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 inscribed in the system of the general Turkic civilization and the statehood of the Tatar people, although there are many signs-criteria (common historical origin, language, way of life, etc.), allowing 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 prominent military force, making trips to the Byzantine and Iranian possessions in Transcaucasia.

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 taxed them. As a result of a military confrontation with the Byzantine Empire at the turn of the 7th-8th centuries. Khazars captured the Taman Peninsula, the Bosporus, most of the Crimean Peninsula, with the exception of Chersonesus.

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 of 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 at first ancient city Semender in the North Caucasian Caspian, and then the city of Itil on the Lower Volga (near 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 Kyiv 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, garden 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 techniques 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, gems, 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 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 became The largest city Sea of ​​Azov 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 question of 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.

The Khazar state (650-969) was a major medieval power. It was formed by a union of tribes in the southeast of Europe. The Khazar Khaganate was considered the most dangerous Jewish power in history. He controlled the territory of the Middle and Lower Volga regions, the North Caucasus, the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov, the current northwestern part of Kazakhstan, the northern region of Crimea, as well as all of Eastern Europe to the Dnieper.

Khazar Khaganate. Story

This tribal union emerged from the Western Turkic union. Initially, the core of the Khazar state was located in the northern region of present-day Dagestan. Subsequently, it moved (under pressure from the Arabs) to the lower reaches of the Volga. The political dominance of the Khazars extended at one time to some

It should be noted that the origin of the people themselves is not fully understood. It is believed that after the adoption of Judaism, the Khazars perceived themselves as descendants of Kozar, who was the son of Togarmeh. According to the Bible, the latter was the son of Japhet.

According to some historians, the Khazar Khaganate has some connection with the lost Israelite tribes. At the same time, most researchers tend to believe that the nationality still has Turkic roots.

The rise of the Khazar people is associated with the development with the rulers of which the first (presumably) had In 552, a huge empire was formed by the Altai Turks. Soon it was divided into two parts.

By the second half of the 6th century, the Turks extended their power to the Caspian-Black Sea steppes. During the Iranian-Byzantine war (602-628), the first evidence of the existence of the Khazars appeared. Then they were the main part of the army.

In 626, the Khazars invaded the territory of modern Azerbaijan. Having plundered Caucasian Alania and united with the Byzantines, they stormed Tbilisi.

By the end of the 7th century, most of the Crimea, the North Caucasus and the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov were under the control of the Khazars. There is no exact information about how far their power extended east of the Volga. However, there is no doubt that the Khazar Khaganate, spreading its influence, stopped the flow of nomads who followed to Europe from Asia. This, in turn, created favorable conditions for the development of settled Slavic peoples and Western European countries.

The Khazar Khaganate controlled the territory where quite a lot of Jewish communities lived. Around 740, Bulan (one of the princes) converted to Judaism. Apparently, this contributed to the strengthening of his clan. At the same time, the ruling pagan dynasty of the Khazars began to lose authority.

A descendant of Prince Bulan - Obadiah - at the beginning of the ninth century, took the second post in the empire, concentrating real power in his hands. Since then, a system of dual government controlled. Nominally, the main representatives of the royal family remained in the country, however, in reality, the beks of the Bulanid family carried out the reign on their behalf.

After the establishment of a new administrative order, the Khazar Khaganate began to develop international transit trade, reorienting itself from aggressive campaigns.

In the 9th century, in connection with a new wave, new nomadic tribes began to cross the Volga.

The Old Russian state became a new enemy of the Khazars. The Varangian squads, who came to Eastern Europe, began to successfully challenge the power over the Slavs. Thus, the Radimichi in 885, the northerners in 884 and the glade in 864 were freed from the Khazar domination.

In the period from the end of the 9th to the first half of the 10th century, Khazaria weakened, but continued to be a very influential empire. To a greater extent, this was made possible thanks to skillful diplomacy and a well-trained army.

In the death of the Khazar Khaganate, the decisive role belongs to Old Russian state. Svyatoslav in 964 freed the Vyatichi (the last dependent tribe). The following year, the prince defeated the Khazar army. A few years later (in 968-969) the prince defeated Semender and Itil (the capitals of the Khazar empire in different periods). This moment is considered the official end of independent Khazaria.

