For most of its history, Khazaria served as abuffer state between theByzantine Empire, the nomads of the northern steppes, and theUmayyad andAbbasid Caliphates, having previously been Byzantium'sproxy against the rivalSasanian Empire. Around 900, the Byzantines began encouraging theAlans to attack Khazaria; this move aimed to weaken Khazar control over Crimea and the Caucasus and facilitate imperial diplomacy andproselytizing towards the powerfulKievan Rus' in the north.[15] By 969,Sviatoslav I of Kiev, the ruler of Kievan Rus', along with his allies, conquered the Khazar capital ofAtil, ushering the decline and disintegration of Khazaria by the mid 11th century.
D. M. Dunlop tried to link the Chinese term for "Khazars" to one of the tribal names of the Uyğur, orToquz Oğuz, namely theQasar (Ch. 葛薩Gésà).[28][29] The objections are that Uyğur 葛薩Gésà/Qasar was not a tribal name but rather the surname of the chief of the 思结Sijie tribe (Sogdian:Sikari) of the Toquz Oğuz (Ch. 九姓jĭu xìng),[note 5] and that inMiddle Chinese the ethnonym "Khazars" was always prefaced withTūjué, then still reserved forGöktürks and their splinter groups,[40] (Tūjué Kěsà bù:突厥可薩部;Tūjué Hésà:突厥曷薩) and "Khazar's" first syllable is transcribed with different characters (可 and 曷) than 葛, which is used to render the syllableQa- in the Uyğur wordQasar.[note 6][42][43] While it is far from given that the Khazars are not signifying a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual cluster of peoples and clans, some more nomadic, some less, it doesn't exclude that some clans, or splintergroups, or even rulers has identified with the name(s) of the Khazars, in the variety of ways it has been expressed.
After their conversion it is reported that they adopted the Hebrew script,[note 7] and it is likely that, although speaking a Turkic language, the Khazarchancellery under Judaism probably corresponded inHebrew.[note 8]
Determining the origins and nature of the Khazars is closely bound with theories oftheir languages, but analysis of their languages' origins is difficult, since no indigenous records in the Khazar language survive, and the state waspolyglot andpolyethnic.[note 9][note 10] Whereas the royal or ruling elite probably spoke an eastern variety ofShaz Turkic, the subject tribes appear to have spoken varieties ofLir Turkic, such asOğuric, a language variously identified withBulğaric,Chuvash, andHunnish.
The latter based upon the assertion of the Persian historianIstakhri the Khazar language was different from any other known tongue. Alano-As was also widely spoken. Eastern Common Turkic, the language of the royal house and its core tribes, in all likelihood remained the language of the ruling elite in the same way that Mongol continued to be used by the rulers of the Golden Horde, alongside of theQipčaq Turkic speech spoken by the bulk of the Turkic tribesmen that constituted the military force of this part of theČinggisid empire. Similarity, Oğuric, like Qipčaq Turkic in the Jočid realm, functioned as one of the languages of government.[1][note 11] One method for tracing their origins consists in the analysis of the possible etymologies behind theethnonym "Khazar".
History
Tribal origins and early history
The tribes[note 12] that were to comprise the Khazar empire were not an ethnic union, but a congeries of steppe nomads and peoples who came to be subordinated, and subscribed to a core Turkic leadership.[44] Many Turkic groups, such as theOğuric peoples, includingŠarağurs, Oğurs,Onoğurs, andBulğars who earlier formed part of theTiele (Tiělè) confederation, are attested quite early, having been driven West by theSabirs, who in turn fled theAsian Avars, and began to flow into theVolga–Caspian–Pontic zone from as early as the 4th century CE and are recorded byPriscus to reside in the Western Eurasian steppe lands as early as 463.[45][46] They appear to stem from Mongolia and South Siberia in the aftermath of the fall of theHunnic/Xiōngnú nomadic polities. A variegated tribal federation led by these Turks, probably comprising a complex assortment ofIranian,[note 13]proto-Mongolic,Uralic, andPalaeo-Siberian clans, vanquished theRouran Khaganate of the hegemonic central Asian Avars in 552 and swept westwards, taking in their train other steppe nomads and peoples fromSogdiana.[47]
The ruling family of this confederation may have hailed from theĀshǐnà clan of theWestern Turkic Khaganate,[48][49][50] althoughConstantine Zuckerman regards Ashina and their pivotal role in the formation of the Khazars with scepticism.[note 14] Golden notes that Chinese and Arabic reports are almost identical, making the connection a strong one, and conjectures that their leader may have beenYǐpíshèkuì, who lost power or was killed around 651.[51] Moving west, the confederation reached the land of theAkatziroi,[note 15] who had been important allies of Byzantium in fighting offAttila's army.
The Khazar Khaganate and contemporary polities circa 800.
An embryonic state of Khazaria began to form sometime after 630,[52][53] when it emerged from the breakdown of the largerGöktürk Khaganate. Göktürk armies had penetrated the Volga by 549, ejecting the Avars, who were then forced to flee to the sanctuary of theHungarian plain. The Ashina clan appeared on the scene by 552, when they overthrew the Rourans and established theGöktürkQağanate, whose self designation wasTür(ü)k.[note 16] By 568, these Göktürks were probing for an alliance with Byzantium to attackPersia. Aninternecine war broke out between the senior eastern Göktürks and the junior West Turkic Khaganate some decades later, when on the death ofTaspar Qağan, asuccession dispute led to a dynastic crisis between Taspar's chosen heir, theApa Qağan, and the ruler appointed by the tribal high council, Āshǐnà Shètú, theIshbara Qağan.
By the first decades of the 7th century, the AshinayabguTong managed to stabilise the Western division, but upon his death, after providing crucial military assistance to Byzantium in routing the Sasanian army in the Persian heartland,[54][55] the Western Turkic Qağanate dissolved under pressure from theencroaching Tang dynasty armies and split into two competing federations, each consisting of five tribes, collectively known as the "Ten Arrows" (On Oq). Both briefly challenged Tang hegemony in eastern Turkestan. To the West, two new nomadic states arose in the meantime,Old Great Bulgaria underKubrat, the Duōlù clan leader, and the Nǔshībì subconfederation, also consisting of five tribes.[note 17] The Duōlù challenged the Avars in theKuban River-Sea of Azov area while the Khazar Qağanate consolidated further westwards, led apparently by an Ashina dynasty. With a resounding victory over the tribes in 657, engineered by GeneralSu Dingfang, Chinese overlordship was imposed to their East after a final mop-up operation in 659, but the two confederations of Bulğars and Khazars fought for supremacy on the western steppeland, and with the ascendency of the latter, the former either succumbed to Khazar rule or, as underAsparukh, Kubrat's son, shifted even further west across the Danube to lay the foundations of theFirst Bulgarian Empire in the Balkans (c. 679).[56][57]
The Qağanate of the Khazars thus took shape out of the ruins of this nomadic empire as it broke up under pressure from the Tang dynasty armies to the east sometime between 630 and 650.[51] After their conquest of the lower Volga region to the East and an area westwards between theDanube and theDniepr, and their subjugation of theOnoğur-Bulğar union, sometime around 670, a properly constituted Khazar Qağanate emerges,[58] becoming the westernmostsuccessor state of the formidable Göktürk Qağanate after its disintegration. According toOmeljan Pritsak, the language of the Onoğur-Bulğar federation was to become thelingua franca of Khazaria[59] as it developed into whatLev Gumilev called a "steppe Atlantis" (stepnaja Atlantida/ Степная Атлантида).[60] Historians have often referred to this period of Khazar domination as thePax Khazarica since the state became an international trading hub permitting Western Eurasian merchants safe transit across it to pursue their business without interference.[61] The high status soon to be accorded this empire to the north is attested byIbn al-Balḫî'sFârsnâma (c. 1100), which relates that theSasanian Shah,Ḫusraw 1, Anûsîrvân, placed three thrones by his own, one for the King of China, a second for the King of Byzantium, and a third for the king of the Khazars. Although anachronistic in retrodating the Khazars to this period, the legend, in placing the Khazar qağan on a throne with equal status to kings of the other two superpowers, bears witness to the reputation won by the Khazars from early times.[62][63]
Khazar state: culture and institutions
Royal Diarchy with sacral Qağanate
Khazaria developed adual kingship governance structure,[note 18] typical among Turkic nomads, consisting of ashad/bäk and aqağan.[64] The emergence of this system may be deeply entwined with the conversion to Judaism.[65] According to Arabic sources, the lesser king was calledîšâ and the greater kingKhazarxâqân; the former managed and commanded the military, while the greater king's role was primarily sacral, less concerned with daily affairs. The greater king was recruited from the Khazar house of notables (ahl bait ma'rûfīn) and, in an initiation ritual, was nearly strangled until he declared the number of years he wished to reign, on the expiration of which he would bekilled by the nobles.[note 19][66][67][note 20] The deputy ruler would enter the presence of the reclusive greater king only with great ceremony, approaching him barefoot to prostrate himself in the dust and then light a piece of wood as a purifying fire, while waiting humbly and calmly to be summoned.[68] Particularly elaborate rituals accompanied aroyal burial. At one period, travellers had to dismount, bow before the ruler's tomb, and then walk away on foot.[69] Subsequently, the charismatic sovereign's burial place was hidden from view, with a palatial structure ("Paradise") constructed and thenhidden under rerouted river water to avoid disturbance by evil spirits and later generations. Such a royal burial ground (qoruq) is typical of inner Asian peoples.[70] Both the îšâ and the xâqân converted to Judaism sometime in the 8th century, while the rest, according to the Persian travellerAhmad ibn Rustah, probably followed the old Tūrkic religion.[71][note 21]
Ruling elite
The ruling stratum, like that of the laterČinggisids within theGolden Horde, was a relatively small group that differed ethnically and linguistically from its subject peoples, meaning theAlano-As and Oğuric Turkic tribes, who were numerically superior within Khazaria.[72] The Khazar Qağans, while taking wives and concubines from the subject populations, were protected by aKhwârazmian guard corps, orcomitatus, called theUrsiyya.[note 22][note 23] But unlike many other local polities, they hired soldiers (mercenaries) (thejunûd murtazîqa inal-Mas'ûdî).[73] At the peak of their empire, the Khazars ran a centralised fiscal administration, with a standing army of some 7–12,000 men, which could, at need, be multiplied two or three times that number by inducting reserves from their nobles' retinues.[74][note 24] Other figures for the permanent standing army indicate that it numbered as many as one hundred thousand. They controlled and exacted tribute from 25 to 30 different nations and tribes inhabiting the vast territories between the Caucasus, the Aral Sea, the Ural Mountains, and the Ukrainian steppes.[75] Khazar armies were led by the Qağan Bek (pronounced as Kagan Bek) and commanded by subordinateofficers known astarkhans. When the bek sent out a body of troops, they would not retreat under any circumstances. If they were defeated, every one who returned was killed.[76]
Settlements were governed by administrative officials known astuduns. In some cases, such as the Byzantine settlements in southernCrimea, atudun would be appointed for a town nominally within another polity'ssphere of influence. Other officials in the Khazar government included dignitaries referred to byibn Fadlan asJawyshyghr andKündür, but their responsibilities are unknown.
