the ‘outside’ other 67
Christian religion, but also translated the Gospels into their language.
He stayed there for fourteen years and aft er that Christianity was
preached by “another Armenian bishop named Macarius”, who lived
with the Huns, built “a church made of mud-bricks” for them and
taught them “to plant grains”, fruit trees, and vegetables. Zacharias
Rhetor adds that the rulers of these Hun people were content with the
novelties and respected the Christian preachers very much. Th ey con-
sidered them their teachers and were anxious to invite them to their
domains. By the mid-sixth century these preachers still lived with the
Huns. Everything done by the missionaries was aimed at proving how
necessary they were to the “barbarians” as their civilizers.^196
Later on, ca. 682 (or 684?) A.D., the mission led by bishop Israel
from Caucasian Albania came to the Khazar khaganate and aft er long
discussions and advice managed to persuade the local ruler Alp Ilituer
(elteber?), a deputy of the Khazar khagan, to be converted to Christian-
ity.^197 It, of course, happened aft er the “competition of the religions”,^198
which was traditional for the nomads and was most oft en performed in
the form of a dispute. Th e Arabic and Jewish written sources provide
information about these disputes when the Khazars were converted to
the Jewish religion.^199 Th ere was such a dispute between St. Constan-
tine-Cyril, the so-called Philosopher, and the khagan when the future
“apostle of the Slavs” was head of the mission at the khagan’s court
in 861 A.D.^200 It is certain that the Jewish infl uence in the khaganate
dates back earlier than the ninth century, and the Jewish presence in
(^196) Pigulevskaia 1976, 231–232; Ivanov 2001, 22.
(^197) Novosel’tsev 1990, 145–147; Movses Kalankatuatsi [Daskhuranci] 1984, 124–131.
Ivanov 2001, 22, notes those Christian dogma and teachings that mostly impressed
Alp-Ilituer: it was not the concept that one should not use violence but the promise
for military successes (cf. the victory of Constantine the Great aft er his dream and the
sign “in haec signo vinces”) which was declared explicitly by the master of the Huns
in front of his entourage and, thus, became one of the main motifs for Huns to accept
Christianity. 198
Khazanov 1994, 31 and n. 2; Zuckerman 1995, 241; Movses Kalankatuatsi
[Daskhuranci] 1984, 129. 199
Dunlop 1954, 90–91, 117; Kokovtsov 1932, 77–80, 94–97, 113–116; Zakhoder
1962, 153–154. 200
Zakhoder 1962, 153; Zuckerman 1995, 245; Shepard 1998, 13–18; Ivanov 2003,
149–151. According to Khazanov 1994, 17 f., the Byzantines tried to baptize Khaz-
aria ca. 860 A.D. and in fact St. Cyril was sent there exactly for this mission. Contra:
Kovalev 2005, 220–253, and Kovalev 2004, 97–129. For a similar dispute between
Manichaeans and Uighur shamans ordered by the Uighur khagan in 762 A.D. see,
Gumilev 2004, 423–424.