Semender ( Samandar ) is the early capital of the Khazar Kaganate (in the first half of the 8th century ). A large medieval city on the territory of the Caspian Dagestan .
History
According to legend, it was founded by the Persian Shah Anushirvan ( 531 - 579 ), who built a number of fortresses on the Caucasian-Iranian border. According to the message of the Byzantine author Feofilakt Simokatta , in the 6th century there existed the Avars' sister tribe Zabender . Perhaps it settled in the North Caucasus and gave the name of the city. The name can also be etymologized from Iranian languages as the “extreme door”.
In the era of the Arab-Khazar wars acts as the main city of the world. Being north of the Derbent pass, for a long time remained unattainable for the Arab troops, unlike the other Khazar center, Belendzher, which was defeated by the Arabs in 722 . Semender was taken in 737 as a result of a carefully prepared march of Marwan ibn Muhammad . After that, the Khazar capital was moved further from the Caucasian border to Itil , located in the lower reaches of the Volga . The area of Semender turned into the southern outskirts of Kaganate, but the Khazar population continued to live in the city.
In the IX - X centuries turned into a large shopping center. A distinctive feature of the economy was developed viticulture. The gardens in the adjacent territory consisted of 40,000 vineyards. The structure of the population repeated the capital, that is, it consisted of representatives of three religious communities: Jews , Muslims and Christians . At the same time, Christian positions were stronger than in Itil, while Muslim ones were apparently weaker. In the city there were religious buildings of all denominations and markets. The houses were built in the form of tents made of wood, interlaced with reeds, with gabled roofs. On the management of the city information is extremely small. According to some data, he had his own ruler, according to others - a relative of the Khazar king sat in it. In the 10th century, the Semender region bore the name Dzhidan and was not part of the personal domain of the Khazar king. In 968/969 the city was destroyed as a result of the campaign of the Russian prince Svyatoslav Igorevich .
According to Arab geographers, Semender was located somewhere near the Caspian Sea , 4 (8) days from Derbent and 7 (8) from Itil. Archaeological localization is hampered by the abundance of medieval settlements in modern Dagestan. Most often, Semender is identified with the later town of Tarki (now the village of the same name near Makhachkala ). According to another point of view, he could be in the lower reaches of the Terek in modern Kizlyar . Dagestan archaeologist M. G. Magomedov suggested that both points could be called Semender at different times.
Currently, the name Semender bears an urban-type settlement in the suburb of Makhachkala.