Khazar population continued to remain in Tmutarakan until it was conquered by the Mongols, and possibly even later until the final assimilation. The city itself in 1094 (or according to another version in 1115) came under the rule of Byzantium and remained in this status at least until the beginning of the 13th century.
In addition, when in 1229 the Mongols subjugated Saksin, which arose in the 12th century on the site of Itil, the remnants of the Saxin population fled to the Volga Bulgaria and Russia.
Yes, and in Kyiv, the Jewish community continued to exist, living in its own quarter. It is known that one of the Kiev gates was called “Zhidovsky” until the 13th century. Probably, the main language of communication among the Kiev Jews, among whom there was a large proportion of proselytes, was Old Russian. At least the first abbot of the Pechersk monastery Theodosius (died in 1074) could freely argue with them without resorting to the services of an interpreter. In the XII century it is known about the existence of the Jewish community in Chernihiv.
THE KHAZAR HERITAGE
Reading the title of this chapter, perhaps the reader will smile and ask: what kind of inheritance do I mean? However, when analyzing the sources, it can be established that the Rus, especially at an early stage of their history, borrowed quite a lot from the Khazars, mainly in the administrative sphere. The ruler of the Rus, who sent an embassy to Byzantium in 838, already calls himself a kagan, like the ruler of the Khazars. In Scandinavia, the name Hakon has since appeared. In the future, Eastern geographers and Western European annalists more than once mentioned the Khagan of the Rus as their supreme ruler. But finally this title will be established only after the fall of Khazaria. Probably, it remained with the princes as long as any areas of the indigenous territory of the kaganate remained under their rule.
Metropolitan Hilarion in his "Sermon on Law and Grace" speaks of Vladimir and Yaroslav as kagans. On the wall of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, graffiti has been preserved: "God save our kagan S ...". Here, in all likelihood, this refers to the middle son of Yaroslav - Svyatoslav, who reigned in Chernigov in 1054 - 1073 and kept Tmutarakan in submission. The last Russian prince, in relation to whom the title of kagan was used, was the son of Svyatoslav - Oleg Svyatoslavich, who reigned in Tmutarakan at the end of the 11th century. But the Russians were not limited to titles.
Historians have long noticed that the chronicler, talking about the events of the 9th-10th centuries, almost always speaks of two rulers who simultaneously ruled Russia: Askold and Dir Igor and Oleg, and after the death of Oleg - Sveneld, who retained his functions under Igor's son Svyatoslav and grandson Yaropolka, Vladimir and his uncle Dobrynya. Moreover, one of them is always mentioned as a military leader, whose position is not hereditary, and the second passes his title of ruler by inheritance. It was very similar to the system of co-government that developed in Khazaria. Assumptions about the existence of such a system were confirmed when in 1923 a complete manuscript of the “Book of Ahmed ibn Fadlan” was discovered - the secretary of the embassy of the Baghdad caliph to the ruler of the Volga Bulgars, in which he described the customs of the peoples of Eastern Europe. It clearly indicates the existence of two rulers among the Rus - the sacred king, whose life was shackled by many prohibitions, and his deputy, who was in charge of all affairs.
This may clear up a lot. For example, the existence of several versions of the death of Prophetic Oleg can be explained by the fact that there were several of these same Olegs, or rather Helga (if it was a name at all, and not a title). Then, for the chronicler, they simply merged into one image. Since the tradition of such a co-government has not yet had time to firmly establish itself, it is relatively quickly disappearing under the onslaught of the energetic Vladimir Svyatoslavich, giving way to the traditional division of the state into several destinies between the rulers.
Probably, the Rus also borrowed the tax system of the Khazars. At least, the chronicles directly say that the former Khazar tributaries paid the same taxes to the Kiev prince as they used to pay to the Khazar Khagan. However, given the claims of the rulers of the Rus to the kagan title, we can say that for the Slavs, everything did not change much - the system remained the same.
The realities of Judaism, which became known not least thanks to the Kiev community of Jews, had a great influence on ancient Russian culture. It is known that for some time Kyiv and its environs were considered as the new Holy Land. This is evidenced by the place names preserved in the people's memory: the Zion Mountains, the Jordan River - this was the name of the Pochaina flowing not far from Kyiv, many of whose legendary properties brought it closer to Sambation. Moreover, it was specifically about Eretz Yisroel, since neither Mount Golgotha, nor anything else from Christian toponymy, was mentioned here. In addition, despite the fact that the attempt of the “Khazar Jews” to convert Vladimir to Judaism failed, Kievan Rus showed great interest in ancient Hebrew literature, many of whose monuments were translated into Church Slavonic or Russian.
