Atil
Encyclopedia
Atil literally meaning "Big River", was the capital of Khazaria from the middle of the 8th century until the end of the 10th century. The word is also a Turkic
name for the Volga River
.
Atil was located along the Volga delta at the northwestern corner of the Caspian Sea
. Following the defeat of the Khazars
in the Second Khazar-Arab war, Atil became the capital of Khazaria. The city is referred to as Khamlij
in 9th century Arab sources, and the name Atil appears in the 10th century. At its height, the city was a major center of trade, and consisted of three parts separated by the Volga. The western part contained the administrative center of the city, with a court house and a large military garrison. The eastern part of the city was built later and acted as the commercial center of the Atil, and had many public baths and shops. Between them was an island on which stood the palaces of the Khazar Khagan
and Bek
. The island was connected to one of the other parts of the city by a pontoon bridge. According to Arab sources, one half of the city was referred to as Atil, while the other was named Khazaran.
Atil was a multi-ethnic and religiously diverse city, inhabited by Jews, Christians
, Muslims
, Shamanists
, and Pagans
, many of them traders from foreign countries. All of the religious groups had their own places of worship in the city, and there were 7 judges appointed to settle disputes (two Christian, two Jewish, and two Muslim judges, with a single judge for all of the Shamanists and other Pagans).
Svyatoslav I of Kiev sacked Atil in 968 or 969 CE. Ibn Hawqal
and al-Muqaddasi
refer to Atil after 969, indicating that it may have been rebuilt. Al-Biruni
(mid-11th century) reported that Atil was again in ruins, and did not mention the later city of Saqsin
which was built nearby, so it is possible that this new Atil was only destroyed in the middle of the 11th century.
The archaeological remains of Atil have never been positively identified. It has been hypothesized that they were washed away by the rising level of the Caspian Sea
. However, beginning in 2003 Dmitri Vasilyev of Astrakhan State University
led a series of excavations at the Samosdelskoye site near the village of Samosdelka
(Russian: Самосделка) in the Volga Delta. Vasilyev connected artifacts from the site with Khazar, Oghuz and Bulgar culture, leading him to believe that he had discovered the site of Saqsin. The matter is still unresolved. In 2006 Vasilyev announced his belief that the lowest stratum at the Samosdelka site was identical with the site of Atil. In 2008, this team of Russian archaeologists announced that they had discovered the ruins of Itil.
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages constitute a language family of at least thirty five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken...
name for the Volga River
Volga River
The Volga is the largest river in Europe in terms of length, discharge, and watershed. It flows through central Russia, and is widely viewed as the national river of Russia. Out of the twenty largest cities of Russia, eleven, including the capital Moscow, are situated in the Volga's drainage...
.
History
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...
. Following the defeat of the Khazars
Khazars
The Khazars were semi-nomadic Turkic people who established one of the largest polities of medieval Eurasia, with the capital of Atil and territory comprising much of modern-day European Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the northern Caucasus , parts of...
in the Second Khazar-Arab war, Atil became the capital of Khazaria. The city is referred to as Khamlij
Khamlij
In the accounts of ibn Khordadbeh and other Muslim writers, Khamlij or Khamlidj refers to the capital of the Khazars. Most scholars agree that Khamlij is the Khazar city of Atil...
in 9th century Arab sources, and the name Atil appears in the 10th century. At its height, the city was a major center of trade, and consisted of three parts separated by the Volga. The western part contained the administrative center of the city, with a court house and a large military garrison. The eastern part of the city was built later and acted as the commercial center of the Atil, and had many public baths and shops. Between them was an island on which stood the palaces of the Khazar Khagan
Khagan
Khagan or qagan , alternatively spelled kagan, khaghan, qaghan, or chagan, is a title of imperial rank in the Mongolian and Turkic languages equal to the status of emperor and someone who rules a khaganate...
and Bek
Khagan Bek
-History:Khazar kingship was divided between the khagan and the Bek or Khagan Bek. Contemporary Arab historians related that the Khagan was purely a spiritual ruler or figurehead with limited powers, while the Bek was responsible for administration and military affairs.In the Khazar Correspondence,...
. The island was connected to one of the other parts of the city by a pontoon bridge. According to Arab sources, one half of the city was referred to as Atil, while the other was named Khazaran.
Atil was a multi-ethnic and religiously diverse city, inhabited by Jews, Christians
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, Muslims
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, Shamanists
Shamanism
Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...
, and Pagans
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
, many of them traders from foreign countries. All of the religious groups had their own places of worship in the city, and there were 7 judges appointed to settle disputes (two Christian, two Jewish, and two Muslim judges, with a single judge for all of the Shamanists and other Pagans).
