Arsiyah (other forms of the word include - ''Lariçiyeh'', ''al-Larisiya'') was the name used for a group of

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

mercenaries in the service of the

Khazar The Khazars ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a nomadic Turkic people who, in the late 6th century CE, established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, Crimea, an ...

Khagan Khagan or Qaghan (Middle Mongol:; or ''Khagan''; ) or zh, c=大汗, p=Dàhán; ''Khāqān'', alternatively spelled Kağan, Kagan, Khaghan, Kaghan, Khakan, Khakhan, Khaqan, Xagahn, Qaghan, Chagan, Қан, or Kha'an is a title of empire, im ...

ate. Whether the Arsiyah were a single tribe or composed of Muslims from a number of different tribes is unclear. Also unclear is their origin; many historians regard them as deriving from

Khwarazm Khwarazm (; ; , ''Xwârazm'' or ''Xârazm'') or Chorasmia () is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya river delta in western Central Asia, bordered on the north by the (former) Aral Sea, on the east by the Kyzylkum Desert, on the south by th ...

, but some scholars point to the fact that "As" is the Turkic term for

Alans The Alans () were an ancient and medieval Iranian peoples, Iranic Eurasian nomads, nomadic pastoral people who migrated to what is today North Caucasus – while some continued on to Europe and later North Africa. They are generally regarded ...

and believe that the Arsiyah were Alanic in origin. Other scholars derive the name from the Iranian ''Auruša'' (white). According to Arabic text with French translation ''"Les Prairies d'or"'' translated by Charles Barbier de Meynard and

Abel Pavet de Courteille Abel Jean Baptiste Michel Pavet de Courteille (23 June 1821 – 12 December 1889) was a 19th-century French orientalist, who specialized in the study of Turkic languages. Career Through his mother, Sophie Silvestre (1793-1877), he was Antoin ...

. This word reads correctly from Arabic as - ''lariçiyeh''. Which, according to the ''"Book of the Huns"'' by Alexandre Vincent, is translated from the Khazar language - ''guards''.Vincent 2016, ''«Book of the

Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was par ...

»'' - Part I, Chapter ''"The Khazarian language"'' p. 26, 27. According to Muslim sources, the lariçiyeh formed the core of the Khazar army and were extremely influential in Khazar politics, but these assertions may be designed to exaggerate the importance of the Muslim community in Khazaria. The lariçiyeh did often act independently of their government. Part of the treaty binding them to Khazar service guaranteed that they would not be used to fight other Muslims. In 913, the lariçiyeh ambushed a

Varangian The Varangians ( ; ; ; , or )Varangian
," Online Etymology Dictionary were

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...

by the Khazar government, wiping out thousands of Rus warriors.

Notes

References

* Peter B. Golden. "The Conversion of the Khazars to Judaism." ''The World of the Khazars: New Perspectives''. Leiden:

Brill Brill may refer to: Places * Brielle (sometimes "Den Briel"), a town in the western Netherlands * Brill, Buckinghamshire, a village in England * Brill, Cornwall, a small village to the west of Constantine, Cornwall, UK * Brill, Wisconsin, an un ...

, 2007. * Kevin Alan Brook. ''The Jews of Khazaria.'' 2nd ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2006. * Douglas M. Dunlop. ''The History of the Jewish Khazars''. Princeton, N.J.:

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

Press, 1954. * Alexandre Vincent. ''«Book of the Huns»'' - Part I.

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

- , 2016. *

Norman Golb Norman Golb (15 January 1928 – 29 December 2020) was a scholar of Jewish history and the Ludwig Rosenberger Professor in Jewish History and Civilization at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Life Golb was born in Chicago, Ill ...

and

Omeljan Pritsak Omeljan Yosypovych Pritsak (; 7 April 1919 – 29 May 2006) was the first Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of History of Ukraine, Ukrainian History at Harvard University and the founder and first director (1973–1989) of the Harvard Ukrainian Rese ...

. ''Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century''. Ithaca:

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

Press, 1982. {{Khazaria Military history of the Khazars Mercenary units and formations of the Middle Ages

See also

Notes

References