950. Their home was in the spurs of the Caucasus and along the shores of

the Caspian--called by medieval Moslem geographers Bahr-al-Khazar ("sea of the Khazars"); their cities, all populous and civilized commercial centres, were Itil, the capital, upon the delta of the Volga, the "river of the Khazars," Semender (Tarkhu), the older capital, Khamlidje or Khalendsch, Belendscher, the outpost towards Armenia, and Sarkel on the Don. They were the Venetians of the Caspian and the Euxine, the organizers of the transit between the two basins, the universal carriers between East and West; and Itil was the meeting-place of the commerce of Persia, Byzantium, Armenia, Russia and the Bulgarians of the middle Volga. The tide of their dominion ebbed and flowed repeatedly, but the normal Khazari may be taken as the territory between the Caucasus, the Volga and the Don, with the outlying province of the Crimea, or Little Khazaria. The southern boundary never greatly altered; it did at times reach the Kur and the Aras, but on that side the Khazars were confronted by Byzantium and Persia, and were for the most part restrained within the passes of the Caucasus by the fortifications of Dariel. Amongst the nomadic Ugrians and agricultural Slavs of the north their frontier fluctuated widely, and in its zenith Khazaria extended from the Dnieper to Bolgari upon the middle Volga, and along the eastern shore of the Caspian to Astarabad. _Ethnology._--The origin of the Khazars has been much disputed, and they have been variously regarded as akin to the Georgians, Finno-Ugrians and Turks. This last view is perhaps the most probable. Their king Joseph, in answer to the inquiry of Hasdai Ibn Shaprut of Cordova (c. 958), stated that his people sprang from Thogarmah, grandson of Japhet, and the supposed ancestor of the other peoples of the Caucasus. The Arab geographers who knew the Khazars best connect them either with the Georgians (Ibn Athir) or with the Armenians (Dimishqi, ed. Mehren, p. 263); whilst Ahmad ibn Fadlan, who passed through Khazaria on a mission from the caliph Moqtadir (A.D. 921), positively asserts that the Khazar tongue differed not only from the Turkish, but from that of the bordering nations, which were Ugrian. Nevertheless there are many points connected with the Khazars which indicate a close connexion with Ugrian or Turkish peoples. The official titles recorded by Ibn Fadlan are those in use amongst the Tatar nations of that age, whether Huns, Bulgarians, Turks or Mongols. The names of their cities can be explained only by reference to Turkish or Ugrian dialects (Klaproth, _Mém. sur les Khazars_; Howorth, _Khazars_). Some too amongst the medieval authorities (Ibn Hauqal and Istakhri) note a resemblance between the speech in use amongst the Khazars and the Bulgarians; and the modern Magyar--a Ugrian language--can be traced back to a tribe which in the 9th century formed part of the Khazar kingdom. These characteristics, however, are accounted for by the fact that the Khazars were at one time subject to the Huns (A.D. 448 et seq.), at another to the Turks (c. 580), which would sufficiently explain the signs of Tatar influence in their polity, and also by the testimony of all observers, Greeks, Arabs and Russians, that there was a double strain within the Khazar nation. There were _Khazars_ and _Kara_ (black) _Khazars_. The Khazars were fair-skinned, black-haired and of a remarkable beauty and stature; their women indeed were sought as wives equally at Byzantium and Bagdad; while the Kara Khazars were ugly, short, and were reported by the Arabs almost as dark as Indians. The latter were indubitably the Ugrian nomads of the steppe, akin to the Tatar invaders of Europe, who filled the armies and convoyed the caravans of the ruling caste. But the Khazars proper were a civic commercial people, the founders of cities, remarkable for somewhat elaborate political institutions, for persistence and for good faith--all qualities foreign to the Hunnic character. They have been identified with the [Greek: Akatziroi] (perhaps Ak-Khazari, or White Khazars) who appear upon the lower Volga in the Byzantine annals, and thence they have been deduced, though with less convincing proof, either from the [Greek: Agathyrsoi] (Agathyrsi) or the [Greek: Katiaroi] of Herodotus, iv. 104. There was throughout historic times a close connexion which eventually amounted to political identity between the Khazars and the Barsileens (the Passils of Moses of Chorene) who occupied the delta of the Volga; and the Barsileens can be traced through the pages of Ptolemy (_Geog._ v. 9), of Pliny (iv. 26), of Strabo (vii. 306), and of Pomponius Mela (ii. c. 1, p. 119) to the so-called Royal