FROM TRUTH TO FALSE
Pre-revolutionary Russian professional historians and archaeologists - D.Ya. Samokvasov, M.K. Lyubavsky M.D. Priselkov, S.F. Platonov - respected Khazaria and its role in the formation of the ancient Russian state. To their credit, it should be noted that neither Jewish pogroms nor anti-Jewish propaganda at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries darkened the image of the Khazars for them.
A similar attitude prevailed in pre-war Soviet historiography. The general tone for the work on the Khazar problem was set by M.N. Pokrovsky, who wrote the first Soviet textbook on Russian history. In contrast to the Russian chauvinists, he wrote that the first large states on the Russian Plain were created not by the Slavs at all, but by the Khazars and Varangians.
In this direction, some Ukrainian historians developed their theories - D.I. Doroshenko, Academician D.I. Bagalei, emigrant V. Shcherbakovsky. They emphasized that the Eastern Slavs, protected by the Khazars from the raids of the steppe nomads, were able to settle southern steppes up to the Black Sea, while the weakening of the Khazar state forced them to leave this territory.
Ukrainian historian V.A. Parkhomenko added that the tribes of the Slavic southeast voluntarily submitted to the Khazars and began to build their statehood under their auspices. Parkhomenko even suggested that the meadows that came to the Middle Dnieper from the southeast brought with them not only elements of the Khazar state system (for example, the title "Kagan"), but also the Jewish religion, which explains the well-known heat of the Christian-Jewish dispute in the first centuries of Kievan Rus . Parkhomenko saw in the behavior of Prince Svyatoslav the habits of a warrior brought up in the Khazar steppe.
In the 1920s, the well-known historian Yu.V. Gauthier. He singled out the Khazars from other steppe nomads and noted that "the historical role of the Khazars is not so much conquering as unifying and pacifying." It was thanks to a soft policy and religious tolerance, Gauthier believed, that the Khazars were able to maintain peace in their possessions for centuries. He believed that the tribute imposed on the Slavs by the Khazars was not burdensome.
The next stage in the study of the Khazars is associated with the name of M.I. Artamonov (1898 - 1972), an outstanding archaeologist who did a lot to study the early medieval monuments in the south of Eastern Europe.
Image of a Khazarin.
In his original approach to the Khazar themes, Artamonov followed closely the Soviet concept of the 1920s. It was clear to him that the insufficient development of many issues of Khazar history and culture was a consequence of the chauvinism of pre-revolutionary historiography, which “could not come to terms with the political and cultural predominance of Khazaria, which was almost equal in strength to Byzantium and the Arab Caliphate, while Russia was just entering the historical arena and then in the form of a vassal of the Byzantine Empire. Artamonov regretted that even among Soviet scientists there was a disdainful attitude towards Khazaria. In fact, he wrote, in the bowels of the vast Khazar state, a number of peoples were being formed, for Khazaria served as "the most important condition for the formation of Kievan Rus."
In the 1940s, historian V.V. Mavrodin, who dared to interpret the 7th-8th centuries as the "period of the Khazar Khaganate" in the history of the Russian people. He suggested that the hypothetical pre-Cyrillic Old Russian writing could have been formed under the influence of the Khazar runes. This scientist allowed himself to call Kievan Rus "the direct heir to the power of the kagan."
The end of the considered tradition was put by the Stalinist campaign of "fight against cosmopolitanism", begun in 1948. One of the accusations brought against the "cosmopolitans" was "belittling the role of the Russian people in world history." This campaign also affected archaeologists, among whom was M.I. Artamonov.
At the end of December 1951, in the party organ, the Pravda newspaper, an article appeared, the author of which attacked historians who dared to put the formation of the ancient Russian state in connection with the Khazar influence, downplaying the creative potential of the Russian people. The main blow was dealt to Artamonov. The author of the note tried to present the Khazars as wild hordes of robbers who seized the lands of the Eastern Slavs and other peoples and imposed a “predatory tribute” on their indigenous inhabitants. The author had no doubt that the Khazars could not play any positive role in the history of the Eastern Slavs. In his opinion, the Khazars allegedly not only did not contribute to the formation of the state among the Russians, but also in every possible way hampered this process, exhausting Russia with devastating raids. And he insisted that it was only with great difficulty that Russia escaped from the grip of this terrible yoke.
