(Died A.D. 948).

Abu-l-Faraj Qudama-ibn-Ja'far-ibn-Qudama was a Christian who converted to Islam under the Caliph Muktefi.

We do not know anything about his life, except that he was in the civil service in Baghdad. His father knew Ibn Khordadbe personally.

Kudama wrote a lot of works, but only the second half of his composition, "Kitab-al-Kharaj", has reached us. For reasons of de Goeje, Qudama wrote this book around 316 AH. The information given to us by Kudama is especially important because he borrowed a lot from official sources, what he could do as a person in the civil service.

Qudama died in 337 AH.

The surviving part of Kudama's work is in the Koprule library in Constantinople. The list from this manuscript was obtained with great difficulty by Sh. Shefer.

Unfortunately, the manuscript is far from dotted everywhere, which makes it impossible to read the text correctly.

Part of this book forms the second half of the 6th volume of the Bibliotheca Geographorum edition of M. J. de Goeje, following Ibn-Khordadbe's work, and is entitled Excerpta e Kitab al Kharadj auctore Kudama-ibn Dja'far.

The numbers in the margins of this text and translation indicate pages in volume VI of de Goeje; Latin letters in parentheses refer to footnotes, and numbers with brackets refer to actual comments placed at the end of the author.

Extracts from the book about the haraj and the duties of the secretary of Abul-Faraj Qudama-ibn-Ja'far, the secretary of Baghdad.

Provinces of Aderbeijana 4:

Ardabil, Merand, Jabravan, Varsan, and the capital is the city of Berda'a. The income received from them, according to the average calculation, is 4 500 000 dirhems,

The two provinces of Arzan and Mayafarikin adjoin Diyar Rabia from the north. The average income from them is 4,100,000 dirhems.

The neighboring country Tarun, actually a constituent part of Armenia; its owner pays 100,000 dirhems separately annually.

Armenia, located to the north of Tarun, contains the provinces: Jurzan, Dabil, Berzend, Siraje Tir, Badjunays, Arjish, Khilat, Sisajan, Arran, Kalikala and Busfurjan, and its capital is Nashava. Income from it on average in silver coin 4,000,000 dirhams.

The Khazar territory stretches from Armenia to Khuvarezm Khorasan. Anushirvan-ibn-Qubad, having ascended the throne, founded the cities of Shabiran, Muscat and Bab and al-Abwab in Armenia; they are named Abwab because they are built over roads in the mountains. He populated all these 260 places with detachments from his army, named Siyasadzhi. Then, fearing the raids of the Khazars, he wrote to their king, asking him for peace, friendship and the conclusion of a defensive alliance, and woo his daughter in order to seal the friendship with the Khazar king; and in general Anushirvan showed a strong desire for even greater kinship with the Khazar and sent him one girl who was in his palace and was adopted by one of his spouses, whom he gave to his daughter. The Khazar took his daughter to Anushirvan. After that Anushirvan went to the Khazar and they met at a place known as al-Barshali; They feasted for several days and became friends with each other, showing mutual tenderness and honoring each other. Then Anushirvan ordered some of his trusted and confidants to suddenly attack the edge of the Khazar king's camp and set it on fire. With the onset of morning, the Khazar complained to Anushirvan about this, and he denied it, saying that he knew nothing about this case. After several nights passed, Anushirvan ordered his friends to do again what they had done before. When this was done, the Khazar, in anger at their act, began to loudly express his displeasure, until Anushirvan calmed him and apologized to him. The Khazar king accepted the apology and calmed down. Then Anushirvan gave the order to plant fire in one of the edges of his camp; the fire hit the sheds built of hay and brushwood. In the morning, Anushirvan began to loudly express his displeasure to the Khazars and told him: “Your people almost destroyed and destroyed my camp. You suspected me, and now I, in turn, have the right to suspect you. " Then the Khazarez swore to him that he knew nothing about what had happened.

Anushirvan told him: “O my brother! As you can see, your army and mine do not approve of our world, as it is a hindrance to their campaigns and raids, which we previously undertook against each other. I fear that they might unleash a rebellion that will shatter our hearts after our sincere and pure love, so that we will turn to the old enmity after the conclusion of kinship and friendship; it would be fair if you let me build a wall between you and me. We will make a gate in it and not a single person will enter from you against our will. "

The Khazar gave him a favorable answer to this and retired, and Anushirvan set about building a wall and rebuilt it between the sea and the mountains, lifting it 300 cubits high, from boulders and lead.6 Then he ordered to carry stones on ships and throw them in the sea until the embankment rises above the surface of the water; on this embankment he continued to build the wall and drove the wall into the sea for three miles. After completing the construction of the wall, he hung an iron gate in the passage and assigned 100 horse guards to them, whereas before he had to appoint 50,000 troops there; he also built a movable tower there. The Khazar king was told after that: "He deceived you, giving not his daughter for you and having strengthened himself from you." But the Khazarets already could do nothing against Anushirvan's cunning. From that time on, the Khazars' raids on Armenia stopped, whereas before the Khazars constantly attacked it ...

Per. N. A. Karaulova

The text is reproduced from the publication: Information of Arab writers about the Caucasus, Armenia and Aderbeijon: IV. Kudama // Collection of materials for the description of localities and tribes of the Caucasus, Vol. 32. Tiflis. 1903