state in the mid-7th - late 10th centuries. led by the Kagan. The capital is Semender, from the beginning of the 8th century - Itil. At the beginning of the 8th century. included the territories of the North Caucasus, the Azov region, most of the Crimea, steppe and forest-steppe territories up to the Dnieper. Traded with the peoples of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Transcaucasia, etc. Believers - Jews, Muslims, Christians. In 964-965 it was defeated by Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich.
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KHAZAR KAGANATE
early feudal state education that arose in the middle. 7th century on the territory Lower Volga region and eastern parts of the North Caucasus as a result of the collapse of the Western Turkic Kaganate (see Turkic Kaganate). The Turk remained at the head of the Kh. Ashina dynasty. The capital of the Kaganate until the beginning. 8th century there was the city of Semender in Dagestan, and then the city of Itil (on the Lower Volga). In the 2nd half. 7th century The Khazars subjugated some of those who were part of the state. the unification of the Great Bulgaria of the Azov Bulgarians (some of them, after the defeat, went to the Middle Volga, and the rest - beyond the Dnieper to the Danube), as well as the kingdom of the Savir Huns in coastal Dagestan; Caucasian Albania became a tributary of X. K. Byzantium established an alliance with X. K. (concluded with the Western Turkic Khaganate against Sasanian Iran), directed against the established in the 2nd half. 7th century in Transcaucasia of the Arab Caliphate. To the beginning 8th century The Khazars owned the North. The Caucasus, the entire Azov region, b. part of Crimea (taken from Byzantium), as well as the steppe and forest-steppe territories of the East. Europe to the Dnieper. At the same time, they waged a fierce struggle with the Arabs for the possession of Transcaucasia, repeatedly raided there, but were unable to establish themselves there. In 735, the Arabs invaded the lands of the Kh. K. through the Caspian pass and Daryal, defeating the army of the Kagan (the title of the head of the Kh. K.). The Kagan and his entourage were forced to convert to Islam (that is, actually submit to the Arabs), which, however, became widespread only among part of the population of the Kh. k., and the Kagan himself and his entourage soon abandoned it. With the center of X. moving to Nizh. On the Volga, agriculture and horticulture are developing in its valley, and in the capital of the Kaganate, Itil, crafts and trade are developing. The city has become an important international center. (transit) trade, which brought X. large incomes. In the Don-Donetsk interfluve, in connection with the resettlement of part of the North Caucasus there. Alans, settled settlements arise, cities are revived on the Taman and Kerch Peninsulas. Although the main type of household activities of the population of X. k. nomadic cattle breeding remains, the process of disintegration of clan orders accelerates, and an early feud takes shape. relationship. As a result of the defeat inflicted by the Arabs on the Kagan's army, the authority of the Turkic dynasty in the Khaganate Empire fell. Actual power in the state is concentrated in the hands of local Khazar and Bulgarian feudal lords, and the kagan turns into a revered but powerless ruler. During the 8th century. X. K. maintained strong relations with Byzantium, which contributed to the spread of Christianity. She was allowed to create on the territory. X. k. church. organization (metropolis), which included 7 dioceses, including the diocese in Itil, which provided Byzantium. influence in X. k. In connection with the great international. the role of X. K. the question of his state. religion had an important political meaning. The Arabs tried unsuccessfully to establish Islam there, and Byzantium - Christianity. The Khazars did not associate themselves with the church. ties neither with the Caliphate nor with Byzantium. In the 1st half. 8th century (c. 731) part of the Khazars North. Dagestan adopted Judaism (Jews expelled from Sasanian Iran and, later, from Byzantium settled in Northern Dagestan), including a certain prince. Bulan. In the end 8 - beginning 9th centuries one of his descendants, Obadiah, became the head of the X. c. and declared Judaism state. religion. The coup he carried out caused discontent among other Khazar princes. A long and stubborn struggle began, during which the rebels called for help from the Magyars from across the Volga, and Obadiah hired the Ghuz nomads. The uprising was suppressed, the Magyars were pushed back beyond the Dnieper, and the surviving rebels (kabars) left with them. The Crimean Goths, who came under the rule of Byzantium, and certain