66 chapter one
who spent the period between 575 and 585 A.D. at the court of these
khagans. Compared to Buddhism, the other great world religions, e.g.
Zoroastrism, Nestorian Christianity, and Manichaeism, also had some
signifi cance for the Turks in the sixth–eighth century, but it was not
that great.^192
In principle, the nomadic confederations’ choice of own religion was
determined by the degree to which that religion guaranteed, among
other things, a confessional opposition towards the main rival. Such
choice provided an opportunity for a higher level of stability of the
own identity. Of course, the most important role was played by the
Old Turkic religion—the Tengrism, and the ancestors’ cult as well,
which were thought to be the main ‘pillar’ of the Turkic identity as
they were regarded as originally own.^193
Th e Khazars made a diff erent choice as, in the ninth century, the
aristocracy preferred to be converted to Judaism as opposed to
the Christianity of the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic faith of
the Arabs, who were their most powerful neighbors (of course, the
choice was highly infl uenced by the commercial interests as well).^194
However, the Syrian author Zacharias Rhetor writes that Christian
preachers appeared on the Hun territories in the Caspian steppes as
early as the mid-sixth century, before the establishment of the Khazar
khaganate and Qubrat’s “Great Bulgaria”. Th e Bulgars and the Khazars
are explicitly mentioned among the local people living there. Zacharias
Rhetor notes:
Aft er the Byzantine captives were taken to the Huns they stayed with
them for thirty four years. Th en a man named Kardost, a bishop in
Arran [Caucasian Albania, i.e. present-day Azerbeidzhan—my note, Ts.
St.], had a vision of an angel as this bishop himself told us....^195By order of the angel Kardost and seven more people went to the
Huns and not only converted many people on their territories to the
(^192) Sinor 1990, 314 f. For these religions also see, Klimkeit 2000, 69–81.
(^193) For the special cult see, Sinor 1990, 314; Roux 1987 (Vol. 14), 401–403; Roux
1987 (Vol. 15), 91–92.
(^194) Golden 1980, 15, 39 ff .; Khazanov 1994, 16. For Judaism in Khazaria also see,
Pritsak 1981, 261–281; Zuckerman 1995, 237–270; Shepard 1998, 11–34; Kovalev
2005, 220–253; most recently see, Golden 2007, 123–162. Pritsak 1981, 280–281, pays
special attention to the Jewish traders ar-Radhaniia/ar-Razaniia in Khazaria; in his
opinion, they had a tremendous infl uence on the choice of Judaism as an offi cial state
religion of the Khazar elite.
(^195) Pigulevskaia 1976, 228–229.