Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-cx56b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-12T20:19:13.560Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Khazar Origin of Ancient Kiev

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2017

J. Brutzkus
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Among the riddles of which the early history of Kievan Russia is full, the origin of the name of its capital city occupies a prominent place. Ever since Tatishchev's day, scholars for nearly two centuries have continued to propound all sorts of hypotheses regarding the names Kiev and Sambat, but up to the present not one has been so convincing or authoritative as to command the support of even a small group of specialists.

Most recently, in a Festschrift honoring the distinguished Ukrainian historian Hrushevski, two articles were devoted to this vexing problem, the first by G. Ilinski on the topic “The Sambatas of Constantine Porphyrogenitus” and the second by M. Tershakovetz entitled “The Legend of Kii, Shchek, Khoriv, and their Sister Lybed.” Ilinski reviews all previous suggestions in explanation of the name Sambatas as used by Constantine Porphyrogenitus in the famous passage from The Administration of the Empire where the author, referring to the caravan of small cargo-boats assembled annually before the capital city on the Dnieper, writes, “They come down the river Dnieper and assemble at the strong-point Kioava, also called Sambatas.” Like the whole passage about the Russes, the latter place-name used by the Emperor derives from reliable official sources, and has given historians and philologists ample food for thought.

Type
Research Article
Information
Slavonic and East European Review American Series , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , May 1944 , pp. 108 - 124
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1944

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

2 G. Ilinski, “Sambatas Konstantina Porfirorodnogo”; Tershakovetz, M., “Perekaz pro Kija, Ščeka, Choriva ta ich sestru Lybed,” Jubileiny Sbirnik na pošanu Akademika Hrusevskogo (Kiev, 1929)Google Scholar.

3 De adm. imp., ix: .

4 Cf. Marquart, J. (Markwart), Osteur. u. ostasiat. Streifzüge (Leipzig, 1903), p. 509 Google Scholar.

5 J. Potocki, Fragments hist, et geograph., I, 21; IV, 90.

6 Ist. gosud. rossisk., I, n. 72.

7 “Istočnik letopisnogo skazanija o proischoždenii Rusi,” ŽMNP, CLXXII (June, 1873), 225 ff.

8 Notes et Exlraits, XVII2, 283.

9 Géographie du Moyen-Age, III, 70.

10 Časopis Mat. Serb., 1916, p. 184.

11 ŽMNP, 1908.

12 “Berechtigung einer versuchten Erklärung des Wortes Sambatas,” Slovanka (Prague, 1814).

13 Der Ursprung des russischen Staates (Leipzig, 1879).

14 Archiv. f. nord. Philol, II (1884), 170.

15 Grimm's Centenary (Oxford, 1886), p. 37 ff.

16 Trudy III Archeol. Sjezda, I (Kiev, 1878), 289.

17 Olryvki po issledovaniju varjaĞskogo voprosa (St. Petersburg, 1862); Varjagi i Rus’ (St. Petersburg, 1876).

18 Harkavy, A., Evreiskaja Biblioteka (St. Petersburg, 1878), vol. VIII Google Scholar; Kokovtsov, P., Evreiskaya-chazarskaja Perepiska (St. Petersburg, 1932), p. 31 Google Scholar.

19 In the Turkish language, words are pronounced with the hard vowels a, o, u, y, or with the soft, e, i, eu, oe. Rare exceptions are made only in the case of assimilated foreign words.

20 Theophanes Byz., Fragmenta, ed. Dindorf, p. 446.

21 Jordanes, Getica, ch. 37: “Sangibanus, rex Alanorum.”

22 Menander Prot., frag. 3.

23 Procopius, De bello gothico, IV, 19.

24 H. Vambéry, Etym. Wtb. der türkischen Sprachen, p. 195: batur, a strong, presentable person; batuk or batiz, high, tall; batmak, to empower.

26 In the tenth and eleventh centuries, Vyshgorod was a suburb of Kiev (PSRL, I2, 1926, 60 (ad 946), 80 (ad 980), 132 (ad 1015), 161 (ad 1054), 182 (ad 1072).

26 Const. Porph., De adm. imp., chs. 39, 40.

27 Kohn, S., A Zsidok Toerteneti Magyarorszagon (Budapest, 1894), pp. 336, 397 ffGoogle Scholar.

28 Rumänische Studien (Leipzig, 1871), p. 134.

29 U istokov russkoi gosudarstvennosti (Kiev, 1924), pp. 37-39.

30 Op. cit., p. 26.

31 V. Lyaskoronski, “Kievski Vyšgorod,” ZMNP, April, 1913, pp. 64-100; Pogodin, A., “Kievski Vyšgorod i Gardariki,” In. Otd. Russk. Jaz. IAN, XIX (1914), 1–33 Google Scholar.

32 The root kerim, whence are also formed kermen (fort), kermencik (small fortress), keremli (fort) is characteristic not only for the Tartar but also for the other Turkish dialects, and is discernible in the Cimmerian town Kremnoi (Crimea), and in the Russian kreml'.

33 Reineggs, J., “Allgem. hist.-topogr. Beschreibung d. Kaukasus (Berlin, 1796), II, 200 Google Scholar.

34 Fraehn, Excepta de Chasaris (St. Petersburg, 1822), p. 152.

35 Ist. gosud. rossisk., I, 245.

36 PSRL, I2 (1926), 9-10.

37 The frequent references to the Koui in the Chronicles have been gathered by M. Hrushevsky, Istorija Ukrainy, II, 548.

38 E.g., PSRL, I2 (1926), 21: “Byla sut’ g brat'ja Kii Šček Choriv iže sdelaša gorodoko-s', i izgiboŠa i my sedim platjače dan’ rodom ich Kozarom.”

39 Op. cit., p. 472.

40 There is some doubt about the date of the treaty. The Laurentian redaction (PSRL, I2 1926, 46) enters it as of 945, and Tatishchev placed it in the fourth indiction. But the fourth indiction would be 946, though Romanus Lecapenus, who signed the treaty, had been deposed in 944. It would therefore seem preferable to redate the treaty as of 931 (also fourth indiction), since in that year the Byzantines sought allies against the Khazars (J. Brutzkus, Letter, p. 25).

41 Laur. red., PSRL, I (1849), 161: “Mstislav sovokupiv Rostovci i boljare, grid'bu i Pasynky i vsju družinu.”

42 The name given the Hungarian Khazars by Const. Porph., De adm. imp., ch. 39, is Kabar, and means “nomads” in Turkish. We may perhaps connect this name with a suburb of Kiev, the Kopyrev konetz, mentioned in the twelfth century.

43 Dorn, Caspia, Die Ueberfälle der alien Russen auf Tabaristan (Zapiski IAN (St. Petersburg, 1877).

44 Leaving for separate consideration the question whether the Varangians were of Khazar as well as of Swedish origin, I desire merely to point out that in Hungarian the word barang means “a nomad” to this day. The Greeks used to translate it by (runner).

45 PSRL, Nik. red., IX (1872), 15: “Gosf esm’ Podugorski, i idu v Greki ot Olga knjazja.”

46 J. Brutzkus, “Varjagi i Kolbjagi,” Sent. Kondakov., vol. VII.