Chapter VI The Khazar Khaganate The Khazars have been known since the time of the European empire of the Huns in the 4th-5th centuries. n. e. During the formation of the Great Turkic Khaganate, they supported Istemi-Kagan and participated in the campaign against Georgia and Azerbaijan (6, pp. 146–152).

A significant phenomenon in the Turkic and global history was the Khazar Khaganate. But the history of this state is often described as a background or context for the history of other peoples. It is still not included in the system of the general Turkic civilization and the statehood of the Tatar people, although there are many signs-criteria (a common historical origin, language, way of life, etc.) that allow us to consider Khazaria as an important component of the Turkic civilization and the Tatar subculture.

Creation of the Khazar Khaganate

The Khazar Khaganate (from the 7th to the 10th centuries) became the first early feudal state in the east of Europe, which arose by the middle of the 7th century. in the Caspian steppes as a result of the collapse of the Western Turkic Khaganate.

Turkic-speaking Khazars - nomads and pastoralists appeared here after the Hunnic "throw" to Europe. According to the Syrian historian Zacharias of Mytilene, at the turn of the 5th - 6th centuries. 13 Turkic-speaking tribes settled in the northwestern Caspian region, among which were Savirs, Avars, Bulgarians, Khazars. The Khazars, together with the Savirs, showed themselves as a noticeable military force, making campaigns against the Byzantine and Iranian possessions in the Transcaucasus.

In the 560-570s. Khazar tribes fell under the influence of the Turkic Khaganate. Together with the main Turkic groups of the kaganate, which made an alliance with Byzantium, the Khazars participated in campaigns against Iran. After the weakening and collapse of the Western Turkic Khaganate, the Khazars turned out to be one of the largest and most influential tribes in the North Caucasus, creating a new union of tribes - the Khazar Khaganate. The Turkic (Turkut) Ashina dynasty retained power in the kaganate.

Tribes of the Khazar Khaganate

In the second half of the 7th c. Khazars, taking advantage of the division of Great Bulgaria between the sons of Khan Kubrat, subjugated part of the Bulgarian tribes. The Khazar Khaganate also included Savirs, Barsils, Belenjers, Alans and other local tribes.

Territory of the Khazar Khaganate

At the end of the 7th - beginning of the 8th centuries. the Khazars were able to subjugate the nearby East Slavic tribes and imposed tribute on them. As a result of a military confrontation with the Byzantine Empire at the turn of the 7th-8th centuries. the Khazars took over Taman Peninsula, Bosporus, most of the Crimean peninsula, with the exception of Chersonese.

At the height of its prosperity at the beginning of the 8th century. The Khazar Khaganate included the vast territories of the North Caucasus, the entire Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov, most of the Crimea, controlled the steppe and forest-steppe expanses up to the Dnieper. Despite the strengthening of the Khazar presence in the Black Sea region, Byzantium, alarmed by the Arab campaigns, establishes allied relations with Khazaria.

VII - VIII centuries. were a period of explosive expansion of the Arab civilization, which created a huge empire - stretching from the Indus River in Asia to the Pyrenees in Europe. Already during the first military campaigns, the Arabs ousted the powerful powers of that time - the Byzantine Empire and Sassanid Iran, weakened by internal contradictions and eternal mutual struggle.

In the middle of the 7th century the Arab conquest of Iran ended, and at the beginning of the 8th century. the Arab state included Transcaucasia and part Central Asia. Baghdad became the center of a prosperous caliphate.

The Khazars made several trips to the Arab-controlled lands of Transcaucasia. In response, the Arabs in 735, having overcome the Caucasus Mountains, defeated the Khazars. The Khazar Khagan and his entourage adopted Islam from the Arabs, which they then spread among part of the population of the Khaganate. This is the result of Arab civilizational influence, the penetration of Arab preachers and Muslim merchants into the country.

Capital of the Khazar Khaganate

After the Arab campaigns, the center of the kaganate moved to the north. The capital of the kaganate was first the ancient city of Semender in the North Caucasian Caspian region, and then the city of Itil on the Lower Volga (not far from modern Astrakhan). The city was located on both banks of the Volga and on a small island, where the residence of the kagan was located. It was walled and had a good system of fortifications.

In the eastern part of the city (Khazaran) there was a handicraft and trade center with large fairgrounds, caravanserais, workshops, and the western part was inhabited by bureaucratic and military aristocracy, administrative buildings and the khan's palace were also located here.

The population of the capital, as well as the entire kaganate, was ethnically diverse: in addition to the Khazars, there lived Bulgarians and Alans, Turks and Slavs, Arabs and Khorezmians, Jews and Byzantines. Many visiting merchants stayed in Khazaria for a long time. Muslims had mosques, Christian churches, Jews - synagogues, and pagans - pagan temples and places of prayer.

According to contemporaries, there were at least 30 mosques, parochial schools and schools in the city. Residential buildings consisted of wooden houses or tents, felt yurts and semi-dugouts. Itil existed until 965, when it was destroyed by the Kiev prince Svyatoslav Igorevich.

Economy of the Khazar Khaganate

The main economic occupation of the population of Khazaria remained semi-nomadic cattle breeding, but agriculture, horticulture and viticulture were actively developing. Many grain, horticultural and horticultural crops came to the farmers of the Khazar Khaganate from Central and Central Asia, from the Middle East, from South and Central Europe. The proximity of the Caspian and Azov Seas, Volga, Don and other rivers made fishing habitual for the population of Khazaria.

In summer, many pastoralists went to temporary camps, in winter they lived in settlements and cities. The craft developed rapidly, adopting the most progressive technique and technologies of various civilizations and peoples.

Trade of the Khazar Khaganate

Trade played a special role in the formation of the Khazar Khaganate and the expansion of its international relations.

The Khaganate found itself at the crossroads of traditional trade routes from east to west () and from the Baltic to the Caspian and Black Seas (the Great Volga Route).

From the north came furs, cattle, honey and wax, beluga glue, from the south they brought Arab steel, jewelry, from the east - spices, precious stones, from the west - weapons, metal products, fabrics. The Khaganate was a transit route in the slave trade, but slavery did not become noticeable here and, in its type, was close to patriarchal slavery.

