The history of the Khazar Khaganate, which for many years dominated the steppes of South-Eastern Europe as well as much of the steppe territory of Western Asia, is important for a proper understanding of the history of early medieval Eastern Europe. Both extensive and enduring, this power straddled several important trade routes, serving as a channel for ideas, technologies and artistic influences mostly (though not only) from East and South to North and West. Furthermore, the Khazars played a major role in the struggle between the competing Christian and Islamic empires.

An independent Khazar state emerged in the 7th century, primarily based upon the lower courses of the mighty Volga and Don rivers. The Khazar Khaganate then expanded to incorporate under its rule or influence an array of differing peoples, from the originally nomadic Turkic Khazars themselves, to partially nomadic Alans who spoke an Iranian language; Bulgars (Bulghars), who were then still Turkic rather than Slavic; Burtas, whose linguistic identity remains a matter of dispute; Finno-Ugrian Mari of the mountains, forest and river plains; semi-nomadic Magyars, who were ancestors of today�s Hungarians; and nomadic Turkic Pechenegs, who would eventually inherit the western steppes as the Khazars faded from history. A number of Eastern Slav tribal associations were similarly dominated by the sprawling Khazar Khaganate. All these peoples paid tribute to the Khazar rulers, and were, at various times and to varying degrees, under Khazar domination◦� although in many cases this relationship was based upon mutually beneficial trade rather than military force. The Khazarian state (i.e. the multi-ethnic polity dominated by the Khazars) existed for about 300 years before it collapsed in the mid-10th century◦� a long time for a steppe empire based upon largely or partly nomadic tribes. Furthermore, the Khazars left a significant mark on the history of a large part of Eastern Europe and beyond.

According to the Byzantine emperor and chronicler Constantine�VII Porphyrogenitus (ruled [r.] AD 913�959), the original Khazars were Turks. However, some other writers believe they had similar Finno-Ugrian origins to the Magyars or Hungarians, and still others maintain that they had comparable origins to the Georgians of the Caucasus. Such uncertainties are common with regard to early-medieval steppe peoples, but in the case of the Khazars the issue has latterly become entangled with unpleasantly racist rather than simply scholarly concerns. In the 8th century the Khazars, or at least their ruling elite, converted to Judaism; consequently, their history has aroused a sometimes anti-semitic interest in the pretended �Jewish ethnicity� of communities of Eastern European, Caucasus and Central Asian origins, or in the Turkic rather than semitic origins of Eastern European Jewish communities.

The first reliable written source concerning the Khazars might date from as early as the 2nd century AD, when tribes later sometimes identified as Khazars occupied land north of the Caucasus, clashing with Armenians and enjoying notable success until the 4th century. Whether or not they really were ethnically related to the later Khazars is nevertheless questionable. During the astonishing expansion of the vast but ephemeral Hun Empire in the late 4th and early 5th centuries, these possible proto-Khazars disappear from history, but when they suddenly re-emerge in the 6th century they already control a large territory. In the east, their lands bordered nomadic tribes known simply as Turks; in the north their neighbours were Finnish tribes; in the west, they were Turkic Bulgars; while in the south, Khazar territory bordered that of the Alans and reached the River Araxes (Aras). Once they had freed themselves from the Huns, the Khazars consolidated their own power and began to threaten neighbouring peoples. Indeed, the Khazars became so troublesome that the Sassanian Persian ruler or Shahinshah Kavadh�I (r. AD 488�496 and 498�531) and his son Khusrow�I (531�579) had long fortifications built from the mountains to the sea in northern Shirvan. Repaired and rebuilt many times, parts of these impressive Walls of Derbent are visible to this day.

During the 7th century the Khazars took advantage of divisions among their long-standing Bulgar rivals to seize control of territory north of the Black Sea. Thereafter the loose association of Bulgar tribes split apart, some migrating north to establish a new state around the confluence of the Volga and Kama rivers (see MAA 491, Armies of the Volga Bulgars & Khanate of Kazan). Some migrated into the Balkans to establish a state which still exists as Bulgaria, and others fled even further afield, but some remained in place under Khazar rule.

It was also during the early 7th century that the Byzantine Empire started paying serious attention to this rising new power. Clearly the Khazar tribes could have endangered the Byzantines, so the latter offered gifts and, in time-honoured fashion, formed links by marriage with the Khazar ruling family. It was by such means that the Emperor Heraclius (r. 610�641) was able to win the Khazars to his side in Byzantium�s final war with the Sassanian Empire.

This proved to be a fleeting victory, followed almost immediately by the sudden and unexpected eruption of the newly Muslim Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula. Byzantine armies were tumbled back to what would become the Empire�s heartland of Anatolia, while the weakened Sassanian Empire collapsed entirely. A newly emergent superpower, the Islamic Caliphate, soon challenged the Khazars themselves. Now a genuine Byzantine-Khazar alliance developed (though subsequently some Byzantines would advocate a different alliance with Alans and Ghuzz against the Khazars).

Attempts by the Khazars to oppose Arab-Islamic expansion were initially unsuccessful, although their forces achieved some victories. When their capital at Balanjar just north of the Caucasus was sacked, the Khazars moved their centre a short distance north to Samandar on the Caspian coast. After this too was destroyed the Khazar capital was moved again, this time to Atil (or Itil) in the delta of the Volga River. Only a defeat of the Muslims on the banks of the Bolangira saved Khazaria from collapse, and thereafter Atil remained the administrative centre of the Khaganate until the Khazar state was eclipsed in the 960s AD.

The intermittent campaigns of the �Second Arab-Khazar War� lasted for around 80 years, and involved sometimes devastating raids by both sides, with Muslims striking north of the Caucasus and Khazars striking south. In practice, however, both sides proved more successful in defence than attack, and so a narrow strip of land between the eastern end of the Caucasus and the shores of the Caspian remained a war-torn and fluctuating frontier zone. By achieving a relatively stable front with the Muslims, and an alliance with the Byzantine Empire around the Black Sea, the Khazars were able to expand in other directions. Around 894, in alliance with Ghuzz Turks, they defeated the Turkish Pechenegs to their east and the Magyars who lived in the �forest-steppe� region north-east of the Black Sea. Even before these successes the Khazars had subjugated Slav peoples along the Dnieper River north-west of the Black Sea. Thus, by the 9th and 10th centuries, Khazar territory stretched from the northern foothills of the Caucasus to the �lands of the northmen� and the Slavic Radimich people, across much of what are now Russia, Ukraine and even part of Belarus.

By the 10th century, however, the Khaganate�s Viking nemesis was approaching, with the emergence of the Rus north of Khazar territory. This first Russian state gradually brought together many Eastern Slav tribes under the rule of Prince Oleg �the Seer� of Novgorod and latterly of Kiev (879�912), subjugating some tribes which had previously been tributary to the Khazars.

