The Khazars: A Judeo-Turkish Empire on the Steppes, 7th - 11th Centuries AD

PLATE COMMENTARIES

A1: Alan armoured cavalryman, 5th century

Depicted fighting Huns in the ruins of a Roman town in Crimea, this horseman’s lack of archery equipment shows that he still operates in a style rooted in Iranian cavalry traditions. His ‘splinted’ or lamellar helmet, laced together with rawhide thongs, is of a form which could be found across much of Asia, as far as China and perhaps India, but which was also brought to Europe during the ‘great migrations’ of the early medieval period. He wears a long mail hauberk over a linen tunic, woollen trousers (note broken-line pattern down front), and leather ankle-boots; he has no shield, which was an encumbrance rather than a defence when wielding a heavy spear with both hands. Hidden on his left side is a long, straight sword with a ‘bracket’ slide on its scabbard; silvered bronze fitments would be feasible, perhaps with semi-precious stones on the sword guard. His large Persian horse has a long combed mane, forelock and tail; the harness has silvered bronze ornaments, but the leather-covered wooden saddle lacks stirrups.

A2: Eastern Hun armoured cavalryman, 4th–5th centuries

There were clearly variations between the equipment of elite warriors in different parts of the vast but ephemeral Hun Empire; this warrior represents what is known about the eastern regions. He has a helmet of many directly riveted iron segments, and a small mail hauberk worn beneath a limited form of rawhide lamellar cuirass. He wears silk-covered horseman’s leggings suspended at the front from a belt under his hauberk and tunic, rather than large riding boots. His weapons, apart from a fighting knife hung horizontally in front of his right hip, all hang at his left side. His single-edged sword is a straight ‘palash’ type rather than a curved sabre; his emptied quiver would carry arrows with their flights uppermost, and his bow-case is for an unstrung weapon. He still lacks stirrups, and his saddle, though containing wooden formers, is not yet of the fully wood-framed type. His Turko-Mongol pony has the mane clipped in three tufts, but a long knotted tail.

A3: Western Hun horse archer, 5th century

This dismounted rider from a more western region has a ‘ridge’ helmet which may be of late Roman origin, though now highly decorated with gilt bands in what Romans would have considered a barbarian manner; it also has a mail aventail. His heavy fleece-lined coat hides a mail hauberk, and he wears soft leather leggings with integral feet. Obscured here is a straight, double-edged sword at his left side; its scabbard might have a slide carved from jade and originally from Central Asia. His simple quiver still carries the arrows flights uppermost and thus unprotected, though his bow-case accommodates the weapon when strung.

B1: Khazar warrior, 7th century

The degree of metallurgical and technological sophistication achieved by the still largely nomadic Khazars in the 7th century might suggest some (perhaps considerable) influence from south or east of the steppes. However, in the Byzantine, Iranian, early Islamic or even Chinese empires there is still little archaeological evidence for such features as plate shoulder defences (pauldrons), greaves with applied ‘splints’, or ‘loose-riveted’ lamellar armour◦– but all these features are shown here. Khazar wealth is suggested by the gilded front plate of his directly riveted segmented helmet. His full panoply consists of a single-edged straight sword with a curved hilt, in a brass-fitted scabbard with ‘D’-shaped projections for suspension; a spear with a two-tailed pennon; a leather-covered wooden shield with an iron boss; a composite bow carried unstrung in a brightly painted case; plus (obscured here) a quiver to carry arrows points uppermost, and a large fighting knife or khanjar perhaps made en suite with the sword. This impressive level of equipment would also become typical of some neighbouring cultures, not least the Islamic Caliphate. His horse is protected by full lamellar armour including a chamfron, and a red-dyed horsetail tassel hangs below the bridle. The saddle is of the fully wood-framed type long known among many Inner Asian nomads and the Chinese, and the harness now includes iron stirrups.

B2: Sabirian armoured cavalryman, 6th–7th centuries

This Sabir (Savir) tribal warrior illustrates the sophistication achieved by the Khazars’ immediate predecessors north of the Caucasus. His helmet consists of four large segments riveted to vertical framing and joined beneath a crowning dome; like B1’s, it has ‘eyebrows’ with a nasal bar and an attached ringmail aventail, while lacking a brow-band. His substantial cuirass and upper arm defences are of iron lamellae laced with rawhide thongs, leaving only his forearms and his lower legs in soft leather boots unprotected. His archery equipment is of a form seen across most of the Eurasian steppes, while his single-edged sword is still straight. The apparent tassels hanging from his horse’s crupper strap may be the hair of defeated and captured foes, while just visible hanging from the breast strap is one of a pair of bright bronze discs with simple images of human faces, which may recall earlier head-hunting practices.

