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 Göktürk and Uyghur Khaganate inscriptions dating from about the eighth to the 13th century. It is the old ...
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: mn, Халх, Halh, , zh, 喀爾喀) have been the largest subgroup of Mongol people in modern Mongolia since the 15th century. The Khalkha, together with Chahars, Ordos and Tumed, were directly ruled by Borjigin k ...
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
Peter Benjamin Golden (born 1941) is an American historian who is Professor Emeritus of History, Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University. He has written many books and articles on Turkic and Central Asian Studies, such as ''An i ...
. "Khazarica: Notes on Some Khazar Terms", in ''Turkic Languages'', ed. Lars Johanson, Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kundur
Khazar titles