Demographics
It has been estimated that 25 to 28 distinct ethnic groups made up the population of the Khazar Qağanate, aside from the ethnic elite. The ruling elite seems to have been constituted out of nine tribes/clans, themselves ethnically heterogeneous, spread over perhaps nine provinces or principalities, each of which would have been allocated to a clan.[66] In terms of caste or class, some evidence suggests that there was a distinction, whether racial or social is unclear, between "White Khazars" (ak-Khazars) and "Black Khazars" (qara-Khazars).[66] The 10th-century Muslim geographeral-Iṣṭakhrī claimed that the White Khazars were strikingly handsome with reddish hair, white skin, and blue eyes, while the Black Khazars were swarthy, verging on deep black as if they were "some kind ofIndian".[77] Many Turkic nations had a similar (political, not racial) division between a "white" ruling warrior caste and a "black" class of commoners; the consensus among mainstream scholars is that Istakhri was confused by the names given to the two groups.[78] However, Khazars are generally described by early Arab sources as having a white complexion, blue eyes, and reddish hair.[79][80] The ethnonym in the Tang Chinese annals, Ashina, often accorded a key role in the Khazar leadership, may reflect an Eastern Iranian orTokharian word (Khotanese Sakaâşşeina-āššsena "blue"):Middle Persianaxšaêna ("dark-coloured"):Tokharian Aâśna ("blue", "dark").[6] The distinction appears to have survived the collapse of the Khazarian empire. Later Russian chronicles, commenting on the role of the Khazars in the magyarisation of Hungary, refer to them as "WhiteOghurs" andMagyars as "Black Oghurs".[81] Studies of the physical remains, such as skulls atSarkel, have revealed individuals belonging to the Slavic, other European, and a few Mongolian types.[78]
Economy
The import and export of foreign wares, and the revenues derived from taxing their transit, was a hallmark of the Khazar economy, although it is said also to have producedisinglass.[82] Distinctively among the nomadic steppe polities, the Khazar Qağanate developed a self-sufficient domesticSaltovo[83] economy, a combination of traditional pastoralism – allowing sheep and cattle to be exported – extensive agriculture, abundant use of the Volga's rich fishing stocks, together with craft manufacture, with diversification in lucrative returns from taxing international trade given its pivotal control of major trade routes.
TheKhazar slave trade constituted one of the two great furnishers of slaves tothe Muslim market toslavery in the Abbasid Caliphate (the other being theIranian Sâmânid amîrs), supplying it with captured Slavs and tribesmen from the Eurasian northlands.[84] It profited from the latter which enabled it to maintain a standing army of Khwarezm Muslim troops. The capital Atil reflected the division: Kharazān on the western bank where the king and his Khazar elite, with a retinue of some 4,000 attendants, dwelt, and Itil proper to the East, inhabited by Jews, Christians, Muslims and slaves and by craftsmen and foreign merchants.[note 25]
The Khazar Khaghanate played a key role in the trade between Europe and the Muslim world in the early middle ages. People taken captive during the viking raids in Europe, such as Ireland, could be transported toHedeby orBrännö in Scandinavia and from there via theVolga trade route to Russia, where slaves and furs were sold to Muslim merchants in exchange for Arab silverdirham andsilk, which have been found inBirka,Wollin andDublin;[85] during the 8th- and 9th-century this trade route between Europe and theAbbasid Caliphate passed via the Khazar Kaghanate,[86] until it was supplanted in the 10th-century by the route ofVolga Bulgaria,Khwarazm, and theSamanid slave trade.[87]
The ruling elite wintered in the city and spent from spring to late autumn in their fields. A large irrigated greenbelt, drawing on channels from the Volga river, lay outside the capital, where meadows and vineyards extended for some 20farsakhs (c. 60 miles).[88] While customs duties were imposed on traders, and tribute and tithes were exacted from 25 to 30 tribes, with a levy of one sable skin, squirrel pelt, sword, dirham per hearth or ploughshare, or hides, wax, honey and livestock, depending on the zone. Trade disputes were handled by a commercial tribunal in Atil consisting of seven judges, two for each of the monotheistic inhabitants (Jews, Muslims, Christians) and one for the pagans.[note 26]
Byzantine diplomatic policy towards the steppe peoples generally consisted of encouraging them to fight among themselves. ThePechenegs provided great assistance to the Byzantines in the 9th century in exchange for regular payments.[89] Byzantium also sought alliances with theGöktürks against common enemies: in the early 7th century, one such alliance was brokered with the Western Tűrks against the PersianSasanians in theByzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628. The Byzantines called KhazariaTourkía, and by the 9th century referred to the Khazars as "Turks".[note 27] During the period leading up to and after thesiege of Constantinople in 626,Heraclius sought help via emissaries, and eventually personally, from a Göktürk chieftain[note 28] of the Western Turkic Khaganate,Tong Yabghu Qağan, inTiflis, plying him with gifts and the promise of marriage to his daughter,Epiphania.[92] Tong Yabghu responded by sending a large force to ravage the Persian empire, marking the start of theThird Perso-Turkic War.[93] A joint Byzantine-Tűrk operation breached theCaspian gates and sackedDerbent in 627. Together they then besiegedTiflis, where the Byzantines may have deployed an early variety oftraction trebuchets (ἑλέπόλεις) to breach the walls. After the campaign, Tong Yabghu is reported, perhaps with some exaggeration, to have left some 40,000 troops behind with Heraclius.[94] Although occasionally identified with Khazars, the Göktürk identification is more probable since the Khazars only emerged from that group after the fragmentation of the former sometime after 630.[52][53] Some scholars argued that Sasanian Persia never recovered from the devastating defeat wrought by this invasion.[note 29]
Khazar Khaganate and surrounding states, c. 820 (area of direct Khazar control in dark blue, sphere of influence in purple).
Once the Khazars emerged as a power, the Byzantines also began to form alliances with them, dynastic and military. In 695, the lastHeraclian emperor,Justinian II, nicknamed "the slit-nosed" (ὁ ῥινότμητος) after he was mutilated and deposed, was exiled toCherson in theCrimea, where a Khazar governor (tudun) presided. He escaped into Khazar territory in 704 or 705 and was given asylum by qağanBusir Glavan (Ἰβουζῆρος Γλιαβάνος), who gave him his sister in marriage, perhaps in response to an offer by Justinian, who may have thought a dynastic marriage would seal by kinship a powerful tribal support for his attempts to regain the throne.[95] The Khazarian spouse thereupon changed her name toTheodora.[96] Busir was offered a bribe by the Byzantine usurper,Tiberius III, to kill Justinian. Warned by Theodora, Justinian escaped, murdering two Khazar officials in the process. He fled to Bulgaria, whose KhanTervel helped him regain the throne. Upon his reinstalment, and despite Busir's treachery during his exile, he sent for Theodora; Busir complied, and she was crowned as Augusta, suggesting that both prized the alliance.[97][98]
Decades later,Leo III (ruled 717–741) made a similar alliance to co-ordinate strategy against a common enemy, theMuslim Arabs. He sent an embassy to the Khazar qağanBihar and married his son, the futureConstantine V (ruled 741–775), to Bihar's daughter, a princess referred to asTzitzak, in 732. On converting to Christianity, she took the name Irene. Constantine and Irene had a son, the futureLeo IV (775–780), who thereafter bore the sobriquet, "the Khazar".[99][100] Leo died in mysterious circumstances after his Athenian wife bore him a son,Constantine VI, who on his majority co-ruled with his mother, the dowager. He proved unpopular, and his death ended the dynastic link of the Khazars to the Byzantine throne.[101][99] By the 8th century, Khazarsdominated the Crimea (650–c. 950), and even extended their influence into the Byzantine peninsula of Cherson until it was wrested back in the 10th century.[102] Khazar andFarghânian (Φάργανοι) mercenaries constituted part of the imperial ByzantineHetaireia bodyguard after its formation in 840, a position that could openly be purchased by a payment of seven pounds of gold.[103][104]
During the 7th and 8th centuries, the Khazars fought a series of wars against theUmayyad Caliphate and itsAbbasid successor. The First Arab-Khazar War began during the first phase ofMuslim expansion. By 640, Muslim forces had reached Armenia; in 642 they launched their first raid across the Caucasus underAbd ar-Rahman ibn Rabiah. In 652 Arab forces advanced on the Khazar capital,Balanjar, but weredefeated, suffering heavy losses; according to Persian historians such asal-Tabari, both sides in the battle usedcatapults against the opposing troops. A number of Russian sources give the name of a Khazar khagan from this period asIrbis and describe him as a scion of the Göktürk royal house, the Ashina. Whether Irbis ever existed is open to debate, as is whether he can be identified with one of the many Göktürk rulers of the same name.
Due to the outbreak of theFirst Muslim Civil War and other priorities, the Arabs refrained from repeating an attack on the Khazars until the early 8th century.[105] The Khazars launched a few raids into Transcaucasian principalities under Muslim dominion, including a large-scale raid in 683–685 during theSecond Muslim Civil War that rendered much booty and many prisoners.[106] There is evidence from the account of al-Tabari that the Khazars formed a united front with the remnants of the Göktürks in Transoxiana.
Caucasus region, c. 740
The Second Arab-Khazar War began with a series of raids across the Caucasus in the early 8th century. The Umayyads tightened their grip on Armenia in 705 after suppressing a large-scale rebellion. In 713 or 714, the Umayyad generalMaslamah conquered Derbent and drove deeper into Khazar territory. The Khazars launched raids in response intoAlbania andIranian Azerbaijan but were driven back by the Arabs underHasan ibn al-Nu'man.[107] The conflict escalated in 722 with an invasion by 30,000 Khazars into Armenia inflicting a crushing defeat. CaliphYazid II responded, sending 25,000 Arab troops north, swiftly driving the Khazars back across the Caucasus, recovering Derbent, and advancing on Balanjar. The Arabsbroke through the Khazar defence and stormed the city; most of its inhabitants were killed or enslaved, but a few of them managed to flee north.[106] Despite their success, the Arabs had not yet defeated the Khazar army, and they retreated south of the Caucasus.
In 724, the Arab generalal-Jarrah ibn Abdallah al-Hakami inflicted a crushing defeat on the Khazars in a long battle between the riversCyrus andAraxes, then moved on to captureTiflis, bringingCaucasian Iberia under Muslim suzerainty. The Khazars struck back in 726, led by a prince namedBarjik, launching a major invasion of Albania and Azerbaijan; by 729, the Arabs had lost control of northeastern Transcaucasia and were thrust again into the defensive. In 730, Barjik invaded Iranian Azerbaijan anddefeated Arab forces atArdabil, killing the generalal-Djarrah al-Hakami and briefly occupying the town. Barjik was defeated and killed the next year atMosul, where he directed Khazar forces from a throne mounted with al-Djarrah's severed head[citation needed]. In 737, Marwan Ibn Muhammad entered Khazar territory under the guise of seeking a truce. He then launched a surprise attack in which The Qaghan fled north and the Khazars surrendered.[108] The Arabs did not have enough resources to influence the affairs of Transcaucasia.[108] The Qağan was forced to accept terms involving his conversion to Islam, and subject himself to the rule of the Caliphate, but the accommodation was short-lived because a combination of internal instability among the Umayyads and Byzantine support undid the agreement within three years, and the Khazars re-asserted their independence.[109] The suggestion that the Khazars adoptedJudaism as early as 740 is based on the idea that, in part, it was, a re-assertion of their independence from the rule of both regional powers, Byzantium and the Caliphate, while it also conformed to a general Eurasian trend to embrace aworld religion.[note 30]
Whatever the impact of Marwan's campaigns was, warfare between the Khazars and the Arabs ceased for more than two decades after 737. Arab raids continued to occur until 741, but their control of the region was limited because maintaining a large garrison at Derbent further depleted their already overstretched army. Athird Muslim civil war soon broke out, leading to the Abbasid Revolution and the fall of the Umayyad dynasty in 750.
In 758, theAbbasidCaliphal-Mansur attempted to strengthen diplomatic ties with the Khazars, orderingYazid ibn Usayd al-Sulami, one of his nobles and themilitary governor of Armenia, to take a royal Khazar bride.[110] Yazid married a daughter of Khazar KhaganBaghatur, but she died inexplicably, possibly during childbirth. Her attendants returned home, convinced that some members of another Arab faction had poisoned her, and her father was enraged. The Khazar generalRas Tarkhan invaded regions which were located south of the Caucasus in 762–764, devastating Albania, Armenia, and Iberia, and capturing Tiflis.[111] Thereafter, relations between the Khazars and the Abbasids became increasingly cordial, because the foreign policies of the Abbasids were generally less expansionist than the foreign policies of the Umayyads, relations between the Khazars and the Abbasids were ultimately broken by a series of raids which occurred in 799, the raids occurred after another marriage alliance failed.[111]
After the Khazars assumed control ofTranscaucasia, at some time they set up towns including Samiran, Samsakly, Sambalut, Samakha, and Samkalak - with the common fragment "Sam" meaning "top" or "high" or "main".[112]
Khazars and Hungarians
Around 830, a rebellion broke out in the Khazar khaganate. As a result, threeKabar tribes[113] of the Khazars (probably the majority of ethnic Khazars) joined the Hungarians and moved throughLevedia to what the Hungarians call theEtelköz, the territory between theCarpathians and theDnieper River. The Hungarians faced their first attack by thePechenegs around 854,[114] though other sources state that an attack by Pechenegs was the reason for their departure to Etelköz. The new neighbours of the Hungarians were theVarangians and the easternSlavs. From 862 onwards, the Hungarians (already referred to as theUngri) along with their allies, the Kabars, started a series of raids from the Etelköz into the Carpathian Basin, mostly against theEastern Frankish Empire (Germany) andGreat Moravia, but also against theLower Pannonian principality andBulgaria. Then they together ended up at the outer slopes of Carpathians, and settled there.