B3: Western steppes nobleman, 7th century

Just visible in the background is a rider in everyday dress, from one of a number of ‘relic populations’ left in what is now Ukraine and some neighbouring areas after the great migrations of the 4th–5th centuries. Perhaps Slavic or Germanic, his general appearance and clothing look European rather than from a nomadic steppe culture, but his sword, archery equipment and horse harness show strong Iranian influence.

C1: Khazar heavy cavalryman, 9th century

At the highpoint of Khazar power the elite of fully armoured cavalryman wore almost as much armour as later medieval Western European men-at-arms. This included a segmented iron helmet with a substantial nasal bar, mail aventail and plumed spire; a half-sleeved, long-hemmed mail hauberk, under an iron lamellar cuirass laced with rawhide thongs; substantial iron shoulder plates; splinted ‘bell-topped’ iron gauntlets, and similar splinted iron greaves. Prepared for close combat with spear, shield, sword, fighting knife, and a battle-axe slung by a leather loop at the front of his saddle, this man also carries full archery equipment. His horse has a mail trapper and a limited form of iron chamfron consisting of two elements riveted together, but lacks neck protection. Note the lavishly ornamented and tasselled harness, and (just visible under his leg) the panel of spotted animal-pelt over the patterned silk saddle-cloth.

C2: Alan cavalryman, late 9th–early 10th century

The Alans of the Caucasus were descended from Iranian rather than Turkish-speaking nomadic steppe peoples. Now settled and seemingly prosperous, they survived centuries of nomadic invasion and conquest, adopting religions and elements of military style from their more powerful neighbours, but also retaining some distinctive features of their own. Among these were quilted hats or hoods, sometimes highly decorated, of which the lower part could be turned up as shown here. This mail-clad rider is equipped as a relatively lightly armoured horse-archer, with both sword and battle-axe for close combat. The abundance of decoration on his own gear and his horse’s harness, the latter including tufts, bronze discs and silver bells, seems more suited to a festive occasion than to battle.

C3: Kabarian cavalryman, late 9th–early 10th centuries

There appear to have been significant variations in the military equipment and combat styles of different peoples across the sprawling Khazar Khaganate. Though of nomadic Khazar origin, the Kabarians of the west soon looked almost European, with their reliance on mail rather than lamellar armour. The iron vambraces and greaves shown here, consisting of simple iron splints riveted to leather linings, nevertheless remained characteristically Khazar, as is his segmented helmet adorned with a tuft and side-feathers. The man’s weaponry, including full horse-archery equipment, spear, sword and axe, and his horse harness, are fully within a steppe tradition which would itself profoundly influence subsequent medieval Russian styles.

D1: Turkic armoured cavalryman, 7th century

Various Turkic nomadic peoples inhabited the steppes to the east of the Khaganate, occasionally dominated by, or fighting either for or against the Khazars. Their military equipment had by now evolved into forms which would remain largely unchanged for centuries. The only unusual and perhaps old-fashioned aspect of this man’s armour is the double rounded breast protection made of sewn layers of rawhide. Otherwise it consists of a rawhide lamellar cuirass and upper arm defences, and a substantial mail aventail hanging from a helmet made of multiple scallop-shaped vertical splints laced together. Although he wields a two-handed lance he also carries a small round shield. The limited horse armour, protecting only the breast, is also of rawhide lamellar construction; like the rider’s cuirass, it is edged with spotted fur, perhaps leopard-skin.

D2: Magyar nobleman, late 9th–early 10th centuries

The Magyars who inhabited the steppes along and beyond the western frontiers of the Khaganate played a significant role in Khazar military history, and it is not surprising that their equipment had much in common with that of the Khazars. Yet they too also showed some distinctive features, not only in the decoration of weapons and horse harness but notably in their use of advanced forms of helmet. This example has an unusual, rather blunt-domed shape but is still made of large, directly riveted segments, with an iron nasal on a brow plate with three vertical extensions. (Within a few decades many of those Magyars who migrated further west into what became Hungary had helmets forged from a single piece of iron.) In addition to a full mail hauberk worn beneath his woollen coat, this nobleman also has a traditional iron lamellar cuirass with rawhide lacing, reaching to his knees above fancy-cut soft leather boots fastened with buckles. His weapons include spear, sabre, archery equipment with both a strung and an unstrung bow in two cases, and an axe hanging from his saddle.

D3: Slavic tribal leader, 9th century

In comparison with the Khazars, other Turks and the Magyars, most of the Slav tribes dominated by the Khazar Khaganate had rudimentary military equipment, being rarely rich enough to afford much beyond a spear, shield, and sometimes an axe. As a tribal leader this man has also acquired a battered old Byzantine helmet of iron with broad brow and fore-and-aft bands, a double-edged sword of perhaps central European origin, and a curved dagger. Nevertheless, his woollen tunic is covered in expensive imported silk; it has borders embroidered with a geometric pattern which may have served as a form of tribal identification, and his black cloak is fastened with a gilt brooch.

