Rus' Khaganate (, ''Russkiy kaganat'', , ''Ruśkyj kahanat''), or Kaganate of Rus is a name applied by some modern historians to a hypothetical
polity
A polity is a group of people with a collective identity, who are organized by some form of political Institutionalisation, institutionalized social relations, and have a capacity to mobilize resources.
A polity can be any group of people org ...
suggested to have existed during a poorly documented period in the history of
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...
between 830 and the 890s.
The fact that a few sparse contemporaneous sources appear to refer to the leader or leaders of
Rus' people
The Rus, also known as Russes, were a people in early medieval Eastern Europe. The scholarly consensus holds that they were originally Norsemen, mainly originating from present-day Sweden, who settled and ruled along the river-routes between t ...
at this time with the word ''chacanus'', which might be derived from the title of ''
khagan
Khagan or Qaghan (Middle Mongol:; or ''Khagan''; ) or zh, c=大汗, p=Dàhán; ''Khāqān'', alternatively spelled Kağan, Kagan, Khaghan, Kaghan, Khakan, Khakhan, Khaqan, Xagahn, Qaghan, Chagan, Қан, or Kha'an is a title of empire, im ...
'' as used by groupings of Asian nomads, has led some scholars to suggest that his political organisation can be called a "k(h)aganate". Other scholars have disputed this, as it would have been unlikely for an organisation of Germanic immigrants from the north to adopt such a foreign title. Some historians have criticised the concept of a Rus' Khaganate, calling it a "historiographical phantom", and said that the society of 9th-century Rusʹ cannot be characterised as a state. Still other scholars identify these early mentions of a Rus' political entity headed by a ''chacanus'' with the
Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,.
* was the first East Slavs, East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical At ...
state commonly attested in later sources, whose princes such as
Vladimir the Great
Vladimir I Sviatoslavich or Volodymyr I Sviatoslavych (; Christian name: ''Basil''; 15 July 1015), given the epithet "the Great", was Prince of Novgorod from 970 and Grand Prince of Kiev from 978 until his death in 1015. The Eastern Orthodox ...
Oleg I of Chernigov
Oleg Svyatoslavich (Russian language, Russian and Ukrainian language, Ukrainian: Олег Святославич; 1052 – 1 August 1115), nicknamed Gorislavich (Гориславич, literally "of famous woe") was a prince from Kievan Ru ...
() were occasionally identified as ''kagans'' in
Old East Slavic literature
Old East Slavic literature, also known as Old Russian literature, is a collection of literary works of Kievan Rus', Rus' authors, which includes all the works of ancient Rus' theologians, historians, philosophers, translators, etc., and written ...
until the late 12th century.
Mentions in documents
Overview
The word ''khagan'' for a leader of some groups of Rus' people is mentioned in several historical sources. According to Constantin Zuckerman (2000), these sources are divided into two chronological groups: three or four Latin and Arabic sources from 839 to 880 (which he labelled "1a, 1b, 1c"), while three
Old East Slavic
Old East Slavic (traditionally also Old Russian) was a language (or a group of dialects) used by the East Slavs from the 7th or 8th century to the 13th or 14th century, until it diverged into the Russian language, Russian and Ruthenian language ...
sources (labelled "2a, 2b, 2c") date from 200 years later in the 11th and 12th centuries, and are "fundamentally different". The Perso-Arabic (Islamic) sources mentioning a ''khāqān rus'' or ''Khāqān-i Rus'' all appear to follow a single common chain of tradition tracing back to the "Anonymous Note".
* (1a) The Latin ''
Annales Bertiniani
''Annales Bertiniani'' (''Annals of Saint Bertin'') are late Carolingian, Frankish annals that were found in the Abbey of Saint Bertin, Saint-Omer, France, after which they are named. Their account is taken to cover the period 830-82, thus con ...
'' or "Annals of St. Bertin" (this part written by Prudentius of Troyes, who died in 861) mention certain men called ''Rhos'', whose king ('' rex'') they called ''chacanus'' or ''Chacanus'', visiting Frankish emperor
Louis the Pious
Louis the Pious (; ; ; 16 April 778 – 20 June 840), also called the Fair and the Debonaire, was King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor, co-emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aquitaine from 781. As the only ...
in
Ingelheim
Ingelheim (), officially Ingelheim am Rhein (), is a town in the Mainz-Bingen Districts of Germany, district in the Rhineland-Palatinate state of Germany. The town sprawls along the Rhine's left bank. It has been Mainz-Bingen's district seat sin ...
in 839.
* (1b) The Latin '' Chronicon Salernitanum'' or "Salerno Chronicle" (anonymous 10th-century chronicle) reports of a diplomatic dispute in 871 between Carolingian emperor
Louis the German
Louis the German (German language, German: ''Ludwig der Deutsche''; c. 806/810 – 28 August 876), also known as Louis II of Germany (German language, German: ''Ludwig II. von Deutschland''), was the first king of East Francia, and ruled from 8 ...
and Byzantine emperor
Basil I
Basil I, nicknamed "the Macedonian" (; 811 – 29 August 886), was List of Byzantine emperors, Byzantine emperor from 867 to 886. Born to a peasant family in Macedonia (theme), Macedonia, he rose to prominence in the imperial court after gainin ...
, in which Basil (in a letter now lost) appears to have claimed that ''chaganus'' is a title used amongst the Avars, Khazars and Normans; Louis replies he has heard of an Avar ''caganum'', but never of Khazar or Norman ones:
* (1c) The Arabic "Anonymous Note" dating from 870–880, which was reused by a number of Arabic and Persian writers, including the following:
** Ahmad ibn Rustah wrote 903–913 (or 920) in an Arabic-language book that the Rus' had a prince called ''khāqān rus'' or ''Khaqan-Rus''.
** ''
Hudud al-'Alam
The ''Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam'' (, "Boundaries of the World," "Limits of the World," or in also in English "The Regions of the World") is a 10th-century geography book written in Persian by an anonymous author from Guzgan (present day northern Afg ...
