Secret report: Israel admits that the Khazars are Jews; secret plan of return migration to Ukraine. Who are the descendants of the Khazars: Ukrainians or Russian Khazars who are they

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 Gakhan was the only direct heir to the power of the Khazar Khagan in modern times. 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”, citing the fact 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 Crimean Karaites) still exists today is an interesting fact in itself. The story of the Crimean Karaites becomes even more interesting 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 Gahan (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 families of the Crimean Karaites 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 structural features 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 kagan of our days is the gakhan of Karaites. 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 of the Crimean Karaite community. 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 a widely known people for a simple layman, despite the fact that this people left the historical arena many centuries ago, dissolving in a mass of other steppe ethnic groups. For Rus', 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 strength, 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 new Jewish settler aliyah, who arrived in the country, 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 Rus' 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, Khizkiyahu, 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 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 Kyiv 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 of Judaism by the Khazars - a peaceful religion - contributed to a decrease in the fighting spirit of 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 Kiev.

"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 shores of the Sea of ​​Azov survived. 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.

Who are the Khazars? Please give a detailed answer. and got the best answer

Answer from DedAl[guru]
The Khazars are a people who once lived in present-day Southern Russia. Their origin is not known with certainty.
Konstantin Porphyrogenitus considers them Turks and translates the Khazar name of the city of Sarkel - white hotel. Bayer and Lerberg also take them for Turks, but the word Sarkel is translated differently: the first is a white city, the second is a yellow city.
There is an interesting letter from the Jew Hisdai (see Art. Jews), the treasurer of an Arab sovereign in Spain, to the Khazar Khagan and the answer of the Khagan: the Khagan considers Kh. to be the descendants of Forgoma, from whom the Georgians and Armenians originate.
Reliable information about the Khazars begins no earlier than the 2nd century after the birth of Christ, when they occupied the lands north of the Caucasus Mountains. Then they begin a struggle with Armenia, for the most part victorious, and stretches until the 4th century. With the invasion of the Huns, the Khazars are hidden from the eyes of history until the VI century. At this time, they occupy a large space: in the east they border on the nomadic tribes of the Turkic tribe, in the north - with the Finns, in the west - with the Bulgarians; in the south, their possessions reach the Araks. Freed from the Huns, the Khazars begin to intensify and threaten the neighboring peoples: in the VI century. The Persian king Kabad built a large rampart in the north of Shirvan, and his son Khozroy built a wall to protect against the 10th century. The Khazars occupied the territory of the Bulgarians, taking advantage of the strife among them after the death of King Krovat. Since this century, X.'s relations with Byzantium begin.
The Khazar tribes posed a great danger to the latter: Byzantium had to give them gifts and even become related to them, against which Konstantin Porphyrogenitus takes up arms, advising to fight the Khazars with the help of other barbarians - Alans and Guzes. Emperor Heraclius managed to win over the Khazars in his fight against the Persians.
Nestor calls the Khazars white Ugrians. The Khazar tribes on the Tauride Peninsula, in the former possessions of the Bulgarians, found refuge with Justinian II, who married the sister of the Khazar Khagan. In 638, Caliph Omar conquered Persia and destroyed the neighboring lands. H.'s attempt to oppose the aggressive movement of the Arabs ended in failure: their capital Selinder was taken; only the defeat of the Arabs on the banks of the Bolangira River saved the country of the Khazars from complete devastation. In the 8th century Kh. waged an 80-year war with the caliphate, but had to (although their attacks on the lands of the caliphate were later encountered) asked the Arabs in 737 for peace, which was given to them under the condition of accepting Islam. Unsuccessful wars in the south were rewarded to some extent with successes in the north: around 894, the Khazars, in alliance with the Guzes, defeated the Pechenegs and Hungarians who lived north of the Tauride Peninsula; even earlier, they subjugated the Dnieper Slavs and took from them "white from the smoke."
The Russian state grew stronger and gathered together the scattered Slavic tribes. Already Oleg faced the Khazar Khaganate, subjugating some Khazar tributaries. In 966 (or 969) Svyatoslav Igorevich moved to Khozaria and won a complete victory in a decisive battle. Khazaria fell. The remnant of the Khazar people for some time still held out between the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus Mountains, but then mixed with their neighbors. In the Russian chronicles, the last indication of Khazar was preserved under 1079, but the name Khozaryan is found in the XIV and even XV centuries. when listing various servants of the Moscow princes. The Khazars, like the Bulgarians, were a semi-sedentary people. In winter, according to the description of Ibn Dast, they lived in cities, and with the onset of spring they moved to the steppes. Their main city after the defeat of Selinder was Itil, which stood near the place where Astrakhan is now. The population of Khazaria was diverse and diverse. The head of state himself, the kagan, accepted Judaism in the 18th century, according to Fotslan and Massudi, together with his governor and the "porphyry-born" boyars; the rest of the population professed part Judaism, part Islam, part Christianity; there were also pagans.
More like read http://www.bibliotekar.ru/hazary/
History of the Khazar Khaganate
http://www.russiancity. en/ybooks/y1.htm

Answer from Yodor Bulanov[guru]
The Khazars are a Turkic-speaking nomadic people. Became known in the Eastern Ciscaucasia (plain Dagestan) shortly after the Hun invasion. It was formed as a result of the interaction of three ethnic components: the local Iranian-speaking population, as well as the alien Ugric and Turkic tribes.
More details can be found in

Answer from Mikhail Basmanov[expert]
The Khazars are the inhabitants of the Khazar Khaganate. The Jews were in power in it, and the people were Slavic-Aryans.

