[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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 15000 men, with horses and equipment. The fighting continued for three days. God
helped the Muslims against them. The Rus were put to the sword. Some were killed and others were
drowned. of those slain by the Muslims on the banks of the Khazar river there were counted about
The Thirtheenth Tribe: Fall
Five thousand of the Rus escaped, but these too were killed, by the Burtas and the Bulgars.
This is Masudi s account of this disastrous Rus incursion into the Caspian in 912-13. It is, of course, biased. The
Khazar ruler comes out of it as a double-crossing rascal who acts, first as a passive accomplice of the Rus marauders,
then authorizes the attack on them, but simultaneously informs them of the ambush prepared by the Muslims under
his own command. Even of the Bulgars, Masudi says they are Muslims although Ibn Fadlan, visiting the Bulgars
ten years later, describes them as still far from being converted. But though coloured by religious prejudice, Masudi s
account provides a glimpse of the dilemma or several dilemmas confronting the Khazar leadership. They may not
have been unduly worried about the misfortunes suffered by the people on the Caspian shores; it was not a sentimental
age. But what if the predatory Rus, after gaining control of Kiev and the Dnieper, were to establish a foothold on the
Volga? Moreover, another Rus raid into the Caspian might bring down the wrath of the Caliphate not on the Rus
themselves, who were beyond its reach, but on the innocent well, nearly innocent Khazars.
Relations with the Caliphate were peaceful, yet nevertheless precarious, as an incident reported by Ibn Fadlan indicates.
The Rus raid described by Masudi took place in 912-13; Ibn Fadlan s mission to Bulgar in 921-2. His account of the
incident in question is as follows:3
The Muslims in this city [Itil] have a cathedral mosque where they pray and attend on Fridays. It has a high
minaret and several muezzins [criers who call for prayer from the minaret]. When the king of the Khazars was
informed in a.H. 310 [AD 922] that the Muslims had destroyed the synagogue which was in Dar al-Babunaj
[unidentified place in Muslim territory], he gave orders to destroy the minaret, and he killed the muezzins.
And he said: If I had not feared that not a synagogue would be left standing in the lands of Islam, but
would be destroyed, I would have destroyed the mosque too.
The episode testifies to a nice feeling for the strategy of mutual deterrence and the dangers of escalation. It also shows
once more that the Khazar rulers felt emotionally committed to the fate of Jews in other parts of the world.
2
Masudi s account of the 912-13 Rus incursion into the Caspian ends with the words: There has been no repetition on
the part of the Rus of what we have described since that year. As coincidences go, Masudi wrote this in the same
year 943 in which the Rus repeated their incursion into the Caspian with an even greater fleet; but Masudi could
not have known this. For thirty years, after the disaster of 913, they had lain off that part of the world; now they felt
evidently strong enough to try again; and it is perhaps significant that their attempt coincided, within a year or two,
with their expedition against the Byzantines, under the swashbuckling Igor, which perished under the Greek fire.
In the course of this new invasion, the Rus gained a foothold in the Caspian region in the city of Bardha, and were able
to hold it for a whole year. In the end pestilence broke out among the Rus, and the Azerbaijanis were able to put the
survivors to flight. This time the Arab sources do not mention any Khazar share in the plunder nor in the fighting.
But Joseph does in his letter to Hasdai, written some years later: I guard the mouth of the river and do not permit the
Rus who come in their ships to invade the land of the Arabs& I fight heavy wars with them. *
Whether or not on this particular occasion the Khazar army participated in the fighting, the fact remains that a few years
later they decided to deny the Russians access to the Khazar Sea and that from 943 onward we hear no more of Rus
incursions into the Caspian.
This momentous decision, in all likelihood motivated by internal pressures of the Muslim community in their midst,
involved the Khazars in heavy wars with the Rus. Of these, however, we have no records beyond the statement in
Joseph s letter. They may have been more in the nature of skirmishes except for the one major campaign of AD 965,
mentioned in the Old Russian Chronicle, which led to the breaking up of the Khazar Empire.
3
The leader of the campaign was Prince Svyatoslav of Kiev, son of Igor and Olga. We have already heard that he was
stepping light as a leopard and that he undertook many campaigns in fact he spent most of his reign
campaigning. In spite of the constant entreaties of his mother, he refused to be baptized, because it would make him
the laughing stock of his subjects . The Russian Chronicle also tells us that on his expeditions he carried neither
waggons nor cooking utensils, and boiled no meat, but cut off small strips of horseflesh, game or beef, and ate it after
roasting it on the coals. Nor did he have a tent, but he spread out a horse-blanket under him, and set his saddle under
his head; and all his retinue did likewise. 4 When he attacked the enemy, he scorned doing it by stealth, but instead
sent messengers ahead announcing: I am coming upon you.
To the campaign against the Khazars, the Chronicler devotes only a few lines, in the laconic tone which he usually
adopts in reporting on armed conflicts:
*
In the so cal1ed long version of the same letter (see Appendix III), there is another sentence which may or may not have
been added by a copyist: If I allowed them for one hour, they would destroy all the country of the Arabs as far as Baghdad&
The Thirtheenth Tribe: Fall
Svyatoslav went to the Oka and the Volga, and on coming in contact with the Vyatichians [a Slavonic tribe
inhabiting the region south of modern Moscow], he inquired of them to whom they paid tribute. They made
answer that they paid a silver piece per ploughshare to the Khazars. When they [the Khazars] heard of his [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl karpacz24.htw.pl
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 15000 men, with horses and equipment. The fighting continued for three days. God
helped the Muslims against them. The Rus were put to the sword. Some were killed and others were
drowned. of those slain by the Muslims on the banks of the Khazar river there were counted about
The Thirtheenth Tribe: Fall
Five thousand of the Rus escaped, but these too were killed, by the Burtas and the Bulgars.
