The Ideology Of The Ninth And Tenth Centuries 91
of the Document had gathered of the later situation of the Khazar Khagans
and possible confusion of the title with the Hebrew word for “wise”, hākhām”. 330
M. Artamonov also assumes that Sabriel was the Jewish name of Bulan.
The information in the Cambridge Document on the judge/khagan and the
king presents the Khazar dual kingship as we know it from Eastern sources
of the tenth century; and regarding the khagan, a parallel can be made with
the ancient Jewish judges.331 In A. Novosel’tsev’s opinion, the great prince
(lit. “big head”) that Joseph mentions provides the only indication of the exis-
tence of a khagan among the Khazars. Bulan was the precursor of the bek,
who succeeded in convincing the khagan to convert to Judaism. According to
the scholar, the image of the khagan, as shown in the Cambridge Document, is
distorted. On the one hand, the khagan appears after the Judaization, but on
the other, “he is present in the form of a sage (khokhem), which “the people of
the land” [.. .] chose as judge (shofet), and those judges (khagans) exist to this
day... The Cambridge Document writer attempted to depict the khagan as the
supreme arbiter of power, which in fact and according to his own account lay
in the lands of another. This other person was called Ha-Sar Ha-Gadol (the
great prince—Author’s note), i.e. a term that Joseph himself uses for the kha-
gan! However, it is immediately clarified that the Khazars made this Ha-Sar
Ha-Gadol king, and King Joseph stemmed from him”.332
According to D. Shapira, the title of ‘judge’ (shofet) should not be interpreted
literally (in the modern sense of the word), but in the Biblical sense; in other
words the khagan accepted an ancient, obsolete title that was inherited from
that of the kings.333 The ancient Jewish judges actually represented the “secu-
lar”, “executive” power, while the title of kogen (if this is the word hiding behind
the initials KGN) is related to the clergy. If both titles refer to the khagan, then
it is not clear what the writer of the Cambridge Document meant to say. The
last judge of Israel, Samuel, was forced to establish a kingly institution at the
request of the people who wanted a king to judge them “as it was amongst all
peoples”.334 If such a generalization is possible, judging is an activity that in the
Biblical sense should reflect the “secular” prerogatives of power. On the other
hand, the titles of kogen and levi (Levite) were hereditary and intended only for
330 Dunlop 1967, 158–161.
331 Artamonov 1962, 275–276 and 411.
332 Novosel’tsev 1990, 136–137; see also Shapira 2005a, 507–509.
333 Shapira 2005a, 507; according to Kovalev 2005a, 233, the shofet title indicated that after
the Judaization the role of the khagan acquired the traits of an ancient Judaic religious
institution, which left him outside the prerogatives of secular authority.
334 Lecheva 2003, 7–8.