Sarkel
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Sarkel (or Şarkil; Turkic for "White Fortress") was a large limestone-and-brick fortress built by the Khazars with Byzantine assistance in the 830s.
Sarkel was built to protect the north-western border of the Khazar state from the Varangians known as the Rus, as well as from nomadic marauders Pechenegs and Magyars. In 833, the Khazars asked their ally, Byzantine emperor Theophilus, for engineers to build them a fortified capital, and Theophilus sent his chief engineer Petronas.
Sarkel was located on the left bank of the lower Don River, in present-day Rostov Oblast of Russia. The city served as a bustling commercial center, as it controlled the Volga-Don portage, which was used by the Russian merchants to cross from the Black Sea to Volga; 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 the Kievan Rus' prince Sviatoslav I in 965. The city was renamed as Belaya Vezha (Slavic for "White Tower") and settled by Slavs until the 12th century, when the district was taken over by the Kipchaks.
In recent times archaeological excavations found that Byzantine columns were used in the construction of Sarkel. The site is now submerged by the Tsimlyansk Reservoir, so no further excavations may be conducted.
[edit] References
- Dunlop, Douglas Morton (1997). "Sarkel". Encyclopedia Judaica (CD-ROM Edition Version 1.0). Ed. Cecil Roth. Keter Publishing House. ISBN 965-07-0665-8
- Grousset, René (1970). The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. (transl. Naomi Walford). New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. SBN 8135-0627-1
- Dunlop, Douglas M. (1954). The History of the Jewish Khazars. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
- Brook, Kevin Alan (2006). The Jews of Khazaria. 2nd ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
- Koestler, Arthur. The Thirteenth Tribe