Rise of the Rus' and the collapse of the Khazarian state
Trade routes of the Black Sea region, 8th–11th centuries
By the 9th century, groups ofVarangian Rus', developing a powerful warrior-merchant system, began probing south down the waterways controlled by the Khazars and their protectorate, theVolga Bulgarians, partially in pursuit of the Arab silver that flowed north for hoarding through the Khazarian-Volga Bulgarian trading zones,[note 31] partially to trade in furs and ironwork.[note 32] Northern mercantile fleets passing Atil were tithed, as they were at ByzantineCherson.[115] Their presence may have prompted the formation of a Rus' state by convincing theSlavs,Merja and theChud' to unite to protect common interests against Khazarian exactions of tribute. It is often argued that aRus' Khaganate modelled on the Khazarian state had formed to the east and that the Varangian chieftain of the coalition appropriated the title of qağan (khagan) as early as the 830s: the title survived to denote the princes ofKievan Rus', whose capital,Kiev, is often associated with a Khazarian foundation.[116][117][note 33][note 34] The construction of theSarkel fortress, with technical assistance from Khazaria's Byzantine ally at the time, together with the minting of an autonomous Khazar coinage around the 830s, may have been a defensive measure against emerging threats from Varangians to the north and from theMagyars on the eastern steppe.[note 35][note 36] By 860, the Rus' had penetrated as far as Kiev and, via theDnieper,Constantinople.[121]
Site of the Khazar fortress at Sarkel (aerial photo from excavations conducted byMikhail Artamonov in the 1950s).
Alliances often shifted. Byzantium, threatened by Varangian Rus' raiders, would assist Khazaria, and Khazaria at times allowed the northerners to pass through their territory in exchange for a portion of the booty.[122] From the beginning of the 10th century, the Khazars found themselves fighting on multiple fronts as nomadic incursions were exacerbated by uprisings by former clients and invasions from former allies. Thepax Khazarica was caught in a pincer movement between steppe Pechenegs and the strengthening of an emergent Rus' power to the north, both undermining Khazaria's tributary empire.[123] According to theSchechter Text, the Khazar rulerKing Benjamin (ca.880–890) fought a battle against the allied forces of five lands whose moves were perhaps encouraged by Byzantium.[note 37] Although Benjamin was victorious, his sonAaron II faced another invasion, this time led by theAlans, whose leader had converted to Christianity and entered into an alliance with Byzantium, which, underLeo VI the Wise, encouraged them to fight against the Khazars.
By the 880s, Khazar control of the MiddleDnieper from Kiev, where they collected tribute from Eastern Slavic tribes, began to wane asOleg of Novgorod wrested control of the city from the Varangian warlordsAskold and Dir, and embarked on what was to prove to be the foundation of a Rus' empire.[124] The Khazars had initially allowed the Rus' to use thetrade route along the Volga River, and raid southwards. SeeCaspian expeditions of the Rus'. According toAl-Mas'udi, the qağan is said to have given his assent on the condition that the Rus' give him half of the booty.[122] In 913, however, two years after Byzantium concluded a peace treaty with the Rus' in 911, aVarangian foray, with Khazar connivance, through Arab lands led to a request to the Khazar throne by the Khwârazmian Islamic guard for permission to retaliate against the large Rus' contingent on its return. The purpose was to revenge the violence the Rus'razzias had inflicted on their fellow Muslim believers.[note 38] The Rus' force was thoroughly routed and massacred.[122] The Khazar rulers closed the passage down the Volga to the Rus', sparking a war. In the early 960s, Khazar rulerJoseph wrote toHasdai ibn Shaprut about the deterioration of Khazar relations with the Rus': "I protect the mouth of the river (Itil-Volga) and prevent the Rus arriving in their ships from setting off by sea against theIshmaelites and (equally) all (their) enemies from setting off by land toBab."[note 39]
The Rus' warlords launched several wars against the Khazar Qağanate, and raided down tothe Caspian sea. TheSchechter Letter relates the story of a campaign against Khazaria byHLGW (recently identified as Oleg of Chernigov) around 941 in which Oleg was defeated by the Khazar generalPesakh.[125] The Khazar alliance with the Byzantine empire began to collapse in the early 10th century. Byzantine and Khazar forces may have clashed in the Crimea, and by the 940s emperorConstantine VII Porphyrogenitus was speculating inDe Administrando Imperio about ways in which the Khazars could be isolated and attacked. The Byzantines during the same period began to attempt alliances with the Pechenegs and the Rus', with varying degrees of success. A further factor undermining the Khazar Qağanate was a shift in Islamic routes at this time, as Muslims in Khwarazmia forged trade links with the recently converted Volga Bulgarian Muslims, a move which may have caused a drastic drop, perhaps up to 80%, in the revenue base of Khazaria, and consequently, a crisis in its ability to pay for its defence.[126]
Sviatoslav I finally succeeded in destroying Khazar imperial power in the 960s, in a circular sweep that overwhelmed Khazar fortresses likeSarkel andTamatarkha, and reached as far as the Caucasian Kassogians/Circassians[note 41] and then back to Kiev.[127] Sarkel fell in 965, with the capital city ofAtil following, c. 968 or 969.
In the Russian chronicle, the vanquishing of the Khazar traditions is associated with Vladimir's conversion in 986.[128] According to thePrimary Chronicle, in 986, Khazar Jews were present atVladimir'sdisputation to decide on the prospective religion of the Kievan Rus'.[129] Whether these were Jews who had settled in Kiev or emissaries from some Jewish Khazar remnant state is unclear. Conversion to one of the faiths of the people of Scripture was a precondition to any peace treaty with the Arabs, whose Bulgar envoys had arrived in Kiev after 985.[130]
A visitor to Atil wrote soon after the sacking of the city that its vineyards and garden had been razed, that not a grape or raisin remained in the land, and not even alms for the poor were available.[131] An attempt to rebuild may have been undertaken, sinceIbn Hawqal andal-Muqaddasi refer to it after that date, but byAl-Biruni's time (1048) it was in ruins.[note 42]
Aftermath: impact, decline and dispersion
Although Poliak argued that the Khazar kingdom did not wholly succumb to Sviatoslav's campaign, but lingered on until 1224, when theMongols invaded Rus',[132][133] by most accounts, the Rus'-Oghuz campaigns left Khazaria devastated, with perhaps many Khazarian Jews in flight,[134] and leaving behind at best a minorrump state. It left little trace, except for some placenames,[note 43] and much of its population was undoubtedly absorbed in successor hordes.[135]Al-Muqaddasi, writing ca.985, mentions Khazar beyond the Caspian sea as a district of "woe and squalor", with honey, many sheep and Jews.[136]Kedrenos mentions a joint Rus'-Byzantine attack on Khazaria in 1016, which defeated its rulerGeorgius Tzul. The name suggests Christian affiliations. The account concludes by saying, that after Tzul's defeat, the Khazar ruler of "upper Media", Senaccherib, had to sue for peace and submission.[137] In 1024Mstislav of Chernigov (one of Vladimir's sons) marched against his brother Yaroslav with an army that included "Khazars and Kassogians" in a repulsed attempt to restore a kind of "Khazarian"-type dominion over Kiev.[127]Ibn al-Athir's mention of a "raid of Faḍlūn the Kurd against the Khazars" in 1030 CE, in which 10,000 of his men were vanquished by the latter, has been taken as a reference to such a Khazar remnant, butBarthold identified this Faḍlūn asFaḍl ibn Muḥammad and the "Khazars" as eitherGeorgians orAbkhazians.[138][139] A Kievian prince namedOleg, grandson of Jaroslav was reportedly kidnapped by "Khazars" in 1079 and shipped off toConstantinople, although most scholars believe that this is a reference to theCumans-Kipchaks or other steppe peoples then dominant in the Pontic region. Upon his conquest ofTmutarakan in the 1080s Oleg gave himself the title "archon of Khazaria".[127] In 1083 Oleg is said to have exacted revenge on the Khazars after his brother Roman was killed by their allies, thePolovtsi. After one more conflict with these Polovtsi in 1106, the Khazars fade from history.[137] By the 13th century they survived in Russian folklore only as "Jewish heroes" in the "land of the Jews". (zemlya Jidovskaya).[140]
By the end of the 12th century,Petachiah of Ratisbon reported travelling through what he called "Khazaria", and had little to remark on other than describing itsminim (sectaries) living amidst desolation in perpetual mourning.[141] The reference seems to be to Karaites.[142] The Franciscan missionaryWilliam of Rubruck likewise found only impoverished pastures in the lower Volga area where Ital once lay.[88]Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, the papal legate to the court of theMongol KhanGuyuk at that time, mentioned an otherwise unattested Jewish tribe, theBrutakhi, perhaps in the Volga region. Although connections are made to the Khazars, the link is based merely on a common attribution of Judaism.[143]
ThePontic steppes, c. 1015 (areas in blue possibly still under Khazar control).
The 10th centuryZoroastrianDênkart registered the collapse of Khazar power in attributing its eclipse to the enfeebling effects of "false" religion.[note 44] The decline was contemporary to that suffered by theTransoxianaSāmānid empire to the east, both events paving the way for the rise of theGreat Seljuq Empire, whose founding traditions mention Khazar connections.[144][note 45] Whatever successor entity survived, it could no longer function as a bulwark against the pressure east and south of nomad expansions. By 1043,Kimeks andQipchaqs, thrusting westwards, pressured theOğuz, who in turn pushed thePechenegs west towards Byzantium's Balkan provinces.[145]
Khazaria nonetheless left its mark on the rising states and some of their traditions and institutions. Much earlier,Tzitzak, the Khazar wife ofLeo III, introduced into the Byzantine court the distinctive kaftan or riding habit of the nomadic Khazars, the tzitzakion (τζιτζάκιον), and this was adopted as a solemn element of imperial dress.[note 46] The orderly hierarchical system of succession by "scales" (lestvichnaia sistema:лествичная система) to theGrand Principate of Kiev was arguably modelled on Khazar institutions, via the example of theRus' Khaganate.[146]
The proto-Hungarian Pontic tribe, while perhaps threatening Khazaria as early as 839 (Sarkel), practiced their institutional model, such as the dual rule of a ceremonialkende-kündü and agyula administering practical and military administration, as tributaries of the Khazars. A dissident group of Khazars, theQabars, joined the Hungarians in their migration westwards as they moved intoPannonia. Elements within the Hungarian population can be viewed as perpetuating Khazar traditions as a successor state. Byzantine sources refer to Hungary asWestern Tourkia in contrast to Khazaria, Eastern Tourkia. The gyula line produced the kings of medieval Hungary through descent fromÁrpád, while the Qabars retained their traditions longer, and were known as "black Hungarians" (fekete magyarság). Some archaeological evidence fromČelarevo suggests the Qabars practised Judaism[147][148][149] since warrior graves with Jewish symbols were found there, includingmenorahs,shofars,etrogs,lulavs, candlesnuffers, ash collectors, inscriptions in Hebrew, and a six-pointed star identical to theStar of David.[150][151]
Seal discovered in excavations at Khazar sites. However, rather than having been made by Jews, these appear to be shamanistic sun discs.[note 47]
The Khazar kingdom is said to have stimulated messianic aspirations for a return to Israel as early asJudah Halevi.[153] In the time of the Egyptian vizierAl-Afdal Shahanshah (d. 1121), one Solomon ben Duji, often identified as a Khazarian Jew,[note 48] attempted to advocate for a messianic effort for the liberation of, and return of all Jews to, Palestine. He wrote to many Jewish communities to enlist support. He eventually moved toKurdistan where his sonMenachem some decades later assumed the title ofMessiah and, raising an army for this purpose, took the fortress ofAmadiya north ofMosul. His project was opposed by the rabbinical authorities and he was poisoned in his sleep. One theory maintains that the Star of David, until then a decorative motif or magical emblem, began to assume its national value in late Jewish tradition from its earlier symbolic use by Menachem.[154]
The word Khazar, as an ethnonym, was last used in the 13th century by people in the North Caucasus believed to practice Judaism.[155] The nature of a hypothetical Khazardiaspora, Jewish or otherwise, is disputed.Avraham ibn Daud mentions encountering rabbinical students descended from Khazars as far away asToledo, Spain in the 1160s.[156] Khazar communities persisted here and there. Many Khazar mercenaries served in the armies of the Islamic Caliphates and other states. Documents from medieval Constantinople attest to a Khazar community mingled with the Jews of the suburb ofPera.[157] Khazar merchants were active in both Constantinople and Alexandria in the 12th century.[158]
Direct sources for the Khazar religion are not many, but in all likelihood they originally engaged in a traditional Turkic form of religious practices known asTengrism, which focused on thesky godTengri. Something of its nature may be deduced from what we know of the rites and beliefs of contiguous tribes, such as the North Caucasian Huns.Horse sacrifices were made to this supreme deity. Rites involved offerings to fire, water, and the moon, to remarkable creatures, and to "gods of the road" (cf. Old Türkyol tengri, perhaps a god of fortune). Sun amulets were widespread as cultic ornaments. A tree cult was also maintained. Whatever was struck by lightning, man or object, was considered a sacrifice to the high god of heaven. The afterlife, to judge from excavations of aristocratic tumuli, was much a continuation of life on earth, warriors being interred with their weapons, horses, and sometimes with human sacrifices: the funeral of onetudrun in 711-12 saw 300 soldiers killed to accompany him to the otherworld.Ancestor worship was observed. The key religious figure appears to have been ashaman-likeqam,[159] and it was these (qozmím) that were, according to the Khazar Hebrew conversion stories, driven out.
