Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/425

 The Killmg of the Khazar Kings. 391

of Ahmed ibn Foszlan. In the National Library at Paris there is preserved a manuscript abridgement of Yakut's work, in which his account of the Khazars and their king is condensed into a few hnes, as follows :

" Country of the Khozars, a numerous race of Turks, who dwell to the north of Babal abouab ; they are of two sorts, the one white, the other blond or red. Their houses are made of mud. They have market-places and baths. They dwell on the banks of the river Atel. Among them are many Mussulmans, Christians, Jews, and pagans. When their king has reigned more than forty years, they kill him." 1

Further, we possess accounts of the Khazars and their kings written by two other Arab travellers and geographers of the tenth century a.d. One of these is Abul-Hasan Ali, commonly known as El Mas'iidy, because he was descended in the eighth generation from Mas'ud, one of the companions of Mohammed. Born at Baghdad towards the end of the ninth century a.d., he spent a great part of his life in travel. Among the countries which he visited were India, Ceylon, China, Madagascar, and the region of the Caspian. He did not travel for gain. His motive was scientific curiosity ; he desired to see every land for himself and to observe and record everything notable in the antiquities, the history, and the manners of the peoples. His most famous book, which bears the fanciful title, Meadows of Gold and Mines of Precious Stones, was begun in the year 332 of the Hegira (943-4 a.d.) and finished in the year 336 (947-8 A.D.). It has survived in an abridgement, of which there ■ are many manuscripts in European libraries. On account of the range of his observations and his naive uncritical honesty in recording them, he has been called the

^M. de Guignes, " Exposition de ce qu'il y a de plus remarquable (sur la terre) et des Merveilles du Roi Tout-puissant, par Abdonaschid, fils de Saleh, fils de Nouri, surnomme Yakouti," Notices et Ext raits des iMaimscrits de la Bibliotheque dii Roi, iii. (Paris, 1789), p. 532.