other peoples who had previously paid tribute to the Khazars (including the Dnieper Slavs) took advantage of the turmoil in the Khazars. During these years, the Sarkel fortress was built on the Don, intended to protect the market. path from 3. to Itil. In the end 9th century all in. The Pechenegs broke through the Black Sea region and expelled (895) the Magyars dependent on the X. K. into the Danube region. The Black Sea and Don steppes came under the rule of the Pechenegs. Byzantium, interested in further weakening the Kaganate, took advantage of this. She began to set the nomadic tribes surrounding them against the Khazars. But ch. The force that opposed X. k. was Old Rus. state Back in the 9th century. rus. squads penetrated into the Caspian Sea, disrupting trade along the Caspian-Volga route, which was important for the Khazars. In 913/914 and 943/944 Russian. troops passed through Khazaria and devastated the Caspian coast. In 964/965 Russian. Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich made a campaign against the Volga and defeated X. k. The towns were ruined. Itil and Semender and the city of Sarkel was captured. The Khazars' attempt in the 2nd half was unsuccessful. 10th century save the situation with the help of Khorezm, at the cost of accepting Islam, i.e., subordination to Khorezm. Weakened internal contradictions and devastate. invasions of nomadic peoples (Pechenegs, Guzes), defeat 964/965, towards the end. 10th century X. k. ceased to exist. Lit.: Artamonov M.I., History of the Khazars, L., 1962; Pletneva S. A., From nomads to cities, M., 1967; Zakhoder B.N., Caspian Code of Information about Eastern Europe, vol. 1-2, L., 1962-67; Kokovtsov P.K., Jewish-Khazar correspondence in the 10th century, Leningrad, 1932; Dunlop D. M., The history of the Jewish Khazars, Princeton (N.Y.), 1954. M. I. Artamonov. Leningrad.
Khazar Khaganate, early feudal state formation that arose in the mid-7th century. in the territory of the Lower Volga region and the eastern part of the North Caucasus as a result of the collapse of the Western Turkic Kaganate (see. Turkic Khaganate ). The capital of Kh. until the beginning of the 8th century. there was the city of Semender in Dagestan, and then the city of Itil on the Lower Volga. In the 2nd half of the 7th century. the Khazars subjugated part of the Azov Bulgarians, as well as Savirov in coastal Dagestan; Albania Caucasian became a tributary of Kh. By the beginning of the 8th century. The Khazars owned the Northern Caucasus, the entire Azov region, most of the Crimea, as well as the steppe and forest-steppe territories of Eastern Europe to the Dnieper. In 735, the Arabs invaded the lands of Kh. through the Caspian Passage and Daryal and defeated the army kagan . The Kagan and his entourage adopted Islam, which, however, became widespread only among part of the population of the Kaganate. In the 1st half of the 8th century. part of the Khazars of Northern Dagestan adopted Judaism. The main type of economic activity of the population of the Kh. k. remained nomadic cattle breeding. Agriculture and horticulture developed in the Lower Volga valley. The capital of the Kaganate, Itil, became an important center of crafts and international (including transit) trade. In the Don-Donets interfluve, in connection with the resettlement of part of the North Caucasian Alans there, settled settlements arose. The formation of early feudal relations began. Actual power in the state was concentrated in the hands of local Khazar and Bulgarian feudal lords, and the Kagan turned into a revered but powerless ruler.
During the 8th century. Kh. K. maintained strong relations with Byzantium, which contributed to the spread of Christianity. She was allowed to create a metropolis on the territory of Kh., which included 7 dioceses. At the end of the 8th - beginning of the 9th centuries, Obadiah, who became the head of the Kaganate, declared Judaism the state religion. At the end of the 9th century. The Northern Black Sea region was captured Pechenegs and expelled (895) the Magyars, dependent on H.K., to the Danube. Byzantium, interested in weakening the Kaganate, began to incite the nomads surrounding them against the Khazars. But the main force opposing the HK was the Old Russian state. Back in the 9th century. Russian squads penetrated into the Caspian Sea. In 913-14 and 943-44, Russian troops passed through Khazaria and devastated the Caspian coast. In the 60s 10th century Russian prince Svyatoslav Igorevich made a campaign against the Volga and defeated Kh. k. The cities were ruined. Itil, Semender, the city of Sarkel was captured. The attempt of the Khazars in the 2nd half of the 10th century was unsuccessful. save the situation with the help of Khorezm. At the end of the 10th century. HK ceased to exist.