Answer from Indars Loschilov[guru]
- The ethnonym "Khazars" (Semitic Kazar / Kuazar, Turkic Geser) means "Caesar", which the imperial cattle breeders of Judea called themselves under Nero, who fled after his fall somewhere to the east ... So - the Khazars / Caesars - were called later, free nomad shepherds who wore red clothes in defiance of the basileus (porphyry-bearers) of the Second Rome; Greek Rousios (red) gave the term "Rous" (Rus) in the Russian chronicles, because the "water" (Rus, Trita-Odin worshipers)) wore red cloaks due to the tradition of the Khazars. The Varangians, however, are called Rus in the annals of Danes (Danes) by the similarity of the meanings of the words "dana" (stream, river) and "rusa" (flow, river) ... And you need to know that the morpheme "rus", as well as the morpheme "ros" is a polyseme that has more meanings! With respect to the seekers of truth, Indaro. 03/20/2017.

Origin of the Khazars

If the generally accepted etymology of certain familiar words in European languages ​​is correct, the name "Khazar" has a wider circulation than it seems at first glance. The word "hussar" (hussar) was originally 1 applied to the irregular Hungarian cavalry, and, as we shall see, the connection between the Khazars and the Magyars, the founders of the Hungarian state, is a historically established fact. german word Ketzer(heretic) also comes from the name of the Khazars. Meanwhile, the origin and exact meaning of the word "Khazar" itself remains unclear. It is usually claimed that this is a gerund from the Turkish verb stem qaz- wander or nomad, so the Khazar is a "nomad" 2, and we can conditionally agree with this. Slavic languages ​​have different words for Khazars with the vowel "o" in the first syllable, and this has led to other word formations from Russian braid(Weltmann, 1858), and from the base koz in many Slavic words for "goats" (Tzenoff, 1935) 3 . This is not true, since the original word is not Slavic. There is no reason to assume that the Khazars are "those who wore braids" or "shepherds of goats." It is noteworthy that Jews also usually write this word with the vowel "o/u" and pronounce K?z?ri (hence Buxtorf's Cosri), the plural is K?z?r?m. However, we have Arabic Khazar(unlikely its origin from akhzar, an adjective denoting a kind of damage to the eye - with small eyes, cross-eyed); Greek Khazaroi (Khazareis), Latin Chazari And Gazari, and also the form without vowels in the Hebrew document known as the Khazar correspondence, which is no doubt pronounced Kazar (Khazar).

As already mentioned, the Khazar = nomad explanation is most likely to be accepted. Nevertheless, Pelliot pointed out the difficulties associated with this 4 (Turkish qazmak always used in the sense of "gouge out, knock out" and not "wander", etc.) and refers to the suggestion of J. Denis 5 that the word can be explained as *Quz-er, *Quz-?r, *Quzar or *Qozar, from quz- "the slope of the mountain facing north", plus eri, er in the sense of "people of the north." In favor of Denis's suggestion, the following can be said: a) a satisfactory explanation of the vowel "o / u" in some forms of the word has not yet been given; b) in the ancient Armenian and Georgian languages, the Khazar khakan is constantly called the "king of the north", and Khazaria - "the land of the north" - this may be a translation of the local name. But then it is difficult to explain the forms from the Khazar correspondence, presumably Kazar, Kazari, and the Cambridge Document, also written in Hebrew, also contains Qazar.

So, our first question is: when did the Khazars appear and what is the name of this people? There was much controversy regarding the connections of the Khazars with the Huns, on the one hand, and the Western Turks, on the other. At one time, the opinion prevailed that the Khazars emerged from the Western Turkic Empire. Early references to the Khazars arose around the same time that references to the Western Turks ceased. They say that in 627 the Khazars joined forces with the Greek emperor Heraclius against the Persians, and they also helped him during the siege of Tiflis. It remains an open question whether the Khazars were under the rule of the Western Turks at that time. The chronicler Theophanes (d. c. 818) presents them as "Turks from the east, who were called Khazars" 6 . At the same time, the Western Türks were referred to by Greek authors simply as Türks, without additional definitions.

Syrian sources mention the Khazars even before 627. Both Michael the Syrian 7 and Abu-l-Faraj ibn Harun (Bar-Ebrey) 8 write how, obviously, under the Greek emperor Mauritius (582-602), three brothers from "inner Scythia" moved west with 50,000 people, and , when they approached the Greek borders, one of the brothers, Bulgarios (Bulgaris, Bar Hebraius), crossed the Don and settled on the territory of the empire. Others occupied "the country of the Alans, called Barsalia". They and the former inhabitants of the country took the name of the Khazars - in honor of the eldest of the brothers, whose name was Kazarig. If—it seems possible—the story goes back to the time of John of Ephesus 9 (d. c. 586), it is contemporary to the event in question. It clearly states that the Khazars arrived in the Caucasus from Central Asia at the end of the 6th century.

In the Greek author Theophylact Simocatta (c. 620) we read an almost modern account of events among the Western Turks, which can hardly be unrelated to the Syrian history just mentioned 10 . Referring to the Turkic embassy to Mauritius, Simokatta describes the events of recent years, when the Turks defeated the White Huns (Ephthalites), Avars and Uighurs, who lived “on Tila; The Turks called it the Black River” 11 . These Uighurs, writes Feofilakt, were led by two leaders - Var and Hunni. They are also referred to as varhonites 12 . Some part of the Uighurs managed to hide from the Turks, later they appeared to the west, where they were mistaken for the Avars, whose name was already known here. The latter is confirmed by another Greek author, according to which Justinian received representatives of the Pseudo-Avars, that is, the Uighurs, and this was in 558 13 . After that, they began to plunder and devastate the lands of Eastern and Central Europe. If Uyghur descent is correctly established, the word ogre (ogre) in folklore may date from this early period.

Theophylact also claims that there was another wave of refugees from Asia to Europe, which included the Tarniakh, Kotzagir and Zabender tribes. They, like their predecessors, were descendants of Var and Hunni and proved their family ties by joining the so-called Avars, in fact the Uighurs, under the rule of the latter's khaqan. It is hard not to notice that this is a different version of the story told by Michael of Syria and Abul-Faraj ibn Harun. Kotzagirs is undoubtedly a Bulgar group 14, and Zabender is probably Semender, an important Khazar city, which means it corresponds to Kazariq in the Syriac version. It seems that initially Semender got its name from the tribe that occupied it 15 . Thus, we have confirmation that the Khazars arrived in Eastern Europe under Mauritius, and before that they maintained contact with the Western Turks.