'' (anonymous late-10th-century Persian-language geography text) refers to the Rus' king as "Khāqān-i Rus".
** Abu Saʿīd Gardīzī (died 1061), ''Zayn al-Akhbār'' (11th century), also referred to "Khāqān-i Rus".
* (2a) Hilarion of Kiev's 11th-century '' Sermon on Law and Grace'' mentions the title of ''kagan'' five times, and applies it to Volodimir I (Vladimir/Volodymyr "the Great") ), and his son Georgij, baptismal name of Yaroslav the Wise ().
* (2b) A short inscription on the wall of
Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv
The Saint Sophia Cathedral (, або Софія Київська) in Kyiv, Ukraine, is an Architecture of Kyivan Rus, architectural monument of Kievan Rus'. The former cathedral is one of the city's best known landmarks and the first heritage sit ...
expresses a plea for divine deliverance for the (unnamed) "our kagan", possibly prince Sviatoslav II of Kiev (): "G-d, save our Kagan" (; ).
* (2c) ''
The Tale of Igor's Campaign
''The Tale of Igor's Campaign'' or ''The Tale of Ihor's Campaign'' () is an anonymous epic poem written in the Old East Slavic language.
The title is occasionally translated as ''The Tale of the Campaign of Igor'', ''The Song of Igor's Campaign'' ...
'' (12th century) calls
Oleg I of Chernigov
Oleg Svyatoslavich (Russian language, Russian and Ukrainian language, Ukrainian: Олег Святославич; 1052 – 1 August 1115), nicknamed Gorislavich (Гориславич, literally "of famous woe") was a prince from Kievan Ru ...
a ''kogan''. According to
Donald Ostrowski
Donald "Don" Gary Ostrowski (born 1945) is an American historian, and a lecturer in history at Harvard Extension School. He specialises in the political and social history Kievan Rus' and Muscovy (early modern Russia).
Biography
Ostrowski rec ...
(2018), 'the word ''kogan'' is referring to a specific ruler or just to a time when there were khagans.'
''Annales Bertiniani sub anno'' 839
The earliest claimed reference related to Rus' people ruled by a "khagan" comes from the Frankish Latin ''
Annales Bertiniani
''Annales Bertiniani'' (''Annals of Saint Bertin'') are late Carolingian, Frankish annals that were found in the Abbey of Saint Bertin, Saint-Omer, France, after which they are named. Their account is taken to cover the period 830-82, thus con ...
'', which refer to a group of
Norsemen
The Norsemen (or Northmen) were a cultural group in the Early Middle Ages, originating among speakers of Old Norse in Scandinavia. During the late eighth century, Scandinavians embarked on a Viking expansion, large-scale expansion in all direc ...
who called themselves ''Rhos'' () and visited
Constantinople
Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...
, capital of the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...
, around 839. Fearful of returning home via the
steppe
In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without closed forests except near rivers and lakes.
Steppe biomes may include:
* the montane grasslands and shrublands biome
* the tropical and subtropica ...
s, which would leave them vulnerable to attacks by the
Magyars
Hungarians, also known as Magyars, are an ethnic group native to Hungary (), who share a common culture, language and history. They also have a notable presence in former parts of the Kingdom of Hungary. The Hungarian language belongs to the ...
, these Rhos travelled through the
Frankish kingdom
The Kingdom of the Franks (), also known as the Frankish Kingdom, or just Francia, was the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Frankish Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties during the Early Middle A ...
accompanied by
Byzantine Greek
Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic; Greek: ) 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 F ...
ambassador
An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...
s from the
Byzantine Emperor
The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, which Fall of Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised s ...
Theophilus
Theophilus is a male given name with a range of alternative spellings. Its origin is the Greek word Θεόφιλος from θεός (''theós'', "God") and φιλία (''philía'', "love or affection") can be translated as "Love of God" or "Friend ...
. When questioned by the
Frankish king
The Franks, Germanic peoples that invaded the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, were first led by individuals called dux, dukes and monarch, reguli. The earliest group of Franks that rose to prominence was the Salian Franks, Salian Mero ...
Louis the Pious
Louis the Pious (; ; ; 16 April 778 – 20 June 840), also called the Fair and the Debonaire, was King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor, co-emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aquitaine from 781. As the only ...
at
Ingelheim
Ingelheim (), officially Ingelheim am Rhein (), is a town in the Mainz-Bingen Districts of Germany, district in the Rhineland-Palatinate state of Germany. The town sprawls along the Rhine's left bank. It has been Mainz-Bingen's district seat sin ...
, they stated that their leader was known as ''chacanus'' (hypothesized to be either the
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
word for "khagan" or a deformation of Scandinavian proper name ''Håkan''), that they lived far to the north, and that they were
Swedes
Swedes (), or Swedish people, are an ethnic group native to Sweden, who share a common ancestry, Culture of Sweden, culture, History of Sweden, history, and Swedish language, language. They mostly inhabit Sweden and the other Nordic countries, ...
(''comperit eos gentis esse sueonum'').
''Chronicon Salernitanum''
Thirty years later, in spring 871, the eastern and
western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
Roman Emperors,
Basil I
Basil I, nicknamed "the Macedonian" (; 811 – 29 August 886), was List of Byzantine emperors, Byzantine emperor from 867 to 886. Born to a peasant family in Macedonia (theme), Macedonia, he rose to prominence in the imperial court after gainin ...
and
Louis II of Italy
Louis II (825 – 12 August 875), sometimes called the Younger, was the king of Italy and emperor of the Carolingian Empire from 844, co-ruling with his father Lothair I until 855, after which he ruled alone.
Louis's usual title was '' imper ...
, quarrelled over control of
Bari
Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia Regions of Italy, region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and ...
, which had been besieged by Arabs. The Byzantine Emperor sent an angry letter to his western counterpart, reprimanding him for usurping the title of emperor. He argued that the Frankish rulers are simple '' reges'', while the imperial title properly applied only to the overlord of the Romans, that is, to Basil himself. He also pointed out that each nation has its own title for the supreme ruler: for instance, the title of ''chaganus'' is used by the overlords of the Avars (''Avari''),
Khazars
The Khazars ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a nomadic Turkic people who, in the late 6th century CE, established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, Crimea, a ...