Whose views did the author of the article in Pravda rely on? Even on the eve of the First World War, some amateur historians, Russian chauvinists and anti-Semites - A. Nechvolodov, P. Kovalevsky, A. Selyaninov - tried to introduce the “Khazar episode” into anti-Semitic discourse: to give Khazaria the appearance of a steppe predator, infected with the terrible bacillus of Judaism and striving to enslave Slavs. A small note in Pravda, written by an unknown author, echoed precisely these anti-Semitic writings. And it was this assessment that from now on determined the attitude of Soviet science to the Khazar problem for decades. In particular, the Khazars were viewed as entirely "an alien people, alien to the culture of the original population of Eastern Europe."
If in ancient times the Khazars had not accepted Judaism (part of the people, or only to know, or to know and part of the people - this is not the main thing!), How would they be remembered? It seems that - at least in Russian science and literature - no more often than, say, about the Berendeys, and there would be no more disputes around the Khazars and their role in the history of Russia than about the Pechenegs!
But it was as it was - although no one can say exactly: HOW it was. And the dispute about the Khazars, their conquests and roles acquired a completely non-historical and archaeological character. Academician B.A. Rybakov (1907 - 2001) became the main herald of this line. Here, for example, is what he wrote in the collection Secrets of the Ages, published in 1980.
“The international significance of the Khazar Khaganate was often overly exaggerated. A small semi-nomadic state could not even think about rivalry with Byzantium or the Caliphate. The productive forces of Khazaria were at too low a level to ensure its normal development.
AT ancient book we read: “The country of the Khazars does not produce anything that would be exported to the south, except for fish glue ... The Khazars do not manufacture fabrics ... The state revenues of Khazaria consist of duties paid by travelers, from tithes collected from goods along all roads leading to the capital... The king of the Khazars has no courts, and his people are unaccustomed to them.”
As articles of the Khazar export proper, the author indicates only bulls, rams and captives.
The size of the Khaganate is very modest... Khazaria was an almost regular quadrangle, elongated from southeast to northwest, the sides of which were: Itil - Volga from Volgograd to the mouth of the Khazar (Caspian) Sea, from the mouth of the Volga to the mouth of the Kuma, Kumo-Manychskaya depression and Don from Sarkel to Perevoloka.
Khazaria was... a small khanate of nomadic Khazars that existed for a long time only due to the fact that it turned into a huge customs outpost that blocked the paths along the Northern Donets, Don, the Kerch Strait and the Volga ... "
There are reasons to think that it was B.A. Rybakov inspired the publication of that very note in the Pravda newspaper in 1951.
After the criticism that hit Artamonov, this scientist was forced to reconsider his positions. In the new concept put forward by Artamonov in 1962, he had to touch upon the problem of Judaism and Jews in Khazaria. The adoption of Judaism, he believed, caused a split in the Khazar environment, for Judaism was the national religion and did not recognize proselytism. The historian tried to prove that the figure of the almighty bek arose only by the beginning of the 9th century, when the descendants of the Dagestani Jewish prince completely removed the kagan from real power. Artamonov portrayed this as "the seizure of state power by the Jew Obadiah and the conversion of the government of Khazaria to Judaism." It was about a complete change in the state system: "Khazaria became a monarchy, submissive to the king, alien to the people in culture and religion." The author had no doubt that the Christians and Muslims of Khazaria eked out a miserable existence "as eternal taxpayers and frightened servants of their cruel masters." They, of course, sympathized with the rebels and did not support the government, which consisted of Jews. Therefore, the authorities were forced to unleash a wave of repression on both of these confessions. However, Judaism never became the state religion. That is why, - concluded Artamonov, - "the glorified religious tolerance of the Khazars was a forced virtue, submission to the power of things to cope with which the Khazar state was not able to."
It is these two provisions that became the core of the anti-Semitic concept, which was adopted by the Russian national patriots, and it flourished in pseudo-scientific literature in the 1980s and 1990s. In the writings of numerous "patriots" Khazaria was portrayed and portrayed as a country whose main goal was the enslavement of the Slavs, including the spiritual one, and imposing Jewish domination on the world. Here is how, for example, the Khazar policy towards the Slavs is assessed by an anonymous author who published his historical opus in the newspaper of the Russian national unity(RNE) "Russian order".