Since the 6th century A.D. e. appear in Syriac, Armenian, Byzantine, Latin and Chinese manuscripts the first information about a previously unknown people who settled in the territory of the Lower Volga region and the eastern part of the North Caucasus. And in subsequent centuries there are many references to them in Arabic and Persian sources. The Arabs in their annals called them - "Alkhazar", the Armenians called them - "Khazirk", in the "Initial Russian Chronicle" they are called - "Kozar", in the Jewish medieval writing they appeared under the name "Kuzar", "Kuzarim". In modern Russian, this people is called - "Khazars".

Byzantine writers of those times ranked the Khazars among the Turkic peoples. Many Arab writers also believed, although there were those among them who attributed the Khazars to Georgians or Armenians; and in one Armenian source they were associated with the Chinese; and in the Georgian chronicle - with the Scythians; there were also cases when they were considered a people similar to the Slavs. In fact, the name "Khazars" covered many tribes of various origins, numerous nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples, the remnants of the Huns who passed through the southern Russian steppes - and Turkic elements prevailed there.

The cradle of the Khazars was the Caspian steppes of the Northern Ciscaucasia, that is, the territory of modern Dagestan. The Khazars were a warlike people, back in the 6th century - as part of other Turkic tribes - they went on campaigns in Transcaucasia and temporarily captured Georgia and Armenia, and Persian Shah to protect against them, he even built a giant wall with many defensive towers.

The Khazar Khaganate was formed in the middle of the 7th century AD, and its capital was first the city of Semender on the territory of present-day Dagestan, and then Itil - on the Lower Volga. In the seventh century, the Khazars pushed back to the west, to the Danube, the Bulgarians and captured the Azov steppes. Northern Black Sea region and part of the steppe Crimea. This is how a federation of different tribes arose, which was headed by the Khazar (Turkic) clan, and all the tribes and peoples that were part of it enjoyed sufficient freedom, to the point that they could independently go on campaigns, conclude their own agreements and adopt the religion that they desired.

The Khazar Khaganate had two supreme rulers. One of them is the main king, a kagan, who always belonged to the same family of noble origin, and the Arab geographer Istakhri described the custom of his election: “When they want to appoint someone as kagan, they bring him in and begin to strangle him with a silk cord. When he is already close to giving up his spirit, they say to him: “How long do you want to reign?” He answers: “So many and so many years ...” This custom was associated with faith in the divine power of the kagan: he himself semi-forgetfulness determined the period of stay in his body of this divine power.If a misfortune fell upon the country - drought, ruin, defeat in the war, then this kagan was killed, because the divine power dried up in him - and instead of him they chose a new kagan, whom they began to worship But the actual power in the country belonged to another king - kagan-bek.

The Khazars came into contact with the Slavic tribes: Polans, Northerners, Vyatichi and Radimichi in different times saw the Khazars and paid tribute to them. They waged long wars with the Arab caliphate, and played an important role in the history of the Eastern European peoples, shielding them from the Arabs and withstanding the attacks of the previously invincible Arab armies. Khazaria also helped Byzantium, because it pulled back the Arab forces, which otherwise would have threatened the Byzantine Empire. By the 8th century, the Khazar state had become the most powerful political and military force in Eastern Europe, and Kievan Rus could subsequently arise and develop behind this protective fence.

The Khazars were at first pagans, one of the many pagan peoples of Eastern Europe, they made sacrifices to fire and water, worshiped the moon, trees, the most revered deity Tengri Khan. In the first half of the 8th century AD. part of the Khazars of the Northern Ciscaucasia, led by their ruler named Bulan (Sabriel), adopted Judaism. Jews expelled from Sasanian Iran lived in those places, and from them, most likely, the Jewish religion came to the Khazars.

The legend tells that an angel appeared in a dream to the Khazar ruler Bulan and said: “Oh, Bulan! The Lord sent me to you to say: I heard your prayer and your prayer. Here I I bless you and multiply you, I will continue your kingdom until the end of time and deliver all your enemies into your hand. "The angel promised Bulan power and glory if he accepts the Jewish religion, and after that Bulan went on a campaign to the Caucasus and really won several impressive victories there From many sources it is known that in 730-731 AD the Khazars won major victories in Caucasian Albania (present-day Azerbaijan), - Bulan's adoption of Judaism is timed to these years.But before he did this, the emperor of Byzantium and the ruler of Muslims They sent him rich gifts and sent scholars to persuade him to their religions. Bulan arranged a dispute in which a Christian, a Muslim and a Jew took part, but did not make any decision. And then he asked the Christian priest: "What do you think, which religion is better - Israelis or Ismailis?" To this the priest replied: "The faith of the Israelites is better than the faith of the Ismailis." Then Bulan asked the Muslim Qadi: "What do you think, what faith ra is better - Christian or Israeli?" Qadi replied: "Israeli is better." And then Bulan said: "If so, then you yourself admitted that the religion of the Israelites is the best, and therefore I choose the faith of Israel, which was the faith of Abraham. May Almighty God help me!"

