The Khazar Economy: Economic Integration or Disintegration? 205
The Terek-Sulak Interfluve is a large steppe plain that to the west borders
a foothill region (20 to 50 km wide), cut by the vast valleys of the rivers Terek,
Aksai, Yarik-Su, Aktash and Sulak. South of the Sulak the lowland narrows and
stretches in the form of a coastline (2 to 30 km wide) over a distance of 160
kilometers to Derbent. The river valleys in the foothill region were the most
densely populated.147 They offered the most fertile lands that were suitable for
the cultivation of various cereals, vegetables and vines. Unlike the Don Region,
the water resources in Dagestan were not sufficient, which led to the construc-
tion of irrigation canals. Towards the Caspian coast the steppe soil became
more and more barren. Therefore, the Cis-Caspian Lowland near the coast was
mainly used for grazing.148
This is the time to draw attention to the bankruptcy of L. Gumilev’s theory,
according to which the most fertile Khazar lands were located in the Caspian
coastal area. And what is more, they were supposedly in the immediate vicin-
ity of the sea, since they had been flooded by its waters in the tenth century.
This unproven fact serves as the basis for L. Gumilev’s theory on the crisis of
the Khazar state in the tenth century.149 The steppe around Itil or near the
147 Magomedov 1983, 26–35 and 178.
148 Magomedov 1983, 97; Noonan 1995–1997, 267.
149 Gumilev 2003, 114 and 143; Gumilev 1997, 54, 65, and 212. L. Gumilev contradicts him-
self by describing the Northwestern Caspian coast, the so-called Black Lands (located
north of the Terek mouth): “This is the bottom of the Caspian Sea, dried out in prehistoric
times. From the west it is limited by the branches of the Kalmyk Steppe, and to the east
it gradually turns into the Caspian Sea. It is even hard to determine a coastline, since it
depends on the direction of the wind. The western wind drives away the water, baring the
sea bottom, while the eastern one brings with it great quantities of water, flooding the
coastal area, sometimes up to 10 km inland. This sombre plain received its name “Black
Lands” because it hardly snows there in winter, and what little snow falls, mixes with the
fine dust and sand. But it is precisely in wintertime that the sheep from Dagestan and
Kalmykia are brought there to graze [.. .] The summer sun burns away the grass that has
remained uneaten by the sheep and the area turns into a desert [.. .] Even if the Khazars
ruled over the plains of the Northwestern Cis-Caspian coast, they lived in other places
that were more pleasing and comfortable” (Gumilev 2003, 72–73); “In the second century,
the Khazars inhabited the lower reaches of the Terek and the Sulak. They settled along the
Volga later on, and not through the dry steppes, but along the Caspian coast [.. .] In
the times when the steppe watershed areas were consecutively ruled by the Sarmatians
(during the third century BC), the Huns (the fourth century), the Bulgars (the fifth cen-
tury), the Avars (the sixth century), the Magyars and the Pechenegs, the Khazars lived
peacefully in the dense coastal thickets that remained out of reach for the nomads, with
whom they were constant enemies” (Gumilev 1997, 55); “For a long time the Khazars
dominated the plains of Dagestan, the Terek-Sulak Interfluve [.. .] the Khazars lived on