40 CHAPTER 1
alternatively, this account could denote the time when the Khazars ousted the
Bulgars from the Lower Volga Region and Dagestan, regardless of Bolgar’s sepa-
ration and his settlement in the lands of Byzantium. In this sense, the name of
the third brother could really be Barsil, as far as the Barsils are closely related
to the Bulgars. However, the account of Michael the Syrian does not allow for
clear conclusions to be drawn.
The information on the city Al-Khazar shows the alleged presence of Khazars
near the middle reaches of the Syr Darya during the ninth and tenth centuries,
but not necessarily their land of origin, since the presence of the ethnonym
Khazars there could be the result of a migration. According to B. Vainberg, the
emergence in Europe of one of the oldest types of burials of the Dzhetyasar
culture (the pit graves with niches) reflects the arrival of the Khazars (as well
as the emergence of the ethnonym “Kangar” in Transcaucasia in the fifth cen-
tury), the latest date of this migration being the fifth century. At that time the
Dzhetyasarians began to gradually abandon this type of burial (but the pro-
cess was ongoing from the third century).95 If this was the case, then natu-
rally not all Khazars migrated westward, which is evidenced by the mention
of Al-Khazar on the Middle Syr Darya in the ninth century. According to B.
Vainberg, “with the Bulgars and Khazars came the end of the eastward move-
ment in Europe of this group of tribes that preceded the arrival of the Turks”.96
The account about Al-Khazar is perhaps the most indisputable piece of
information regarding the Khazar presence in Asia. In this aspect, of spe-
cial interest is the Ebstorf Mappa Mundi from the thirteenth century, which
includes Samarkha, a city in Khazaria, in the Scythian region, situated on
the river Bactra (probably the Band-e Amir River in Afghanistan) that rises
in the Caucasus and empties into the Ocean. Usually, Samarkha is identified
with Samarkand. L. Chekin, however, disagrees with this view, believing that
Samarkha could have been located in the Khazar lands in the Caucasus.97
The remaining information is too vague with regard to a possible relation to
the Khazars. Namely, the reference to the “Ko-sa” in Chinese sources, or the
“Kasar”, seen in Uyghur inscriptions (Ko-sa is the name of the sixth of the nine
Uyghur tribes).98 This could indeed indicate a Khazar presence in the Uyghur
Khaganate, but can hardly reveal anything more on that subject. The same
goes for the western area of the Uyghur Khaganate that was mentioned by the
name of Kasar in the Terkhin Inscription (eighth century), except perhaps for
95 Vainberg 1990, 187,194, 284, and 291.
96 Vainberg 1990, 296.
97 Chekin 2005, 346–366.
98 Dunlop 1967, 34–35; Golden 1980, 132; Shirota 2005.