Many sources suggest, and a notable number of scholars have argued, that the charismatic Ashina clan played a germinal role in the early Khazar state, although Zuckerman dismisses the widespread notion of their pivotal role as a "phantom". The Ashina were closely associated with the Tengri cult, whose practices involved rites performed to assure a tribe of heaven's protective providence.[160] The qağan was deemed to rule by virtue ofqut, "the heavenly mandate/good fortune to rule."[161][note 49]
Christianity
Khazaria long served as abuffer state between theByzantine empire and both the nomads of the northern steppes and theUmayyad empire, after serving as Byzantium's proxy against theSasanian Persian empire. The alliance was dropped around 900. Byzantium began to encourage theAlans to attack Khazaria and weaken its hold on Crimea and the Caucasus, while seeking to obtain an entente with the rising Rus' power to the north, which it aspired to convert to Christianity.[15]
On Khazaria's southern flank, both Islam and Byzantine Christianity were proselytising great powers. Byzantine success in the north was sporadic, although Armenian and Albanian missions fromDerbend built churches extensively in maritimeDaghestan, then a Khazar district.[162]Buddhism also had exercised an attraction on leaders of both the Eastern (552–742) and Western Qağanates (552–659), the latter being the progenitor of the Khazar state.[163] In 682, according to the Armenian chronicle ofMovsês Dasxuranc'i, the king ofCaucasian Albania,Varaz Trdat, dispatched a bishop, Israyêl, to convert Caucasian "Huns" who were subject to the Khazars, and managed to convince Alp Ilut'uêr, a son-in-law of the Khazar qağan, and his army, to abandon their shamanising cults and join the Christian fold.[164][note 50]
The Arab Georgian martyrSt Abo, who converted to Christianity within the Khazar kingdom around 779–80, describes local Khazars as irreligious.[note 51] Some reports register a Christian majority atSamandar,[note 52] or Muslim majorities.[note 53]
The Khazar "Moses coin" found in theSpillings Hoard and dated c. 837/8 CE (223AH). It is inscribed with "Moses is the messenger of God" instead of the usual Muslim text "Muhammad is the messenger of God".[165]
Conversion to Judaism is mentioned in theKhazar Correspondence and medieval external sources. The authenticity of the former was long doubted and challenged,[note 54] but the documents are now widely accepted by specialists as either authentic or as reflecting internal Khazar traditions.[note 55][note 56][note 57][168] Archaeological evidence for conversion, on the other hand, remains elusive,[note 58][note 59] and may reflect either the incompleteness of excavations, or that the stratum of actual adherents was thin.[note 60] Conversion of steppe or peripheral tribes to auniversal religion is a fairly well attested phenomenon,[note 61] and the Khazar conversion to Judaism, although unusual, would not have been without precedent.[note 62]
Jews from both the Islamic world and Byzantium are known to have migrated to Khazaria during periods of persecution underHeraclius,Justinian II,Leo III, andRomanus Lakapēnos.[172][173] ForSimon Schama, Jewish communities from the Balkans and the Bosphoran Crimea, especially fromPanticapaeum, began migrating to the more hospitable climate of pagan Khazaria in the wake of these persecutions, and were joined there by Jews from Armenia. TheGeniza fragments, he argues, make it clear the Judaising reforms sent roots down into the whole of the population.[174] The pattern is one of an elite conversion preceding large-scale adoption of the new religion by the general population, which often resisted the imposition.[163] One important condition for mass conversion was a settled urban state, where churches, synagogues or mosques provided a focus for religion, as opposed to the free nomadic lifestyle of life on the open steppes.[note 63] A tradition of the IranianJudeo-Tats claims that their ancestors were responsible for the Khazar conversion.[175] A legend traceable to the 16th-century Italian rabbiJudah Moscato attributed it toYitzhak ha-Sangari.[176][177][178]
Both the date of the conversion, and the extent of its influence beyond the elite,[note 64] often minimised in some scholarship,[note 65] are a matter of dispute,[note 66] but at some point between 740 and 920 CE, the Khazarroyalty andnobility appear to have converted toJudaism, in part, it is argued, perhaps to deflect competing pressures from Arabs and Byzantines to accept either Islam or Christianity.[note 67][note 68]
The conversion of the Khazars to Judaism is an emotionally charged topic in Israel,[note 69] and two scholars,Moshe Gil (2011) andShaul Stampfer, (2013) have challenged the authenticity of the medieval Hebrew documents and argue that the conversion of the Khazar elite to Judaism never happened.[179][180]Alex M. Feldman is critical of Stampfer and Gil's dismissal of "overwhelming textual and archaeological evidence" of Khazarian Judaism, though agrees it is unlikely that Ashkenazim are descended from Khazarian Jews, he posits "a middle ground which can simultaneously accept Khazarian Judaism and doubt the Khazar-Ashkenazi descent theory advanced in dubious genetic studies."[181]
History of discussions about Khazar Jewishness
The earliest surviving Arabic text that refers to Khazar Jewishness appears to be that which was written byibn Rustah, a Persian scholar who wrote an encyclopedic work on geography in the early tenth century.[182] It is believed that ibn Rustah derived much of his information from the works of his contemporaryAbu al Jayhani based in Central Asia.
The 10th centuryKievian Letter hasOld Turkic (Orkhon) inscription word-phraseOKHQURÜM, "I read (this or it)".
Christian of Stavelot in hisExpositio in Matthaeum Evangelistam (c. 860–870s) refers toGazari, presumably Khazars, as living in the lands ofGog and Magog, who were circumcised andomnem Judaismum observat—observing all the laws of Judaism.[note 70] New numismatic evidence of coins dated 837/8 bearing the inscriptionsarḍ al-ḫazar (Land of the Khazars), orMûsâ rasûl Allâh (Moses is the messenger of God, in imitation of the Islamic coin phrase:Muḥammad rasûl Allâh) suggest to many the conversion took place in that decade.[note 71] Olsson argues that the 837/8 evidence marks only the beginning of a long and difficult officialJudaization that concluded some decades later.[note 72] A 9th-century Jewish traveller,Eldad ha-Dani, is said to have informed Spanish Jews in 883 that there was a Jewish polity in the East, and that fragments of the legendaryTen Lost Tribes, part of the line ofSimeon and half-line ofManasseh, dwelt in "the land of the Khazars", receiving tribute from some 25 to 28 kingdoms.[183][184][185] Another view holds that by the 10th century, while the royal clan officially claimed Judaism, a non-normative variety of Islamisation took place among the majority of Khazars.[186]
By the 10th century, theletter of King Joseph asserts that, after the royal conversion, "Israel returned (yashuvu yisra'el) with the people of Qazaria (to Judaism) in complete repentance (bi-teshuvah shelemah)."[187]Persian historianIbn al-Faqîh wrote that "all the Khazars are Jews, but they have been Judaized recently".Ibn Fadlân, based on his Caliphal mission (921–922) to the Volga Bulğars, also reported that "the core element of the state, the Khazars, were Judaized",[note 73] something underwritten by theQaraite scholarYa'kub Qirqisânî around 937.[note 74] The conversion appears to have occurred against a background of frictions arising from both an intensification of Byzantine missionary activity from the Crimea to the Caucasus, and Arab attempts to wrest control over the latter in the 8th century CE,[188] and a revolt, put down, by theKhavars around the mid-9th century is often invoked as in part influenced by their refusal to accept Judaism.[189] Modern scholars generally[note 75] see the conversion as a slow process through three stages, which accords with Richard Eaton's model of syncreticinclusion, gradualidentification and, finally,displacement of the older tradition.[note 76][190]
Sometime between 954 and 961,Ḥasdai ibn Shaprūṭ, fromal-Andalus (Muslim Spain), wrote a letter of inquiry addressed to the ruler of Khazaria, and received a reply fromJoseph of Khazaria. The exchanges of thisKhazar Correspondence, together with theSchechter Letter discovered in theCairo Geniza and the famousplato nizing dialogue[191] byJudah Halevi,Sefer ha-Kuzari ("Book (of) The Khazari"), which plausibly drew on such sources,[note 77] provide us with the only direct evidence of the indigenous traditions[note 78] concerning the conversion.King Bulan[note 79] is said to have driven out the sorcerers,[note 80] and to have received angelic visitations exhorting him to find the true religion, upon which, accompanied by his vizier, he travelled to desert mountains of Warsān on a seashore, where he came across a cave rising from the plain of Tiyul in which Jews used to celebrate the Sabbath. Here he was circumcised.[note 81] Bulan is then said to have convened a royal debate between exponents of the threeAbrahamic religions. He decided to convert when he was convinced of Judaism's superiority. Many scholars situate this c. 740, a date supported by Halevi's own account.[195][196] The details are both Judaic[note 82] and Türkic: a Türkic ethnogonic myth speaks of an ancestral cave in which the Ashina were conceived from the mating of their human ancestor and a wolf ancestress.[197][note 83][198] These accounts suggest that there was a rationalising syncretism of native pagan traditions with Jewish law, by melding through the motif of the cave, a site of ancestral ritual and repository of forgotten sacred texts, Türkic myths of origin and Jewish notions of redemption of Israel's fallen people.[194] It is generally agreed they adopted Rabbinical rather thanQaraite Judaism.[199]
Ibn Fadlan reports that the settlement of disputes in Khazaria was adjudicated by judges hailing each from his community, be it Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or Pagan.[200] Some evidence suggests that the Khazar king saw himself as a defender of Jews even beyond the kingdom's frontiers, retaliating against Muslim or Christian interests in Khazaria in the wake of Islamic and Byzantine persecutions of Jews abroad.[201][note 84] Ibn Fadlan recounts specifically an incident in which the king of Khazaria destroyed the minaret of a mosque in Atil as revenge for the destruction of a synagogue in Dâr al-Bâbûnaj, and allegedly said he would have done worse were it not for a fear that the Muslims might retaliate in turn against Jews.[199][202] Ḥasdai ibn Shaprūṭ sought information on Khazaria in the hope he might discover "a place on this earth where harassed Israel can rule itself" and wrote that, were it to prove true that Khazaria had such a king, he would not hesitate to forsake his high office and his family in order to emigrate there.[note 85]
Albert Harkavy noted in 1877 that anArabic commentary onIsaiah 48:14ascribed toSaadia Gaon or to the Karaite scholarBenjamin Nahâwandî, interpreted "The Lord hath loved him" as a reference "to the Khazars, who will go and destroyBabel" (i.e.,Babylonia), a name used to designate the country of the Arabs. This has been taken as an indication of hopes by Jews that the Khazars might succeed in destroying theCaliphate.[176]
Islam
In 965, as the Qağanate was struggling against the victorious campaign of the Rus' prince Sviatoslav, the Islamic historianIbn al-Athîr mentions that Khazaria, attacked bythe Oğuz, sought help fromKhwarezm, but their appeal was rejected because they were regarded as "infidels" (al-kuffâr; pagans). Save for the king, the Khazarians are said to have converted to Islam in order to secure an alliance, and the Turks were, with Khwarezm's military assistance, repelled. It was this that, according to Ibn al-Athîr, led the Jewish king of Khazar to convert to Islam.[130]
Genetics