This is Masudi s account of this disastrous Rus incursion into the Caspian in 912-13. It is, of course, biased. The
Khazar ruler comes out of it as a double-crossing rascal who acts, first as a passive accomplice of the Rus marauders,
then authorizes the attack on them, but simultaneously informs them of the ambush prepared by the Muslims under
his own command. Even of the Bulgars, Masudi says they are Muslims although Ibn Fadlan, visiting the Bulgars
ten years later, describes them as still far from being converted. But though coloured by religious prejudice, Masudi s
account provides a glimpse of the dilemma or several dilemmas confronting the Khazar leadership. They may not
have been unduly worried about the misfortunes suffered by the people on the Caspian shores; it was not a sentimental
age. But what if the predatory Rus, after gaining control of Kiev and the Dnieper, were to establish a foothold on the
Volga? Moreover, another Rus raid into the Caspian might bring down the wrath of the Caliphate not on the Rus
themselves, who were beyond its reach, but on the innocent well, nearly innocent Khazars.
Relations with the Caliphate were peaceful, yet nevertheless precarious, as an incident reported by Ibn Fadlan indicates.
The Rus raid described by Masudi took place in 912-13; Ibn Fadlan s mission to Bulgar in 921-2. His account of the
incident in question is as follows:3
The Muslims in this city [Itil] have a cathedral mosque where they pray and attend on Fridays. It has a high
minaret and several muezzins [criers who call for prayer from the minaret]. When the king of the Khazars was
informed in a.H. 310 [AD 922] that the Muslims had destroyed the synagogue which was in Dar al-Babunaj
[unidentified place in Muslim territory], he gave orders to destroy the minaret, and he killed the muezzins.
And he said: If I had not feared that not a synagogue would be left standing in the lands of Islam, but
would be destroyed, I would have destroyed the mosque too.
The episode testifies to a nice feeling for the strategy of mutual deterrence and the dangers of escalation. It also shows
once more that the Khazar rulers felt emotionally committed to the fate of Jews in other parts of the world.
2
Masudi s account of the 912-13 Rus incursion into the Caspian ends with the words: There has been no repetition on
the part of the Rus of what we have described since that year. As coincidences go, Masudi wrote this in the same
year 943 in which the Rus repeated their incursion into the Caspian with an even greater fleet; but Masudi could
not have known this. For thirty years, after the disaster of 913, they had lain off that part of the world; now they felt
evidently strong enough to try again; and it is perhaps significant that their attempt coincided, within a year or two,
with their expedition against the Byzantines, under the swashbuckling Igor, which perished under the Greek fire.
In the course of this new invasion, the Rus gained a foothold in the Caspian region in the city of Bardha, and were able
to hold it for a whole year. In the end pestilence broke out among the Rus, and the Azerbaijanis were able to put the
survivors to flight. This time the Arab sources do not mention any Khazar share in the plunder nor in the fighting.
But Joseph does in his letter to Hasdai, written some years later: I guard the mouth of the river and do not permit the
Rus who come in their ships to invade the land of the Arabs& I fight heavy wars with them. *
Whether or not on this particular occasion the Khazar army participated in the fighting, the fact remains that a few years
later they decided to deny the Russians access to the Khazar Sea and that from 943 onward we hear no more of Rus
incursions into the Caspian.
This momentous decision, in all likelihood motivated by internal pressures of the Muslim community in their midst,
involved the Khazars in heavy wars with the Rus. Of these, however, we have no records beyond the statement in
Joseph s letter. They may have been more in the nature of skirmishes except for the one major campaign of AD 965,
mentioned in the Old Russian Chronicle, which led to the breaking up of the Khazar Empire.
3
The leader of the campaign was Prince Svyatoslav of Kiev, son of Igor and Olga. We have already heard that he was
stepping light as a leopard and that he undertook many campaigns in fact he spent most of his reign
campaigning. In spite of the constant entreaties of his mother, he refused to be baptized, because it would make him
the laughing stock of his subjects . The Russian Chronicle also tells us that on his expeditions he carried neither
waggons nor cooking utensils, and boiled no meat, but cut off small strips of horseflesh, game or beef, and ate it after
roasting it on the coals. Nor did he have a tent, but he spread out a horse-blanket under him, and set his saddle under
his head; and all his retinue did likewise. 4 When he attacked the enemy, he scorned doing it by stealth, but instead
sent messengers ahead announcing: I am coming upon you.
To the campaign against the Khazars, the Chronicler devotes only a few lines, in the laconic tone which he usually
adopts in reporting on armed conflicts:
*
In the so cal1ed long version of the same letter (see Appendix III), there is another sentence which may or may not have
been added by a copyist: If I allowed them for one hour, they would destroy all the country of the Arabs as far as Baghdad&
The Thirtheenth Tribe: Fall
Svyatoslav went to the Oka and the Volga, and on coming in contact with the Vyatichians [a Slavonic tribe
inhabiting the region south of modern Moscow], he inquired of them to whom they paid tribute. They made
answer that they paid a silver piece per ploughshare to the Khazars. When they [the Khazars] heard of his [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]