The Origin and Meaning of the Title “Khazar-Elteber”

Abstract

Historical source analysis of the title “Khazar-Elteber” leads the author to conclude that the Khazars led the strongest ethnopolitical confederation in a Khanate derived from but not the same as the Western Turkic Khanate. Although the theory is acknowledged as controversial, Khazars were likely of an Ashina dynasty that consolidated political-administrative-military power after 651 Current Era.

Keywords:

• Khazar Khanate
• dual power
• elteber
• Commander Ras Tarkhan
• Ibn Fadlan
• al-Mas’udi
• Levond [Ghevond]

Notes

^1. D. Ludwig, Struktur und Gesellschaft des Chazaren-Reiches im Licht der schriftlichen Quellen (Munster, 1982), p. 134.

^2. A.P. Novosel’tsev, Khazarskoe gosudarstvo i ego rol’ v istorii Vostochnoi Evropy i Kavkaza (Moscow, 1990), p. 89. Novosel’tsev’s hypothesis is now championed by S.A. Romashov, who is proposing new arguments supporting it (S.A. Romashov, “Istoricheskaia geografiia Khazarskogo kaganata (V–XIII vv.),” Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi, vol. XI (Wiesbaden 2001), pp. 303, 304; S.A. Romashov, “Ot tiurkov k khazaram. Severnyi Kavkaz v VI–VII vv.,” Tiurkologicheskii sbornik, 2003–2004. Tiurkskie narody v drevnosti i srednevekov’e [Moscow, 2005], p. 196).

^3. K. Tsukerman [C. Zuckerman], “Khazary i Vizantiia: pervye kontakty,” Materialy po arkheologii, istorii i etnografii Tavrii, issue VIII (Simferopol, 2001), pp. 325, 329, 331 [English version: Constantin Zuckerman, “The Khazars and Byzantium—The First Encounter,” in The World of the Khazars: New Perspectives—Selected Papers from the Jerusalem 1999 International Khazar Colloquium, ed. Peter B. Golden, Haggai Ben Shammai, and András Róna-Tas, pp. 399–432 (Leiden: Brill, 2007)]; K. Tsukerman, “O proiskhozhdenii dvoevlastiia u khazar i obstoiatel’stvakh ix obrashcheniia v iudaizm,” Materialy po arkheologii, istorii i etnografii Tavrii, issue IX (Simferopol, 2002), p. 524 [English version: Constantine Zuckerman, “On the Origin of the Khazar Diarchy and the Circumstances of Khazaria’s Conversion to Judaism,” in The Turks, vol. 1, ed. Hasan Celâl Güzel, C. Cem Oguz, and Osman Karatay, pp. 516–23 (Ankara: Yeni Türkiye, 2002).].

^4. Novosel’tsev, Khazarskoe gosudarstvo, pp. 55, 61, 134–35; Tsukerman, “O proiskhozhdenii,” p. 524.

^5. M.I. Artamonov, Istoriia khazar (Leningrad, 1962), pp. 170–71.

^6. L.N. Gumilëv, Drevnie tiurki (Moscow, 1967), p. 238; Ia.A. Fëdorov and G.S. Fëdorov, Rannie tiurkskie plemena na Severnom Kavkaze (Moscow, 1978), p. 202; A.V. Gadlo, Etnicheskaia istoriia Severnogo Kavkaza IV–X vv. (Leningrad, 1979), p. 136.

^7. P.B. Golden, Khazar Studies. An Historico-philological Inquiry into the Origins of the Khazars, vol. 1 (Budapest, 1980), pp. 59, 219–21; P.B. Golden, “Gosudarstvo i gosudarstvennost’ u khazar: vlast’ khazarskikh kaganov,” in Fenomen vostochnogo despotizma. Struktura upravleniia i vlasti (Moscow, 1993), p. 219.

^8. D.M. Dunlop, The History of the Jewish Khazars (Princeton, 1954) (Princeton Oriental Studies, vol. 16); Artamonov, Istoriia khazar; Novosel’tsev, Khazarskoe gosudarstvo and others.

^9. See V.F. Minorskii, Istoriia Shirvana i Derbenda X-XI vekov (Moscow, 1963), p. 195.

^10. A.P. Kovalevskii. Kniga Akhmeda Ibn Fadlana o ego puteshestvii na Volgu v 921–922 godakh (Kharkov, 1956), pp. 146–47.

^11. For recent review of the sources see Golden, “Gosudarstvo i gosudarstvennost’,” pp. 219–23.

^12. V.V. Grigor’ev, Rossiia i Aziia (St. Petersburg, 1876), pp. 71–72, note 25.

^13. Ludwig, Struktur und Gesellschaft, pp. 112–201; Novosel’tsev, “K voprosu ob odnom is drevneishikh titulov russkogo kniazia,” Istoriia SSSR, 1982, no. 4, pp. 152–57; Novosel’tsev, Khazarskoe gosudarstvo, pp. 134–44. See likewise V.Ia. Petrukhin, “K voprosu o sakral’nom statuse khazarskogo kagana: traditsia i real’nost’,” Slaviane i ikh sosedi, issue 10 (Moscow, 2001); Tsukerman, “O proiskhozhenii,” pp. 521, 524.

^14. Golden, “Gosudarstvo i gosudarstvennost’,” pp. 218, 219.

^15. Golden, “Gosudarstvo i gosudarstvennost’,” pp. 217, 218.