But besides this, there is an opinion that the Khazars were already on the outskirts of Europe before the rise of the Turks (c. 550). According to this opinion, the Khazars are related to the Huns. When Priscus, the ambassador at the court of Attila in 448, speaking of the people subordinate to the Huns and living in Pontic Scythia, called him akatsir 16, they were ak-Khazars - white Khazars. The historian Jordanes, who wrote around 552, mentioned the Akatsir as a warlike tribe that did not engage in agriculture, but lived on cattle breeding and hunting 17 . Given the difference among some Turkic peoples between the leading clans - "white" and the rest - "black", when we read from the Arab geographer Istakhri that the Khazars are of two types, some are called Kara-Khazars (black Khazars), and others are white 18, it can be assumed that the latter are Ak-Khazars (White Khazars). The identification of the Akatsir with the Ak-Khazars was rejected by Zeiss 19 and Markvart 20 as linguistically impossible. Markvart argued that historically, the Akatsir, as a subordinate race, rather correspond to the black Khazars. Alternative identification - akatsir = agachers. But it is not too different from others, if, of course, Zaki Validi is right in his opinion that there was a close connection between the Agachers and the Khazars 21 .

There are one or two facts in favor of the former view, which has not received an exhaustive explanation. If the Khazars have nothing to do with the Akatsirs and appeared as a side branch of the Western Turks at the end of the 6th century, how could they be mentioned in a Syriac compilation dated 569 22 attributed to Zechariah Rhetor? The form kazar/kazir, which is found here in the list of peoples living in the vicinity of the Caucasus, obviously refers to the Khazars. This is consistent with their existence in the region a century earlier. We also have evidence from the so-called Geographer from Ravenna (7th century?) that the Agazirs (Akatsirs) of Jordan are the Khazars 23 .

However, the Khazars are nowhere presented simply as the Huns. The question arises: if they were subjugated by the Huns shortly before 448, as Priscus claims, what period of time did they exist before that? Here one should take into account the views of Zaki Validi, which are formulated exclusively on the basis of Eastern sources and are independent of the considerations that have just been mentioned. The author believes that he found traces of the same prehistory of the Turks not only in Muslim, but also in Chinese sources of the Wei dynasty (366-558) 24 . In his presentation, the Khazars played a leading role and were even an indigenous people in their country 25 . Zaki Validi cites a story from Gardizi, according to which the eponymous ancestor of the Kirghiz, having killed a Roman officer, fled to the court of the Khazar Khakan, and later moved east until he settled on the Yenisei. But since it is believed that the early Kirghiz lived in Eastern Europe and were located south of the Urals before the beginning of the Christian era, Zaki Validi attributed the appropriate date to this episode and does not want to admit that the mention of the Khazars so early is an anachronism 26 . This is one of a number of claims to the antiquity of the Khazars. The main Muslim sources cited by Zaki Validi are relatively recent. Gardisi wrote around 1050, and an anonymous history Mujmal al-Taw?r?kh w-al-Qisas 27 - appeared even later (although they undoubtedly go back to ibn al-Muqaffa in the 8th century and through him to pre-Islamic Persian sources). And his Chinese sources do not explicitly mention the Khazars. Nevertheless, the opinion that the Khazars existed even before the Huns finds some confirmation in another region. In the "Armenian History" of Moses Khorensky - Movses Khorenatsi (5th century) there is a mention of the Khazars between 197 and 217 years 28 . The peoples of the north, Khazirs and Basils, agreed to break through the Chor pass in the east of the Caucasus, "led by their king Vnasep Surkhap" 29 . They crossed the river Kur and were met by the Armenian Walars with a large army, which defeated them and put them to flight. After some time, the northern peoples, already on their side of the Caucasus, again suffered a heavy defeat. In the second battle Walars was killed. He was replaced by his son, and under the new king, the Armenians again crossed the Caucasus, defeated and subjugated the Khazir (Khazar) and Basils. Every hundredth was taken hostage, and a monument was erected with an inscription in Greek letters, which showed that these peoples were now under the jurisdiction of Rome.

This story seems to be based on actual facts, and the Khazir refers to the Khazars. However, according to the generally accepted opinion, the Armenian history is erroneously attributed to Movses Khorenatsi, who wrote in the 5th century. It is believed that it should be attributed to the IX century, or, in extreme cases, to the VIII century, but not earlier than 30 . This, of course, gives a different character to the history of the Khazar raid. In this case, it is not unconditional evidence of the existence of the Khazars during the time of Movses Khorenatsi, but is consistent with other Armenian and Georgian stories, which, although more or less clearly point to the Khazars in the first centuries of the Christian era and even earlier, we do not present here. Of course, they are interesting in themselves, however, due to inaccuracies and lack of evidence, they cannot be considered reliable.