(''Gazari''), and " Northmen" (''Nortmanni''). To that, Louis replied that he was aware only of the Avar khagans, and had never heard of the khagans of the Khazars and Normans. The content of Basil's letter, now lost, is reconstructed from Louis's reply, quoted in full in the '' Chronicon Salernitanum'' ("Salerno Chronicle"). According to Dolger, it indicates that at least one group of Scandinavians had a ruler who called himself "khagan", but Ostrowski (2018) countered: 'The letter of Louis II to Basil I states specifically that the Northmen do not have a khagan. From that, the non-extant letter of Basil I has been thought to have stated that the Northmen had a khagan, but we do not know that. (...) Besides, even if Basil's letter did assert that the ruler of the Northmen was called a khagan, that testimony is negated by the statement of Louis II that their ruler is not called a khagan.'
Arabic-Persian sources
Ahmad ibn Rustah, a 10th-century PersianMuslim geographer, wrote that the Rus' khagan ("khāqān rus") lived on an island in a lake. Constantin Zuckerman comments that Ibn Rustah, using the text of the Anonymous Note from the 870s, attempted to accurately convey the titles of all rulers described by its author, which makes his evidence all the more invaluable. Ibn Rustah mentions only two khagans in his treatise—those of
Khazaria
The Khazars ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a nomadic Turkic people who, in the late 6th century CE, established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, Crimea, an ...
and Rus.
''
Hudud al-'Alam
The ''Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam'' (, "Boundaries of the World," "Limits of the World," or in also in English "The Regions of the World") is a 10th-century geography book written in Persian by an anonymous author from Guzgan (present day northern Afg ...
'', an anonymous geography text written in Persian during the late 10th century ( 982–983), refers to the Rus' king as "Khāqān-i Rus". The unknown author of ''Hudud al-Alam'' relied on several 9th-century and 10th-century sources. Abu Said Gardizi, an 11th-century Persian Muslim geographer, mentioned "khāqān-i rus" in his work ''Zayn al-Akhbār''. Ibn Rustah, the ''Hudud al-Alam'' and Gardizi all copied their information from the same late 9th-century source.
Zuckerman (2000) argued that
Ya'qubi
ʾAbū al-ʿAbbās ʾAḥmad bin ʾAbī Yaʿqūb bin Ǧaʿfar bin Wahb bin Waḍīḥ al-Yaʿqūbī (died 897/8), commonly referred to simply by his nisba al-Yaʿqūbī, was an Arab Muslim geographer.
Life
Ya'qubi was born in Baghdad to a fam ...
, '' Kitab al-Buldan'' ("The Book of Countries", 889–890), also has a relevant passage. In a legendary story about a siege of the Tsanars in the
Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...
in 854, mention is made of "the overlords (''sahib'') of the Byzantines (''al-Rum''), of the Khazars, and of the Slavs (''al- Saqaliba'')", which Zuckerman connected with a supposed Rus' ''khagan''. According to Zuckerman,
Ibn Khordadbeh
Abu'l-Qasim Ubaydallah ibn Abdallah ibn Khordadbeh (; 820/825–913), commonly known as Ibn Khordadbeh (also spelled Ibn Khurradadhbih; ), was a high-ranking bureaucrat and geographer of Persian descent in the Abbasid Caliphate. He is the aut ...
and other Arab authors often confused the terms Rus and Saqaliba when describing Caspian expeditions of the Rusʹ in the 9th and 10th centuries. But Ibn Khordādbeh's '' Book of Roads and Kingdoms'' does not mention the title of "khagan" for the ruler of Rus'.
Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv
The Saint Sophia Cathedral (, або Софія Київська) in Kyiv, Ukraine, is an Architecture of Kyivan Rus, architectural monument of Kievan Rus'. The former cathedral is one of the city's best known landmarks and the first heritage sit ...
inscription) or ''kogan'' (the 12th-century ''
The Tale of Igor's Campaign
''The Tale of Igor's Campaign'' or ''The Tale of Ihor's Campaign'' () is an anonymous epic poem written in the Old East Slavic language.
The title is occasionally translated as ''The Tale of the Campaign of Igor'', ''The Song of Igor's Campaign'' ...
'') have generally been understood to refer to the ruler of Kievan Rus'. According to Halperin (1987), the title ''kagan'' in the ''Annales Bertiniani sub anno'' 839, Hilarion's ''Sermon'', and in ''The Tale of Igor's Campaign'' all apply to "the ruler of
Kiev
Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...
". He agreed with Peter B. Golden (1982) that this reflected Khazar influence on Kievan Rus', and argued that the use of a "steppe title" in Kiev 'may be the only case of the title's use by a non-nomadic people'. Halperin also found it "highly anomalous" that a Christian prelate like Hilarion would 'laud his ruler with a shamanist title', adding in 2022: "The Christian ethos of the sermon is marred by Ilarion's attribution to Vladimir of the Khazar title ''kagan'', which was definitely not Christian."
Hilarion's '' Sermon on Law and Grace'' mentions the word ''kagan'' () throughout the text, a total of five times.
# и похвала каганоу нашемоу влодимероу, ѿ негоже крещени быхом ("And: an encomium to our kagan Volodimer, by whom we were baptized.")
# великааго кагана нашеа земли Володимера, вънука старааго Игоря, сына же славнааго Святослава ("the great kagan of our land Volodimer, the grandson of Igor' of old, and the son of the glorious Svjatoslav.")
# каганъ нашь Влодимеръ ("Volodimer, our kagan")
# Съвлѣче же ся убо каганъ нашь и съ ризами ветъхааго человѣка ("So our kagan cast off his clothing")
# Паче же помолися о сынѣ твоемь, благовѣрнѣмь каганѣ нашемь Георгии ("And furthermore, pray for your son, our devout kagan, Georgij";). Georgij was the baptismal name of Yaroslav the Wise, who reigned in Kiev at the time and was Hilarion's patron.