Scyths, [Greek: Skythai basilêes], who were known to the Greek colonies upon the Euxine, and whose political superiority and commercial enterprise led to this rendering of their name. Such points, however, need not here be further pursued than to establish the presence of this white race around the Caspian and the Euxine throughout historic times. They appear in European history as White Huns (Ephthalites), White Ugrians (Sar-ogours), White Bulgarians. Owing to climatic causes the tract they occupied was slowly drying up. They were the outposts of civilization towards the encroaching desert, and the Tatar nomadism that advanced with it. They held in precarious subjection the hordes whom the conditions of the climate and the soil made it impossible to supplant. They bore the brunt of each of the great waves of Tatar conquests, and were eventually overwhelmed. _History._--Amidst this white race of the steppe the Khazars can be first historically distinguished at the end of the 2nd century A.D. They burst into Armenia with the Barsileens, A.D. 198. They were repulsed and attacked in turn. The pressure of the nomads of the steppe, the quest of plunder or revenge, these seem the only motives of these early expeditions; but in the long struggle between the Roman and Persian empires, of which Armenia was often the battlefield, and eventually the prize, the attitude of the Khazars assumed political importance. Armenia inclined to the civilization and ere long to the Christianity of Rome, whilst her Arsacid princes maintained an inveterate feud with the Sassanids of Persia. It became therefore the policy of the Persian kings to call in the Khazars in every collision with the empire (200-350). During the 4th century however, the growing power of Persia culminated in the annexation of eastern Armenia. The Khazars, endangered by so powerful a neighbour, passed from under Persian influence into that remote alliance with Byzantium which thenceforth characterized their policy, and they aided Julian in his invasion of Persia (363). Simultaneously with the approach of Persia to the Caucasus the terrible empire of the Huns sprang up among the Ugrians of the northern steppes. The Khazars, straitened on every side, remained passive till the danger culminated in the accession of Attila (434). The emperor Theodosius sent envoys to bribe the Khazars ([Greek: Akatziroi]) to divert the Huns from the empire by an attack upon their flank. But there was a Hunnic party amongst the Khazar chiefs. The design was betrayed to Attila; and he extinguished the independence of the nation in a moment. Khazaria became the apanage of his eldest son, and the centre of government amongst the eastern subjects of the Hun (448). Even the iron rule of Attila was preferable to the time of anarchy that succeeded it. Upon his death (454) the wild immigration which he had arrested revived. The Khazars and the Sarogours (i.e. White Ogors, possibly the Barsileens of the Volga delta) were swept along in a flood of mixed Tatar peoples which the conquests of the Avars had set in motion. The Khazars and their companions broke through the Persian defences of the Caucasus. They appropriated the territory up to the Kur and the Aras, and roamed at large through Iberia, Georgia and Armenia. The Persian king implored the emperor Leo I. to help him defend Asia Minor at the Caucasus (457), but Rome was herself too hard pressed, nor was it for fifty years that the Khazars were driven back and the pass of Derbent fortified against them (c. 507). Throughout the 6th century Khazaria was the mere highway for the wild hordes to whom the Huns had opened the passage into Europe, and the Khazars took refuge (like the Venetians from Attila) amongst the seventy mouths of the Volga. The pressure of the Turks in Asia precipitated the Avars upon the West. The conquering Turks followed in their footsteps (560-580). They beat down all opposition, wrested even Bosporus in the Crimea from the empire, and by the annihilation of the Ephthalites completed the ruin of the White Race of the plains from the Oxus to the Don. The empires of Turks and Avars, however, ran swiftly their barbaric course, and the Khazars arose out of the chaos to more than their ancient renown. They issued from the land of Barsilia, and extended their rule over the Bulgarian hordes left masterless by the Turks, compelling the more stubborn to migrate to the Danube (641). The agricultural Slavs of the Dnieper and the Oka were reduced to tribute, and before the end of the 7th century the Khazars had annexed the Crimea, had won complete command of the Sea of Azov, and, seizing upon the narrow neck which separates the Volga from the Don, had organized the portage