The tenth-century geographer al-Masʿūdī names two groups that worked or wore iron in the lands of the Khazars. The first is the Muslim guard of the Khazar king, mounted archers in cuirass, helmet and mail. The second is a mountain people of the Caucasus who made mail and other iron goods.[1]

The royal guard

The Muslims in the Khazar land formed the royal guard.[2] They were called Arsiyah, and the French translation writes the name Lariciyeh. They came from the neighbourhood of Khwarazm and had fled war and plague soon after the rise of Islam.[2] The king relied on their courage in his wars.[2]

In al-Masʿūdī’s day seven thousand of them rode with the king as mounted archers.[3] They wore cuirass, helmet and mail.[3] Some of them carried lances and were equipped as Muslims commonly were.[3] Al-Masʿūdī adds that the king of the Khazars alone among the rulers of the eastern lands kept troops in his pay.[3]

The mail-makers of Zerikerān

Further south, al-Masʿūdī places a people he calls the Zerikerān, near the Gumiks, toward the mountain and the Serir.[4] He explains the name as a Persian word that means a maker of mail coats.[4] Most of the people made mail coats, stirrups, bits, swords and other objects of iron.[5] Muslims, Christians and Jews lived among them.[5] Their country was very hard to enter, and the difficulty protected them from the attacks of their neighbours.[5] The French translators add that the Zerikerān are today’s Kubachi and that the Serir is Daghestan.[6]

Limits of the text

Al-Masʿūdī does not say that the king’s guard bought its mail from the Zerikerān, or from any other maker.[1] Both passages stand in the same chapter, and the reader may put them side by side. The text names no workshop in Khazar land itself, no price and no number of mail coats.[1]

The sources of the Göktürk age say little of armour. The article on Göktürk weapons tells what they give.

References

  1. ^ a b c al-Masʿūdī; al-Masʿūdī 1863 (MDCCCLXIII auf dem Titelblatt), p. 11, 40–41
  2. ^ a b c al-Masʿūdī; al-Masʿūdī 1863 (MDCCCLXIII auf dem Titelblatt), p. 10
  3. ^ a b c d al-Masʿūdī; al-Masʿūdī 1863 (MDCCCLXIII auf dem Titelblatt), p. 11
  4. ^ a b al-Masʿūdī; al-Masʿūdī 1863 (MDCCCLXIII auf dem Titelblatt), p. 40
  5. ^ a b c al-Masʿūdī; al-Masʿūdī 1863 (MDCCCLXIII auf dem Titelblatt), p. 41
  6. ^ al-Masʿūdī 1863 (MDCCCLXIII auf dem Titelblatt), p. 40–41

Sources

Literature

  • al-Masʿūdī; C. Barbier de Meynard and Pavet de Courteille (trans.), Les Prairies d’or, Bd. II (Texte et traduction) (1863 (MDCCCLXIII auf dem Titelblatt))

Related

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Khazar Mail and the Armourers of the Caucasus.” Turkic Atlas, revised 7 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/institutions/khazar-mail-and-armourers/

Last revised: 7 November 2026