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nished in the least, on account of its steady supply and wide extension. When it falls into the sea, it preserves its stream, for two days, distinct from it, but finally blends itself with it. It is frozen in winter, and its waters are fresh." Yacuti, in his Geographical Dictionary, describes thus the course of the Atel. "There is no doubt respecting the magnitude and length of the Atel. It comes from the farthest south (?), traverses Bulgaria, Russia, and Chazaria, and flows into the sea Mergan. Merchants go up this river as far as Uaisu, and bring thence, as articles of sale, martins, sables, and squirrels. It is said that it comes out of the country Charchir, and passes between the two countries Kaimakia and Ghuzia, between which it forms the boundary. It thence proceeds westward to Bulgaria, then in a contrary direction (to the east, or rather south-east), to Bertas and Chazaria, until it empties itself into the Chazarian sea. It is reported, that ten rivers flow into the Atel," &c. (The rest agrees with Cazwini's account.) That this great river must have considerably facilitated the communication between the countries through which it flows, is so evident, that it requires no explanation.

When voyagers, then, had had the good fortune to reach the northern coast of the Caspian sea, which could be very easily effected if they waited for the favourable wind, which blew there regularly for a whole month, they were in the land of the Chazarians. They there unloaded their merchandise, whether that consisted of dates and southern fruits from the Persian provinces, or spices and perfumes from India, fine wines, linen, cotton, or silk cloths, ornaments of pearls and precious stones, and other articles of commerce, which the happy land of Persia either produces or manufactures. There is no doubt that the commercial voyages over the Caspian were numerous, and much more considerable than at present; and this is confirmed by the testimony of Edrisi and Ibn Haucal. There are, besides, many circumstances which lead to the conclusion, that, during the time of the Chalifat, there existed an extensive connexion and commerce between the Mohammedans and the northern people.

A great number of Tartar hordes,

as well upon the east and west as the north side of the Caspian sea, were very early converted to Mohammedanism. Cazwini relates, in the chapter upon celebrated rivers, that the Arabian Chalif' Moctadir sent Ahmed Ben Fodhalan as ambassador to the king of the Bulgarians. Faran in Tartary was the native country of the celebrated philosopher and musician Abunasr Mohammed Ben Ahmed Tharchan, who was killed in Syria by robbers, A. D. 956 (A. H. 345). Besides him, mention is made of two other distinguished men, who were born in the country of the Moguls, and subsequently settled among the Arabians. Cazwini informs us, that the Chalif Alvatek Billah (who died A. D. 747, A. H. 232) sent Salam, an interpreter, who was acquainted with forty languages, to Yajuge and Majuge, that he might obtain information concerning the character and condition of that wonderful people, and the nature of the wall. (The interpreter gave him the information required, but it is very dubious whether it be true. I shall afterwards continue the whole account according to the MS.) Lastly, this circumstance must be taken into consideration, that, according to the testimony of travellers, Arabian antiquities and coins are frequently found in Russia. Strahlenberg (in his Beschriebung des Russischen Reichs, p. 316) speaks of a metallic medal, with an ancient Cufic inscription, which was found among the Ostiacks, near Savaroff. At Kafimov, near Oka, there is among the ruins a mosque, and in a burying-ground a mausoleum, with an Arabic inscription. At Tcherdyn, the old commercial town in Biarmeland, Arabic coins are frequently dug up. (Strahlenberg, p. 103.) Pallas informs us, that not far from Simbirsk, on the left side of the Wolga, where the capital and staple city of Bulgarians was, there are still found in our times a great number of sepulchral monuments and silver coins, with inscriptions in Cufic and in the modern Arabic character. It is well known that many similar remains have been found among us in the north. We shall afterwards speak more at large on this subject.

On the northern and north western shores of the Caspian sea dwelt the Chazarians in the middle ages, a p ple so great and powerful, tha

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Arabians called that sea after them. It is probable that they removed thither in the first centuries of our era, from the east; and after they had shaken off the dominion of the Hunns, extended themselves to the countries bordering upon the Caspian Sea, and to the Crimea, by which means they formed a connection with the Greek Emperors. According to the testimony of Jornandes, they penetrated far into Russia and Poland, and in the sixth century carried on war against the Danish king Frode, which circumstance, provided it be true, which we cannot in this place determine, since the Arabian writers make no mention of any thing of the kind, would appear to show, that the Scandinavians and southern Russians had an early connection with one ther. In the same century Chosroes Anushirvan built, as we have already said, a great number of fortresses in Caucasus, and established a viceroy in Shirwan, to protect the country against the incursion of the Chazarians, whence it appears that this country extended itself to Derbend and Shirwan. In the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries the Chazarians were in their highest degree of prosperity. They were so powerful, that they frequently rendered assistance to the Greek Emperors against their enemies, and these, in return, procured the conversion of many of them to Christianity; they even commenced war against the Chalif Abdolarelek, but being unsuccessful in the contest, many of them were obliged to embrace Mahommedanism. They continued, nevertheless, at different times, most frequently, in conjunction with the Greek Emperors, to make war upon the Chalifs, who were enemies alike dangerous to them both. In the eighth century their king Bela, with a great number of his subjects, was converted to Judaism; but this fact rests only upon the authority of the fabulous Rabbinical book Cosri, which Buxtorf edited. After the tenth century their power gradually declined, until the Moguls made themselves masters of their country in the thirteenth century.

