“This city (Itil) has no villages. The fields of the citizens are scattered over a space of twenty parasangs, and in summer the townspeople go forth to them, sow them, and when the crops are ripe, they gather them and convey them in wagons or ships to the river or the deserts. The greater part of their food consists of rice and fish. Everything else found in their country is imported from Russia, Bulgaria, and Küjabâ. Most of the merchants dwell in the eastern part of the city; there, too, the Mohammedans reside and the wares are stored.
“The language of the Khazars differs from the Turkish and the Persian, nor has it anything in common with the language of any people.
“The Khazars are not like the Turks. They have black hair. There are two sorts of them. The one sort are called the Kara Khazars (that is, the Black Khazars); they are of a dusky complexion verging on black, so that they might be taken for a species of Indians. The other sort are of a white complexion and remarkable for their beauty and symmetry. All the slaves found among the Khazars are idolaters, for the idolaters deem it lawful to sell their children and to carry off their fellows into slavery. Whereas the Jews and Christians, who dwell in that country, esteem it contrary to their religion to carry off people into slavery, and the Mohammedans are of the same opinion.
“Nothing is exported from the land of the Khazars to other countries, but whatever is conveyed down from it has first been imported into it, such as flour, honey, wax, and the skins of otters and other animals.
“As for the King of the Khazars, whose title is khakan, he does not show himself in public except once in every four months, when he goes forth for his diversion to his pleasances. He is called the Great khakan, and his viceroy is called the khakan bh (?). It is the latter who leads and commands the armies, administers and superintends the affairs of state, appears in public, and conducts warlike
