Itil on the Volga

Cities of Khazaria. Kromos Estatium
======================
     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.
=======================

Itil on the Volga **
     Also Atil, Attil, Ettilia. In the 8th century, it was al-Beida among the arabs. In the 9th century it was also Hamlig, Hamlych, Khan's city. Kazar at the khazars themselves. Hazaran.
     The current inventors of the history of Khazaria and preachers of New Khazaria theories believe that the name Attila comes from the last King of the huns, Attila, who died in bed with his last wife, who seems to know her business.
     The word «Atlas» is also in tune with Atil, which Pavich used to refer to information about Khazaria that was impaled on the back of the Kagan's ambassadors who were sent from al-Beida, which later became Atil and then Itil.
     The word «atlantean» means «irresistible» in the khattil language, which is similar to the languages of the Caucasian peoples of the abkhazian-adyghe language group.
     The mouth of the Itil was plentiful forage for cattle and horses, but all this was located on a huge number of islands scattered throughout the Volga Delta. All this became available to livestock only after the channels between the islands froze, so a large number of cattle were collected here and kept here in winter conditions. Along with the cattle, a large number of the population gathered here.
     With the arrival of spring, the ice melted and the cattle were taken to the steppes, moving away from the city for hundreds of kilometers. The king of Khazaria also did not sit still, migrating with his nobles in april and returning at the end of november. In april, the capital was empty, because the nobles under the Tsar went to their residences, and in november everyone returned to winter in Itil, because it was warm here, not hungry and fun from a lot of people.
     Arab authors note two parts of the capital of the khazars. According to Ibn Ruste one of them was called Sarashen, and the other he called Khabnell. Gardizi calls one part Sargysch and the second of Khalig. At al-Bekri town was called Barisch and Htslg, the Ibn Khordadbeh the capital of the khazars called Khamlidg. Obviously, all these arab naming of Itil dates back to the original Sarashen later Saksin, and Khanbalik.
     At first, Itil was the administrative center of the Khazar Kingdom, and it was located next to Khazaran, a major commercial center.
     Ibn Haukal capital of the khazars at the end of the 8th century consisted of two parts, while the smaller, western, was called Itil, and the larger, eastern, is called Khazaran, Muqaddasi called it Khazar.
     Chronicles refer this city to the Volga Delta. There are several ancient settlements there, but so far none of them have been identified with Itil.
     At first it was the Khan's winter quarters, which later became his headquarters. This was the first settlement on the Lower Volga, which in the 8th century became a full-fledged city.
     According to Masudi, the transfer of the khazar capital from Semender to Itil followed the campaign of Selman Ibn Rabiah as early as 653. But Artamonov considers this information clearly apocryphal.
     The naming of Itil in Western historiography only appears in the 10th century, although arabic authors mention this city in a similar Atil-type name as early as the end of the 7th century. This city is said to have been reached by Abd-al-Rahman in 642. But Armenian geography, written at the end of the 7th century, that is, after the conquests of Rahman, does not know the khazar city on the Volga at this time.
     At the time of Jarrah's campaign in 722, Semender was still the capital of the khazars, and Atil was only one of The Khagan's stakes.
     With the beginning of the arab-khazar war, especially under Maslam and Mervan, the khazars thought about moving the Kagan's headquarters. Their choice fell on the Lower Volga in al-Beida, as it was called at first by the arabs, the White city, where the Kagan was already in 737. The previous capital Semender was located in Dagestan, which was too close to the place of constant skirmishes between the arabs and the khazars.
     Armenian geography, which has many confirmed facts of that time, reports that there is an island in the middle of the river Athel, where the basly sit, hiding there from the khazars and butks who come here for winter pastures and are located to the east and west of the river.
     The Kagan chose this place, considering it sufficiently protected and founded his winter headquarters here, later putting his Palace here. After the khazar nobility, a permanent population of representatives of different peoples also moved to the Itil winter garden.