Sarkel fortress of the Khazar Khaganate

The largest city of Khazaria was the city of Sarkel (from the Khazar “white house”), built in the 9th century. at the intersection of several trade caravan routes with water. In 834, the Byzantine emperor Theophilus, at the request of the Khazar Khagan, sent an architect to the Don to build a stone fortress, which was erected by local craftsmen. The fortress protected the neighboring trading city and was separated from it by a moat. On the inner territory of the fortress, which had thick brick walls and towers, there was a citadel with two watchtowers.

Sarkel grew rapidly and soon turned into the largest city of the Azov region with a multilingual population, a significant part of which were Bulgarians. Subsequently, the city was heavily destroyed by the warriors of Prince Svyatoslav, but it existed as a southern Russian stronghold called Belaya Vezha until the middle of the 12th century.

Byzantium and the Khazar Khaganate

Khazaria, having found itself in the zone of geopolitical competition of the largest empires and civilizations (Byzantium, the Arab Caliphate), was drawn not only into their military rivalry and politics, but also became the cause of cultural and religious confrontation. In connection with such a role of the Khazar Khaganate in the Caspian-Black Sea region, the issue of the state religion acquired key importance. Initially, the pagans - the Bulgarians and the Khazars were influenced by Muslim Arabs, and the Byzantines introduced Christianity, creating in the VIII century on the territory of the Khaganate a metropolis with seven local dioceses.

Almost simultaneously with the adoption of Islam, part of the Khazars of Northern Dagestan began to profess Judaism, which was brought to the Caucasus by Jews expelled first from Sasanian Iran, and then from Byzantium.

Judaism in the Khazar Khaganate

The Khazars showed considerable religious tolerance, as evidenced by many contemporaries. This is probably why attempts to declare one of the state religions met with no resistance in society. This happened when at the turn of the VIII-IX centuries. Khagan Obadiah displaced the former Turkic dynasty and declared Judaism the state religion.

The environment of the kagan adopted Judaism, and most of the population continued to practice paganism, Islam and Christianity. A split occurred among the local feudal lords, the Khazar princes, opponents of the new kagan, decided to rely on the help of the Hungarians, who at that time roamed beyond the Volga, and Obadiah hired Turkic detachments of the Pechenegs and Guzes (Oghuz). An internecine struggle began, as a result of which the losers went to the Danube, and one of them, quite likely, migrated to the Middle Volga region.

The defeat of the Khazar Khaganate

At the end of the ninth century The banks of the Don and the Black Sea steppes are filled with new Turkic nomads - the Pechenegs, who seriously impeded the Khazar foreign trade. An even more dangerous threat to the hegemony of the Khazar Khaganate and Khazar trade was Kievan Rus, which also sought to control the transit trade of Eastern Europe: the Great Silk Road and the Baltic-Black Sea-Caspian route. As a result of numerous Russian campaigns, the main life-supporting centers of the city of Itil, Semender and Sarkel were weakened. It was impossible to restore the khanate.

The tribes and peoples of the kaganate moved or were assimilated by other ethnic groups, mainly with the Pechenegs, and then with. The ethnonym "Khazars" still existed for some time in the Crimea, which Italian sources continued to call Khazaria until the 16th century.

In all likelihood, the small Turkic-speaking people of the Karaites, who profess the Karaite version of Judaism, lived in the Crimea in the Middle Ages and partially moved to Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine in the 14th century, can be considered the distant descendants of the Khazars.

Most sources about the Khazar Khaganate primarily cover political history, somewhat weaker - economy. As for culture, questions of ideology are most affected and almost nothing is known about its other aspects. The Khazars did not leave us literary works, religious treatises, historical chronicles. Therefore, we are forced to resort to disparate data of medieval authors and archaeological materials. Perhaps the most illuminated is the ideological aspect of the Khazar culture. It has already been said above that the Khazars were an ethnic group formed as a result of the merger of various tribes, both long lived in Ciscaucasia and those who came here from the East. This left its mark on the religion of the Khazars. Initially, the Khazars were pagans (most of them remained as such later). In the beliefs of the Khazars, all kinds of primitive forms of religion can be traced. Ancient totemic beliefs were preserved in the legends about the origin of the Khazars. From the time the Khazars entered the Hunnic confederation, they had a legend about a deity in the form of a deer, which carried away the hunters and led the tribe to new lands. One of the most famous rulers of Khazaria bore the name Bulan (deer, elk). This legend is clearly characteristic of the forest tribes, which were the Finno-Ugrians.

Another legend is about the origin of the Turks. When the enemies destroyed the whole tribe, only a ten-year-old boy survived. From starvation (because his legs and arms were cut off) he was saved by a she-wolf. When the boy grew up, the she-wolf gave birth to 10 sons from him in the Altai mountains, who took wives from Turfan. One of them was the ancestor of the Turkic clan Ashina. By the way, Ashina means "noble wolf". The banners of the Turkut khans also depicted a golden wolf's head. Immediately it should be noted that the reading of the wolf as the progenitor is not a discovery of the Turks. They undoubtedly borrowed this cult from the Indo-Iranian nomads (as well as the cattle-breeding way of life), as evidenced by the wide distribution of such plots among the Indo-European peoples.3 Moses Kagankatvatsi provides quite detailed information about the pagan beliefs of the population of Khazaria. The Savirs "sacrificed fire and water, worshiped some gods of the ways, also the moon and all the creatures that seemed amazing to them in their eyes." He also mentions the sacred trees, where horses were sacrificed, the blood of which was poured around the sacred trees, and the head and skin were hung on the branches. Medieval authors mention ritual duels of naked men during funeral rites. Tree worship and ritual fights are perhaps the most characteristic of the Finno-Ugric tradition. It is interesting that the plots of ritual fights or dances are found both on the chalk blocks of the Mayatsky settlement, and on silver vessels from the sanctuaries of the Khanty and Mansi.