A colophon preserved in a 15th-century manuscript, at the end of a set of works usually attributed to Hilarion, adds one more mention: Быша же си въ лѣто 6559 (1051), владычествующу благовѣрьному кагану Ярославу, сыну Владимирю. Аминь. ("These things came to pass in the year 6559 (1051), during the reign of the pious kagan Jaroslav, the son to Volodimer, Amen.")
Absence in other contemporary sources
The absence of any ''khagan'' in the following sources has been taken by several scholars as evidence indicating either that there had never been a Rus'
khaganate
A khanate ( ) or khaganate refers to historic polity, polities ruled by a Khan (title), khan, khagan, khatun, or khanum. Khanates were typically nomadic Mongol and Turkic peoples, Turkic or Tatars, Tatar societies located on the Eurasian Steppe, ...
(Tolochko 2015, Ostrowski 2018), or that it must have disappeared by 911 (Zuckerman 2000), probably already before 900 (Golden 1982).
* The '' Book of Roads and Kingdoms'' ( 870) written by Persian geographer
Ibn Khordadbeh
Abu'l-Qasim Ubaydallah ibn Abdallah ibn Khordadbeh (; 820/825–913), commonly known as Ibn Khordadbeh (also spelled Ibn Khurradadhbih; ), was a high-ranking bureaucrat and geographer of Persian descent in the Abbasid Caliphate. He is the aut ...
does mention the Rus' as important traders, but does not mention a title of a Rus' ruler in his chapter "Titles of the rulers of the Earth", where only the Turks, Tibetans and Khazars are said to be ruled by ''khaqans.'' If the Rus' had a ''khaqan'' at the time, the author would have been expected to mention it, but he did not. Ibn Khordadbeh's book is a notable exception amongst the Arabic-Persian sources in mentioning the Rus', but not a ''khaqan''; more generally, his information also does not appear to stem from the same source (possibly the now-lost book written by Jayhani) used by others such as Ibn Rusta and Gardizi.
* The ''
Primary Chronicle
The ''Primary Chronicle'', shortened from the common ''Russian Primary Chronicle'' (, commonly transcribed ''Povest' vremennykh let'' (PVL), ), is a Rus' chronicle, chronicle of Kievan Rus' from about 850 to 1110. It is believed to have been or ...
'' (an anonymous
Rus' chronicle
The Rus' chronicles, Russian chronicles or Rus' letopis () was the primary Rus' historical literature. Chronicles were composed from the 11th to the 18th centuries, generally written in Old East Slavic (and, later, Ruthenian language, Ruthenian ...
completed 1110) does not mention the title of ''khagan'' anywhere, for example in the three Rus'-Byzantine treaties of 907, 911, and
944
Year 944 ( CMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* Arab–Byzantine War: Byzantine forces are defeated by Sayf al-Dawla. He captures the city of Aleppo, and extends his c ...
.
* The ''Risala'' of Ahmad ibn Fadlan (written in Arabic, documenting his visit to
Kievan Rus
Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,.
* was the first East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of Russ ...
' around 922) calls the monarch of the Rus' a ''malik'' (Arabic for "king"), not a ''qagan'', even though it does say that 'the king of the Khazars scalled a Qagan'.
* '' De Ceremoniis'' (a Greek book on ceremonial protocol at the Byzantine court from the 950s) meticulously documents the titles of foreign rulers, but when it deals with Olga of Kiev's reception at the court
Constantine VII
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (; 17 May 905 – 9 November 959) was the fourth Byzantine emperor of the Macedonian dynasty, reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zoe Karbonopsina, an ...
in 945, it does not call her a ''khagan'', but an ''
archon
''Archon'' (, plural: , ''árchontes'') is a Greek word that means "ruler", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem , meaning "to be first, to rule", derived from the same ...
'' (Greek for "ruler").
Dating
The dating of the Khaganate's existence has been the subject of debates among scholars and remains unclear. Paul Robert Magocsi and Omeljan Pritsak (Ukrainians) date the foundation of the Khaganate to be around the year 830.Pritsak, ''Origin of Rus', passim.'' According to Magocsi, "A violent civil war took place during the 820s. ... The losers of the internal political struggle, known as
Kabars
The Kabars (), also known as Qavars (Qabars) or Khavars, were Khazar rebels who joined Magyar tribes and the Rus' Khaganate confederations in the 9th century CE.
Sources
The Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII is the principal source of the Kaba ...
, fled northward to the Varangian Rus' in the upper Volga region, near Rostov, and southward to the
Magyars
Hungarians, also known as Magyars, are an ethnic group native to Hungary (), who share a common culture, language and history. They also have a notable presence in former parts of the Kingdom of Hungary. The Hungarian language belongs to the ...
, who formerly had been loyal vassals of the
Khazars
The Khazars ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a nomadic Turkic people who, in the late 6th century CE, established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, Crimea, a ...
. The presence of Kabar political refugees from
Khazaria
The Khazars ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a nomadic Turkic people who, in the late 6th century CE, established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, Crimea, an ...
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." Whatever the accuracy of such estimates may be, there are no primary sources mentioning the Rus' or its khagans prior to the 830s.Omeljan Pritsak noted that the leader of those Kabars was Khan-Tuvan.Pritsak, ''Origins of Rus' ''1:28, 171, 182.
Golden (1982) and Zuckerman (2000) concluded that if a Rus' khaganate had existed, it must have disappeared before 900, as references to a Rus' khagan are last recorded in the 880s, and do not return until the 11th century. Various possible reasons for its disappearance have been suggested. The ''
Primary Chronicle
The ''Primary Chronicle'', shortened from the common ''Russian Primary Chronicle'' (, commonly transcribed ''Povest' vremennykh let'' (PVL), ), is a Rus' chronicle, chronicle of Kievan Rus' from about 850 to 1110. It is believed to have been or ...