     Soon, at the headquarters of the kagan, a trade and craft city grew, which from the end of the 8th century became the most important trade center at the crossroads of routes from East and West, and North and South. It was the city that arab writers called the name of the Itil river, but which had several other names that were at the same time the names of its individual parts.
     Itil appeared on the site of a commercial and agricultural settlement, like all khazar settlements along the rivers. With the arrival of the Kagan nobility, this settlement also acquired administrative and state significance, turning the city into a commercial and industrial center of the state. Other settlements of Khazaria of the 8th century generally remained commercial and agricultural, never becoming cities.
     Some authors believe that the oldest name of this city in literature was al-Beida, apparently of arabic origin, which in Russian means White city.
     This is the opinion of Ibn al-A'sama, who claims that until 737, when Mervan and his 150-thousandth army attacked Khazaria, the main trading city of Khazaria on the Lower Volga was called al-Beida, only later it became known as Itil. After the war, Muslim merchants, mainly from Central Asia, flocked to al-Beida.
     By the year 750, Itil became the full capital of Khazaria. It remains the administrative center of the Khazar Kingdom for at least 200 years.
     The location on the Volga was convenient for conducting trade and economic activities, and by this time the Volga had become one of the largest trade arteries in Eastern Europe. From here, it was possible to control transit exits to the Don, the Caspian, and the Middle Volga.
     Arab sources divided the city into two parts. One was called Itil, the other was called Khazaran.
     Khazar sources from the jewish-khazar correspondence do not know the city of Itil, only the river with this name. There, the main khazar city on the Itil river is called Kazar.
     The city of Itil was formed from the very beginning as a city not only administrative, but also as a commercial and industrial center of the state. Other Khazarian settlements that emerged in the 8th century were overwhelmingly purely agricultural in nature. Only a few of them can be considered cities.
     According to the gloss De Bohr of 1891, there were seven dioceses in Khazaria, of which the Astil diocese by Artamonov is connected with the khazar capital on the Volga, Itil. Were these parts still Kwalis diocese, which Vernadsky had in Kwalis or Khovalis, which was located on the Khazar coast of the Caspian Sea, between Itil and Semender..
     There is often talk of a spanish jew who, in the 9th century, allegedly traveled, for some unknown purpose, to the East, and then returned to the West, and both times he passed the capital of Khazaria on the Itil river, which he called Khamlidj.
     Sarkel was placed by the khazars and greeks at the crossing of the Don, where it was the center of the khazars, and from there the road led to Itil on the Lower Volga, where the khazars had the main trade center.
     The city of Itil was lying on the two banks. In the middle was an island with the king's palaces. The king's castle stood on the very edge of this island. Accordingly, the City of Itil was divided into 3 parts: the Right was administrative, Left was Commercial, and Middle island was the Palace of the King and Kagan. Communication between parts of the city was carried out by boat.
     Ibn Haukal reports that the king lived in the smaller, western part of the city, according to al-Bekri, it was a large part of Itil, where his troops and courtiers were, and in the Eastern commercial part in Hazaran, there were mohammedan merchants, there were their shops, bazaars, and warehouses with goods. Apparently, the relative size of parts of the city changed, except for the administrative one.
     The eastern part of the city, in addition to the Khazar-name, was also called Sarashen, that is, the Yellow city, and the arab authors called it al-Beida, that is, the White city.
     In al-Bekri, the name of the khazar country was al-Khazar, whose capital consists of an eastern, smaller part called Barish or Sarashen, and a larger, western part called Ktslg or Khanbalyk. They were on different banks of the Itil river. The name Khanbalyk indicates the purpose of this part of the city, it was a Khan's city.
     The queen lived in the western, most part of Itil, in Khanbalik, where the residence of Tsar Joseph was located, which, in fact, was the very third capital of Khazaria.
     The naming of al-Beida, that is the White city, refers to the source of the 8th century, when there was only the Kagan's headquarters here. The names Khanbalyk and Sarashen refer to the sources of the 9th century, when the headquarters developed into a major shopping center, while the name Itil goes back to the sources of the 10th century, mainly geographical, when the capital of Khazaria has grown so magnificently twice by 5.5 kilometers. So the total length of the whole Itil was 10 kilometers.
