• 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.
• 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 Kagan`s 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.
• The Rus flotillas paid their due, sailed into the Khazar Sea and traded with the people around it.
• To the Khazars this must have been a grave embarrassment, because of their friendly relations with the Caliphate, and also because of the crack regiment of Muslim mercenaries in their standing army.
• Masudi tells us that `some time after the year of the Hegira 300 [AD 912–913] a Rus fleet of 500 ships, each manned by 100 persons` was approaching Khazar territory: When the ships of the Rus came to the Khazars posted at the mouth of the strait … they sent a letter to the Khazar king, requesting to be allowed to pass through his country and descend his river, and so enter the sea of the Khazars … on condition that they should give him half of what they might take in booty from the peoples of the sea-coast.
• He granted them permission and they … descended the river to the city of Itil and passing through, came out on the estuary of the river, where it joins the Khazar Sea.
• From the estuary to the city of Itil the river is very large and its waters abundant.
• Their raiding parties were directed against Jilan, Jurjan, Tabaristan, Abaskun on the coast of Jurjan, the naphtha country [Baku] and the region of Azerbaijan….
• The Rus shed blood, destroyed the women and children, took booty and raided and burned in all directions….
• When the people recovered from the shock and took to arms, the Rus, according to their classic strategy, withdrew from the coast to the islands near Baku.
• But the Rus turned on them and thousands of the Muslims were killed or drowned.
• The Arsiyah [the Muslim mercenaries in the Khazar army] and other Muslims who lived in Khazaria learned of the situation of the Rus, and said to the king of the Khazars: leave us to deal with these people.
• They have raided the lands of the Muslims, our brothers, and have shed blood and enslaved women and children.
• So he sent for the Rus, informing them of the determination of the Muslims to fight them.
• The Muslims [of Khazaria] assembled and went forth to find the Rus, proceeding downstream [on land, from Itil to the Volga estuary].
• When the two armies came within sight of each other, the Rus disembarked and drew up in order of battle against the Muslims, with whom were a number of Christians living in Itil, so that they were about 15 000 men, with horses and equipment.
• Of those slain by the Muslims on the banks of the Khazar river there were counted about 30 000….
• Vernadsky calls it `one of those abrupt turns which make the study of history so fascinating … and it is interesting to speculate on the possible course of history had the Russian princes … adopted either of these faiths [Judaism or Islam] instead of Christianity….
• The acceptance of Roman Christianity from the Germans would have made Russia a country of Latin or European culture.
• The acceptance of either Judaism or Orthodox Christianity insured to Russia cultural independence of both Europe and Asia.`13 But the Russians needed allies more than they needed independence, and the East Roman Empire, however corrupt, was still a more desirable ally in terms of power, culture and trade, than the crumbling empire of the Khazars.
• The Russian Chronicle`s naive account of Vladimir`s game of procrastination gives us no insight into the diplomatic manoeuvrings and hard bargaining that must have gone on before he accepted baptism – and thereby, in fact, Byzantine tutelage for himself and his people.
• A few years later, in 1016, a combined Byzantine–Russian army invaded Khazaria, defeated its ruler, and `subdued the country` (see below, IV, 8).
• Yet the cooling off towards the Khazars had already started, as we have seen, in Constantine Porphyrogenitus`s day, fifty years before Vladimir`s conversion.
• He can ambush their roads and attack them when they are off their guard on their route to Sarkel and to `the nine regions` and to Cherson … Black Bulgaria [the Volga Bulgars] is also in a position to make war on the Khazars.14 Toynbee, after quoting this passage, makes the following, rather touching comment: If this passage in Constantine Porphyrogenitus`s manual for the conduct of the East Roman Imperial Government`s foreign relations had ever fallen into the hands of the Khazar Khaqan and his ministers, they would have been indignant.
• They would have pointed out that nowadays Khazaria was one of the most pacific states in the world, and that, if she had been more warlike in her earlier days, her arms had never been directed against the East Roman Empire.
• The two powers had, in fact, never been at war with each other, while, on the other hand, Khazaria had frequently been at war with the East Roman Empire`s enemies, and this to the Empire`s signal advantage.
• And thereafter the pressure on the Empire of the Arabs` onslaught had been relieved by the vigour of the Khazars` offensive-defensive resistance to the Arabs` advance towards the Caucasus.
• The friendship between Khazaria and the Empire had been symbolized and sealed in two marriage-alliances between their respective Imperial families.
