[gothic-l] Re: Greutung, Therving; Khazars

[Francisc Czobor]

--- In gothic-l at y..., george knysh <gknysh at y...> wrote:
> ...
> *****GK: This is obviously incorrect. The first state
> ("knyazhenie") on contemporary Russian territory was
> that of the Slovenes (in the area of later Novgorod),
> and this is clearly stated in the Primary Chronicle.
> The Varyags came later. The Iranic theory mentioned
> above holds that these Varyags adopted the political
> terminology of the Khazar Empire (which was Iranic
> speaking in the West at that time/ late 8th early 9th
> c.) and were perhaps at first closely connected to it:
> whence "Rus'" and "Kagan" (as the Swedish ruler of the
> Rus' was called by his ambassadors in 839)******
>

But the Khazars, as far as I know, were Turkic speaking. Of course,
many other peoples were subject to the Khazars, but what Iranic
speaking tribes where in the western part of the Khazar empire? As
far as I know, in the late 8th/early 9th century, that region
(Don/Donyetz rivers) was peopled mainly by Slavs and Hungarians
(Magyars). The Slavs were subject to the Khazars, and the Magyars, as
allies or vassals of the Khazars, collected from the Slavs the
tribute due to the Khazars. Later in the 9th century the Magyars were
driven away westwards by the Pechenegs, enemies of the Khazars
(before this, the Pechenegs where driven away by the Ghuz/Oghuz,
allies of the Khazars). It is true that the Magyars were not, at that
time, ethnically pure Finno-Ugrians, but associated with Turkic
(Khazar/Kabar), Iranic (Alan/Jasz, Kaliz) and probably also Slavic
tribes.

Francisc


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