Rus' Khaganate - Documentary Evidence

Documentary Evidence

A ruler of a settlement of Rus' people is mentioned by the title of "khagan" in several historical sources, most of them foreign texts dating from the 9th century, while three other East Slavic sources date from the 11th and 12th centuries. The earliest European reference related to the Rus' khaganate comes from the Frankish Annals of St. Bertin, which refer to a group of Norsemen who called themselves Rhos (qui se, id est gentem suam, Rhos vocari dicebant) and visited Constantinople around the year 838. Fearful of returning home via the steppes, which would leave them vulnerable to attacks by the Magyars, these Rhos travelled through the Frankish Empire accompanied by Greek ambassadors from the Byzantine emperor Theophilus. When questioned by the Frankish Emperor Louis the Pious at Ingelheim, they stated that their leader was known as chacanus (the Latin word for "Khagan"), that they lived far to the north, and that they were Swedes (comperit eos gentis esse sueonum).

Thirty years later, in spring 871, the eastern and western emperors, Basil I and Louis II, quarreled over control of Bari, which had been conquered from the Arabs by their joint forces. The Byzantine emperor sent an angry letter to his western counterpart, reprimanding him for usurping the title of emperor. He argued that the Frankish rulers are simple reges, while the imperial title properly applied only to the overlord of the Romans, that is, to Basil himself. He also pointed out that each nation has its own title for the supreme ruler: for instance, the title of chaganus is used by the overlords of the Avars, Khazars (Gazari), and "Northmen" (Nortmanno). To that, Louis replied that he was aware only of the Avar khagans, and had never heard of the khagans of the Khazars and Normans. The content of Basil's letter, now lost, is reconstructed from Louis's reply, quoted in full in the Salerno Chronicle, and it indicates that at least one group of Scandinavians had a ruler who called himself "khagan".

Ahmad ibn Rustah, a 10th-century Muslim geographer from Persia, wrote that the Rus' khagan ("khāqān rus") lived on an island in a lake. Constantine Zuckerman comments that Ibn Rustah, using the text of an anonymous account from the 870s, attempted to accurately convey the titles of all rulers described by its author, which makes his evidence all the more precious. The Muslim geographer mentions only two khagans in his treatise — those of Khazaria and Rus. A further near-contemporary reference to the Rus' comes from al-Yaqubi, who wrote in 889 or 890 that the Caucasus mountaineers, when besieged by the Arabs in 854, asked for help from the overlords (sahib) of al-Rum (Byzantium), Khazaria, and al-Saqaliba (Slavs). Hudud al-Alam, an anonymous Persian geography text written in the late 10th century, refers to the Rus' king as "Khāqān-i Rus". As the unknown author of Hudud al-Alam relied on numerous 9th-century sources, including Ibn Khordādbeh, it is possible that his reference to the Rus' Khagan was copied from earlier, pre-Rurikid texts, rather than reflecting contemporary political reality. Finally, the 11th century Persian geographer Abu Said Gardizi mentioned "khāqān-i rus" in his work Zayn al-Akhbār. Like other Muslim geographers, Gardizi relied on traditions stemming from the 9th century.

There are good grounds for believing that the title "khagan" was still remembered in Kievan Rus' during the Christian period. Metropolitan Hilarion of Kiev applied the title "khagan" to the Grand Princes of Kievan Rus -– Vladimir I of Kiev and Yaroslav I the Wise in the earliest surviving example of Old Russian literature, Slovo o Zakone i Blagodati ("Sermon on Law and Grace"), written around 1050. Hilarion referred to Vladimir as "the great khagan of our land" (velikago kagana nashea zemlja, Vladimera) and Yaroslav as "our devout khagan." A graffito in the north gallery of Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev reads "O Lord, save our khagan", apparently in reference to Sviatoslav II (1073–1076). As late as the end of the 12th century, The Tale of Igor's Campaign refers in passing to a "kogan Oleg", traditionally identified with Oleg of Tmutarakan.