     In the Administrative part, where the Royal Palace was located, there were about 4 thousand Palace people with servants under the king and a garrison of 5 to 12 thousand people. The administrative part had fortifications in the form of walls made of baked bricks. Within the walls there was a gate in the side of the river and the gate towards the desert.
     On the island, the Palaces of the rulers were made of baked bricks, these were the only structures of this type. In Khazaria, such a brick was very rare and treated with respect. Only the Tsar and the Kagan had the privilege of living in a brick house.
     The middle part of the island was connected to the Left Commercial and Right Administrative bridges and by boats. About bridges, it's like an apocrypha.
     The left part had bazaars, warehouses, private and public baths. Most of the houses were Yurt-type, as if they were going on a hike tomorrow.
     King Joseph of the khazars writes in one of his letters to a spanish jew that he lives near the Itil river and that there are three main cities in his Kingdom. A Queen and her servants live in a certain city. There are many villages around it, where jews, mohammedans, and christians live, as well as peoples without religion.
     The second city in Joseph's letter is half the size, but it has many suburbs.
     The third city is located inside the island, where there are Royal fields, vineyards, palaces, gardens and everything necessary for the king to be there. The island is small and only makes up one-third of the second city.
     Each part of Itil had its own specific areas, from the administrative part there was management, from the commercial part there was tribute. This is typical of the management practices in the Eastern countries at that time.
     Judging by Joseph's letter, it seems that the entire Khazaria was divided into lots, one of which belonged to Joseph himself. At the same time, each lot had its own representation in the capital, which the King called cities.
     In Itil was presented the population of all five denominations of the khazars. Jews, tengrians, muslims, christians of the eastern religion and slavs of the old Russian culture. It seems that they all got along here from the middle of the 8th century to the middle of the 10th century quite peacefully. The authorities were able to ensure justice and security for people of different cultures and religions.
     The city had many trees, orchards, vineyards, bazaars, private and public baths, synagogues, churches, mosques with schools for teaching islam.
     Starting from the middle of the 8th century, a new religion for its peoples, islam, began to settle in Khazaria. According to arab travelers, since the establishment of the capital of the Khaganate in Itil, mosques are being built there. By the beginning of the 9th century, Itil had at least 30 mosques and one Cathedral mosque with a minaret that was higher than even the Royal Palace.
     The muslim community was the largest, more than 10,000. Islamists were among the merchants and artisans, there was a special detachment in the Royal guard, consisting of the arabs of Khorezm, the gift of the Caliph.
     There was also a jewish community in Itil, which consisted of the Royal nobility, initiators of judaism in Khazaria, among the merchants were jews, there were a small number of those who fled from the persecution of the jews in Byzantium. The bulk of the jews were those who represented the administration under the kings, who converted to judaism, in order not to fall into religious dependence on the world's religions and the states behind them.
     Most of all those living here were tengrians, they were native khazars, bulgars and savirs, who carried their religion through thousands of kilometers of steppes, forests and rivers. The carrier of tengrianism was the Kagan. There was Rus, whose representatives, despite their heterogeneity, were based on rus-sloven cults.
     There was a Royal court in Itil, consisting of seven judges for jews, muslims, christians, and russo-slavs.
     Itil was considered the original winter Royal residence. King Joseph informed his Spanish counterpart that the khazar nobility, who represented every important family under the king, had inherited land holdings, where they went in the spring to their apocryphal vineyard, to their field, together with their cattle to the steppe for summer pastures. Only those poor people who did not have livestock, as well as people from the economy of the nobility, remained in place.
     Joseph reported to Spain that there were three cities in his Kingdom. The Queen lives in one city. In the city of the Queen live jews, mohammedans, christians, people of the russian-slavic faith. The second city is home to merchants, and is smaller than the Queen's city. The third city is the home of the King himself, the smallest.
     Arab writers saw Itil as a big city, in which tents stood, interspersed with buildings made of clay. Apparently the same as in Sarkel.