The Arabian geographers call the country on both sides of the Volga and between Bulgaria, the Caspian Sea, and the territory of Derbend, Alchazr

(Chazaria), and refer the people to the Turkish race. Yacuti, according to Deguignes, informs us, that there are two nations, the one white, the other white or red; that they have market places and baths, and dwell on the banks of the Abel; and that there are among them Mahommedans, Jews, Christians, and Pagans. Ibn Haucal says, that the king himself and his principal attendants are Jews, although these form the smallest part of the inhabitants. Their capital was, according to the same author, Samander, a fair city, formerly large, and very abundant in vineyards, but now laid waste by the Russians. Samander lay four days journey between populous towns, or twenty-four miles from Derbend, and seven days journey from the maritime and commercial city Atel, the present Astracan. This last is made the capital by Edrisi, who relates of it, that it is composed of two well inhabited towns, lying on each side of the river, which derives its name from it. The king resides on the west side of the river; the merchants and the common people dwell on the other. The town is nearly three miles in length. Cazwini says of it in his introduction, that Atel is an ancient race called after their river, which flows into this sea (the Caspian); their city is likewise called Atel. They have not much to live upon, and lead a miserable life (for they lived in a barren soil.) This small province lay between Chazaria, Albachyakih, and Derbend; and in the succeeding part of the description he makes this remarkable addition, that most of the houses were moveable felt-huts; from which it appears, that the Chazarians lived as the present Tartar tribes in Russia, and had the same kind of habitations as the Nogay nomadic tribes, the Bashkirs, and most of the others make use of at present. It is not therefore to be wondered at, that the city Atel or Astracan was three miles in length. Commerce has now made Astracan a fine and regular city, and the Tartars of Astracan, and likewise of Casan, have ceased to dwell in yowrts, and build regular houses of stone or wood. Ibn Haucal relates, that near Atel there were many tents, and in the adjacent country only a few houses of clay, such as baazars (market-places), and baths

ing houses. The king himself inhabited a stone house, which was the only one in the country.

Balangar, another city, which, besides Samander and others, was built by Chosru, lay in longitude 85° 20′, in latitude 46° 30', according to the tables of Nascereddin of Toos, and was also a residence of the king of the Chazarians. Sarai, a large commercial town upon the Volga, for merchants and Turkish slaves, was situated about two days journey from the Caspian Sea, towards the north, and had that sea to the south east of it. It was the residence of the Chan of the Uzbeck Tartars.

Ibn Haucal mentions a town named Asnud, which had so many gardens, that from Derbend to Sarir the whole country was covered with pleasure grounds belonging to it. They were said to have amounted to 40,000, and many of them produced grapes. In this town there were many Mahommedans; there were mosques in it, and the houses were built of wood. The king was a Jew, who maintained a good understanding with the Chazarians, and was on good terms with the Prince of Sarir. The distance of this town from Sarir was two parasangs. (It must have been directly north from Derbend.)

Abdarrashid Yacuti mentions likewise the town of Saksin, and describes it thus: "It is a large town in Chazaria, in longitude 86° 30', in latitude 43° 5'. The inhabitants, who are principally Mahommedans, are divided into forty tribes. They travel and carry on trade. The cold there is very intense. The roofs of their houses are of pinetree. There is a river larger than the Tigris, in which all sorts of fish are caught, and among others, one of the weight of a camel, from which they extract a great deal of fat, and burn in lamps; the flesh is tender. This river is closed in winter, so that men may pass over it.

