86 CHAPTER 1
human eyes.309 It can be compared to accounts from Eastern sources, in which
the reign (and life) of the Khazar khagans last for 40 years, in a similar isolation
(only certain people may see them and only after having been ritually cleansed
by fire).
According to Eastern sources from the ninth and tenth centuries, the Khazar
khagan had 25 wives, all of whom were daughters of 25 subordinate rulers.310
On the basis of the connection between the zmei (dragon) and royal sover-
eignty, it is worth wondering whether these 25 “kingly” daughters did not actu-
ally legitimize the khagan’s power over the lands of their fathers. Ibn Fadlan
mentions that the daughter of Almish, the ruler of the Volga Bulgars, was taken
by force (with a military expedition) to the harem of the Khazar khagan, after
which she died. The khagan then demanded another daughter. Fearing a new
military attack, the Bulgar ruler gave his second daughter to the ruler of the
Esegel tribe that was subordinate to him. While he waited for the Khazars to
organize a second military campaign, he also wrote to the Caliph in Baghdad.311
The Khazar dual kingdom suggests an ideology able to unite the Khazar
nobility and the diverse population, subject to it. It is based on the mytho-
logical understanding of the world order and the divine origin of power, which
defines its sacralized character. The differences in the interpretations of the
rulers’ authority are a reflection of the steppe tradition. Celestial grace is
received during the ritual of enthronization. From then on, the ruler becomes
identical to the original king (the culture hero) and assumes great responsi-
bilities. He becomes responsible for the existence of the order (the Universe)
and the continuation of life. This “responsibility on the cosmic plane”312 is not
always compatible with political power. Artifacts such as the silver vessel from
309 Georgieva 1993, 109; Benovska-Subkova 1995, 43 and 100.
310 Ibn Fadlan. Puteshestvie do Volzhska Bulgariia, in Naumov 1992, 76; see also Dunlop 1967,
109; Artamonov 1962, 190–191.
311 Kovalevskii 1956, 141. It is known that two more ruler’s daughters were sent to the harem
of the Khazar khagan: the daughter of the ruler of the Caucasian Huns in the 680s and
the daughter of the Alanian ruler, with the latter, according to the Cambridge Document,
becoming the wife of Joseph after the subjugation of Alania (during the reign of his father,
Aaron). See the text in Golb and Pritsak 1997, 141. See also Tortika 2006a, 212–215.
312 Eliade 1998a, 67; the “offering” of the sacral king in sacrifice (in the way Mithra is) reflects
this ancient system of beliefs. “According to the primitive view represented in those rites,
the world is to be not improved but affirmed, even in what to the rationalizing moral-
ist appears to be its most horrible, ungodlike sinfulness: for precisely in that resides its
creative force, since out of death, decay, violence, and pain comes life [.. .] The virtue
of heroism must lie, therefore, not in the will to reform, but in the courage to affirm the
nature of the Universe” (Campbell 2005, 267).