According to

ibn Fadlan Aḥmad ibn Faḍlān ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Rāšid ibn Ḥammād, ( ar, أحمد بن فضلان بن العباس بن راشد بن حماد; ) commonly known as Ahmad ibn Fadlan, was a 10th-century Muslim traveler, famous for his account of his ...

, the Kündür was an official in the

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 ...

government under the command of the

Khagan Bek ''Khagan Bek'' is the title used by the bek (generalissimo) of the Khazars. History Khazar kingship was divided between the Khagan and the Bek or Khagan Bek. Contemporary Arab historians related that the Khagan was purely a spiritual ruler or figu ...

. Ibn Fadlan did not describe the duties of this officer, nor does any extant source. The

Magyars 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 Uralic ...

had a dual-kingship system in which power was divided between a gyula and a

kende The ''kende'' (or ''kündü'') was one of the kings of the dual-monarchy of the early Hungarians along with the '' gyula'' or war-chief. The function of the ''kende'' is believed to have been a religious one ("sacral prince").Victor SpineiThe Grea ...

; therefore it has been hypothesized that the kündür was a client-ruler of Hungarian remnants who remained in the

Pontic 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 ...

steppe during the 10th century. Alternatively, it has been suggested that the title may derive from an

Old Turkic Old Turkic (also East Old Turkic, Orkhon Turkic language, Old Uyghur) is the earliest attested form of the Turkic languages, found in Göktürks, Göktürk and Uyghur Khaganate inscriptions dating from about the eighth to the 13th century. It ...

word for law, and that the kündür may have been a judicial officer, possibly the head of the Khazar judiciary. Noting that ''kündü'' only exists in Siberian Turkic where it means "awe, politeness, reverence, regale", Peter B. Golden proposes that Turkic ''kündü'' is borrowed from Mongolic *''kündü-'' (>

Middle Mongol Middle Mongol or Middle Mongolian, was a Mongolic koiné language spoken in the Mongol Empire. Originating from Genghis Khan's home region of Northeastern Mongolia, it diversified into several Mongolic languages after the collapse of the empire ...

kündü >

Khalkha The Khalkha (Mongolian script, Mongolian: mn, Халх, Halh, , zh, 喀爾喀) have been the largest subgroup of Mongols, Mongol people in modern Mongolia since the 15th century. The Khalkha, together with Chahars, Ordos Mongols, Ordos and Tum ...

хүнд ''hünd'', meaning "heavy").

Sources

Kevin Alan Brook Kevin () is the anglicized form of the Irish masculine given name (; mga, Caoimhghín ; sga, Cóemgein ; Latinized as ). It is composed of "dear; noble"; Old Irish and ("birth"; Old Irish ). The variant '' Kevan'' is anglicized from , a ...

. ''The Jews of Khazaria.'' 2nd ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2006. * Douglas M. Dunlop, ''The History of the Jewish Khazars,'' Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1954. * Peter B. Golden. "Khazarica: Notes on Some Khazar Terms", in ''Turkic Languages'', ed. Lars Johanson, Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kundur Khazar titles