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    The Customs, Beliefs, and Ceremonies of South Eastern Russia - The Khazar and Mordvin Kingdoms (Folklore History Series)
    The Customs, Beliefs, and Ceremonies of South Eastern Russia - The Khazar and Mordvin Kingdoms (Folklore History Series)
    The Customs, Beliefs, and Ceremonies of South Eastern Russia - The Khazar and Mordvin Kingdoms (Folklore History Series)
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    The Customs, Beliefs, and Ceremonies of South Eastern Russia - The Khazar and Mordvin Kingdoms (Folklore History Series)

    By Read Books Ltd.

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    About this ebook

    South eastern Russia is a vast stunning landscape with a beautiful and intricate cultures. This book looks into superstition and cultures of the Mordvin and Khazar kingdoms. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateSep 6, 2016
    ISBN9781473352407
    The Customs, Beliefs, and Ceremonies of South Eastern Russia - The Khazar and Mordvin Kingdoms (Folklore History Series)

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      The Customs, Beliefs, and Ceremonies of South Eastern Russia - The Khazar and Mordvin Kingdoms (Folklore History Series) - Read Books Ltd.

      THE KILLING OF THE KHAZAR KINGS.

      BY SIR J. G. FRAZER.

      AT a certain stage of social evolution not a few races appear to have been in the habit of putting their kings to death, either at the end of a fixed term, or on the failure of the king’s health and strength, or simply whenever a great public calamity, such as drought or famine, had befallen the country. Among the peoples who have practised this remarkable system of limited monarchy, and have elevated regicide to the dignity of a public institution, must seemingly be numbered the Khazars or Khozars, a nation of south-eastern Russia, who in the Middle Ages maintained their independence for many centuries alike against Persia and the Byzantine Empire, carried on a busy trade between the east and the west, and repelled the wave of Mohammedan conquest, which, but for their resistance, might have deluged Europe from the south-east. It is hardly too much to say that during those dark ages when the power of Christendom sank to its lowest ebb, and the power of Islam rose to its highest pitch, Europe was protected against the swelling tide of Moslem aggression by three great mountain barriers, the Caucasus on the south-east, the Balkans in the centre, and the Pyrenees on the south-west; and that the passes which led over these ranges into the heart of the continent were guarded by three peoples, the Khazars, the Byzantine Greeks, and the Spaniards. Of these three redoubtable champions of Christendom, the Khazars have long disappeared and even their name is now hardly known but to students of the bypaths of history.

      Yet for some nine hundred years or more (190-1100 A.D.) this almost forgotten people played a great part in history on the borderland of Europe and Asia. Their home was in the spurs of the Caucasus and along the western shore of the Caspian, which took its name (Sea of the Khazars) from them; but at the height of their power they ruled over the whole of south-eastern Russia from the Dneiper to the middle Volga, together with the adjoining part of Asia along the eastern coast of the Caspian as far south as Astrabad. On the south their boundary never altered greatly; at times, indeed, it extended southward as far as the Cyrus and even the Araxes, but on that side the Khazars had to face the Byzantine and Persian empires and were for the most part restrained within the passes of the Caucasus. Their capital was Itil in the delta of the Volga, but they possessed other populous and civilized cities, such as Semender (Tarkhu), which was the older capital, and Sarkel, or the White Abode, on the Don. All the Khazar cities were centres of commerce. Indeed the Khazars have been described as the Venetians of the Caspian and the Euxine, the organizers of the transit between the two basins; the universal carriers between East and West. Merchants from every nation found protection, justice, and good faith in the Khazar cities. Exiled from Constantinople, the Jews sought a home among them, developed their trade, and contended with their Mohammedan and Christian rivals for the religious allegiance of the pagan people. The reigning house accepted Judaism, apparently about the middle of the eighth century; but all faiths were equally tolerated, and every man was held amenable to the authorized code and to the official judges of the religion which he professed. At the Byzantine court the khakan, or sovereign of the Khazars, was held in high honour. The Emperor Justinian Rhinotmetus took refuge with him during his banishment and married his daughter: his rival Bardanes also sought an asylum in the land of the Khazars; and in Leo IV. the grandson of a Khazar sovereign ascended the Byzantine throne.

