The Khazars (Hebrew sing. "Kuzari" כוזרי plur. "Kuzarim" כוזרים;
Turkish sing. "Hazar" plur. Hazarlar; Russian sing. Хазарин plur. Хазары; Tatar
sing Xäzär plur. Xäzärlär; Crimean Tatar: sing.
Hazar, plur. Hazarlar; Greek Χαζάροι/Χάζαροι; Persianخزر khazar; Latin "Gazari" or "Cosri") were a
semi-nomadic Turkic people from Central Asia, many of whom converted to Judaism. The name 'Khazar' seems
to be tied to a Turkic verb form meaning "wandering" ('gezer' in modern
Turkish). In the 7th century CE they founded an
independent Khaganate in the Northern Caucasus along the
Caspian Sea, where over time Judaism became the state religion. At their height, they and
their tributaries controlled much of what is today southern Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the Caucasus (including Dagestan, Georgia), and the Crimea.
They were important allies of the Byzantine Empire against the Sassanid Empire and later the Caliphate, the Pechenegs, and the Rus'. In later years, however, once Khazaria had
become a significant regional power, the Byzantines abandoned the alliance and turned to the Rus' and Pechenegs against the Khazars. Between 965 and 969,
their sovereignty was broken by Sviatoslav I of Kiev, and they became a subject
people of Kievan Rus'. Gradually displaced by the Rus, the Kipchaks, and later the conquering Mongol Golden Horde, the Khazars largely disappeared as a culturally-distinct people.
Today, various place names invoking Khazar persist. Indeed, the Caspian Sea,
traditionally known as the Hyrcanian Sea and Mazandaran Sea in Persian, came to be known to
Iranians as the Khazar Sea as an alternative name.
Origins and prehistory
The site of the Khazar fortress at Sarkel. Aerial photo from excavations conducted by
Mikhail
Artamonov in the 1930s.
The origins of the Khazars are unclear. Following their conversion to Judaism, the Khazars themselves traced their origins to
Kozar, a son of Togarmah. Togarmah is mentioned in
Genesis in the Bible as a grandson of Japheth. It is unlikely, however, that he was regarded as an ancestor before the introduction of Biblical
traditions to Khazaria.
Some historians have looked for possible connections between the Khazars and the lost tribes
of Israel [1] [2] , but modern scholars generally consider them to be Turks who migrated from the East (and yet there are those who consider many Turkish peoples to be from
the lost tribes of Israel as well). Scholars in the former USSR considered the Khazars to be an indigenous people of the
North Caucasus. Some scholars, such as D.M.
Dunlop, considered the Khazars to be connected with a Uyghur or Tiele confederation tribe called He'san in Chinese sources from the 7th-century (Suishu, 84). However, the
Khazar language appears to have been an Oghuric tongue,
similar to that spoken by the early Bulgars. Therefore, a Hunnish
origin has also been postulated. Since the Turkic peoples were never ethnically homogenous, these ideas need not be deemed
mutually exclusive. It is likely that the Khazar nation was made up of tribes from various ethnic backgrounds, as steppe nations
traditionally absorbed those they conquered. Their name is accordingly derived from Turkic *qaz-, meaning "to wander,
flee."
Armenian chronicles contain references to the Khazars as early as the late second century. These are generally regarded as anachronisms, and most
scholars believe that they actually refer to Sarmatians or Scythians. Priscus relates that one of the nations in the Hunnish confederacy was called Akatziroi. Their king was named Karadach or Karidachus. Some, going on the similarity between Akatziroi and "Ak-Khazar" (see below), have
speculated that the Akatziroi were early proto-Khazars.
Dmitri Vasil'ev of Astrakhan State University recently hypothesized that
the Khazars moved in to the Pontic steppe region only in the late 500s, and originally lived in
Transoxiana. According to Vasil'ev, Khazar populations remained behind in Transoxiana under
Pecheneg and Oghuz suzerainty, possibly remaining in contact with the main body of their people.
Tribes
The Khazars' tribal structure is not well understood. They were divided between Ak-Khazars ("White Khazars") and Kara-Khazars
("Black Khazars"). Geographer Istakhri 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
of Indian".[3] However,
many Turkic nations had similar division between a "white" ruling warrior caste and a "black" class of commoners; the distinction
is believed by most scholars to have had to do with race, though it is possible that this refers to the tan skin that developed
in the lower working classes from working outside, and the height difference could be explained from the higher classed Khazars
receiving better nutrition. The consensus among mainstream scholars is that Istakhri was himself confused by the name given to
the two groups.[4]
Rise
Formation of the Khazar state
Map of the Western (purple) and Eastern (blue) Gokturk
khaganates at their height, c. 600 CE.
Lighter areas show direct rule; darker areas show spheres of influence.
Early Khazar history is intimately tied with that of the Göktürk empire, founded when the
Ashina clan overthrew the Juan Juan in 552 CE. With the collapse of the Göktürk empire due to internal conflict in the seventh century, the western half of the Turk empire split into a number of tribal confederations, among
whom were the Bulgars, led by the Dulo clan, and the Khazars,
led by the Ashina clan, the traditional rulers of the Gok Turk empire. By 670, the Khazars had broken the Bulgar confederation, causing various tribal groups to migrate and leaving two
remnants of Bulgar rule - Volga Bulgaria, and the Bulgarian khanate[later EMPIRE] on the Danube River.