'' describes the uprising of the pagan Slavs and Chudes (Baltic Finns) against the Varangians, who had to withdraw overseas in 862. The ''
Novgorod First Chronicle
The Novgorod First Chronicle ( rus, Новгоро́дская пе́рвая ле́топись, Novgoródskaya pérvaya létopisʹ, nəvɡɐˈrot͡skəjə ˈpʲervəjə ˈlʲetəpʲɪsʲ, commonly abbreviated as NPL), also known by its 1914 Eng ...
'', whose account of the events Shakhmatov considered more trustworthy, does not pinpoint the pre-Rurikid uprising to any specific date. The 16th-century ''
Nikon Chronicle
The ''Nikon Chronicle'' () is a compilation of Russian chronicles undertaken at the court of Ivan the Terrible in the mid-16th century. The compilation was named after Patriarch Nikon of Moscow, who owned a copy. In the 18th century, it was publi ...
'' attributes the banishment of the Varangians from the country to Vadim the Bold. The Ukrainian historian Mykhailo Braychevskiy labelled Vadim's rebellion "a pagan reaction" against the Christianization of the Rus'. A period of unrest and anarchy followed, dated by Zuckerman to 875–900. The absence of coin hoards from the 880s and 890s suggests that the Volga trade route ceased functioning, precipitating "the first silver crisis in Europe".
After this economic depression and period of political upheaval, the region experienced a resurgence beginning in around 900. Zuckerman associates this recovery with the arrival of
Rurik
Rurik (also spelled Rorik, Riurik or Ryurik; ; ; died 879) was a Varangians, Varangian chieftain of the Rus' people, Rus' who, according to tradition, was invited to reign in Veliky Novgorod, Novgorod in the year 862. The ''Primary Chronicle' ...
and his men, who turned their attention from the Volga to the Dnieper, for reasons as yet uncertain. The Scandinavian settlements in Ladoga and Novgorod revived and started to grow rapidly. During the first decade of the 10th century, a large trade outpost was formed on the
Dnieper
The Dnieper or Dnepr ( ), also called Dnipro ( ), is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. Approximately long, with ...
Smolensk
Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River, west-southwest of Moscow.
First mentioned in 863, it is one of the oldest cities in Russia. It has been a regional capital for most of ...
. Another Dnieper settlement, Kiev, developed into an important urban centre roughly in the same period.
Possible locations
The location of the purported khaganate, more specifically the residence of the supposed ''khagan'', has been actively disputed since the late 19th century. Sites proposed by scholars have included the following:
* The Middle Dnieper including Kiev (
Kyiv
Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...
Boris Rybakov
Boris Aleksandrovich Rybakov (; 3 June 1908, Moscow – 27 December 2001, Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian archeologist and historian. He was one of the main proponents of anti-Normanist vision of Russian history. He is the father of Indologis ...
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea 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 bound ...
: Vasilii G. Vasil’evskii (1915; the ''khagan'' being Khazar).
* The
Sea of Azov
The Sea of Azov is an inland Continental shelf#Shelf seas, shelf sea in Eastern Europe connected to the Black Sea by the narrow (about ) Strait of Kerch, and sometimes regarded as a northern extension of the Black Sea. The sea is bounded by Ru ...
Peter Benjamin Golden
Peter Benjamin Golden (born 1941) is an American professor emeritus of History, Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University. He has written many books and articles on Turkic peoples, Turkic and Central Asian studies, such as ''An int ...
Aleksey Shakhmatov
Aleksey Aleksandrovich Shakhmatov (, – 16 August 1920) was a Russian philology, philologist and historian credited with laying the foundations for the science of Textual criticism, textology. Shakhmatov held the title of Doctor of Russ ...
Vasily Bartold
Vasily Vladimirovich Bartold (; – 19 August 1930), who published in the West under his German baptismal name, Wilhelm Barthold, was a Russian orientalist who specialized in the history of Islam and the Turkic peoples ( Turkology).
Biogra ...
Veliky Novgorod
Veliky Novgorod ( ; , ; ), also known simply as Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the oldest cities in Russia, being first mentioned in the 9th century. The city lies along the ...
Staraya Russa
Staraya Russa (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Novgorod Oblast, Russia, located on the Polist, Polist River, south of Veliky Novgorod, the administrative center of the oblast. Its population has steadily decreased over ...
.
* The land of the Chud: Ernst Kunik (1844).
* East Sweden (
Birka
Birka (''Birca'' in medieval sources), on the island of Björkö, Ekerö, Björkö (lit. "Birch Island") in present-day Sweden, was an important Viking Age trading center which handled goods from Scandinavia as well as many parts of Continent ...
): Simon Franklin & Jonathan Shepard (1996, one of 4 options), Ildar Garipzanov (2006, it was an (East) Swedish ''kongur'' named '' Håkan'' who may have operated in North Rus', but without permanent residence)
* ''Nowhere'': Oleksiy Tolochko (2015),
Donald Ostrowski
Donald "Don" Gary Ostrowski (born 1945) is an American historian, and a lecturer in history at Harvard Extension School. He specialises in the political and social history Kievan Rus' and Muscovy (early modern Russia).
Biography
Ostrowski rec ...
Boris Rybakov
Boris Aleksandrovich Rybakov (; 3 June 1908, Moscow – 27 December 2001, Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian archeologist and historian. He was one of the main proponents of anti-Normanist vision of Russian history. He is the father of Indologis ...
and Lev Gumilev, advanced Kiev as the residence of the khagan, assuming that Askold and Dir were the only khagans recorded by name. Mikhail Artamonov became an adherent of the theory that Kiev was the seat of the Rus' Khaganate, and continued to hold this view into the 1990s. Halperin (1987) also stated that the 839 ''Annales Bertiniani'' reference to a Rus' ''chacanus'' is to "the ruler of
Kiev
Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...
". Some archaeologists have countered that there is no material evidence of a Norse presence in Kiev prior to the 10th century. Troublesome is the absence of hoards of coins which would prove that the Dnieper trade route – the backbone of later
Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,.
* was the first East Slavs, East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical At ...