In 965 or 966 Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich of Kievan Rus invaded Khazaria, and won a victory so decisive that it spelled the end of the Khazar Khaganate as a major power. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the 11th century two small Khazar principalities still remained. One, centred upon Kerch at the eastern tip of the Crimean peninsula, survived until 1016, when it was crushed by Byzantine and Rus forces. Its Khazar population had earlier converted to Karaite Judaism, which recognizes the validity of only the 24 books of the Tanakh (roughly equivalent to the Christian Old Testament) but not that of the Talmud. In medieval Russian chronicles the final mention of Khozars or Khazars as a distinct people is found in 1079, though the term �Khazarian� continued to be used even into the 15th century to describe some vassals of the Muscovite princes.

Another small Khazar principality survived in what is now Daghestan on the north-eastern slopes of the Caucasus. Centred around Samandar, which had briefly been the capital of the great Khazar Khaganate, this partially Jewish principality survived until it was destroyed by the Mongols in the 1220s. A third Khazar community may have existed around Saksin in the Volga Delta, as an autonomous region under the Muslim rulers of Khwarazm, though some scholars deny any real associations with the previous Khazar Khaganate. Its people converted to Islam, and were absorbed into the wider Islamic world.

AD 371 The Huns conquer the steppes north of the Black Sea.

515�516 Hunno-Sabirian invasion of Armenia.

540 Sabiri raid south of the Caucasus.

552 Death of Khagan Bumin (Tumin), founder of the Turkic Khaganate in Central Asia; joint assault by Sabiri and Khazars upon �Caucasian Albanians� (vassals of the Sassanian Empire, in present-day Azerbaijan).

562 Defeat of the Sabiri-Khazar alliance by Sassanian ruler Khusrow�I Anushirvan.

567�571 Khazar and Bulgar territories between the Caspian and Black Seas fall under Turkish Khaganate.

576 War begins between Byzantine Empire and Turkic Khaganate.

626 Alliance of Byzantine Empire and Turkic Khagan against Sassanian Empire; Turkic and subordinate Khazar armies strike south of Caucasus.

628 Khazars conquer �Caucasian Albania� (largely in present-day Azerbaijan).

632 Formation of Great Bulgaria in the western steppes.

c. 650 Khazar tribes establish Khazar Khaganate (Khazaria) north of the Caucasus.

653�654 Defeat of first Arab-Muslim invasion of Khazaria, but Muslims take Derbent.

655 Khazars conquer part of Crimean peninsula.

657�659 Fragmentation of the Turkic Khaganate.

c. 660 Migration of some Bulgar tribes from the western steppes, across the Danube into what became Bulgaria.

684 & 711 Khazars invade Muslim territory south of Caucasus and take Derbent.

713 Muslims recapture Derbent and raid deep into Khazaria.

721 Muslims invade Khazaria and take the Khazar capital at Balanjar.

723�724 Further campaigns by Muslims against Khazars and probably also Alans; a major Khazar assault is defeated between the Araxes and Kura rivers in February 724.

c. 730 Traditionally, the date when the Khazar Khagan Bulan converts to Judaism.

730�731 Khazars defeat an Arab-Muslim army at the battle of Marj Ardabil (9 December 730), overrun north-western Iran, and reportedly reach northern Iraq before being expelled.

732 Marriage of Byzantine Prince Constantine Copronimus (later Emperor Constantine�V) to Tzitzak (baptized as Irene), daughter of the Khazar Khagan Bihar. Marwan ibn Muhammad (subsequently the last Umayyad caliph) counterattacks against Khazars, retaking Derbent and seizing Balanjar.

735 Marwan again invades Khazaria and defeats Khazar army.

737 Khazar Khagan supposedly accepts Islam temporarily as part of a peace agreement with the Caliphate.

c. 740 Khazar ruling elite and perhaps other dominant elements start converting to Judaism.

750 Umayyad caliphal dynasty, with powerbase in Syria, is replaced by Abbasid caliphal dynasty with powerbase in Iraq.

799�809 Reforms of Khagan Obadiah, and official adoption of Judaism by Khazar ruling clans.

810�812 Uprising of Kabarians (Khavars)◦� Khazar tribes who subsequently joined the Magyars.

822�836 Internal strife in Khazar Khaganate causes some Magyar tribes and three Kabarian Khazar sub-tribes to migrate to �Etelk�z� between Carpathian mountains and Dnieper river.

834 Construction of a fortified Khazar urban centre at Sarkel, controlling strategic portage between Don and Volga rivers.

882�885 Varangian Rus take Kiev and absorb several Eastern Slav tribes.

889�890 Turkic Pecheneg tribes, having migrated to the western steppes, attack the western Magyars; the Gyula (military commander) Arpad becomes ruler of Magyar Hungarians before 895.

894�895 Magyar Hungarians campaign on the Danube; defeated by Pechenegs, they abandon Etelk�z and cross the Carpathians into Transylvania.

909 Varangian Rus raid Khazar territory and plunder Caspian coast.

913�914 Pecheneg and Ghuzz Turks and Alans attack the Khazars. A permitted Varangian raid down the Volga reaches the Caspian Sea, attacking Baku and northern Iran, but is attacked by Khazar troops on its return.

915 Pecheneg Turks make peace with Prince Igor of Kievan Rus (Russia).

922 Arab scholar Ibn Fadlan travels through Volga region.

932 War between Khazars and Alans ends in Khazar victory.

941 Failure of Kievan Rus assault upon Byzantine Empire by land and sea.

943 Rus raid Muslim territories in south Caspian region.

945 Peace agreement between Kievan Rus, Bulgaria and Byzantine Empire.

954�961 Correspondence between Hazdai ibn Shafrut (Shaprut), Jewish senior secretary of the Caliph of Cordoba (Spain and Portugal), and the Khazar Khagan or Beg (military commander) Joseph Ben Aaron.

965 Grand Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich I of Kievan Rus conquers Khazar Sarkel and Tamatarkha (Tmutarakan).

968 or 969 Svyatoslav Igorevich captures Khazar capital of Atil, effectively bringing the Khazar Khaganate to an end.

977�985 Atil occupied by Khwarazmshahs (Muslim rulers of Khwarazm, south of Aral Sea), followed by gradual conversion of most Khazars to Islam.

985 Grand Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich of Kievan Rus campaigns down Volga River against now fragmented Khazars.

1048 Muslim scholar al-Biruni describes Atil as being in ruins.

1079 Prince Oleg Svyatoslavich, exiled ruler of Chernigov, is seized by Khazar ruler of Tmutarakan and sent as prisoner to Byzantine emperor.