which has continued since an important link in the traffic between Asia and Europe. The alliance with Byzantium was revived. Simultaneously, and no doubt in concert, with the Byzantine campaign against Persia (589), the Khazars had reappeared in Armenia, though it was not till 625 that they appear as Khazars in the Byzantine annals. They are then described as "Turks from the East," a powerful nation which held the coasts of the Caspian and the Euxine, and took tribute of the Viatitsh, the Severians and the Polyane. The khakan, enticed by the promise of an imperial princess, furnished Heraclius with 40,000 men for his Persian war, who shared in the victory over Chosroes at Nineveh. Meanwhile the Moslem empire had arisen. The Persian empire was struck down (637), and the Moslems poured into Armenia. The khakan, who had defied the summons sent him by the invaders, now aided the Byzantine patrician in the defence of Armenia. The allies were defeated, and the Moslems undertook the subjugation of Khazaria (651). Eighty years of warfare followed, but in the end the Moslems prevailed. The khakan and his chieftains were captured and compelled to embrace Islam (737), and till the decay of the Mahommedan empire Khazaria with all the other countries of the Caucasus paid an annual tribute of children and of corn (737-861). Nevertheless, though overpowered in the end, the Khazars had protected the plains of Europe from the Mahommedans, and made the Caucasus the limit of their conquests. In the interval between the decline of the Mahommedan empire and the rise of Russia the Khazars reached the zenith of their power. The merchants of Byzantium, Armenia and Bagdad met in the markets of Itil (whither since the raids of the Mahommedans the capital had been transferred from Semender), and traded for the wax, furs, leather and honey that came down the Volga. So important was this traffic held at Constantinople that, when the portage to the Don was endangered by the irruption of a fresh horde of Turks (the Petchenegs), the emperor Theophilus himself despatched the materials and the workmen to build for the Khazars a fortress impregnable to their forays (834). Famous as the one stone structure is in that stoneless region, the post became known far and wide amongst the hordes of the steppe as Sarkel or the White Abode. Merchants from every nation found protection and good faith in the Khazar cities. The Jews, expelled from Constantinople, sought a home amongst them, developed the Khazar trade, and contended with Mahommedans and Christians for the theological allegiance of the Pagan people. The dynasty accepted Judaism (c. 740), but there was equal tolerance for all, and each man was held amenable to the authorized code and to the official judges of his own faith. At the Byzantine court the khakan was held in high honour. The emperor Justinian Rhinotmetus took refuge with him during his exile and married his daughter (702). Justinian's rival Vardanes in turn sought an asylum in Khazaria, and in Leo IV. (775) the grandson of a Khazar sovereign ascended the Byzantine throne. Khazar troops were amongst the bodyguard of the imperial court; they fought for Leo VI. against Simeon of Bulgaria; and the khakan was honoured in diplomatic intercourse with the seal of three solidi, which marked him as a potentate of the first rank, above even the pope and the Carolingian monarchs. Indeed his dominion became an object of uneasiness to the jealous statecraft of Byzantium, and Constantine Porphyrogenitus, writing for his son's instruction in the government, carefully enumerates the Alans, the Petchenegs, the Uzes and the Bulgarians as the forces he must rely on to restrain it. It was, however, from a power that Constantine did not consider that the overthrow of the Khazars came. The arrival of the Varangians amidst the scattered Slavs (862) had united them into a nation. The advance of the Petchenegs from the East gave the Russians their opportunity. Before the onset of those fierce invaders the precarious suzerainty of the khakan broke up. By calling in the Uzes, the Khazars did indeed dislodge the Petchenegs from the position they had seized in the heart of the kingdom between the Volga and the Don, but only to drive them inwards to the Dnieper. The Hungarians, severed from their kindred and their rulers, migrated to the Carpathians, whilst Oleg, the Russ prince of Kiev, passed through the Slav tribes of the Dnieper basin with the cry "Pay nothing to the Khazars" (884). The kingdom dwindled rapidly to its ancient limits between the Caucasus, the Volga and the Don, whilst the Russian traders of Novgorod and Kiev supplanted the Khazars as the carriers between Constantinople and the