– was operating in the 9th century. Based on his examination of the archaeological evidence, Zuckerman concludes that Kiev originated as a
fortress
A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from L ...
on the Khazar border with Levedia and that only after the
Magyars
Hungarians, also known as Magyars, are an ethnic group native to Hungary (), who share a common culture, language and history. They also have a notable presence in former parts of the Kingdom of Hungary. The Hungarian language belongs to the ...
departed for the west in 889 did the middle
Dnieper
The Dnieper or Dnepr ( ), also called Dnipro ( ), is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. Approximately long, with ...
region start to progress economically.
Volkhov river sites
A number of historians, the first of whom was
Vasily Bartold
Vasily Vladimirovich Bartold (; – 19 August 1930), who published in the West under his German baptismal name, Wilhelm Barthold, was a Russian orientalist who specialized in the history of Islam and the Turkic peoples ( Turkology).
Biogra ...
, have advocated a more northerly position for the khaganate. They have tended to emphasize ibn Rustah's report as the only historical clue to the location of the khagan's residence. Recent archaeological research, conducted by Anatoly Kirpichnikov and Dmitry Machinsky, has raised the possibility that this polity was based on a group of settlements along the Volkhov River, including Ladoga, Lyubsha, Duboviki, Alaborg, and Holmgard (modern Rurikovo Gorodische). "Most of these were initially small sites, probably not much more than stations for re-fitting and resupply, providing an opportunity for exchange and the redistribution of items passing along the river and caravan routes". If the anonymous traveller quoted by ibn Rustah is to be believed, the Rus of the Khaganate period made extensive use of the Volga route to trade with the
Near East
The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...
Khazar
The Khazars ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a nomadic Turkic people who, in the late 6th century CE, established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, Crimea, an ...
intermediaries. His description of the Rus' island suggests that their center was at Holmgard, an early medieval precursor of Novgorod whose name translates from
Old Norse
Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...
Rurik
Rurik (also spelled Rorik, Riurik or Ryurik; ; ; died 879) was a Varangians, Varangian chieftain of the Rus' people, Rus' who, according to tradition, was invited to reign in Veliky Novgorod, Novgorod in the year 862. The ''Primary Chronicle' ...
was invited to come to rule the region in the 860s. This account prompted Johannes Brøndsted to assert that Holmgard-Novgorod was the khaganate's capital for several decades prior to the appearance of Rurik, including the time of the Byzantine embassy in 839. Machinsky accepts this theory but notes that, before the rise of Holmgard-Novgorod, the chief political and economic centre of the area was located at Aldeigja-Ladoga. However, Nosov (1990) stated that archaeological evidence recovered at Rurikovo Gorodische puts the '' terminus post quem'' for the hill-fort's establishment decades later: dendrochronological analysis showed that trees used in construction at the site were felled between the years 889 and 948, and
radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for Chronological dating, determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of carbon-14, radiocarbon, a radioactive Isotop ...
of charcoal samples collected from a ditch at the site of "Holmgard" trace back to 880(±20).
Islands in fringe theories
According to one fringe theory, the Rus' khagan resided somewhere in Scandinavia or even as far west as
Walcheren
Walcheren () is a region and former island in the Dutch province of Zeeland at the mouth of the Scheldt estuary. It lies between the Eastern Scheldt in the north and the Western Scheldt in the south and is roughly the shape of a rhombus. The two ...
. In stark contrast, George Vernadsky believed that the khagan had his headquarters in the eastern part of the
Crimea
Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...
or in the Taman Peninsula and that the island described by Ibn Rustah was most likely situated in the estuary of the
Kuban River
The Kuban is a river in Russia that flows through the Western Caucasus and drains into the Sea of Azov. The Kuban runs mostly through Krasnodar Krai for , but also in the Karachay–Cherkess Republic, Stavropol Krai and the Republic of Adygea. ...
.Vernadsky VII-4. Neither of these theories has won many adherents, as
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
s have uncovered no traces of a Slavic-Norse settlement in the Crimea region in the 9th century and there are no Norse sources documenting "khagans" in Scandinavia.
Etymological issues
''Rhos'' and Rus'
The Russian anti-NormanistStepan Gedeonov (1876) was the first historian to suggest that the ''Rhos'' ambassadors mentioned in the ''
Annales Bertiniani
''Annales Bertiniani'' (''Annals of Saint Bertin'') are late Carolingian, Frankish annals that were found in the Abbey of Saint Bertin, Saint-Omer, France, after which they are named. Their account is taken to cover the period 830-82, thus con ...
sub anno'' 839 were Swedes in the diplomatic service of a Rusʹ (''Rhos'') khagan (''chacanus''), and thus that there was Rus' khaganate, and that these Rus' people were Slavic. Danish linguist
Vilhelm Thomsen
Vilhelm Ludwig Peter Thomsen (25 January 1842 – 12 May 1927) was a Denmark, Danish linguistics, linguist and Turkologist. He successfully deciphered the Turkic Orkhon inscriptions which were discovered during the expedition of Nikolai Yadrintse ...
(1877) instead concluded "that ''Rhos'' was the Greek designation for the Scandinavians or Northmen, who in this case happened to be Swedes." According to Ukrainian historian Mykhailo Hrushevsky (1904), the ''Rhos'' envoys were "northern Germanic", but in the service of a "Rus' khagan", that was to be identified as the Slavic Rus' prince of Kiev. Vasil’evskii (1915) thought the ''Rhos'' were an indigenous people living near the mouth of the
Dnieper
The Dnieper or Dnepr ( ), also called Dnipro ( ), is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. Approximately long, with ...
into the
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea 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 bound ...
, and that the ''khagan'' was their
Khazar
The Khazars ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a nomadic Turkic people who, in the late 6th century CE, established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, Crimea, an ...
master. Still others presume a Rus' khagan reigning over a
state
State most commonly refers to:
* State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory
**Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country
**Nation state, a ...
, or a cluster of
city-state
A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world throughout history, including cities such as Rome, ...
s, set up by Rus' people somewhere in what is today
European Russia
European Russia is the western and most populated part of the Russia, Russian Federation. It is geographically situated in Europe, as opposed to the country's sparsely populated and vastly larger eastern part, Siberia, which is situated in Asia ...
and
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
as a chronological predecessor to the
Rurik dynasty
The Rurik dynasty, also known as the Rurikid or Riurikid dynasty, as well as simply Rurikids or Riurikids, was a noble lineage allegedly founded by the Varangian prince Rurik, who, according to tradition, established himself at Novgorod in the ...
and Kievan Rusʹ. The region's population at that time was composed of Slavs, Turkic,
Baltic
Baltic may refer to:
Peoples and languages
*Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian
*Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...