The most important place in the paganism of the population of Khazaria was played by the cult of fire. It was characteristic both for the Iranian-speaking nomads and for the Turks who were under their strong cultural influence. The fiery cult is most clearly manifested in the funeral rite, where there is coal bedding, or a full-fledged rite of cremation. The supreme servant of fire was the kagan. According to Bahri, before converting to Judaism, the Khagan of the Khazars was a magician, i.e. fire worshiper and priest of fire. The anonymous author of “Akhbar az-Za-man” (IX-beginning of the X century) gives a unique description of the rite performed by the kagan: “The day comes for the king when they make a huge fire. He goes to him, and stands near him, and looks at him, and speaks, growling, and a great fire rises. If it is green, there will be rain and fertility, and if it is white, then drought, and if it is red, there will be bloodshed, if it is yellow, then illness and plague, and if it is black, this indicates the death of the king or his long journey...

The fire also performed a cleansing function. During the embassy of the Byzantine Zemarch to the Turkut kagan, he underwent a fire purification procedure. The supreme deity of the pagan Khazars was Non-Tengri (Blue Sky) or Tengri Khan - personifying sunlight, heavenly divine energy. Undoubtedly, the earth was also deified. Mentioned in the sources, the ministers of the pagan cult are most often referred to as sorcerers. Indeed, in addition to their priestly duties, they performed the important function of rainmakers, both for purely economic purposes and as a way to influence the enemy in case of war.

During the period when power in Khazaria passes into the hands of the shad, the sacred functions of the kagan become dominant. Divine honors are given to him, and at the same time, in case of disasters (drought, crop failure, unsuccessful war), the kagan was killed as having lost divine power.

However, in the conditions of the neighborhood of the kaganate with countries dominated by monotheistic religions, their penetration into the Khazar lands was inevitable. This process was facilitated not only by the broad political and trade and economic ties of the country, but also by the development of class relations, as well as the significant religious tolerance of the Khazar pagan elite, since paganism in general is characterized by respect for foreign gods. Christianity was the first to penetrate Khazaria. This is due to both close political contacts with Byzantium and ties with Transcaucasia, where this form of religion was established in Armenia and Georgia. Christian missionaries in the 7th century successfully mastered Azerbaijan and penetrated into the Khazar borders. The most noticeable in this regard was the activity of Bishop Israel in the 80s. 7th century

However, Christianity could not establish itself in Khazaria due to the opposition of the ruling elite, who feared the strengthening of Byzantine influence. Because of Derbent and through Central Asia, Islam penetrates into the Khaganate together with Muslim merchants. The defeat of the Khazars by the Arabs in 737 led to the fact that the kagan was forced to agree to his conversion to Islam. And yet, neither Christianity nor Islam become the ideology adopted by the top of the kaganate. Of the monotheistic religions, Judaism was chosen, which, according to the rulers of Khazaria, ensured ideological and political independence from Constantinople and Baghdad. Judaism was practiced by the king, ka-gan, the king's entourage and his family. The tsar and the kagan were required to be Jews by religion. However, even among the relatives of the kagan, not all were adherents of Judaism. Istakhri reports on a young man - a grain merchant, who was the closest contender for the post of kagan (by birth), but was not elected, because he was a Muslim and did not change his faith. On the wide dissemination of the Jewish faith in Khazaria even in the 10th century. don't have to speak. Most sources mention Jews only in third place, after Muslims and Christians. An impassable abyss lay between the people and the rulers. Many representatives of the nobility did not accept the new religion, which led to turmoil, the victims of which were the Jewish kings Obadiah, Hezekiah and Manasseh. In the international arena, such a step could also bring nothing but enmity between neighbors. The adoption of Judaism by the top of the Kaghanate is so illogical that L.N. Gumilyov even expresses the idea of ​​a coup, as a result of which the Jews came to power, and not the Khazars who converted to Judaism. The new religion was unable to solve the problem of consolidating the multi-ethnic state of the Khazars, which, coupled with the process of feudalization and the strengthening of the nobility, led to the internal weakness of the state and its death under external blows. More than three hundred years of existence of this empire could not but influence the fate of the peoples of this region. The Khaganate was the first class state in Eastern Europe. For a long time he played an important role in the politics of states whose interests clashed in the Caucasus region. Even in pre-revolutionary Russian historiography, Khazaria received an important assessment as a barrier to the path of nomadic tribes, which allowed the Slavs in the 7th-9th centuries. colonize large areas of Eastern Europe. Within the framework of the kaganate, a process of rapid class formation among subject peoples takes place, tribal reigns of the Slavs (Polyans and northerners) are formed, Volga Bulgaria is formed (in the future, the strongest state on the Volga). Russian chronicles practically do not mention the conflicts of the Slavs with the steppe during the heyday of the kaganate (7th-early 9th centuries), but even in a later period, the threat from the Khazars significantly weakened the warlike aspirations of wild nomadic tribes, for example, the Pechenegs. It is no coincidence that the first title of Russian princes, equating them with neighboring lords, was “kagan” - so great was the charm of the political power of Khazaria. It was during the existence of the Kaganate that the Volga first turned into the most important trade route in Eastern Europe. By the way, after the death of the Khazar state, this path loses its significance for almost two hundred years. During the period of the Khaganate, agricultural culture penetrated into the previously underdeveloped regions of the Don and Volga regions. Even the culture of viticulture in Eastern Europe, and that begins with Khazaria.

Khazar Khaganate. Ideology (religion)

In a special book on Khazaria, it would be advisable to give a section on the culture of the Khazars. However, a number of reasons prevent this from being done. Firstly, the extreme scarcity of written sources. Secondly, the uncertainty of archeological data, where the material on the Khazars themselves almost does not emerge.

Because of this, I will focus on one issue - the ideology (religion) of the Khazars. I deliberately put it in this way, and not in the traditional plan of studying the adoption of Judaism by the Khazars, since (and this I will try to show) the last question is important, but is only part of a larger problem.