North. When Ibn Fadlan visited Khazaria forty years later, Itil was even yet a great city, with baths and market-places and thirty mosques. But there was no domestic product nor manufacture; the kingdom depended solely upon the now precarious transit dues, and administration was in the hands of a major domus also called khakan. At the assault of Swiatoslav of Kiev the rotten fabric crumbled into dust. His troops were equally at home on land and water. Sarkel, Itil and Semender surrendered to him (965-969). He pushed his conquests to the Caucasus, and established Russian colonies upon the Sea of Azov. The principality of Tmutarakan, founded by his grandson Mstislav (988), replaced the kingdom of Khazaria, the last trace of which was extinguished by a joint expedition of Russians and Byzantines (1016). The last of the khakans, George, Tzula, was taken prisoner. A remnant of the nation took refuge in an island of the Caspian (Siahcouyé); others retired to the Caucasus; part emigrated to the district of Kasakhi in Georgia, and appear for the last time joining with Georgia in her successful effort to throw off the yoke of the Seljuk Turks (1089). But the name is thought to survive in Kadzaria, the Georgian title for Mingrelia, and in Kadzaro, the Turkish word for the Lazis. Till the 13th century the Crimea was known to European travellers as Gazaria; the "ramparts of the Khazars" are still distinguished in the Ukraine; and the record of their dominion survives in the names of Kazarek, Kazaritshi, Kazarinovod, Kozar-owka, Kozari, and perhaps in Kazan. AUTHORITIES.--_Khazar_: The letter of King Joseph to R. Hasdai Ibn Shaprut, first published by J. Akrish, _Kol Mebasser_ (Constantinople, 1577), and often reprinted in editions of Jehuda hal-Levy's _Kuzari_. German translations by Zedner (Berlin, 1840) and Cassel, _Magyar. Alterth._ (Berlin, 1848); French by Carmoly, _Rev. Or._ (1841). Cf. Harkavy, _Russische Revue_, iv. 69; Graetz, _Geschichte_, v. 364, and Carmoly, _Itinéraires de la Terre Sainte_ (Brussels, 1847). _Armenian_: Moses of Chorene; cf. Saint-Martin, _Mémoires historiques et géographiques sur l'Armènie_ (Paris, 1818). _Arabic_: The account of Ibn Fadlan (921) is preserved by Yakut, ii. 436 seq. See also Istakhry (ed. de Geoje, pp. 220 seq.), _Mas'udy_, ch. xvii. pp. 406 seq. of Sprenger's translation; _Ibn Haukal_ (ed. de Goeje, pp. 279 seq.) and the histories of Ibn el Athir and Tabary. Much of the Arabic material has been collected and translated by Fraehn, "Veteres Memoriae Chasarorum" in _Mém. de St Pét._ (1822); Dorn (from the Persian Tabary), _Mém. de St Pét._ (1844); Dufrémery, _Journ. As._ (1849). See also D'Ohsson's imaginary _Voyage d'Abul Cassim_, based on these sources. _Byzantine Historians_: The relative passages are collected in Stritter's _Memoriae populorum_ (St Petersburg, 1778). _Russian_: The _Chronicle_ ascribed to Nestor. _Modern_: Klaproth, "Mém. sur les Khazars," in _Journ. As._ 1st series, vol. iii.; id., _Tableaux hist. de l'Asie_ (Paris, 1823); id., _Tabl. hist. de Caucases_ (1827); memoirs on the Khazars by Harkavy and by Howorth (_Congrès intern. des Orientalistes_, vol. ii.); Latham, _Russian and Turk_, pp. 209-217; Vivien St Martin, _Études de géog. ancienne_ (Paris, 1850); id., _Recherches sur les populations du Caucase_ (1847); id., "Sur les Khazars," in _Nouvelles ann. des voyages_ (1857); D'Ohsson, _Peuples du Caucase_ (Paris, 1828); S. Krauss, "Zur Geschichte der Chazaren," in _Revue orientale pour les études Ourals-altaïques_ (1900). (P. L. G.; C. El.) KHEDIVE, a Persian word meaning prince or sovereign, granted as a title by the sultan of Turkey in 1867 to his viceroy in Egypt, Ismail, in place of that of "vali." KHERI, a district of British India, in the Lucknow division of the United Provinces, which takes its name from a small town with a railway station 81 m. N.W. of Lucknow. The area of the district is 2963 sq. m., and its population in 1901 was 905,138. It consists of a series of fairly elevated plateaus, separated by rivers flowing from the north-west, each bordered by alluvial land. North of the river Ul, the country is considered very unhealthy. Through this tract, probably the bed of a lake, flow two rivers, the Kauriala and Chauka, changing their courses constantly, so that the surface is seamed with deserted river beds much below the level of the surrounding country. The vegetation is very dense, and the stagnant waters are the cause of endemic fevers. The people reside in the neighbourhood of the low ground, as the soil is more fertile and less expensive to cultivate than the forest-covered uplands. South of the Ul, the scene changes. Between every two rivers or tributaries stretches a