Nine skeletons dating to the 7th–9th centuries excavated from elite military burial mounds of the Khazar Khaganate (in the modernRostov region) were analyzed in two genetic studies (from 2019 and 2021). According to the 2019 study, the results "confirm the Turkic roots of the Khazars, but also highlight their ethnic diversity and some integration of conquered populations". The samples did not show a genetic connection to Ashkenazi Jews, and the results do not support the hypothesis of Ashkenazi Jews being descendants of the Khazars.[203] In the 2021 study the results showed both European and East Asian paternal haplogroups in the samples: three individuals carriedR1a Y-haplogroup, two hadC2b, and the rest carried haplogroupsG2a,N1a,Q, andR1b, respectively. According to the authors, "The Y-chromosome data are consistent with the results of the craniological study and genome-wide analysis of the same individuals in the sense that they show mixed genetic origins for the early medieval Khazar nobility".[204] Their facial features were of mix of East Asian and European, with East Asian type dominating (70%) in the early Khazars.[205]
In 1839, theKaraim scholarAbraham Firkovich was appointed by the Russian government as a researcher into the origins of the Jewish sect known as theKaraites.[211] In 1846, one of his acquaintances, the Russian orientalist Vasilii Vasil'evich Grigor'ev (1816–1881), theorised that the Crimean Karaites were of Khazar stock. Firkovich vehemently rejected the idea,[212] a position seconded by Firkovich,[clarification needed] who hoped that by "proving" his people were of Turkic origin, he would secure them exception from Russian anti-Jewish laws, since they bore no responsibility for Christ's crucifixion.[213] This idea has a notable impact in Crimean Karaite circles.[note 87] It is now believed that he forged much of this material on Khazars and Karaites.[215] Specialists in Khazar history also question the connection.[209][note 86] A genetic study of European Karaites byKevin Alan Brook found no evidence of a Khazar or Turkic origin for any uniparental lineage but did reveal the European Karaites' links to Egyptian Karaites and to Rabbinical Jewish communities.[216][217]
Another Turkic Crimean group, theKrymchaks had retained very simple Jewish traditions, mostly devoid ofhalakhic content, and very much taken with magical superstitions which, in the wake of the enduring educational efforts of the great Sephardi scholarChaim Hezekiah Medini, came to conform with traditional Judaism.[218]
Though the assertion they were not of Jewish stock enabled many Crimean Karaites to survive the Holocaust, which led to the murder of 6,000 Krymchaks, after the war, many of the latter, somewhat indifferent to their Jewish heritage, took a cue from the Crimean Karaites, and denied this connection in order to avoid the antisemitic effects of the stigma attached to Jews.[219]
Several scholars have suggested that instead of disappearing after the dissolution of their Empire, the Khazars migrated westward and eventually, they formed part of the core of the laterAshkenazi Jewish population of Europe. This hypothesis is greeted with scepticism or caution by most scholars.[note 88][note 89][note 90]
The German OrientalistKarl Neumann, in the context of an earlier controversy about possible connections between the Khazars and the ancestors of theSlavic peoples, suggested as early as 1847 that emigrant Khazars might have influenced the core population of Eastern European Jews.[note 91]
The theory was then taken up byAlbert Harkavi in 1869, when he also claimed that a possible link existed between the Khazars and the Ashkenazim,[note 92] but the theory that Khazar converts formed a major proportion of the Ashkenazim was first proposed to the Western public in a lecture which was delivered byErnest Renan in 1883.[note 93][220] Occasional suggestions that there was a small Khazar component in East European Jews emerged in works byJoseph Jacobs (1886),Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu, a critic of antisemitism (1893),[221]Maksymilian Ernest Gumplowicz,[note 94] and by the Russian-Jewish anthropologistSamuel Weissenberg.[note 95] In 1909,Hugo von Kutschera developed the notion into a book-length study,[223][224] arguing that the Khazars formed the foundational core of the modern Ashkenazim.[223]Maurice Fishberg introduced the notion to American audiences in 1911.[222][225] The idea was also taken up by the Polish-Jewish economic historian andGeneral ZionistYitzhak Schipper in 1918.[note 96][226]Israel Bartal has suggested that from theHaskalah onwards, polemical pamphlets against the Khazars were inspired bySephardi organizations which opposed the Khazaro-Ashkenazim.[227]
In 1932,Samuel Krauss ventured the theory that the biblical Ashkenaz referred to northernAsia Minor, and he identified it as the ancestral homeland of the Khazars, a position which was immediately disputed by Jacob Mann.[231] Ten years later, in 1942,Abraham N. Polak (sometimes referred to asPoliak), later professor for the history of the Middle Ages atTel Aviv University, published a Hebrew monograph in which he concluded that the East European Jews came from Khazaria.[note 99][note 100][232]D.M. Dunlop, writing in 1954, thought that very little evidence supported what he considered a mere assumption, and he also argued that the Ashkenazi-Khazar descent theory went far beyond what "our imperfect records" permit.[233] In 1955,Léon Poliakov, who assumed that the Jews of Western Europe resulted from a "panmixia" in the first millennium, asserted that it was widely assumed that Europe's Eastern Jews were descended from a mixture of Khazarian and German Jews.[note 101] Poliak's work found some support inSalo Wittmayer Baron andBen-Zion Dinur,[note 102][note 103] but was dismissed by Bernard Weinryb as a fiction (1962).[note 104]Bernard Lewis was of the opinion that the word inCairo Geniza interpreted as Khazaria is actuallyHakkari and therefore it relates to theKurds of the Hakkari mountains in southeastTurkey.[237]
The Khazar-Ashkenazi hypothesis came to the attention of a much wider public with the publication ofArthur Koestler'sThe Thirteenth Tribe in 1976,[238] which was both positively reviewed and dismissed as a fantasy, and a somewhat dangerous one. Israeli historian Zvi Ankori argued that Koestler had allowed his literary imagination to espouse Poliak's thesis, which most historians dismissed as speculative.[140] Israel's ambassador to Britain branded it "an anti-Semitic action financed by thePalestinians", whileBernard Lewis claimed that the idea was not supported by any evidence whatsoever, and it had been abandoned by all serious scholars.[238][note 105]Raphael Patai, however, registered some support for the idea that Khazar remnants had played a role in the growth of Eastern European Jewish communities,[note 106] and several amateur researchers, such asBoris Altschüler (1994),[209] kept the thesis in the public eye. The theory has been occasionally manipulated to deny Jewish nationhood.[238][242] Recently, a variety of approaches, from linguistics (Paul Wexler)[243] to historiography (Shlomo Sand)[244] andpopulation genetics (Eran Elhaik, a geneticist from theUniversity of Sheffield)[245] have emerged to keep the theory alive.[246] In a broad academic perspective, both the idea that the Khazars converteden masse to Judaism and the suggestion they emigrated to form the core population of Ashkenazi Jewry, remain highly polemical issues.[247] One thesis held that the Khazar Jewish population went into a northern diaspora and had a significant impact on the rise ofAshkenazi Jews. Connected to this thesis is the theory, expounded by Paul Wexler, dissenting from the majority of Yiddish linguists, that the grammar ofYiddish contains a Khazar substrate.[248]
The hypothesis of Khazarian ancestry in Ashkenazi has also been a subject of vehement disagreements in the field ofpopulation genetics,[note 114] wherein claims have been made concerning evidence both for and against it. Eran Elhaik argued in 2012 for a significant Khazar component in the admixture of Ashkenazi Jews using Caucasian populations—Georgians, Armenians andAzerbaijani Jews—as proxies.[note 115] The evidence from historians he used has been criticised byShaul Stampfer[263] and the technical response to such a position from geneticists is mostly dismissive, arguing that, if traces of descent from Khazars exist in the Ashkenazi gene pool, the contribution would be quite minor,[264][265][266][267][note 116] or insignificant.[268][269] One geneticist,Raphael Falk, has argued that "national and ethnic prejudices play a central role in the controversy."[note 117]According toNadia Abu El-Haj, the issues of origins are generally complicated by the difficulties of writing history via genome studies and the biases of emotional investments in different narratives, depending on whether the emphasis lies on direct descent or on conversion within Jewish history. At the time of her writing, the lack of Khazar DNA samples that might allow verification also presented difficulties.[note 118]
In literature
TheKuzari is an influential work written by the medievalSpanishJewish philosopher and poet RabbiYehuda Halevi (c. 1075–1141). Divided into five essays (ma'amarim), it takes the form of a fictional dialogue between the pagan king of the Khazars and aJew who was invited to instruct him in the tenets of theJewish religion. The intent of the work, although based on Ḥasdai ibn Shaprūṭ's correspondence with the Khazar king, was not historical, but rather to defend Judaism as a revealed religion, written in the context, firstly of Karaite challenges to the Spanish rabbinical intelligentsia, and then against temptations to adaptAristotelianism and Islamic philosophy to the Jewish faith.[272] Originally written inArabic, it was translated into Hebrew byJudah ibn Tibbon.[191]
Benjamin Disraeli's early novelAlroy (1833) draws on Menachem ben Solomon's story.[273] The question of mass religious conversion and the indeterminability of the truth of stories about identity and conversion are central themes ofMilorad Pavić's best-selling mystery storyDictionary of the Khazars.[274]
^ab"TheGazari are, presumably, the Khazars, although this term or theKozary of the perhaps near contemporaryVita Constantini ... could have reflected any of a number of peoples within Khazaria." (Golden 2007b, p. 139)
^"Somewhat later, however, in a letter to the Byzantine Emperor Basil I, dated to 871, Louis the German, clearly taking exception to what had apparently become Byzantine usage, declares that 'we have not found that the leader of the Avars, or Khazars (Gasanorum)'..." (Golden 2001a, p. 33)
^Golden 2007a, p. 16 and n.38 citing L. Bazin,"Pour une nouvelle hypothèse sur l'origine des Khazar", inMaterialia Turcica, 7/8 (1981–1982): 51–71.
^Kěsà (可薩) would have been pronounced something likekha'sat in bothEarly Middle Chinese/EMC andLate Middle Chinese/LMC, while Hésà 葛 (曷薩) would yieldɣat-sat in (EMC) andxɦat sat (LMC) respectively, where final "t" often transcribes –r- in foreign words. Thus, while these Chinese forms could transcribe a foreign word of the type *Kasar/*Kazar, *Ġatsar, *Ġazar, *Ġasar, there is a problem phonetically with assimilating these to the Uyğur wordQasar 葛薩 (Standard ChineseGesa < EMC/LMC *Kat-sat= *Kar sar= *Kasar).[41]
^"The chancellery of the Jewish state of the Khazars is therefore also likely to have used Hebrew writing even if the official language was a Turkic one." (Erdal 2007, pp. 98–99)
^"there must have been many different ethnic groups within the Khazar realm ... These groups spoke different languages, some of them no doubt belonging to the Indo-European or different Caucasian language families." (Erdal 2007, p. 75, n.2)
^The high chancery official of theAbbasid Caliphate underAl-Wathiq, Sallām the interpreter (Sallam al-tardjuman), famous for his reputed mastery of thirty languages, might have been both Jewish and a KhazarWasserstein 2007, pp. 376, and n.2, referring toDunlop 1954, pp. 190–193.
