Balanjar

Rouran epoch Göktürk epoch Uyghur epoch Kirghiz epoch

Rouran First Göktürk Tang rule Second Göktürk Uyghur Kirghiz Huns Western Göktürk Türgesh Karluk Khazar

Rouran 400–554
First Göktürk 552–630
Tang rule 630–682
Second Göktürk 682–744
Uyghur 744–840
Kirghiz 840–924
Huns 370–469
Western Göktürk 552–659
Türgesh 699–766
Karluk 766–800
Khazar 650–969

Balanjar was a city in the North Caucasus in the lands of the Khazars. The name also belonged to a Turkic group.^[1] The earliest notices of the Khazars, from the middle of the seventh century, name it together with Samandar. The two are described as urban centres, perhaps of tribal origin, whose locations remain unclear.^[2] Balanjar appears in the list of Khazar cities with Itil, Samandar, Sangsin, Sarkel and Varach’an.^[3]

The Göktürks and the Balangar

Tabari names the people in his account of the khagan Sinjibu, that is Istemi. Sinjibu won over the Abkhaz, the Bangar and the Balangar before he came against the land of Sul.^[4] The text reads Abkhaz at this point, and a translation of the passage puts the Khazars in their place, with a query.^[5] Some scholars hold that Göktürk expansion reached the North Caucasus in this way and that the Balangar were a Turkic group later associated with Khazar territory and with Volga Bulgaria.^[1] Balangar lay not far north of Derbend.^[6]

The raid of 642

In 642 the Arabs, after their conquests in Transcaucasia, raided the Khazar possession of Balanjar. This began a long war between Arabs and Khazars, with truces, that lasted until 737.^[7] The date of the first attack is disputed. Tabari puts the first Arab advance on Balanjar in AH 22, which is 642. Balādhurī knows of no attack in that year, and Marquart moved the first advance to 652.^[8] The first phase of the war ended with the battle of Balanjar. In AH 32, which is 652, Abd al-Rahman ibn Rabia led a strong Arab force into Khazaria and besieged Balanjar. The Arabs were defeated and he was killed.^[9] Balādhurī names a different commander. He says that the khagan met Salman ibn Rabia with his cavalry beyond the river of Balanjar, and that Salman was killed there with 4,000 Muslims.^[10] In the end the war reached the gate at Derbent, which the Arabs never passed.^[11]

The Baranjar of the Volga

Ibn Fadlan met a family of 5,000 people, women and men, in the Volga Bulgar country. All of them had become Muslims, and they were known as al-Baranjar.^[12] Their name is connected with the Balanjar of Khazaria.^[13] Some scholars hold that the long wars between Khazars and Bulgars, and between Khazars and Arabs, displaced tribal groups, among them the Baranjar.^[14] The Bulgar name bnjr is identified, at least in part, with the North Caucasian Huns.^[15] Some scholars connect bnjr with blnjr, that is Balanjar, a name found both in Khazaria and in Volga Bulgaria.^[15]

The record

No source describes Balanjar in detail. It is a city and the name of a group, placed in the North Caucasus, and the sources do not fix its site.

References

^ a b Sinor 1990, p. 261
^ Golden 1992, p. 237
^ Golden 1992, p. 240
^ Tabari
^ Dunlop 1954, p. 24
^ Nöldeke 1879
^ Sinor 1990, p. 265
^ Dunlop 1954, p. 51
^ Dunlop 1954, p. 55, 57
^ al-Balādhurī; al-Balādhurī 1916, p. 319
^ Golden 1992, p. 238
^ Ibn Fadlan; Canard 1958, p. 107
^ Golden 1992, p. 255, 107; Canard 1958, p. 255, 107
^ Golden 1992, p. 255
^ a b Golden 1992, p. 107

Sources

Literature

Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992)
Denis Sinor (ed.), The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia (1990)
Theodor Nöldeke, Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden. Aus der arabischen Chronik des Tabari übersetzt und mit ausführlichen Erläuterungen und Ergänzungen versehn (1879)
Douglas M. Dunlop, The History of the Jewish Khazars (1954)
al-Balādhurī; Philip K. Hitti (trans.), The Origins of the Islamic State, Bd. I (Kitāb Futūḥ al-buldān) (1916)
M. Canard, La relation du voyage d'Ibn Fadlān chez les Bulgares de la Volga (1958)