The Voice of Mirza Xazar

EURASIA INSIGHT AZERBAIJANIS IN IRAN: EXPERIENCING A CULTURAL REAWAKENING Brenda Shaffer 8/02/04 Print this article Email this article The collapse of the Soviet Union helped foment a cultural reawakening among ethnic minorities in Iran. As reform-minded President Mohammad Khatami proceeds with the democratization of Iran’s political institutions, he and his supporters must contend with both conservative clerics [See Eurasia Insight Archive] and restive minorities. Balancing the concerns of all parties involved promises to be a difficult task. Iran is a multi-ethnic society in which approximately 50 percent of its citizens are of non-Persian origin. Minority groups include Arabs, Azerbaijanis, Baluchis, Kurds and Turkmens. These ethnic peoples are particularly vulnerable to external pressures, since most of the non-Persian people are concentrated in the frontier areas and have ties to co-ethnics in adjoining states, including Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan and Iraq. Azerbaijanis are the largest minority group, comprising up to one-third of Iran’s overall population of about 64 million. Indeed, the number Azerbaijanis in Iran is far greater than the 7 million in Azerbaijan proper. Many Azerbaijanis refer to most of northwest Iran as "south Azerbaijan." Within Iran, this region is divided into three administrative units: East Azerbaijan Province, West Azerbaijan Province and Ardabil Province, but many Azerbaijanis lives outside the northwestern provinces, especially in Tehran, where they comprise approximately half of the population of the city. The cultural rights and political activities of minorities were restricted under both the Pahlavi monarchy (1921-1979), and under the Islamic Republic (1979-present). Up until the establishment of the Pahlavi regime, the political leadership of Iran was mostly Azerbaijani-Turkic, and Turkic and Persian cultural elements both influenced the regime and the culture of the country. For much of the 20th century, Azerbaijanis were at the forefront of political activity in Iran. Major milestones include the 1920 Khiyabani-led revolt in the Azerbaijani provinces, and the establishment of the Autonomous Provincial Government in Azerbaijan (1945-46). The main city in the Azerbaijani provinces, Tabriz, was a center of the revolutionary activity that precipitated the fall of the Pahlavi regime, and Azerbaijani activists who rebelled against Ayatollah Khomeini effectively controlled Tabriz for over a month in December 1979. The Soviet collapse served as the catalyst for the cultural reawakening of Azerbaijanis in Iran. Research indicates that the establishment of the Republic of Azerbaijan in 1991 served as a stimulant for many Azerbaijanis in Iran to identify with the Azerbaijani ethnic group, though not necessarily with the new state itself. For instance, Iranian Azerbaijani university students have conducted a number of coordinated letter-writing campaigns calling for expansion of Azerbaijani rights within Iran. One of the most important developments affecting the collective identity of the Azerbaijanis in Iran was the widespread viewing of television programs from Turkey beginning in 1992. This seems to have produced important social consequences for the Azerbaijanis, whose language allows them to easily understand Turkish. Initially, the Iranian government, hoping to prevent a rise in cultural awareness of its Azerbaijani minority, adopted a policy of de facto support for Armenia in its war with Azerbaijan over control of Nagorno-Karabagh. Tehran acted in the belief that a weak Azerbaijani state would not serve as an attractive alternative Iranian Azerbaijanis. Subsequently, many Azerbaijanis in Iran, including elected representatives in parliament, exerted pressure on the Iranian government to alter its policy, achieving limited results. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Iran’s northwestern provinces have developed into important trade hubs, establishing direct relations with economic partners. Thus, they have circumvented Tehran. This new status has led them to make demands for greater resources from the central government. So far. the rise in Azerbaijani cultural awareness has not fostered significant separatist sentiment. However, it has placed pressure on officials in Tehran to loosen their grip on power. Many Azerbaijani’s support greater cultural rights and decentralization of the decision-making process. President Khatami, in attempting to strentgthen his political power base, has appealed to ethnic minorities, offering the prospect of wider cultural latitude. In addition, the president has sought to enlist the support of regional elites in his struggle with the conservative establishment in Tehran. While these policies are useful in the short-term in building a power base, Khatami may find that ethnic minorities, once empowered, may not be accepting of secondary status in the future. The rise in Azerbaijani identity serves as a challenge to both center-periphery relations, and to official Persian-linguistic and cultural dominance in Iran. The matter of cultural rights has emerged as an important issue in the political arena of Iran with broad implications for ongoing stability. It appears that the post-Islamic Revolution regime will have to redefine the relations with the ethnic minorities, especially if it continues with its democratization agenda. Editor’s Note: Brenda Shaffer is a post-doctoral fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Posted August 2, 2004 © Eurasianet