Muslim authors give us a significant amount of material that can shed light on the date of the appearance of the Khazars. As already noted, some of them are taken from Pahlavi sources compiled before the Arab conquest of Persia. What Arab and Persian authors report about the Khazars deserves careful study, as it contains authentic information from earlier times. Not surprisingly, stories like these, written when the Khazar state north of the Caucasus range was flourishing, distinguish them from the Turks encountered by the first generations of Muslims in Central Asia. But passages like the following, where the Khazars are placed side by side with the leading representatives of modern humanity, are nevertheless remarkable. In a discussion between the famous ibn al-Muqaffa and his friends, the question was raised which nation is the smartest. It is characteristic of the low cultural development of that time, or at least of the Arab views on the matter (ibn al-Muqaffa d. c. 759), that the Turks and Khazars were placed after the Persians, Greeks, Hindus and Negroes. Obviously, in this respect the Turks and Khazars were notorious. However, they are given completely different characteristics. "Türks are skinny dogs, Khazar grazing cattle" 32 . Although the judgment is unfavorable, we get the impression of the Khazars as a separate and important racial group. To what extent this is true is not clear. Assumptions were put forward linking the Khazars with the Circassian type - they are pale-skinned, dark-haired and blue-eyed, and through the basils (or barsils), which have already been mentioned, with the so-called "royal Scythians" of Herodotus 33 . All this, of course, is not entirely accurate. Apart from the passage that mentions the black Khazars, where it is said that they are swarthy like Hindus, and their “doubles” are bright and beautiful 34 , the only available description of the Khazars in Arabic sources is the following, supposedly belonging to ibn Said al-Maghribi: “Khazars live in the north of the inhabited lands, closer to the 7th climate, under the constellation Plow. Their land is cold and damp. Therefore, their faces are white, their eyes are blue, their hair is more red and curly, they are large in body, and cold in temper. This people is savage." This is reminiscent of the traditional description of the northerners and in any case does not confirm that the Khazars belong to the "Circassian" type. According to the etymology of Khalil ibn Ahmad 36 , the Khazars could be narrow-eyed, like the Mongols. Obviously, nothing can be said with certainty in this matter. It is possible that some Khazars were fair-skinned with dark hair and blue eyes, but there is no evidence that this type prevailed from antiquity or was widespread in Khazaria in historical times.

A similar dispute regarding the merits of different races has come down to us from the era before Muhammad, where the debaters were the Arab Numan ibn al-Mundir of al-Hira and Khosrow Anushirvan. The Persian expresses the opinion that the Greeks, Hindus and Chinese are superior to the Arabs, despite the low standard of living, the Turks and Khazars, who at least have an organization and are subordinate to the king. Here the Khazars are again compared with the great nation of the East 37 . This is in tune with the stories that the ambassadors of the Chinese, Turks and Khazars were constantly present at the gates of Khosrov 38, and that he had three golden thrones in his palace that were never removed and on which no one sat. They were intended for the kings of Byzantium, China and the Khazars 39 .

In general, the materials of Arab and Persian authors about the Khazars in early times can be divided into three groups, concentrated around the names: 1) one or another Jewish patriarch; 2) Alexander the Great; 3) some Sasanian kings, mainly Anushirvan and his successors.

A typical narrative relating to the first group is given by Yakubi in his "History" 40 . After the confusion of languages ​​in Babylon, the descendants of Noah came to Peleg, the son of Eber, and asked to divide the land between them. He allocated to the descendants of Japheth China, Hind, Sind, the country of the Turks and the country of the Khazars, as well as Tibet, the country of the Bulgars, Daylam and the country neighboring Khorasan. In another passage, Yacoubi recounts subsequent events. After Peleg divided the land, the descendants of Ibn Tubal, son of Japheth, headed northeast. One group, the descendants of Fogarma, who moved farthest to the north, was scattered across different countries and became different kingdoms, among them the kingdoms of the Bulgars, Alans, Khazars and Armenians 41 .

Also, according to Tabari 42, seven sons were born to Japheth: Homer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Firas (biblical names) 43 . The Turks and Khazars descended from the latter. Perhaps in this case there is a connection with the Türgesh, the surviving Western Turks who were defeated by the Arabs in 119/737 (if the year is given as a fraction, the first digit is the Hijri year. – Note. per.) 44 , and ceased to exist as a ruling group in the same century. It is curious that Tabari names among the descendants of Magog Majudzh and Yadzhudzh, adding that they lived to the east of the Turks and Khazars. This information renders unconvincing Zaki Validi's attempt to identify Gog and Magog by Arabic authors as Norwegians 45 . The name Meshekh is considered by him as a single number from the classical Massagets 46 . A. Bashmakov emphasizes the connection of the “meshekhs” with the Khazars in order to create a theory that the Khazars are not Turks from inner Asia at all, but a Japhet or Alarodian group from the south of the Caucasus 47 . Obviously, there is no stereotypical form of the legendary kinship of the Khazars with Japheth. Taj al-Arus claims that, according to some authors, they are the descendants of Meshech, the son of Japheth, and according to others, both the Khazars and the Saklabs descended from Tubal. Further we read about Balanjar ibn Japhet in ibn al-Faqih 48 and Abu al-Fida 49 . He was the founder of the city of Belenjer (Balanjar). The use of the word suggests that this is equivalent to giving Balanjar a separate racial identity. In historical times, Balanjar was a well-known Khazar center, which Masudi even calls their capital 50 .

It hardly makes sense to continue listing stories about Japheth. Their Jewish origin is absolutely obvious, and Poliak drew attention to one version of the division of the land in which the Hebrew words for "north" and "south" appear in an Arabic text 51 . The Iranian cycle of legends has a similar tradition, according to which the hero Afridun divided the land between three sons, whose names were Tuj, Selm and Iraj. Here the Khazars, together with the Turks and the Chinese, find themselves on the part of the land allocated to Tudzh, the eldest son 52 .

Some stories connect the Khazars with Abraham. The story about the meeting in Khorasan between the sons of Keturah and the Khazars, which mentions the khaqan, is quoted by Poliak from ibn Said and al-Tabari 53 . The tradition is also present in the Meshed manuscript of ibn al-Faqih, apparently as part of the story of Tamim ibn Bahr's journey to the Uighurs, but goes back to Hisham al-Kalbi (Kalbi) 54 . Zaki Validi is inclined to pay special attention to it, considering it as evidence of the presence of the Khazars in this region in the early period 55 . Al-Jahiz also refers to the legend about the sons of Abraham and Keturah, but does not mention the Khazars 56 . Al-Dimashki argues that, according to one tradition, the Turks were the children of Abraham from Keturah, whose father belonged to the Arab family (al-Arab al Ariba). The descendants of another son of Abraham, the Sogdians and Kirghiz, are also said to have lived beyond the Oxus. Dimashki himself was not inclined to give preference to these genealogies 57 .