1083 Oleg Svyatoslavich returns to Tmutarakan and declares himself Archon (Byzantine governor).

Kozar (undated) Traditionally, the ancestor of the Khazar people.

Karadach (c. AD 450) King of the Akatziroi, according to Priscus a steppe people allied to the Huns.

(From mid-5th to early 7th centuries AD, tribal leaders are unknown.)

Ziebal (618�630) Perhaps the same as Tong Yabghu, ruler of the Western Turkic Khaganate.

Bori Shad (630�650) Probable leader of tribes north-west of the Caucasus, under Western Turkic rule.

Irbis (c. 650) Recorded in traditional Russian sources as founder of the Khazar Khaganate.

Khalga (mid-660s) Mentioned only in the 17th-century Tatar Cagfar Tarixi.

Kaban (late 660s) Mentioned only in the 17th-century Tatar Cagfar Tarixi.

Busir (c. 690�715) The first confirmed, dateable Khazar Khagan.

Barjik (late 720s�731) Described as �the son of the Khagan�, who led Khazar armies against the Islamic Caliphate.

Bihar (c. 732) An ally of the Byzantine Empire.

Prisbit (late 730s) A female name◦� perhaps a regent rather than a ruler?

(737�c. 740: Khazaria under the authority of the Muslim Umayyad Caliphate.)

Baghatur (c. 760) Perhaps ruler of Khazaria, although Ras Tarkhan is also mentioned as ruler or military commander.

Khan Tuvan (c. 825�830) Also known as Dyggvi.

Tarkhan (840s) Also the title of the Khazar military commander.

Zachariah (c. 861) Mentioned only in a Russian source.

Bulan Gabriel (c. 740) Khagan or Beg who led the conversion of the Khazar ruling elite to Judaism; he and subsequent Khazar rulers until Aaron II are only mentioned in the correspondence of Hasdai ibn Shaprut.

Obadiah (c. 786�809) Khagan or Beg, described as �one of the sons of the sons of Bulan�.

Hezekia (mid-9th century) Khagan or Beg, son of Obadiah.

Manasseh�I (mid- to late 9th century) Khagan or Beg, son of Hezekia.

Hanukkah (mid- to late 9th century) Khagan or Beg, son of Obadiah.

Isaac (mid- to late 9th century) Khagan or Beg, son of Hanukkah.

Zebulun (late 9th century) Khagan or Beg, son of Isaac.

Manasseh�II (late 9th century) Sometimes called Moshe; Khagan or Beg, son of Zebulun.

Nisi (late 9th century) Khagan or Beg, son of Manasseh II.

Aaron�I (late 9th or early 10th century) Khagan or Beg, son of Nisi.

Menahem (late 9th or early 10th century) Khagan or Beg, son of Aaron I.

Benjamin (late 9th or early 10th century) Khagan or Beg, son of Menahem.

Aaron�II (920s�939 or 940) Khagan or Beg, son of Benjamin.

Joseph (939 or 940�965) Khagan or Beg, son of Aaron; corresponded with Hasdai ibn Shaprut of Cordoba, and probably ruled during the collapse of the Khazar Khaganate.

David (c. 986�988) Probable ruler of a small Khazar successor-state on the Taman peninsula that was apparently called Tmutarakan.

Georgius Tzul (unknown until 1016) Ruler of Kerch, in Tmutarakan on the Taman peninsula; perhaps converted to Orthodox Christianity.

The main part of the Khazar army is thought to have consisted of lightly armed cavalry, though a different picture is provided by archaeological finds and images of elite Khazar warriors. Nevertheless, this assessment may have been substantially true until the beginning of the 8th century, after which heavily armed soldiers who could fight both on horseback and on foot became increasingly important. Such troops also defended the walls of fortresses where, it seems, they came to play a dominant role. Whatever the number and proportion of heavy armoured cavalry in the Khazar army, it was they who normally decided the outcome of a battle, as the primary offensive arm tasked with breaking apart enemy formations. It is equally clear that the full arms and armour of such Khazar armoured shock cavalry must have been very expensive. It is unknown how men acquired such equipment at a time when full armour and top-quality weapons were proportionately much costlier, and rarer, than they would become in the later medieval period.

While that question remains unanswered, written sources do shed light on the numbers and organization of the Khazar forces. They indicate that during the first phase, from the 7th to the mid-8th century, the army was entirely mounted, and consisted of two elements. The first was drawn from the Tarkhans or tribal nobility of Khazar tribes, many if not most of whom had either lamellar or mail armour or both. The second part of the Khazar army consisted of lightly armed ordinary Khazar tribesmen. All were under the direct command of the Khagan or his Shad or deputy◦� often one of his sons or nephews. Individual units were commanded by experienced and renowned Tarkhans.

Tarkhans also formed a bodyguard for the ruler, and this could be formidable even though its numbers were not particularly large. In 630, for example, a 3,000-strong detachment under Chorpan Tarkhan was credited with defeating the 10,000-strong Sassanian Persian corps of Goghann. Writing in the early 10th century, the Arab historian Ahmad ibn Atham al-Kufi reported that there were 1,000 Khazar Tarkhans in Derbent in 708, while in 737 the Khazar commander fought with only 4,000 �children of the Tarkhans� against the supposedly 120,000-strong largely Arab army of Marwan ibn Muhammad. (Arab sources are unfortunately very unreliable when giving numbers of troops, e.g. in their claim that the Muslims were defeated by Khazar armies numbering 200,000 or 300,000.)

Following a coup at the end of the 8th century, the Khagan himself was removed from practical responsibility for state administration. This was taken over by a senior figure called the Bek or Beg, who already commanded the army. Nevertheless, the Khagan�s military deputy remained the Shad, but quite who held this title during the 9th and 10th centuries is unclear. The core of the army remained the cavalry elite of Tarkhans. According to the 10th-century Persian scholar Abu Ishaq Ibrahim al-Istakhri, this still numbered 12,000, though later sources reduce this figure to 10,000. But, again according to al-Istakhri, the Khazar Khaganate had no standing army (unlike the main Islamic states of this period), and troops were only summoned to muster when needed.

Arab historians describing a perhaps late version of the Khazar army indicate that it now included full-time professionals who were regularly paid, and thus it may have consisted largely of mercenaries. The situation was eventually clarified by Ibn Ahmad ibn Rustah, a 10th-century Iranian traveller and geographer, who wrote that the ruler�s deputy or Isha (the Shad) obliged prominent people to supply cavalrymen according to the size of their own territories or property. Furthermore, the Shad was now accompanied by, or could muster, 10,000 fully equipped horsemen with flags, spears and strong armour, maintained at his expense and recruited from among the wealthy elite. This sounds remarkably like an early version of medieval Europe�s feudal military system. In practice the core of the Khazar army probably consisted of the personal retinues of the Bek and Shad, plus detachments of wealthy Tarkhans each accompanied by some followers and servants. In addition to this well-equipped elite there would be much larger numbers of tribal warriors, numbering up to 30,000 or 40,000; more rarely, larger numbers may have been raised from the settled peasantry and vassal peoples.