^al-Iṣṭakhrī's account however then contradicts itself by likening the language toBulğaric (Golden 2007a, pp. 13–14, 14 n.28).
^"The wordtribe is as troublesome as the termclan. It is commonly held to denote a group, like the clan, claiming descent from a common (in some culture zones eponymous) ancestor, possessing a common territory, economy, language, culture, religion, and sense of identity. In reality, tribes were often highly fluid sociopolitical structures, arising as 'ad hoc responses to ephemeral situations of competition,' as Morton H. Fried has noted." (Golden 2001b, p. 78)
^Dieter Ludwig, in his doctoral thesisStruktur und Gesellschaft des Chazaren-Reiches im Licht der schriftlichen Quellen, (Münster, 1982) suggested that the Khazars were Turkic members of theHephthalite Empire, where the lingua franca was a variety of Iranian (Golden 2007a, pp. 40–41;Brook 2010, p. 4).
^"The reader should be warned that the A-shih-na link of the Khazar dynasty, an old phantom of ... Khazarology, will ... lose its last claim to reality" (Zuckerman 2007, p. 404).
^In this view, the name Khazar would derive from a hypothetical *Aq Qasar (Golden 2006, pp. 89–90): e.g. Pritsak (1978) linksAk-Katzirs (<Άκατζίροι) to the nameKhazar, though he explains that the polity was named Khazar because the Ashina-ruledWestern Turks, afterlosing their territories to Tang Chinese, took over the territory formerly occupied by the Akatziri (Pritsak 1978, p. 261). However, the hypothesized link between the Akatizoi and the Khazars was not solid, being based on mere phonetic resemblance (Golden 2011b, p. 136,Brook 2006, p. 10).
^Whittow states that the word Türk had no strict ethnic meaning at the time: "Throughout the early middle ages on the Eurasian steppes, the term 'Turk' may or may not imply membership of the ethnic group of Turkic peoples, but it does always mean at least some awareness and acceptance of the traditions and ideology of the Gök Türk empire, and a share, however distant, in the political and cultural inheritance of that state." (Whittow 1996, p. 221)
^Several scholars connect it to Judaization, withArtamonov linking its introduction to Obadiyah's reforms and the imposition of full Rabbinical Judaism andPritsak to the same period (799–833), arguing that theBeg, a majordomo from the Iranian *Barč/Warâ Bolčan clan, identified with Obadiyah, compelled the Qağanal clan to convert, an event which putatively caused the Qabar revolt. Golden comments: "There is nothing but conjecture to connect it with the reforms of Obadiyah, the further evolution of Khazar Judaism or theQabars ... The fact is we do not know when, precisely, the Khazar system of dual kingship emerged. It could not have comeex nihilo. It was not present in the early stages of Khazar history. Given the Old Türk traditions of the Khazar state ... and the overall institutional conservation of steppe society, one must exercise great caution here. Clear evidence for it is relatively late (the latter part of the ninth century perhaps and more probably the tenth century)- although it was probably present by the first third of the ninth century. Iranian influences via theOrs guard of the Qağans may have also been a factor" (Golden 2007b, pp. 155–156)
^There was a maximum limit on the number of years of a king's reign, according toIbn Fadlan; if a Qağan had reigned for at least forty years, his courtiers and subjects felt his ability to reason would become impaired by old age. They would then kill the Qağan (Dunlop 1954, pp. 97, 112).
^Petrukhin notes that Ibn Fadlan's description of a Rus' prince (malik) and his lieutenant (khalifa) mirrored the Khazarian diarchy, but the comparison was flawed, as there was no sacral kingship among the Rus' (Petrukhin 2007, pp. 256–257).
^"the rest of the Khazars profess a religion similar to that of the Turks." (Golden 2007b, pp. 130–131)
^This regiment was exempt from campaigning against fellow Muslims, evidence that non-Judaic beliefs were no obstacle to access to the highest levels of government. They had abandoned their homeland and sought service with the Khazars in exchange for the right to exercise their religious freedom, according to al-Masudi (Golden 2007b, p. 138).
^Olsson writes that there is no evidence for this Islamic guard for the 9th century, but that its existence is attested for 913 (Olsson 2013, p. 507).
^Noonan gives the lower figure for the Muslim contingents, but adds that the army could draw on other mercenaries stationed in the capital, Rūs,Ṣaqāliba and pagans. Olsson's 10,000 refers to the spring-summer horsemen in the nomadic king's retinue (Noonan 2007, pp. 211, 217).
^A third division may have contained the dwellings of the tsarina. The dimensions of the western part were 3x3, as opposed to the eastern part's 8 x 8farsakhs (Noonan 2007, pp. 208–209, 216–219).
^Outside Muslim traders were under the jurisdiction of a special royal official (ghulām) (Noonan 2007, pp. 211–214).
^Theophanes the Confessor around 813 defined them asEastern Turks. The designation is complex and Róna-Tas writes: "TheGeorgian Chronicle refers to the Khazars in 626–628 as the 'West Turks' who were then opposed to the East Turks of Central Asia. Shortly after 679 theArmenian Geography mentions the Turks together with the Khazars; this may be the first record of the Magyars. Around 813, Theophanes uses – alongside the generic nameTurk – 'East Turk' for the designation of the Khazars, and in context, the 'West Turks' may actually have meant the Magyars. We know that Nicholas Misticus referred to the Magyars as 'West Turks' in 924/925. In the 9th century the nameTurk was mainly used to designate the Khazars." (Róna-Tas 1999, p. 282)
^Many sources identify the Göktürks in this alliance as Khazars--for example, Beckwith writes recently: "The alliance sealed by Heraclius with the Khazars in 627 was of seminal importance to the Byzantine Empire through the Early Middle Ages, and helped assure its long-term survival."[90] Early sources such as the almost contemporaryArmenian history,Patmutʿiwn Ałuanicʿ Ašxarhi, attributed to Movsēs Dasxurancʿ, and the Chronicle attributed to Theophanes identify these Turks as Khazars (Theophanes has: "Turks, who are called Khazars"). Both Zuckerman and Golden reject the identification.[91]
^Scholars dismiss Chinese annals which, reporting the events from Turkic sources, attribute the destruction of Persia and its leaderShah Khusrau II personally to Tong Yabghu. Zuckerman argues instead that the account is correct in its essentials (Zuckerman 2007, p. 417).
^"The Khazars, the close allies of the Byzantines, adopted Judaism, as their official religion, apparently by 740, three years after an invasion by the Arabs under Marwan ibn Muhammad. Marwan had used treachery against a Khazar envoy in order to gain peaceful entrance into Khazar territory. He then declared his dishonourable intentions and pressed deep into Khazar territory, subsequently, he released the envoy. The Arabs devastated the horse herds, seized many Khazars and others as captives, and forced much of the population to flee into the Ural Mountains. Marwan's terms dictated that the kaghan and his Khazars should convert to Islam. Having no choice, the kaghan accepted Marwan's terms, and the Arabs returned home in triumph. As soon as the Arabs were gone, the kaghan renounced Islam – with, one may assume, great vehemence. The Khazar Dynasty's conversion to Judaism is best explained by this specific historical background, together with the fact that the mid-eighth century was an age in which the major Eurasian states proclaimed their adherence to distinctive world religions. Adopting Judaism also was politically astute: it meant that the Khazars did not have to accept the overlordship (however theoretical) of the Arab caliph or the Byzantine emperor." (Beckwith 2011, p. 149)
^Over 520 separate hoards of such silver have been uncovered in Sweden andGotland (Moss 2002, p. 16).
^The Volga Bulgarian state was converted to Islam in the 10th century, and wrested liberty from its Khazarian suzerains whenSvyatislav razed Atil (Abulafia 1987, pp. 419, 480–483).
^Whittow argues however that: "The title of qaghan, with its claims to lordship over the steppe world, is likely to be no more than ideological booty from the 965 victory." (Whittow 1996, pp. 243–252)
^Korobkin citing Golb & Pritsak notes that Khazars have often been connected with Kiev's foundations.[118] Pritsak and Golb state that children inKiev were being given a mixture ofHebrew andSlavic names by c. 930.[119] Toch on the other hand is sceptical, and argues that "a significant Jewish presence in early medieval Kiev or indeed in Russia at large remains much in doubt".[120]
^Theyarmaq based on the Arabdirhem was perhaps issued in reaction to fall-off in Muslim minting in the 820s, and to a felt need in the turbulent upheavals of the 830s to assert a new religious profile, with the Jewish legends stamped on them (Golden 2007b, p. 156).
^Scholars are divided as to whether the fortification of Sarkel represents a defensive bulwark against a growing Magyar or Varangian threat (Petrukhin 2007, pp. 247, and n.1).
^Al-Mas'udi says the king secretly tipped off the Rus' of the attack but was unable to oppose the request of his guards (Olsson 2013, p. 507).
^The letter continues: "I wage war with them. If I left them (in peace) for a single hour they would crush the whole land of the Ishmaelites up toBaghdad." (Petrukhin 2007, p. 257)
^From Klavdiy Lebedev (1852–1916),Svyatoslav's meeting withEmperor John, as described by Leo the Deacon.
^H. H. Howorth argued that the Khazars were the ancestors of contemporary Circassians (Howorth 1870, pp. 182–192).
^Dunlop thought the later city ofSaqsin lay on or near Atil (Dunlop 1954, p. 248).
^TheCaspian Sea is still known to Arabs, and many peoples of the region, as the "Khazar Sea" (ArabicBahr ul-Khazar) (Brook 2010, p. 156)
^"thus it is clear that the false doctrine of Yišô in Rome (Hrôm) and that of Môsê among the Khazars and that of Mânî in Turkistan took away their might and the valor that they once possessed and made them feeble and decadent among their rivals" (Golden 2007b, p. 130).
^Some sources claim that the father ofSeljuk, the eponymous progenitor of theSeljuk Turks, namely Toqaq Temür Yalığ, began his career as an Oghuz soldier in Khazar service in the early and mid-10th century, and rose to high rank before he fell out with the Khazar rulers and departed forKhwarazm. Seljuk's sons, significantly, all bear names from theJewish scriptures: Mîkâ"il, Isrâ"îl, Mûsâ, Yûnus. Peacock argues that early traditions attesting a Seljuk origin within the Khazar empire when it was powerful, were later rewritten, after Khazaria fell from power in the 11th century, to blank out the connection (Peacock 2010, pp. 27–35).
^Tzitzak is often treated as her originalproper name, with a Turkic etymologyčiček ("flower"). Erdal, however, citing the Byzantine work on court ceremonyDe Ceremoniis, authored byConstantine Porphyrogennetos, argues that the word referred only to the dress Irene wore at court, perhaps denoting its colourfulness, and compares it to the Hebrewciciot, the knotted fringes of a ceremonial shawl, ortallit (Erdal 2007, p. 80, n.22;Wexler 1987, p. 72).
^"Engravings that resemble the six-pointed Star of David were found on circular Khazar relics and bronze mirrors from Sarkel and Khazarian grave fields in Upper Saltov. However, rather than having been made by Jews, these appear to be shamanistic sun discs." (Brook 2010, pp. 113, 122–123 n.148)
^Brook says this thesis was developed by Jacob Mann, based on a reading of the word "Khazaria" in the Cairo Geniza fragment. Bernard Lewis, he adds, challenged the assumption by noting that the original text readsHakkâri and refers to the Kurds of theHakkâri mountains in south-east Turkey (Brook 2010, pp. 191–192, n.72).
^Whittow notes that this native institution, given the constant, lengthy, military and acculturating pressures on the tribes from China to the East, was influenced also by thesinocentric doctrine of theMandate of Heaven (Tiānmìng:天命), which signaled legitimacy of rule (Whittow 1996, p. 220).
