Editing Samandar (city)

{{Short description|Khazar city on the Caspian Sea (6th century-960s)}}
{{For|the modern urban-type settlement in Dagestan|Semender}}
[[Image:Varangian routes.png|thumb|400px|Map showing the major Varangian trade routes of the 8th–11th centuries, with Balanjar along the [[Volga trade route]] (in red). ]]
'''Samandar''' (also '''Semender''') was a city in (and briefly capital of) [[Khazaria]], on the western shore of the [[Caspian Sea]], in what is now [[Dagestan|Daghestan]]. At some later date, it may have been moved inland to some areas near the present-day village of [[Shelkovskaya]] in the modern [[Chechen Republic]].

==Location==
The exact location of the city is unknown. Medieval Arabic sources report simply that it was midway between [[Derbent]] and [[Atil]], near the shore of the [[Caspian Sea]].{{sfn|Brook|2018|p=31}} Modern scholars have variously identified Samandar with [[Kizlyar]] on the [[Terek River]], or with [[Tarki]] further south on the Caspian coast. Tarki corresponds more closely to medieval sources, as the 10th-century ''[[Hudud al-'Alam]]'' reports that Samandar was on the coast, and archaeological finds from the Khazar period, including fortifications, have been found there.{{sfn|Brook|2018|p=31}} The city might possibly had been moved at some later date to the [[hill fort]] corresponding to the present day location of the village of [[Shelkovskaya]] on the [[Terek (river)|Terek]].{{sfn|Brook|2018|p=31}}

==History==
The Russian scholar [[Svetlana Pletnyova]] suggested that the name "Samandar" meant "Farthest Gate" in [[Middle Persian]], and that the town was built by the [[Sassanid]] ruler [[Khosrow I]] in the 6th century.{{sfn|Brook|2018|p=30}} Other scholars have proposed that the name of the city may derive from the name of a [[Hun]]nish tribe "Zabender". The [[Greece|Greek]] writer [[Theophylact Simocatta]] refers to a migration of Zabender from Asia to Europe in about 598; in addition, an [[Armenia]]n book on geography attributed to [[Moses of Chorene]] mentions a town "M-s-n-d-r" in the land of Huns located to the north of Derbent.

Samandar became the second capital of the [[Khazar Khaganate]] in the 720s, after [[Balanjar]] was abandoned as a result of the [[Arab–Khazar wars|Umayyad invasion]]. For the same reason, the capital was moved again further north to [[Atil]], sometime between 730 and 750.{{sfn|Brook|2018|p=20}}

According to the 10th-century geographers [[al-Istakhri]] and [[Ibn Hawqal]], Samandar was inhabited by [[Jew]]s, [[Christianity|Christians]], [[Muslims]], and members of other religious faiths, each of which had its houses of worship. According to al-Istakhri, Samandar was famous for its fertile gardens and vineyards, and a lively centre of commerce with several markets; the city was mostly built of wood.{{sfn|Brook|2018|pp=30–31}} Samandar, like Atil, was destroyed by [[Kievan Rus']] prince [[Sviatoslav I of Kiev|Sviatoslav]] in the 960s, leading to a decline and disappearance of Khazaria.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book | first = Kevin Alan | last = Brook | title = The Jews of Khazaria, Third Edition | publisher = Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc | location = London | year = 2018 | isbn = 9781538103425 }}
*[[Douglas Morton Dunlop|Dunlop, Douglas Morton]] (1997). "Samandar". ''[[Encyclopaedia Judaica]]'' (CD-ROM Edition Version 1.0). Ed. [[Cecil Roth]]. Keter Publishing House. {{ISBN|965-07-0665-8}}

{{Khazaria}}

[[Category:Defunct towns in Russia]]
[[Category:Khazar towns]]
[[Category:Former populated places in Russia]]
[[Category:History of Dagestan]]