The Khazars

Written by Peter Wolfe, Machar – Washington Jeff Zolitor, Jewish Children's Folkshul - Philadelphia

At the height of their empire the tribe known as the Khazars controlled an area roughly encompassing The Ural Mountains to the Carpathian Range, the Caucusus,and much of the Black Sea. About 1/3 of what is now Eastern Europe, as well as much of the Asian Steppes came under direct control of the Khazars or one of their client states. The powers of the world at the time, Islam and Christianity, were pushing ever closer to a total domination of much of the populated world. The Eastern Caliphate with its seat in Baghdad, had begun to cross the Caucusus and had hoped to conquer the area of the Black Sea and Eastern Europe. The vast area separating the Eastern Christian Empire, or Byzantium and the Eastern Caliphate was home to numerous Turkic tribes, related by similarities in language origin and a common geographic ancestry. These tribes were mostly nomadic, expert horseman, fierce warriors, and inclined to remain unaffiliated with either the Christian or Islamic Empires. Over time one of those tribes, The Khazars, grew in both size and sophistication and in turn came to be the dominant buffer between Byzantiums' eastward designs, and Islams' westward advances. Trade between Christianity and Islam took place through the land of the Khazars. Both spheres of influence put intense pressure on the Khazars to adopt their religion and worldview, thereby tipping the balance of power in the area. The Khazars chose a diplomatic course that steered clear of favoring one over the other, earned the grudging respect of both and insured their status and independence. They chose to become Jews! There have been several stories of the Khazar conversion that have made it to us this day, coming from Moslem, Jewish and Christian sources. al Masudi, a traveler from the Eastern Caliphate wrote that the Byzantine Emperor forced the Jews to emigrate and they came to the Khazar country and found "an intelligent but uneducated race to whom they offered their religion. The natives found it better than there own and accepted it." In the late 950's, Hasdai ibn Shaprut, while serving the court of Abd al Rahman III, Caliph of the Umayyad Empire, the Western Islamic Caliphate in Spain, used his diplomatic ties to inquire about Jewish communities throughout the world and intervene on their behalf whenever possible. Hasdai first heard of the existence of the Khazars from merchant traders from Persia. Hasdai decided to send a delegation. He believed that the Khazars may have represented one of the ten lost tribes of Israel and were descendants from Palestine, as the Sephardim were. The letter contained a formal greeting, some detail of the current Caliph, and questions about the Jewish rituals of the Khazars. The response from Joseph included his version of the events that led to the conversion of the Khazars. In Joseph's version, his ancestor King Bulan, drove out the sorcerers and idolaters from his land. An angel later appeared to Bulan telling him he must worship the one true god, and in return he would "bless and multiply Bulan's offspring, and deliver his enemies into his hands and secure his kingdom to the end of the world." Joseph continues by relating how Bulan was again visited in a dream and bade to build a place of worship in which the Lord may dwell, for: "the sky and the skies above the sky are not enough to hold me". Bulan tells the angel that he wishes to carry out the endeavor but doesn't possess enough gold or silver to finance such an enterprise. The angel told Bulan to lead his armies into Armenia where a treasure of silver and gold awaits him. There are Arab and Armenian sources that relate stories about a Khazar invasion into the area in 731C.E., lead by "Bulkhan". These sources seem to fit very well with the time frame of Joseph's story and Arab sources relate the fact that the Khazars controlled gold and silver mines in the Caucasus. After the success in Armenia, "The King of Edom (Byzantium) and the King of the Ishmaelim (Muslims) heard the news and sent him envoys .... and learned men to convert him to their beliefs." Bulan was wise and also sent for a Jew. After long and futile discussions, the king decides to meet with the representatives' seperately. He asks the Christian which of the other two religions is nearer the truth. The Christian answers, the Jews". He then asks the Muslim the same question and gets the same answer, "the Jews". Since both Christianity and Islam believe that Judaism is nearer the truth, Bulan