Editing Atil

{{Short description|Capital of Khazaria from 750 CE}}
{{About|the Khazar capital}}

'''Atil''', also '''Itil''', was the capital of the [[Khazar Khaganate]] from the mid-8th century to the late 10th century. It is known historically to have been situated along the [[Silk Road]], on the northern coast of the [[Caspian Sea]], in the [[Volga Delta]] region of modern [[Southern Russia]]. Its precise location has long been unknown.

[[File:Varangian routes.png|thumb|right|300px|Khazaria and [[Eurasian]] trade routes in the 8th–11th centuries. Atil was the commercial hub from which routes extended into [[Central Asia|"Deep Asia"]]. The [[Varangian]] ([[Viking]]) [[Volga trade route|trade route on the Volga]] is shown in red; other routes are in orange. The [[route from the Varangians to the Greeks|Varangian-Greek route]] is in purple.]]

In 2008 a Russian archaeologist claimed to have discovered the remains of Atil in [[Samosdelka]], a village in the Volga Delta approximately 30&nbsp;km southwest of the city of [[Astrakhan]]. This claim has since been disproven.

==Name==
The historical [[Turkic people]]s living on or near the Volga region called both the river and the Khazar capital city on the river {{Transliteration|trk|Itil}} or ''Atil''.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Atil or Itil{{!}} Jewish Virtual Library |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/atil-or-itil-jewish-virtual-library |access-date=2024-10-10 |website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org}}</ref>

Modern [[Turkic languages]] have retained the historical name for the Volga. The Volga is known as '' İdel ''( Идел) in [[Tatar language|Tatar]], as '' Atăl '' (Атӑл) in [[Chuvash language|Chuvash]], as '' Iźelin '' in [[Bashkir language|Bashkir]], as '' Edıl '' in [[Kazakh language|Kazakh]], and as '' İdil '' in [[Turkish language|Turkish]]. The origin and meaning of the ancient Turkic form "{{Transliteration|trk|Etil}}/{{Transliteration|trk|Ertil}}" are uncertain.<ref>Akhmetyanov R. G. Brief Historical and etymological dictionary of the Tatar language. - Kazan: Tat. publishing house, 2001. p. 76. {{ISBN|5-298-01004-0}} (In tatar: Әхмәтьянов Р. Г. Татар теленең кыскача тарихи-этимологик сүзлеге. — Казан: Тат. кит. нәшр., 2001. б. 76. )</ref>

==History and description==
Atil was located along the Volga delta at the northwestern corner of the [[Caspian Sea]]. Following the defeat of the [[Khazars]] in the [[Second Arab-Khazar War]], Atil became the capital of Khazaria.

[[Book of Roads and Kingdoms (Ibn Khordadbeh)|Ibn Khordadbeh]], writing in ca. 870, names  ''Khamlij'' as the capital of the Khazars.<ref>{{cite book |last=Golden |first=Peter B. |title=Khazar Studies: An Historico-Philological Inquiry into the Origins of the Khazars |date=1980 |publisher=Akadémiai Kiadó |isbn=978-9-63051-549-8 |page=230}}</ref> This is presumably a rendition of Turkic ''khaganbaligh'' "city of the khan" and refers to the city later (in the 10th century) named as ''Atil'' in [[Tarikh|Arab historiography]].

At its height, the city was a major center of trade. It consisted of three parts separated by the Volga. The western part contained the administrative center of the city, with a court house and a large military garrison. The eastern part of the city was built later and acted as the commercial center of the Atil, and had many public baths and shops. Between them was an island on which stood the palaces of the Khazar [[Khagan]] and [[Khagan Bek|Bek]]. The island was connected to one of the other parts of the city by a [[pontoon bridge]]. 
According to [[Arab]] sources of the 10th century,<ref>{{cite book |last=Golden|first=Peter B.|page=224|date=1980|title=Khazar Studies: An Historico-Philological Inquiry into the Origins of the Khazars|publisher=Akadémiai Kiadó}}</ref> one half of the city was referred to as Atil, while the other was named [[Khazaran]].