“The cruel, merciless policy continued to be carried out by the Khazars against the Slavs, whose lands became an inexhaustible source of “living goods” for the enslavers. The main goal of the Slavic policy of the Khazar Khaganate was the maximum weakening of the Russian territories and the destruction of the Kiev principality. This would turn the Jews into the financial masters of the entire Eurasian space.”
There was even a novel written by a certain A. Baigushev about the Khazars, in which the Jews, Masons, Manichaeans and the unfortunate Khazar people, oppressed by the “isha” Joseph, were thrown into one heap. Baigushev, as it turned out, preferred the incorrect reading of one of the titles of the Khazar king, given in the book of the Arab geographer Ibn Ruste: the original was "shad" - "prince". This is all the more strange, because it is not known exactly who Joseph himself was - a king or a kagan?
In addition, statements roam from essay to essay that Judaism was accepted only by the elite of the Khazars, who made it a religion for the elect, and ordinary Khazars were in the most humbled position and therefore almost gladly met the troops of Svyatoslav.
His theory was as follows. Initially, the Khazars peacefully coexisted with the Slavs, charging them a small tribute for protection. Everything changed when “Jews-Talmudists” appeared in the country, who considered themselves the chosen people and despised everyone else (by the way, Gumilyov emphasized the participation of Jews in the capture of Slavic slaves). After the Jewish protégé Obadiah seized power as a result of a coup d'état around 800, relations with the Slavs and Rus deteriorated, as the Jewish elite of Khazaria sought to enslave them. (Note: it is not possible to draw an unambiguous conclusion from existing sources whether Obadiah belonged to the Ashina dynasty or not, despite the categorical statements of L.N. Gumilyov.) to world domination. Under the chimera, Gumilyov, as a supporter of the theory of "purity of blood", understood the ethnic group that arose as a result of mixed marriages. As for the conversion to Judaism, Gumilyov repeats a quote taken from no one knows who says that Judaism is not a proselytizing religion, and the converts were allegedly considered "the leprosy of Israel." Since the words quoted above were taken from the Talmud, then we have before us (if the quote is genuine) either the saying of one of the parties to a long-standing dispute or a reflection of the situation when Jews were forbidden to engage in proselytizing local authorities which was not uncommon. The choice of Khazaria as an object of study was far from accidental. After all main goal Gumilyov was to show who were friends of Ancient Russia, and who were enemies. And the author had no doubt that her worst enemy was "aggressive Judaism", as well as that it was Khazaria that turned out to be " evil genius Ancient Russia".
Gumilev convinced the reader in every way that the Jews showed in Khazaria all the deceit and cruelty of their nature. They took over the fabulously profitable caravan trade between China and Europe. Through mixed marriages, the Jews penetrated the environment of the Khazar nobility. The Khazar khans fell under the influence of the Jews, and they gained access to all government posts. Ultimately, the Jews carried out a coup d'état in Khazaria, and the local Jewish community turned into the dominant social stratum, mastering not the natural, but the anthropogenic landscape (cities and caravan routes). Therefore, Gumilyov called the Jews the colonizers of the Khazar lands. Thus, a “zigzag” arose that deviated from the normal ethnogenetic development, and “a predatory and merciless ethnic chimera” appeared “on the stage of history”. All subsequent events in the Khazar Khaganate, as well as its foreign policy activities, Gumilyov depicts only in black tones, due to the "harmful activities" of the Jews.
The relations between the “Jews” and the Russian kaganate, whose capital was allegedly already in the first third of the 9th century Kyiv, turned out to be initially hostile, since it was precisely under the protection of the Rus that the supposedly Hungarians who migrated to the West fled, and the so-called kabars - tribes that were defeated in civil war in Khazaria. Then the Khazar Jews set the Varangians against the Kyiv Khaganate in order to stop the spread of Christianity in Eastern Europe, which was unprofitable for them. (Note, however: in fact, Christianity began to spread massively in the lands inhabited by the Eastern Slavs, after the fall of the Khaganate; as for the Christians who lived in Khazaria itself, they most likely died under the swords of the Normans.)
