44 CHAPTER 1
could have been adopted in Khazaria from the Caucasian Christian tradi-
tion. The close links between Caucasian Albania and the steppe population
existed as early as the Late Sarmatian period (the second to fourth centuries),
when the bearers of this culture settled in the Terek-Sulak Inferfluve, reach-
ing the Cis-Caspian Lowland of Dagestan in the south. Already at that time
the steppe population adopted certain traits of the local culture. This process
continued also in the so-called Early Khazar period (the seventh to eighth cen-
turies), when the center of the Khazar state was situated within the territory
of Dagestan.112 During the sixth and seventh centuries, Christian missionar-
ies were sent there several times specifically from Caucasian Albania. Thus, in
the first quarter of the sixth century the bishop of Arran (Caucasian Albania)
Kardusat spent fourteen years among the Huns and translated the Bible into
their language. The next one to preach among the Huns in Dagestan after
Kardusat was bishop Makarios. The Huns in turn revered the Christian mis-
sionaries as their teachers. A classical example of the Albanian church’s work
in Dagestan is the mission of bishop Israel in the Kingdom of the Huns in 682.113
It is possible that between the seventh century and the first half of the eighth
century the Khazar rulers considered the lands of Caucasian Albania (or more
precisely today’s Azerbaijan) a heritage, left by the Persian Sassanid dynasty,
for which they had fought with the Arabs. On the other hand, according to
the Turko-Byzantine agreement of 627, the territory of Caucasian Albania was
given to the Turkic Khaganate.114 In other words, it is possible that the domina-
tion over Eastern Transcaucasia represented an important part of the political
ideology of the Khazars and thus it is no surprise that they fought fiercely with
the Arabs precisely for these lands up to the 730s.
According to the chronicle of Ibn al-Faqih (903), the city Balanjar in the
land of the Khazars was built by the son of Japheth, Balanjar. Several centuries
112 See Magomedov 1983 and 1994; Gadzhiev 2002; Fedorov and Fedorov 1978. In view of the
notion of Togarmah being the forefather of the Armenians it should be borne in mind that
in the eighth century the Arabic province (division) Armenia (Arminiyya) also included
the territory of Azerbaijan, i.e. Caucasian Albania (Kalinina 1988, 134–135). According to
Armenian literary tradition, the Arsacid dynasty is divided into four branches: Parthian,
Armenian, Indian (Kushan) and Massagetean (the rulers of the north) (Tolstov 1947b,
48–49). On the other hand, according to the Cambridge Document, the Khazar Jews
inhabited or passed through Armenia (Arminiyya) before settling in Khazaria. It is impor-
tant to bear in mind that the Caucasian sources note the traditional relations between
the Khazar Jews and the northern “nomadic” peoples (see Shapira 2007b). It is then quite
possible that the idea of Togarmah’s origins was not alien to the Khazar Jews as well.
113 Stepanov 2005a, 70; Kliashtornyi 2000, 120.
114 Artamonov 1962, 151; Poliak 2001, 86.