Cities of Khazaria. Kromos Estatium
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The khazar cities here include not only those cities that were built by the khazar architects, but also those that were built before the arrival of the khazars, were used by the khazars for their needs and tasks for a long time.
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Al-Beida on the river Athel **
In historical sources of the 8th century, the capital of the khazars was called al-Beida, so this name sounded and was recorded in arabic sources, which meant White fortress. The city has been written about since the 8th century by the arab writers al-Kufi Ibn al-Faqih, and the muslim chronicler from Iran Ibn Khordadbeh.
It was the capital of the khazars in 737, when the arabs made their last campaign on the territory of the khazars. In the report of the chroniclers of this campaign, it is said that this city was located on the Volga, where, it is not specified, but its distinctive feature was the whiteness of its walls, reflected on the water surface.
According to the Arab chronicles, in 642, Abd-al-Rahman reached the city of al-Beida, when it was a small town with no claim to the title of capital. Nevertheless, arab chroniclers in their references noted the whiteness of its buildings.
In 654, according to Artamonov, Abd-ar-Rahman started a new war against the khazars. Then the city of khazar Belendger was occupied by the arabs almost without resistance, because the arabs prepared for this attack and caught the khazars by surprise. The khazars were followed by fast arab cavalry, which reached the city of al-Beida, which was 15 horse marches away from Belendger, about 400 kilometers. Where exactly al-Beida stood in the reports of the arabs is not said. But the geography of the future Itil is quite suitable for the descriptions of the arab chroniclers of that time, which they gave for the city of al-Beida.
Armenian geography, reporting on the events of the last third of the 7th century, does not yet know such a city on the Volga. Although one of the supposed authors of Geography, Moses of Khoren, reports that at the end of the 7th century there was an island in the middle of the river Athel, where the baslas people sat, hiding from the khazars who came to this place and grazed their cattle on both banks of the river. The khazars then could not get close to the island, because it was well fortified by the baslas with white walls, and the baslas fiercely defended their fiefdom.
In 729, according to the vague data of Ibn al-Asir, which are not confirmed by other authors, the arab leader Jarrah, having captured Tiflis, advanced through Daryal to the country of the khazars, where it seems to have reached al-Beida, which his chroniclers localized in the lower reaches of the present Volga.
Jarrah managed to capture the city, impose tribute on its inhabitants, and return safely. However, the khazars forgot about all the agreements in the morning and chased the arabs all the way back, returning all their women to their homes in the city of al-Beida.
In 737, Mervan, according to arab authors, captured the former capital of the khazars, Semender, and moved after the Khagan. The pursuit led Mervan to the khazar city of al-Beida, which was then the full capital of the khazars. The white city in the lower reaches of the Itil river struck Mervan with its amazing beauty and diversity of palaces, cutting the eyes with the whiteness of its walls, repeatedly reflected in the depths of the waters of the deep river.
According to the arab chroniclers of this campaign, the Kagan moved further north along the bank of the Itil river. Mervan did not besiege al-Beida, but followed the Khagan, believing that this booty was worth more. He did not know that this military campaign against Khazaria would be the last in the history of the Arab Caliphate.
The capital of the khazars was previously in Semendera, but in view of the constant arab attacks on the khazars, in the early 8th century the khazars decided to move their capital to the Volga in al-Beida, where the Khagan was located.
Following the Khagan to the river Athel away from the arabs in the middle of the 8th century, the permanent population of Khazaria, consisting of representatives of various peoples, followed.
If we take all the information about the city of al-Beida, it was as a city that it appeared in the first third of the 8th century, and this was due to the policy of the Khagan, according to which the khazars moved their main trade and political centers to the interior of the country, developing new trade routes.
The town, which grew up near the Kagan's headquarters, by the 9th century became the largest trade and craft center of Khazaria, since it was placed at the very crossroads of trade caravan routes, both pedestrian and water roads from west to east and from north to south.
Historians believe that the city had several other names, but al-Beida among them is considered the oldest, which in the 9th century was absorbed by Itil.
Only at the beginning of the 9th century do historians begin to call the capital of the khazars as Itil. Al-Beida may have remained as one of the areas of the rapidly expanding city.
In the 12th century arab geographer Idrisi made a map where the cities of Itil, al-Beida and Khamlig listed as items separated at a certain distance from each other.
Al-Beida is the arabic name for the city, and this name may have appeared in historical sources first among the arabs, who dubbed it so for its white fortress walls and palaces, which from the outside seemed white to them.
The location of the city has not yet been established. It is known that its walls and castles outside the walls were built of white stone, as well as of baked and raw bricks, which were prepared from white coastal clay. Archaeologists are looking for the remains of the city near ancient white stone developments and clay workings with white clay.
The city is difficult to link geographically, since the mouth of the Volga river has repeatedly changed its course over hundreds of years. In addition, along the banks of the Volga river at its mouth and upstream, geologists have found hundreds of workings of calcareous white stone and white clay, near which there are many settlements.
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