Lit.: Artamonov M.I., History of the Khazars, L., 1962; Pletneva S. A., From nomads to cities, M., 1967; Zakhoder B.N., Caspian Code of Information about Eastern Europe, vol. 1-2, M., 1962-67; Pletneva S. A., Khazary, M., 1976.
At the head of this formation is the kagan, or, according to one interpretation of this title, “khan of khans.” The term itself was first mentioned in connection with the ancient Mongol tribe of nomads Xianbi.
Originally from China
In the 3rd century BC, one of the tribes emerged from the ancient union called “Dungu”, formed around 1100 BC. The new association was called differently over the course of three centuries, and in 330 the Rouran Khaganate arose. formed by the Xianbei tribe, existed until 555. In 402, the ruler of the Rouran tribes was the first of all to call himself kagan, thus creating a new title of supreme ruler. According to one historical version, the name of the tribe under his control is a contemptuous nickname given to them by the Chinese. Rourans are slow crawling or reptiles. It is not surprising that these people wanted to be independent. In this case, the Kaganate is a union of the Rouran tribes, which was also a confederation.
Mighty State
And at the beginning of the 6th century, a tribe, in turn, separated from this formation and wished to be independent. It was they who formed the Avar Khaganate, which existed from 562 to 823. The territories of modern Slovakia and Croatia, Romania and Hungary, Serbia and Ukraine made up the area of this state, founded by Kagan Boyan I. Back in 555, the Avars were known as a nomadic people persecuted by the Turks, forced to leave the steppes of western Kazakhstan and move to the remote bank of the Volga. And already in 565-566, having rounded the Carpathians from the north, they captured the Frankish king Sigibert I, defeating his army. Contemporaries were so shocked by this fact that they attributed the gift of magic to the Avars. At its peak, the Avar Khaganate extended from the Black Sea region to the Adriatic and from the Alps to the Elbe. The Avars achieved such power thanks to the wise and tough rule of the talented leader Boyan I, who ruled the country from its formation in 562 until his death in 602. The cunning and cynical leader, without hesitation, changed allies, destroyed entire tribes to achieve his goal, and as a result, he forced even the Byzantine emperor Tiberius II to pay him tribute. The Kaganate is a harsh dictatorship, and the Kagan is the sovereign in the medieval nomadic hierarchy, the person who has absolutely all power without any restrictions.
Fall of a Colossus
When studying the history of ancient times, several views on the same question always arise. Thus, Avars are classified as different ethnic groups: Mongol-speaking, Iranian-speaking, Turkic. Representatives of the archaeological school of Hungary, on whose territory the Avar Kaganate was located, classify most of the Avars as Caucasoids and only a small stratum as Mongoloids. But this smaller part of the population played a dominant role and was the elite of the Avar state. It can be assumed that representatives of the ruling elite did not assimilate with the conquered peoples. The presumptuous Avars received their first defeat near Constantinople in 626. Immediately, individual tribes began to separate from the Kaganate - the Kutrigurs, modern Bulgarians, were the first to flee. In 631, Khan Altsek, the ruler of the future Great Bulgaria, withdrew his army from the Kaganate after an unsuccessful attempt to seize power. Then the Avars only defend themselves and retreat. The Croats oust them from Dalmatia in 640. The Kaganate was finished off by the Franco-Avar War, which lasted a very long time. Gradually all the enslaved peoples rebelled. And the last region, Pannonia, allocated by the Franks to the Avars, headed by the already baptized Hagan, was captured by the Hungarians in 899. The Avars completely ceased to exist. The once powerful state that lived for about 3.5 centuries disappeared without a trace.
State structure of the most powerful kaganates
The question arises about what the kaganate is, how it is structured, and why it disappears, as a rule, without a trace. It is interesting that the kagan, a person who subsequently possessed absolute power, was elected by the people's assembly. In the Khazar and Aavr Khaganates, the ruler had a governor, tudun, who was entrusted with supervisory, organizational and diplomatic functions, and a yugur, who was probably the high priest. Tribute was collected by representatives of the nobility - Tarkhans. And behind them, according to the hierarchy, came the tribal leaders, who played an important role in the structure of the country. They also took their peoples away from the Kaganate. Maybe that’s why this state disappeared from the face of the Earth, because it was multi-ethnic.