By the middle of the 10th century the Khaganate had shrunk, and many of the strictly Khazar population probably lived in and around the mercantile city of Atil, being no longer nomadic but engaged in agriculture and trade. It is also possible that most military duties had now been transferred to subject peoples and mercenaries. Written sources hint that the later Khagans� armies largely consisted of non-Khazars, and it is difficult to associate many later warrior burials with identifiable Khazars.

These sources often suggest that Alans played the major role in protecting the Khaganate�s frontiers, but this was not entirely true. While Alan tribes were forcibly resettled in border areas facing Slav tribes, some northern Slavs like the Vyatichi and Radmichi also found themselves under Khazar domination until the end of the Khaganate. As such they did not pose a serious threat, and small frontier fortifications served merely as places of refuge in times of danger. It was only the rise of the Rus in the middle of the 9th century that posed a real threat, causing the Khazars to build a series of true frontier fortresses, but whether any of these were permanently garrisoned also remains unknown.

According to al-Mas�udi, the Khazar Khagans recruited around 7,000 mounted and armoured archers and spearmen from Muslim communities around the capital city, Atil, or from neighbouring Islamic lands, or perhaps from both. These formed the Arsiya (al-Arsiya), sometimes described by modern historians as Muslim mercenaries or a �Khwarazmian guard�. In fact the contemporary sources do not call them mercenaries (in the usual sense of temporary hirelings), and they appear to have lived or been settled permanently around Atil. Nevertheless, most do appear to have been of Khwarazmian origin; al-Mas�udi maintains that their movement from Khwarazm, south of the Aral Sea, to the Volga Delta area was a result of hunger and plague. When this occurred is unknown, but it was no earlier than the end of the 8th century, by which time Khwarazm had been thoroughly Islamized. The supposedly �heavy equipment� of such Arsiya may also have been no heavier than that of the best-equipped Khazar elite, but the Arsiya�s combat effectiveness was undeniable.

Some Arab descriptions of the Khazar army refer to the Burtas from the north supposedly supplying the Khagan with 10,000 horsemen, but, in apparent contradiction, others state that the Burtas were so poor that �only the one who possesses great wealth owns a horse�. Furthermore, they were said to lack any armour. In fact archaeological evidence shows the Burtas to have been armed either with sabres like those of the partially Khazar Saltov-Mayaki culture between the Don and Dneiper rivers, or with straight swords, plus bows, axes, fighting knives, spears and javelins. The actual number of Burtas warriors remains unclear, but if this term encompassed all the Mordvin tribes (speaking a Finnish tongue), then figures given in Arab sources could be plausible.

The suggested number of 20,000 for allied or vassal troops from the Volga Bulgars appears more realistic, but when the same figure is given for the Magyars it is probably exaggerated. Like the Magyars, the Volga Bulgars had tried to escape Khazar domination in the early 10th century but, as Ibn Fadlan noted, they still had to obey the Khagan�s often unwelcome orders. By the mid-10th century, however, these Volga Bulgars had achieved almost complete independence. Detachments of Eastern Slavs similarly served the Khazar Khaganate as auxiliary infantry, but there is no reliable information about their numbers. Judging by finds of horse harness in the archaeological record, a minority of them probably fought as light cavalry.

Discipline was ferocious in the Khazar army, according to Ibn Fadlan (who was, of course, probably repeating what he had been told by the Khazars� neighbours and rivals):

To summarize, in its heyday the Khazar Khaganate could call upon armed forces numbering 80,000 to 100,000 people. Given the extent of Khazar territory at its zenith, and the size of its population including subordinate peoples, such a figure appears entirely realistic.

Various written sources mention the 7th�8th century Khazars� habit of assembling their wagons into a defensive circle, strengthened by the addition of shields, even during pauses on the march. By the 7th century, however, they also began using more permanent fortifications in particularly threatened regions, the earliest known examples being found in Chir-Yurt, Andrewaul and elsewhere in Daghestan. Nevertheless, the question of whether nomadic Khazars themselves actually built these fortifications remains controversial, as the structures might more plausibly be credited to the local settled populations.

The north-western border of the Khaganate was a dangerously exposed region, where about 40 fortified locations dating from Khazar times have been found in the Don and Seversky Donets river basins. These can be divided into the following types:

(1) Fortifications of the immediate pre-Khazar period (pre-7th century), whose defensive works were almost never rebuilt.

(2) Fortifications located on narrow coastal promontories, and protected only on the landward side. In the construction of such sites natural features of terrain were maximized; slopes were steepened, and two or three lines of defences added. They vary in the presence or absence of additional defences along the water perimeters of the promontory.

(3) Fortifications constructed of stone or brick with clearly defined geometric plans, usually roughly rectangular, and sometimes with towers. These show a considerable advance over the earlier examples in both architectural and defensive capabilities. They could also sustain a permanent or replaceable garrison◦� for example at Sarkel, where 300 individuals were reportedly rotated each year. The building of such a fortress is estimated to have required over 20,000 man-working days, so their construction can only have been a planned state action. Furthermore, the concentration of this type of fortress along the north-western border of Khazar territory highlights the fact that they were intended to face a powerful north-western enemy, which can only have been Kievan Russia.

Sarkel is an example of this third type. In 834�837, at the request of the Khagan�s government, Petron Kamatir and a team of Byzantine engineers built a fortress on the bank of the Don river, near present-day Tsimlyansk. Its name in the Ugrian tongue meant �White House�, while Russian chroniclers call it the �White Tower�. This fortification was initially intended as a defence against the migrating Magyars, and was both inhabited and garrisoned by Khazars and Bulgars.

The fortress of Sarkel was a regular rectangle measuring 193.5�x�133.5m (634.6ft�x�437.8ft), oriented along a south-east to north-west axis. Its walls were made of red brick laid in a local manner, having a thickness of 3.75m (12.3ft) and an original height of no less than 10m (32.8ft). These walls were strengthened with protruding towers plus larger corner towers, and the main entrance was through a gate in a north-western tower. Internal walls also divided the fortress into several parts, and the smallest, south-eastern part had no external exits. This served as the main stronghold, within which, in the southern corner, stood a square main tower or donjon.

