The Ideology Of The Ninth And Tenth Centuries 57
from the first half of the eighth century. It was then that the co-ruler of the
khagan emerged from the circle of the most active and wealthy Don Bulgar
“khans” (whose lands were unaffected by the wars). Thus, instead of reject-
ing the khagan’s power, the Bulgars appropriated it, completely “tabooing” his
persona.172 Of course, this hypothesis regarding the role of Bulgars in the
establishment of the dual kingship institution is not based on any evidence.
But more importantly, S. Pletneva associates the dual kingship with the pagan
tradition that preceded the Judaization. Moreover, she assumes that the
Judaization and the reforms that Khagan Obadiah implemented in the early
ninth century were aimed at weakening the pagan sacralization and thus
allowing the Khazar khagans to fight for the right to rule their country. This
is why Khagan Joseph wrote that Obadiah “reorganized the kingdom”.173 In
other words, according to S. Pletneva the Khazar dual kingship is a legacy from
Khazaria’s pagan period and the Judaization furthered the gradual transition
to monocracy, though not towards a king (bek), but towards a khagan.
D. Shapira assumes that the Khazar dual kingship was associated with
steppe (Turkic) traditions, but that the Judaization helped increase the bek’s
influence at the expense of the Khazar khagan. Gradually, the Khazar govern-
ment system grew similar to that of the Japanese shogunate.174 According to
the scholar, “while their theory of royalty was Türkic and entrenched in the
ancient traditions of the steppe, the Khazar view of the status of their Judaism
in the surrounding geopolitical circumstances was basically Islamic [.. .] their
Judaism signified for the Khazars their Imperial status: not merely indipen-
dence from both the Caesar and the Khalifa, not a “neutral” religion, but the
Third Force, the First Faith, whose legitimacy is accepted by other rival parties.
Their Judaism thus was not an abberation, but an integral and important layer
of their political self-awareness”.175
172 Pletneva 1976, 57. Magomedov 1994, 51 reasons in a similar manner. According to
him, the Khazar dual kingship arose after the Khazars took Barsilia and the beks came
from the family of the former Barsilian rulers. Vernadskii 1997, 230 considers it pos-
sible that the dual kingship was a result of the diverse ethnic composition of the state.
The khagan “accepted from time to time the help of another ruler, a representative of a
different ethnic group that was influential in one period or another. Gradually this power
arrangement became permanent”.
173 Pletneva 1976, 61–62.
174 Shapira 2005a, 503–505 and 507.
175 Shapira 2005a, 505. See also Vachkova 2003. According to Vachkova 2003, 208, “while
national identity in Islam and Christianity is blurred by the universality of their preach-
ing, the Khazars had the opportunity to see themselves as a “chosen people” without los-
ing and actually managing to accentuate their ethnic identity”.