Khazaran on Itil

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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Khazaran on Itil **
     Also Khozarin from Gumilev; Khazaran shopping at Artamonov; Khazarin in Ibn Haukal and Hasday Ibn Ishaq; Khazar at Muqaddasi; Sarashen is a ancient name of; al-Beida from the arabs.
     Khazaran is considered one of the popular names of Khazaria itself, which has survived since the presence in Scythia of the sarmatian indo-iranian vocabulary of the late time of the exodus of the Aryan tribes to the south.
     Apparently, Khazaran was the eastern part of Itil, although some sources it is referred to the western part of the capital of the Khazarus State. It was a major trade center not only in Khazaria, but also in Central Asia, where all the trade routes of Central Asia leading to Europe converged. There was also a major port here.
     Kevin Brook reports that Khazaran was located near the city of Itil on the Volga river and was a major commercial center, suggesting that it was a separate city from Itil that had a jewish community. There was also a community of the karaite persuasion, the turkic hearth of which, most likely, took shape in Khazaran.
     Arab sources report that when Rus attacks the slavs, prisoners are taken by ship to Khazaran and Bulkar and sold there.
     The general consensus is that Khazaran was one of the parts of the city of Itil. Apparently, the khazars themselves called their city Khazaran, because they already used the name Itil to refer to the Itil river, and this hydronym existed even before the khazars came here.
     Khazaran in historical information is most often called the eastern part of the city on the left bank of the river. Here was the main trade. Merchants and craftsmen stayed here. The ethnic composition was accordingly very diverse.
     There are options for placing the Khazaran on the right bank of the river. So Ibn Haukal in his first chronicles places the Khazaran in the west, and in subsequent chronicles the Khazaran is located in the east.
     In one of the russian chronicles it is reported that Svyatoslav conquered the country Khazaran, and then Itil.
     Gumilyov believes that there were many jews among the merchants of Khazaran, which is why there must be remnants of synagogues in Khazaran. The other part of the city of Itil, on the opposite bank, which was 5 kilometers away, seemed to be a completely different city. In addition, there were other people with a different religion. Adherence to a particular religion at all times imposed special distinctive signs on the person's forehead.
     Validi Togan found an inscription on the map in Ibn Haukal's manuscript in Istanbul, in which, with reference to Hasdai ibn Ishaq, it is said that the Caucasian chain is connected with the mountains of Armenia and reaches the city of Khazaran. Hasdai allegedly visited these countries himself and met with their main kings and nobles.
     Ibn Haukal claimed that Itil consisted of two parts. The western one, which is also smaller, is called Itil. The eastern one, the big one, is called Khazaran, and Muqaddasi called it Khazar.
     Ibn Haukal, according to Hasdai, noted that the Khazar King lived in Itil, that is, in the western part of the city. Here lived the royal retinue, security, part of the army, servants. Merchants and artisans lived in Khazaran on the eastern bank, and warehouses with goods were also located there. This was the commercial part of the city.
     Al-Bekri, on the other hand, notes that most of the city was on the western side of the river. From which we can conclude that by the most part he understood the administrative part of the city, higher in its position.
     It can be assumed that the relative size of the Commercial and Administrative parts of the city of Itil changed, while the chronology of reports shows that the eastern part of the city, the commercial part, gradually increased in comparison with the western one.
     Judging by the name of Khanbalyk, it should have been a Khan's city, that is, a western one. Also, judging by the naming, Khazaran was a city of khazars of ordinary. It is also called Sarashen, which means Yellow Town and al-Beida, which means White city.
     Artamonov believes that naming parts of the khazar capital, Khanbalik and Sarashen more ancient than Itil and Khazaran. In his opinion, Khanbalyk and Sarashen belong to the 9th-century source, and the names Itil and Khazaran appear in the geographies of the 10th century.
     The size of both cities is quite decent even by today's standards. Both were up to 6 kilometers long and 1 kilometer wide.
     The population here was about 12 thousand. This is without the Royal army. But this figure fluctuated depending on the time of year and political circumstances. In the summer, the main part of the khazars went to pastures, and if a military company was planned, then an army of up to 15 thousand went to war, most often in Transcaucasia.
     Ibn Haukal noted that the palaces of the nobility in the commercial part of Itil, in Khazaran, were built of mud bricks, only the King had the right to use baked bricks. The artisans dwellings were simpler, made of felt stretched over wooden walls.
     The city of Khazaran was supported by taxes, which accounted for a tenth of the turnover. The main merchants in Khasaran was a Merchant Rus.
     There were many muslims by religion. There were many jews, christians, and pagans here; among them were slavs and russ.
     According to Masudi, the King and his servants belong to the category of jews. Ordinary khazars continued to believe in Tengrikhan, although by the end of the 10th century, their faith in Tengri was shaken by the arabs, who were a more successful strategy with their islam.
     At the end of the 10th century, according to Ibn Haukal, there were many russians in Khazaran, who, when Vladimir Svyatoslavich's Army approached Itil, everyone went over to the side of the Rus army and plundered the district.
     After the pogrom of Itil and Khazaran, committed by Rus headed by Prince Vladimir, the population of the cities scattered somewhere, but after Vladimir left, they soon returned to their old places and went about the same business as before, waiting for new patrons.
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