This whole story about Bulan became known to us from a letter from the Khazar Khagan Yosef to a Spanish Jew from Cordoba named Hasdai ibn Shaprut.

Two versions of his letter Yosef to Hasdai ibn Shaprut have survived to this day: a short and lengthy version of his first letter. It was written in Hebrew, and it is possible that it was not written by the kagan himself, but by one of his close associates - the 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 to them, the name who was Bulan. He was a wise and God-fearing man, who trusted 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 Jewish Kagans, and all of them have Jewish names: Ovadia, Khizkiyahu, Menashe, Hanukkah, Yitzhak, Zvulun, again Menashe, Nissim, Menachem, Benyamin, 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 all kinds fruit trees. With the help of the Almighty, I live in peace."

Yosef was the last ruler of the powerful Khazar Khaganate, and when he sent his letter to distant Spain - no later than 961 AD, he did not yet know that the days of his kingdom were already numbered.

At the end of the VIII - beginning of the IX century AD. 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 ruler's court, which 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 noted by the Arab historian Masudi, "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 the rule. He built houses of assembly and houses of teaching and gathered many wise men of Israel, gave them a lot of silver and gold, and they explained to him twenty-four books Holy Scripture, the Mishnah, the Talmud, and the entire 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.

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.

There were attempts to make Christianity the state religion of Khazaria. For this purpose, he went there in 860 AD. the famous Cyril - the creator of Slavic writing. 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. 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.

Khazaria warrior

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 reports that Kyiv prince Svyatoslav took the capital of the Khazars, Itil, took Semender on the Caspian Sea, took the Khazar city of Sarkel on the Don - later known as Belaya Vezha - and returned to Kyiv. 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 A.D. Greeks and Slavs destroyed the last Khazar fortifications in the Crimea and captured their kagan George Tsulu, who was already a Christian.

Karaites in Crimea - according to one version, the descendants of the Khazar tribes

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 Russian chronicles 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.

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In the 7th-10th centuries, the state of the nomadic Khazars occupied vast territories from Central Asia and the North Caucasus to modern Ukraine, Crimea and Hungary. The most different nations professed various religions - from monotheistic Christianity, Islam and Judaism to paganism, tengrism and shamanism. What caused such amazing religious tolerance and religious tolerance of the Khazar state?

Tolerance of the Khazar Khaganate

Indeed, almost all other countries surrounding the Khazar Khaganate adhered to one monotheistic state religion and with great difficulty accepted the religious minorities living in their territories. In Khazaria, however, everything was different: numerous sources report on the religious pluralism and religious tolerance of this state. So, according to the Muslim author ibn Ruste, the ruler of the Dagestan region Sarir, which was part of the kaganate, went to the mosque on Fridays to pray, on Saturdays to the synagogue, and on Sundays to the church. The geographer Gardizi added that the rest of the inhabitants of Sarir did the same. This message should be treated rather as a historical anecdote, showing, nevertheless, the degree of religious tolerance of the Khazar state.

And now more detailed description of the Khazar judicial system from the Arab geographer of the tenth century Abul-Hasan al-Masudi: “In the Khazar capital, according to the rule, there are seven judges (qadi); two of them are for Muslims; two - for the Khazars, who judge in accordance with the Torah; two for Christians who judge according to the gospel; and one for saklabs, Russ and other pagans, who judges according to pagan [custom], that is, according to the dictates of the mind.

Further, Al-Masudi describes in detail which religions were professed by various segments of the population of Khazaria. Judaism, according to his information, was the religion of a rather limited, but the most influential minority: it was adhered to by the Khazar nobility, the king, his retinue and the Khazars of the royal family. The majority of the population of the country were Muslims, of which the army of Khazaria consisted mainly; they were also known as al-larisiya or arsiya.

