Tzitzak

Tzitzak was a daughter of the khagan of the Khazars. In 732 she married Constantine, the son and heir of the Byzantine emperor Leo III.^[1] Theophanes reports for the year 731/2 that the emperor Leo betrothed his son Constantine to the daughter of the Chagan.^[2] He writes that the emperor made her a Christian and named her Irene.^[2] Her name is given as Čiček, which is Turkic for “flower”.^[1] This name is a conjecture from a Byzantine note that the garment called tzitzakion was introduced by the Khazar empress.^[3]

Nikephoros tells of the betrothal without a name. The emperor sent an embassy to the chief of the Chazar nation, fetched the chief’s daughter and betrothed her to his son Constantine.^[4] The commentary on the text identifies this woman as the first wife of Constantine, the Chazar Eirene.^[5] Modern accounts date the marriage to 732.^[6] Another account gives 732/3.^[7]

Marriages of this kind were rarely granted to outsiders. They were a mark of favour on the Byzantine side, or of need.^[1] The Khazars and Byzantium were united by the tradition of cooperation from the Göktürk age. They also faced a common enemy in the caliphate.^[1]

Theophanes records that a son, Leo, was born to Constantine by the daughter of the Chagan of Chazaria.^[8] Leo became emperor as Leo IV. He was known as “the Khazar”, and his reign is dated 775 to 780.^[9] The earlier tie of this kind is the marriage of Theodora to Justinian II, placed about 704.^[10]

References

^ a b c d Golden 1992, p. 238
^ a b Theophanes the Confessor; Scott 1997, p. 567
^ Scott 1997, p. 568
^ Nikephoros; Mango 1990, ch. 63
^ Mango 1990, commentary on ch. 70
^ Dunlop 1954, p. 176
^ Zuckerman 2020 (Turkish translation of a chapter of The World of the Khazars, Brill 2007), p. 194
^ Theophanes the Confessor; Scott 1997, p. 588–589
^ Dunlop 1954, p. 177
^ Dunlop 1954, p. 171

Sources

Nikephoros
Theophanes the Confessor (after Theophylact Simocatta)

Literature

Cyril Mango (ed., trans.), Nikephoros, Patriarch of Constantinople: Short History (1990)
Cyril Mango, Roger Scott (trans.), The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor: Byzantine and Near Eastern History AD 284–813 (1997)
Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992)
Douglas M. Dunlop, The History of the Jewish Khazars (1954)
Denis Sinor (ed.), The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia (1990)
Constantine Zuckerman; Alper Geçer (trans.), Hazarlar ve Bizans—İlk Karşılaşma (The Khazars and Byzantium—The First Encounter) (2020 (Turkish translation of a chapter of The World of the Khazars, Brill 2007))