chooses to adopt the Jewish faith. Regardless of how or why it happened, once the conversion took place, Judaism seems to have become stratified into Khazar society, and those who could, mostly the ruling classes, did send their sons to study in the great academies in Spain and quite possibly the great Academy at Sura in Babylonia as well. The Kagan was a hereditary ruler who lived in seclusion, and established traditional law. By the 10th Century, the Kagan was reduced to a spiritual figurehead, and the real power was in the hands of the Bek, a person serving beside the Kagan. The Bek led the army and ran the government, with the Kagan remaining the Chief Judge. Under the Bek were a variety of administrative and military officials and local governors. While most were appointed, some localities elected leaders. The governors collected taxes on the products of blacksmiths, food and drink, and customs duties. A court, composed of two Jews, two Muslims, two Christians and one pagan, dealt primarily with trade issues. In the 720's the Khazar capital was the city of Samander, which was visited by the Arab traveler, Al-Istakhri. He later wrote that it had vineyards and gardens, and that Muslims and mosques were plentiful, as well as markets. A later traveler, Ibn Hauqal, said there were people of multiple religions living there, with mosques, churches and synagogues. In 750, Itil became the capital of Khazaria. Travelers wrote that only the royal and public buildings were made of brick; most homes were yurts, or felt covered tents. The Khazars also founded part of Kiev as an economic hub, where people engaged in jewelry making, blacksmithing, bone and stone carving, and ironworking. The Khazars grew grain and vegetables, using plows, hoes, sickles and scythes. They operated mills and created irrigation canals, and transported their goods in carts and on skiffs in the Volga River. They grew grapes and cherries and caught fish, bred domestic animals, and hunted wild animals, using arrows, spears, axes and lassos. Khazaria was an important trading center, on the crossroads of the trade routes between Europe and China. The Great Silk Road, long the center of trade between China and the West, was blocked to Christian traders by the Muslims, so Byzantium concentrated their trade to China through Khazaria. Khazars participated in trade, trading candlewax, honey and wine. They exported central silver dishes and coins, quilts, cotton, felt, and cushion covers to the Urals and beyond, and imported pottery from Armenia, Iraq and Iran. The traders included Jewish Radhanite merchants, traveling between Regensburg, Vienna and Kiev, Khazaria, Persia and China, trading cinnamon, musk, camphor, swords, silk, furs, and slaves; Viking Rus traders, who transported furs, foxskins and swordblades; Arabs, and perhaps Chinese. All traders paid custom duties, which were the main source of revenue for Khazaria. The Khazars held influence in the area as evidenced by the stories that have made there way to us from various sources. Cherson, a border city between Byzantium and Khazaria became the home in exile of the former Byzantine Emperor Justinian II. He managed to escape and make his was the Khazar city of Doros where formed an alliance with the Kagan to regain the throne, and the Kagan's sister was given to the former Emperor in marriage. In the meantime, Kagan Busir made a deal with the new Byzantium Emperor Tiberius III who offered a rich reward for Justinian, dead or alive. Busir ordered Justinian assassinated but when his wife, Busir's sister, heard of the plot, she warned her husband and the two were able to flee to the land of the Bulgars. The Bulgar king then made an alliance with Justinian and helped him regain his throne. During his second rein, Justinian had become overwhelmed with his hatred for the inhabitants of Cherson, now a Khazar town and sent expeditions against it. The Khazar army met the expeditionary force and upon being taken prisoner by the Khazars, Justinian's representative in the area, a man named Bardanes, promptly switched allegiance from the Bulgars and Justinian, to the Kazars, as did the entire Byzantine expeditionary force. The Byzantine armies deposed Justinian and elected Bardanes the new Emperor under the name of Philippicus. While Philippicus was deposed a few years later, the story goes to show the influence that the Khazars wielded over the destinies of the Eastern Empire. That the Khazars were astute and able enough to finesse their way onto the scene as a superpower is true enough. What we must also come to realize when discussing the extent of their empire and influence, is that the world map of Eastern Europe and Asia looks the way it does thanks in large part to the Khazars. Had Islam gained a permanent foothold in eastern Europe, the pressure on Christian western Europe may have been too great to sustain its Christian kingdoms. Had Christianity made permanent inroads into the central Asia, the Caliphate may have had to expend resources at it's northern border that could have zapped much