KAGHAN

--The title of the Khazar ruler, comes from the Tatar word khan, which means "prince". According to Ibn Fadlan, the Khazars buried kaghans under water, in streams. The kaghan always shared power with a coruler and was senior only to the extent that he was the first to be wished a good day. The kaghan usually came from an old ruling--perhaps Turkish--family, whereas the king, or bey, his coruler, was a man of the people, a Khazar. A 9th-century document (Yakubi) says that as early as the 6th century the kaghan also had a caliph as his representative. The best record of corule among the Khazars was left by Al-Istakhri. Written in 320 according to the Arabic calendar (932 A.D.), it goes as follows:

"As for Khazar politics and administration, the ruler is called the kaghan of the Khazars. He is higher in rank than the Khazar king (bak or bey), except it is the king who appoints him (gives him the title of kaghan). When they wish to appoint a kaghan, the designee is brought in and strangled with a piece of silk until his breath is almost cut off, and then they ask him: 'How long to you wish to rule?' and he replies, 'Such-and-such number of years.' If he dies before that term expires, then nothing happens. If not, they kill him as soon as said number of years is completed. The kaghan has power only in the homes of prominent families. He does not have the right to command, but he is honored and everyone falls prostrate in his presence. The kaghan is chosen from a group of prominent people who have neither power nor money. When it is someone's turn to assume the post, they choose him without examining his property status.. I heard from a reliable source that she saw a young man in the street selling bread. It was said that when the kaghan dies, this young fellow was the only person deserved to take his place, but he was a Moslem and the title of kaghan is only given to Jews."

The kaghan's corulers were usually excellent warriors. Once, after a battle victory, the loot they captured from their enemies included a cuckoo bird whose cries opened the springs of drinking water. Their enemies then cam to live with them. Time began to pass too slowly. They aged in one year as they used to in seven, and they had to change their calendar, which was divided into three months--the month of the sun, the month of the moon, and the month of no moonlight. They were born in twenty days; they had nine harvests within a single summer, and then nine consecutive winters to eat what they had reaped. In one day they went to bed five times, cooked and sat down to eat fifteen times; milk stayed fresh only on moonless nights that lasted so long that the people would forget where their paths lay, and when the day finally dawned they could not recognize one another, because some had grown up and others had grown old. And they knew that, when night fell again, it would be the last they saw of this generation. The letters inscribed by the dream hunters became bigger and bigger; the tips of the letters were hard to reach; books were no longer tall enough, and so the dream hunters began writing on hill slopes; rivers flowed on and on to the great sea; and one night, while the horses were grazing in the moonlight, and angel appeared in the kaghan's dream and said to him:

"The Creator is pleased with your intentions but not with your deeds."

The kaghan then asked the dream hunters what his dream meant and whence came the Khazar's misfortune. One of the dream hunters said that a great man was coming and that time was pacing itself accordingly. To this, the kaghan replied, "That is not true; we have grown smaller, and that is where our troubles come from."

He then dismissed the Khazar priests and dream hunters and ordered that a Jew, and Arab, and a Greek be brought to him to explain the dream. He had decided that he and his people would convert to the faith of the one who provided the best explanation. When the polemic about the three faiths began at the kaghan's court, he was swayed by the arguments of the Arab participant, Farabi Ibn Kora, who, among other things, gave the most satisfactory answer to the following question:

"What illuminates our dreams, which take place in total darkness, behind our closed eyes? The memory of light, which no longer exists, or the light of the future, which we take like an advance on tomorrow's day, even though it is not yet daybreak?"

"In both instances it is a nonexistent light," replied Farabi Ibn Kora. "Therefore, it does not matter which answer is right, for the question itself should be taken as nonexistent."

The name of the kaghan who adopted Islam has not been preserved. It is known he was buried under the sign of "elif" (the crescent-shaped Arabic letter). Other sources say his name was Katib before he took off his shoes and washed his feet to enter the mosque. When he had finished his prayers and stepped out into the sun, his old name and shoes were gone.