The “Internal” Ethnic Communities in Khazaria 249
Cultural relations between Middle Asia and Eastern Europe did not cease dur-
ing the Early Middle Ages. Therefore, Khazaria or Danube Bulgaria should not
be envisioned as closed communities. Not incidentally, the art of the Magyars
during that time was influenced by the so-called “post-Sassanidic style”.112 The
art of Khazaria or of Danube Bulgaria reveals not so much the ethnicity of its
creators as the influence of the cultural centers, situated nearby or directly in
the lands from which the Bulgars and Khazars, as well as the Alans came to
Europe. Such is also the culture of the Eurasian Steppe during this period.113
It is extremely hard to define the boundaries of cultural influences in the
steppes. The cultural centers of Middle Asia and Iran have always been closely
linked to the steppe world. It should also be borne in mind that “until the eight
and ninth centuries, Middle Asia (its northern and western parts, at the very
least), along with a significant part of Eastern Europe, were only parts of a
vast historio-ethnographic region that developed the traditions of the ancient
Scytho-Sarmatian culture, saturated by an Eastern Hellenistic influence”.114
The roads that connected Khazaria to Middle Asia and Iran were filled not only
with merchants, but also with people who shared common ideas (both reli-
gious and artistic) and who found acceptance and understanding among the
Bulgars, Khazars and the Alans. Khazaria developed its own specific art, the
roots of which were, however, inseparable from Iran or Middle Asia. According
to V. Flerova, “the role of the Middle Asian arts and crafts in the creation of
the nomadic cultures’ distinctive nature is often underestimated. Historians
mainly point to Byzantium and Iran, ignoring such factors as the export of
goods from Middle Asian cities, the movement of the craftsmen themselves,
their employment in the camps of the khagans and the adaptation of common
Sogdian models done by nomads of different tribal formations”.115
In the chapter on Khazaria’s economy I mentioned the economic functions
of the system that Iu. Kobishchanov calls poliudie, in accordance with the term
that the Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus used for the prac-
tice of the Rus’ princes from the mid-tenth century.116 This widespread system
was used from the most remote times by steppe tribes (the Scythians and the
Turks). It is also typical for Georgia and Dagestan. Inherent mainly to entities
such as the early state, the poliudie created relations between remote parts of
the state, as well as between various regions and the central authorities. One of
112 Foniakova 1986, 37.
113 See also Minaeva 1991 and 2003a, 167.
114 Tolstov 1946, 108.
115 Flerova 2007, 22.
116 See in chapter 4.5.