In 909, the Rus on 16 ships - the Rus ships, according to various sources, accommodated from 40 to 100 people - attacked the Abeskun island in the Astrabad Gulf, after which the Caspian Sea itself was then called Abeskun. The island was plundered. A year later, the city of Sari in Iranian Mazandaran was burned down - in general, it was not standing right on the seashore. The townspeople were driven into slavery. The local inhabitants, furious, attacked a caravan of Russians who had spent the night near the coast - whether they were the same or different, they did not know, and, presumably, did not want to know. Those who spent the night on the shore were killed, the boats that had gone to sea were met and destroyed by the flotilla of the ruler of the Caucasian state of Shirvan, Shirvanshah Ali ibn al Gaytam.
It was a big mistake. Guilty or not, Russian blood did not remain unavenged in those years. Until the time when the Islamic authority, who called from the TV screens to "slaughter Russian dogs", would be awarded the title of "Hero of Russia", remained centuries and centuries. In those days, the Russians adhered to several different principles, to me personally, the reader, I confess, more attractive.
Ibn Rust: “And if any of their tribes are offended, then they all act. And then there is no discord between the scientific research institutes, but they attack the enemy until they win … and if another nation attacks, they do not lag behind until they destroy it completely."
The anonymous author of the Collected Works of 1126, dating back, of course, to much earlier times: “and there is such a custom that if someone sheds the blood of the Rus, they will not rest until they take revenge. And if you give them the whole world, they will still not give up on it."
Al Masudi tells us about this campaign of the avengers, which ended in one of the most terrible and bloody defeats of the Russians on the eastern routes.
In 912 (Masudi himself, of course, defines the time of the campaign as the three hundredth year of the Hijra), the Russian army on 500 boats, each of which could hold 100 soldiers, having entered, apparently (Masudi's story in this place is not very intelligible), into the Sea of Azov, I asked the Khazar kagan-bek for permission to pass the kaganate's lands into the Caspian Sea. In exchange, of course, the share of the production was offered - neither more nor less, but a whole half. I do not know what considerations were guided by these Rus - relations between Russia and Khazaria were, to put it mildly, strained. After Oleg freed the Slavic lands of the Vyatichi, Radimichi and northerners from the Khazar tribute, Khazaria announced a blockade even to the trading caravans of the Russians. Naturally, neither Russian nor eastern merchants were upset about this for a long time, and soon trade was resumed through the Volga Bulgaria. The Khazars turned out to be bypassed in every sense, and it was necessary not to understand the vengeful nature of the Asians in general and the Rakhodni clan ruling Khazaria in particular, in order to think that they would forgive - or at least forget. But the defeats from the weapon of Oleg the Prophet were still alive in the memory - the kagan-bek did not dare to refuse and ask for a direct clash. The Rus, apparently, ascended the Don, crossed into the Volga (or did they descend down the Volga?), And through Itil, the new capital of Khazaria, went to the Caspian Sea. The frozen huge city in the silence of deep hatred saw off the boats of the terrible "Ros people" leaving to the south, animal muzzles grinning from their noses, sun crosses with broken ends on sails and shields that covered the sides with scales. And with bitterness numerous Slavic slaves and slaves looked after the departing boats.and one had to not at all understand the vengeful nature of the Asians in general and the Rakhodni clan ruling Khazaria in particular, in order to think that they would forgive - or at least forget. But the defeats from the weapon of Oleg the Prophet were still alive in the memory - the kagan-bek did not dare to refuse and ask for a direct clash. The Rus, apparently, ascended the Don, crossed into the Volga (or did they descend down the Volga?), And through Itil, the new capital of Khazaria, went to the Caspian Sea. The frozen huge city in the silence of deep hatred saw off the boats of the terrible "Ros people" leaving to the south, animal muzzles grinning from their noses, sun crosses with broken ends on sails and shields that covered the sides with scales. And with bitterness numerous Slavic slaves and slaves looked after the departing boats.and it was necessary not to understand at all the vengeful nature of the Asians in general and the Rakhodni clan ruling Khazaria in particular, in order to think that they would forgive - or at least forget. But the defeats from the weapon of Oleg the Prophet were still alive in the memory - the kagan-bek did not dare to refuse and ask for a direct clash. The Rus, apparently, ascended the Don, crossed into the Volga (or did they descend down the Volga?), And through Itil, the new capital of Khazaria, went to the Caspian Sea. The frozen huge city in the silence of deep hatred saw off the boats of the terrible "Ros people" leaving to the south, animal muzzles grinning from their noses, sun crosses with broken ends on sails and shields that covered the sides with scales. And with bitterness numerous Slavic slaves and slaves looked after the departing boats.
