The Khazar Economy: Economic Integration or Disintegration? 193
the European and Asian Sarmatia.92 Crossing these rivers that divided the
steppe expanses was no easy task and was mostly done via suitable fords. They
were, however, few in number. In the sixth century, Procopius of Caesarea
describes how a deer showed the Kutrigurs and Utrigurs the way across the
border, marked by the Don and the Sea of Azov. The border which until then
they “had never even tried or thought of trying” to cross.93 In the tenth century,
Constantine Porphyrogenitus mentions the Don as the border of the Khazar
territories, beyond which stretched the lands of the Pechenegs. This boundary
was also marked by Sarkel, which was built with Byzantine help in the 830s.94
If the Don is to be seen as a border river for Khazaria, it should be kept in
mind that all the agricultural areas of the khaganate were actually situated in
more or less border territories. This is true for the settlements in the Crimea,
north of the Caucasus, and in Dagestan. If Sarkel was located on the border,
then so was Itil. The Volga River, on which the Khazar capital was built, was just
as boundary for Khazaria, as the Don. In the eighth and ninth centuries, east
of the Volga stretched the pastures of the Pechenegs, and in the tenth century,
they were the Oghuz pastures. Likewise, west of the Don began the pastures
of various nomadic communities—the Magyars in the ninth century and the
Pechenegs in the tenth. It is unnecessary to determine with precision a clearly
defined boundary that marks the limits of the Khazar territories. The Don can-
not be seen as an ethnic border, since the same ethnic groups could be found
on both sides of the river. Neither is it a boundary of the Saltovo culture, which
also spread westwards. And it is definitely not a border with some other state,
since the territories that were subject to Kievan Rus’ and Danube Bulgaria were
too far off. Furthermore, the Don cannot be viewed as the boundary of the
Khazar sphere of political influence: it stretched across areas, located west of
the river also during the tenth century.
Geographically speaking, the Don divides the European Steppe into two
halves. To the east the steppe is arid. It contains the Aral-Caspian Depression,
with shallow rivers and poor soil. And west of the Don the steppe is crossed by
deep valleys and river ravines with forest-covered slopes. The high and open
spaces above the river beds contained agricultural fields and pastures. Vast
92 See for instance Skripkin 1982, 43.
93 Petrov and Giuzelev 1978, 60; Al-Masudi notes that it was impossible for the nomads to
cross rivers in the summer. This was done in winter, when the rivers were covered in ice.
This was also the season when the Khazar troops had to repel nomad attacks (Minorskii
1963, 198). On the passage of water expanses by nomads in particular, see Tortika 1999.
94 Constantine Porphyrogenitus. De Administrando Imperio, ch. 42, in Litavrin and
Novosel’tsev 1989, 171–173.