Sarkel (or Šarkel, literally ''white house'' in the

Khazar language Khazar, also known as Khazaric, was a Turkic dialect group spoken by the Khazars, a group of semi-nomadic Turkic peoples originating from Central Asia. There are few written records of the language and its features and characteristics are unknown ...

was a large limestone-and-brick fortress in the present-day Rostov Oblast of Russia, on the left bank of the lower

Don River The Don ( rus, Дон, p=don) is the fifth-longest river in Europe. Flowing from Central Russia to the Sea of Azov in Southern Russia, it is one of Russia's largest rivers and played an important role for traders from the Byzantine Empire. Its ...

. It was built by 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 ...

with

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 ...

assistance in the 830s or 840s. It was named Sarkel, or 'white-house', because of the white limestone bricks used in its construction.

Location

Sarkel was located on a hill, on the left bank of the Don River. It is currently under water, after the construction of the

Tsimlyansk Reservoir Tsimlyansk Reservoir or Tsimlyanskoye Reservoir (russian: Цимля́нское водохрани́лище) is an artificial lake on the Don River in the territories of Rostov and Volgograd Oblasts at . Completed in 1952, the reservoir ...

. The left bank of the river was much lower, compared to the right, so a lot of it was flooded. Across the Don River from Sarkel, on the right bank, there was located another large Khazar fortress roughly contemporary with Sarkel. This site is known as , although its ancient name is unknown. It is still there, on the much higher right bank, although suffering from erosion because of encroaching water.

Construction

Sarkel was built to protect the north-western border of the Khazar state in 833. The Khazars asked their ally,

emperor

Theophilus Theophilus is a male given name with a range of alternative spellings. Its origin is the Greek word Θεόφιλος from θεός (God) and φιλία (love or affection) can be translated as "Love of God" or "Friend of God", i.e., it is a theoph ...

, for engineers to build a fortified capital, and Theophilus sent his chief engineer

Petronas Kamateros Petronas Kamateros ( el, , ) was a Byzantine official under Emperor Theophilos (r. 829–842). Petronas is the first attested member of the Kamateros family. In ca. 833 or, according to more recent dating, 839, he held the rank of ''spatharokandid ...

. In recompense for these services, the Khazar khagan ceded Chersonesos and some other Crimean dependencies to Byzantium. Historians have been unable to determine why such a strong fortress was built on the Don. They generally assert that the costly construction must have been due to the rise of a strong regional power that posed a threat to the Khazars. Alexander Vasiliev and

George Vernadsky George Vernadsky ( Russian: Гео́ргий Влади́мирович Верна́дский; August 20, 1887 – June 12, 1973) was a Russian Empire-born American historian and an author of numerous books on Russian history. European years ...

, among others, argue that Sarkel was built to defend a vital portage between the Don and the Volga from 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 ...

. Other historians believe this polity was situated many hundred miles to the north. Another nascent power, the

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 ...

, was not particularly threatening to the Khazars as long as they paid tribute to the khagan.

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 ...

records in his work De Administrando Imperio that the Khazars asked the Emperor Teophilos to have the fortress of Sarkel built for them. His record is connected to the

on the basis that the new fortress must have become necessary because of the appearance of a new enemy of the Khazars, and other peoples could not be taken into account as the Khazars’ enemies at that time. In the 10th century, a Persian explorer and geographer

Ahmad ibn Rustah Ahmad ibn Rustah Isfahani ( fa, احمد ابن رسته اصفهانی ''Aḥmad ibn Rusta Iṣfahānī''), more commonly known as Ibn Rustah (, also spelled ''Ibn Rusta'' and ''Ibn Ruste''), was a tenth-century Persian explorer and geographer ...

mentioned that the Khazars entrenched themselves against the attacks of the

History

Principalities of Kievan Rus' (1054-1132)

The city served as a bustling commercial center, as it controlled the

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 catchm ...

-Don portage, which was used by the Rus to cross from the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

to the Volga and thence to the Caspian and Baltic. Thunberg, Carl L. (2011). ''Särkland och dess källmaterial''. Göteborgs universitet. CLTS. pp. 20-22. . The route was known as the " Khazarian Way". A garrison fortified at Sarkel included Oghuz and

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 ...

mercenaries. Sarkel's fortress and city were captured by

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

under prince Sviatoslav I in 965. The city was renamed Belaya Vezha (Slavic for ''White Tower'' or ''White Fortress'') and settled by Slavs. It remained Slavic until the 12th century, when the district was taken over by the Kipchaks. Mikhail Artamonov excavated the site in the 1930s. It was the most ambitious excavation of a Khazar site ever undertaken. Among many Khazar and Rus items, Artamonov discovered Byzantine columns used in the construction of Sarkel. The site is now submerged by the

, completed in 1952, so no further excavations may be conducted.

Notes

References

* Brook, Kevin Alan (2006). ''The Jews of Khazaria.'' 2nd ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. * Dunlop, Douglas M. (1954). ''The History of the Jewish Khazars''. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. * Dunlop, Douglas Morton (1997). "Sarkel". ''

Encyclopaedia Judaica The ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' is a 22-volume English-language encyclopedia of the Jewish people, Judaism, and Israel. It covers diverse areas of the Jewish world and civilization, including Jewish history of all eras, culture, holidays, langu ...

'' (CD-ROM Edition Version 1.0). Ed.

Cecil Roth Cecil Roth (5 March 1899 – 21 June 1970) was a British Jewish historian. He was editor in chief of ''Encyclopaedia Judaica''. Life Roth was born in Dalston, London, on 5 March 1899. His parents were Etty and Joseph Roth, and Cecil was the young ...

. Keter Publishing House. * Erdal, Marcel (2007). "The Khazar Language", in Peter B. Golden et al. (eds.). ''The World of the Khazars. New Perspectives.'' Brill. pp. 75-108. * Golden, Peter B. (2007). "The Conversion of the Khazars to Judaism", in: Peter B. Golden et al. (eds.). ''The World of the Khazars. New Perspectives.'' Brill. pp. 123-162. * Grousset, René (1970). ''The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia''. (transl. Naomi Walford). New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. * Koestler, Arthur (1976). ''The Thirteenth Tribe'' Random House. * Thunberg, Carl L. (2011). ''Särkland och dess källmaterial''. Göteborgs universitet. CLTS. pp. 20-22. * Vernadsky, George. ''A History of Russia''.
online

External links