      The origin and affinities of this interesting people appear to be still disputed. Many have assigned them to the Turkish stock; others to the Ugrians or Eastern Finns; and some have even claimed them as Jews on account of their use of the Hebrew character and the profession of the Hebrew faith among them. But their geographical position, their history, and the contemporary witness we have as to their physical character, their language, and their own national tradition, may be accepted as conclusive proof that the Khazars were an indigenous people of the Caucasus, and near akin to the Armenians and the Georgians.¹

      It is very remarkable that a custom of legalized regicide should have been practised among a people so comparatively advanced and civilized as the Khazars appear to have been, and of whom it has been said that their government was regular, settled, and well organized. They were not wild barbarians like the Huns and the Avars.¹ Their case escaped me when I was collecting instances of such legalized regicide for The Golden Bough. My attention was first drawn to it in 1912 by Miss Barbara Freire-Marreco, who was so kind as to send me a long extract on the subject from the mediaeval Arab historian and geographer Abulfeda. Subsequently the Khazar practice of killing their sacred kings was described by Mr. Géza Roheim in an article contributed to Man.² But as his account seems to be based on the works of modern Hungarian historians, and the Khazar custom is probably still but little known, it may be worth while to put together those passages of mediaeval authors which describe in some detail the Khazar kings and their limited tenure of the crown. All the authors in question appear to be Arabs, or at least to have written in Arabic, but their works are accessible to the unlearned in translations, from which I borrow the following extracts. Some of the most important passages were long ago collected and edited in Arabic, with Latin translations, by C. M. Fraehn in the Memoirs of the Academy of St. Petersburg.³

      The earliest writer to give an account of the Khazar kings from personal observation was Ahmed ibn Foszlan, Fuḍhlan, or Faḍlan, as his name is variously spelled, who travelled through Khazaria in the year 921 or 922 A.D., at a time when the kingdom was still at the height of its power and glory. He was sent from Baghdad by the Caliph Moktadir on an embassy to the king of the Bulgarians whose dominions then lay on the Volga in central Russia, and on his return to Baghdad he described in a book all that he had observed worthy of note on his journey. His work appears to be lost, but the portion of it which relates to the Khazars was fortunately incorporated in his Geographical Dictionary by the Arab writer Yakut, who, after a chequered life as a slave, commercial traveller, bookseller, copyist, and author, died near Aleppo in the year 1229 A.D.¹ The following are extracts from it:

      "Ahmed, son of Foszlan, sent as envoy of (the Caliph) Moktadir to the Slavs, related in a little book everything that he saw with his own eyes in these regions, and in that book he says that Khazar is the name of a certain country, of which the capital is called Itil. Itil is also the name of the river (Volga) which flows from Russia and Bulgaria to Khazaria. Itil is the city, Khazar is the name of the kingdom, not of the city. The city is in two parts, of which the larger is situated on the western bank of the river Itil (Volga), while the other lies on the eastern side of the river. The king resides in the western part. In their tongue he is called Ilek and also Bak. This western part extends to the length of a parasang and is surrounded by a wall, but the buildings in it are few and far between. Now their edifices are huts made of felt, with a few exceptions, which are made of mud. They have market-places and baths. Many Mohammedans are found there; indeed there are said to be more than ten thousand of them in the town, and they have thirty mosques. The king’s palace is at a distance from the bank of the river and is built of baked bricks. No other person besides him is privileged to dwell in a house made of bricks, for the king will not suffer it. In the wall there are four gates, of which one leads to the river, and another to the desert, beyond the fields of the city.

      "Their king is a Jew, and he is said to have four thousand retainers attached to his person. The Khazars themselves, however, are Mohammedans and Christians. Idolaters are also found among them. The fewest numerically in the country are the Jews, though the king himself is of their number. The most numerous are the Mohammedans and the Christians; nevertheless the king and his retainers profess the Jewish religion. In the manners of the idolaters the most noticeable feature is that they prostrate themselves in token of reverence for each other, and observe certain sacred ordinances according to customs which differ from the religion of the Mohammedans, Jews and Christians. The king’s standing army consists of twelve thousand soldiers, of whom as soon as one is dead another is enlisted in his place, nor is their number ever diminished. Their pay is neither large nor frequent; indeed what they get is very little, and even that at long intervals, when either a war is to be waged by them or some calamity has occurred, on account of which they are mustered.

      "The public revenues of the kingdom of the Khazars are derived either from the customs or from tithes levied on merchandise, and these dues, in accordance with their institutions, are levied on every highway, sea, and river. Land taxes are also collected from the inhabitants of villages and districts on every sort of food, drink, and other things, so far as is necessary.

      "The king is assisted by nine judges chosen from among the Jews, Christians, Mohammedans, and idolaters. If any person

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