Svyatoslav I of Kiev sacked Atil in 968 or 969 CE. Ibn Hawqal
Ibn Hawqal
Muḥammad Abū’l-Qāsim Ibn Ḥawqal was a 10th century Muslim writer, geographer, and chronicler. His famous work, written in 977, is called Ṣūrat al-’Arḍ ....
and al-Muqaddasi
Al-Muqaddasi
Muhammad ibn Ahmad Shams al-Din Al-Muqaddasi , also transliterated as Al-Maqdisi and el-Mukaddasi, was a medieval Arab geographer, author of Ahsan at-Taqasim fi Ma`rifat il-Aqalim .-Biography:Al-Muqaddasi, "the Hierosolomite" was born in Jerusalem in 946 AD...
refer to Atil after 969, indicating that it may have been rebuilt. Al-Biruni
Al-Biruni
Abū al-Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-BīrūnīArabic spelling. . The intermediate form Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī is often used in academic literature...
(mid-11th century) reported that Atil was again in ruins, and did not mention the later city of Saqsin
Saqsin
Saqsin was a medieval city that flourished from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries. It was situated in the Volga Delta , or in the Lower Volga, and was known in pre-Mongol times as Saksin-Bolgar, which in Mongol times became Sarai Batu.It was mentioned by the Arab geographer al-Gharnati and...
which was built nearby, so it is possible that this new Atil was only destroyed in the middle of the 11th century.
The archaeological remains of Atil have never been positively identified. It has been hypothesized that they were washed away by the rising level of the Caspian Sea
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...
. However, beginning in 2003 Dmitri Vasilyev of Astrakhan State University
Astrakhan State University
Astrakhan State University is a university located in Astrakhan, Russian Federation. It was founded in 1932....
led a series of excavations at the Samosdelskoye site near the village of Samosdelka
Samosdelka
Samosdelka is a village in southern Russia near which archaeologists reported in September 2008 that they had found the remains of Atil, the capital of the medieval Khazar kingdom....
(Russian: Самосделка) in the Volga Delta. Vasilyev connected artifacts from the site with Khazar, Oghuz and Bulgar culture, leading him to believe that he had discovered the site of Saqsin. The matter is still unresolved. In 2006 Vasilyev announced his belief that the lowest stratum at the Samosdelka site was identical with the site of Atil. In 2008, this team of Russian archaeologists announced that they had discovered the ruins of Itil.
Further reading
- Barthold, W. (1996). "Khazar". Encyclopaedia of IslamEncyclopaedia of IslamThe Encyclopaedia of Islam is an encyclopaedia of the academic discipline of Islamic studies. It embraces articles on distinguished Muslims of every age and land, on tribes and dynasties, on the crafts and sciences, on political and religious institutions, on the geography, ethnography, flora and...
(Brill Online). Eds.: P. Bearman , Th. Bianquis , C.E. Bosworth , E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill. - Kevin Alan Brook. The Jews of Khazaria. 2nd ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2006.
- Douglas Morton DunlopDouglas Morton DunlopDouglas Morton Dunlop was a renowned British orientalist and scholar of Islamic and Eurasian history.-Early life and education:Born in England, Dunlop studied at Bonn and Oxford under the historian Paul Eric Kahle...
(1997). "Itil". Encyclopaedia Judaica (CD-ROM Edition Version 1.0). Ed. Cecil Roth. Keter Publishing House. ISBN 965-07-0665-8 - Douglas M. Dunlop. The History of the Jewish Khazars, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1954.
- Peter B. Golden. Khazar Studies: An Historio-Philological Inquiry into the Origins of the Khazars. Budapest: Akademia Kiado, 1980.
- Norman GolbNorman GolbNorman Golb is the Ludwig Rosenberger Professor in Jewish History and Civilization at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. He earned his PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1954. He joined the faculty of the Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati in 1958 before settling at the...
and Omeljan PritsakOmeljan PritsakOmeljan Pritsak was the first Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard University and the founder and first director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.-Career:Pritsak began his academic career at the University of Lvov in interwar Poland where he...
, Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1982. - Thomas S. Noonan. "The Khazar Economy." Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 9 (1995–1997): 253-318.
- Thomas S. Noonan. "Les Khazars et le commerce oriental." Les Échanges au Moyen Age: Justinien, Mahomet, Charlemagne: trois empires dans l'économie médiévale, pp. 82–85. Dijon: Editions Faton S.A., 2000.
- Thomas S. Noonan. "The Khazar Qaghanate and its Impact on the Early Rus' State: The translatio imperii from Itil to Kiev." Nomads in the Sedentary World, eds. Anatoly Mikhailovich KhazanovAnatoly KhazanovAnatoly Khazanov is an anthropologist and historian.Born in Moscow, Khazanov attended Moscow State University, where he received a B.A. and M.A.in 1960. He earned a Ph.D. degree in 1966 and Dr.Sc. in 1976 from the USSR Academy of Sciences. Since 1990, he has been Professor of the Anthropology...
and André Wink, pp. 76–102. Richmond, England: Curzon Press, 2001. - Omeljan Pritsak. "The Khazar Kingdom's Conversion to JudaismJudaismJudaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
." (Journal Article in Harvard Ukrainian Studies, 1978) - D. Vasilyev (Д. Васильев), "The Itil Dream (at the excavation site of the ancient capital of the Khazar Khaganate)" (Итиль-мечта (на раскопках древнего центра Хазарского каганата))