needed resources from the war against the Crusaders. It is ironic that the most celebrated information we have on the Khazars, that being the Hasdai letters, were written by the Kagan who saw the destruction of his state. It wasn't pressure from the Caliph in the east, or the Emperor in the south that caused the eventual fall of the kingdom, it was the pagan hordes from the north, known variously as Vikings, Norsemen, and in the east, Varangians, or, the Rus. They were expert sailors, and fearless warriors on land. In the mid to late ninth century, there was conspicuous movement of the various tribes in Eastern Europe and Asia. The Magyars, long allies of the Khazars and their agents in the Steppes, had begun moving across the Don River. Prior to the move, they were charged with collecting tribute from the Slav and Finn people north of their domain. The Rus had now begun their sweep with a combination of savage warfare and plunder, and the Kagan needed help securing his eastern and northern borders. It seems that the relocation of the Magyar was a mutual arrangement. At about the same time, an agreement between Byzantium and the Khazars brought craftsmen, engineers and architects to Khazaria to help build a massive fortress on the Volga, just south of the Don River in their new capital, Itil. The fortress was known as Sarkel. It seems that the relocation of the Magyar and the construction of Sarkel were part of a combined strategy to halt the Rus advance. The strategy wasn't to last very long. In about 862C.E., the Rus conquered and occupied Kiev. At about the same time, in a global version of musical chairs, a tribe called the Pechenegs located in the area between the Volga and the Ural rivers and also ruthless according to Emperor Constantine, were retreating in advance of an onslaught from their neighbors to the east, the Ghuzz. The Pechenegs tried to cross the Don and settle in Khazaria but the Khazars beat them off. The Pechenegs continued their move to the west and confronted the relocated allies of the Khazars, the Magyar. In successive assaults, the Pechenegs continued to push the Magyar, and in 896, struck a deal with the Bulgars situated along the Danube. Constantine tells us that the Bulgars and the Pechenegs made a pact to annihilate the Magyar, and while the Magyar fighters were away on a campaign, the two tribes descended into the land of the Magyars and massacred their families. The Magyar warriors returned to find their families killed, their homes desolate and ruined. The once mighty Magyar then moved into present-day Hungary, were they remain to this day. With the Magyar gone the loss of Kiev was inevitable. The western tribes were no longer under the Kagan's control and the Rus could now rally the Slavonic tribes around the Dnieper River with the cry, "Pay no tribute to the Khazars". The loss of tribute and territory in the west was further exacerbated by the fact that the Rus were also following the Volga River down to the Caspian Sea, putting pressure on the Khazars from the east. In 910C.E., the goal of the Rus was to sack the rich cities of the Caliphate along the Caspian, but each time a flotilla traveling down the Volga passed the Khazarian capital of Itil, they were required to solicit permission, and pay customs duty. The Russians were not pleased with the arrangements, and the Khazars were equally perturbed because of their friendly relations with the Caliphate at the time. In 913 the matter exploded when the Russian fleet entered the Caspian Sea and once again set their sites on the Islamic cities around it. The Rus were particularly brutal and destroyed all that stood in their way, including woman and children. They raped and pillaged, raided and burned and even made incursions inland. With the Magyars gone, Kiev gone and the Dnieper River firmly in the hands of the Vikings, control of the Black Sea was wavering. In 945, Byzantium entered into a commercial treaty with the prince of Kiev, Prince Ingvar - (later Igor), who was leader of the western Russian activities. The Rus were beginning the process of assimilating into Slavic culture, adopting Slavic names, and in the process becoming closer with the Christian Empire. The good relations that the Khazars had enjoyed with Byzantium were becoming strained under the pressure being applied to their western frontier, and another, less overt action. In 957 during a state visit, Helga - (later Olga), Igors's widow accepted baptism from no less than, the Byzantine Emperor Constantine himself. This small act sealed the fate of the Khazars. Svyatoslav would hear none of this, and continued his brutal assault on everything Khazar. In an action against one of the Khazars tribute tribes south of Moscow, the Prince of Kiev decided to turn south and head for the Don River. One chronicler has the Prince, in true Viking form, sending messengers to the Khazars and announcing: "I am coming upon you". When the Kagan heard of the approach, he sent the army out to meet them. The Rus won the day, and took control of the Don River. The Khazars