E1: Urban militiaman, 8th century

The Khazar state included substantial settled as well as nomadic populations, plus a number of important if small trading towns, mostly in the northern foothills of the Caucasus and on the great rivers which served as highways. It seems that some urban centres had forms of local militia, comparable to those of the Islamic world to the south. This man’s large, relatively stiff felt cap or hood also mirrors that of many peoples south of the Caucasus mountains; with their khanjar fighting knives, spears and large round shields, such men would not have looked out of place in Islamic Iran or Central Asia. However, note that this man also has tucked into his belt a simple form of kisten or war-flail, with a spherical bronze weight at the end of a thickly plaited rawhide strap attached to a wooden handle.

E2: Khazar tribesman on foot with packhorse, 9th century

This tribesman’s helmet is of a light form: a hardened leather bowl with slender vertical iron framing elements, a broader brow-band, and an iron finial. Nevertheless, some aspects of his clothing suggest that he is from a settled community in trading contact with wealthy regions beyond the frontiers of the Khaganate. His (probably mail) aventail is covered with a richly embroidered textile, and his white coat, which opens down the front with only a small overlap, is also covered on torso, sleeves and borders with decorative imported Persian silk. Under the coat he probably wears a short-hemmed and short-sleeved mail shirt. His shoes and the cross-binding around his legs show that he expects to walk more than to ride. His weapons are a bow, a fighting knife, and an axe with a characteristically slender blade balanced by a second projection behind the socket.

E3: Radmich Slav tribesman, 8th century

This ordinary Slav tribesman only has a spear and dagger, while the rectangular shape of his large shield is hypothetical. His clothing is largely of linen; the simple embroidered pattern around the neck and cuffs of his tunic has been tentatively identified with the Radmich tribe, which lived along the upper reaches of the Dnieper river and its tributaries, on the north-western frontier of Khazar territory.

F1: Khwarazmian cavalryman of Arsiya Guard, 9th–10th centuries

Many of the Khagan’s Muslim Arsiya units originally came from one of the militarily and technologically most sophisticated (as well as one of the wealthiest) regions of Central Asia, and, when settled at the Khazar capital of Atil, they remained a military elite. This man has therefore been given the finest known arms and armour of the eastern provinces of the Islamic Caliphate, including a one-piece steel helmet with silvered stars riveted to the surface, a purely decorative silvered finial and a brow-band decorated in the same manner. The very short nasal bar may have protected the lacing of the deep aventail’s facial flap, which is here shown unlaced. In addition to a long-sleeved mail hauberk under his coat, he wears a steel lamellar cuirass and separate tassets covering the thighs, with alternate rows of the lamellae gilded. His baggy trousers are confined by felt-lined leather gaiters, with upper and lower coloured lines around the whitened surface, and lacing up the inner legs. His double-edged straight sword has a silvered bronze hilt that includes a sleeve which passes outside the throat of the scabbard, and his shield is edged with tufted coloured wool. The khanjar at his right hip was a weapon shared by many peoples of the steppes. His horse (background) has relatively plain modern harness, but the silvered ‘muzzle-bit’ is an item that may have dated from pre-Islamic times.

F2: Viking raider, 10th century

This unfortunate has been hunted down on the banks of the lower Volga in 914. The Scandinavian raiders who became known as Varangians, and who created the first Russian state, were significantly better armed than the indigenous Slavs and Finns who inhabited these areas. Initially their daring and ferocity also enabled them to overawe some Muslim peoples along the shores of the Caspian Sea, but eventually they were expelled by both Muslims and Khazars. The man shown here has been given the mixture of equipment which would come to characterize the Varangians and the armies of early Kievan Rus. Thus the mail hauberk, shield and sword could be seen as Viking, while the segmented helmet and mail aventail might be considered early Russian.

F3: Khazar light cavalryman, 9th century

Not all Khazar cavalrymen were heavily armoured, even during the Khaganate’s period of greatest prosperity. This man only has a long-sleeved mail hauberk plus a shield, sabre and archery equipment. His colourful coat is in the distinctively Turkish double-breasted style, showing contrasting lining and applied woven decorative bands at the edges. The horse’s harness is ornamented in the steppe style, but the snaffle bit lacks vertical psalion bars. Some sources show an additional single strap terminating in a loop attached to the apex of the usual reins; this was probably not just a leading rein, but an aid to controlling the horse when the rider was using both hands to shoot the bow.

