Uyghur theory of the origin of the Khazars

The Khazar tradition itself, presented in the form of a genealogical legend in a letter from Tsar Joseph (X century), calls Khazar the seventh of ten sons of Togarma - a descendant of the biblical Noah, along with the older brothers Avar , Oguz , Barsil and the younger ones - Bulgar and Savir . It is reported that the ancestors of the Khazars were few in number and "they waged war after war with numerous nations that were more powerful and stronger than them" ^[2]

If you do not take into account the anachronistic mention of the Khazars by Movses Kalankatvatsi , the first reliable fixation of this ethnonym dates back to the middle of the VI century. and is contained in the Pseudo-Zachary Ritor in the list of thirteen nations, "living in the tents" ^[3] . The list covers the list of peoples who lived in the steppes, in the North Caucasus and Central Asia, which does not allow us to determine the habitats of the Khazars mentioned there in seventh place. A. P. Novoseltsev relates the first manifestations of the military activity of the Khazars to the 90s. VI century., But according to M. I. Artamonov , the Khazars themselves showed themselves only in the middle of the VII century. ^{[4] [5]}

Two interrelated messages in Theophanes and Breviaria of Nicephorus, representing Byzantine historiography, describe the beginning of independent Khazar statehood. She is associated with the defeat of the association of the Bulgars in the 60s. VII century.

Even more scarce information about the Khazars is contained by another group of sources - Chinese historiography, as well as one of the texts of the Serendian circle. In the lists of Uigur tribes of the 7th - 8th centuries works related to the Tangian codex of sources mention the tribal name of the scythe , reliably reconstructed by Sinologists as kasar / kazar ^[6] . In the Middle Persian text from Turfan ^[7] one of the leaders of the tribe - Khazar-tegin ^{[8] is} mentioned.

The Uighurs were one of the oldest tribal unions of Central Asia, genetically related to the Late Hunnic states. In the III - V centuries. The Uyghurs were part of an even larger tribal association, which in Chinese chronicles was called gaoche , or gaoju ("high carts"). They successfully resisted the attempts of the emperors of Northern China from the Toba Wei dynasty and the Hagan Juan-Juan ( Avar ) to subjugate their tribes. At the end of the 5th century, taking advantage of the weakening of the Juan-Juan, their leaders appropriated the Hagan title. At the beginning of the VI century. the descendants of the founders of the Uyghur dynasty waged wars with the Ephtalites and Juan Zhuan in East Turkestan. From the 6th century their tribal union became known in the Chinese chronicle of the body (Turk.-Mong. tegreg "cart, wagon"). Most likely, the name "carts", obviously very ancient, was not their self-name and came into Chinese literary usage from the language of tribes neighboring the body. ^[9] During continuous wars, a significant group of Tele tribes migrated westward to the steppes of Southeastern Europe, but most remained in Central Asia. Even before the emergence of the Turkic Kaganate, in 546 , the Central Asian bodies were subordinated to the great Yabgu Bumyn , who in 551 became the first Turkic Kagan. This part of the body, back in the IV century. headed by the Seno tribe ( syrah of Turkic inscriptions) and their dynastic clan Ilter, formed then the union of “ten tribes”. However, in 600, as a result of internecine wars with the Siker tribe, the sirs left the union of the “ten tribes” where the primacy passed to the Uyghurs with their dynastic clan Yaglakar. ^{[10] The} new association received in Chinese sources the stable name "ten tribes." Turning to the Turkic runic monuments of the 8th century, we find out the self-name of the body and their Central Asian tribal group: in the texts they are called Toguz Oguzes - “nine Oguzes”. Now, returning to the Western sources telling about the events of the 5th century, we find there a phonetically more archaic form of the same name - ogur . Those tele tribes that, according to vague Chinese information, went to the V century, to the West Sea, appeared in the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea region under their own common name ogur , but divided into many tribal unions - onogurs (he ogur - “ten ogres”), Kutrigurov (hutur ogur - “thirty (tribes) ogurs”), sary gurs (sary ogur - “white (yellow) ogurs”), etc. The seemingly final split of the “carts” into the western group of ogur tribes and the eastern group , among which the memory of cucumbers is preserved in the ethnonym Uyghur . ^[11] Naturally, the same tribal groups with the same self-names remained among the ogres and Oghuzs in the west, in the Pontic steppes, and in the east, in Mongolia and Dzungaria, as well. One of such groups was the Khazars.