The author tries to present the Khazars as an "oppressed minority" in Khazaria, where all conceivable and unimaginable benefits were given to supposedly Jewish rulers and merchants. Having succumbed to the tricks of the mythology of the “worldwide Jewish conspiracy”, Gumilyov enthusiastically describes the supposedly concluded agreement between the Khazar Jews and the Normans on the division of Eastern Europe, “forgetting” about the fundamental impossibility of concluding such an agreement. Then the Jews, of course, violated the agreement and by the beginning of the tenth century they seized all the Eastern European lands, as a result of which “before the natives of Eastern Europe there was an alternative: slavery or death. In addition, Gumilyov in every possible way denounces “aggressive Judaism” as the most important geopolitical factor of the early Middle Ages, thereby repeating the backs of the old anti-Semitic theory about the Jewish desire for world domination and occasionally throwing remarks that would be an honor to any author of the Nazi newspaper Der Stürmer - for example, about "a typically Jewish formulation of the question, where other people's emotions are not taken into account." With regard to the atrocities of the Varangians-Russians during the campaigns against Byzantium in 941, Gumilyov casually throws the phrase: “All this points to a war of a completely different nature than other wars of the 10th century. Apparently, the Russian soldiers had experienced and influential instructors, and not only Scandinavians,” referring to the Khazar Jews. However, the question immediately arises: did the Jews instruct him in 988, when Korsun was taken by Prince Vladimir?
In general, Gumilyov draws the gloomy fate of the Eastern European peoples during the reign of the Khazar Jewish kings, which, by the way, was not confirmed by any historical source: Russian heroes died in masses for someone else's cause, the Khazars were robbed and offended, the Alans lost Christian shrines, the Slavs had to pay tribute, etc. .d. “This permanent disgrace,” he writes, “was difficult for all peoples, except for the merchant elite of Itil ...”
The most interesting thing is that the picture drawn by Gumilyov resembles an anti-Semitic sketch of the first years of Bolshevik power: the Jews who seized power hold it with the help of foreign mercenaries, reducing the bulk of the population to the status of cattle and providing unprecedented advantages to the Jews. As a result, Gumilev concludes that an alien urban ethnos, cut off from the earth and moved to a new landscape for itself, could not have acted otherwise, because its very existence in the new conditions could only be based on the most severe exploitation of the surrounding peoples. Thus, Gumilyov portrays the entire Jewish history in golus as the history of an exploiting people.
Judging by the “evidence” of Gumilyov, the Khazar state was defeated by Svyatoslav without much difficulty, since the “true Khazars” - the common people - did not see anything good from their rulers and met the Rus almost as liberators: “The death of the Jewish community of Itil gave freedom for the Khazars and all the surrounding peoples... The Khazars had nothing to love the Jews and the statehood they had planted,” the author claims. The Jews behaved so intolerantly that "both people and nature rose up against them."
Svyatoslav's campaign itself is described as follows: having deceived the Khazar army, supposedly waiting for him in the Dnieper-Don interfluve (then this army mysteriously disappears somewhere and is not mentioned again by Gumilyov), the prince descended the Volga and defeated the Khazar militia at Itil. After the capture of Itil, Svyatoslav moved to Samandar (Semender), identified by Gumilyov with the settlement near the village of Grebenskaya, ... by land, since "river boats were not suitable for sailing on the sea." Thus, this author completely ignores the facts of the navigation of the Rus on the same "river boats" in the Caspian Sea in the 9th - 12th centuries. Then Gumilyov sends a foot army of Russ straight to Sarkel, forcing them to march across the waterless Kalmyk steppes without any explanation for the "ignorance" of rich Tmutarakan by the Rus.
A follower of Gumilyov, a literary critic who became a writer V.V. Kozhinov even invented the term "Khazar yoke", which was allegedly much more dangerous than the Mongol one, since it supposedly consisted in the spiritual enslavement of the Slavs. Kozhinov argued that Russia, under Svyatoslav, overthrew the very “Khazar yoke”. What is meant is not explained: either the Khazars were going to open McDonald's in every forest, or to convert the Slavs to Judaism en masse...
The last in a series of writers demonizing the Khazars was, unfortunately, A.I. Solzhenitsyn, who devoted several lines to Russian-Khazar relations in his book "200 Years Together". He trusted Gumilyov's theory about the Jewish elite, allegedly ethnically alien to the rest of the Khazars. And although the writer speaks quite favorably about the settlement of the Judaizing Khazars in Kyiv, however, after a few lines he again refers to unverified data cited by the historian of the 18th century V.N. Tatishchev about the alleged exorbitant extortion of the Jews, which predetermined the pogrom in Kyiv in 1113, and about their expulsion by Vladimir Monomakh. However, according to a number of authoritative historians, Tatishchev simply invented these stories in order to justify the expulsion of Jews from Russia under the Empress Elizabeth, to whom his own historical work was dedicated, with a “historical example”.
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