     Chronicles report that in 860 Itil was visited by Constantine, who came here from the sea of Azov on the Don to perevoloka on Atil, and from there went down to Itil. It was summer, the Kagan was not here, and then Konstantin went to Dagestan by the Caspian sea to the Caspian gate. According to other sources, they did meet on Constantine's way back to Sarkel.
     Masudi says that in 913, Rus, apparently it was Prince Igor, on 500 ships of 100 people each entered the Kerch Strait. Here they received permission from king Benjamin to cross for half the loot. At this time, Benjamin was in the Khazarian capital of Itil with his mohammedan guard. Although King Joseph does not mention such a king in his letters.
     The russ crossed the ice, went up the Don to Perevoloka on the Volga, dragged their ships into the river, passed through the mouth of the Volga to the Caspian sea. There they collected tribute from the coastal peoples for several months, came to the mouth of the Volga and sent the king of the khazars in Itil the agreed half of the loot.
     But something went wrong. Either Igor was greedy and decided to return some of the loot to himself, or King Benjamin considered the payment small, or his guard in Itil decided to take revenge on Rus for what they robbed in the countries of their muslim brothers.
     Everyone here got into a fight, for some reason christians and pagans got involved in civil strife. Then 30 thousand people were killed from all sides.
     Benjamin was against the slaughter of the Rus army, and in retaliation for the violation of the treaty with Igor, he was not afraid of the fact that his guard consisted mainly of muslims, ordered the destruction of several minarets in Itil, explaining that there were more of them than synagogues. Ibn Fadlan in his notes linked this with the muslimization of the volga bulgarians and their attempt to strengthen their influence in Itil, to which the khazars responded quite harshly and diplomatically.
     So, Itil existed quite peacefully for almost 200 years. But in 968, a cloud also found Itil. Svyatoslav Igorevich came here with his army. By this time, the entire entourage of the king of Khazaria, along with his guards and army, was a kind of theatrical action.
     The chronicles do not report any losses on either side. Most likely, Svyatoslav gathered local merchants and offered them to trade with Kievan Rus, which at that time could offer more favorable conditions for trade due to its proximity to Europe. As for the ruso-slavs, they were closer to Russia in spirit and language.
     Those who did not agree went to the islands, of which there were hundreds in the Volga Delta. The khazar king swore an oath to Svyatoslav, but after some time, according to arab writers, he appeared in Khorezm, which is quite likely, because, despite the fact that he was a jew by religion, his royal ancestors converted to islam. No one has ever heard where Kagan went.
     After the departure of Svyatoslav, the royal court of Khazaria, apparently, was able to return, but there was a new disaster, a large water came from the upper Volga, which flooded the famous city. The chronicles tell no more about Itil. Biruni reported that Itil was still visible in the 11th century, but it was in ruins.
     Later, they tried to identify both Saxin and Sarai Batu with Itil. Juveini reports that in the encampment that is located within Itil, Batu established his residence and built a city called Sarai. But it is doubtful that the steppe people would have set their centers on the river, the level of which was so unstable.
     On the Idrisi map from 1154, al-Beida and Khamlij are shown separately from Itil, and at a considerable distance from each other. According to the earliest information, available at that time, there were no cities other than Itil in these places in Khazaria.
     There is a calculation of the location of Itil based on jewish-khazar correspondence and data from arab sources. At that time, it was a 20-hour walk from Itil to V-d-shan, while it was a 30-hour walk from Itil to Ugh-ru. The Volga Delta then extended for more than 400 km. The city of Itil, according to the count of king Joseph, stood 120 kilometers above present-day Astrakhan, not far from present-day Enotaevsk-Selitryany. The remains of the first tatar capital Sarai-Batu are preserved here, but they are not identified with Itil the chronicler.
     According to al-Istakhri and Ibn Ruste, the journey from Itil to Bulgar was 35 days, while the journey was 20 days from Itil to the country of burtases. If on horseback, then 35 kilometers a day, so from Itil to the country of burtas was 600-700 kilometers. Masudi measures the distance from Belendger (now Buinaksk) to Itil at 400 kilometers.
