162 CHAPTER 3
Christians and subjects of Byzantium throughout the larger part of their his-
tory, they defended their city from attacks from the north.58
During the ninth century, commercial ties between the Rus’ and
Chersonesus were weak. The road from Scandinavia to the Black Sea along the
Dnieper developed only at the end of the century, and besides, Chersonesus
could not compete with the large market centers of the East. Much more
important during this period were the Khazar centers in the Crimea and on
the Taman Peninsula, like Samkerts (Tmutarakan), Bosporus and Phanagoria.
Chersonesus began to rise into prominence during the second half of the cen-
tury and minted its own coins from 866/867 till the end of the tenth century.
But even during the tenth century trade between the city and the Rus’ was not
very developed. The Pechenegs were the main intermediary between them.59
Relations between the Rus’ and Byzantium in the south were conducted
directly through Constantinople. From the beginning of the tenth century,
these relations became more and more important to Kievan Rus’. The Rus’
state thus turned towards Byzantium, which reached its greatest power dur-
ing the second half of the tenth century and the early eleventh century. At the
same time, traditional allied relations between Byzantium and Khazaria dete-
riorated.60 The causes for this can be sought in the Khazars’ constant attempts
to revive the trade ties with the Abbasids by supporting them in their fight
against the Deilemites. The Abbasids were the main enemy of Byzantium on
its eastern border. Byzantine-Rus’ trade largely hindered contacts between the
Khazars and Western Europe. Probably because of this the Khazar Khaganate
strengthened its ties with the Islamic world. The Khazar Khaganate kept its
influence in the Crimea and the Taman Peninsula, thus controlling a consid-
erable part of the Black Sea trade. There is no evidence that the Khazars had
any direct contacts with Constantinople or Danube Bulgaria. There is circum-
stantial evidence regarding the city of Trabzon, where, according to Al-Masudi,
“merchants assembled from all nations—Byzantines, Moslems, Armenians,
58 Obolenski 2001, 42–46; during the second half of the ninth century and in the tenth cen-
tury, the territory of Crimean Gothia was ruled by the Khazar Khaganate. It contained one
of the largest Khazar centers, Mangup (Doros) (Baranov 1990, 58). See also Gertsen 2002.
59 Iakobson 1973, 58; Shepard and Franklin 2000, 137–138.
60 Persecutions against Jews in Byzantium during the reign of the Byzantine emperor
Romanos I Lekapenos (919–944) could have been a significant cause, but also a conse-
quence of the Byzantine-Khazar conflict. They are also mentioned in the Cambridge
Document, which links the Byzantine policy with the Rus’-Khazar confrontation in the
Crimea in 939–940. According to Al-Masudi, many Byzantine Jews fled to Khazaria. See
for instance, Golb and Pritsak 1997, 141 and 163–164.