A typical story about Alexander, belonging to the second group, is the story of how the conqueror, having come from Egypt to North Africa (Kairouan) and having met Kandaka - a kind of Queen of Sheba for Solomon - went north to the "Land of Darkness". He returned, founded two cities on the border with the Greeks and proposed to go east again. His viziers pointed out the difficulty of overcoming the "Green Sea", the waters of which are fetid. But, despite the fears of the viziers and the obstacles, he crossed the Greek territory and arrived in the land of the Saklabi, who submitted to him. He went further, reached the Khazars, who also submitted, then continued his way through the country of the Turks and the desert between the Turks and China, etc. 58

Considering what has been said, when faced with a statement linking Alexander with the Khazars, which is not obviously absurd - like Wahb ibn al-Munnabih that the conqueror found the Khazars in Merv and Herat 59 , we cannot ignore it. Tabari notes that the meeting place between Alexander and the Persian ruler was in Khorasan, near the Khazar border, where a great battle took place 60 . If this assumption is accepted, and even if considered an anachronism, it is still important evidence of the expansion of Khazar activity at some time east of the Caspian Sea. But many stories about Alexander are so far from factual that it is difficult to draw any unambiguous conclusions. This definitely refers to Nizami's Iskander-name, where the Khazars are usually united with the Russians as enemies of the conqueror in the north 61 . The mention of Russians is an obvious anachronism. This idea certainly prompted the poet, who wrote in the 12th century, that he knew about the historical raids of the Russians down the Volga and across the Caspian 62 . He was familiar with local circumstances in the Caucasus region 63 . It is clear that Nizami gave his own twist to the story of Alexander, and in a different direction 64 . The battles of the conqueror with the Russians had not been mentioned before by any author. So the question of the truth of the tradition is not raised.

So far, we have not learned much about the antiquity of the Khazars from Arabic and Persian sources. It remains to be seen whether the sources of the third group, excerpts from the works of Muslim writers, linking the Khazars with various Persian kings, primarily Khosrov Anushirvan, will shed more light on this problem and on the Khazars in general.

We have a story about a large expedition against the Turks in the time of Kay Khosrov under the command of four commanders, one of whom, as it is said in the text, advanced on the enemy in the country of the Khazars. But this time (Key Khosrov = Cyrus) was long before Alexander, when the mention of the Turks is an obvious inaccuracy. The story found in Tabari 65 and also in ibn al-Balkhi 66 is definitely a later creation.

A hitherto unknown legend about the Khazar court is present in a Persian text kept in the Leiden University Library 67 . The author, a certain Mohammed ibn-Ali al-Katib al Samarkandi, lived in the 12th century and dedicated his work to one of the Karakhanids. She was known to Haji Khalifa 68 . Barthold calls this work historical 69 - a historical work written in Transoxiana under the Karakhanids, he argues - but it is rather literature from the "Mirror for Princes" series. The passage in question begins in the complex high-sounding style characteristic of many Persian authors. “Khakan, the king of the Khazars, was the ruler, whose eagle of majesty caught simurgh happiness. The falcon of his wisdom that adorned the kingdom and nourished the state caught peacocks, which was the pinnacle of world domination” 70 . After describing the habits of the kings, the author writes that "once a khaqan gave a feast and sat alone with his pleasant companions." One of the sons of Dahhak came to him (that is, obviously, an Arab, because al-Dahhak is a typical Bedouin marauder from old Iranian legends). He politely greeted the khakan and was invited to have a drink with him. When they began to drink, the musicians began to play, and the conversation turned to music. The Arab prince was asked two questions in a row, to which he answered: “What do you understand by listening to music?” and “Why does the listener sometimes get carried away and forget about everything when listening?”. Having received the answers and, probably, pleased with the honesty and understanding of the guest, the khakan asked the third question: “Why did luck (prosperity) turn away from you [that is, from the Arabs], when the kings of the earth threw a blanket of humility on your shoulders and heavenly stars illuminated the dust on your doorsteps ? Dahhak's son replied that bad management was to blame. The episode ends with the moralization of the author. Obviously, this is a moralizing story in an oriental manner, and not a historical work at all. Dahhak, as already noted, is a legendary character. His son's reasoning about listening to music reflects the musical theory of the time. In general, the story was invented or adapted by the author of the XII century as a warning to his patron 71 .

We are interested in how Samarkandi portrays the Khazars. In other sources, both Persian and Arabic, as we have seen, the pre-Islamic Khakan Khazar is a great king, whose position - the head of the most important part of humanity - elevates him to the rank of the rulers of the Sassanids and Chinese emperors. Of all the more or less apocryphal references to the ancient greatness of the Khakan of the Khazars, none presents him as clearly as the above passage. Here he is a pagan, or at least a non-Muslim, who does justice to wine and music. He is surrounded by a retinue - in contrast to the Khakans of later times, who, as we know, lived more or less secluded. The Arab prince treats him with respect. In addition, he is well informed, polite and talks about human affairs with simple wisdom. Unfortunately, it is impossible to say how true all this is.

Something more definite is stated in Masudi's narrative - the incident, according to him, took place in the 7th century at the court of Shirvah. According to the story of Masudi 72, during a horse ride, the king asked one of his retinue if he remembered the well-known trick that his ancestor Ardashir tried on the king of the Khazars. To flatter the king and amuse him, the courtier pretended not to know this story, pretended to be carried away by the king's story, and even allowed his horse to fall into the canal. Thus, we understand that the Khazars existed during the time of Ardashir (226-240). Although Arab historians briefly mention the activity of Ardashir in the Khazar direction 73 , and even describe the capture of Sul (Derbent), an important point in the east of the Caucasus, it is very difficult to understand what kind of trick Masudi had in mind. We are not aware of incidents that could be described in this way, however, as well as facts that clearly indicate the connection of Ardashir with the Khazars. Certainly, what Masudi tells about cannot be considered evidence of their existence in the 3rd century. Why, if the circumstances are well known and authentic, are they not described in Karmanak, a work on the history of Ardashir, which was translated by Nöldeke? 74 The most plausible explanation is that Masudi refers to some other Persian sovereign.