     Lev Gumilev, whom Artamonov pulled out of his prison, was conducting a survey of the area in the area of Enotaevsk. So, he found, that the right bank of the Volga for a thousand years shifted several kilometers from its position in the 9th century. The water level here was several meters higher in the 14th century, reaching as far as Sarai Batu. So if Itil was located on the right bank of the Volga in the area of Enotaevsk, it has long been washed away in five centuries.
     Itil has not yet been positively identified with any settlement. There are several versions of its location, but they are all based on analytics preserved in written information about Itil.
     There is an assumption that Itil in the 9th century was located on the shore of the Caspian sea in the place that a thousand years ago was the very Delta of the Volga, where the last capital of the khazars stood. Taking into account the reports of early medieval authors who claimed that the city of Itil was located in the lower reaches of the Volga-Itil, we can assume that today the capital of Khazaria rests on the bottom of the Northern Caspian sea.
     There is also an assumption that Itil was located on the earth lintel between the Don and the Volga. There really are a couple of interesting settlements there.
     There were some researchers who, very sensibly considering that the cultural layer of a large city may contain a large amount of iron waste, made a series of magnetic measurements in the north-western part of the Caspian sea. Thus, according to geomorphological data, they identify Itil on the island of Chistaya banka.
     Russian archaeologists are the most loyal and restless searchers for traces of Itil. They assumed that the settlement near the village of Samosdelka, 50 kilometers from Astrakhan, was the legendary city of Attila, since the remains of red baked bricks were found there. This place was known to historians before, but it was believed that this brick could have been made 400 years later, when the region was under Mongol rule. Apparently, after Itil, the city of Saxin appeared here.
     The excavated part of the settlement stretches for more than two kilometers along the right bank of the Old Volga, also called Biryul. The island, raised to a height of up to three meters, and stretched along the old dried-up riverbed, surrounded on all sides by dried-up channels, is considered the place where the central part of the city of Itil was located.
     Further to the east, the remains of the second part of the ancient khazar city have been preserved. It stretches for one kilometer of the left bank of the Old Volga, also on a hill, of which only a hillock remains today.
     Here, archaeologists note a large number of bases on which yurts, temporary settlements of the nomadic part of the khazar Union of tribes, stood. Such yurts were standing with all the khazar cities. They are as much an integral attribute of the khazar sociocult as gray-clay dishes and walls of fortresses made of raw white bricks.
     The city was built in the middle of the 8th century. In the following centuries, it was constantly completed and rebuilt. However, the first fortified khazar settlement appeared here in the 7th century. The pottery recovered by archaeologists from the settlement is gray clay, which indicates that the main population of the central part of the city were bulgars and oguz.
     The Citadel of the central part of the city on the island was triangular in plan, built of baked bricks, of which only the Royal apartments were built in the Khazarus state. The width of the walls at the base reached 20 meters or more. Protective ramparts were built around the walls, it seems not so much from enemies as from flooding.
     During the Golden Horde, the city on the island was called Summerkent, the territory of which did not occupy a third of the khazar territory.
     There are quite thoughtful suggestions that Atil could well be underground, where the angry Tengri Khan, the son of God, whom his father sent to earth to fight the enemies of God, sent him for the fact that its inhabitants gave themselves to the other faiths and accepted the other gods into their hearts. They now wander in the dungeons and do not find exits, only Magicians know how to enter there, they tell the father of Tengri Khan how much his children have become righteous and whether they can be released to earth.
     When, at last, they are corrected, then the waves of the Caspian will rush to the North and release the locks of the caves that are now hidden by the waters, and then the khazars and all the peoples with them will get out on the banks of the Volga and create a New Khazaria in the era of the New Faith.
     In the khazar capital of Itil, there was a place where two people, passing each other, exchanged their fates and names, and continued to live on, exchanging life roles like hats. For some reason, there were always more khazars waiting in line near this place to change their fate.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++