Despite the participation of Byzantine craftsmen, and having an essentially Byzantine plan, Sarkel fortress was built following local traditions. Substantial ramparts and moats separated the cape on which it was built from the main shore, but the walls and towers lacked true foundations, having been built directly onto levelled ground. For the bonding of walls a liquid lime solution was used with the addition of sand, and the bricks had actually been made and fired inside the walled areas, seemingly overseen by Byzantine craftsmen. The main internal walls separating the parts of the fortress were only slightly thinner than the external wall. Within the fortification there were large, long brick buildings whose floors were paved with either brick or a lime cement. According to the written sources, the Byzantine engineer Petron Kamatir had wanted to erect a stone church within the fortress but was not permitted to do so. Instead the stone columns and capitals that he had brought from Byzantine territory for this purpose were simply abandoned on the nearby steppe.

By building Sarkel the Khazars not only protected themselves from Rus, but could now block the trade route between Kiev and Atil. In the event, Sarkel only served as a simple military fortress for one or two decades; thereafter settlers began to take over the site, and Sarkel rapidly became a centre for merchants and craftsmen, with a multi-ethnic population of Bulgars, Ghuzz, Khazars and others. Eventually almost the entire area between the river and the dry moat of the fortress itself was built up with yurt tents and semi-dugout houses. When there was no free space left the brick fortifications themselves began to be partially re-configured.

The evidence of ceramics and certain aspects of the habitations suggest that Bulgars inhabited the south-eastern part of Sarkel and Slavs the north-western corner, while the citadel was inhabited by Turks◦� Khazars and Ghuzz◦� who formed the garrison. In addition to guarding Sarkel and the important route on which it stood, they also collected dues from passing merchants using the river and the road north and south.

Sarkel was taken by the Rus prince Svyatoslav in 965, and was badly damaged during his assault, but the location continued to be inhabited until the 12th century. By that time Sarkel had become a Russian steppe outpost known as Belaya Vezha or �White Vezhi�, and it was during this period that Russian colonization started to spread across the Don and Seversky Donets river areas.

Then, at the start of the 12th century, rising Kipchaq (Polovtsian) pressure on Kievan Rus made sustaining White Vezhi increasingly difficult. In 1103, while returning from a campaign against the Kipchaqs and intending to strengthen Russian influence in this region, Prince Vladimir Monomakh brought with him both Kipchaqs and Torks (another nomadic Turkish tribe) as settlers. Until 1117 they formed the garrison of Russian Belaya Vezha, but in that year the Kipchaqs and Torks turned against the Russians and forced most of the inhabitants of Sarkel-Belaya Vezha to flee to more secure Russia territory. Thereafter Kipchaq and Tork nomads roamed the region and raided Russia itself. Even so, a small number of Slav Rus remained in what had been Sarkel, and were later mentioned in Russian chronicles as �brodniki�.

Generally speaking, the defences of Khazar fortresses were rather feeble when compared with those raised by the Byzantine Empire. The only exceptions were perhaps found in what is now Daghestan; elsewhere, Khazar builders placed their walls directly on the surface of the ground, making them easy to undermine. Often they also had their gates positioned so that an attacking enemy could approach with his shields facing the defenders, making the task of defence more difficult; this can be seen at the S�ren fortress near Bakhchysarai in Crimea, which probably served as an outpost for Sarkel itself.

One might summarize by saying that Khazar fortifications were not really capable of resisting serious Byzantine or Islamic assaults. This was probably because fortifications on the steppes were not strategically very important for a state and culture like that of the Khazars. On the other hand, Khazar fortifications in the Crimea would have faced the Byzantines, while those close to Derbent and the Caspian Gates would have faced the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates and their successors, all of whom were at the forefront of siege technology, thus rendering existing Khazar military architecture virtually useless.

Barthold, V.V., & P.B. Golden, �Khazar�, in The Encyclopedia of Islam, Vol. 4 (Leiden & London, 1978) 1172�1181

Brook, K.A., �A Brief History of the Khazars,� in D.N. Korobkin & Y. Halevi (eds), The Kuzari: In Defense of the Despised Faith (Northvale, 1998) xxv�xxxi

Brook, K.A., The Jews of Khazaria (Northvale, 1999)

Dunlop, D.M., The History of the Jewish Khazars (Princeton, 1954)

Fedortchouk, A., �Khazars�, in E. Kessler & N. Wenborn (eds), A Dictionary of Jewish-Christian Relations (Cambridge, 2005) 252

Frenkel, A., �The Jewish Empire in the Land of Future Russia�, in Australian Journal of Jewish Studies, 9 (1995) 142�170

Golb, N., & O. Pritsak, Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century (Ithaca, 1982)

Golden, P.B., �The Khazars�, in D. Sinor (ed.), The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia (Cambridge, 1990) 263�270

Golden, P.B., �Khazars�, in M. T�t�nc� (ed.), Turkish-Jewish Encounters: Studies on Turkish-Jewish Relations through the Ages (Haarlem, Netherlands, 2001) 29�49

Golden, P.B., �Some Notes on the Comitatus in Medieval Eurasia with Special Reference to the Khazars�, in Russian History/Histoire Russe, 28 (2001) 153�170

Golden, P.B., �Khazar Turkic Ghul�ms in Caliphal Service�, in Journal Asiatique, 292 (2004) 279�309

Gorelik, M.V., �Arms and Armour in South-Eastern Europe in the Second Half of the First Millenium AD�, in D. Nicolle (ed.), A Companion to Medieval Arms and Armour (Woodbridge, 2002) 127�147

Ibn Fadlan (trans. J.E. Montgomery), Mission to the Volga (New York, 2017)

Koestler, A., The Thirteenth Tribe: The Khazar Empire and Its Heritage (London & New York, 1976)

Lvov, A., �Shades of Forgotten Ancestors�, in Midstream, 29 (1983) 49�54

Petrukhin, V.I., �The Decline and Legacy of Khazaria�, in P. Urbańczyk (ed.), Europe around the Year 1000 (Warsaw, 2001) 109�122

Shapira, D.Y., �Some Notes on Jews and Turks�, in Karadeniz Ara�t�rmalar�, 16 (2008) 25�38

Soteri, N., �Khazaria: A Forgotten Jewish Empire�, in History Today, 45:4 (April 1995) 10�12

Ya�ari, E., �Skeletons in the Closet�, in The Jerusalem Report, 6 (1995) 26�30

Ya�ari, E., �Archaeological Finds Add Weight to Claim that Khazars Converted to Judaism�, in The Jerusalem Report, 10 (1999) 8

Yevglevsky, A.V. (et al., eds), Proceedings in Archaeology: The European Steppes in the Middle Ages, Vol. 7. Khazarian Times (Russian with English summaries; Donetsk, 2009)

A1: Alan armoured cavalryman, 5th century

Depicted fighting Huns in the ruins of a Roman town in Crimea, this horseman�s lack of archery equipment shows that he still operates in a style rooted in Iranian cavalry traditions. His �splinted� or lamellar helmet, laced together with rawhide thongs, is of a form which could be found across much of Asia, as far as China and perhaps India, but which was also brought to Europe during the �great migrations� of the early medieval period. He wears a long mail hauberk over a linen tunic, woollen trousers (note broken-line pattern down front), and leather ankle-boots; he has no shield, which was an encumbrance rather than a defence when wielding a heavy spear with both hands. Hidden on his left side is a long, straight sword with a �bracket� slide on its scabbard; silvered bronze fitments would be feasible, perhaps with semi-precious stones on the sword guard. His large Persian horse has a long combed mane, forelock and tail; the harness has silvered bronze ornaments, but the leather-covered wooden saddle lacks stirrups.

