x Preface
beliefs is also manifested in Khazaria’s state ideology. But the degree of inte-
gration between the various religious systems as well as the ideological basis of
Khazar power still remains unclear.
In recent years, the development of theories on the causes for the decline
of Khazaria has been mainly determined by the results of archaeological
research, since written sources do not provide enough information and thus
give rise to multiple conflicting hypotheses in historiography. This study is
therefore focused not on Khazar historiography in general, but on its develop-
ment in recent decades. Nowadays, archeological data has become the basic
and constantly renewable source material that gradually replaces the para-
mount importance of written records. Many of the viewpoints accepted by
historians are already obsolete, and the image of the khaganate in the tenth
century can be shown from another perspective—one that does not indicate
decline, but development and even growth. In addition, common traits can be
found in areas, which are considerably distant from each other, regardless of
their ethnic or religious characteristics.
The goal of this study is to give a new perspective on Khazaria during the
second half of the ninth and the tenth centuries by re-examining all the dif-
ferent, often well established views on this topic. The lack of sufficient writ-
ten sources requires the use of additional material on steppe statehood in that
period, as well as some deviations that are not always directly related to the
Khazar issues. The topics selected in the book are consistent with the basic
scientific theories, explaining the reasons for the decline of Khazaria after the
mid-ninth century.
The literature on Khazaria is immense and it is impossible to examine all the
existing scientific viewpoints here.6 Therefore, various scientific trends have
been differentiated, along with their main representatives. Their theories have
all been traced and analyzed in the five chapters of this book. Generally speak-
ing, a kind of “division line” can be seen in modern historiography between the
preference for information acquired from written records and that obtained
from archaeological data. The knowledge about large areas of the Khazar
Khaganate comes solely from archaeological excavations. In fact, the material
and written records (mainly from Arabic and Persian-language authors dating
from the ninth and tenth centuries) complement one another. It is noteworthy
that in Soviet historiography and in the Russian and Ukrainian historiographies
that have succeeded it, the predominant place in the research on Khazaria is
6 On the historiography of Khazaria, see, for example, Artamonov 1962, 7–39; Novosel’tsev
1990, 3–66. Lastly, see Golden 2007a; on the monuments of the Saltovo-Maiaki archaeologi-
cal culture specifically, see Tortika 2006a, 14–31.