Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/430

 396 The Ki/ling- of the Khazar Kmgs.

and geographer Abul-Cassim Mohammed ibn Haukal or HaukaH, author of a work called Book of the Itineraries and of the Provinces, in which he describes the Mohammedan countries on the basis of his personal researches and of the journeys which he had undertaken for the purposes of commerce. He tells us that he began his researches and travels in early youth, and that he set out from Bagh- dad in the year 331 of the Hegira (942-3 a.d.) ; but his book was not written till the year 366 of the Hegira (976-7 A.D.). A manuscript of the original work, in Arabic, is preserved in the library at Leyden, but it is said to be so faulty that the meaning is often unintelligible. The book exists also in a Persian translation, of which an English version was published by Sir William Ouseley.i The portions of it which describe the tribes of the Caucasus, including the Khazars, are extracted and translated into French from the Arabic manuscript at Leyden by C. D'Ohsson in his work on the peoples of the Caucasus.^

The following is the account which Ibn Haukal gives of the Khazars and their kings, as translated by Sir William Ouseley from the Persian :

" After one passes Moukan to Derbend, for two days' journey the country is Shirwan ; from that to Semender, fourteen days' journey ; and from Semender to Atel. This Atel is a certain river which comes from Rous and Bulgar. One half of this river belongs to the western side, the other to the eastern. The sovereign of Atel resides on the western side : he is styled king, and sur- named Baul. Here are many tents ; and in this country there are but a few edifices of clay, such as bazars (market- places), and bathing houses. In these territories are about

^ Ebn Haukal, Oriental Geography, translated by Sir William Ouseley (London, iSoo), pp. ii. sqq. ; C. M. Fraehn, " Veteres Memoriae Chasarorum," Ah'»ioirfs de F Acadimie des Sciences de St. Pdtersboiirg, viii. (1822), p. 581 ; C. D'Ohsson, Des Peiiples du Caticase {Yz.x\%, 1828), pp. viii. sq.

^C. D'Ohsson, Des Peiiples dn Caucase, pp. 31 sqq.