• What, then, had been in Constantine`s mind when he had been thinking out ways of tormenting Khazaria by inducing her neighbours to fall upon her?15 The answer to Toynbee`s rhetorical question is obviously that the Byzantines were inspired by Realpolitik – and that, as already said, theirs was not a sentimental age.
• To quote Bury once more: The first principle of Imperial policy in this quarter of the world was the maintenance of peace with the Khazars.
• From the seventh century, when Heraclius had sought the help of the Khazars against Persia, to the tenth, in which the power of Itil declined, this was the constant policy of the Emperors.
• It was to the advantage of the Empire that the Chagan should exercise an effective control over his barbarian neighbours.16 This `effective control` was now to be transferred from the Khazar Kagan to the Rus Kagan, the Prince of Kiev.
• The Byzantines had calculated that Kiev would take over the role of Itil as the guardian of Eastern Europe and centre of trade; instead, Kiev went into rapid decline.
• But parallel with the ecclesiastical writings on which it is based, the Kiev period also produced a secular literature – the so-called bylina, heroic epics or folk-songs, mostly concerned with the deeds of great warriors and semi-legendary princes.
• The bylina were transmitted by oral tradition and – according to Vernadsky – `were still chanted by peasants in remote villages of northern Russia in the beginning of the twentieth century`.29 In striking contrast to the Russian Chronicle, these epics do not mention by name the Khazars or their country; instead they speak of the `country of the Jews` (Zemlya Jidovskaya), and of its inhabitants as `Jewish heroes` (Jidovin bogatir) who ruled the steppes and fought the armies of the Russian princes.
• One such hero, the epics tell us, was a giant Jew, who came `from the Zemlya Jidovskaya to the steppes of Tsetsar under Mount Sorochin, and only the bravery of Vladimir`s general, Ilya Murometz, saved Vladimir`s army from the Jews`.30 There are several versions of this tale, and the search for the whereabouts of Tsetsar and Mount Sorochin provided historians with another lively game.
• But, as Poliak has pointed out, `the point to retain is that in the eyes of the Russian people the neighbouring Khazaria in its final period was simply “the Jewish state”, and its army was an army of Jews`.31 This popular Russian view differs considerably from the tendency among Arab chroniclers to emphasize the importance of the Muslim mercenaries in the Khazar forces, and the number of mosques in Itil (forgetting to count the synagogues).
• The legends which circulated among Western Jews in the Middle Ages provide a curious parallel to the Russian bylina.
• To quote Poliak again: `The popular Jewish legend does not remember a “Khazar” kingdom but a kingdom of the “Red Jews”.` And Baron comments: The Jews of other lands were flattered by the existence of an independent Jewish state.
• Just as the biblically minded Slavonic epics speak of `Jews` rather than Khazars, so did western Jews long after spin romantic tales around those `red Jews`, so styled perhaps because of the slight Mongolian pigmentation of many Khazars.32 11 Another bit of semi-legendary, semi-historical folklore connected with the Khazars survived into modern times, and so fascinated Benjamin Disraeli that he used it as material for a historical romance: The Wondrous Tale of Alroy.
• In the twelfth century there arose in Khazaria a Messianic movement, a rudimentary attempt at a Jewish crusade, aimed at the conquest of Palestine by force of arms.
• The initiator of the movement was a Khazar Jew, one Solomon ben Duji (or Ruhi or Roy), aided by his son Menahem and a Palestinian scribe.
• They said that the time had come in which God would gather Israel, His people from all lands to Jerusalem, the holy city, and that Solomon Ben Duji was Elijah, and his son the Messiah.`* These appeals were apparently addressed to the Jewish communities in the Middle East, and seemed to have had little effect, for the next episode takes place only about twenty years later, when young Menahem assumed the name David al-Roy, and the title of Messiah.
• Here David assembled a substantial armed force – possibly of local Jews, reinforced by Khazars – and succeeded in taking possession of the strategic fortress of Amadie, north-east of Mosul.
• Among the Jews of the Middle East, David certainly aroused fervent Messianic hopes.
• One of his messengers came to Baghdad and – probably with excessive zeal – instructed its Jewish citizens to assemble on a certain night on their flat roofs, whence they would be flown on clouds to the Messiah`s camp.
• According to one theory, the six-pointed `shield of David` which adorns the modern Israeli flag, started to become a national symbol with David al-Roy`s crusade.
• Long used interchangeably with the pentagram or the “Seal of Solomon”, it was attributed to David in mystic and ethical German writings from the thirteenth century on, and appeared on the Jewish flag in Prague in 1527.`33 Baron appends a qualifying note to this passage, pointing out that the connection between al-Roy and the six-pointed star `still awaits further elucidation and proof`.