fortress on The Don, Sarkel, fell to the Russians in 965. Arthur Koestler, in his book 'The Thirteenth Tribe: The Khazar Empire and Its Heritage argues that the defeated Khazars were the predominant ancestors of the Ashkenazic Jews. He based his theories on immigrations of the Khazars to Eastern Europe, which is supported by various types of evidence, some of which he cited, and some cited later by Kevin Brook. Before the destruction of Khazaria, some Khazars joined the Magyars and migrated to Hungary. They were among the soldiers protecting Hungary's borders. In the 10th Century, Hungarian Duke Taksony, son of a Khazar princess and Magyar royalty, invited Khazar Jews to settle in Hungary. If it is to be believed, a Byzantine chronicle indicates that many Hungarian troops in the 12th Century observed Jewish law. According to Martin Gilbert, Jews migrated from Khazaria to Lithuania in 1016, and Jews from Vilnius claim Khazar ancestry. Documents and archeological finds indicate that Khazars founded glass factories in Grodno. These similarities may support the idea of a Khazar influence in Eastern Europe, but they hardly support an argument that the Khazars were the predominant ancestors of the Ashkenazic Jews. The greatest evidence against a significant Khazar ancestry for Ashkenazic Jews is DNA testing. Data shows that the predominant origin of Ashkenazic Jews has been the Middle East. This indicates that the role of the native-born Khazars as a source of Ashkenazic Jews was minor. However, there is some genetic evidence that characteristics of some Ashkenazic Jews are shared by Armenians and Turks, and Jews from the Balkans. The documentary and archeological evidence for a Khazar origin is stronger in Hungary and the Ukraine. Still, the sources I have examined seem to show that the influence of the Khazarian Jews in those areas, no matter how large or small, was overwhelmed by the emigration of western Jews. Another reason for the slight DNA differences in some Ashkenazic Jews may be intermarriage. Jews converted and intermarried with others in ancient Israel, in the Roman Empire and in Medieval Europe. There is no reason to think that it did not occur in Central Asia as well. Jews from Crimea and the Byzantine Empire, who may have originated in the Middle East intermarried with the Turks. Genetic tests show that intermarriage occurred far less with Jews than in the population as a whole, and in certain groups, like the Kohanim, it happened very little at all. This infrequent intermarriage could well have been enough to account for any genetic marker differences. http://www.csjo.org/pages/khazars.php

The Tat of Azerbaijan number about 22.000. The majority of the Tat live in Dagestan, in Kaitag, Magaramkend, Derbent and Makhachkala. A small number have settled in North Caucasia - Gorny and Nalchik. The Tat descend from Iranian tribes that moved into the Caucasian mountains in the 5th and 6th centuries. The Tat of Azerbaijan live in the mountain valleys of the north and north-eastern parts of Azerbaijan, along the Russian border, with important concentrations in Krasnaya Sloboda and Oguz. A large number also live in and around Baku. The Tat include three groups: Muslim (90% Shia), Christian and Jewish Tats - the latter also known as Mountain Jews. There's some debate on the origin of the Jewish Tat, with some defending that they are not Tat at all but simply Jews that took the Tat language, while others argue that they are the descendants of Tats that converted to Judaism. The Turks originally coined the term 'Tats' to designate settled groups of non-Turkic origin. Alternative designations for the Tatsare 'Tatians' and 'Dagchufuts'. Muslim, Christian and Jewish Tats speak a a unique New-Persian (so Indo-European) language known as Tati. Because no alphabet exists for Tati, they use Azeri for their written and literary language. Although the Tat have been an agricultural people from the beginning of their history, they have also developed a strong urban community. Farmers living in the valleys raise wheat, barley, maize, grapes and cattle. Those living in mountain villages raise sheep, bulls and buffaloes. In the north-eastern area, communities consisting of 80 to 120 households are located in mountain settlements built on ledges. The availability of water determines the villages' location, each village contains a religious building, a bath area, a well, as well as family dwellings. The rural Tat usually live in one or two story homes, which are constructed of rectangular shaped natural stones cemented with clay mortar. The houses feature flat roofs and front porches supported by wooden pillars. Families living in two-story homes use the upper floor for living quarters and the lower floor for working space. The Tat are considered a closed society because they insist on maintaining ethnic purity by allowing marriage only within the tribe. Anyway, for such a small ethnic group, this is the only strategy for survival. sources: (azerb.com multimap, bethany, Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire