224 CHAPTER 5
with some of the subsequent khaganates from Middle and Central Asia. The
conquered tribes and peoples kept their inner autonomy (they were also often
able to maintain an independent foreign policy), while being obliged to pay
tributes to the central authorities and to send troops when necessary. Thus,
many historians call the steppe empires “confederations”—a term which is
unacceptable to some like A. Khazanov, or “federations”—which as a term is
rejected by S. Romashov.6 Taxes were collected through the so-called tributary
system, which was used in the Turkic Khaganate, but also in many other steppe
empires. The taxed communities retained their social and economic structure
(independence). This system prevented the unification of the leading ethnic
group’s nobles (which typically belonged to the “royal” tribe) with the nobility
of the conquered peoples, which is thought to be one of the causes for conflicts
in the khaganate. In some cases, but not always (not in the whole subjugated
territory) the central authorities sent out their own representatives (tuduns),
who, without taking over the functions of the local authorities, kept track of
tribute-collecting from trade and local taxes. Alternatively, the subjugation of
large territories by a steppe empire was manifested through the recognition
of the khagan’s supremacy, which also depended on the ability of the leading
peoples or tribes (often the tribes that executed the khagan’s authority in vari-
ous regions were more than one, and were even of different origins) to impose
it by force. When governance was weak, conflicts followed, but they did not
lead to the collapse of the khaganate. According to A. Khazanov, such was the
governance in the subjugated territories of the states of the Scythians, Huns,
Wusuns, Turks, Khazars, etc.7
P. Golden assumes that at the top of the socio-political pyramid in the
steppe empires stood the family of the khagan, along with his (“royal”) tribe.
Next to them stood the “inner” tribes, which had been absorbed into the state
(the “confederation”) in the very beginning. A part of the “inner” tribes were
the “kinsmen” tribes, from which the wives of the ruling nobility stemmed. The
tribes that had willingly joined the khaganate retained their own rulers, but
sometimes accepted a representative of the ruling tribe for some administra-
tive posts. The “outer” tribes were incorporated into the state by force. Their
rulers were usually replaced by members of the ruling dynasty. Below them in
6 Khazanov 1994, 152; Romashov 2002–2003, 83.
7 Khazanov 1975, 159–163 and 190–191 (on the Khazar Khaganate, see 260); a similar form of
subjugation was also exercised in ancient Kangju (Khazanov 1975, 161). On Kangju, see also
Gabuev 2007. See also Kradin 2001b, 26–27.