The same author mentions likewise another part of Chazaria, which lay along the Volga, and was called Borkas. The inhabitants are Mohammedans, and have a language of their own, which distinguishes them from all other people. Their houses are of wood. In these they dwell in winter, but in summer they disperse them selves over the pasture lands. There are among them beautiful foxes and red VOL. IV.

martins, the skins of which are made into fur garments. The night (in summer) is very short, and continues only about an hour. Cazwini also speaks of a province of Chazaria, which lay along the Volga. He calls it Borthas, and gives the following description of it: "Borthas is a long country to the extent of fifteen days' journey. The people are the Tehamistes (inhabitants of the coast) of the Chazarians. Their houses are moveable huts of felt. The river Borthas comes from Albogazgaz, and on each side of it are many inhabited and cultivated places. From the country of Borthas are exported many black fox-skins, which derive their name from it.Masudi says, that black skins are brought thence to the value of 1000 dinars. He adds, in conclusion, that there is in Chazaria a mountain called Batsrack, the direction of which is from the south to the north, which has in it silver and lead mines. Lastly, Nasireddin makes mention of a commercial and staple town called Abuskun, lying in longitude 89° 30′, latitude 37° 15', in the fourth climate.

To discover the precise situation of all these places appears to be extremely difficult, or nearly impossible. One hord dislodged another; some, from different causes, chose spontaneously other habitations; and tracts of country, by this means, frequently changed their names. The towns were generally of as moveable a nature as the hordes that inhabited them. They either took to pieces their houses of felt, or when they were obliged to preserve them entire for the sake of a covering, they carried them away with them upon a waggon, and the city vanished. The situation of such places could not easily be found again, unless it had been particularly recorded or preserved by report, where they lay, or any conclusion could be drawn from any considerable ruins or antiquities found in them.

Thus it was, that two hordes of Finnish race, the Biarmer and the Sirjaner, who dwelt on the western side of Ural in Great Permia, forsook, in the year 1372, their abodes in that mild region, for fear that Bishop Stephanus should convert them, and removed to a cold northern region near the river Ob. These Biarmer, Berasmier, or ancient Permiacks and Sirjaner were, when they dwelt in Permia, 2 P

very celebrated for their trade with the Persians and the kingdom of the great Mogul. Merchandise was brought up the Volga and Cama from Balgaria to Tcherdyn, the ancient commercial town on the Kolva. The Biarmer went with the commodities of southern Asia and their own to Petshora and the frozen ocean, and received in exchange for them furs for the inhabitants of southern Asia. They met there the Scandinavians, who sailed to Biarmeland, i. e. Permia, or Archangel. The ruins of towns that previously existed in that northern region bear testimony to the ancient flourishing state of the inhabitants. Every where in the provinces of Astracan, Casan, Orenburg, Ural, Tobolsk, and elsewhere, where those of Tartar extraction inhabit, are found the traces of ditches and walls of larger and smaller towns, that formerly existed, of castles and encampments, for instance, at Kasinor on the Oka, near Astracan, and higher up at Zarizyn, where there are upon the western side of the Volga the ruins and walls of a large town, perhaps of Saria. Farther, the ruins of the two Balgarian towns, and of the famous city of Majar on Caucasus, are still standing. At Oufa there is a burial ground, in which there is a great number of tomb-stones, and some tombs built of stone. The inhabitants attribute these to a people that dwelt there long before the Russian domínion, and were quite different from the Bashkirs. In the vicinity of Oufa are seen two mosques built of brick, together with many tomb-stones, on which are Arabic inscriptions. There are like wise remains of great walls and strong fortifications (Pallas Reise, vol. 2. p. 10). Finally, considerable ruins of large towns, and numerous sepulchres, have been found at Irtish, near Tobolsk, at Baraba, at the mouth of the river Ural, and especially in the Kirghisian Steppe.

To the east of the Chazarians, the Arabian geographers place the Uzians, whose country, according to Cazwini, lay between the Chazarians (to the west), Chazalgih (to the east), Bulgaria (to the north-west), and Caimal (J). What country this (Caimal) is, I cannot discover; but it ought undoubtedly to be read Kaimak (l), for, although Cazwini has mentioned it once before, he does

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not describe it at all. The country of the Kaimakians must have been extensive, as Edrisi (in the 7th part of the 6th climate) says, that "the eastern branch of the river Atel flows out from the region of Carchir, between Kaimakia and the country of the Ghuzians, and divides these from one another;" and, in another place, he says, that " Kaimak has on the south, Bagharghar, to the south-west, Chazalgih, to the west, the Chalachitians, and on the east, the dark sea (the ocean)." It must, therefore, have extended itself from the Volga or Cama towards the east, over the whole of Siberia, as far as the ocean. This amazing extent, however, is considerably diminished, when we consider, that the Arabians had no acquaintance whatever with the northeastern part of Asia, and had never navigated that sea. They assigned, therefore, the place of the sea to the interior of the continent. This is evident also from the account of Yacuti, in the preface to his geographical dictionary, where he says, farther side of the country of the Bulgarians the direction of the sea is turned to the east, and between its shore and the remotest country of the Turks, there are countries and mountains that are quite unknown, being desert and unfruitful." The assertion of Cazwini in his introduction, when he speaks of the boundaries of Dailam (Ghilam), that this country is conterminous with Kaimakia, does not seem to accord with this determination of the situation of Kaimakia; but it may be said, on the other hand, that this may be something related according to the authority of an older writer; for an acquaintance with the Arabian geographers shows, that their usual method was, in order to give a more complete account, to copy from their ancient and modern predecessors every thing that occurred to them, whether it belonged to their own times or not. At all events, we may easily suppose, that a number of people (perhaps the present Calmucks) may have, some time or other, been separated from the rest of their tribe and transplanted thither.-But we return to the Uzians.