The Khazars, as well as the ethnic components that made up their composition (Turks, Ugrians, Iranians), were originally pagans, or, as Muslim writers called them, "akhl al-Ausan" (Lodi worshipers of idols, idolaters). Movses Kalankatvatsi talks about Khazar paganism in some detail, referring to the Albanian bishop Israel. Israel, as a Christian clergyman, indignantly describes pagan rites and, perhaps, sometimes distorts them, wanting to show the "Khons" as savages and, as he writes, "devoted to Satan." So, describing the funeral rites, the bishop notes that the "khons" beat drums over the corpses, inflicted wounds on their faces, arms, legs; naked men fought with swords at the grave, competed in horseback riding, and then indulged in debauchery.

The customs described by Israel resemble some of the mores of the ancient Scythians, characterized by Herodotus, and seem to prove the continuity between the ancient Iranian nomads and the Khazars of the 7th century.

This is even more confirmed by Israel's information about the deities worshiped by the Khons. Among these, Kuar, the god of lightning, appears in the foreground. The name of this deity is Iranian, although it is not easy to find a well-known analogy for him (maybe from the Iranian name of the sun?). Herodotus and Ammchan Marcellinus mention the deity of the Scythians and Alans, whom these authors call Ares or Mars. The Iranian name of this deity is unknown. Scientists compare him with Batraz of the Nart epic, but the variants of this epic known to us could not have preserved the original Iranian name.

More extensively, Israel talks about another Khazar deity who had a double name - Tangri Khan and Ashhandiat. The second Movses Kalankatvatsi directly connects with the Persians ("parsikk"). According to the description of Israel, this deity was presented in the form of a huge ugly giant, to whom horses were sacrificed in the sacred groves described by the bishop. The double name of this deity is very curious. Tangri is a well-known Turkic tribal deity, variants of which are found among all Turkic tribes and peoples (Turks, Azerbaijanis, Turkmens, Yakuts, Chuvashs, etc.), although now it seems that it turns out that his name is not originally Turkic. But Kalankatvatsi himself, mentioning Tangri Khan only once, then all the time calls him by the name of the Iranian equivalent of Aspandiat; presumably this variant was more common.

Commenting on this place from Kalankatvatsi, Sh. Smbatyan writes that it is not known whether the ancient Persians had a cult of the god Aspandiat, and believes that "Kalankatvatsi could mislead the root" asp "in the name Aspandiat", which he identified with Pahllevian and Zend" aspa" - "horse". Then Smbatyan will add the fact of the sacrifice of horses among the Sarmatians and refers to the commentary of N. Adonts (who, in turn, used the book of J. Markvart) about the hero of the Iranian epic Spandiat, the son of Vistasp, and his possible connection with Spandarat, whose name occurs in the Nakharar family Kamsarakanov. N. Adonts, in addition, suggested that in Persia the cavalry was in the hands of the Spandiata clan.

Let's try to understand this issue. First of all, it is hardly legitimate to associate the Khazar Aspandiat with the ancient Persian or, moreover, the Armenian gods. In ancient Armenian, there was a deity S(p)andaramet, which J. Dumezil defines as the earth and compares with the Iranian Spenta Armaiti.

Meanwhile, the name Spandiath is ancient Iranian, it is found in Ctesias in the form of Spendadat. This was the name, according to this author, of the magician who claimed to be the son of Cambyses.

Let us recall the name of the hero of the Iranian epic Spentodat (Spentadat, Spandata). In the Iranian epic, set forth in the Shahnameh, Spentodat appears in the New Persian form of this name Isfendiyar; The last cycle of the epic part of the poem is dedicated to the exploits of this hero, his struggle with Arjasp, and then Rustam.

According to at-Tabari, Isfendiyar made a trip to Bab-e Sud, that is, Derbent, and this suggests his connections with the Caucasus. Spentodat-Isfendiyar is the hero of the all-Iranian epic and could well exist among the Sarmatian tribes. At the same time, in the form of Aspandiat, as well as in the cult of this god among the Khazars, there is undoubtedly another foundation associated with the Iranian "aspa" - "horse". It was probably a Sarmatian (Massageto-Alanian) deity, reflecting the cult of the horse, so important among the nomads. In this environment, the ancient Iranian cult of the hero Spendodat could also be associated with him.

In addition to Kuar and Tangri-Khan-Aspandiat, Bishop Israel notes among the "Khons" the worship of fire, water, the moon, the gods of the roads, etc. With special care, he emphasizes the presence of polygamy, as well as other forms of marriage - two brothers take one wife, children take their father's wives, etc. Perhaps this is evidence of unequal marriage customs that existed among different tribes.

If the horse cult leads to steppe nomads, then the worship of sacred trees is evidence of other influences, possibly dating back to the Finno-Ugric tribes that became part of the Khazars. The same Israel describes a huge oak tree, to which horses were sacrificed, whose heads and skins were hung on its branches.

Thus, there is reason to conclude that the Khazar paganism was a complex amalgam of cults of different content and origin.

In terms of contacts with countries dominated by monotheistic religions (Christianity, Islam), already in the 7th century. the question arose of adopting any of these faiths, since they were more in line with both the general conditions of the era and the interests of the early class Khazar state.

The first attempt to adopt a monotheistic religion by the Khazars dates back to the 80s of the 7th century. After the assassination of the Ishkhan of Caucasian Albania, Juanshera elected the ruler of the nephew of the murdered Varaz-Trdat as the ruler of this country. The "Great Prince of the Khons" Alp-Ilutver invaded Albania, but the Catholicos of Albania Eliazar, sent by Varaz-Trdat to Alp-Ilutver, managed to convince the ruler of the Khazars that the new Albanian prince was not involved in the murder of his uncle.

Bishop Israzl, already mentioned, visited the Armenian Catholicos Sahak and Ishkhan Grigor Mamikonyan. Officially, the purpose of the mission was to participate in the transfer of the remains of Grigory Lusavorich from Western Armenia to Valarshapat, but in reality it was about an alliance with Armenia. Against who? A. N. Ter-Ghevondyan believes that he is against the Khazars, but this is hardly the case, since Israel immediately after returning from Armenia headed the embassy to the north. Most likely, the union of Albania and Armenia in the early 80s was directed against the Caliphate, where the unrest stopped at that time, and the Umayyads, who broke their opponents, began the second wave of Muslim conquests in the north and northwest.

