De administrando imperio

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

Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos wrote De administrando imperio about 948 to 952, as a manual of statecraft for his young son Romanos.^[1] Several of its chapters deal with the Khazars.

Sarkel

Chapter 42 tells how the Byzantines helped the Khazars build Sarkel on the Don.^[2] The khagan and the pech of Khazaria sent envoys to the emperor Theophilos and asked for the fortress.^[3] The two titles are understood as the khagan and the beg together.^[4] The Byzantines sent the spatharokandidatos Petronas Kamateros. He found no stone at the site. He burned bricks in kilns and made mortar from small river shells. Sarkel, the chapter says, means “white house” in the language of the Khazars. A garrison of 300 men was posted there and relieved each year.^[2] The emperor then set up the governorship (strategos) of Cherson.^[5] One dating puts the Khazar request at about 833.^[4] Another puts the building in 838.^[6]

The Kabars

Chapter 39 reports that the Kabaroi were of the race of the Khazars. They revolted against their government, and a civil war followed. Their first government prevailed. Some of them were killed. Others escaped and settled with the “Turks” in the land of the Pechenegs, where they made friends with them and were called Kabaroi.^[7] The Greek word for the revolt is apostasia, and for the war polemos emphylios.^[8] The chapter states that the Kabars taught the Hungarians the language of the Khazars.^[7] Chapter 40 lists the tribes of the union that resulted.^[9]

The chapter gives no reason for the revolt, no date and no name of a leader. It does not mention religion.^[9] Many modern readers connect the revolt with the Khazar conversion to Judaism, and that connection is a conjecture.^[10] Others read it as a typical break of tribes inside a nomadic state.^[11] A date between 780 and 881 has been proposed, and the span decides whether the revolt came before or after the conversion.^[12]

The Byzantine view of the Khazars

Chapter 10 states that nine regions of Khazaria border on Alania. The Alan, if he wishes, can plunder them and cause the Khazars great damage and want, because all the livelihood and plenty of Khazaria come from those nine regions.^[13] Chapters 10 to 12 show the same aim. The Uzes, the Alans and the Black Bulgarians can each attack the Khazars.^[14] The emperor of 950 therefore saw Khazaria as a state to be pressed.

Chapter 13 ascribes to an emperor Leo a marriage with the daughter of the khagan and condemns it as a shame to the empire and an unlawful act.^[15] It has been noted that no emperor Leo married a Khazar princess. The emperor in the passage may be Leo IV, whose mother was the Khazar bride of Constantine V in 732, and the author may have confused the facts.^[16]

Reliability

The work was written more than a century after Sarkel and for the instruction of the emperor’s son. It is a Byzantine view, and its aim is policy. For the Kabar secession it is the only source that tells the story, so its account cannot be checked against another.

On religion the work says nothing. It does not mention the Judaism of the Khazars.^[17] The same is true of Theophanes, Nikephoros and Photios.^[18] Byzantine sources curiously say nothing on the religious question in Khazaria.^[19]

References

^ De administrando imperio; Porphyrogenitus 1967 (New Revised Edition; Greek text and English translation), p. 11
^ a b De administrando imperio; Porphyrogenitus 1967 (New Revised Edition; Greek text and English translation), p. 183–185
^ De administrando imperio; Porphyrogenitus 1967 (New Revised Edition; Greek text and English translation), p. 183
^ a b Dunlop 1954, p. 186
^ De administrando imperio; Porphyrogenitus 1967 (New Revised Edition; Greek text and English translation), p. 185
^ Golden 1992, p. 239
^ a b De administrando imperio; Porphyrogenitus 1967 (New Revised Edition; Greek text and English translation), p. 174–175
^ De administrando imperio; Porphyrogenitus 1967 (New Revised Edition; Greek text and English translation), p. 174
^ a b De administrando imperio; Porphyrogenitus 1967 (New Revised Edition; Greek text and English translation), p. 175
^ Tóth 2012, p. 8
^ Tóth 2012, p. 10
^ Tóth 2012, p. 10–12
^ De administrando imperio; Porphyrogenitus 1967 (New Revised Edition; Greek text and English translation), p. 65
^ De administrando imperio; Porphyrogenitus 1967 (New Revised Edition; Greek text and English translation), p. 63, 65
^ De administrando imperio; Porphyrogenitus 1967 (New Revised Edition; Greek text and English translation), p. 73
^ Dunlop 1954, p. 177–178
^ De administrando imperio; Porphyrogenitus 1967 (New Revised Edition; Greek text and English translation)
^ Pritsak 1978, p. 267
^ Golden 1992, p. 242

Literature

Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992)
Douglas M. Dunlop, The History of the Jewish Khazars (1954)
Omeljan Pritsak, The Khazar Kingdom's Conversion to Judaism (1978)
S. L. Tóth, The Qavars (Qabars) and their Role in the Hungarian Tribal Federation (2012)
Gyula Moravcsik (ed.); R. J. H. Jenkins (trans.), Constantine Porphyrogenitus: De administrando imperio (Budapest 1949; Washington 1967)
Constantine Porphyrogenitus; Gyula Moravcsik (ed.); R. J. H. Jenkins (trans.), De administrando imperio (1967 (New Revised Edition; Greek text and English translation))