TheKabars (Greek:Κάβαροι), also known as Qavars (Qabars)[1] orKhavars,[2] wereKhazar rebels who joinedMagyar tribes and theRus' Khaganate confederations in the9th century CE.
TheByzantine EmperorConstantine VII is the principal source of the Kabar history.[3][4] He dedicated a whole chapter—chapter 39—to the Kabars (orKabaroi) in hisDe Administrando Imperio,[4] which was completed around 950. The Emperor described the Kabars as "a race of Khazars" who had risen up against the Khagan.[4] When the uprising was crushed, some of them were massacred, but others escaped and joined theMagyars in thePontic steppes.[4]
The Kabars rebelled against theKhazar Khaganate in the early ninth century; the rebellion was notable enough to be described inConstantine Porphyrogenitus's workDe Administrando Imperio. Subsequently the Kabars were expelled fromLevedia in the Khazar Khaganate leading theMagyar tribal confederacy calledHét-Magyar (meaning "seven Hungarians") toEtelköz while others underKhan-Tuvan sought refuge by joining theRus' people.[5] One of the names on theKievian Letter is "Kiabar", showing that some Kabars settled in Kiev with the Rus' as well. According to Magocsi, "A violent civil war took place during the 820s [...] The losers of the internal political struggle, known as Kabars, fled northward to the Varangian Rus' in the upperVolga region, nearRostov, and southward to theMagyars, who formerly had been loyal vassals of theKhazars. The presence of Kabar political refugees fromKhazaria among the Varangian traders in Rostov helped to raise the latter's prestige, with the consequence that by the 830s a new power center known as the Rus' Khaganate had come into existence."[6]
In 894, theByzantine emperorLeo VI, thenat war withSimeon, theBulgarianczar (893–927), called the Hungarians to his aid. The Magyars, led byÁrpád, crossed the Danube and attackedBulgaria. The Bulgarians, in turn, appealed to the Pechenegs, now masters of the steppe, who attacked the Hungarians in the rear. Toward 850 or 860, driven fromLevedia by thePechenegs, they entered Atelkuzu (Etelköz) taking refuge in the mountains ofTransylvania. At that moment,Arnulf, duke of Carinthia, at war with theSlav rulerSvatopluk, prince ofGreat Moravia (885–894),[citation needed] decided like the Byzantines to appeal to the Hungarians. The Hungarians overcame Svatopluk, who disappeared in the conflict (895). The Magyars reached theDanube river basin around 880. As the vanguard and rearguard, the Kabars, or Cowari as they were known in Latin, assisted in theMagyar invasion of Pannonia and the subsequent formation of thePrincipality of Hungary in the late 9th century.[7] Great Moravia collapsed, and the Hungarians took up permanent abode in Hungary (907).
The presence of a Turkic aristocracy among the Hungarians could explain the Byzantine protocol by which, in the exchange of ambassadors under Constantine Porphyrogenitus, Hungarian rulers were always referred to as "Princes of the Turks".[8]
At least some of the Khazar elite apparently converted to Judaism,[9] but this might not have included Kabars.[10][11] The conversion did not seem to have impacted most of the population in the Khazar Khaganate: paganism remained as the religion of the majority of the population, and there were also notable Christian and Muslim groups.[9] Since the conversion to Judaism was initiated by the ruler, the theory that the rebels against the ruler would have joined to the conversion has been questioned. There is also debate about the date of Kabars joining to Magyars and it could have happened before the Khazar elite's conversion.[10] Still, according to a theory, graves with Jewish symbols found in modern-dayČelarevo,Serbia could be related to Kabars.[11]
The Kabars supposedly left scattered remains and some cultural and linguistic imprints, but this is debatable.
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