Varangians
The Varangians ( ; ; ; , or )Varangian ," Online Etymology Dictionary were
Slavic, the modern scholarly consensus is that the
Rus' people
The Rus, also known as Russes, were a people in early medieval Eastern Europe. The scholarly consensus holds that they were originally Norsemen, mainly originating from present-day Sweden, who settled and ruled along the river-routes between t ...
originated in
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...
, possibly
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
. According to the prevalent theory, the name ''Rus'', like the
Proto-Finnic
Proto-Finnic or Proto-Baltic-Finnic is the common ancestor of the Finnic languages, which include the national languages Finnish language, Finnish and Estonian language, Estonian. Proto-Finnic is not attested in any texts, but has been linguisti ...
name for Sweden (''*Ruotsi''), is derived from an
Old Norse
Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...
term for "the men who row" (''rods-'') as rowing was the main method of navigating the rivers of
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...
, and that it could be linked to the Swedish coastal area of Roslagen (''Rus-law'') or '' Roden'', as it was known in earlier times.Stefan Brink, "Who were the Vikings?", in The Viking World ', ed. by Stefan Brink and Neil Price (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), pp. 4–10 (pp. 6–7). The name ''Rus'' would then have the same origin as the Finnish and Estonian names for Sweden: ''Ruotsi'' and ''Rootsi''.
Around 860, a group of Rus'
Vikings
Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...
began to rule the area under their leader
Rurik
Rurik (also spelled Rorik, Riurik or Ryurik; ; ; died 879) was a Varangians, Varangian chieftain of the Rus' people, Rus' who, according to tradition, was invited to reign in Veliky Novgorod, Novgorod in the year 862. The ''Primary Chronicle' ...
. Gradually, Norse warlords, known to the Turkic-speaking steppe peoples as "köl-beki" or "lake-princes", came to dominate some of the region's Finno-Ugric and Slavic peoples, particularly along the Volga trade route linking the
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...
with the
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...
and Serkland. According to Franklin & Shepard (1996, 2014), the account of the 860s Rus' expedition against Constantinople in the ''Primary Chronicle'' (which claims the raid originated in Kiev) was largely borrowed by the authors from a 10th-century Greek source, the ''Continuation'' of the ''Chronicle'' of George the Monk, which does not identify a point of departure.
''Chacanus''
Since the 18th century, the debate on the word ''chacanus'' / ''Chacanus'' in the ''Annales Bertiniani'' has had two sides: it must either be understood as the title of the ''rex'', namely ''
khagan
Khagan or Qaghan (Middle Mongol:; or ''Khagan''; ) or zh, c=大汗, p=Dàhán; ''Khāqān'', alternatively spelled Kağan, Kagan, Khaghan, Kaghan, Khakan, Khakhan, Khaqan, Xagahn, Qaghan, Chagan, Қан, or Kha'an is a title of empire, im ...
'' (first proposed by Siegfried Bayer in 1736), or that it was a Scandinavian proper name, namely '' Håkon'' (first suggested by Stroube de Piermont in 1785). In 2004, Duczko stated: 'At present there is almost total unity of opinion that the title of the ruler of Rus is of Khazarian origin and that the word ''chacanus'' is a Latin form of the Turk word ''khagan'', a title of a prime ruler in the nomadic societies in Eurasia.' He claimed that the Old Norse personal name interpretation 'was abandoned (though its supporters still appear from time to time).' Garipzanov (2006) challenged the ''khagan'' interpretation again, arguing that one cannot just turn the ''c'' in the middle of ''chacanus'' into a ''g'', adding that 'many Germanic names starting with phonetic ''h-'' were transcribed in Frankish sources with ''ch-'', and concluding that the word most likely was the Swedish name '' Håkan'', an explanation accepted by Ostrowski (2018).
Assuming it reflects the Khazar-derived title ''khagan'', there is considerable dispute over the circumstances of this borrowing.
Peter Benjamin Golden
Peter Benjamin Golden (born 1941) is an American professor emeritus of History, Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University. He has written many books and articles on Turkic peoples, Turkic and Central Asian studies, such as ''An int ...
(1982) rejected the idea that the Rus' could have appropriated the title of ''Qağan'' from the Khazars; the ruling Ashina clan would have had to voluntarily appoint a Rus' leader as a vassal ''Qağan'' for it to have any legitimacy. Golden concluded that the Rus' Khaganate was a puppet state set up by the Khazars in the basin of the
Oka River
The Oka (, ; ) is a river in central Russia, the largest right tributary of the Volga. It flows through the regions of Oryol, Tula, Kaluga, Moscow, Ryazan, Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod and is navigable over a large part of its total length, ...
to fend off recurring attacks of the
Magyars
Hungarians, also known as Magyars, are an ethnic group native to Hungary (), who share a common culture, language and history. They also have a notable presence in former parts of the Kingdom of Hungary. The Hungarian language belongs to the ...
. However, no source records that the Rus' of the 9th century were subjects of the Khazars. For foreign observers (such as Ibn Rustah), there was no material difference between the titles of the Khazar and Rus' rulers. Anatoly Novoseltsev hypothesizes that the adoption of the title "khagan" was designed to advertise the Rus' claims to equality with the Khazars. This theory is echoed by Thomas Noonan, who asserts that the Rus' leaders were loosely unified under the rule of one of the "sea-kings" in the early 9th century, and that this " High King" adopted the title "khagan" to give him legitimacy in the eyes of his subjects and neighboring states. According to this theory, the title was a sign that the bearers ruled under a divine mandate.
