Atil (Khazar capital)

Atil: the city of the Khazars and their capital, according to al-Idrisi. It is two cities on the two banks of the river: the king lives in the western city and the people in the eastern city, about two miles apart, and a strong wall surrounds both. ²

Atil, or Itil, also Khazaran Atil, was the Khazar capital, a double town on the lower Volga. The exact site is unknown. Al-Mas'udi says that the capital was moved to Atil from Samandar, in the Caucasus region, in the time of Sulayman ibn Rabi'a al-Bahili, about 30 AH (650), though elsewhere he says that Samandar was the original capital. ³

Al-Istakhri describes the western bank, the larger part, as a straggling town of felt tents with a few clay houses, several miles in extent and surrounded by a wall. The Khazars proper, the Judaised ruling class, the army and the royal castle of brick stood on this bank. Most of the Muslims, estimated at 10,000 in all, lived on the east bank, which was the commercial part with markets, baths and mosques. There was also a considerable Christian population, and a colony of pagan Saqaliba and Rus. The correct naming appears to be Khazaran for the west bank and Atil for the east. ³

As the modern Astrakhan would later be, Atil was an important entrepot. Furs from the north passed through the Khazar capital; contact was made with Kievan Russia to the west and with Khwarazm to the east, and the slave trade seems to have been important. In the 960s the Rus destroyed the capital, and it never recovered its former prosperity, although the Rus withdrew and attempts were made to rebuild it. After that Khazaran Atil ceases to be mentioned. ⁴