^Alp Ilut'uêr is a Turkish subordinate title (Golden 2007b, p. 124).
^Golden and Shapira thinks the evidence from such Georgian sources renders suspect a conversion prior to this date (Golden 2007b, pp. 135–136;Shapira 2007b, pp. 347–348).
^During Islamic invasions, some groups of Khazars who suffered defeat, including a qağan, were converted to Islam (DeWeese 1994, p. 73).
^Johannes Buxtorf first published the letters around 1660. Controversy arose over their authenticity; it was even argued that the letters represented "no more than Jewish self-consolation and fantasmagory over the lost dreams of statehood" (Kohen 2007, p. 112).
^"If anyone thinks that the Khazar correspondence was first composed in 1577 and published inQol Mebasser, the onus of proof is certainly on him. He must show that a number of ancient manuscripts, which appear to contain references to the correspondence, have all been interpolated since the end of the sixteenth century. This will prove a very difficult or rather an impossible task." (Dunlop 1954, p. 130)
^"The issue of the authenticity of the Correspondence has a long and mottled history which need not detain us here. Dunlop and most recently Golb have demonstrated that Hasdai's letter, Joseph's response (dating perhaps from the 950s) and the 'Cambridge Document' are, indeed, authentic." (Golden 2007b, pp. 145–146)
^"(a court debate on conversion) appears in accounts of Khazar Judaism in two Hebrew accounts, as well as in one eleventh-century Arabic account. These widespread and evidently independent attestations would seem to support the historicity of some kind of court debate, but, more important, clearly suggest the currency of tales recounting the conversion and originating among the Khazar Jewish community itself" ... "the 'authenticity' of the Khazar correspondence is hardly relevant"[166] "The wider issue of the 'authenticity' of the 'Khazar correspondence', and of the significance of this tale's parallels with the equally controversial Cambridge document /Schechter text, has been discussed extensively in the literature on Khazar Judaism; much of the debate loses significance if, as Pritsak has recently suggested, the accounts are approached as 'epic' narratives rather than evaluated from the standpoint of their 'historicity'."[167]
^"Of the intensive archaeological study of Khazar sites (over a thousand burial sites have been investigated!), not one has yet yielded finds that yet fit in some way the material legacy of antique European or Middle Eastern Jewry." (Toch 2012, pp. 162–163)
^Shingiray noting the widespread lack of artifacts of wealth in Khazar burials, arguing that nomads used few materials to express their personal attributes: "The SMC assemblages-even if they were not entirely missing from the Khazar imperial center - presented an outstanding instance of archaeological material minimalism in this region." (Shingiray 2012, pp. 209–211)
^"But, one must ask, are we to expect much religious paraphernalia in a recently converted steppe society? Do the Oğuz, in the century or so after their Islamization, present much physical evidence in the steppe for their new faith? These conclusions must be considered preliminary." (Golden 2007b, pp. 150–151, and note 137)
^Golden 2007b, pp. 128–129 comparesUlfilas's conversions of theGoths toArianism; Al-Masudi records a conversion of theAlans to Christianity during the Abbasid period; the Volga Bulğars adopted Islam after their leader converted in the 10th century; the Uyğur Qağan accepted Manichaeism in 762.
^"TheȘûfî wandering out into the steppe was far more effective in bringing Islam to the Turkic nomads than the learned'ulamâ of the cities." (Golden 2007b, p. 126)
^"the Khazars (most of whom did not convert to Judaism, but remained animists, or adopted Islam and Christianity)" (Wexler 2002, p. 514)
^"In much of the literature on conversions of Inner Asian peoples, attempts are made, 'to minimize the impact' ... This has certainly been true of some of the scholarship regarding the Khazars." (Golden 2007b, p. 127)
^"scholars who have contributed to the subject of the Khazars' conversion, have based their arguments on a limited corpus of textual, and more recently, numismatic evidence ... Taken together these sources offer a cacophony of distortions, contradictions, vested interests, and anomalies in some areas, and nothing but silence in others." (Olsson 2013, p. 496)
^"Judaism was apparently chosen because it was a religion of the book without being the faith of a neighbouring state which had designs on Khazar lands." (Noonan 1999, p. 502)
^"Their conversion to Judaism was the equivalent of a declaration of neutrality between the two rival powers." (Baron 1957, p. 198)
^"in Israel, emotions are still high when it comes to the history of the Khazars, as I witnessed in a symposium on the issue at the Israeli Academy of Sciences in Jerusalem (May 24, 2011). Whereas Prof. Shaul Stampfer believed the story of the Khazars' conversion to Judaism was a collection of stories or legends that have no historical foundation, (and insisted that the Ashkenazi of Eastern Europe of today stem from Jews in Central Europe who emigrated eastwards), Prof. Dan Shapiro believed that the conversion of the Khazars to Judaism was part of the history of Russia at the time it established itself as a kingdom." (Falk 2017, p. 101, n. 9)
^"We are not aware of any nation under the sky that would not have Christians among them. For even in Gog and Magog, the Hunnic people who call themselves Gazari, those whom Alexander confined, there was a tribe more brave than the others. This tribe had already been circumcised and they profess all dogmata of Judaism (omnem Judaismum observat)." (Golden 2007b, p. 139)
^The idea of a forced general conversion imposed on the Qağanal dynasty in the 830s was advanced by Omeljian Pritsak, and is now supported by Roman Kovalev and Peter Golden (Olsson 2013, p. 497).
^Olsson identifies this with the onset of Magyar invasions of the Pontic steppe in the 830s, the construction of Sarkel, and the Schechter letter's reference to Bulan, converted to his Jewish wife Serakh's faith, wresting power, in a period of famine, elements which undermined the qağan, and allowed the creation of the royal diarchy (Olsson 2013, pp. 507, 513ff).
^wa al-ḥazarwa malikuhum kulluhum yahûd ("The Khazars and their king are all Jews") (Golden 2007b, pp. 143, 159)
^Golden, citing his comment onGenesis 9:27: "some other commentators are of the opinion that this verse alludes to the Khazars who accepted Judaism", with Golden's comment: "Certainly, by this time, the association of Khazaria and Judaism in the Jewish world was an established fact" (Golden 2007b, p. 143).
^Shapira and Zuckerman disagree, positing only one stage and placing it later. Shapira takes stage 1 as a Jewish-Khazar reinterpretation of the Tengri-cult in terms of a monotheism similar to Judaism's; Zuckerman thinks Judaisation took place, just once, after 861 (Shapira 2007b, pp. 349, and n.178;Zuckerman 1995, p. 250).
^Dunlop thought the first stage occurred with the king's conversion c. 740; the second with the installation of Rabbinical Judaism c. 800 (Golden 2007b, pp. 127–128, 151–153;Dunlop 1954, p. 170).
^Arabic original:Kitâb al-ḥuyya wa'l-dalîl fi naṣr al-din al-dhalîl (Book of the Argument and Demonstration in Aid of the Despised Faith) (Schweid 2007, p. 279).
^Brook mentions also a letter in Hebrew, theMejelis document, dated 985–986, which refers to "our lord David, the Khazar prince" who lived inTaman. As Brook notes, bothD. M. Dunlop and Dan Shapira dismiss it as a forgery (Brook 2010, pp. 30, 41, n.75).
^The name is commonly etymologized as meaning "elk" in Türkic. Shapira identifies him with the Sabriel of the Schechter letter, and suggests, since Sabriel is unattested as a Jewish name, although the root is "hope, believe, find out, understand" that it is a calque on the Oğuz Türkicbulan (one who finds out) orbilen (one who knows) (Shapira 2009, p. 1102).
^Szpiech, citing theLetter of King Joseph:et ha-qosmim ve-et'ovdei avodah zarah ("expelled the wizards and idolators") (Szpiech 2012, pp. 93–117 [102]).
^This detail is in Halevi'sSefer Ha-Kusari.[192] Golden has identified Warsān as Transcaucasian Varaˇc'an.[193] Ḥasdai ibn Shaprūṭ's letter also mentions a legend that the Chaldaeans, under persecution, hid the Scriptures in a cave, and taught their sons to pray there, which they did until their descendants forgot the custom. Much later, a tradition has it, a man of Israel entered the cave and, retrieving the books, taught the descendants how to learn the Law.[194]
^The Schechter document has officers during the religious debate speak of a cave in a certain plain (TYZWL) where books are to be retrieved. They turn out to be the books of theTorah (DeWeese 1994, p. 303;Golb & Pritsak 1982, p. 111).
^The original ancestral cavern of the Türks, according to Chinese sources, was calledÖtüken, and the tribal leaders would travel there annually to conduct sacrificial rites (DeWeese 1994, pp. 276, 300–304).
^Kohen refers to Khazar killings of Christians or the uncircumcized in retaliation for persecutions of Jews in Byzantium, and Khazar reprisals against Muslims for persecutions of Jews inCaucasian Albania, perhaps under Emir Nasr (Kohen 2007, pp. 107–108).
^"If indeed I could learn that this was the case, then, despising all my glory, abandoning my high estate, leaving my family, I would go over mountains and hills, through seas and lands, till I should arrive at the place where my Lord the King resides, that I might see not only his glory and magnificence, and that of his servants and ministers, but also the tranquillity of the Israelites. On beholding this my eyes would brighten, my reins would exult, my lips would pour forth praises to God, who has not withdrawn his favour from his afflicted ones." (Koestler 1977, p. 63;Leviant 2008, pp. 159–162)
^abRabbinic Judaism rather than Qaraism was the form adopted. SmallKaraim communities may have existed, but the linguistic and historical evidence suggests that theTurkic-speaking Karaim Jews in Poland and Lithuania, of which one branch also existed in the Crimea, descend from the Khazars. "At most, it is conceivable that the smaller Karaite community which lived in Khazaria gained the Kipchak type Turkic language, that they speak today, through an exchange of language." Khazars probably converted toRabbinic Judaism, whereas inKaraism only theTorah is accepted, theTalmud being ignored (Róna-Tas 1999, p. 232).
^"At a time when Russia masked imperialist goals by pretending to be the protector of Slavic peoples and the Orthodox faith, Crimean Karism was exercising its own version of cultural imperialism. It is clear that the Crimean Karaites intended to expand their dominion to include Cairo, Jerusalem, and Damascus, basing their pre-eminence on the claim that Karaism, an ancient, pre-Talmudic form of Judaism, had been brought to the Middle East by the Khazars. Such an allegation would, however, have been much more difficult, if not impossible, to maintain.To summarize the Khazar-Karaite nexus commonly accepted in the Russian Empire during the last century: the Khazars, who were of pagan Turkic origin, were supposedly brought to Judaism by Karaites, descendants of Jews who had lived in the Black Sea areas since biblical times and whose Judaism was, therefore, pre-Talmudic and nonrabbinic. As a result, the Khazars' Judaism was Karaite, and later Karaites, who spoken a Turkic language, must have descended from the Khazars, with whom the ancient Jews had assimilated. The circularity of the argument aside, modern historians have concluded that the Khazars were converted by Rabbanite Jews and that they and their descendants observed rabbinic law and traditions. Indeed, recent scholarship has demonstrated that Khazaria was altogether unrepresented in the Karaite literature of the ninth and early tenth centuries, as well as that written during its Golden Age – when Karaism had a militant and missionary influence."[214]
^"Most scholars are skeptical of the hypothesis".[24] Wexler, who proposes a variation of the idea, argues that a combination of three reasons accounts for scholarly aversion to the concept: a desire not to get mixed up in controversy, ideological insecurities, and the incompetence of much earlier work in favor of that hypothesis.