This people was of Hunnish extraction, like the Turks, the Chazarians, bited first the country of the Caland Turcomans; they probably inhamucks, and thence removed to the mountains between the lesser Bucha

ria and the countries on the farther side of the Oxus. They afterwards, in conjunction with the Chazarians, as we are informed by the Byzantine writers, expelled the Patzinacæ from the Yaik and the Volga, and stationed themselves in their country. The Uzians are the same as the Chuzi of the Arabians. They were bounded by the Chazarians on the west, by the river Yaik on the east, and extended towards the south (perhaps) as far as the Caspian sea, and on the north-west to Bulgaria. They must have extended far to the north, but how far cannot easily be determined. About the twelfth century they must have either removed from their country between the Volga and the Yaik, or have, at the same time, extended their power as far as the Don, and farther to the west, as, at that time, they were found living there. The Moguls, at length, in the thirteenth century, deprived them of their national existence. Probably, however, they were not entirely made extinct, for Güldenstedt conceives, that the Ossetians, a small tribe on Mount Caucasus, to the south of the great Kabasda, are the remnant of the Uzians or Polovzians, who fled thither, when they were defeated by the Russians in the year 1110.

Cazwini gives the following description of the country of the Uzians: "The country of the Uzians lies to the west of the country of Alodcosh

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(1), is widely extended, and has a cultivated country near it on the east, north and west. sesses mountains that are difficult to ascend, upon which there are great fortresses. There flows down to them (from the north) from the mountain Morghan (one of the Ural mountains) a river, in which is frequently found great quantities of gold dust, and from whose bottom is often drawn the lapis lazuli (blue Sapphire). In the woods there is a great deal of pure gold (or more properly, many beavers), and foxes as yellow as gold. From these the kings of this country derive their furs, which are very costly; and they allow no one to export them to any other country, but punish most severely, upon discovery, those who are found to have done so secretly." Thus far Cazwini. Edrisi (in the eight part

of the fifth climate) says nearly the same, but is more copious. He speaks, among other things, of the places Hyam and Giagan, situated upon the navigable river Rudha, which came from the east. He farther adds, that there were in the woods many beavers with beautiful skins and fine hair, which were very dear, and that many of them were caught and carried to the countries of Roum and Armenia (over the Caspian sea).

According to the situation given to the country of the Uzians,it cannot be doubted but that they dwelt (nearly where the Bashkirs are now found, namely, in the government of Orenburg) about the river Balaya, between the Kama, Volga, and Ural, in the southern part of the Ural chain of mountains; which district is now described as equally abounding in woods, metals, and fish, as the Arabians have represented the land of the old Uzians. This appears to be confirmed by this remarkable circumstance, that Edrisi (in the seventh part of the seventh climate) speaks of a country called Basgiret, which extended itself far to the north, and was separated from Uzia by the lofty snow covered mountain Morghan (or, as he calls it, Morghar), a branch of the Ural chain, before mentioned. He adds, that in the remotest part of Basgiret there are two towns, Masira and Casira, small places which merchants seldom visit, for no one dares to

go to them, for the inhabitants kill all strangers. These two towns lie upon

a river which flows into the Atel.

To the east of the Uzians are placed, by the Arabian geographers, another race of men called Alodcosh, who, as Cazwini reports, were a kind of Turks (of the Turkish or Tartar branch), with broad faces, large heads, small is wide and broad, and possesses many eyes, and thick hair. Their country advantages, and abundant means of

subsistence. It is bounded on the

west by the country of the Uzians. They have a vast number of four-footed animals (horses, cows, and sheep), and great abundance of milk and honhas often a difficulty in finding people ey; and when a man kills a sheep, he to eat it. Their principal food is horse flesh, and their principal beverage mare's milk.

From what has been adduced, it appears, that this horde must have * The transcriber has made a mistake here. been, like the restless and warlike

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