Khazaria And International Trade In Eastern Europe 159
mentions only Muslim traders and tradesmen in Itil.42 Until the Khazar capital
is found, its significance for international trade can only be assessed on the
basis of written sources.43 And they portray Itil and Bolgar as part of one trade
route. Assuming that Bolgar grew into a large center during the tenth century,
it should be borne in mind that the accounts of Itil that speak of a Muslim
trade community in it, refer to the same century. The earliest of these accounts
belongs to Ibn Rustah (who wrote between 903 and 913).44 Al-Masudi also
tells of the constant movement of ships between the lands of the Bulgars and
the Khazars.45 It can be thus argued that Bolgar and Itil developed simultane-
ously as trade centers, located on the Volga and closely related to Middle Asia.
The decreased significance or discontinuance of the dirham trade along the
Caucasian-Don route could hardly have had a prominent effect on Khazaria,
whose capital continued to be an important market center for Eastern trade.
And the influence of Iranian and Middle Asian art on the Khazar art style
of the first half of the tenth century shows that Itil retained its close contacts
with the East.46
Even if the route along the Don had mostly lost its significance for Eastern
trade, it continued to be used in the Khazar Khaganate. The appearance of
Sarkel also changed. During the ninth century, it served the land trade between
Europe and Asia and was part of the Silk Road. For this purpose, two cara-
vanserais were erected in Sarkel, one of which was subsequently destroyed in
the tenth century. By the early tenth century, silk from China was no longer
42 Zakhoder 1962, 155 and 188.
43 Excavations in the vicinity of Astrakhan (the Samosdelka hillfort) in recent years have
given grounds for the assertion that Itil has been found. This can be neither confirmed
nor rejected until the study of a larger part of the hillfort is completed in the next few
archaeological seasons. See Zilivinskaia and Vasilev 2006. Especially noteworthy is the
evidence of a sizeable presence of Bulgar population in Samosdelka during the ninth
to tenth centuries, whose pottery is similar to that of the Volga Bulgars (Zilivinskaia and
Vasilev 2006, 52).
44 Zahoder 1962, 186. Konovalova 2000, 129 stresses that accounts of a water route between
Itil and Bolgar first appear during the tenth century in the works of Al-Istakhri and Ibn
Hawqal. They indicate that this route became busier by the mid-tenth century. Al-Balkhi,
Al-Istakhri and Ibn Hawqal all emphasize the significance of Khazaria, Byzantium and
Danube Bulgaria for the Rus’ merchants (Dunlop 1967, 99; Garkavi 1870, 221 and 277). Ibn
Rustah mentions the trade between the Khazars, Volga Bulgars and the Rus’, as well as the
fact that the Rus’ sold their slaves in Itil and Bolgar (Garkavi 1870, 263 and 267).
45 Quoted from Darkevich 1976, 149.
46 Pletneva 1996, 155.