The Chalyzians or Khalyzians (

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

: ''Khalis'', Khwarezmian: ''Khwalis'',

Byzantine Greek Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the Ottoman c ...

: ''Χαλίσιοι, Khalisioi'', Magyar: ''Káliz'') were a people mentioned by the 12th-century

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 ...

historian

John Kinnamos Joannes Kinnamos, or John Cinnamus ( el, or Κίναμος; born shortly after 1143, died after 1185), was a Byzantine historian. He was imperial secretary (Greek "grammatikos", most likely a post connected with the military administration) to Em ...

Halych Halych ( uk, Га́лич ; ro, Halici; pl, Halicz; russian: Га́лич, Galich; german: Halytsch, ''Halitsch'' or ''Galitsch''; yi, העליטש) is a historic city on the Dniester River in western Ukraine. The city gave its name to the P ...

. Kinnamos in his epitome twice mentions Khalisioi in the Hungarian army. He first describes them as practising

Mosaic law The Law of Moses ( he, תֹּורַת מֹשֶׁה ), also called the Mosaic Law, primarily refers to the Torah or the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. The law revealed to Moses by God. Terminology The Law of Moses or Torah of Moses (Hebrew ...

; though whether they were actually

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

s is unclear because other editions state that they were

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

s. They were said to have fought against the Byzantine Empire as allies of the tribes of

Dalmatia Dalmatia (; hr, Dalmacija ; it, Dalmazia; see names in other languages) is one of the four historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of the Adriatic Sea, str ...

in 1154, during Manuel Comnenus's campaign in the Balkans. Prior to the years 889–92 some Khalis and

Kabar 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 the ...

s (Kavars) of 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 ...

realm had joined the Hungarian (Magyar) federation that had conquered and settled in Hungary. Another group had joined 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� ...

Al-Bakri Abū ʿUbayd ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb ibn ʿAmr al-Bakrī ( ar, أبو عبيد عبد الله بن عبد العزيز بن محمد بن أيوب بن عمرو البكري), or simply al-Bakrī (c. 1040–1 ...

(1014–1094) states that around 1068 A.D. there were considerable numbers of al-Khalis amongst the nomadic Muslim Pechenegs (Hungarian: Besenyő), that lived around the southern steppes of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

. He also mentions that the original al-Khalis living within the Khazar realm may have been foreign slaves from Byzantine

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

and/or other lands. The Pechenegs gave them the choice of staying in their country, where they could inter-marry or leave for another country of their choice. Anna Komnena in her

Alexiad The ''Alexiad'' ( el, Ἀλεξιάς, Alexias) is a medieval historical and biographical text written around the year 1148, by the Byzantine princess Anna Komnene, daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. It was written in a form of artificial ...

mentions a

Pecheneg 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, პაჭ ...

chief named Khalis.

Abraham Harkavy Abraham (Albert) Harkavy (, russian: Авраа́м Я́ковлевич Гарка́ви, translit=Avraám Yákovlevich Garkávi; 17 October 1835 – 15 March 1919) was a Russian historian and orientalist. Biography Harkavy was born in 1835 ...

hypothesized that the Khalyzians were refugees fleeing the destruction of their

khaganate A khaganate or khanate was a polity ruled by a Khan (title), khan, khagan, khatun, or khanum. That political territory was typically found on the Eurasian Steppe and could be equivalent in status to tribe, tribal chiefdom, principality, monarch ...

by the

Kievan Rus Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern Europe, Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Hist ...

in the 960s AD and the Pecheneg influx which followed in the 970s. A contemporary of Harkavy's, the Polish historian {{ill, August Bielowski, pl, suggested that the Khalyzians were identical with the tribe known in

n sources as the

Khvalisy The Khvalisy were a tribe mentioned in old Russian chronicles. Polish historian conjectured that ''Khvalisy'' referred to the same people called " Khalyzians" by the Byzantine chroniclers. Other scholars believe that "Khvalisy" refers to Kh ...

; hence they may have been connected to the

Arsiya Arsiyah (other forms of the word include - ''Lariçiyeh'', ''al-Larisiya'') was the name used for a group of Muslim mercenaries in the service of the Khazar Khaganate. Whether the Arsiyah were a single tribe or composed of Muslims from a number of d ...

. The maternal ancestors of the Magyarized

clan Aba, to which the Hungarian king

Samuel Aba Samuel Aba ( hu, Aba Sámuel; before 990 or 1009 – 5 July 1044) reigned as King of Hungary between 1041 and 1044. He was born to a prominent family with extensive domains in the region of the Mátra Hills. Based on reports in the ''Gesta ...

(1041–47) belonged, were according to Hungarian chronicles of

Khwarazm Khwarazm (; Old Persian: ''Hwârazmiya''; fa, خوارزم, ''Xwârazm'' or ''Xârazm'') or Chorasmia () is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya river delta in western Central Asia, bordered on the north by the (former) Aral Sea, on the ea ...

ian origin (''de gente Corosmina, de Corosminis orta'').

The Khwarezmian connection

Khwarezm Khwarazm (; Old Persian: ''Hwârazmiya''; fa, خوارزم, ''Xwârazm'' or ''Xârazm'') or Chorasmia () is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya river delta in western Central Asia, bordered on the north by the (former) Aral Sea, on the ...

is a city in present-day Uzbekistan, in the former Persian province of Khorasan. Since it was part of the

silk road The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and rel ...

, it was known internationally, and had several different names in several different languages, including Byzantine Greek who called the products of this city "khalisios", which was masculine for "of the city of khalis."

A province of the Lower Volga

The province of Khwalis (Khwali-As) on the lower

Volga The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catch ...

, was the realm of the ''trading Eastern Iranians''; its twin city Amol/

Atil Atil (also Itil) , was the capital of the Khazar Khaganate from the middle of the 8th century until the end of the 10th century. Known to have been situated on the Silk Road in the vicinity of the Caspian Sea, its precise location has long bee ...

, also called Sariycin/Khamlikh. It was ruled by a governor with the title of

Tarkhan Tarkhan ( otk, 𐱃𐰺𐰴𐰣, Tarqan, mn, or ; fa, ترخان; ; ar , طرخان; alternative spellings ''Tarkan'', ''Tarkhaan'', ''Tarqan'', ''Tarchan'', ''Turxan'', ''Tarcan'', ''Turgan, Tárkány, Tarján'') is an ancient Central Asia ...

As-Tarkhan. Source: Harvard Ukrainian Studies, Volume II, Number 3, September 1978, p.262 (Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts).

Towns named after the Kaliz

Budakalász (Hungary), Kalász (Hungary/Slovakia),

(Ukraine), Kalasë (Albania) and numerous places in Russia (Kalasevo: Respublika Mordoviya), Iran (Kalash Garan: Ostan-e Lorestan), Afghanistan (Kalizeh: Velayat-e Helmand) and Punjab Pakistan (Kalis/Kalas).

Sources

1901-1906 Jewish Encyclopedia
Islam in Hungary Medieval Hungary

The Khwarezmian connection

A province of the Lower Volga

Towns named after the Kaliz

See also

Sources