A2: Eastern Hun armoured cavalryman, 4th�5th centuries

There were clearly variations between the equipment of elite warriors in different parts of the vast but ephemeral Hun Empire; this warrior represents what is known about the eastern regions. He has a helmet of many directly riveted iron segments, and a small mail hauberk worn beneath a limited form of rawhide lamellar cuirass. He wears silk-covered horseman�s leggings suspended at the front from a belt under his hauberk and tunic, rather than large riding boots. His weapons, apart from a fighting knife hung horizontally in front of his right hip, all hang at his left side. His single-edged sword is a straight �palash� type rather than a curved sabre; his emptied quiver would carry arrows with their flights uppermost, and his bow-case is for an unstrung weapon. He still lacks stirrups, and his saddle, though containing wooden formers, is not yet of the fully wood-framed type. His Turko-Mongol pony has the mane clipped in three tufts, but a long knotted tail.

A3: Western Hun horse archer, 5th century

This dismounted rider from a more western region has a �ridge� helmet which may be of late Roman origin, though now highly decorated with gilt bands in what Romans would have considered a barbarian manner; it also has a mail aventail. His heavy fleece-lined coat hides a mail hauberk, and he wears soft leather leggings with integral feet. Obscured here is a straight, double-edged sword at his left side; its scabbard might have a slide carved from jade and originally from Central Asia. His simple quiver still carries the arrows flights uppermost and thus unprotected, though his bow-case accommodates the weapon when strung.

B1: Khazar warrior, 7th century

The degree of metallurgical and technological sophistication achieved by the still largely nomadic Khazars in the 7th century might suggest some (perhaps considerable) influence from south or east of the steppes. However, in the Byzantine, Iranian, early Islamic or even Chinese empires there is still little archaeological evidence for such features as plate shoulder defences (pauldrons), greaves with applied �splints�, or �loose-riveted� lamellar armour◦� but all these features are shown here. Khazar wealth is suggested by the gilded front plate of his directly riveted segmented helmet. His full panoply consists of a single-edged straight sword with a curved hilt, in a brass-fitted scabbard with �D�-shaped projections for suspension; a spear with a two-tailed pennon; a leather-covered wooden shield with an iron boss; a composite bow carried unstrung in a brightly painted case; plus (obscured here) a quiver to carry arrows points uppermost, and a large fighting knife or khanjar perhaps made en suite with the sword. This impressive level of equipment would also become typical of some neighbouring cultures, not least the Islamic Caliphate. His horse is protected by full lamellar armour including a chamfron, and a red-dyed horsetail tassel hangs below the bridle. The saddle is of the fully wood-framed type long known among many Inner Asian nomads and the Chinese, and the harness now includes iron stirrups.

B2: Sabirian armoured cavalryman, 6th�7th centuries

This Sabir (Savir) tribal warrior illustrates the sophistication achieved by the Khazars� immediate predecessors north of the Caucasus. His helmet consists of four large segments riveted to vertical framing and joined beneath a crowning dome; like B1�s, it has �eyebrows� with a nasal bar and an attached ringmail aventail, while lacking a brow-band. His substantial cuirass and upper arm defences are of iron lamellae laced with rawhide thongs, leaving only his forearms and his lower legs in soft leather boots unprotected. His archery equipment is of a form seen across most of the Eurasian steppes, while his single-edged sword is still straight. The apparent tassels hanging from his horse�s crupper strap may be the hair of defeated and captured foes, while just visible hanging from the breast strap is one of a pair of bright bronze discs with simple images of human faces, which may recall earlier head-hunting practices.

B3: Western steppes nobleman, 7th century

Just visible in the background is a rider in everyday dress, from one of a number of �relic populations� left in what is now Ukraine and some neighbouring areas after the great migrations of the 4th�5th centuries. Perhaps Slavic or Germanic, his general appearance and clothing look European rather than from a nomadic steppe culture, but his sword, archery equipment and horse harness show strong Iranian influence.

C1: Khazar heavy cavalryman, 9th century

At the highpoint of Khazar power the elite of fully armoured cavalryman wore almost as much armour as later medieval Western European men-at-arms. This included a segmented iron helmet with a substantial nasal bar, mail aventail and plumed spire; a half-sleeved, long-hemmed mail hauberk, under an iron lamellar cuirass laced with rawhide thongs; substantial iron shoulder plates; splinted �bell-topped� iron gauntlets, and similar splinted iron greaves. Prepared for close combat with spear, shield, sword, fighting knife, and a battle-axe slung by a leather loop at the front of his saddle, this man also carries full archery equipment. His horse has a mail trapper and a limited form of iron chamfron consisting of two elements riveted together, but lacks neck protection. Note the lavishly ornamented and tasselled harness, and (just visible under his leg) the panel of spotted animal-pelt over the patterned silk saddle-cloth.

C2: Alan cavalryman, late 9th�early 10th century

The Alans of the Caucasus were descended from Iranian rather than Turkish-speaking nomadic steppe peoples. Now settled and seemingly prosperous, they survived centuries of nomadic invasion and conquest, adopting religions and elements of military style from their more powerful neighbours, but also retaining some distinctive features of their own. Among these were quilted hats or hoods, sometimes highly decorated, of which the lower part could be turned up as shown here. This mail-clad rider is equipped as a relatively lightly armoured horse-archer, with both sword and battle-axe for close combat. The abundance of decoration on his own gear and his horse�s harness, the latter including tufts, bronze discs and silver bells, seems more suited to a festive occasion than to battle.

