Sarkel (or Šarkel, literally "white house" in the

Khazar language Khazar, also known as Khazaric, was a Turkic dialect group spoken by the Khazars, a group of semi-nomadic Turkic peoples originating from Central Asia. There are few written records of the language and its features and characteristics are unknown ...

) was a large limestone-and-brick fortress in what is now

Rostov Oblast Rostov Oblast ( rus, Росто́вская о́бласть, r=Rostovskaya oblastʹ, p=rɐˈstofskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in the Southern Federal District. The oblast ...

of Russia, on the left bank of the lower Don River. It was built by the

Khazars 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, a ...

with

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

assistance in the 830s or 840s. It was named Sarkel, or 'white-house', because of the white limestone bricks used in its construction.

Location

Sarkel was located on a hill, on the left bank of the Don River. It is currently under water, after the construction of the Tsimlyansk Reservoir. The left bank of the river was much lower, compared to the right, so a lot of it was flooded. Across the Don River from Sarkel, on the right bank, there was located another large Khazar fortress roughly contemporary with Sarkel. This site is known as , although its ancient name is unknown. It is still there, on the much higher right bank, although suffering from erosion because of encroaching water.

Construction

Sarkel was built to protect the north-western border of the Khazar state in 833. The Khazars asked their ally,

emperor

Theophilus Theophilus is a male given name with a range of alternative spellings. Its origin is the Greek word Θεόφιλος from θεός (''theós'', "God") and φιλία (''philía'', "love or affection") can be translated as "Love of God" or "Friend ...

, for engineers to build a fortified capital, and Theophilus sent his chief engineer Petronas Kamateros. In recompense for these services, the Khazar

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 ...

ceded Chersonesos and some other Crimean dependencies to Byzantium. Historians have been unable to determine why such a strong fortress was built on the Don. They generally assert that the costly construction must have been due to the rise of a strong regional power that posed a threat to the Khazars. Alexander Vasiliev and George Vernadsky, among others, argue that Sarkel was built to defend a vital

portage Portage or portaging ( CA: ; ) is the practice of carrying water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water. A path where items are regularly carried between bodies of water is also called a '' ...

between the Don and the Volga from the

Rus' Khaganate Rus' Khaganate (, ''Russkiy kaganat'', , ''Ruśkyj kahanat''), or Kaganate of Rus is a name applied by some modern historians to a hypothetical polity suggested to have existed during a poorly documented period in the history of Eastern Europe b ...

. Other historians believe this polity was situated many hundred miles to the north. Another nascent power, the Hungarians, was not particularly threatening to the Khazars as long as they paid tribute to the khagan.

Constantine Porphyrogenitus Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (; 17 May 905 – 9 November 959) was the fourth Byzantine emperor of the Macedonian dynasty, reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zoe Karbonopsina, an ...

records in his work

De Administrando Imperio (; ) is a Greek-language work written by the 10th-century Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII. It is a domestic and foreign policy manual for the use of Constantine's son and successor, the Emperor Romanos II. It is a prominent example of Byz ...

that the Khazars asked the Emperor Theophilos to have the fortress of Sarkel built for them. His record is connected to the Hungarians on the basis that the new fortress must have become necessary because of the appearance of a new enemy of the Khazars, and other peoples could not be taken into account as the Khazars’ enemies at that time. In the 10th century, a Persian explorer and geographer Ahmad ibn Rustah mentioned that the Khazars entrenched themselves against the attacks of the Hungarians.

History

The city served as a bustling commercial center, as it controlled the

Volga The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...

-Don portage, which was used by the Rus to cross from the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

to the Volga and thence to the Caspian and Baltic. Thunberg, Carl L. (2011). ''Särkland och dess källmaterial''. Göteborgs universitet. CLTS. pp. 20-22. . The route was known as the " Khazarian Way". A garrison fortified at Sarkel included Oghuz and Pecheneg mercenaries. Sarkel's fortress and city were captured by

Kievan Rus' Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,. * was the first East Slavs, East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical At ...

under prince

Sviatoslav I Sviatoslav or Svyatoslav I Igorevich (; Old Norse: ''Sveinald''; – 972) was Prince of Kiev from 945 until his death in 972. He is known for his persistent campaigns in the east and south, which precipitated the collapse of two great powers ...

in 965. The city was renamed Belaya Vezha (Slavic for ''White Tower'' or ''White Fortress'') and settled by Slavs. It remained Slavic until the 12th century, when the district was taken over by the

Kipchaks The Kipchaks, also spelled Qipchaqs, known as Polovtsians (''Polovtsy'') in Russian annals, were Turkic nomads and then a confederation that existed in the Middle Ages inhabiting parts of the Eurasian Steppe. First mentioned in the eighth cent ...

. Mikhail Artamonov excavated the site in the 1930s. It was the most ambitious excavation of a Khazar site ever undertaken. Among many Khazar and Rus items, Artamonov discovered Byzantine columns used in the construction of Sarkel. The site is now submerged by the Tsimlyansk Reservoir, completed in 1952, so no further excavations may be conducted.

Notes

References

* Brook, Kevin Alan (2006). ''The Jews of Khazaria.'' 2nd ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. * Dunlop, Douglas M. (1954). ''The History of the Jewish Khazars''. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. * Dunlop, Douglas Morton (1997). "Sarkel". ''

Encyclopaedia Judaica The ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' is a multi-volume English-language encyclopedia of the Jewish people, Judaism, and Israel. It covers diverse areas of the Jewish world and civilization, including Jewish history of all eras, culture, Jewish holida ...

'' (CD-ROM Edition Version 1.0). Ed.

Cecil Roth Cecil Roth (5 March 1899 – 21 June 1970) was an English historian. He was editor-in-chief of the ''Encyclopaedia Judaica''. Life Roth was born in Dalston, London, on 5 March 1899. His parents were Etty and Joseph Roth, and Cecil was the younge ...

. Keter Publishing House. * Erdal, Marcel (2007). "The Khazar Language", in Peter B. Golden et al. (eds.). ''The World of the Khazars. New Perspectives.'' Brill. pp. 75-108. * Golden, Peter B. (2007). "The Conversion of the Khazars to Judaism", in: Peter B. Golden et al. (eds.). ''The World of the Khazars. New Perspectives.'' Brill. pp. 123-162. * Grousset, René (1970). ''The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia''. (transl. Naomi Walford). New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. * Koestler, Arthur (1976). ''The Thirteenth Tribe'' Random House. * Thunberg, Carl L. (2011). ''Särkland och dess källmaterial''. Göteborgs universitet. CLTS. pp. 20-22. * Vernadsky, George. ''A History of Russia''.
online

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