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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Semender at the Caspian sea **
Also Selinder; M-s-n-dr by Iosif; Chdar-Bolkar by Artamonov's identification; Kizlyar by Vestberg; Takrki by Vasiliev and Gevond. World City for writers.
In one of the arab sources, the city is named Selinder, when in 722 the khazars retreated under the onslaught of the arabs, and the Khazarian capital Selinder was taken. Only thanks to the defeat of the arabs on the banks of the Bolandjir river saved Khazaria and especially its territories in the North Caucasus from complete devastation.
Semender from the beginning of the 6th century was an outpost of the iranian shahs on the way of the turkic-speaking nomads who appeared at that time. At the same time, it received its name, which from persian meant the Last gate, and the turks had a White city. The khazars, bulgars and savirs, who came, appreciated the importance of the fortifications, made an alliance with the persians, taKing the Semendero-Derbent crossing under their control.
This city was located near the coast of the Caspian sea, where Makhachkala is now located. Artamonov located it near the Sulak river. The arabs placed it somewhere between Derbent and Itil.
Istarkhi measured from Derbent to Semender 4 days of travel, from Itil it was 7 days of travel. Masudi claimed that it was 8 days from Derbent and 7 days from Itil to Semender.
Mukadessi pointed out that the city was located near some lake between the Khazar River and Derbent.
Many local researchers place it near the city of Makhachkala, where near the village of Tarki, archaeologists have unearthed a settlement with cultural layers since the end of the 7th century, as well as a stone wall along the very crest of the slope to the sea, almost the same as in Derbent, which indicates a single architectural plan for which both fortresses were built under King Khosrov Anushirvan in the 6th century after the birth of Christ.
In this case, Semender was the extreme fortified point of the persian shahs in the north of their country, which was supposed to block the path of the northern nomads of the Kingdom of the huns. The city was located very advantageously at the crossroads of pedestrian and sea trade routes, which allowed the city to become one of the richest among other khazar cities. For some time, there was even the headquarters of the Khagan, possibly of the Khazar Kings.
Many researchers place the city on the site of the Shelkovskoye settlement, where the first capital of Khazaria was founded.
Hudud al-Alam, like King Joseph of the khazars, places Semender on the seashore. But since they composed their writings two centuries later, they probably had in mind the second location of the capital of the khazars, already on the shore of the Caspian sea.
At the end of the 7th century Semender became a major trade center between Transcaucasia and the Lower Volga.
In the 8th century, the khazars moved their capital from Samandar to Semender, closer to the sea. There was already a fortress here, built on the instructions of the persian Shah Khosrov Anushirvan in 560, when the khazars were not here, but there were subjects of the persians and half-breeds of the indo-aryan vocabulary of sarmatians who went through the Caucasus to Asia Minor. At that time, the possessions of Iran reached the crest of the Caucasus mountains, and the Shahs of Persia needed to protect their possessions from the Northern nomads.
Semender is similar in its architectural design to Derbent. The fortifications of these cities, with walls running down the crest of the hill to the sea, were built according to a single project.
Here at that time lived the zabender tribe, which had on this site its settlement M-n-d-r, that is, a passage through the mountains.
Theophylact Simocatta noted that in 598, ambassadors of the Diangu Khan went to the Byzantine Emperor Maurice to confirm the alliance with Byzantium against Iran. The zabender tribe was also mentioned, which was originally from yar and hunni, and which the turkyuts, probably the khazars of the future, included in their alliance after the departure of the rebellious unrs towards the west. This people spoke one of the indo-iranian dialects, although they were also related to the avars.
Artamonov proposed to identify these sabungeros with semenders. From the persian language, the word «semender» means the extreme door. Semender and its inhabitants were extreme on the way to the North Caucasus. Judging by the fact that semenders quickly merged with the bulgars, their sociality was glare to each other. All their subsequent history, one way or another, was connected with the khazars, who assimilated them.
Zabenders, apparently, got their name from the role, that they performed at the settlement of M-s-n-d-r, being assigned to control the passage along the Caspian road.
Near Makhachkala there is the village of Semender. This suggests that the zabenders, the tribe that gave the name to the city of Semender, may have lived here, or that this city was located in these parts.
Linguists try to bring the name Semender closer to the name of the bulgarian tribe Chdar-Bolkar, mentioned in the New list of Armenian geography of the 7th century, where Semender is designated as M-s-n-d-r.
But the comparison of Semender with Chdar-Bolkar is very approximate, it is closer in meaning to the Bulgarian Chor, that is, the Bulgarian gate in Chor. This name may have been given by travelers to Derbent or Semender, from the fact that many khazar bulgars lived there.
According to another version, the word «semnder» is interpreted from persian as an extreme door, which is quite consistent with its location on the Derbent Chor passage.
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Semender was considered the center of the Belendger country. Starting from the 8th century, Semender was considered the second major city of Khazaria. Local agriculture also developed here, there were grape orchards, and well-established irrigation.
