The Kabars ( el, Κάβαροι), also known as Qavars (Qabars) or Khavars were
Khazar
The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...
rebels who joined the
Magyar confederation possibly in the 9th century as well as the
Rus' Khaganate
The Rusʹ Khaganate ( be, Рускі каганат, ''Ruski kahanat'', russian: Русский каганат, ''Russkiy kaganat'', uk, Руський каганат, ''Ruśkyj kahanat''), is the name applied by some modern historians to a ...
.
Sources
The
Byzantine Emperor
This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman Empire, to Fall of Constantinople, its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. On ...
Constantine VII is the principal source of the Kabars' history. He dedicated a whole chapterchapter 39to the Kabars (or ''Kabaroi'') in his ''
De Administrando Imperio'', which was completed around 950. The Emperor described the Kabars as "a race of Khazars" who had risen up against the Khagan. The uprising was crushed, and some of them were massacred, but others escaped and joined the
Magyars in the
Pontic steppes
Pontic, from the Greek ''pontos'' (, ), or "sea", may refer to:
The Black Sea Places
* The Pontic colonies, on its northern shores
* Pontus (region), a region on its southern shores
* The Pontic–Caspian steppe, steppelands stretching from no ...
.
History
The Kabars rebelled against the
Khazar Khaganate
The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...
in the early ninth century; the rebellion was notable enough to be described in
Constantine Porphyrogenitus
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (; 17 May 905 – 9 November 959) was the fourth Emperor of the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zoe Ka ...
's work ''
De Administrando Imperio''. Subsequently the Kabars were expelled from
Levedia
Hungarian prehistory ( hu, magyar őstörténet) spans the period of history of the Hungarian people, or Magyars, which started with the separation of the Hungarian language from other Finno-Ugric or Ugric languages around , and ended with the ...
in the Khazar Khaganate leading the
Magyar tribal confederacy called ''Hét-Magyar'' (meaning "seven Hungarians") to
Etelköz
Hungarian prehistory ( hu, magyar őstörténet) spans the period of history of the Hungarian people, or Magyars, which started with the separation of the Hungarian language from other Finno-Ugric or Ugric languages around , and ended with the ...
while others under
Khan-Tuvan
Khan-Tuvan Dyggvi, according to Omeljan Pritsak, was the name of a Khazar khagan of the mid 830s. He led a rebellion of the Kabars against the Khagan Bek. As this rebellion took place roughly contemporaneously with the conversion of the Khazars to ...
sought refuge by joining the
Rus' people
The Rusʹ (Old East Slavic: Рѹсь; Belarusian, Russian, Rusyn, and Ukrainian: Русь; Old Norse: '' Garðar''; Greek: Ῥῶς, ''Rhos'') were a people in early medieval eastern Europe. The scholarly consensus holds that they were or ...
. One of the names on the
Kievian Letter is "Kiabar", showing that some Kabars settled in Kiev with the Rus' as well. According to Magocsi, "A violent civil war took place during the 820s
..The losers of the internal political struggle, known as Kabars, fled northward to the Varangian Rus' in the upper
Volga region
The Volga Region (russian: Поволжье, ''Povolzhye'', literally: "along the Volga") is a historical region in Russia that encompasses the drainage basin of the Volga River, the longest river in Europe, in central and southern European Russ ...
, near
Rostov
Rostov ( rus, Росто́в, p=rɐˈstof) is a town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, one of the oldest in the country and a tourist center of the Golden Ring. It is located on the shores of Lake Nero, northeast of Moscow. Population:
While ...
, and southward to the
Magyars, who formerly had been loyal vassals of the
Khazars
The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...
. The presence of Kabar political refugees from
Khazaria
The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...
among the Varangian traders in Rostov helped to raise the latter's prestige, with the consequence that by the 830s a new power center known as the Rus' Kaganate had come into existence."
[""A violent civil war took place during the 820s ..The losers of the internal political struggle, known as ]Kabars
The Kabars ( el, Κάβαροι), also known as Qavars (Qabars) or Khavars were Khazar rebels who joined the Magyar confederation possibly in the 9th century as well as the Rus' Khaganate.
Sources
The Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII is th ...