There is a short anachronistic mention of the Khazars who opposed Shapur, the son of Ardashir, in the armies of Emperor Julian 75 . Thereafter, Muslim sources mention them very little - or not at all - until much later. According to Tabari 76, the Persian Firuz (457-484) erected a stone structure in the vicinity of Sula 77 to protect the country from northern peoples. And if you believe the Greek Priscus, Peroz (Firuz), tired of a long war, offered peace and kinship to the king of the Kidarites Kunkhas. He agreed, but he did not get his sister Peroz as his wife, as he was promised, but an ignoble woman, which he soon learned about from her. Wanting to avenge this deceit, Kunkhas turned to Peroz with a request to send him good military leaders to lead the troops in the fight against the neighbors. When the last three hundred arrived, he ordered some of them to be killed, and some to be mutilated and sent back to Iran with a notice that this was revenge for deceit 78 . There is no reason to doubt that the facts, including the brutal denouement, are basically as Priscus describes them. After all, he was almost a contemporary of events. Perhaps this is the trick that the Persian tried on the northern ruler? It is possible that it was Masudi who wrote about her?

Before proceeding, it is necessary to consider the question: Who are the Kidarites? It is generally believed that Priscus had in mind the Hephthalites, or White Huns, at whose hands Peroz subsequently died. Bury noted that the Kidarites were most likely the Huns who settled on the trans-Caspian land and threatened the Darial Gorge 79 . Priscus mentions that the Persians in 465 held the fortress of Yuroipaah ​​80, apparently on the eastern tip of the Caucasus Mountains, from the Kidarites, and wanted the help of the Romans. In another place, he writes that when the Saragurs attacked the Persians in 468, they first went to the Caspian Gates, but found a Persian garrison there and set off by another road 81 . A little later, in 472, the Persian embassy in Constantinople announced victory over the Kidarites and taking the city of Balaam by storm. The name seems to be the product of a copyist's invention 82 .

In connection with everything said above, the question arises: maybe the Kidarites in the 5th century were the Khazars? The assumption of a relationship between Kidarites and Ephthalites does not exclude this. After all, a relationship is assumed between the Hephthalites and the Khazars. It is claimed that the institution of polyandry was characteristic of the Khazars - or at least its existence is confirmed. The Hephthalites also have 83 . But if Priscus's text is not significantly garbled, the Kidarites are certainly different from the Acacirs (Acathirs) he also mentions. If the Kidarites are Khazars, then there are definitely no Akatsirs.

But back to the story. Kubad (488–531), like his father Peroz, was busy defending Derbent. It is often mentioned that he built a brick defensive fortification in the Caucasus region 84 . He sent one of his commanders against the Khazars, who at that time occupied Arran and Dzhurzan (Dzhurdzhan) 85 in the south of the ridge. Most of these territories were taken from them. Qubad built cities in Arran that later became important - Baylakan, Berdaa, Kabala. This is written by al-Baladhuri, who is considered an authoritative early author (d. 892). “The Khazars are those who conquered the lands of Armenia. Above them was the king khakan. His representative ruled Arran, Jurzan, Busfurrajan and Sisijan. These provinces were called the Four Armenias. Qubad (Kavad) returned them to Iran, and they passed to his son Khosroy Anushirvan up to Bab-allan (Dar-yal), including 360 cities. The Persian king conquered Bab-al-abwab (Derbent), Tabarsaran and Belenjer. He built the city of Kalikala, as well as many others, and settled them with Persians. However, "the Khazars again took possession of everything that the Persians had taken from them and held in their hands until the Romans drove them out and installed a king over the Four Armenias" 86 . The first part of the passage clearly points to the time of Kavad. We are told that a certain deputy of the Khazar Khakan ruled over part of Armenia until he was defeated by the Persians. At first glance, there is no reason to doubt the historical nature of the message, especially since it is confirmed by other authors. As for the position (title) or the name of this deputy, both should be Turkic, like the names and titles of another Khazar nomenklatura known to us. The second part of the passage refers to the situation on the Khazar border in a later period, shortly before the arrival of the Arabs. Thus, we have information about the first established appearance of the Khazars, who raided or migrated south of the Caucasus. Date - no later than 531 (death of Kavad). Moreover, we learn about the existence of the Khazar Khakanate (Kaganate) and even a double reign at this very time.

All this is very difficult. And it's not just that the Khazar khakan and his representative are not named directly in the existing sources until much later. The existence of a khakan among the Turkic peoples is usually understood as a sign of their sovereignty and independence. When the Khazars next appear, it is already part of the Western Turkic confederation. In addition, if we consider Yakubi's information to be true, the Khazars, their khakan and his representative already existed when the Western Turkic Empire did not yet exist, and even before the initial Turkic federation arose (552). And if the Khazars could well exist in the west before that time, it seems almost obvious that their appearance as an impressive force was associated with the decline of the Western Turks. The rule of the Western Turkic Khagans (Khakans) continued until 657 or 659, when they were defeated by the Chinese 87 . After that, one should have expected the emergence of the Khazar Khaganate 88 . More recent research has confirmed Yakubi's surprising claims. The context of Yaqubi's message is the genealogy of the northern peoples, the source of which is not specified 89 , but which is consistent with the genealogy given by Hisham al-Kalbi 90 . It can be assumed that this is the source of Yakubi, especially since in other places Hisham al-Kalbi mentions the Khaqan of the Khazars 91 . This gives us much more reliable dates for the existence of a double reign among the Khazars. Al-Kalbi's main source was his father, who died in 146/763. He himself lived until 204/819 92 . A date three centuries earlier is almost certainly too early. However, it can hardly be considered an accident that the Khazars began to be mentioned during the reign of Kubad-Kavad and Anushirvan (531-579). The growing number of precise indications of this, perhaps, proves that they have indeed already entered the historical scene 93 .