plain, considerably less elevated than the tract to the north. There is very little slope in any of these plains for many miles, and marshes are formed, from which emerge the headwaters of many secondary streams, which in the rains become dangerous torrents, and frequently cause devastating floods. The general drainage of the country is from north-west to south-east. Several large lakes exist, some formed by the ancient channels of the northern rivers, being fine sheets of water, from 10 to 20 ft. deep and from 3 to 4 m. long; in places they are fringed with magnificent groves. The whole north of the district is covered with vast forests, of which a considerable portion are government reserves. _Sal_ occupies about two-thirds of the forest area. The district is traversed by a branch of the Oudh & Rohilkhand railway from Lucknow to Bareilly. KHERSON, a government of south Russia, on the N. coast of the Black Sea, bounded W. by the governments of Bessarabia and Podolia, N. by Kiev and Poltava, S. by Ekaterinoslav and Taurida. The area is 27,497 sq. m. The aspect of the country, especially in the south, is that of an open steppe, and almost the whole government is destitute of forest. The Dniester marks the western and the Dnieper the south-eastern boundary; the Bug, the Ingul and several minor streams drain the intermediate territory. Along the shore stretch extensive lagoons. Iron, kaolin and salt are the principal minerals. Nearly 45% of the land is owned by the peasants, 31% by the nobility, 12% by other classes, and 12% by the crown, municipalities and public institutions. The peasants rent 1,730,000 acres more from the landlords. Agriculture is well developed and 9,000,000 acres (51.1%) are under crops. Agricultural machinery is extensively used. The vine is widely grown, and yields 1,220,000 gallons of wine annually. Some tobacco is grown and manufactured. Besides the ordinary cereals, maize, hemp, flax, tobacco and mustard are commonly grown; the fruit trees in general cultivation include the cherry, plum, peach, apricot and mulberry; and gardening receives considerable attention. Agriculture has been greatly improved by some seventy German colonies. Cattle-breeding, horse-breeding and sheep-farming are pursued on a large scale. Some sheep farmers own 30,000 or 40,000 merinos each. Fishing is an important occupation. There are manufactures of wool, hemp and leather; also iron-works, machinery and especially agricultural machinery works, sugar factories, steam flour-mills and chemical works. The ports of Kherson, Ochakov, Nikolayev, and especially Odessa, are among the principal outlets of Russian commerce; Berislav, Alexandriya Elisavetgrad, Voznesenask, Olviopol and Tiraspol play an important part in the inland traffic. In 1871 the total population was 1,661,892, and in 1897 2,744,040, of whom 1,332,175 were women and 785,094 lived in towns. The estimated pop. in 1906 was 3,257,600. Besides Great and Little Russians, it comprises Rumanians, Greeks, Germans (123,453), Bulgarians, Bohemians, Swedes, and Jews (30% of the total), and some Gypsies. About 84% belong to the Orthodox Greek Church; there are also numerous Stundists. The government is divided into six districts, the chief towns of which are: Kherson (q.v.), Alexandriya (14,002 in 1897), Ananiev (16,713), Elisavetgrad (66,182 in 1900), Odessa (449,673 in 1900), and Tiraspol (29,323 in 1900). This region was long subject to the sway of the Tatar khans of the Crimea, and owes its rapid growth to the colonizing activity of Catherine II., who between 1778 and 1792 founded the cities of Kherson, Odessa and Nikolayev. Down to 1803 this government was called Nikolayev. KHERSON, a town of south Russia, capital of the above government, on a hill above the right bank of the Dnieper, about 19 m. from its mouth. Founded by the courtier Potemkin in 1778 as a naval station and seaport, it had become by 1786 a place of 10,000 inhabitants, and, although its progress was checked by the rise of Odessa and the removal (in 1794) of the naval establishments to Nikolayev, it had in 1900 a population of 73,185. The Dnieper at this point breaks into several arms, forming islands overgrown with reeds and bushes; and vessels of burden must anchor at Stanislavskoe-selo, a good way down the stream. Of the traffic on the river the largest share is due to the timber, wool, cereals, cattle and hides trade; wool-dressing, soap-boiling, tallow-melting, brewing, flour-milling and the manufacture of tobacco are the chief industries. Kherson is a substantially built and regular town. The cathedral is the burial-place of Potemkin, and near Kherson lie the remains of John Howard, the English philanthropist, who died here in