392 The Killing of the Khazar Kings.
Arab Herodotus. " The parallel, however, must be taken with great deductions. Of the Meadows, the work by which Mas'udy is chiefly known, by far the greater part is an historical compilation, enlivened indeed in some parts by personal recollections of places and the like, but mainly drawn from a vast mass of earlier books which are used in the common paste-and-scissors fashion of Eastern history. Even in the earlier cosmographical chapters the author's vast and miscellaneous reading, which included the Arabic translations of Ptolemy and other Greek writers, is mingled with his original observations in that ill-digested style so often characteristic of men of prodigious acquisitive power." ^
The following is El-Mas'udy's account of the Khazars and their kings :
" The nation nearest to Bab el-Abwab are the Hai'dan. They form one of the kingdoms of the Khazars. Next to Hai'dan is the kingdom of the Khazars. Their metropolis was the city of Semender, which is eight days' journey from the town of Bab el-Abwab. This city has a numerous population of Khazars, but it is no longer the capital, for when Solaiman Ben Rabi'ah el-Bahili conquered Semender in the beginning of the Islam, the king transferred his residence to Itil, which is seven days' journey from Semender ; and since this time the kings of the Khazars reside there.
" This town (Itil) is divided into three parts, by a large river, w^hich rises from the higher regions of the country of the Turks, and from which an arm branches off, somewhere near the country of the Targhiz (Bulgarians), and falls into the sea of Mayotis.^ This town has two sides. In the
^Encyclopaedia Britannua, ninth edition, xv. (Edinburgh, 1883), pp. 623 sq. ; C. D'Ohsson, Des Peiiples du Caucase, pp. iii-viii ; C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der Arabischen Lilteratu7- (V\'cim&x, 1898 — Berlin, 1902),!. 143-145.
- " The error that the Don is a branch of the Wolga is also met with in
Byzantine authors (Klaproth)." (Translator's note.)
