Varachan

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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Varachan **
     It was the capital of the Kingdom of the huns and savir in Ancient Khazaria in the 7th century. The city was located somewhere on the territory of Dagestan.
     In arabic sources, Belendger is called the country of many cities, and its main city is called Varachan by the arabs.
     Called Varachan to Varadjan, Belendger, Semender, and the annals also report that the same were the name of a different city.
     According to one version, Varachan is located in the area of Buinaksk, on the site of the Urtsaki settlement, where deposits of the medieval period have been preserved, which archaeologists relate to Varachan. There were several cemeteries around the city in this place, in which archaeologists found pit graves, there were also catacomb graves under small embankments. All of them date back to the period between the 7th and 9th centuries, when the city was owned by the khazars.
     A group of researchers supports the idea of Minorsky, who places the city of Varachan on a hillfort near the village of Barshli. They believe that the name of the village has undergone a centuries-old turkish-language reconstruction from the word «varachan», which has an iranian-armenian origin.
     According to another version, Varachan is identified with Belendger, which in turn is compared with the village of Tarki near Makhachkala, near the sea. Although arabic writers mention Tarki separately from Belendger.
     Some historians identify Belendger on a hillfort near the village of Chir-Yurt, on the Sulak river in Dagestan, suggesting that it was Varachan.
     Armenian Geography places varachan in the area north of Derbent, calling the city the capital of the Oldest Khazaria in the 7th century. Here was the Kingdom of the huns, and further north from Varachan stood city huns Chouigars and Msndr, apparently Semender. Armenian sources often called the Belendger as Varachan, when the city was the capital of Bersilia.
     Armenian, byzantine, arabic, and jewish sources mention Varachan as the capital of the hunnic Kingdom of which Barsilia was a part.
     Masudi, a 10th-century arabic writer, refers to Varachan as the Kingdom of the huns Jidan, calling its cities the most powerful in these parts of the Caucasus.
     In 682, the ruler of Albania Varaz-Trdat sent an embassy of bishop Yisrael to Alp-Ilitver in the country of the huns, who met the head of the armenian embassy in his capital Varachan, called magnificent by the armenians. The purpose of the embassy was to establish the christianization of the population of this country and its cities.
     Masudi notes that the residents of Derbent suffer from the neighborhood of the troubled country of Varachan, the capital of which Masudi calls the city of Semender, inhabited by the khazars, of which the largest group was the one that consisted of barsil-bersula, a division of the bulgars.
     In 722, according to Ibn al-Asir, the arab commander Jarrah, during the first war with the khazars, settled near the city of Vanandar, which the khazars themselves called Belendger, and the bulgars who lived there called it Bulkar. The arabs counted in it 40 thousand houses in which the turks lived. In the Armenian news about the country of the huns, this city is called Varachan.
     In 723, when the arabs took Belendger, it turned out that the prisoners had nothing to feed. Then the arab commanders decided to drown them all so that they would not run away. This message is similar to a legend, because according to the same arabs, the city of Varachan was a day's journey from the sea, and there are no large waters nearby.
     In 730, Mervan makes another trip to Khazaria. Armenian historians, according to armenian soldiers who participated in the arab army, noted that one of the main goals of this campaign was the capture of the city of Varachan, with which the huns could control all trade and military movements north of Derbent. Vardan, an Armenian author, also writes about a certain large water, where the inhabitants of the city rushed when Mervan approached.
     Apparently, the participation of the armenian vigilantes in this war ended in Varachan, and they did not go further, remaining in the city and its surroundings. This indicates the cultural and ethnic proximity of the armenian soldiers and some of the city's residents at that historical moment.
     Masudi, an arab historian writing in the 10th century, called Varachan the capital of the Serir Kingdom, which united the Princes of the local mountains, calling it the most significant in these parts. After the departure of Mervan in 730 from the borders of Khazaria, the Kingdom of Serir split into the Savir and Barsil kingdoms, which continued to remain under the political and commercial-economic influence of the khazar nobility.
     In 732, the third war broke out between the khazars and the Caliphate. The Khazar Kingdom was invaded by the armies of Maslama. According to his clerks, Maslama took Khamzin, Belendger, and Semender. Reporting the same event, Ya'qubi, also a 9th-century arabic author, refers to the city as Varachan, not Belendger, where the arabs were met by a khazar army led by the Khagan himself.
     When Maslama in 732 defeated Varachan, its fortress and villages, which the arabs attributed to the country of Belendger, the khazars decided to move their capital to Itil, and Belendger and Varachan were named Semender.
     In Dagestan, there is a mountain Varsan, the name of which hints at the existence of the city of Varachan in its visibility. Dagestan historians consider Varachan to be the ancient capital of the dagestani huns, and they call Barshalia or Varsalia the ancient homeland of the khazars, where they came from and created the largest association of post-hunnic tribes.
     Arab writers also knew about the ancient homeland of the khazars. Balazuri and Kudama, reporting on the meeting of the persian shah and the khazar khagan, called the place of their conversation al-Varshalia, which was located north of Derbent.
     According to khazar tradition, there was a cave in mount Varachan, which is described by Halevi in The «Khazar Book» in connection with the conversion of the khazar nobility to judaism.
     According to Halevi, one of the khazar kings by the name of Bulan, had several visions. The khazars of those times were the best dream interpreters. It was explained to him that Bulan should go to mount Varsan, which stood by the sea, where he would find what would make him the greatest king of all the khazars. Arriving there, Bulan found a cave where there were elders who explained to him the Old Scripture, which turned out to be the Torah.
     In this cave, Bulan and his entourage converted to the new faith and performed circumcision.
     According to the descriptions of persian chronographers of Anushirvan's deeds during the hunno-persian wars of the early 6th century for the possession of the Caspian Coast, Varachan was founded in the 5th century on a hill in a day's march from the coast of the Caspian sea. It originated in the hunnic era, when a trade route was laid here from Asia Minor to Itil and then through perevoloki to the north and west.
     The persians laid the city with a perspective for the future, sparing no expense for the construction of a fortress with walls and ramparts. Here there was a transshipment base for merchant caravans on the trade route from Asia Minor to the Huns Kingdom.
     Tabari noted that from the towers of this city, the khazars constantly inflicted sensitive damage on the arabs when they entered the territory of Khazaria in the early 8th century.
     Based on historical data, Varachan had stone buildings, wooden dwellings had stone foundations. The walls of the dwellings were covered with clay coating.
     There were many crafts in the city of Varachan, one of the most popular was pottery. The surrounding population was engaged in sheep farming and agriculture.
     The descriptions given in the History of Alban, near the city of Varachan was the giant oak, which the huns worshipped as God Gromovich Koaru who was worshipped by the Prince of the city and its nobles and was considered their savior gods, ineptitude and drowtales all the best.
     Varachan itself and the surrounding territory were inhabited either by the khazars themselves, or by a tribe closely related to the khazars, which was sedentary, agricultural, and pastoral.
     In all probability, Varachan-Belendger was not always part of the khazars, but was a special possession that was in vassalage to the khazar king, who in peacetime did not interfere in the affairs of the city.
     Perhaps this is why the khazar king did not come to Varachan during his spring and summer nomadism, not considering it his territory, which he was obliged to visit.
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