The country of Belendger bordered Khazaria along the Ughru river, that is, along the Terek. This means that it was here, at the semender bulgars, that Semender stood.
It is known from the chronicles that the khazar Semender was located in a difficult place, so that the arabs could not reach it without suffering serious losses. For its inaccessibility to enemies, it was called the City of Peace.
It is no accident that the Khazar Kings chose this place for themselves. A good toll was taken for passing through the fortress, and there is nowhere else to go, unless, of course, alone.
Vestberg and Artamonov do not exclude that this city was located near the present Kizlyar. Semender is well localized in the lower reaches of the Terek river near modern Kizlyar. Although several cities could exist under the name Semender, and the word «semender» could mean the concept of any city on the passage through the Caucasus.
Vestberg based on Masudi's calculations placed Semender in the lower reaches of the Terek, near Kizlyar, where there are many vineyards that could be inherited from Semender. The place near the city of Kizlyar for the location of Semender here is quite justified, based on the fact that the armies of Mervan in 737 were much more convenient to connect in the lower reaches of the Terek.
According to Vasiliev and Gevond, Semender was supposed to be located near the village of Tarki in the Makhachkala district of Northern Dagestan. There are remnants of a khazar settlement here, and there is a stone wall that descends to the Caspian sea, exactly like that of Derbent.
Arab authors note that Semender was located somewhere between Derbent and Itil.
Istarhi measured from Derbent to Semender 4 days of horse travel, that is 200 kilometers, Masudi had to ride on horses for at least 8 days. From Itil to Semender on Istakhri and at Masudi on horses to go 7 days. According to arab reports, Semender was separated from the city of Serir at a distance of 2 farsakhs, that is, 17 kilometers.
Mukadassi located Semender near some lake between the Khazar river and Derbent.
In Hudud-al-Alam and in King Joseph also spoke of a large water, on the bank of which stood Semender.
King Joseph in one of his letters mentions the valley of Tizul, possibly it was the country of T-d-lu, at the end of which was Semender.
Whenever the arabs came to the North Caucasus, they first reached Belendger, and then only went to Semender.
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In the 7th century, according to the list of Geography, there was no city on the Lower Volga yet. The formation of the city there began to occur only after the attack of Jarrah in 721.
In the note to the list of the «New Geography» translated by de Boor, there are only the cities of Khvalis and Tarku (Semender) on the Reteg (Terek). At the same time, G.Vernadsky located this Khvalis on the khazar coast of the Caspian sea, but between Itil and Semender.
Masudi notes that Semender lost its status as one of the Khazarian capitals in 642 after Ibn Rabiah's campaign in the North Caucasus. And finally, according to him, the Kagan moved to Itil in 653 after the second campaign of Ibn Rabiah.
Artamonov believes that in the late 7th century or early 8th century, it was in Semender that the first community of khazar jews arose, despite the fact that the Semender mayor was a muslim. It is assumed that there was also a Christian Prince of Semender. And it was from Semender that judaism spread among the nobles of Khazaria.
Masudi believed that in 737, the King of Semender was a muslim from the arab family of Kakhtan, and his name was Salifan.
Istakhri and Ibn Haukal report about the same time that the King of Semender was a relative of the King of the khazars and that he was from the jews.
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During the first arab attack under the leadership of Jarrah in 722, the city managed to survive, apparently because the arabs spent a lot of effort to capture Belendger, another major center of Khazaria.
There is a legend that when Jarrah, the leader of the arab army, captured Belendger in 721, its ruler and his retinue fled to Semender, leaving his family to Jarrah. It may have been a ransom for the life of sahib Salifan, ruler of Belendger.
According to the rules of the time, all the spoils of war were to be divided equally among the warriors, but Jarrah bought the entire family of sahib Salifan from the soldiers for 100,000 dirgems, sending his family of Sahib to in Semender, which tried to win him over. This he succeeded in doing, because the khazars prepared several traps for Jarrah on his way to Semender, about which the Sahib warned Jarrah. This caused Jarrah to retreat.
In 710, according to the Armenian author Gevond, the arabs took Derbent, and then proceeded to the city of Semender. Apparently, an error crept into the source, since Gevond further describes the confrontation between the khazars and the army of Maslama, which could not have occurred earlier than 729.
In any case, neither the arabs nor the khazars took any special military actions at Semender that year, only competed in wrestling and archery. However, during the month of standing, the khazar army was replenished with new detachments, and the arab army only lost its fighters.
Semender and this time survived, Maslama went to Georgia, leaving his marching harem, recruited from the khazars.
But in 737, Semender fell as a result of some clever plan of Mervan, the future Caliph. From that time the khazar nobles moved to Itil, away from the turbulent border with a strong enemy. Semender also retained the status of the khazar outskirts in the south of Khazaria, but the mountain peoples did not settle the liberated quarters of the city, there were still khazars, mostly bulgars.