It is not surprising that Israel's embassy was met with great honor by Alp-Ilutver, who, apparently, was the governor of the Khazar Khakan. The consequence of Israel's embassy was the adoption of Christianity by Alp-Ilutver and his entourage. The story of Movses Kalankatvatsi about this is compiled in the traditional style of Christian traditions with signs and wonders. However, the main thing - the baptism of Alp-Ilutver - is beyond doubt. Pagan temples were destroyed, sacred trees were cut down. According to Kalankatvatsi, the Pairapet throne was approved in the city of Varachan, i.e., an independent church was founded, headed by the Pairapet Catholicos. The reciprocal embassy of Alp-Ilutver was addressed not only to the Albanian Ishkhan and Catholicos, but also to the Catholicos and Ishkhan of Armenia. The ambassadors of Alp-Ilutver went there, and upon their return to Albania they asked to give them the Catholicos of Israel. Varaz-Trdat and Catholicos Eliazar at first opposed, but when the Khazar ambassadors declared that they did not want another vardapet, Bishop Israel himself expressed a desire to go to the Khons.

Here information about further events among the Khazars ends. Bishop Israel is mentioned once again, but in connection with Albanian affairs, so the end of the so colorfully described conversion of the "prince of the Khons" to Christianity is unclear. According to other sources, it is known that two years later there was a crushing invasion of the Khazars in Transcaucasia, during which the Ishkhan of Armenia Grigor Mamikonyan died. What caused it - one can only speculate. It seems that the adoption of Christianity by Alp-Ilutver was hostilely received by the main part of the Khazar nobility; perhaps Alp-Ilutver went for it, trying to create an independent possession within the boundaries of Primorsky Dagestan, and was defeated in the fight against the Khakan of the Khazars. There is no news about him after the events of 682, and as a participant in the campaign of 684-685. he does not appear. Therefore, it can be assumed that his attempt to establish Christianity among the Khons ended in failure.

In the subsequent time, up to the 30s of the 8th century, there is no news of attempts to change the religion of the Khazars. Obviously, this was not necessary. The pagan Khazaria waged successfully (in whole or in part) wars that enriched the Khazar nobility with booty, and the old pagan gods, from the point of view of this nobility, performed their role perfectly.

In 737, Mervai ibn Mohammed took the Khazar capital, after which the khakan fled to the north. The Arabs pursued him, and in the end he sued for peace, promising to convert to Islam. Al-Kufi, in his colorful, detailed story, claims that the ruler of the Khazars and with him "many people from among his relatives and tribesmen" converted to Islam. There is, however, every reason to doubt this. In Islam, even in the period of its expansion beyond the Arabian Peninsula, a specific attitude towards other religions was developed. After some hesitation, the caliphs and their entourage, recognizing Islam as the only true faith, agreed to a certain tolerance towards religions that have recorded revelations (Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism). And although the practical attitude towards these religions changed, on the whole they remained in the position of being protected. Pagan cults were not.

The Khazars were pagans, and the winner of Mervan, in accordance with Muslim practice, offered them a conversion to Islam. Probably, the khakan was forced to agree to this under those conditions, but it is unlikely that he complied with it. The khaqan's promise to become a Muslim is reported by two sources (al-Belazuri and al-Kufi). Neither al-Yakubi, nor at-Tabari, nor Ibn al-Athir mention this. And here the silence of Ibn al-Athir, a late author, but very accurate in his information, is especially noteworthy. Ibn al-Athir knew the work of al-Kufi and used it, but he omitted the story about the adoption of Islam by the Khazars, and this is not accidental. Al-Kufi, more than any other early Arabic writer, used all sorts of oral traditions, he has the most dialogues that indicate the apocryphal nature of his material. On the adoption of Islam by the Khazars in the VIII century. does not mention such an erudite as al-Mas'udi. In addition, it must be borne in mind that there were no Muslims in Khazaria at that time, there were few of them even in Transcaucasia and Central Asia, and the khakan could hardly accept a religion that no one professed in his state.

A little more than a hundred years have passed, and Muslim sources record Judaism as the state religion of Khazaria. It was to this time (approximately the 50-70s of the IX century) that the message belongs, an early version of which we find in Ibn Ruste. According to the latter, in Khazaria Judaism was practiced by the “highest head” (i.e., hakan), shad, as well as leaders (“kovvad”) and nobility (“uzama”), while the rest of the people adhered to a faith similar to the religion of the Turks. Thus, in the second half of the IX century. the nobility of Khazaria professed the Jewish religion, while the people continued to adhere to the old pagan cults.

The question of Judaism among the Khazars has an old historiographic tradition, the founder of which can be considered Tsar Joseph, who released his version of this event around the world. Later, it was supplemented by Jewish scribes of the 10th-12th centuries, and only in modern times was it shaken by the involvement of Arabic sources. In the period after Buxtorf's publications (1660) and up to our time, an enormous and contradictory historiography has grown up, which it is inappropriate to analyze here. It is more important to single out a few questions and try to answer them based on sources and taking into account the main literature. This is, firstly, the time of the adoption of Judaism by the top of the Khazars and, secondly, the initiators of this act.

The answer to the second question has already been essentially given above. The initiator is a shad, who later became a bak - the king of Khazaria, pushing the khakan into the background, but forcing him to accept the Jewish faith.

The first question is more difficult to answer. Here we have at our disposal, first of all, the version of Tsar Joseph, who refers to the Khazar books ("sfarim"), known to "all the old people of our land" ("l-kol zikney artzanu"). Probably, in Khazaria there really were some books (in Hebrew?) Designed to consolidate and substantiate the legends canonized at the direction of the Khazar kings. The essence of these legends is that the Khazar king Bulan received a divine revelation instructing him to convert to the true, i.e. Jewish, faith. Just in case, however, Bulan arranged a kind of dispute between the Muslim qadi and the Christian priest. Each of them blasphemed the faith of the other, but both of them allegedly agreed that "the faith of Israel is the best faith and all of it is the truth."

