Vabandar on the river Aktash

Cities of Khazaria. Kromos Estatium
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     The khazar cities here include not only those cities that were built by the khazar architects, but also those that were built before the arrival of the khazars, were used by the khazars for their needs and tasks for a long time.
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Vabandar on the river Aktash **
     Also Olubandar, Vanandar, Inderi, Balkh.
     It can mean the same city that the arab writers called Balkh, as well as the country of Vabandar, in which the city was located. The arabic name for Balkh may indicate the self of people with whom the arabs met when he came to Vabandar.
     Historians state that the khazars called the city of Indar, that vocalization harmonizes with included in the literature naming Vabandar. The settlement dates back to the 2nd-9th centuries. The khazar city was called Indar.
     The city appears in the middle of the 2nd century after the birth of Christ on the trade and military routes of the huns state. They attached great importance to this city with a fortress, assigning it an important strategic role in the North Caucasus. Then the persians took control of Vabandar, but the greatest influence on the city and its fortifications was exerted by the khazars, who came here in the 8th century, when the struggle between the khazars and the Caliphate for control of the territory of the Caspian region intensified.
     It is believed that the Andreyaul settlement can be identified as the city of Vabandar, which is located near the current village of Endirei in the Khasavyurt district of Dagestan.
     The city stood on the left bank of the river Aktash, in the tract Aktash-Kardon and covered an area of 70 hectares. Here was a fortress that housed military personnel recruited in peacetime from local villages. During the war, detachments of the owners of this country came here.
     On the floor side, the city was protected by several rows of ramparts based on natural terrain folds.
     The Citadel of the Fortress was located on the bank of the Aktash river and covered an area of 1 hectare, which was closed by ravines from the fortress and the main part of the city, which covered an area of 25 hectares. This part of the city had its ramparts up to 10 meters high and deep ditches.
     Outside the main part of the city, the third and largest part of it was located. This was a vast settlement on the floodplain of the river, which on the floor side was protected by several ramparts and ditches, which formed a single system of fortress and city fortifications.
     Posad-people in wartime were engaged in weapons business, and in peacetime they made and repaired tools for farmers and pastoralists, they also engaged in ceramics and jewelry. The technology of making ceramic products is not repeated anywhere else in the Caucasus.
     The information scattered across the annals contains information about a political entity that existed here called «Vabandar Territory», which assumed the organization of an administrative economy in the Fortress and Citadel.
     In 722, according to al-Kufi, the muslim arab army, under the leadership of Jarrah, captured Balandgar, and from there went to the Territory of Vabandar. Jarrah's fabulists counted 40,000 houses there.
     Ibn al-Asir, regarding the war with Khazaria in 722, reports that Jarrah, starting from Bashanjar, settled at the Olubandar castle, which had about 40 thousand turkic houses, and concluded peace with its Emir on the terms of paying tribute.
     Gadlo notes that the nearest neighbor of Vabander was the possession of Balandgar, located to the east of it. Vabandar then represented one of the tribal unions or the country, but on the basis of the khazars and their organization. Gadlo located this city in the depths of the North Caucasus steppe.
     Local researchers of the history of Dagestan claim that the dagestan teip varandoy has an alien origin, since the teip uses female circumcision, which was practiced in ancient times by the jews. Maybe the clans descended from the highest judaized khazar nobility genetics turkut.
     NamingVabandar the city received from the khazars in the early 8th century. What it was called in the huns and pre-huns times can only be learned from folk tales that are spoken in ancient dagestan languages and are stored in its most remote villages.
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