^16. Golden, “Gosudarstvo i gosudarstvennost’,” p. 219; Golden, Khazar Studies, vol. 1, pp. 147–55, 176–77, 197–98, 215–16; G. Clauson, An Etymological Dictionary of the Pre-Thirteenth-Century Turkish (Oxford, 1972), pp. 134, 457, 539–40.

^17. Movses Kalankatuatsi, Istoriia strany Aluank (Yerevan, 1984), pp. 36, 41, 42, 43.

^18. E.V. Sevortian, Etimologicheskii slovar’ tiurkskikh iazykov (Moscow, 1972), p. 139. See also R.G. Fakhrutdinov, “Ob imeni i titule pravitelia Volzhskoi Bulgarii,” Sovetskaia tiurkologiia (Baku), 1979, no. 2, p. 67, note 39.

^19. M. Erdal’ [Marcel Erdal], “Khazarskii iazyk,” Evrei i slaviane, vo. 16, Khazary (Moscow/Jerusalem, 2005), p. 127.

^20. Kovalevskii, Kniga Akhmeda, pp. 121, 132; O.I. Smirnova, “K imeni Almysha, syna Shilki, tsaria bulgar,” Tiurkologicheskii sbornik, 1977 (Moscow, 1981), pp. 249–55.

^21. Compare S.E. Malov, Pamiatniki drevnetiurkskoi pis’mennosti. Teksty i issledovaniia (Moscow/Leningrad, 1951), pp. 31, 32; Kovalevskii, Kniga Akhmeda, p. 122; Artamonov, Istoriia khazar, p. 338; Fakhrutdinov, “Ob imeni,”, p. 65, note 20; S.G. Kliashtornyi, “Khazarskie zametki,” Tiurkologicheskii sbornik, 2003–2004. Tiurkskie narody v drevnosti i srednevekov’e (Moscow, 2005), p. 108.

^22. Gevond [Ghevond], Istoriia khalifov (St. Petersburg, 1862), IX, pp. 92, 93.

^23. Minorskii, Istoriia Shirvana, p. 157, note 157.

^24. M.I. Artamonov was hesitatingly juxtaposing the element “khatir-” with the Armenian form of the ethnonym “Khazar”—Khazir-k’ (Artamonov, Istoriia khazar, p. 338).

^25. Annales quos scripsit Abu Djafar Mohammed ibn Djarir at-Tabari cum aliis, ed. M.J. de Goeje, series III (Lugduni Batavorum, 1901), p. 328. At-Tabari’s report is duplicated by Ibn al-Athir [Abu al-Hassan Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ash-Shaybani, also known as Ali ‘Izz al-Dīn Ibn al-Athīr al-Jazari]: “Iz ‘Tarikh al-Kamil’” (Polnyi svod istorii) Ibn al-Asira. Per. P. K. Zhuze.,” Materialy po istorii Azerbaidzhana (Baku, 1940), p. 34.

^26. Artamonov, Istoriia khazar, p. 338.

^27. K. Czeglédy, “Khazar Raids in Transcaucasia in 762–764 A.D.,” Acta Orientalia Hungaricae, vol. XI, fasc. 1–3 (Budapest, 1960), pp. 75–88.

^28. Artamonov, Istoriia khazar, p. 338.

^29. Compare Ts. Stepanov, “Razvitie na kontseptsiiata za sakralniia tsar u khazarite i bŭlgarite prez rannoto srednovekovie,” Bŭlgari i khazari prez rannoto srednovekovie (Sofia, 2003), p. 225.

^30. Ibn Wadhih qui dicitur al Ja’qubi. Historiae. (Lugduni Batavorum, 1883), pp. 194, 446; From the composition “Ia’kubi ‘Istoriia’. Tekst i per. s arabsk. P. K. Zhuze,” Materialy po istorii Azerbaidzhana, issue 4 (Baku, 1927), p. 9. Ya’qubi dates the attack of the Khazars to 858–59.

^31. Ibn Wadhih qui dicitur, p. 194; Abu Mukhammad Akhmad ibn A’sam al-Kufi, Kniga zavoevanii [Kitab al-Futūḥ] (Izvlecheniia po istorii Azerbaidzhana VII–IX vv.) (Baku, 1981), p. 10.

^32. Armianskaia Geografiia VII v. po R. Kh. (pripisyvaetsia Moiseiu Khorenskomu) (St. Petersburg, 1877), p. 38. See likewise K. Patkanov, “Iz novogo spiska Geografii, pripisyvaemoi Moiseiu Khorenskomu,” Zhurnal Ministerstva narodnogo prosveshcheniia, 1883, March, p. 28.

^33. Artamonov, Istoriia khazar, p. 171.

^34. Artamonov, Istoriia Khazar, p. 398; L.N. Gumilëv, “Khazariia i Terek (Landshaft i etnos),” Vestnik Leningr. un-ta, Ser. geologiia i geografiia, 1964, no. 24, p. 83; N. Golb and O. Pritsak, Khazarsko-evreiskie dokumenty X veka (Moscow/Jerusalem, 1997), p. 54 [Original English edition: Norman Golb and Olmejan Pritsak, Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982)].

a. The introduction of Khorezm emphasizes Central Asian connections. Ancient Khorezm [Xorazm], straddling current Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan borders, included the legendary silk routes capital Khiva [Itchan Kala], now a UNESCO world heritage site. (See https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/543 and https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5311/). This multicultural, flourishing civilization has been well-studied, including by authors featured in this journal. See also works from the multi-disciplinary Soviet period expeditions of Gleb Pavlovich Snesarev, and recent research by Zaynab Kadirberganovna Abidova.