| What makes me wonder about this last testimony is that people value life, and not death. And the native population which consumed mushrooms knew that god was never asking for sacrifice from people. The mushroom never tells you to kill people, it tells you to consume it or to make it the living sacrifice. I cannot see how in any ancient times, especially around the period of 1000 AD, when tribes of people would have lost their way so much from 1000 years prior, or even 500 years prior to where they went from taking mushrooms and celebrating to sacrificing people and eating them. It does not make sense in the light of all of the new information I have gathered. We will get to the Mayans and the Aztecs soon, as this period succeeded the period being discussed now. Koestler, in the Thirteenth Tribe, then goes onto mention the human sacrifice by the Khazars and where he describes their “ritual of the killing of the king,” a topic already discussed. Which is very telling also, because Ibn Fadlin’s observations were limited. He was barred from visiting the Khazar capital and so had to rely on second hand information provided by the Bulgar court. (36) Now Ibn is relating what he learned from the Bulgar court. He is discussing the Great Kagan’s funeral arrangement and how, “those who bury him are decapitated, so that nobody may know in which of the chambers is his grave. The grave is called ‘Paradise’ and they have a saying, ‘He has entered Paradise.’ All the chambers are spread with silk brocade interwoven with threads of gold.” … “It is a custom of the King of the Khazars to have twenty-five wives; each of the wives is a daughter of a king who owes him allegiance. He takes them by consent or by force; he has sixty girls for concubines, each of them of exquisite beauty.” (37) I would like to comment here, that a king with sixty wives is no king, he is a slave. A happy slave, maybe, but still no less a slave. Imagine arguing with your wife and now multiply that by sixty. Just imagine telling all sixty of them how you want the palace designed. Let that thought sink in for a moment or two. There’s only two choices here. Be a happy slave or an unhappy one. While the Bulgars live mostly in tents, the Khazar Kagan inhabited a castle made of burned brick, while his ladies are said to inhabit “palaces with roofs of teak,” (38) and the Muslims have several mosques, among them “one whose minaret rises above the royal castle.” (39) It appears from these writings that the Khazars were moderately “developed” as an empire. (I’ll bet the palaces were nicer than the castle). Ibn Fadlin discussing the ritual of the “killing of the king” writes: “The period of the king’s rule is forty years. If he exceeds this time by a single day, his subjects and attendants kill him, saying, ‘His reasoning is already dimmed, and his insight confused’.” Another telling by Istakri says, “When they wish to enthrone this Kagen, they put a silken cord around his neck and tighten it until he begins to choke. They ask him, ‘How long do you intend to rule?’ If he does not die before that year, he is killed when he reaches it.” (40) |
Scientists and archaeologists admit tracking down evidence for human sacrifice is not easy. Archaeologist Glenn Schwartz of Johns Hopkins University is quoted as stating: “Sacrifices undoubtedly played dramatic roles in human affairs in ancient history, but these bloody rituals have proved challenging to study.” Schwartz continues, “Archaeology is all about analyzing the physical remains of human activity, and if you’re talking about religious issues such as beliefs in the cosmos and the supernatural, how do you infer those from physical objects?,” he says; “It’s a lot easier for archaeologists to study, say, the economic or political issues of past societies than it is to study what they may have believed about the world and why they did what they did in religious contexts.” (41) In 732 AD, Constantine V married Tzitzak, daughter of the Khazar khagan Bihar, an important Byzantine ally. His new bride was baptized Irene (Eirēnē, “peace”) and this new marriage created an alliance between the Christian Empire and the Khazar Empire. (42) According to Wiki, on the Khazar wars, following that episode: “The first conflict between the Khazars and the Abbasids resulted from a diplomatic manoeuvre by the Caliph al-Mansur (r. 754–775.) Attempting to strengthen the Caliphate's ties with the Khazars, in c. 760, he ordered his governor of Armenia, Yazid al-Sulami, to marry a daughter of the khagan Baghatur. The marriage indeed took place amidst much celebration, but she died in childbirth two years later, along with her infant child. The khagan suspected the Muslims of poisoning his daughter, and launched devastating raids south of the Caucasus in 762–764.” (43) (37) Thirteenth Tribe, p. 45 (38) ibid; Istakhri, ed. de Goeje, Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum, pars. I (39) ibid, p. 46; Al-Masudi, Meadows of Gold Mines and Precious Stones, French trans., 9, vol. (Paris, 1861-77) (40) ibid, p. 53 (41)https://www.knowablemagazine.org/ article/society/2018/unearthing-secrets-human-sacrifice (42) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Constantine_V (43) Thirteenth Tribe, p. 48; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab%E2%80%93Khazar_wars |