Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People - Rafapal

228 THE INVENTION OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE
Were these the last gasps of a dwindling Jewish kingdom? The desperate
clinging to a faith that remained after the former royal glory? We know too
little about the situation of Khazaria in the twelfth century CE to venture an
opinion.
When did the great Khazar empire collapse? In the past it was assumed
by many that it happened in the second half of the tenth century. The principality
of Kiev, out of which grew the first Russian kingdom, was for many
years a vassal of the rulers of Khazaria. The principality grew stronger in the
tenth century, struck an alliance with the Eastern Roman Empire and attacked
its powerful Khazar neighbors. In 965 (or 969), Sviatoslav I, the ruling prince
of Kiev, attacked the Khazar city of Sarkel, which controlled the Don River,
and captured it. Sarkel was a fortified city, originally built by Byzantine engineers,
of important strategic value to the Jewish empire, and its loss marked
the beginning of the empire's decline. Contrary to prevalent opinion, however,
this was not the end of Khazaria.
Reports about the fate of the capital Itil in this war are contradictory. Some
Arab sources state that it fell; others state that it survived the Russian victory.
Since it consisted largely of huts and tents, it may well have been rebuilt. What
is certain, though, is that in the second half of the tenth century Khazaria lost
its hegemonic position in the region. Prince Vladimir I of Kiev, Sviatoslav's
young son, expanded the boundaries of his principality as far as the Crimea,
and, in a significant step for the future of Russia, converted to Christianity. His
alliance with the Eastern Roman Empire undermined its long connection with
Khazaria, and in 1016 CE a joint Byzantine-Russian force attacked and defeated
the Jewish kingdom. 84
Thereafter, the Russian church was headed by the patriarch of Contantinople,
but this holy alliance did not last long. In 1071 the Seljuks, rising tribes of Turkic
origin, defeated the empire's considerable forces, and eventually the Kievan Russian
kingdom, too, fell apart. Little is known about the situation of Khazaria in the late
eleventh century CE. There are some mentions of Khazar warriors fighting in the
armies of other powers, but there is almost no information about the kingdom
itself. Seljuk assaults on the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad, beginning at about the
same time, ended its flourishing intellectual renaissance, and most Arab chronicles
fell silent for a long time.
Empires have risen and fallen throughout history, but the monotheistic
religions, as noted in the first chapter, were far more durable and stable. From
the decline of the tribal societies until modern times, religious identity meant
84 See Dunlop, The History of the Jewish Khazars, 251.