The date of this event is missing in the short version of Joseph's letter, but in the lengthy version it is indicated that it happened 340 years before Joseph. Many immediately considered it a later addition to the text, others began to argue that this date replaced another, reliable date in the manuscript, which one - opinions differed. Joseph, after the story of the miraculous conversion of Bulan, adds a few phrases about the activities of King Obadiah, who "strengthened the faith according to law and rule," i.e., it is believed, he converted to rabbinic Judaism. Obadya appears as the son of the sons of Bulan, that is, as his descendant. And then the subsequent kings of Khazaria are listed in number 11-12, starting with the son of Obadiah Hezekiah and ending with the author of the letter, Joseph. It is difficult to judge the reliability of this list, since there are no parallel data. In addition to Joseph, his father Aaron and grandfather Benjamin are mentioned in the Cambridge Document. The main thing for us is not this list, but the date of the adoption of Judaism, which cannot be established on the basis of Joseph's letter. The use of the Cambridge Document does not help either.

It contains a slightly different version of the history of the conversion of the Khazars to Judaism. This act is attributed to a certain Jew who allegedly saved the Khazars, who were in a state of anarchy, without a king and order. This version of the conversion of the Khazars is even more vague and contradictory. An unknown author connects the adoption of Judaism with this anonymous Jew, who became the "big head" of the Khazars, while the khakan appeared, according to this version, later as a judge ("shofet") from among the Khazars themselves. In parallel, the "big head" turned into a king, etc. There are no dates here.

Such a vague notion of the date of the Judaization of the Khazars quite naturally prompted later Jewish scribes dealing with the problem of the Khazars to specifically address this issue. The Jewish scholar Yehuda na Levi, who wrote around 1140, referring to some chronicle books, believed that the Khazar king converted to Judaism 400 years before him, i.e., about 740. This date was accepted and tried to be substantiated by D. Dunlop, who in his monograph paid special attention to the problem of Judaism among the Khazars. However, taking into account the indication of al-Mas'udi about the adoption of Judaism by the Khazars during the time of Harun al-Rashid (786-809), D. Dunlop formulated the final conclusion as follows: in 740, the Khazars adopted a modified Judaism, and around 800 - rabbinical.

The news of al-Mas'udi is especially valuable for us. Unfortunately, he dealt with this problem in detail in his non-surviving writings, and in "Murudj al-dhahab", apparently, he gave only a brief summary. The latter boils down to the fact that the Khazar king adopted the Jewish faith in the reign of Harun al-Rashid, and during the time of the Byzantine emperor Roman Lekapin (919-944), who persecuted the Jews, the latter fled to Khazaria. B. N. Zakhoder concluded from this that one can speak of two periods of Judaization of Khazaria: during the time of Harun al-Rashid and during the lifetime of al-Mas'udi himself, a contemporary of Roman Lakapin.

The text of al-Mas'udi does not provide any basis for such a conclusion. It is this text that is our only reliable evidence of the date of the adoption of Judaism by the Khazar king. The issue of dating Yehuda on Levi is complicated not only because he is a late author. It is impossible to abstract from the fact that he said "about 400 years ago", so that on this basis it is hardly correct to give the exact date around 740. Obviously, those "annalistic books" to which he refers did not contain the exact date, and this allows us to extend the conclusion of the author of the XII century. about an event that occurred about 400 years before him, for the entire VIII century, and then it becomes possible to date it to the time of Harun ar-Rashid, who ascended the throne in 786. I did not know the exact date, obviously, i-al-Mas 'udi, who lived a hundred and fifty years after that. We can't give a precise date either.

What were the reasons for the adoption of Judaism by the top of the Khazaria?

The adoption of one or another monotheistic religion is a natural phenomenon in any feudalizing society, where the struggle of the central government, on the one hand, with the strong relics of the tribal system, and on the other hand, with the emerging feudal decentralization urgently demanded the replacement of polytheism with monotheism, sanctifying the power of one sovereign. But the form of monotheism could be different, and this depended on many factors, including foreign policy factors.

Taking as the date of the Judaization of the Khazar nobility approximately the last quarter of the 8th century, let's see what reasons led to this event. The Khazar shad, who initiated it, had a choice among three monotheistic religions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Of these, the first two were the state religions of the two largest powers of that time, with which Khazaria had the most diverse relations - Byzantium and the Arab Caliphate. Christianity was widespread among the subjects of Khazaria - the inhabitants of the Crimea. This faith was professed by most of the inhabitants of Transcaucasia - Armenia, Georgia, Caucasian Albania. It would seem that it was the adoption of Christianity by the Khazars that was to be expected, especially since an attempt of this kind had already taken place in the 7th century. And yet there were reasons that did not contribute to this. If in the first half of the VIII century. Byzantium was an ally of Khazaria against the Arabs, but in the second half of this century the situation changed. The Khazars intervened in Transcaucasian affairs and helped the Abkhaz prince Leon, whose father was married to the daughter of a khakan, become independent from the empire. This happened in the 80s of the 8th century. Moreover, Leon II of Abkhazia (758-798) annexed Egrisi, that is, a significant part of Western Georgia, to his possessions. It was a strong blow to Byzantium, and in order for good relations to be restored between it and Khazaria, it took fifty years. Under such conditions, the adoption of Christianity could hardly be discussed, especially since the Christian countries of Transcaucasia in the second half of the 8th century. at least twice subjected to Khazar invasions.

Equally unfavorable were the conditions for the adoption of Islam. The caliphate remained the main opponent of the Khazars, although the great Arab-Khazar wars in the second half of the 8th century. did not have.

But for the adoption of the Jewish religion, the circumstances were favorable. In the conditions of Europe, which fell into decay after the barbarian invasions, the Jewish communities and Jewish commercial capital not only retained their strength and influence, but also practically monopolized European trade. Jewish merchants of the Carolingians were especially patronized, and in need of money they always turned to Jewish usurers. Obviously, the same importance of the Jewish merchants in European trade explains the patronage of him by the Spanish Umayyads. In the ninth century it was the Jewish merchants who held in their hands the transit trade between Europe and Asia. They were enterprising traders who spoke different languages ​​(Arabic, Persian, Greek, "Frankish", Spanish-Romance, Slavic). One of their routes ran through the Czech Republic, Hungary, Russia and the Volga Bulgaria and the Volga region in general to the Khazar Khaganate.