Another Turkic state
The Turgesh Kaganate did not last long - from the beginning to the middle of the 8th century. At the very beginning of the century, the Turgesh leader Ushlik overthrew the Chinese governor and demanded recognition of himself as the Kagan of the Celestial Empire. He made the city of Suyab, where his headquarters was located, his capital. The entire territory of the new Kaganate included 20 territorial units, each of which contained 7 thousand soldiers. They were located in the squares of the Chinese provinces and stretched from Beshbalyk to Tashkent. In 705, in view of the threat of the country being captured by the Arabs, the Kaganate entered into an alliance with China and defeated the Arab troops. The following rulers - Soge, Zhen, Great Suluk, under whom the Kaganate reached its greatest prosperity, waged successful wars with both the Arabs and China. But after the murder of Suluk, power began to slip out of the hands of his successors, who were Kutsha and Baga-Tarkhan, Bilge and Tengri-Ilmysh - the last Kagan, with whose death the Turgesh Kaganate ceased to exist. There remain coins of this state with Sogdian inscriptions, minted under these rulers.
New in place of old
The capital was the city of Orda-Balyk. The history of this nomadic state began in 603 after the collapse of the Turkic Khaganate into the Western and Eastern parts. For three decades, the newly formed Eastern Kaganate, which had a common border with China, waged quite successful wars with it, but in 630 the country was again captured by the Turkic Empire. 50 years later, the Kok-Turks rebelled, as a result of which the Eastern Kaganate was restored under a new name - Kok-Turkic. And again his troops defeated the army of neighboring China - in 686 near Xinzhou, in 694 - near Lingzhou. The second Khagan, Kapagan Mochur, who reigned from 693 to 716, successfully invaded China in 698 and defeated the imperial forces. The 6 rulers who followed him did not achieve such success. And under the latter, Kulun-bek, the troops of the Kaganate in 745 were defeated by the Uyghur troops of Khan Moyut-Chur. The Kok-Turkic Khaganate with an area of 4 million square kilometers, formed in 682, ceased to exist.
New strong education
The Karluk Kaganate, which arose 11 years after the collapse of the Kok-Turkic, is also a Turkic state, and it existed from 756 to 940. The territory occupied by him included the space between lakes Issyk-Kul and Balkhash, from the middle reaches of the Syr Darya to the Dzungarian Alatau. That is, it was located within modern Kazakhstan. The roots of the Karluk Kaganate grew from the Western part of the Turkic state that once collapsed (in 603). Having been under the strong influence of China for a certain period, at the beginning of the 8th century the Karluks (residents of these regions) began a gradual migration towards the west. They have been known since the 5th century. This is also a multi-tribal community - such tribes as Bulak, Chigil and Tashlyk joined their composition in the 7th century. Along the way, the strengthening detachments of the future new Kaganate won a number of major victories. Thus, they helped the Arabs in 751 win the Talas, or Atlakh (Talas Valley, city of Atlakh) battle against China. They also fought with the Eastern Turkic Kaganate. But the Karluk power, which knew ups and downs, did not last long. It was also absorbed by another Turkic formation - East Turkestan, which captured the capital of the Karluk Kaganate, Balasgun, in 940. However, part of the population managed to escape across the Ili River, the longest in Semirechye, where they created a new state called the Karluk Khanate. The capital was the city of Kailyk.
Sad fate
To the question of what a kaganate is, one can answer that it is a purely Asian form of government. Nowhere in Europe or America have there ever been such formations. There were quite a lot of them in Asia - there was even a Russian Kaganate on the Lower Don. It also ended its existence in the middle of the 9th century. As history shows, it was a rather unlucky form of government - all the Khaganates were defeated, and the population of many disappeared without a trace or disappeared among other tribes, such as the Khazars and Avars. But the importance of these Turkic states is very difficult to overestimate.
Thanks to military expansion, the culture of the East was enriched by the achievements of the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean. Many tribes left China and reached Western Europe, assimilating along the way with the peoples living in these spaces.