G1: Magyar woman, 10th century

This scene is imagined in the interior of a turf-roofed timber house dug partly below ground level, and heated by a large clay oven. Most information about Magyar female costume comes from the period immediately after the western Magyars migrated from Ukraine across the Carpathian mountains onto the Great Hungarian Plain, but there is little reason to believe that the dress of either men or women had changed significantly during the previous few decades. The costume illustrated is based upon archaeological finds, the limited pictorial sources, and some hints in the written texts. Her elaborate hair decoration consists of large gold discs hanging from open ‘triangles’ at the ends of gold chains attached to her two ‘ponytails’; it is enough to identify her as a woman of wealth and social status.

G2: Khazar Jewish warrior, 9th century

How far the conversion of the Khazar ruling elite to Judaism filtered down into lower ranks of society remains a matter of scholarly debate; it may perhaps have been confined to the higher aristocracy, and the elites of some Khazar sub-tribes. Whether the Judaism practised by the Khazars was mainstream or otherwise is also a matter of some dispute. The prosperous tribesman shown here, wearing a fine silk coat under his war gear, has been given a kippah skull-cap and payot side-locks, though there is no real evidence for these being adopted by the Judeo-Khazars. Apart from a recently discovered segmented helmet with Jewish symbols on the front and back, which he carries, this man is equipped in typical Khazar style: a mail hauberk, a cuirass of large iron lamellae, iron shoulder plates, and strapped-on iron greaves. His weapons are a fine Khazar sabre with a lightly curved hilt and silvered fittings, and a war-flail with a bronze weight.

G3: Vyatchian Slav tribesman, 8th–9th centuries

The Vyatchi Eastern Slavs, from the Oka river basin south of present-day Moscow, were undoubtedly poor in comparison with their Khazar overlords, despite the metal torque worn around this man’s neck and his finely made leather boots. With neither helmet nor armour, his only protection is a substantial wooden shield, here leaning against the wall with one light and one heavier javelin; he also has an axe in his belt. The embroidered strips at the neck, chest, upper arms and hem of his linen shirt are again believed to have served as a form of tribal identification.

H1: Khazar commander

The wealth of the Khazar Khaganate, which had attracted the predatory attentions of the Varangian Rus, was reflected in the equipment of its military elites. However, there now appears to have been less use of lamellar armour and a seemingly greater reliance on fine-quality mail, like the short-sleeved hauberk worn by this senior figure handing over his sabre and axe to a victor in token of surrender. His helmet is still of segmented construction, similar to those of the Muslims to the south and the Rus to the north, and has a mail aventail which could probably be tied beneath the chin. His shield is probably of leather-covered wood, but might equally have been entirely of hide, and imported from far beyond Khazar territory. The shirt worn beneath his hauberk is, for example, of pink Chinese silk; his woollen coat is not only covered in patterned Persian silk but is cut in an originally Arab-Persian style as a kaftan, rather than in the considerably overlapping double-breasted Turco-Mongol manner. The embroidered ‘blanket’ which is tailored to go over and around the rump of his horse (background) was probably made locally.

H2: Khazar warrior

Hardly visible, the wounded warrior who accompanies his commander would also illustrate the multi-cultural character of the later Khazar Khaganate. Under his fur-trimmed cap, his long hair tied into pigtails is typically Turkish. His off-white coat, originally of Alan or Persian style, has blue edging at neck and cuffs and a broad band of red, yellow and blue patterned Persian silk all the way down the front, which is fastened with silver clasps. He might have a short double-edged broadsword imported from Russia, but with a German-made blade. His archery equipment and horse harness would still be of typical nomadic steppes types.

H3: Rus leader

By the end of the 9th century the Varangian Vikings who created the large and rapidly expanding state of Kievan Rus had adopted many aspects of the military technology of the Eurasian steppe peoples, mostly notably from the Khazars, and thus had little visibly in common with their Scandianian ancestors. Those Viking features which most obviously endured were straight, double-edged swords, and large-bladed war axes. This commander wears a silver neck torque with pendant Thor’s hammers, and his sword has a trilobate pommel, but the other aspects of his panoply are fully within the Eurasian steppe tradition. His helmet is gilded except for the steel bowl, and worn with a mail aventail. His short mail hauberk is concealed, except at the dagged hem, by a short, linen-lined, overlapping woollen coat; its horn buttons and cord loops are themselves hidden here by a dark cloak folded diagonally around the body and pinned on the right side. Linen puttees are wrapped around the woollen trousers, within soft leather boots. His archery equipment, riding whip and horse harness are all of steppes patterns (like the discarded bow and quiver of H1), though he might have an axe of Scandinavian form hung from the right of his saddle, perhaps with chiselled decoration on the blade suitable for his high status.