Naturally, in parallel with trade trips, Jewish colonies arose in different parts of Eastern Europe. Their appearance was also triggered by the periodic persecution of Jewish communities in the Byzantine Empire, as a result of which the Jews emigrated to the Khazaria. There, according to al-Mas'udi, there were especially favorable conditions for merchants and artisans.

Judging by Jewish sources, the bulk of Jewish emigrants arrived in Khazaria in three ways: from Baghdad, i.e., obviously, from Arab Iraq, where the second most important Jewish colony existed for a long time, from Khorasan, i.e. from the eastern regions of the Caliphate, including Central Asia, and from Byzantium. In the latter case, undoubtedly, the Crimean possessions of the empire were also meant. In this regard, the dispute between S.P. Tolstov, who defended the “Khorezmian version” of the main center of Jewish emigration to Khazaria, and M.I. Artamonov, who just as ardently denied it, loses its main meaning, although Artamonov’s criticism had grounds in details. At the same time, Artamonov, in principle, correctly emphasized the role of the old Jewish communities of Dagestan in the spread of Judaism among the Khazars.

The Crimean colonies of Jews cannot be discounted either. It is no coincidence that in connection with this, the special attention of Tsar Joseph to the geography of the Crimea.

According to Josephus, the Khazar king, who converted to Judaism, bore the Turkic name Bulan ("elk, deer"); all the other kings he mentioned had traditional Jewish (biblical) names (Obadia, Hanukkah, Yitzhak, Zabulon, Moshe, Menachem, Benjamin, Aaron, Joseph). It is possible that they, like the Russian princes of the 11th-12th centuries, who bore a pagan and a Christian name, had two names - Turkic and Jewish. The Cambridge Document mentions a certain Pesach, whose name does not go back to the Bible, but is known in the Jewish medieval environment. A recently published document in Hebrew originating from the community ("kahal") of Kyiv (Kiyuv), dated to the 10th century, lists several names that show that this community was more religious than ethnic. Along with such traditional Jewish names as Abraham, Yitzhak, Shmuel, etc., we find there the names Kibr, Mns, etc. Chuvash language - a descendant of the language of the Volga Bulgars, the closest to the Khazar.

The most important question that should be answered is who professed in Khazaria in the 9th-10th centuries. Judaism: is it the whole nation or some part of it? In modern literature there is a certain tendency to exaggerate the role of Judaism in Khazaria and even in Russia. Meanwhile, sources for the tenth century. give a very clear answer. As we have already seen, Jews (ethnic) and part of the Khazars who converted to Judaism lived in Khazaria. And those and others, however, sources, albeit not quite clearly, but differ. At the same time, it is known that the Khazars themselves professed Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and pagan cults, and it is significant that when listing these religions, Judaism is in last place. Al-Istakhri and Ibn Haukal even directly indicate that the followers of the Jewish faith are the least, and most of all in Khazaria, Muslims and Christians. According to al-Mas'udi, the majority of the inhabitants of "al-balad" (it is not clear whether we are talking about Khazaria or its capital, it seems to me that it is about the country) are Muslims.

The same sources say that Judaism was practiced by the king, khakan, the king's entourage and his clan ("jine"). In the tenth century the king and the khakan had to be Jews by religion, although one specific case, which al-Istakhri narrates, indicates that there were Muslims among the Khazar nobility.

Thus, about the wide dissemination of the Jewish religion among the population of Khazaria, even in the tenth century. do not have to speak. Its main mass professed Islam, Christianity or various pagan cults. The king and his entourage, who converted to Judaism, were increasingly moving away from their subjects. Strengthening in the tenth century. the influence of some of the latter who professed Islam, and especially the guards of al-larisiya, put the kings in an even more difficult position. As a result, the central government increasingly lost its power and influence.

It remains to be seen what effect the adoption of Judaism by the Khazar elite had on the culture of the Khazars. This influence cannot be denied, although it should not be exaggerated. The fact that the Hebrew language and writing was widespread in Khazaria is proved by the correspondence between Hasdai ibn Shafrut and King Joseph. But the extent of this spread is questionable. The famous scholar al-Nadim (end of the 10th century) noted that the Khazars used the Hebrew script. The later Persian writer Fakhr al-Din Mubarak Shah (beginning of the 13th century) connected the Khazar writing with the Russian and Rumian (i.e. Greek) alphabets. V. V. Bartold, on the basis of this, suggested that the Khazars use the Greek alphabet for their own language and connected this with the well-known activity of the Slavic educator Cyril-Konstantin. It is appropriate to pay attention to the message of al-Mas'udi about Muslim schools in Atil, where teaching could be conducted only in Arabic. And since part of the Khazars professed Islam, this indicates the well-known prevalence of Arab culture. Some modern scholars consider it possible to talk about the influence of Persian culture on the Khazars.

In a word, the diversity of religious cults led to the spread of various cultural influences, none of which, apparently, finally prevailed in Khazaria. The absence of a single culture, literary language and writing speaks of the weak consolidation of Khazaria in cultural terms.

In the 7th-10th centuries, the state of the nomadic Khazar Turks occupied the vast territories of the modern post-Soviet republics from Central Asia and the North Caucasus in the east to modern Ukraine and Crimea in the southwest. The Khazar Khaganate, like most other huge empires, resembled a colossus with feet of clay. A motley conglomeration of various peoples lived on its territory: Savirs, Bulgars, Huns, Turkuts, Ugrians, Khazars, Slavs, Arabs, Jews and many others who spoke different languages ​​and professed different religions. At a certain stage in the development of statehood (we cannot confidently say when exactly - perhaps in 740, and possibly later, at the end of the 8th - beginning of the 9th century or, according to other assumptions, c. 860), the ruling elite of Khazaria declares Judaism the state religion of the kaganate. However, other faiths were also practiced on the territory of the kaganate: Islam, Christianity and shamanism.