In 1969 and in 1976 were found in northern Mongolia and in the Khangai mountain country, two steles with ancient runic inscriptions. Both of these steles suffered greatly from time to time, however, some of the texts are well preserved. By the name of the rivers in the valleys of which the steles were discovered, the monuments were named Terkhinsky and Tesinsky. These steles were erected by order of the first Uyghur kagans - Eletmish Bilge-kagan and his son Begyu-kagan - in 744. The historical sections of both inscriptions, according to the preserved fragments, are similar in content. Paradoxical facts have been found in these translated historical texts. The 8th century Uigur Khagans, whose possessions extended to Mongolia and Tuva , call themselves heirs and successors of the ancient leaders, who hundreds of years before them led the Oguro-Oguz tribes of the Eurasian steppes. The inscriptions on these stelae also mention such Oguz leaders as Bedi Bersil and Kadir Kassar and talk about their death. These inscriptions affect the time and space of the First Turkic Kaganate after the death of Bumyn , the times of the second half of the VI century .; the time of internecine wars in which the famous Oguzes of Bedi Bersil and Kadir Kasar died; during the twenty-year war in Ele, and leading to the collapse of the Turkic-Oguz duumvirate in Central Asia .

The key word in quoting an excerpt from the Tesinsky inscription is the term buzuk . Preserved by the later Oguz tradition, the legends of Oguz Khan , the ancestor of the eponym of the Ogur tribes, and recorded by Muslim historiography ^{[12], the} stable division of the Oguzes into two wings, two tribal associations - Buzuk and Uchuk , as it is now clear, goes back to ancient times. Buzuki, the right wing, correlated with the eastern orientation, in the quasi-imperial and imperial structures of the Oghuz had the advantages of seniority. Only from their midst did the kagan advance, ^{[13] the} nominal head of all the Oghuz, and the hierarchical position of the Buzuk aristocracy, their tribal leaders, was higher than the status of the Uchuk. By the time, which is mentioned in inscriptions from the time of Bumyn-Kagan and its first heirs, ten Turkic tribes occupied the place of the Buzuk in the two-part Turkic-Oguz structure of the Turkic ale , one of which, Ashin , was a Kagan tribe.

• Artamonov M. I. History of the Khazars / Ed. and with approx. L. N. Gumilyova . - L .: Publishing House of the State. Hermitage Museum , 1962 .-- 523 p.
• Klyashtorny S. G. Kipchaki in runic monuments // On the occasion of the eightieth birthday of academician A. N. Kononov / Otv. ed. S. G. Klyashtorny, Yu. A. Petrosyan , E. R. Tenishev . - L .: Publishing House "Science" , Leningrad Branch, 1986. - S. 153-164. - 320 s.
• Klyashtorny S.G. Asian aspect of the early history of the Khazars // Khazar project. - Jerusalem; M .: Gershaim / Bridges of Culture , 2005. - T. XVI: Khazars. - S. 259–264.
• Klyashtorny S. G. , Sultanov T. I. The states and peoples of the Eurasian steppes (antiquity and the Middle Ages). - SPb. : Petersburg Oriental Studies , 2000 .-- 320 p. - (Orientalia). - ISBN 5-85803-152-8 .
• Kokovtsev P.K. Jewish-Khazar correspondence in the X century. - L .: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR , 1932. - XXXVIII + 134 p.
• Novoseltsev A.P. The Khazar state and its role in the history of Eastern Europe and the Caucasus . - M .: Publishing house "Science" , 1990. - 264 p. - ISBN 5-02-009552-4 .
• Pigulevskaya H. V. Syrian sources on the history of the peoples of the USSR. / Proceedings of the Institute of Oriental Studies; Ed. ed. V.V. Struve . - M.-L.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR , 1941. - T. XLI. - 172 p.