The pagans in Khazaria, according to Masudi, were the Slavs (in Arabic "sakaliba") and the Rus. Under the "Rus" meant, of course, the Varangians from the territory of northern and central Rus'. The geographer writes the following about their pagan customs: “They burn their dead along with their horses, utensils and ornaments. When a man dies, his wife is burned alive with him, but if a woman dies, the husband is not burned.” Russ and Slavs also served in the army of the Khazar ruler.

From other sources, we know that paganism in the form of Tengrism was practiced mainly by the Turkic inhabitants of the Kaganate, especially the Savirs and the Khazars themselves (with the exception of the ruling aristocracy). Deifying the sun, thunder, fire and water, they considered the main god of the sky and the sun - Tengri (Khan). The gods were worshiped in temples and sacred groves, sacrificing horses.

What was the main religion?

There is no single answer to this question. From the end of the 8th - beginning of the 9th centuries, Judaism became the religion of the Khazar aristocracy. However, it is difficult to say how widespread it was among the entire population of the kaganate. According to such researchers of this topic as B. Zakhoder and V. Minorsky, Judaism was the religion of only the Khazar aristocracy, i.e., the kagan and his entourage. The complete absence of any archaeological sites with pronounced Jewish symbols on the territory of the Khaganate also speaks of the spread of Judaism in Khazaria exclusively among the ruling elite and aristocracy. Neither the synagogues mentioned in the documents, nor the religious schools, nor the burials, nor the graffiti, nor any other evidence of the practice of Judaism by the Khazars have been found.

Muslim sources (al-Istakhri, ibn Ruste, ibn Haukal, etc.) write that the majority of the inhabitants of Khazaria profess Christianity and Islam. Here is an excerpt from al-Istakhri (circa 950): “Their king is a Jew [a Jew]. He has about 4,000 foot troops. Khazars - Mohammedans, Christians, Jews and pagans; Jews are a minority, Mohammedans and Christians a majority; however, the king and his courtiers are Jews; the common people are chiefly made up of pagans."

At the same time, according to al-Masudi, the Khazar army consisted mainly of Muslims, Christians and partly pagans (Slavs and Varangians-Rus). According to other authors, among the Turkic peoples of the kaganate, the majority of pagans were Tengrians, who worshiped the sky god Tengri.

How tolerant was the Khazar state?

Despite the above general atmosphere religious tolerance, of course, there were conflicts between representatives of various religions of the kaganate. For example, the Muslim geographer al-Yakut wrote that the Khazar king ordered the destruction of the minaret in the city of Itil and executed local muezzins in response to the destruction of the synagogue in Dar al-Babunaj by Muslims. Or we can recall the brutal suppression by the Khazars around 787 of the uprising of John of Gotha in the Christian region of Gothia in the Crimea. However, these sectarian conflicts were the exception rather than the rule.

What was the reason for the religious tolerance of the Khazars?

What explanation can be found for this, surprising enough for the harsh medieval mentality, tolerance towards other religions? The researcher O. B. Bubenok suggested that the religious tolerance of the Khazars can be explained by poly-confessionalism and indifference to religious issues, characteristic of the nomadic peoples of the Middle Ages. However, by the 9th-10th centuries, the inhabitants of the Khazar Khaganate were actually settled peoples, living mainly in urban centers and, in addition to military activities, engaged in agriculture, trade and handicrafts.

Other researchers give a different explanation for this phenomenon. The fact is that, according to the customs of those times, religion had to be accepted from the centers of religious propaganda of other states - thereby recognizing these states as their patrons. Recall, for example, that the Byzantine emperor demanded vassalage from the Russian prince Vladimir as a favor for converting the Rus to the Orthodox faith, and in order to avoid this, Vladimir began his famous campaign against Byzantium, capturing medieval Kherson. For this reason, the adoption of the Christian religion as the only faith of the state would mean for the Khazars to fall into vassal dependence on Byzantium or Rome, while the adoption of Islam is dependence on the Arab Caliphate. It was easier with Judaism - it could be accepted without becoming a vassal of any other state. This is what the ruling elite of the Khazars did, while also maintaining other religions as permissible and not persecuted by the state. Therefore, such diverse religions as rabbinical Judaism, Byzantine Christianity, Shiite Islam, Tengrian paganism and shamanism could coexist on the territory of the kaganate.

Such religious pluralism did not know, perhaps, not a single major power of that time. It is possible, however, that it was precisely the absence of a consolidating factor in the form of a single state religion that became one of the main reasons for the fall of the kaganate in the 10th century.