IN discussing Russian-Byzantine relations in the ninth and tenth centuries, I have been able to quote at length from two detailed sources; Constantines De Administrando and the Primary Russian Chronicle. But on the Russian-Khazar confrontation during the same period - to which we now turn - we have no comparable source material; the archives of Itil, if they ever existed, have gone with the wind, and for the history of the last hundred years of the Khazar Empire we must again fall back on the disjointed, casual hints found in various Arab chronicles and geographies. The period in question extends from circa 862 - the Russian occupation of Kiev - to circa 965 - the destruction of Itil by Svyatoslav. After the loss of Kiev and the retreat of the Magyars into Hungary, the former western dependencies of the Khazar Empire (except for parts of the Crimea) were no longer under the Kagans control; and the Prince of Kiev could without hindrance address the Slavonic tribes in the Dnieper basin with the cry, Pay nothing to the Khazars!1 The Khazars may have been willing to acquiesce in the loss of their hegemony in the west, but at the same time there was also a growing encroachment by the Rus on the east, down the Volga and into the regions around the Caspian. These Muslim lands bordering on the southern half of the Khazar Sea - Azerbaijan, Jilan, Shirwan, Tabaristan, Jurjan - were tempting targets for the Viking fleets, both as objects of plunder and as trading posts for commerce with the Muslim Caliphate. But the approaches to the Caspian, past Itil through the Volga delta, were controlled by the Khazars - as the approaches to the Black Sea had been while they were still holding Kiev. And control meant that the Rus had to solicit permission for each flotilla to pass, and pay the 10 per cent customs due - a double insult to pride and pocket. netteandme.blogspot/2014/07/part-4-of-8the-thirteenth-tribe-khazar.html
Posted on: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 05:54:42 +0000
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