42 chapter one
them think of themselves as far freer people, in comparison to their
neighbors to the south.
Part of these names-signs of the otherness were highly appreciated
and accepted by the nomadic aristocracy. Th e Orkhon Turkic inscrip-
tion of Kül-tegin (ca. 732 A.D.), for example, explicitly states that the
Turks received from the Chinese gold, silver, silk and all this was ‘lav-
ishly garnished’ with the sweet and seductive words of the Chinese.^91
Th e elite was very well acquainted with the economic benefi ts and the
symbolic value of possessing such luxurious goods, especially purple
garments, silk and exquisite golden adornments and vessels produced
in the workshops of China, Iran, or Byzantium. Th is otherness did not
scare the nomads and they willingly accepted it in their own commu-
nity. Th e accumulation of wealth of any kind for the nomads was in
fact a function of their notions about the high prestige and the strong
power-source of life, good luck and good fortune that was ‘locked’
(especially) in the gold. Th e old Iranians called it hvarena/farn, and
the Turkic speaking tribes—qut.^92 Due to their striving for all these
goods—symbols of prestige, luxury, wealth, and glory, and due to the
easy way they spent them (at least that was how it seemed to the rep-
resentatives of the sedentary civilizations), the nomads earned a repu-
tation as greedy and ungrateful neighbors in the eyes of the sedentary
world that regularly paid tributes to them.^93
Th erefore, in the steppe there was a mixed attitude towards seden-
tary civilizations—the wealth attracted and at the same time repelled
the leery nomads, because they related it to seduction and moral decay.
Th e refi ned civilization hidden behind the walls it had erected both
lured the nomads and made them despise it.^94
Freedom for steppe Eurasia had a mainly spatial dimension; it was
freedom-in-the-nature and was a result of a traditionally high level of
mobility. However, the unaware nomads were not free from another
(^91) Stebleva 1965, 108, 112.
(^92) For them see, Golden 1980, 192–196; Golden 1992, 147, 167; Stepanov 2001,
10–11; Litvinskii 1968.
(^93) See Prokopii [Procopius] 1983, 49: “He [Justinian I] summoned without any rea-
son the chiefs of the Huns and because of insane generosity he gave them big amounts
of money, making this as if a pledge for [their] friendship”. Also see, Christian 1998,
267; Mackerras 1972 (2nd ed.), 86; Honey 1990, 172–173. Also, cf. the description of
the Savirs as greedy, rapacious and willing to live at others’ expense in, Agafi i Mirin-
eiskii [Agathias] 1996, 143.
(^94) Kardini [Cardini] 1987, 38 f.