The collapse of the Khazar state and the development of scientific interest in it in the 19th century

In 965-968, the Kyiv prince Svyatoslav inflicted the strongest defeat on Khazaria. After that, the state of the Khazars, they themselves and even their name almost completely disappear from the political map of medieval Europe. An exciting story about the disappearance of a huge powerful empire, the destruction of its cities and settlements and the almost complete dissolution of the Khazars among the peoples of neighboring states, became the subject of heated debate and discussion, starting, probably, with the Jewish writer and poet of the XII century Yehuda Halevi and ending with orientalists, theologians, historians , nationalists and ideological leaders of modern and contemporary times.

According to H. Fren (1823), the history of medieval Russia was so closely connected with the Khazars that the latter became an important object of study in pre-revolutionary Russia. A classic example of the growing interest in the Khazar theme in Russia at the beginning of the 19th century is the well-known poem by Alexander Pushkin, in which the prophetic Oleg is going to “take revenge on the unreasonable Khazars.” This phrase will later become known to every Soviet schoolchild. In addition to the “Song of the Prophetic Oleg”, the poet will turn to the Khazar theme once again - in the poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila”, one of the heroes of which is the rival of the knight Ruslan, “full of passionate thought, the young Khazar Khan Ratmir”.

Among Russian historians at that time, there were two main trends in the interpretation of the history of the Khazars. Conservative historians (Tatishchev, Karamzin, Nechvolodov) considered the exemption from paying tribute to the Khazars and the successful campaign of Prince Svyatoslav as decisive events in the process of formation ancient Russian state and the Russian people. These researchers spoke about the Khazar yoke, about the confrontation between the forest and the steppe, and represented the Khazars as dangerous enemies. Kievan Rus. Liberal historians, on the contrary, wrote about the positive side of relations between Khazaria and Russia, about their symbiosis.

In the 80s of the XX century, on the wave of interest in the fiction book “Khazar Dictionary” - a rather talented digression into the medieval Khazar theme, written by the famous Serbian writer Milorad Pavić, the attention of the general public to the Khazars and Khazar history became even stronger.

Theories about the descendants of the Khazars

Paradoxically, but true: pure scientific problem- the history of the medieval Khazar state - has become a serious topic in the political games of European nationalists of the XX-XXI centuries. Some of them tried (and are trying) to use the history of the Khazars to legitimize their political demands, others declare themselves the “only” and “real” descendants of the Khazars, others are trying to rewrite medieval history Russian, Ukrainian and Jewish peoples, using the “Khazar myth”.

Especially often the subject of various kinds of pseudo-historical speculations is the question of where the Khazars who disappeared in the 10th-11th centuries actually disappeared and who, accordingly, are the heirs of their culture and statehood. This question has given rise to a huge number of absolutely pseudo-academic and, at times, completely absurd theories masquerading as historical research. For example, based on the phonetic similarity between the words Cossack / Cossack and Khazar / Khazar, the ideologists of the Ukrainian Cossacks of the 18th century declared their origin from the Khazars. So, in 1710, the Cossack ataman Joseph Kirilenko wrote in a letter to the hetman that the Moscow tsars had never been the natural rulers of the “Cossack people” since the reign of the “Cossack kagans”.

The Jew Arthur Koestler considered the Khazars to be “the thirteenth tribe of Israel,” from which all Ashkenazi (i.e. European) Jewry descended. Lev Gumilyov believed that the descendants of the Khazars were Slavs - wanderers and Don Cossacks. The romantic Karaite nationalist Abraham Firkovich created a Karaite version of the conversion of the Khazars to Judaism, thereby seeking to show the superiority of the Karaites over the Jewish Rabanites. Another Karaite, Seraya Shapshal, went even further and began to assert that the Karaites are the direct - and only - descendants of the Khazars. However, the Karaites are by no means the only ethnic group that declared their Khazar origin. The second most significant contender for the Khazar heritage is, perhaps, the modern Crimean Jews-Krymchaks. Like the Karaites, they renounce their Jewish origin and claim to be descendants of the Khazars.

However, among European Jews there were also applicants for the “Khazar inheritance”! In the 20s-30s. 20th century Polish-Jewish historians, along with Karaites, begin to study the history of the Khazars, in particular the history of the founding of Jewish settlements in Poland. Some of them (primarily M. Gumplovich and I. Schipper) concluded that the Khazars played an important role in the formation of European Jewry and, moreover, that the Khazar Jewish proselytes could constitute a significant proportion of the medieval Jews of Poland and Eastern Europe.

Recently, the book "When and how you became Jews" by Tel Aviv University professor and historian Shlomo Sand has made a big noise. An Israeli scholar argues that a nation like the Jews simply does not exist, and the claims of Jews about their origin from the Middle East are just a myth to justify the existence of the State of Israel. European Jews, according to the words, are the descendants of the Khazar Turks.

Some researchers and nationalists wrote about the Khazar origin of the Mountain Jews of the Caucasus, Slavic Judaists-Subbotniks and Kazakhs.

So who are the actual descendants of the Khazars?

In our opinion, this question cannot be answered unambiguously. As noted by M.I. Artamonov, “the search for the descendants of the Khazars remains unsuccessful” mainly due to the fact that the Khazars were assimilated by the nomadic Cumans (Cumans) in the 11th-13th centuries. Thus, hardly any modern people can really claim descent from the Khazars. The unprecedented variety of selfish use of Khazar history, carried out at different times by representatives of various political movements and ethnic groups, multiplied by a tangled tangle of Turkic-Jewish historical and religious motives, makes the Khazar theme a unique example of the ideological distortion of medieval history.

Will the 21st century bring new patterns of using Khazar history for political and ideological purposes? There is no doubt that changes in the highest ideological spheres can also affect the interpretation of the Khazar myth, and who knows, maybe in the near future, researchers with some amazement will discover new “heirs” of Pushkin’s unreasonable Khazars.