Omeljan Pritsak speculated that a
Khazar
The Khazars ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a nomadic Turkic people who, in the late 6th century CE, established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, Crimea, an ...
khagan named Khan-Tuvan Dyggvi, exiled after losing an
internecine war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.James Fearon"Ira ...
, settled with his
Kabar
The Kabars (), also known as Qavars (Qabars) or Khavars, were Khazar rebels who joined Magyar tribes and the Rus' Khaganate confederations in the 9th century CE.
Sources
The Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII is the principal source of the Kaba ...
faction in the Norse-Slavic settlement of Rostov, married into the local Scandinavian nobility, and fathered the dynasty of the Rus' khagans. Zuckerman dismisses Pritsak's theory as untenable speculation, and no record of any Khazar khagan fleeing to find refuge among the Rus' exists in contemporaneous sources. Nevertheless, the possible Khazar connection to early Rus' monarchs is supported by the use of a stylized tridenttamga, or seal, by later Rus' rulers such as Sviatoslav I of Kiev; similar tamgas are found in ruins that are definitively Khazar in origin.Pritsak, ''Weights'' 78–79. The genealogical connection between the 9th-century Khagans of Rus' and the later Rurikid rulers, if any, is unknown at this time.
Garðaríki
(anglicized Gardariki or Gardarike) or was the Old Norse term used in the Middle Ages for the lands of Rus'_people, Rus'. According to ''Göngu-Hrólfs saga'', the name (also used as a name for Novgorod Land, Novgorodian Rus') was synonymous ...
Notes
References
Bibliography
*Ahmed ibn Fadlan. ''Ibn Fadlan's Journey to Russia: A Tenth-Century Traveler from Baghdad to the Volga River.'' Frye, Richard Nelson, ed. and trans. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2005.
*Ahmad ibn Umar ibn Rustah. ''al-Alaq al-nafisah: Maruf bih Ibn Rustah. Tarjamah va taliq-i Husayn Qarah'chanlu.'' Tehran, Iran: Amir Kabir, 1986.
* (Aleksandrov)
* Artamanov, M.I. "Prevye Stranisky Russkoy Istorii ve Archeologicheskom Osveshchenii." ''Sovietskaya Arkheologica''. Vol 3, 1990. pp. 271–290.
*
*
*
*
* Brutzkus, Julius. "The Khazar Origin of Ancient Kiev." '' Slavonic and East European Review'', 22 (1944).
* Christian, David. ''A History of Russia, Mongolia and Central Asia.'' Blackwell, 1999.
* Dolger F. ''Regesten der Kaiserurkunden des ostromischen Reiches. I''. Berlin, 1924.
*
*
*
* (2014 Routledge reprint of 1996 Longman original)
*
* Golden, Peter Benjamin. "Rus." ''
Encyclopaedia of Islam
The ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'' (''EI'') is a reference work that facilitates the Islamic studies, academic study of Islam. It is published by Brill Publishers, Brill and provides information on various aspects of Islam and the Muslim world, Isl ...
'' Eds.: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill. Brill Online, 2006
*
* (e-book).
*
* (first published 1968, second edition 1984, reissued 2001)
*Laurent, J. and M. Canard. ''L'Armenie entre Byzance et l'Islam depuis la conquete arabe jusqu'en 886''. Lisbon, 1980.
*Мачинский (Machinskiy) Д.А. "О месте Северной Руси в процессе сложения Древнерусского государства и европейской культурной общности." 'On the Place of Northern Rus in the Genesis of the Old Rus' State and European Cultural Continuum'' ''Археологическое исследование Новгородской земли''. Leningrad, 1984.
* § 44. Discourse on the Rūs Country and its Towns .
*"Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Epistolae VII". ''Epistolae Karolini aevi V''. Berlin: W. Henze, 1928.
* Noonan, Thomas. "The Khazar Qaghanate and Its Impact On the Early Rus' State: The ''translatio imperii'' from Itil to Kiev." ''Nomads in the Sedentary World'', Anatoly Mikhailovich Khazanov and Andre Wink, eds. p. 76–102. Richmond, England: Curzon, 2001. .
*Noonan, Thomas. "The First Major Silver Crisis in Russia and the Baltic, ca. 875–900". ''Hikuin'', 11 (1985): 41–50.
*Noonan, Thomas. "Fluctuations in Islamic Trade with Eastern Europe during the Viking Age". ''Harvard Ukrainian Studies'', 1992, No.16.
*Noonan, Thomas. "The Monetary System of Kiev in the Pre-Mongol Period". ''Harvard Ukrainian Studies'', 1987, No.11. Page 396.
*Новосельцев (Novoselʹcev) А.П. ''et al. Древнерусское государство и его международное значение.'' 'Old Rus' State And Its International Relations'' Moscow, 1965.
*Новосельцев (Novoselʹcev) А.П. "К вопросу об одном из древнейших титулов русского князя". 'On One of the Oldest Titles of the Rus' Princes'' ''История СССР.'' – 1982. – Вып. 4.
*
* Pritsak, Omeljan. ''The Origin of Rus'.'' Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991.
*Pritsak, Omeljan. ''The Origins of the Old Rus' Weights and Monetary Systems. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, 1998.
*
*''Theophanes Continuatus, Ioannes Cameniata, Symeon Magister, Georgius Monachus''. Ed. I. Becker. Bonnae, 1838 (CSHB), pp. 342–343.
* Vernadsky, G.V. ''A History of Russia''. Vol. 1. Yale University Press, 1943 Russian version online
*Vernadsky, G.V., ed. ''A Source Book for Russian History from Early Times to 1917, Vol. 1.'' New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1972.
* Yanin, Valentin. ''Денежно-весовые системы русского средневековья. Домонгольский период.'' 'The Monetary Systems of the Russian Middle Ages. The Pre-Mongol Period'' Moscow, 1956.
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** 2003 Russian translation online .
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Khaganate
A khanate ( ) or khaganate refers to historic polity, polities ruled by a Khan (title), khan, khagan, khatun, or khanum. Khanates were typically nomadic Mongol and Turkic peoples, Turkic or Tatars, Tatar societies located on the Eurasian Steppe, ...