The Khazar Project of Hasdai ibn Shaprut in the Context of the Diplomatic Ties between Cordoba and Constantinople
Université Paris Sciences & Lettres (EPHE, PSL)
For citation: Zuckerman, Constantin. The Khazar Project of Hasdai ibn Shaprut in the Context of the Diplomatic Ties between Cordoba and Constantinople // Drevneishie gosudarstva Vostochnoi Evropy (The Earliest States of Eastern Europe). 2021: Eastern Europe and the World of Islam. In honor of Tatjana M. Kalinina. Editors of the volume B.E. Rashkovskiy, E.V. Litovskikh, E.A. Melnikova. Moscow: Dmitry Pozharsky University, 2021. S. 448–457.
DOI: 10.32608/1560-1382-2021-42-448-457
Abstract: The testimony of the geographer Ibn Hawkal about a meeting in Cordoba, in late summer or autumn of 948, with the Jewish courtier Hasdai ibn Shaprut, who became for him a major source on Khazaria, allows us to identify the Byzantine ambassador, who, according to Hasdai himself, was the first to tell him about Khazaria. Indeed, in the same summer or early autumn of 948, three warships under the command of the eunuch Stephen brought to Cordoba the imperial ambassador, the eunuch Salomon, with whom Hasdai undoubtedly communicated. Hasdai’s first attempt to establish contact with Khazaria, through Constantinople, the by-product of which was the emergence of the so-called “Cambridge Anonymous”, should thus be associated with the return embassy of the Cordoba Caliphate, which arrived in Constantinople in the fall of 949 and spent the winter there.
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