Akatziri


The Akatziri, Akatzirs or Acatiri were a tribe that lived north of the Black Sea, though the Crimean city of Cherson seems to have been under their control in the sixth century. Jordanes called them a mighty people, not agriculturalists but cattle-breeders and hunters. Their ethnicity is undetermined: the 5th-century historian Priscus describes them as ethnic Scythians, but they are also referred to as Huns. Their name has also been connected to the Agathyrsi. However, according to E. A. Thompson, any conjectured connection between the Agathyrsi and the Akatziri should be rejected outright.

History

Roman emperor Theodosius II sent an envoy to the Akatziri trying to detach them from their alliance with the Hunnic ruler Attila, an effort made to stir up fighting which also ensued. In 447 or 448 the Huns successfully campaigned against the Akatziri. In 448 or 449, as Priscus recounts "Onegesius along with the eldest of Attila's children, had been sent to the Akateri, a Scythian people, whom he was bringing into an alliance with Attila". As the Akatziri tribes and clans were ruled by different leaders, emperor Theodosius II tried with gifts to spread animosity among them, but the gifts were not delivered according to rank, Karadach warned and called Attila against fellow leaders. So Attila did, Kardach stayed with his tribe or clan in own territory, while the rest of the Akatziri became subjected to Attila. Attila's son Ellac was installed as ruler of the Akatziri. According to Sinor, they were absorbed by the Saragurs in the 460s..

Akatziri rulers

Akatziri were also hypothesized to be a Turkic tribe, their ethnonym connected to Turkic Tahtacı, 'woodman' or *Aq Qazir "White Khazars". However, Peter B. Golden remarks that: " Neither of these theses has been firmly grounded in anything beyond phonetic resemblance"; and the other hypothesis that Akatziri were ancestors of the Khazars is not backed up by any solid evidence. Omeljan Pritsak links Ak-Katzirs to the name Khazar, though he explains that the polity was named Khazar simply because the Ashina-ruled Western Turks, after losing their territories to Tang Chinese, took over the territory formerly occupied by the Akatziri.