The “Internal” Ethnic Communities in Khazaria 235
The Khazar ruler mentions Samandar as a subordinate settlement. He
also does not use any ethnic names for the part of Dagestan that is under his
rule. As has already been pointed out, on the one hand his letter contains a
list of tributary tribes and states, and on the other—regions under his direct
rule, whose ethnic identity is not mentioned. This detail is also perceived by
E. Galkina, who nonetheless questions the khagan’s authority over the larger
part of both types of territories.46
In fact, E. Galkina is by far not the only historian to dispute Joseph’s account
of the lands under Khazar rule. It is usually attributed to an earlier period—
the mid-ninth century, for instance.47 As has already been shown, such doubts
are not always justified. It is necessary to consider the specifics of the structure,
location and the relationships between the various territories and tribes that
were under Khazar rule. They indicate different levels of subjugation, at times
only formal. Furthermore, Joseph’s account reflects the political situation at
the time the letter was written. The observation regarding the Khazar ruler’s
authority over the Pechenegs, whose lands stretched up to those of the Magyars,
seems quite exaggerated. It is quite possible that the Pechenegs (although they
were divided into eight semi-independent tribes) were allies of Khazaria when
the khaganate, again according to Joseph’s account, waged war against the
Rus’. Khazaria lost this war (which was also against the Byzantine Empire),
perhaps because the Pechenegs became allies of the Kievan Prince Sviatoslav
(945–972), as can be deduced from accounts of his campaigns against Bulgaria.
He, however, met his death in a battle against them on the Dnieper Rapids
in the course of the same military conflict. The Khazar Khaganate’s relation-
ship with the Pechenegs resembled the one it had with the Magyars a century
earlier. The Magyars, who were probably hostile during the first half of the
ninth century, subsequently became allies of the khaganate and the first
Magyar ruler ascended the throne with the blessing and according to the
wishes of the Khazar khagan.48
46 Galkina 2006.
47 See for instance Artamonov 1962, 386–387; Pletneva 1976, 68; Novosel’tsev 1990, 7 and
100; Romashov 2002–2003, 93, where he critisizes the “hyper-critical” attitude towards the
information in Joseph’s letter regarding Dagestan, as well as Romashov 2004, 218, 222–224,
and 243, where he actually rejects Joseph’s account and talks about the disintegration of
the Khazar World after the Pecheneg invasion at the end of the ninth century. This argu-
ment is hard to accept (see chapter 2).
48 Constantine Porphyrogenitus. De Administrando Imperio, ch. 38–40, in Litavrin and
Novosel’tsev 1989, 159–167. On the Magyars and Pechenegs in Khazaria in particular,
see Howard-Johnston 2007, 184–191. Howard-Johnston 2007, 190 deems it possible that