Tabari 94 reports that Anushirvan divided the empire into four large provinces - satrapies, one of which was Azerbaijan and its neighboring "country of the Khazars". He entered into an alliance with a people called the Suls, who lived in the eastern part of the Caucasus in the neighborhood of the "passage of Sul" (Derbent), defeated the Banjar 95 , Balanjar and other peoples who could be Khazars 96 (if so, they were different from others), when they invaded Armenia, and the survivors of them, numbering 10 thousand, settled in Azerbaijan. He built Bab-al-abwab - that's how Derbent was called in Arab times, a fortress and a city in order to hold the northern peoples. This goal he regularly served in subsequent centuries.

The figure of Anushirvan has always attracted storytellers. At Kudama 97 and Yakut 98 we find the following story. Anushirvan feared the hostility of the Khazars and wrote a letter to their king offering peace and alliance. To do this, he asked for a Khazar princess as his wife and offered his daughter in exchange. Khazar agreed. Anushirvan received a bride at the appointed time. But the girl he sent to the Khazars was not of royal blood. Some time later, the two rulers met at a place called Barshalia, where they indulged in entertainment for several days. Then Anushirvan ordered that part of the Khazar camp be set on fire, and when the king complained, he declared that he knew nothing. After that, he ordered his camp to be set on fire and the next day he came to the Khazars in anger, declaring that they did not justify his trust. He concluded by saying that although there may be friendship between him and his brother, there can never be peace between the armies, and therefore it is best to build a wall between them. The Khazar king agreed and left the Persians to fortify Derbent. Later, he learned that Anushirvan cheated him with marriage and built the wall without hindrance. The king was furious, but there was nothing he could do.

It seems likely that this story - or something very similar - is the very trick that Masudi is referring to. This is clearly not a historical narrative. The incident reported by the Greek Prisk, allegedly taking place during the reign of Firuz, is the basis of the first part of the story 99 . He is attributed to Anushirvan, since he married the daughter of the kagan of the Western Turks, Sinjibu (Istami) 100 . The fact that Anushirvan was responsible for the construction of the Derbent wall - part of the defensive fortifications of the Caucasus - is not in doubt, but the circumstances given in the second part of the story are fiction. The difference between the legend and the historical record is shown by another quotation from Tabari 101. “The strongest, bravest and most powerful of the Turks was Khakan Sinjibu, and he had the most troops; it was he who killed Vazr, the king of the Hephthalites, not in the least afraid of their numbers and strength 102 . Having killed the king and all his army, he seized their wealth in the form of booty and took possession of their country. Sinjibu subjugated the banjar, balanjar and Khazars 103 (?), and they showed him their humility and let him know that the Iranian shahs continue to pay them money for not attacking their country. Then Sinjibu set out at the head of a large army, approached the border regions of Sul, and sent a threatening and arrogant message to Khosrow Anushirvan demanding money, which he had previously paid to the three peoples mentioned above. And if Khosrow does not hasten to send him what he needs, then he will invade his country and attack him. But Khosrow Anushirvan paid no heed to his threats, because he erected fortifications at the gates of Sul.

In addition, Khosrov knew that, on his orders, the borders of Armenia were guarded by a detachment of 5,000 soldiers, horse and foot. Khakan Sinjibu learned that Khosrov had fortified the border of Sul and went home along with those who were with him. This narrative certainly has signs of authenticity not found in Kudam et al. On the basis of it, it can be argued that some groups that were later part of the Khazar Empire, and possibly the Khazars themselves, were under the leadership of the Western Turks against the Persians. It was in the period determined by the defeat of the Hephthalites, that is, about 567 104, and the death of Sinjibu in 575 or 576 105 . Then the Western Turkic forces were sent by the son of Sinjibu to join the Utigurs, who besieged the Crimean kingdom of Bosporus (the city of Panticapaeum, modern Kerch) 106 . It is clear that during this period the Western Turks operated north of the Caucasus. But the meeting of Anushirvan and the king of the Khazars or the Turks in Barshalia, as stated in the story of Kudam, is not confirmed.

Other stories are told about Anushirvan. When the Derbent wall was built, a throne was installed on the ledge of the mountain, sitting on which one could look at the sea. When Anushirvan was one day sitting on it, a monster appeared before him, endowed with speech, who addressed the king. He said that he saw how this border was closed seven times and opened the same number of times. But Anushirvan is destined to close it forever. It is also claimed that after the completion of the wall, Anushirvan made inquiries about the Caspian. He learned that the Khazar city of Al-Bayda was four months away and decided to visit it. He was not persuaded by those who claimed that in the northern part of the Caspian Sea there was a whirlpool called the Lion's Mouth, through which no ship could pass. Anushirvan set sail and soon reached the whirlpool. There he was on the verge of death, but miraculously escaped and achieved his goal. Then he returned safely back 107 . All these stories are just hints to the actual story that Anushirvan fortified the Derbent pass.

Anushirvan was succeeded by his son Ormizd (579–590). Ormizd fought against Khakan Sinjib during his father's life 108 , and later, having become the king of Persia, he was forced to meet with a large coalition in which the leadership belonged to the Turks, and included Greeks and Khazars 109 . Hormizd wrote a letter to the Greek emperor, offering him in exchange for peace the return of the cities captured by his father, and the offer was accepted. Further, he sent his generals against the ruler of the Khazars (Sahib al-Khazar), who were expelled from Persian territory. Now Ormizd could come to grips with the Turks. This narrative is mostly interesting in the relations between the Khazars and the Turks. Apparently, the Khazars obeyed the orders of the Turks and were part of the Western Turkic Empire. In any case, there is no reason to believe that at this time they enjoyed independence. The attack on Persia took place in the eleventh year of the reign of Hormizd, that is, about 589.