Atil was a multi-ethnic and religiously diverse city, inhabited by [[Jew]]s, [[Christianity|Christians]], [[Islam|Muslims]], [[Shamanism|Shamanists]], and [[Paganism|Pagans]], many of them traders from foreign countries. All of the religious groups had their own places of worship in the city, and there were seven judges appointed to settle disputes (two Christian, two Jewish, and two Muslim judges, with a single judge for all of the Shamanists and other Pagans).<ref>{{cite book |last=Brook|first=Kevin A.|page=52|date=2018|title=The Jews of Khazaria|edition=3rd|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9781538103425}}</ref> The numerous Christians of Atil were under the jurisdiction of their own [[bishop]]; the [[minaret]] of the [[Friday mosque]] of the Muslims of Atil is said to have been higher than the castle.<ref name=":1" />

[[File:RadzivillChronicleFol8rb.jpg|thumb|right|Miniature depicting payment of tribute to the Varangians and the Khazars, [[Radziwiłł Chronicle]]]]

The city was a major trade center, and managed the [[Khazar slave trade]], in which slaves bought for export were transported from the Khazar Khaganate to either the [[Black Sea slave trade]] in the West via the [[Black Sea]] port of [[Kerch]], or East from the capital of Atil via the Caspian Sea to [[Central Asia]] and from there to [[slavery in the Abbasid Caliphate]].<ref>The World of the Khazars: New Perspectives. Selected Papers from the Jerusalem 1999 International Khazar Colloquium. (2007). Nederländerna: Brill. p. 233</ref>

[[Image:S. V. Ivanov. Trade negotiations in the country of Eastern Slavs. Pictures of Russian history. (1909).jpg|thumb|The [[Rus' people|Rus']] trading slaves with the Khazars: ''Trade in the [[East Slavs|East Slavic]] Camp'' by [[Sergei Ivanov (painter)|Sergei Ivanov]] (1913)]]

[[Svyatoslav I of Kiev]] sacked Atil in 968 or 969 CE. [[Ibn Hawqal]] and [[al-Muqaddasi]] refer to Atil after 969, indicating that it may have been rebuilt.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dunlop|first=Douglas M.|pages=245–246, 248|date=1954|title=The History of the Jewish Khazars|publisher=Princeton University Press}}</ref> [[Al-Biruni]] (mid-11th century) reported that Atil was again in ruins,<ref>{{cite book |last=Dunlop|first=Douglas M.|pages=248|date=1954|title=The History of the Jewish Khazars|publisher=Princeton University Press}}</ref> and did not mention the later city of [[Saqsin]] which was built nearby, so it is possible that this new Atil was only destroyed in the middle of the 11th century.

[[File:Поход Святослава на хазар.png | thumb | right |The eastern campaign of Prince Svtoslav in 965, in which he captured the White Tower and defeated the Khazar Khaganate, [[Radziwiłł Chronicle]]]]

==The search for archaeological remains==

As of 2024, the archaeological remains of Atil have not been positively identified. An accepted hypothesis is that they were washed away by the rising level of the [[Caspian Sea]].

===Samosdelka site===
{{main|Samosdelka}}In September 2008, Russian archaeologists excavating in the Volga Delta fishing village of [[Samosdelka]] announced their discovery of what they claimed were the remains of Atil.<ref>{{cite web | last =  Vasilyev | first =  D.| title = Итиль-мечта (The Itil Dream) | url = http://www.lechaim.ru/ARHIV/174/VZR/a02.htm | access-date = 2008-09-28}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2008-09-21 |title=Scholar claims to find medieval Jewish capital |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna26809309 |access-date=2024-10-10 |website=NBC News |language=en}}</ref> A 2020 assessment by the [[Russian Geographic Society]] concluded that Atil had not been found in Samosdelka, and announced that new excavations were underway at another site.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2020-06-15 |title=On the Threshold of the Great Discovery: Archaeologists Begin Excavations of the Legendary Capital of the Khazar Khaganate |url=https://www.rgo.ru/en/article/threshold-great-discovery-archaeologists-begin-excavations-legendary-capital-khazar |access-date=2024-10-10 |website=Russian Geographical Society |language=en}}</ref>

