Balanjar
Encyclopedia
Balanjar was a medieval city located in the North Caucasus
North Caucasus
The North Caucasus is the northern part of the Caucasus region between the Black and Caspian Seas and within European Russia. The term is also used as a synonym for the North Caucasus economic region of Russia....

 region, between the cities of Derbent
Derbent
Derbent |Lak]]: Чурул, Churul; Persian: دربند; Judæo-Tat: דארבּאנד/Дэрбэнд/Dərbənd) is a city in the Republic of Dagestan, Russia, close to the Azerbaijani border. It is the southernmost city in Russia, and it is the second most important city of Dagestan...

 and Samandar
Samandar (city)
Samandar was a city in Khazaria on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, south of the city of Atil, in the North Caucasus. The exact location of the city is unknown, but most likely, it was situated on the Terek river near the present-day city of Kizlyar, which, like Samandar, is noted for its...

, probably on the lower Sulak River
Sulak River
The Sulak is a river in Dagestan, Russia. It starts at the confluence of the Avar Koisu and the Andi Koisu rivers. It comes down the Main Sulak Canyon and the Akhetl and Chirkei gorges and the Minor Sulak Canyon...

. It flourished from the seventh to the tenth centuries CE. The legendary founder of Balanjar, according to the Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

 chroniclers Ibn al-Faqih
Ibn al-Faqih
Ibn al-Faqih al-Hamadani was a 10th century Persian historian and geographer, famous for his Mukhtasar Kitab al-Buldan .-References:...

 and Abu al-Fida, was named Balanjar ibn Japheth.

In the 630s CE Balanjar was a capital of the Baranjar state
Baranjars
Baranjars were a confederacy of Turkic tribes who flourished in the early Middle Ages. They are first mentioned in Arab chronicles of the 7th century. They were supposedly settled in the northern Caucasus Mountains in the 370s CE, having come to Europe with the nomadic Huns...

. Some scholars speculate that the name derives from the Turkic root "Bala" or "Great", and the clan-name "Endzhar". With the rest of the Baranjar domains the city became part of the Khazar Khaganate around 650; until the early 720s, Balanjar served as the capital of Khazaria. During the first Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

-Khazar war in the 650's, a Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 army under Abd ar-Rahman ibn Rabiah
Abd ar-Rahman ibn Rabiah
Abd ar-Rahman ibn Rabiah was the Arab general of the early Caliphate. He may have been the brother of Salman ibn Rabiah, the military governor of Armenia under Caliph Umar I. He was charged with the task of conquering the Khazars and invaded the northern Caucasus for this purpose in the late 640s...

 was defeated outside the town (see Battle of Balanjar
Battle of Balanjar (650s)
The Battle of Balanjar was a battle that took place during the First Khazar-Arab War between the armies of the Khazar Khaganate and the Caliphate, whose commanding general was Abd ar-Rahman ibn Rabiah....

).

Around 722 or 723, Umayyad
Umayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four major Arab caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. It was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty, whose name derives from Umayya ibn Abd Shams, the great-grandfather of the first Umayyad caliph. Although the Umayyad family originally came from the...

 soldiers under al-Djarrah ibn Abdullah
Al-Djarrah ibn Abdullah
Abu `Uqbah al-Djarrah ibn `Abdullah al-Hakami was an Arab nobleman of the Hakami tribe. During the course of the early 700s he was at various times governor of Seistan, Khurasan, Armenia, and Arran...

 crossed the Caucasus Mountains and attacked Balanjar. The inhabitants of Balanjar tried to defend their town by fastening 3,000 wagon
Wagon
A wagon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals; it was formerly often called a wain, and if low and sideless may be called a dray, trolley or float....

s together and circling them around the key fortress on high terrain, but were defeated in the attack. The Arabs massacred much of the town's population; survivors fled to other towns, including Samandar
Samandar (city)
Samandar was a city in Khazaria on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, south of the city of Atil, in the North Caucasus. The exact location of the city is unknown, but most likely, it was situated on the Terek river near the present-day city of Kizlyar, which, like Samandar, is noted for its...

. The victorious Arab army stole much booty
Booty
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 and the soldiers received large sums of money.

The city was rebuilt after the war, but the capital of Khazaria was thereafter moved to Samandar and later to Atil
Atil
Atil , literally meaning "Big River", was the capital of Khazaria from the middle of the 8th century until the end of the 10th century. The word is also a Turkic name for the Volga River.-History:...

. Nevertheless, Balanjar continued to be a city of great importance within the Khaganate. After the fall of Khazaria Balanjar lost much of its importance and declined steadily until it vanished from the record around 1100.

The exact location of Balanjar has not yet been established precisely. Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 archeologist Mikhail Artamonov
Mikhail Artamonov
Mikhail Illarionovich Artamonov Artamonov's scientific career was centered on the Leningrad University, where he was a professor since 1935 and the head of the chair of archeology since 1949. He researched Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements by the Don River, in the North Caucasus and in the Ukraine...

 initially placed Balanjar on the site of the modern Daghestani city of Buynaksk
Buynaksk
Buynaksk is a town in the Republic of Dagestan, Russia, located at the foothills of the Greater Caucasus on the Shura-Ozen River, southwest of the republic's capital Makhachkala. Population: 40,000 ....

, but when later the ruins of a town to the south of Makhachkala
Makhachkala
-Twin towns/sister cities:Makhachkala is twinned with: Sfax, Tunisia Siping, China Spokane, United States Vladikavkaz, Russia Yalova, Turkey Ndola, Zambia-See also:*...

were found, he idenitified them as being those of Balanjar.
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