It was from the time of the reign of Ormizd that references to the Khazars began to appear in other sources, primarily among the Syrian authors Michael the Syrian and Zechariah the Rhetor 110 . Let's see what the Greek Procopius tells about the inhabitants of the lands of the North Caucasus in his time - in the first half of the 6th century. According to Procopius, the Alans and Abkhazians, who were Christians and great friends of the Romans, lived in this region together with the Zikhs (Circassians), and further on lived the Huns-Sabirs, mentioned together with other Hunnic nations. During the reign of Emperor Anastasius (491-518), the Hun Ambazuk owned the Caspian Gates (Derbent), and after his death they passed to Kavad. Procopius claims that numerous Sabirs lived near the Caucasus and were divided into several different groups 111 . Apparently, he knew nothing about the Khazars as such.

The term "Sabirs" is new for us. But Procopius is not the first and not the only author who mentions the Sabirs. According to Priscus 112, they appeared on the borders of Europe in the 5th century (before 465), ousted from their lands in the east by the Avars. In the next century, Jordan refers to them as one of the two major branches of the Huns 113 . Procopius' claims are confirmed by Theophanes, according to which they passed through the Caspian gates around 514 and invaded Cappadocia and Galatia 114 .

Then the Sabirs were enemies of the Persians on the northeastern border for a long period before the appearance of the Western Turks and even later. After the second half of the 6th century, they are not mentioned in the sources as a national group, and it probably seems important that around 576 some or, perhaps, their remnants were resettled by the Greeks to the south of Kura 115 . Presumably at this time, the Khazars asserted leadership over the tribes living north of the Caucasus. If there are some doubts about the early references to the Khazars living in these places, subsequently they are not and cannot be. Masudi (X century) calls the Khazars Turkic Sabirs 116 . Probably the same is meant by Mahmud al-Kashgari (II century) 117 . Initially, the two groups were different 118 . That they were later identified is perhaps best explained by the hypothesis that the Khazars subjugated and eclipsed the Sabirs. In any case, an important change took place among the tribes in the North Caucasus. It took place at the end of the VI or at the beginning of the VII century. Not only the Sabirs, but also other tribes ceased to be mentioned in the sources under their old names (Saragurs, Utigurs, Samandar, Balanjar, etc.). This cannot be an accident. Undoubtedly, this is due to the increasing pressure of the Khazars.

About the events that led to their contact with the Greek emperor Heraclius, we are relatively well informed thanks to a variety of sources - Greek, Armenian and Georgian. In 627, Heraclius was in Tiflis on one of the expeditions against Persia, which he undertook to divert the attention of the Persians from his country. Here he was met by the Khazars, commanded by Zibel, the second person after the Khakan. To do this, they passed the Caspian Gates. Gibbon described the meeting between Heraclius and the Khazars 119 . Siebel introduced his son to Heraclius, sent 40,000 people to the imperial service and left for his own country. And Heraclius went with the Khazar army further, to Persian territory. When winter came and the Persians attacked new allies, the Khazars parted ways with Heraclius - perhaps they did not like the Greek method of warfare. Heraclius continued to advance with the imperial troops, but when he was three days from Ctesiphon, the Persian capital, a mutiny broke out that hastened the death of Khosrow. His son hastened to negotiate with Heraclius, who in 628 turned back 120 .

The Armenian version of the development of events is somewhat different 121 . In 625, the Khazars invaded Armenia and, having collected huge booty, returned through Derbent. The following year, the Khazar king decided to repeat the success. An order was given to all under his authority - "tribes and peoples, inhabitants of mountains and plains, living under roofs and in the open, having shaved heads or long hair" - to be ready to march on a signal. When the time came, the Khazars set in motion. They took and destroyed the fortress of Tzur (Derbent), for the construction of which the Persian kings spared neither time nor effort, and moved south, killing the inhabitants and robbing the wealth of the country. After a while they approached Tiflis. There, as already mentioned, they met with Heraclius. The two armies, acting in concert, laid siege to Tiflis, which was about to surrender when strong reinforcements arrived at the defenders. The Allies decided to withdraw, agreeing to join forces again the following year. After that, around 626, the emperor sent one of his advisers to negotiate with the Khazars. To negotiate the final terms, 1,000 Khazar cavalry visited Constantinople. These negotiations, if, of course, the information is authentic, obviously should have taken place before the meeting in Tiflis. In the next year, 627, the "king of the north" sent the promised army under the command of his brother's son Shad. The Khazars plundered Arran and Azerbaijan.

In 628, according to the same story, the Khazars invaded Arran, took Berdaa and turned west towards Tiflis. They were commanded by Jebu (or Yabgu) - khakan. They besieged the Georgian city, and soon the Greeks with Heraclius, who had just won a victory in Persia, approached them. But the inhabitants of the city resisted, and both armies eventually withdrew. After some time, Jebu-Khakan and his son Shad still took Tiflis. When the city fell, the two generals were brought before Jeb, who showed them disgusting cruelty. They were blinded, subjected to terrible torture, and then their bodies were exposed on the walls of the city. The source also reports that the “king of the north” took tribute from gold and silver smelters, iron ore miners, and fishermen on the Kur River. And in 629-630, the Khazar king prepared a big invasion, sending forward 3,000 cavalry under the command of a certain Chorpan-tarkhan. Ten thousand Persians were defeated, and the Khazars spread throughout Armenia, Georgia and Arran.

Slavs - tributaries of the Khazars When the Khazar Khaganate rose in the middle of the 7th century, there was still no single state on the lands of the Eastern Slavs. The Khazars lived in the floodplains of the Volga and in the warm modern Dagestan, but the entire Steppe was subject to the Khazars. Against the Khazar raid among the Slavs,