Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/420

386 relates to the Khazars was fortunately incorporated in his Geographical Dictionary by the Arab writer Yakut, who, after a chequered life as a slave, commercial traveller, bookseller, copyist, and author, died near Aleppo in the year 1229 A.D. The following are extracts from it:

“Ahmed, son of Foszlan, sent as envoy of (the Caliph) Moktadir to the Slavs, related in a little book everything that he saw with his own eyes in these regions, and in that book he says that Khazar is the name of a certain country, of w^hich the capital is called Itil. Itil is also the name of the river (Volga) which flows from Russia and Bulgaria to Khazaria. Itil is the city, Khazar is the name of the kingdom, not of the city. The city is in two parts, of which the larger is situated on the western bank of the river Itil (Volga), while the other lies on the eastern side of the river. The king resides in the western part. In their tongue he is called Ilek and also Bak. This western part extends to the length of a parasang and is surrounded by a wall, but the buildings in it are few and far between. Now their edifices are huts made of felt, with a few exceptions, which are made of mud. They have market-places and baths. Many Mohammedans are found there; indeed there are said to be more than ten thousand of them in the town, and they have thirty mosques. The king’s palace is at a distance from the bank of the river and is built of baked bricks. No other person besides him is privileged to dwell in a house made of bricks, for the king will not suffer it. In the wall there are four gates, of which one leads to the river, and another to the desert, beyond the fields of the city.

“Their king is a Jew, and he is said to have four