Khazaria And International Trade In Eastern Europe 167
Cordoba”79 is quite inaccurate. Also: “By the mid-tenth century [.. .] Khazaria’s
economy relied solely on the broad international trade relations, established
with near and distant peoples and lands. Transit trade played a major role in
this [.. .] Khazaria turned into a typical parasitic state [.. .] a small parasitic
khanate that hindered the economic development of neighboring countries
and disrupted their trade with the East”.80 Following the Marxist explanatory
model, M. Artamonov seeks the reasons for this in Khazaria’s Judaization.
“From this moment on, the government lost its contact with the people and in
place of stock-breeding and agriculture came the era of transit trade and the
parasitic enrichment of the ruling elite”.81 It can hardly be seriously argued that
agriculture and stock-breeding ceased to develop in the first half of the ninth
century, when the Khazar elite adopted Judaism.
P. Golden does not accept M. Artamonov’s view, believing it to be “an arbi-
trary assumption not corroborated by historical facts”.82 He justifies his posi-
tion with the traditions of the nomad peoples. The centralized states that they
created (including the Khazar Khaganate and the Golden Horde) ensured the
security of trade in exchange for the customs duties they received.83 Overall, it
is generally accepted that trade with agricultural societies was more important
for the Eurasian nomads than for the farmers themselves. The nomads consid-
ered trade a prestigious occupation and were prepared to assert their right to
access the markets of the sedentary societies by military means, if necessary.84
International caravan trade that passed through the steppe was carried out
by merchants from sedentary countries that specialized in this activity, such
as the Sogdians who ruled the trade in the Turkic Khaganate. The road north
that passed through the Khazar Khaganate, was probably created by mer-
chants from Khwarezm and the countries, subordinate to the Arab Caliphate.
“Caravan trade was always linked first and foremost to the political and eco-
nomic situation in a wide outside world, which sometimes comprised several
continents. Nomads could sometimes join in this trade, utilizing it in their own
interests. But, as a rule, they neither created this trade, nor did they determine
its development and its fortune”.85 These words are, of course, more appro-
priate for the Pechenegs than for the Khazar Khaganate, which undoubtedly
79 Gumilev 1997, 225.
80 Pletneva 1976, 68–69
81 Artamonov 1962, 457.
82 Golden 1980, 111.
83 Golden 1980, 110.
84 Khazanov 1975, 256.
85 Khazanov 1994, 211.