C3: Kabarian cavalryman, late 9th�early 10th centuries

There appear to have been significant variations in the military equipment and combat styles of different peoples across the sprawling Khazar Khaganate. Though of nomadic Khazar origin, the Kabarians of the west soon looked almost European, with their reliance on mail rather than lamellar armour. The iron vambraces and greaves shown here, consisting of simple iron splints riveted to leather linings, nevertheless remained characteristically Khazar, as is his segmented helmet adorned with a tuft and side-feathers. The man�s weaponry, including full horse-archery equipment, spear, sword and axe, and his horse harness, are fully within a steppe tradition which would itself profoundly influence subsequent medieval Russian styles.

D1: Turkic armoured cavalryman, 7th century

Various Turkic nomadic peoples inhabited the steppes to the east of the Khaganate, occasionally dominated by, or fighting either for or against the Khazars. Their military equipment had by now evolved into forms which would remain largely unchanged for centuries. The only unusual and perhaps old-fashioned aspect of this man�s armour is the double rounded breast protection made of sewn layers of rawhide. Otherwise it consists of a rawhide lamellar cuirass and upper arm defences, and a substantial mail aventail hanging from a helmet made of multiple scallop-shaped vertical splints laced together. Although he wields a two-handed lance he also carries a small round shield. The limited horse armour, protecting only the breast, is also of rawhide lamellar construction; like the rider�s cuirass, it is edged with spotted fur, perhaps leopard-skin.

D2: Magyar nobleman, late 9th�early 10th centuries

The Magyars who inhabited the steppes along and beyond the western frontiers of the Khaganate played a significant role in Khazar military history, and it is not surprising that their equipment had much in common with that of the Khazars. Yet they too also showed some distinctive features, not only in the decoration of weapons and horse harness but notably in their use of advanced forms of helmet. This example has an unusual, rather blunt-domed shape but is still made of large, directly riveted segments, with an iron nasal on a brow plate with three vertical extensions. (Within a few decades many of those Magyars who migrated further west into what became Hungary had helmets forged from a single piece of iron.) In addition to a full mail hauberk worn beneath his woollen coat, this nobleman also has a traditional iron lamellar cuirass with rawhide lacing, reaching to his knees above fancy-cut soft leather boots fastened with buckles. His weapons include spear, sabre, archery equipment with both a strung and an unstrung bow in two cases, and an axe hanging from his saddle.

D3: Slavic tribal leader, 9th century

In comparison with the Khazars, other Turks and the Magyars, most of the Slav tribes dominated by the Khazar Khaganate had rudimentary military equipment, being rarely rich enough to afford much beyond a spear, shield, and sometimes an axe. As a tribal leader this man has also acquired a battered old Byzantine helmet of iron with broad brow and fore-and-aft bands, a double-edged sword of perhaps central European origin, and a curved dagger. Nevertheless, his woollen tunic is covered in expensive imported silk; it has borders embroidered with a geometric pattern which may have served as a form of tribal identification, and his black cloak is fastened with a gilt brooch.

E1: Urban militiaman, 8th century

The Khazar state included substantial settled as well as nomadic populations, plus a number of important if small trading towns, mostly in the northern foothills of the Caucasus and on the great rivers which served as highways. It seems that some urban centres had forms of local militia, comparable to those of the Islamic world to the south. This man�s large, relatively stiff felt cap or hood also mirrors that of many peoples south of the Caucasus mountains; with their khanjar fighting knives, spears and large round shields, such men would not have looked out of place in Islamic Iran or Central Asia. However, note that this man also has tucked into his belt a simple form of kisten or war-flail, with a spherical bronze weight at the end of a thickly plaited rawhide strap attached to a wooden handle.

E2: Khazar tribesman on foot with packhorse, 9th century

This tribesman�s helmet is of a light form: a hardened leather bowl with slender vertical iron framing elements, a broader brow-band, and an iron finial. Nevertheless, some aspects of his clothing suggest that he is from a settled community in trading contact with wealthy regions beyond the frontiers of the Khaganate. His (probably mail) aventail is covered with a richly embroidered textile, and his white coat, which opens down the front with only a small overlap, is also covered on torso, sleeves and borders with decorative imported Persian silk. Under the coat he probably wears a short-hemmed and short-sleeved mail shirt. His shoes and the cross-binding around his legs show that he expects to walk more than to ride. His weapons are a bow, a fighting knife, and an axe with a characteristically slender blade balanced by a second projection behind the socket.

E3: Radmich Slav tribesman, 8th century

This ordinary Slav tribesman only has a spear and dagger, while the rectangular shape of his large shield is hypothetical. His clothing is largely of linen; the simple embroidered pattern around the neck and cuffs of his tunic has been tentatively identified with the Radmich tribe, which lived along the upper reaches of the Dnieper river and its tributaries, on the north-western frontier of Khazar territory.

F1: Khwarazmian cavalryman of Arsiya Guard, 9th�10th centuries

Many of the Khagan�s Muslim Arsiya units originally came from one of the militarily and technologically most sophisticated (as well as one of the wealthiest) regions of Central Asia, and, when settled at the Khazar capital of Atil, they remained a military elite. This man has therefore been given the finest known arms and armour of the eastern provinces of the Islamic Caliphate, including a one-piece steel helmet with silvered stars riveted to the surface, a purely decorative silvered finial and a brow-band decorated in the same manner. The very short nasal bar may have protected the lacing of the deep aventail�s facial flap, which is here shown unlaced. In addition to a long-sleeved mail hauberk under his coat, he wears a steel lamellar cuirass and separate tassets covering the thighs, with alternate rows of the lamellae gilded. His baggy trousers are confined by felt-lined leather gaiters, with upper and lower coloured lines around the whitened surface, and lacing up the inner legs. His double-edged straight sword has a silvered bronze hilt that includes a sleeve which passes outside the throat of the scabbard, and his shield is edged with tufted coloured wool. The khanjar at his right hip was a weapon shared by many peoples of the steppes. His horse (background) has relatively plain modern harness, but the silvered �muzzle-bit� is an item that may have dated from pre-Islamic times.

F2: Viking raider, 10th century

This unfortunate has been hunted down on the banks of the lower Volga in 914. The Scandinavian raiders who became known as Varangians, and who created the first Russian state, were significantly better armed than the indigenous Slavs and Finns who inhabited these areas. Initially their daring and ferocity also enabled them to overawe some Muslim peoples along the shores of the Caspian Sea, but eventually they were expelled by both Muslims and Khazars. The man shown here has been given the mixture of equipment which would come to characterize the Varangians and the armies of early Kievan Rus. Thus the mail hauberk, shield and sword could be seen as Viking, while the segmented helmet and mail aventail might be considered early Russian.

