as "the noble and illustrious king." Whilst the Byzantine emperors used to seal their diplomatic letters to the Pope and to the Frankish emperors with a golden bull of light weight (two solidi), they made it one-third heavier when they wrote to the kings of the Chazars. Whoever is acquainted with the pedantic etiquette of this unstable court will at once recognize how much of fear was expressed by this mark of honor. The Chazar kings took great interest in their foreign co-religionists, and made reprisals for wrong done to the Jews. The king expressed his joy at receiving Chasdaï's letter, and corrected the false impression that the land of the Chazars had always been inhabited by Jews. "The Chazars were rather of heathen origin," he wrote in his answer, and narrated how his great ancestor Bulan had been converted to Judaism. He went on to enumerate the successors of Bulan, all of whom had Jewish names. He then describes the extent of his dominions, and the various peoples that were subject to him. As regards the hopes of a Messianic redemption which he also cherished, he remarks that neither he nor his people knew anything definite. "We set our eyes upon Jerusalem," he says, "and also upon the Babylonian schools. May God speedily bring about the redemption." "You write," he says, "that you long to see me. I have the same longing to make the acquaintance of yourself and your wisdom. If this wish could be fulfilled, and I might speak to you face to face, you should be my father and I would be your son, and I would entrust the government of my state to your hands." When Joseph wrote this letter, he could boast of the peaceful state of his kingdom. But circumstances changed in the course of a few years. One of Rurik's descendants, the Russian Prince Sviatislav of Kief, formerly almost a subject of the Chazars, made a formidable attack upon the country, and captured the fortress of Sarkel (965). The conqueror grew more powerful, and, a few years later, in 969, the same Sviatislav took the capital, Itil (Atel), and also captured Semender, the second town of the Chazars. The Chazars took to flight, some going to an island in the Caspian Sea, others to Derbend, and yet others to the Crimea, in which many members of the same race lived, and which henceforth received the name of "the Land of the Chazars." Its capital was Bosporus (Kertch). Thus did the kingdom of the Chazars decline, and Joseph was its last king who possessed any power. When Chasdaï received his letter, his patron, Abdul-Rahman, had died. His son Alhakem, a more zealous patron of science and poetry even than his father, now sat upon the throne. More peacefully disposed than his father, he honored Chasdaï, whom he made an important state official, and whose superior talents he employed as freely as his father had done.