^"Methodologically, Wexler has opened up some new areas, taking elements of folk culture into account. I think that his conclusions have gone well beyond the evidence. Nonetheless, these are themes that should be pursued further." (Golden 2007a, p. 56)
^"Arthur Koestler's bookThe Thirteenth Tribe which claimed that the converted Khazars were the progenitors of today'sAshkenazi Jews, has largely been rejected by serious scholars. However, the disputed theory that the stereotypical European Jew is descended from anEastern European nation of Jewish converts, has been sufficiently unwelcome as to render study of the Khazars an area of research largely off limits for Jewish as well as Russian archaeologists, the Russians being unhappy with the prospect that their empire was initially ruled by Jewish kings, and the Jews being unhappy with the prospect that the Ashkenazim might not have a genetic connection to the freed slaves who met with God at Sinai." (Mariner 1999, pp. 95–96)
^Rossman 2002, p. 98: Abraham Harkavy,O yazykye evreyev, zhivshikh v drevneye vremya na Rusi i o slavianskikh slovakh, vstrechaiuschikhsia u evreiskikh pisatelei, St. Petersburg.
^Barkun 1997, p. 137: Ernest Renan, "Judaism as a Race and as Religion." Delivered on 27 January 1883.
^Goldstein writes "The theory that Eastern European Jews are descended from the Khazars was originally proposed by Samuel Weissenberg in an attempt to show that Jews were deeply rooted on Russian soil and the cradle ofJewish civilization was the Caucasus".[222] Weissenberg's bookDie Südrussischen Juden, was published in 1895.
^Schipper's first monograph on this was published in theAlmanach Žydowski (Vienna) in 1918. While in theWarsaw ghetto before falling victim to the Holocaust atMajdanek, Schipper (1884–1943) was working on the Khazar hypothesis (Litman 1984, pp. 85–110 [109]).
^"There were Arab tribes who were Jews in the time of Muhammad, and a Turkic people who were mainly Jews in South Russia in the ninth century. Judaism is indeed the reconstructed political ideal of many shattered peoples-mainly semitic. As a result of these coalescences and assimilations, almost everywhere in the towns throughout theRoman Empire, and far beyond it in the east, Jewish communities traded and flourished, and they were kept in touch through theBible, and through a religious and educational organization. The main part of Jewry never was in Judea and it had never come out of Judea." (Wells 1920, p. 570)
^John Bagot Glubb held that Russian Jews "have considerably less Middle Eastern blood, consisting largely of pagan Slav proselytes or of Khazar Turks." For Glubb, they were not "descendants of the Judeans ...The Arabs of Palestine are probably more closely related to the Judeans (genetically) than are modern Russian or German Jews.... Of course, an anti-Zionist (as well as an anti-Semitic) point is being made here: The Palestinians have a greater political right to Palestine than the Jews do, as they, not the modern-day Jews, are the true descendants of the land's Jewish inhabitants/owners" (Morris 2003, p. 22).
^First written as an article in 1941 – "The Khazars' Conversion to Judaism", then written as a monograph (1943), it was revised twice, first, it was revised in 1944, and in 1951, it was revised again and it was also retitledKazariyah: Toldot mamlacha yehudit be'Eropa (Khazaria: History of a Jewish Kingdom in Europe) Mosad Bialik, Tel Aviv, 1951.
^"Poliak sought the origins of Eastern European Jewry in Khazaria" (Golden 2007a, p. 29).
^"As for the Jews of Eastern Europe (Poles, Russians, etc.), it has always been assumed that they descended from an amalgamation of Jews of Khazar stock from southern Russia and German Jews (the latter having imposed their superior culture)." (Poliakov 2005, p. 285)
^Sand[234] citesSalo Wittmayer Baron, "before and after the Mongol upheaval the Khazars sent many offshoots into the unsubdued Slavonic lands, helping ultimately to build up the great Jewish center of Eastern Europe";[235] as well asBen-Zion Dinur: "The Russian conquests did not destroy the Khazar kingdom entirely, but they broke it up and diminished it. And this kingdom, which had absorbed Jewish immigration and refugees from many exiles, must itself have become a diaspora mother, the mother of one of the greatest of the diasporas (Em-galuyot, em akhat hagaluyot hagdolot)-of Israel in Russia, Lithuania and Poland."[236]
^"Salo Baron, who incorrectly viewed them as Finno-Ugrians, believed that the Khazars 'sent many offshoots into the unsubdued Slavonic lands, helping ultimately to build up the great Jewish centers of eastern Europe'" (Golden 2007a, p. 55)
^"dismissed ... rather airily" (Golden 2007a, p. 55).
^"Some limit this denial to European Jews and make use of the theory that the Jews of Europe are not of Israelite descent at all but are the offspring of a tribe of Central Asian Turks converted to Judaism, called the Khazars. This theory, first put forward by an Austrian anthropologist in the early years of this century, is supported by no evidence whatsoever. It has long since been abandoned by all serious scholars in the field, including those in Arab countries, where Khazar theory is little used except in occasional political polemics."[239] Assertions of this kind have been challenged by Paul Wexler[240] who also notes that the arguments on this issue are riven by contrasting ideological investments: "Most writers who have supported the Ashkenazi-Khazar hypothesis have not argued their claims in a convincing manner ... The opponents of the Khazar-Ashkenazi nexus are no less guilty of empty polemics and unconvincing arguments."[241]
^"it is assumed by all historians that those Jewish Khazars who survived the last fateful decades sought and found refuge in the bosom of Jewish communities in the Christian countries to the west, and especially in Russia and Poland, on the one hand, and in the Muslim countries to the east and the south, on the other. Some historians and anthropologists go so far as to consider the modern Jews of East Europe, and more particularly of Poland, the descendants of the medieval Khazars." (Patai & Patai 1989, p. 71)
^"The Khazar theory never figured as a major component of antisemitism. The connection receives only scant attention inLéon Poliakov's monumental history of the subject. It did however come to exercise a particular attraction for advocates of immigration restriction in America." (Barkun 1997, pp. 136–137)
^"Although the Khazar theory gets surprisingly little attention in scholarly histories of anti-Semitism, it has been an influential theme among American anti-Semites since the immigration restrictionists of the 1920s" (Barkun 2012, p. 165).
^"By the 1960s, whenChristian identity was established as a force on theextreme right, the Khazar ancestry of the Jews was a firm article of faith. Two books, written in this milieu and widely read, came to exercise a strong influence in this regard. John Beaty'sIron Curtain over America (1951) and Wilmot Robertson'sDispossessed Majority (1972) repeated the Khazar thesis of Stoddard. Christian identity teachings readily seized on this negative reference to Russian Jewry, however, it backdated the history of intermarriage between Jews and Khazars to biblical times. InA Short History of Esau-Edom in Jewry (1948), the Vancouver-based writer C.F. Parker claimed that a tiny remnant of 'true Judah' was pitted against a large group of Idumean-Hittites who masqueraded as the true seed of Abraham and sought to expel the descendants of Jacob. These Esau-Hittites are the Ashkenazim, concentrated in Eastern and Central Europe and America." (Goodrick-Clarke 2003, p. 237)
^Beaty was an antisemitic,McCarthyite professor of Old English atSMU, author ofThe Iron Curtain over America (Dallas 1952). According to him, "the Khazar Jews ... were responsible for all of America's – and the world's ills, beginning with World War 1." The book "had little impact" until the former Wall Street broker and oil tycoon J. Russell Maguire promoted it (Boller 1992, pp. 2, 6–7;Barkun 1997, pp. 141–142).
^Wexler 2002, p. 514 has a more detailed bibliography.
^"Arab anti-Semitism might have been expected to be free from the idea of racial odium, since Jews and Arabs are both regarded by race theory as Semites, but the odium is directed, not against the Semitic race, but against the Jews as a historical group. The main idea is that the Jews, racially, are a mongrel community, most of them being not Semites, but of Khazar and European origin."[253] This essay was translated from Harkabi Hebrew text "Arab Antisemitism" in Shmuel Ettinger,Continuity and Discontinuity in Antisemitism, (Hebrew) 1968 (p.50).
^"in the very late 1980s Russian nationalists were fixated on the 'Khazar episode.' For them the Khazar issue seemed to be a crucial one. They treated it as the first historically documented case of the imposition of a foreign yoke on the Slavs, ... In this context the term 'Khazars' became popular as a euphemism for the so-called 'Jewish occupation regime'." (Shnirelman 2007, pp. 353–372)
^"The Khazar king and part of his court allegedly adopted the Jewish religion ... The truth of such a conversion and its extent has been the topic of many discussions, and the topic of vehement disagreements in our age of genomic DNA analyses." (Falk 2017, p. 100)
^"Strong evidence for the Khazarian hypothesis is the clustering of European Jews with the populations that reside on opposite ends of ancient Khazaria: Armenians, Georgians, and Azerbaijani Jews" (Elhaik 2012, pp. 61–74).
^"During Greco-Roman times, recorded mass conversions led to 6 million people practicing Judaism in Roman times or up to 10% of the population of the Roman Empire. Thus, the genetic proximity of these European/Syrian Jewish populations, including Ashkenazi Jews, to each other and to French, Northern Italian, and Sardinian populations favors the idea of non-Semitic Mediterranean ancestry in the formation of the European/Syrian Jewish groups and is incompatible with theories that Ashkenazi Jews are for the most part the direct lineal descendants of converted Khazars or Slavs. The genetic proximity of Ashkenazi Jews to southern European populations has been observed in several other recent studies.. Admixture with local populations, including Khazars and Slavs, may have occurred subsequently during the 1000 year (2nd millennium) history of the European Jews. Based on analysis of Y chromosomal polymorphisms, Hammer estimated that the rate might have been as high as 0.5% per generation or 12.5% cumulatively (a figure derived from Motulsky), although this calculation might have underestimated the influx of European Y chromosomes during the initial formation of European Jewry.15 Notably, up to 50% of Ashkenazi Jewish Y chromosomal haplogroups (E3b, G, J1, and Q) are of Middle Eastern origin, 15 whereas the other prevalent haplogroups (J2, R1a1, R1b) may be representative of the early European admixture.20 The 7.5% prevalence of the R1a1 haplogroup among Ashkenazi Jews has been interpreted as a possible marker for Slavic or Khazar admixture because this haplogroup is very common among Ukrainians (where it was thought to have originated), Russians, and Sorbs, as well as among Central Asian populations, although the admixture may have occurred with Ukrainians, Poles, or Russians, rather than Khazars." (Atzmon & Ostrer 2010, pp. 850–859)
^"The extent to which the Khazars contributed to the Jewish gene-pool, and more specifically to the Ashkenazi ethnic-group(s), has become a charged issue among expert scientists as well as nonprofessionals. National and ethnic prejudices play a central role in the controversy." (Falk 2017, p. 100)
^"if the genome does not prove Sand wrong, neither can it prove him right. It is the wrong kind of evidence and the wrong style of reasoning for the task at hand."[270] "They (researchers) will never be able to prove descent from Khazars: there are no 'verification' samples."[271]
^"Kiev in Khazar is Sambat, the same as the Hungarian wordszombat, 'Saturday', which is likely to have been derived from the Khazar Jews living in Kyiv." (Róna-Tas 1999, p. 152)
^Palmacci, Cinzia (20 March 2024).Russia and Ukraina. Nothing is as it seems: What no one will tell you about the true origins motivating the crisis between Russia and Ukraine. Cinzia Palmacci. p. 15.ISBN978-1-4461-0674-7.
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Petrukhin, Vladimir; Flyorov, Valeriy (2010). "Iudaizm v Khazarii po dannym arkheologii"Иудаизм в Хазарии по данным археологии [Judaism in Khazaria according to Archaeological Data]. In Bartal, Israel; Kulik, Alexander (eds.).Istoriya yevreyskogo naroda v Rossii. Ot drevnosti do rannego Novogo vremeniИстория еврейского народа в России. От древности до раннего Нового времени [History of Jewish People in Russia. From Antiquity to the Early Modern Period] (in Russian). Vol. 1. Moscow; Jerusalem: Bridges of Culture; Gerashim. pp. 149–161.ISBN978-5-457-51756-1.
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1These are traditional areas of settlement; the Turkic group has been living in the listed country/region for centuries and should not be confused with modern diasporas. 2State with limited international recognition.
1 Central Asian (i.e.Turkmeni,Afghani andIranian)Turkmens, distinct from Levantine (i.e.Iraqi andSyrian) Turkmen/Turkoman minorities, who mostly adhere to an Ottoman-Turkish heritage and identity.2 In traditional areas of Turkish settlement (i.e. formerOttoman territories).
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