Arab writers claim that in 732, Hamzin, Belendger, and Semender were abandoned by the khazars at the approach of Mervan. We must assume that these cities were abandoned by the troops, but not by the inhabitants.
In 737 Merwan was carried simultaneously through the Daryal, and through Derbent to meet Semender. The Kagan did not join the fight, he was on his own territory and expected to starve out the arabs, as he managed to do 10 years ago.
After the capture of Semender, Mervan went to al-Beida on the Volga, but could not take the whole city on the move, water was never an element of the arabs. Moreover, these same arab writers believed that Semender was the capital of the khazar State at that time.
Artamonov believed that after the defeat of Varachan, now here Buinaksk, the arabs called this city Belendger, the capital of the khazars was moved to the Volga, and Semender remained the main city of the huns in the east of the Caucasus.
The arabs, reporting on Mervan's campaign against Khazaria, noted that the capital of Khazaria was the city on the Volga al-Beida, and Semender was the ancient capital, which was located near Serir.
Regarding Serir, arab writers report that it was located 12 farsakhs from the khazars possessions and 2 farsakhs from the city of Semender.
A more reliable version is that the Kagan and the King finally moved to Itil only after a series of arab attacks, after 737.
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In the arabic writer Masudi, who worked in the first half of the 10th century, the country of the huns is called the Kingdom of Jidan. He called Semender the center of the country. Jidan Masudi considered the most powerful Kingdom of that time in the Eastern Caucasus on the coast of the Caspian sea. Moreover, the semenders, by that time already significantly assimilated by the khazars, strongly oppressed the Derbent people.
In the 9th century, in connection with the strengthening of the Khazaria and the retreat of the arabs from the foothills of the southern Caucasus, the city was revived, and preserved there artisans, mostly alanian, as well as villagers, mainly winegrowers, create a new large trade center, trade the site of which the whole of Khazaria becomes.
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The entire territory around Semender was the main center of settlement of the peoples of Northern Dagestan. This allowed Semender to attract many ancestral crafts to their villages, which at the time of their settlement in Semender already had extensive experience in the production of various products necessary in military affairs, in agriculture, cattle breeding, and in the manufacture of jewelry.
There lived here, as in Itil, representatives of local paganism, khazars of the tengri type, muslims, christians and a few jews. All of them were united in their communities. The jewish community was supported by the khazar Kings, also jews.
The dwellings in Semender and Derbent were tents and light structures made of wood with humped roofs. There was also a tent-roofed, pointed-type dwelling made of wood, reeds, sometimes smeared with clay or lime. Everywhere there are farm pits in which grain and products from local fields were stored.
Muqaddasi noted that Semender is much more extensive than Khazar, by which he meant Itil. However, the housing architecture was similar in both capitals. There were many markets in the city and suburbs.
There were more christians here than in other Khazarian cities visited by Khazar Kings, probably because the Kings did not come here. Without them, the christians were safer here.
The city was rumored to have its own mayor, who was elected by the residents. But there was also a relative of the King who owned Jidan, the area around Semender, but not the city itself.
According to Muqaddasi, Semender was filled with a large number of small mosques, despite the fact that there were manycChristians, probably most of them even.
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In the 10th century, King Joseph of the khazars, in his correspondence with the Spanish jews, mentioned several towns in the Crimea, the khazar domain. In his list of cities in the North Caucasus, King Joseph listed only Semender, although there were other khazar cities there at that time. Apparently, they were insignificant at that time compared to Semender.
Writers of the 10th century noted that Semender differed from all the khazar and caucasian cities in the presence of a large number of vineyards, and they attributed this difference to the time of the 7th century.
Masudi reported that in his time, which was 944, Semender was still the center of the Kingdom of Jidan, allied to the khazars. He also pointed out that the King of Semender was Salifan of the arab family of Kahvan, and this King was a muslim.
It is also noted in Masudi that Semender was subordinate to the khazars, but did not obey Itil, he was directly subordinate to the King of the Khazaria. That is why the khazar King did not reach its borders during the summer nomad and did not enter the land occupied by the nomads of the semenders.
Ibn Haukal reports that in 968, Svyatoslav, who in his opinion led the normans, took all parts of Itil together with Khazaran and Bulgar. He also took Semender, which at that time was khazar, whose inhabitants fled to Mangyshlak, and the people from Itil dispersed to the islands of the mouth of the Volga.
After Svyatoslav left, the city was plundered by local mountaineers, after which it could not recover.
Semender continued to exist, but as a small settlement, gradually impoverishing its population.
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In 985, Svyatoslav's son Vladimir put an end to Khazaria. After the collapse of the Khaganate, Semender lost its urban functions, there were no more states that could provide opportunities for development and trade.
Travelers of the early 11th century noted that Semender near the Caspian sea continued some kind of life, supported by the jewish Principality that nested here, which managed in 1030 to protect its city from Fadlun, the ruler of Ganja.
In 1238, the mongols came to Semender and found that this Principality still exists.
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