al-Balādhurī

al-Balādhurī wrote a history of the Arab conquests, the Futūḥ al-buldān, in the ninth century.^[1] It is one of the Arabic works that tell of the wars between the Arabs and the Khazars in the Caucasus.

In 730 the Khazars defeated the Arab governor al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah near Ardabil. al-Balādhurī tells that the Khazars crossed the river Rass and that al-Jarrah met them in the desert of Warthan. He engaged them again four parasangs from Armenia. After a battle of three days he died with his men, and the river was called the river of al-Jarrah after him.^[2] In the accounts of Ṭabarī, Ibn al-Athīr and Bal’amī the Khazars are led by Barjik, a son of the khagan, and the battle is fought on the plain of Marj Ardabil. al-Jarrah fell, and a mere hundred men escaped.^[3] The Arabic accounts of the revenge that followed have the marks of romance.^[4]

Seven years later, Marwan ibn Muhammad invaded Khazaria. al-Balādhurī says that Marwan invited the chief of the Khazars to Islam or war. The chief answered that he had accepted Islam and asked for someone to present it to him. Marwan did so, and the chief professed Islam and made a treaty by which Marwan confirmed him as ruler of his kingdom.^[5] In the accounts of Ibn A’tham and Bal’amī the khagan asked for instruction, and Marwan sent two jurists, among them Abd al-Rahman al-Khawlani.^[6] The Arabic sources do not say that the khagan was a Jew at the time.^[7] The conversion was short-lived. It lasted little longer than the presence of Arab soldiers on Khazar ground.^[8]

References

^ al-Balādhurī 9th c.
^ al-Balādhurī; al-Balādhurī 1916, p. 323
^ Dunlop 1954, p. 63, 69–70
^ Dunlop 1954, p. 74, 76
^ al-Balādhurī; al-Balādhurī 1916, p. 326
^ Dunlop 1954, p. 84
^ Dunlop 1954, p. 178
^ Golden 1992, p. 238

Literature

Douglas M. Dunlop, The History of the Jewish Khazars (1954)
Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992)
al-Balādhurī, فتوح البلدان Futūḥ al-buldān (9th c.)
al-Balādhurī; Philip K. Hitti (trans.), The Origins of the Islamic State, Bd. I (Kitāb Futūḥ al-buldān) (1916)