F3: Khazar light cavalryman, 9th century

Not all Khazar cavalrymen were heavily armoured, even during the Khaganate�s period of greatest prosperity. This man only has a long-sleeved mail hauberk plus a shield, sabre and archery equipment. His colourful coat is in the distinctively Turkish double-breasted style, showing contrasting lining and applied woven decorative bands at the edges. The horse�s harness is ornamented in the steppe style, but the snaffle bit lacks vertical psalion bars. Some sources show an additional single strap terminating in a loop attached to the apex of the usual reins; this was probably not just a leading rein, but an aid to controlling the horse when the rider was using both hands to shoot the bow.

G1: Magyar woman, 10th century

This scene is imagined in the interior of a turf-roofed timber house dug partly below ground level, and heated by a large clay oven. Most information about Magyar female costume comes from the period immediately after the western Magyars migrated from Ukraine across the Carpathian mountains onto the Great Hungarian Plain, but there is little reason to believe that the dress of either men or women had changed significantly during the previous few decades. The costume illustrated is based upon archaeological finds, the limited pictorial sources, and some hints in the written texts. Her elaborate hair decoration consists of large gold discs hanging from open �triangles� at the ends of gold chains attached to her two �ponytails�; it is enough to identify her as a woman of wealth and social status.

G2: Khazar Jewish warrior, 9th century

How far the conversion of the Khazar ruling elite to Judaism filtered down into lower ranks of society remains a matter of scholarly debate; it may perhaps have been confined to the higher aristocracy, and the elites of some Khazar sub-tribes. Whether the Judaism practised by the Khazars was mainstream or otherwise is also a matter of some dispute. The prosperous tribesman shown here, wearing a fine silk coat under his war gear, has been given a kippah skull-cap and payot side-locks, though there is no real evidence for these being adopted by the Judeo-Khazars. Apart from a recently discovered segmented helmet with Jewish symbols on the front and back, which he carries, this man is equipped in typical Khazar style: a mail hauberk, a cuirass of large iron lamellae, iron shoulder plates, and strapped-on iron greaves. His weapons are a fine Khazar sabre with a lightly curved hilt and silvered fittings, and a war-flail with a bronze weight.

G3: Vyatchian Slav tribesman, 8th�9th centuries

The Vyatchi Eastern Slavs, from the Oka river basin south of present-day Moscow, were undoubtedly poor in comparison with their Khazar overlords, despite the metal torque worn around this man�s neck and his finely made leather boots. With neither helmet nor armour, his only protection is a substantial wooden shield, here leaning against the wall with one light and one heavier javelin; he also has an axe in his belt. The embroidered strips at the neck, chest, upper arms and hem of his linen shirt are again believed to have served as a form of tribal identification.

H1: Khazar commander

The wealth of the Khazar Khaganate, which had attracted the predatory attentions of the Varangian Rus, was reflected in the equipment of its military elites. However, there now appears to have been less use of lamellar armour and a seemingly greater reliance on fine-quality mail, like the short-sleeved hauberk worn by this senior figure handing over his sabre and axe to a victor in token of surrender. His helmet is still of segmented construction, similar to those of the Muslims to the south and the Rus to the north, and has a mail aventail which could probably be tied beneath the chin. His shield is probably of leather-covered wood, but might equally have been entirely of hide, and imported from far beyond Khazar territory. The shirt worn beneath his hauberk is, for example, of pink Chinese silk; his woollen coat is not only covered in patterned Persian silk but is cut in an originally Arab-Persian style as a kaftan, rather than in the considerably overlapping double-breasted Turco-Mongol manner. The embroidered �blanket� which is tailored to go over and around the rump of his horse (background) was probably made locally.

H2: Khazar warrior

Hardly visible, the wounded warrior who accompanies his commander would also illustrate the multi-cultural character of the later Khazar Khaganate. Under his fur-trimmed cap, his long hair tied into pigtails is typically Turkish. His off-white coat, originally of Alan or Persian style, has blue edging at neck and cuffs and a broad band of red, yellow and blue patterned Persian silk all the way down the front, which is fastened with silver clasps. He might have a short double-edged broadsword imported from Russia, but with a German-made blade. His archery equipment and horse harness would still be of typical nomadic steppes types.

H3: Rus leader

By the end of the 9th century the Varangian Vikings who created the large and rapidly expanding state of Kievan Rus had adopted many aspects of the military technology of the Eurasian steppe peoples, mostly notably from the Khazars, and thus had little visibly in common with their Scandianian ancestors. Those Viking features which most obviously endured were straight, double-edged swords, and large-bladed war axes. This commander wears a silver neck torque with pendant Thor�s hammers, and his sword has a trilobate pommel, but the other aspects of his panoply are fully within the Eurasian steppe tradition. His helmet is gilded except for the steel bowl, and worn with a mail aventail. His short mail hauberk is concealed, except at the dagged hem, by a short, linen-lined, overlapping woollen coat; its horn buttons and cord loops are themselves hidden here by a dark cloak folded diagonally around the body and pinned on the right side. Linen puttees are wrapped around the woollen trousers, within soft leather boots. His archery equipment, riding whip and horse harness are all of steppes patterns (like the discarded bow and quiver of H1), though he might have an axe of Scandinavian form hung from the right of his saddle, perhaps with chiselled decoration on the blade suitable for his high status.

MIKHAIL ZHIROHOV, born 1974, is a military historian; a graduate of Donetsk State University, Ukraine, he lives in Chernihiv. His interests extend from the medieval history of the territories of the former USSR to modern warfare, and he is the author of some 20 books in Russian and Ukrainian, on subjects including the Mius Front in 1941�43, Soviet military aviation over Afghanistan in 1979�89, and modern hybrid warfare. He has also published more than 300 articles on various aspects of military history in Russian, Ukrainian, English, Serbian and French journals.

DAVID NICOLLE is Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Medieval Studies, Nottingham University. A specialist in the military history of Islam, he is the author of over a dozen books on medieval military history, and has been a prolific contributor to Osprey series for many years.

CHRISTA HOOK began her illustrating career in 1986, after studying under her father Richard Hook. Her work has featured extensively in the worlds of publishing and television. She has established herself as one of Osprey�s most popular artists, having illustrated multiple series titles. Her illustrations are sought after by collectors worldwide. Christa lives and works in East Sussex, England.

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Ibn Fadlan, quoted by Yaqut (trans J.�E.�Montgomery), Mission to the Volga (New York, 2017) 52�53

Kryganov, A.V., Armament and Equestrian Equipment of Nomads of the South of Eastern Europe in the 7th�10th Centuries (Historical science thesis, in Russian; Kharkov, 1987) 60�61

Gorelik, M.V., �Arms and Armour in South-Eastern Europe in the Second Half of the First Millenium AD�, in D. Nicolle (ed.), A Companion to Medieval Arms and Armour (Woodbridge, 2002) 134.