The Ideology Of The Ninth And Tenth Centuries 93
foremost as “sages” and “judges”, and not as warriors, administrators, builders,
legislators, etc.”.340
V. Petrukhin also traces Old Testament motifs in the Cambridge Document.
After the Exodus from Egypt and the settlement in the Promised Land
came the Period of Judges, during which the judge Samuel anointed to the
throne Saul, the first ruler. “In this manner, the compiler of the Cambridge
Document [.. .] explains the origin of the diarchy among the Khazars in a
“historical” way (by using the Biblical story)”.341 Examining the text of Joseph,
V. Petrukhin concludes that it is unclear who in fact is the khagan—Bulan
or the so-called great prince. In his opinion, the succession king-princes-slaves-
the people resembles the Turkic “triad” khagan-beks-the people, although
there are some Biblical parallels.342
Actually, the ambiguity in the images of Sabriel and Bulan hinders the
interpretation of the information on dual kingship, contained in the Khazar
Correspondence. The account of the Cambridge Document is more definite.
Firstly, the people of Khazaria chose one of the sages as judge, named KGN
(khagan) in the Khazar language. It is not clear whether the sage, appointed
to this position, was among the Jewish sages that took part in the religious dis-
pute or was just one of the wise men of Khazaria. The first possibility is rightly
rejected by D. Dunlop, on account of which he regards the whole account as
false (see above). One of the main characteristics of the Turkic khagans is wis-
dom. Thus, in this sense there is no great discrepancy between the Cambridge
Document and the perception of the khagans. It is also quite logical that the
warlord Sabriel was proclaimed king, and since later on in the Document the
same title is used for both Benjamin, Aaron and Joseph, Sabriel can be seen as
the ancestor of the Khazar ruling dynasty, the representatives of which bear
the title of bek in Eastern sources. This is the reason for Sabriel to be identified
with Bulan in Joseph’s letter.343 And this is where the main problem lies, since
the description of Bulan, given by the Khazar ruler, is not so clear. First of all,
Bulan is a king whose title has nothing to do with the Judaization process of
Khazaria. Directly after stating that Bulan was king, Joseph emphasizes that
he was also wise. Bulan believed in God; he expelled the diviners and idola-
ters from the land and sought protection and patronage from God. Later on
in the letter comes the episode of the angel that appeared firstly to Bulan and
then, by his request—to the so-called great prince who was among the people.
340 Stepanov 2003a, 224.
341 Petrukhin 2001, 76.
342 Petrukhin 2001, 76.
343 See the text in Golb and Pritsak 1997, 138–142.