sharp decline in Sougdaia's fortunes. Archaeological evidence shows that the 6th-century constructions were abandoned in the 8th/9th century, while later Russian legends (probably apocryphal) claim that the city was captured by the Rus' chieftain, Bravlin, at around the same time. Byzantine control lapsed, and the city probably came under Khazar suzerainty thereafter, which lasted until the early 11th century. In the early 10th century, the local see was promoted to an archbishopric. High and late Middle Ages The 11th–14th centuries represent a period of prosperity for the city, as shown in archaeological evidence of renewed activity both in the harbour as well as the hinterland and the area of the citadel. It became an important location for trading on the Silk Road in the 12th and 13th centuries, as a terminus for Black Sea trade. The 14th-century Arab traveller Ibn Battuta even compares its harbour with that of Alexandria. The 13th-century chronicler Ibn al-Athir writes of it as the "city of the Qifjaq from which (flow) their material possessions. It is on the Khazar Sea. Ships come to it bearing clothes. The Qifjiqs buy from them and sell them slaves. Burtas furs, beaver, squirrels ..." By the mid-11th century, Sougdaia had returned to Byzantine control, probably following the defeat of the Khazar warlord Georgius Tzul in 1016. An inscription of 1059 mentions Leo Aliates, "strategos of Cherson and Sougdaia". By the end of the century, however, the city passed under Cuman control, which lasted until the 13th century. In the Seljuk Turks besieged it, followed by destructive Golden Horde Tatar raids in 1223 and 1238. Finally, in the city passed under Tatar control, although it retained considerable autonomy. Contemporary sources place its population at the time to 8,300, including Greeks, Alans, Tatars, Armenians, Latins, and Jews. Under Tatar rule, the city was governed by the notables of the city and the 18 villages surrounding it. In the Greek sources they are mentioned by the Byzantine title sebastos, while the Latin sources use the Latinized Greek term proti ("first men"). Sometime between 1275 and 1282, the local see, which after being united with Phoulloi in the late 11th century was known as Sougdophoulloi, was raised to the status of a metropolitan see. The city's prosperity was increased by the establishment of Venetian and Genoese commercial colonies in the Crimea during the late 13th century, but at the same time, the area