The “Internal” Ethnic Communities in Khazaria 261
tion of the same Saltovo culture, in the creation of which, moreover, many of
them actively participated”.181 It is presumed that migrants from Middle Asia or
Transcaucasia also settled among the Bulgars living along the middle reaches
of the Severski Donets.182 The Bulgars in the Don Region probably lived not
only alongside pagans, but Christians and Muslims as well.183
Describing the lands, subordinate to the khaganate, the Khazar ruler Joseph
does not mention settlements located north or northwest of Sarkel, although
more than twenty fortresses were located there, including the Maiaki hillfort
and the adjacent brick fortifications (most likely built by Khazars), the Saltovo
hillfort and the whole line of fortresses along the Severski Donets. Since Joseph
mentions neither Phanagoria on the Taman Peninsula (an important Khazar
center during the eighth and ninth centuries) nor the Semikarakorsk hillfort,
which most probably did not exist during the tenth century (i.e. he is com-
pletely accurate in the naming of his subordinate settlements), we should ask
ourselves why he omits such a vast and significant area. The theory that it was
ravaged by the Pechenegs in the late ninth and the early tenth century is unac-
ceptable. It is possible that it was the location of Black Bulgaria, which gained
its independence from Khazaria during the reign of Joseph. But that would
hardly stop the Khazar ruler from mentioning it one way or another, as he does
with other regions with a similar status. The explanation to this question can
perhaps be found elsewhere.
In 944, after the events described in the Cambridge Document,184 when Rus’
and Byzantium signed a peace treaty, one of its provisions was that the Rus’
would not allow attacks by Black Bulgars on the Byzantine domains in the
Crimea.185 Joseph wrote his letter in the late 950s or the early 960s (before 961).
We do not actually know what went on between Rus’, Byzantium and Khazaria
during the 940s and 950s (the Pechenegs also played an important role there).
There is, however, some scope for assumptions regarding the participation
of Rus’ troops in the Byzantine army or with the Burjan (probably the Black
181 Mikheev 2004, 90.
182 Krasil’nikov 2007, 77–89.
183 Aksenov 2004a, 136–144; Krasil’nikov 2007, 87–88.
184 The Khazar war against the Rus’ and the Byzantines in the Crimea in 939–940, followed by
a Rus’ campaign against Byzantium in 944 and later in the Caspian Sea. On this issue, see
Artamonov 1962, 373–375; Gumilev 1997, 222–224; Maiko 1997, 113; Shepard and Franklin
2000, 172–174; Polovoi 1961, 98–102. The text of the Cambridge Document can be found in
Golb and Pritzak 1997, 138–142.
185 Povest’ vremennykh let, in Adrianova-Peretts 1950, 34.