카스피해 문화를 일군 하자르왕국(630∼965)의 역사와 문화 재조명

Abstract

This study is to enlighten the history and cultural role of the Khazar Khaganate which existed in the Caspian and Kafkas regions between 630~965AD. The Khazar was the first feudal state in Eastern Europe, which ranged together with the Byzantine Empire and the Arab Caliphate. It boldly interfered in the international affairs of its time and laid claim to the territories of eastern Transcaucasia. In Transcaucasia the Khazars met another powerful nation- the Arabs, and a close alliance was formed between Byzantium and Khazaria in the face of the common enemy-the Arabs. It was only due to the powerful Khazar attack, diverting the tide of the Arab armies to the Kafkas, that Byzantium withstood against them. Despite the fact that the Arabs had a glorious victory over the Khazars as a result of a continuous war lasting for three decades, and the Khagan was forced to turn Muslim in 737. The Khazars exhausted the resources of the Arabs, which made them stop in the Kafkas, and checked their further progress into Eastern Europe. The Arabs were forced to send a request for terms seeking an alliance with the Khazars, while the tribes of Transcaucasia looked hopefully the Khazar assistance in their struggle for independence. Meanwhile, Byzantium appreciated its friendly relations with the Khazars and tried to strengthen the alliance by all means, including intermarriages between the ruling dynasties. In the 780s, Byzantium did not support the Goth uprising in the Crimia against the Khazars, though it tried to strengthen its own influence in Khazaria by means of uniting the Khazar Christians into a dependent religious body, the so-called Gothic Eparchy, controled by Byzantium. The conversion of Khazar Khagan and his attendants to Judaism thus promoting Judaism to a position of state religion is a phenomenon unprecedented in the history of the Middle Ages. Judaism had been adopted by a Khazar prince in northern Dagestan as early as the 730s, but the fact didn't affect the inner life of the Khazar kingdom, and the Khazar population continued to enjoy full liberty of religion for all professing Christianity, Islam or even worshipping their old Turkic god, Tengri-khan. At the opening of the 9th century, however, the Jewish Khazars grew in importance at the Khazar court, seized power and instituted the double kingship, reducing the Khagan, the descendant of the Turkic dynasty, to a position of sacred king set aside from state power. The Khazar contributed a lot to the cultural exchange between the East and the West through securing a solid foundation for international trade routes connecting Khazaria to Byzantium, Iran, Central Asia, Arab world and Northern Caucacus. Thanks to a flourishing economic achievement, the Khazar could establish a strong super state in parallel with the Byzantine and the Abbasid. However, an uprising against the usurper, followed by a long civil war in Khazaria, brought about its decline. Finally the Khazar was demolished by the attack of the Russian Kief in 965. It opened the way to the Madjars(Hungarians) into Europe. Then came the Pechenek, who appeared for the first time on the stage of history.