Swiss historian Adam Metz in the book "Muslim Renaissance": "The main commodity supplied by Europe - slaves - was the monopoly of the Jewish trade." The famous Czech Lubor Niederle in the book "Slavic Antiquities": "All trade in Slavic slaves was in the hands of the Jews." “The slave trade, through which Slavic slaves entered the Arab world, was carried out mainly by Jewish merchants-Rachdonites” - and this is our contemporary D. Ye. Mishin, author of the wonderful book "Sakaliba (Slavs) in the Islamic World." The extent to which the trade was conducted, says the census data cited by Mishin in Cordoba, the capital of Arab Spain - a country not closest to the Khazar Kaganate. In the middle of the 10th century, there were THIRTEEN THOUSAND Slavic slaves. They were supplied to the Khazars, as the Arab Idrisi reports, the bandit gangs of the Turks and Magyars, from which,according to other modern historians, the kaganate "defended" the Slavs.
The revenge of the Russians fell on the shores of the Caspian, like a heavenly thunder. "Crowds" of warriors flooded Jil and Deylem, and the cities of Tabaristan, and the ill-fated Abeskun, and the "Oil Country", as the surroundings of present-day Baku were called then. The Russian warriors reached Ardabil. Not expecting an attack from the sea - especially such a huge army - the local residents were unable to organize resistance. The troops of Ibn Abis Saj, the Arab governor in Armenia and Azerbaijan, were defeated by the newcomers, as were the detachments of the Deilemites, the warlike mountaineers of the southern shores of the Caspian. Blood was poured everywhere, soldiers chained in iron, footmen and horsemen, rushed, killed, burned, taken away into captivity. The loot and prisoners were taken to the islands off the Azerbaijani coast, as if provoking their main bloodline, the Shirvanshah. Ali ibn al Gaytam had the imprudence to "lead" to this bait. His entire fleet and several merchant ships filled with Muslims armed to the teeth moved towards the islands. The warships of the Russians came out to meet them. The entire flotilla, together with its ruler, went to feed the immensely fat Caspian sturgeons that year. Thousands of corpses in turbans and striped robes floated on the water, and well-fed seagulls stepped over their swollen backs, looking for a tastier place. The Russians who died two years ago were avenged a hundredfold, but the avengers were delayed for several more months - probably, so as not to lose out on giving half of the booty to the greedy ruler of Khazaria. Thousands of corpses in turbans and striped robes floated on the water, and well-fed seagulls stepped over their swollen backs, looking for a tastier place. The Russians who died two years ago were avenged a hundredfold, but the avengers were delayed for several more months - probably, so as not to lose out on giving half of the booty to the greedy ruler of Khazaria. Thousands of corpses in turbans and striped robes floated on the water, and well-fed seagulls stepped over their swollen backs, looking for a tastier place. The Russians who died two years ago were avenged a hundredfold, but the avengers were delayed for several more months - probably, so as not to lose out on giving half of the booty to the greedy ruler of Khazaria.
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Soon the boats, weighed down by the booty and captives, approached Itil. The envoys of the Russian leader went to hand over the agreed share of the booty to the kagan-bek. Curious - did they manage to reach the rooks? Or, on the way back, they saw an avalanche of steel flooding the coast - fifteen thousand al-Arsiyev, the best warriors of the kaganate, clad in iron scales - from horse hooves to the bared faces of helmets … and a Muslim by religion. And behind them was a crowd in striped robes - all adult Muslim men of the populous city of Itil, the imperial capital. Local Christians were also with them - for the sake of a general hatred of the pagan Rus, or simply in the hope of snatching something from the rich booty.
And from the red brick walls of Kemlyk, the palace of kagans, overshadowed by the pentagonal shields of Solomon, he watched the massacre on the shore, lovingly stroking a curly black beard and locks of peyote above his ears, smiling with full lips, kagan-bek Aaron bar Benyaman, the ruler of Khazaria. A person who was not something that his faith allowed - was charged with deceiving the pagan Akum who trusted him. Especially from the hated "people of Ros". And together with him, the entire huge city, fattened by the sweat of Slavic slaves and the blood of those who did not want to be slaves, blinked with malevolent pleasure.
And wept quietly in the dark corners, not daring to disturb the evil glee of their "God's chosen" masters, Slavic slaves.
Five thousand Russians, according to Masudi, escaped from the bloody trap that Itil turned into for them. Thirty thousand corpses remained on the river bank, and their heads were dumped in the market square. Those who escaped, abandoning their ships, tried to break through from the kaganate by land.
But the steppe land was already buzzing under horse hooves, hordes of nomad Burtases, vassals of the kagan were already rushing, driven by the kagan-bek …
Few of those who left for the Khvalynskoye Sea returned to their homes.
As for the lesson, it is simple. Don't trust the enemy. No matter how beneficial an alliance with you is for him, your defeat is still more beneficial to him. And it would be better if the Russians who were marching to the Caspian began to take revenge with the defeat of Itil and the release of the Slavic slaves.