, fled northward to the Varangian Rus' in the upper Volga region
The Volga Region (russian: Поволжье, ''Povolzhye'', literally: "along the Volga") is a historical region in Russia that encompasses the drainage basin of the Volga River, the longest river in Europe, in central and southern European Russ ...
, near Rostov
Rostov ( rus, Росто́в, p=rɐˈstof) is a town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, one of the oldest in the country and a tourist center of the Golden Ring. It is located on the shores of Lake Nero, northeast of Moscow. Population:
While ...
, and southward to the Magyars, who formerly had been loyal vassals of the Khazars
The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...
. The presence of Kabar political refugees from Khazaria
The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...
among the Varangian traders in Rostov helped to raise the latter's prestige, with the consequence that by the 830s a new power center known as the Rus' Kaganate had come into existence."
In 894, the
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
emperor
Leo VI Leo VI (or Leon VI, notably in Greek) may refer to :
* Leo VI the Wise, Byzantine emperor 886 to 912
* Pope Leo VI, 928 to 929
* King Leo VI of Armenia (1342 – 1393), of the House of Lusignan, last Latin king of the Armenian crusader Kingdom of C ...
, then
at war with
Simeon
Simeon () is a given name, from the Hebrew (Biblical ''Šimʿon'', Tiberian ''Šimʿôn''), usually transliterated as Shimon. In Greek it is written Συμεών, hence the Latinized spelling Symeon.
Meaning
The name is derived from Simeon, so ...
, the
Bulgarian
Bulgarian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria
* Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group
* Bulgarian language, a Slavic language
* Bulgarian alphabet
* A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria
* Bul ...
czar
Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the t ...
(893–927), called the Hungarians to his aid. The Magyars, led by
Árpád
Árpád (; 845 – 907) was the head of the confederation of the Magyar tribes at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries. He might have been either the sacred ruler or '' kende'' of the Hungarians, or their military leader or '' g ...
, crossed the Danube and attacked
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...
. The Bulgarians, in turn, appealed to the Pechenegs, now masters of the steppe, who attacked the Hungarians in the rear. Toward 850 or 860, driven from
Levedia
Hungarian prehistory ( hu, magyar őstörténet) spans the period of history of the Hungarian people, or Magyars, which started with the separation of the Hungarian language from other Finno-Ugric or Ugric languages around , and ended with the ...
by the
Pechenegs
The Pechenegs () or Patzinaks tr, Peçenek(ler), Middle Turkic: , ro, Pecenegi, russian: Печенег(и), uk, Печеніг(и), hu, Besenyő(k), gr, Πατζινάκοι, Πετσενέγοι, Πατζινακίται, ka, პა ...
, they entered Atelkuzu (
Etelköz
Hungarian prehistory ( hu, magyar őstörténet) spans the period of history of the Hungarian people, or Magyars, which started with the separation of the Hungarian language from other Finno-Ugric or Ugric languages around , and ended with the ...
) taking refuge in the mountains of
Transylvania
Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...
. At that moment,
Arnulf, duke of Carinthia, at war with the
Slav
Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...
ruler
Svatopluk, prince of
Great Moravia
Great Moravia ( la, Regnum Marahensium; el, Μεγάλη Μοραβία, ''Meghálī Moravía''; cz, Velká Morava ; sk, Veľká Morava ; pl, Wielkie Morawy), or simply Moravia, was the first major state that was predominantly West Slavic to ...
(885–894), decided like the Byzantines to appeal to the Hungarians. The Hungarians overcame Svatopluk, who disappeared in the conflict (895). The Magyars reached the
Danube
The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , p ...
river basin around 880. As the vanguard and rearguard, the Kabars, or Cowari as they were known in Latin, assisted in the
Magyar invasion of Pannonia and the subsequent formation of the
Principality of Hungary
The (Grand) Principality of HungaryS. Wise BauerThe history of the medieval world: from the conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade W. W. Norton & Company, 2010, p. 586George H. HodosThe East-Central European region: an historical outline ...
in the late 9th century. Great Moravia collapsed, and the Hungarians took up permanent abode in Hungary (907).
The presence of a Turkic aristocracy among the Hungarians could explain the Byzantine protocol by which, in the exchange of ambassadors under Constantine Porphyrogenitus, Hungarian rulers were always referred to as "Princes of the Turks".