===Semibugry site===
The archaeological remains of a settlement from the Khazar period near the village of [[Semibugry]] (Russian: Семибугры) in the central part of the Volga Delta were discovered after Samosdelka and as of 2020 were being excavated in the hopes that the settlement was Atil.<ref name=":0" /> According to historian Alex Feldman, "it remains impossible to archaeologically prove" the location of Atil.<ref>{{cite book |last=Feldman |first=Alex Mesibov |date=2023 |editor-last=Raffensperger |editor-first=Christian |title=How Medieval Europe was Ruled |publisher=Routledge |pages=48 |chapter=Chapter 4: Khazaria: The Exception Which Proves the Rules |doi=10.4324/9781003213239-4 |isbn=978-1032100166}}</ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:В поисках Итиля.jpg
File:Brick field Atil 2014.jpg
File:Brick wall Atil 2014.jpg
File:Potsherds (close up) Atil 2014.jpg
File:Potsherds (wide) Atil 2014.jpg
</gallery>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*M.I. Artamonov, Istoriya Khazar (Rus., 1962), 385–99
* Barthold, W. (1996). "Khazar". ''[[Encyclopaedia of Islam]]'' (Brill Online). Eds.: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill.
*Kevin Alan Brook. ''The Jews of Khazaria.'' 3rd ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2018.
* [[Douglas Morton Dunlop]] (1997). "Itil". Encyclopaedia Judaica (CD-ROM Edition Version 1.0). Ed. Cecil Roth. Keter Publishing House. {{ISBN|965-07-0665-8}}
*[[Douglas M. Dunlop]]. ''The History of the Jewish Khazars,'' Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1954.
*V. Minorsky, Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam (1937), 451–4 (E.J.W. Gibb Memorial, 11)
*G. Moravcsik, Byzantinoturcica, 2 (Ger., 1958), 78–79
*[[Peter B. Golden]]. ''Khazar Studies: An Historio-Philological Inquiry into the Origins of the Khazars.'' Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1980.
*[[Norman Golb]] and [[Omeljan Pritsak]], ''Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century.'' Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1982.
*Thomas S. Noonan. "The Khazar Economy." ''Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi'' 9 (1995–1997): 253–318.
*Thomas S. Noonan. "Les Khazars et le commerce oriental." ''Les Échanges au Moyen Age: Justinien, Mahomet, Charlemagne: trois empires dans l'économie médiévale'', pp.&nbsp;82–85. Dijon: Editions Faton S.A., 2000.
*Thomas S. Noonan. "The Khazar Qaghanate and its Impact on the Early Rus' State: The translation imperii from Itil to Kiev." ''Nomads in the Sedentary World'', eds. [[Anatoly Khazanov|Anatoly Mikhailovich Khazanov]] and André Wink, pp.&nbsp;76–102. Richmond, England: Curzon Press, 2001.
*Omeljan Pritsak. "The Khazar Kingdom's Conversion to [[Judaism]]." (Journal Article in ''Harvard Ukrainian Studies'', 1978)
*A.N. Poliak, Kazariyyah (19513), 278–94 (includes bibliography)
*[http://www.lechaim.ru/ARHIV/174/VZR/a02.htm D. Vasilyev (Д. Васильев), "The Itil Dream (at the excavation site of the ancient capital of the Khazar Khaganate)" (Итиль-мечта (на раскопках древнего центра Хазарского каганата))] {{in lang|ru}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book | first = Kevin Alan | last = Brook | title = The Jews of Khazaria, Third Edition | publisher = Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc | location = London | year = 2018 | isbn = 9781538103425 }}

==External links==
* [https://archive.today/20130113220122/http://archeo-cities.ru/city/itil Atil entry from Dead Cities (archived, in Russian), 9 December 2008]
*[https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/atil-or-itil-jewish-virtual-library Jewish Virtual Library "ATIL or ITIL", 2008. Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2008 The Gale Group.]
* [https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna26809309 Scholar claims to find medieval Jewish capital, 21 September 2008]
* [https://www.rgo.ru/en/article/threshold-great-discovery-archaeologists-begin-excavations-legendary-capital-khazar ON THE THRESHOLD OF THE GREAT DISCOVERY, 15 June 2020]
*[https://archive.org/details/DonnerFredTheExpansionOfTheEarlyIslamicState The Expansion of the Early Islamic State, Edited by Fred M. Donner,  Routledge, Taylor & Francis Croup, LONDON AND NEW YORK, First published 2008 by Ashgate Publishing, Published 2016 by Routledge]

{{Khazaria}}

[[Category:Geography of Astrakhan Oblast]]
[[Category:Defunct towns in Russia]]
[[Category:Khazar towns]]
[[Category:Populated places on the Volga]]
[[Category:Underwater ruins]]
[[Category:Former populated places in Russia]]
[[Category:Saltovo-Mayaki culture]]