96 CHAPTER 1
If the story in the Cambridge Document about the Alanian woman that became
the wife of Joseph and Ibn Fadlan’s account of the Volga Bulgar woman, possi-
bly married to Aaron (as A. Tortika assumes),353 refer to the above-mentioned
25 women, then they depict Aaron and Joseph more as khagans than as beks.
Given the strong focus on the Jewish tradition in the Cambridge Document,
it is worth wondering what exactly the author means by the term KGN and
whether it actually refers to the khagan. Is it not possible that this term simply
conveys the Jewish title kogen, even though the Document specifically states
that KGN was the title of the judge in the Khazar language? It could also be that
it does not refer to the khagan, but to his vicegerent, if he was related to the
Khazar dual kingship and if the bek in Khazaria resembled a supreme judge,
as is stated in the Eastern sources. This idea is, of course, merely hypothetical.
I am mentioning it only because such a possibility nevertheless exists. As we
shall see later on, in the Magyar diarchy, which most likely originated from the
Khazar one, the vicegerent had judicial functions.
Among the signatories of the The Kievan Letter (in the tenth century) from
the local Jewish community there are two whose names are followed by the
title Kogen and one with the title Levite.354 Assuming that the kogen title was
associated with the Khazar khagan, it would not be logical to presume that it
was widely used in communities that were subjugated or related to the Khazar
Khaganate. An interesting record by Al-Yaqubi (897) mentions the name of
the vicegerent of the Khazar khagan—Yazid Bulash.355 Such a name does not
appear in the Cambridge Document, or in Joseph’s Reply. It can be concluded
from the account of the Khazar ruler that Yazid Bulash lived during the reign
of Obadiah. Or he could have been his vicegerent. However, since the names of
Obadiah’s predecessors after Bulan are unknown to us, it is also possible that
Yazid Bulash was the Khazar bek prior to Obadiah.
The accounts of Arabo-Persian authors from the tenth century on the
Khazar dual kingship clearly indicate the place and role of the khagan and bek
in Khazaria. But do these accounts really reflect the reality there? The prob-
lem lies in the similar information that the Eastern authors also give on the
form of government of the Rus’ and the Magyars. Of particular importance
are the accounts regarding the Magyars whose structure and form of govern-
353 Tortika 2006a, 214; Ibn Fadlan does not mention Aaron by name, but states only that
the Bulgar woman was married to the Khazar king (Ibn Fadlan. Puteshestvie do Volzhska
Bulgariia, in Naumov 1992, 62).
354 Golb and Pritsak 1997, 31 and 42–43.
355 Beilis 1986, 141.