xii Preface
Special attention has also been paid to various theoretical models concern-
ing the steppe statehood and nomadic economy,16 which often serve as a basis
for explaining the processes in Khazaria. This has implied the need to seek
examples for comparison in a much wider geographical range of the steppe
zone and its surrounding areas, as well as to indicate, to the extent possible, the
ideological proximity between them.
In order to resolve a number of issues regarding Khazar history, compari-
sons from Danube Bulgaria have been sought intentionally and purposefully.
There are several reasons for this. One of them is, of course, the undeniable
proximity between the two countries, conditioned by their common roots that
are related to the steppe tradition. The Bulgarian material therefore often com-
plements or clarifies the Khazar one. It should also be noted that ever since
the establishment of the Khazar Khaganate the Bulgarian population consti-
tuted if not the largest, quite a considerable in size community/ties, whose
settlements and monuments can be found throughout the whole territory of
the khaganate, from Dagestan and the Volga to the Crimea, the Don and the
Severski Donets. Despite P. Golden’s opinion that many aspects of the Khazar
problem are insolvable without the Bulgars,17 in most of the works on Khazaria
the information from Danube Bulgaria is either very poorly represented or
completely missing. The aim of the present work is to draw attention to both
monuments and written records from the Bulgarian Middle Ages, as well as
to information drawn from Bulgarian folklore. Although some data from the
Bulgarian ethnographic material (collected mainly during the nineteenth
century), presumably pertaining to Bulgarian paganism, still needs to be addi-
tionally researched, the proposed examples are directly related to the Khazar
problems and thus cannot be ignored.
One of goals of the book is to shed light on the problematic issues in
Khazaria’s history in the ninth and tenth centuries. This period is linked to pre-
vious centuries in the history of both the Khazars and the Eurasian Steppe
tribes and states. Specific events and accounts from preceding time periods
have therefore been analyzed, when necessary, as they help in clarifying the
nature of the Khazar society in the ninth and tenth centuries, but also show
its genetic continuity with steppe communities of the past. Wherever possible
and to the extent possible, an attempt has been made to reject the already
16 See for instance Barfield 2001a and 2001b; Di Cosmo 1994; Khazanov 1994; Kliashtornyi
and Sultanov 2000; Kradin 2001a, 21–32 and 2001b; Kradin and Skrynnikova 2006; Pletneva
1982.
17 Golden 1980, 42.