Archaeological theories on religion
At least some of the Khazar elite apparently converted to Judaism,
but this might not have included Kabars.
The conversion did not seem to have impacted most of the population in the Khazar Khaganate: paganism remained as the religion of the majority of the population, and there were also notable Christian and Muslim groups.
[Prieto-Domínguez, Óscar: Conversion of the Khazars to Judaism'','' in Curta, Florin & Holt, Andrew (eds.): ''Great Events in Religion: An Encyclopedia of Pivotal Events in Religious History''. ABC-CLIO, 2016.] Since the conversion to Judaism was initiated by the ruler, the theory that the rebels against the ruler would have joined to the conversion has been questioned. There is also debate about the date of Kabars joining to Magyars and it could have happened before the Khazar elite's conversion.
[Berend, Nora: ''At the Gate of Christendom,'' p. 60–61. Cambridge University Press, 2001.] Still, according to a theory, graves with Jewish symbols found in modern-day
Čelarevo
Čelarevo ( sr-Cyrl, Челарево) is a village located in the Bačka Palanka municipality, in the South Bačka District of Serbia. It is situated in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. The village has a Serb ethnic majority and its populat ...
,
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...
could be related to Kabars.
[Golden, Peter B. ''The World of the Khazars: New Perspectives,'' p. 33, 150. Brill, 2007.]
The Kabars supposedly left scattered remains and some cultural and linguistic imprints, but this is debatable.
See also
*
Hungarians
Hungarians, also known as Magyars ( ; hu, magyarok ), are a nation and ethnic group native to Hungary () and historical Hungarian lands who share a common culture, history, ancestry, and language. The Hungarian language belongs to the Urali ...
*
Árpád dynasty
The Árpád dynasty, consisted of the members of the royal House of Árpád (), also known as Árpáds ( hu, Árpádok, hr, Arpadovići). They were the ruling dynasty of the Principality of Hungary in the 9th and 10th centuries and of the King ...
*
Aba (genus)
Aba is a noble kindred (''genus'') of the Kingdom of Hungary which according to the ''Gesta Hungarorum'' ("The Deeds of the Hungarians" part 32) derives from Pata (Latin: Pota) who was a nephew to Ed and Edemen and the ancestor of Samuel Aba. So ...
*
Khalyzians
The Chalyzians or Khalyzians (Arabic: ''Khalis'', Khwarezmian: ''Khwalis'', Byzantine Greek: ''Χαλίσιοι, Khalisioi'', Magyar: ''Káliz'') were a people mentioned by the 12th-century Byzantine historian John Kinnamos in Halych.
Kinnamos ...
*
Bulgars
*
Pannonian Avars
The Pannonian Avars () were an alliance of several groups of Eurasian nomads of various origins. The peoples were also known as the Obri in chronicles of Rus, the Abaroi or Varchonitai ( el, Βαρχονίτες, Varchonítes), or Pseudo-Avars ...
*
Khazars
The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...
*
Pechenegs
The Pechenegs () or Patzinaks tr, Peçenek(ler), Middle Turkic: , ro, Pecenegi, russian: Печенег(и), uk, Печеніг(и), hu, Besenyő(k), gr, Πατζινάκοι, Πετσενέγοι, Πατζινακίται, ka, პა ...
*
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West, Central, East, and North Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages.. "Turkic peoples, any of various peoples whose members speak languages belonging t ...
*
Kabardians
The Kabardians ( Highland Adyghe: Къэбэрдей адыгэхэр; Lowland Adyghe: Къэбэртай адыгэхэр; russian: Кабардинцы) or Kabardinians are one of the twelve major Circassian tribes, representing one of t ...
References
*Róna-Tas, András (1996): A honfoglaló magyar nép. Bevezetés a korai magyar történelem ismeretébe
he conquering Hungarian nation. Introduction to the knowledge of the early Hungarian history Budapest: Balassi Kiadó,
Khavars in the RovaspediaMedia Cirebon
Notes
Sources
*
*
{{Authority control
Hungarian invasions of Europe
Khazars
Jewish Hungarian history
Hungarian tribes and clans
Karaite Judaism in Europe
Rovas script