Editing Atil (section)

==History and description==
Atil was located along the Volga delta at the northwestern corner of the [[Caspian Sea]]. Following the defeat of the [[Khazars]] in the [[Second Arab-Khazar War]], Atil became the capital of Khazaria.

[[Book of Roads and Kingdoms (Ibn Khordadbeh)|Ibn Khordadbeh]], writing in ca. 870, names  ''Khamlij'' as the capital of the Khazars.<ref>{{cite book |last=Golden |first=Peter B. |title=Khazar Studies: An Historico-Philological Inquiry into the Origins of the Khazars |date=1980 |publisher=Akadémiai Kiadó |isbn=978-9-63051-549-8 |page=230}}</ref> This is presumably a rendition of Turkic ''khaganbaligh'' "city of the khan" and refers to the city later (in the 10th century) named as ''Atil'' in [[Tarikh|Arab historiography]].

At its height, the city was a major center of trade. It consisted of three parts separated by the Volga. The western part contained the administrative center of the city, with a court house and a large military garrison. The eastern part of the city was built later and acted as the commercial center of the Atil, and had many public baths and shops. Between them was an island on which stood the palaces of the Khazar [[Khagan]] and [[Khagan Bek|Bek]]. The island was connected to one of the other parts of the city by a [[pontoon bridge]]. 
According to [[Arab]] sources of the 10th century,<ref>{{cite book |last=Golden|first=Peter B.|page=224|date=1980|title=Khazar Studies: An Historico-Philological Inquiry into the Origins of the Khazars|publisher=Akadémiai Kiadó}}</ref> one half of the city was referred to as Atil, while the other was named [[Khazaran]].

Atil was a multi-ethnic and religiously diverse city, inhabited by [[Jew]]s, [[Christianity|Christians]], [[Islam|Muslims]], [[Shamanism|Shamanists]], and [[Paganism|Pagans]], many of them traders from foreign countries. All of the religious groups had their own places of worship in the city, and there were seven judges appointed to settle disputes (two Christian, two Jewish, and two Muslim judges, with a single judge for all of the Shamanists and other Pagans).<ref>{{cite book |last=Brook|first=Kevin A.|page=52|date=2018|title=The Jews of Khazaria|edition=3rd|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9781538103425}}</ref> The numerous Christians of Atil were under the jurisdiction of their own [[bishop]]; the [[minaret]] of the [[Friday mosque]] of the Muslims of Atil is said to have been higher than the castle.<ref name=":1" />

[[File:RadzivillChronicleFol8rb.jpg|thumb|right|Miniature depicting payment of tribute to the Varangians and the Khazars, [[Radziwiłł Chronicle]]]]

The city was a major trade center, and managed the [[Khazar slave trade]], in which slaves bought for export were transported from the Khazar Khaganate to either the [[Black Sea slave trade]] in the West via the [[Black Sea]] port of [[Kerch]], or East from the capital of Atil via the Caspian Sea to [[Central Asia]] and from there to [[slavery in the Abbasid Caliphate]].<ref>The World of the Khazars: New Perspectives. Selected Papers from the Jerusalem 1999 International Khazar Colloquium. (2007). Nederländerna: Brill. p. 233</ref>

[[Image:S. V. Ivanov. Trade negotiations in the country of Eastern Slavs. Pictures of Russian history. (1909).jpg|thumb|The [[Rus' people|Rus']] trading slaves with the Khazars: ''Trade in the [[East Slavs|East Slavic]] Camp'' by [[Sergei Ivanov (painter)|Sergei Ivanov]] (1913)]]

[[Svyatoslav I of Kiev]] sacked Atil in 968 or 969 CE. [[Ibn Hawqal]] and [[al-Muqaddasi]] refer to Atil after 969, indicating that it may have been rebuilt.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dunlop|first=Douglas M.|pages=245–246, 248|date=1954|title=The History of the Jewish Khazars|publisher=Princeton University Press}}</ref> [[Al-Biruni]] (mid-11th century) reported that Atil was again in ruins,<ref>{{cite book |last=Dunlop|first=Douglas M.|pages=248|date=1954|title=The History of the Jewish Khazars|publisher=Princeton University Press}}</ref> and did not mention the later city of [[Saqsin]] which was built nearby, so it is possible that this new Atil was only destroyed in the middle of the 11th century.

[[File:Поход Святослава на хазар.png | thumb | right |The eastern campaign of Prince Svtoslav in 965, in which he captured the White Tower and defeated the Khazar Khaganate, [[Radziwiłł Chronicle]]]]