The first significant appearance of the Khazars in history is their aid to the campaign of the Byzantine emperor Heraclius against the Sassanid Persians. The Khazar ruler Ziebel (sometimes identified as
Tong Yabghu Khagan of the West Turks) aided the Byzantines in overrunning Georgia. A marriage was even contemplated between Ziebel's son and Heraclius' daughter, but never took
place. During these campaigns, the Khazars may have been ruled by Mo-ho-sad and their forces may
have been under the command of his son Buri-sad.[5]
The
Pontic steppe, c. 650, showing the early territory of the Khazars and their
neighbors.
Eastern Hemisphere, 600ad.
During the 7th and 8th centuries the Khazar fought a
series of wars against the Umayyad Caliphate, which was
attempting simultaneously to expand its influence into Transoxiana and the Caucasus. The first war was fought in the early 650 and ended with the defeat of
an Arab force led by Abd ar-Rahman ibn Rabiah outside the Khazar town of
Balanjar, after a battle in which both sides used siege
engines on the others' troops.
A number of Russian sources give the name of a Khazar khagan, Irbis, from this period, and
describe him as a scion of the Göktürk royal house, the Ashina. Whether Irbis ever existed is open to debate, as is the issue of
whether he can be identified with one of the many Göktürk rulers of the same name.
Several further conflicts erupted in the decades that followed, with Arab attacks and Khazar raids into Kurdistan and Iran. There is evidence from the account of al-Tabari that the
Khazars formed a united front with the remnants of the Gok Turks in Transoxiana.
Khazars and Byzantium
Khazar overlordship over most of the Crimea dates back to the late 7th century. In the mid-8th
century the rebellious Crimean Goths were put down and their city, Doros (modern Mangup) occupied. A Khazar tudun was resident at Cherson in
the 690s, despite the fact that this town was nominally subject to the Byzantine Empire.
They are also known to have been allied with the Byzantine Empire during at least
part of the eighth century. In 704/705 Justinian II, exiled in Cherson, escaped into Khazar territory and
married the sister of the Khagan, Busir. With the aid of his wife, he escaped from Busir, who was
intriguing against him with the usurper Tiberius III, murdering two Khazar officials in the
process. He fled to Bulgaria, whose Khan Tervel
helped him regain the throne. The Khazars later provided aid to the rebel general Bardanes,
who seized the throne in 711 as Emperor Philippicus.
The Byzantine emperor Leo III married his son Constantine (later
Constantine V Kopronymous) to the Khazar princess Tzitzak
(daughter of the Khagan Bihar) as part of the alliance between the two empires. Tzitzak,
who was baptized as Irene, became famous for her wedding gown, which started a
fashion craze in Constantinople for a type of robe (for men) called tzitzakion. Their son Leo (Leo IV) would be better known as "Leo the Khazar".
Second Khazar-Arab war
Expansion of the
Caliphate to 750 CE.
From The Historical Atlas by William R. Shepherd, 1923
Courtesy of The General Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin
Hostilities broke out again with the Caliphate in the 710s, with raids back and forth across the
Caucasus but few decisive battles. The Khazars, led by a prince named Barjik, invaded
northwestern Iran and defeated the Umayyad forces at
Ardabil in 730, killing the Arab warlord al-Djarrah al-Hakami and briefly occupying the town. They were defeated the next year at
Mosul, where Barjik directed Khazar forces from a throne mounted with al-Djarrah's severed head,
and Barjik was killed. Arab armies led first by the Arab prince Maslamah ibn Abd
al-Malik and then by Marwan ibn Muhammad (later Caliph Marwan II) poured across the
Caucasus and eventually (in 737) defeated a Khazar army led by Hazer
Tarkhan, briefly occupying Atil itself and possibly forcing the Khagan to convert to Islam.
The instability of the Umayyad regime made a permanent occupation impossible; the Arab armies withdrew and Khazar independence
was re-asserted. It has been speculated that the adoption of Judaism (which in this theory would
have taken place around 740) was part of this re-assertion of independence.
It is worth noting that around 739, Arab sources give the name of the ruler of the Khazars as
Parsbit or Barsbek, a woman who appears to have directed military operations against them. This
suggests that women could have very high positions within the Khazar state, possibly even as a stand-in for the khagan.
Although they stopped the Arab expansion into Eastern
Europe for some time after these wars, the Khazars were forced to withdraw behind the Caucasus. In the ensuing decades
they extended their territories from the Caspian Sea in the east (many cultures still call
the Caspian Sea "Khazar Sea"; e.g. "Xəzər dənizi" in Azeri, "Hazar Denizi" in
Turkish, "Bahr ul-Khazar" in Arabic, "Darya-ye Khazar" in Persian) to the steppe region north of Black Sea in the west, as far west at least as the Dnieper River.
In 758, the Abbasid Caliph
Abdullah al-Mansur ordered Yazid ibn Usayd al-Sulami, one of
his nobles and military governor of Armenia, to take a royal Khazar bride and make peace. Yazid
took home a daughter of Khagan Baghatur, the Khazar leader. Unfortunately, the girl died
inexplicably, possibly in childbirth. Her attendants returned home, convinced that some Arab faction had poisoned her, and her
father was enraged. A Khazar general named Ras Tarkhan invaded what is now northwestern
Iran, plundering and raiding for several months. Thereafter relations between the Khazars and the Abbasid Caliphate (whose foreign policies were generally less expansionist than its Umayyad predecessor) became
increasingly cordial.
Khazar religion
Turkic shamanism
-
Originally, the Khazars practiced traditional Turkic shamanism, focused on the sky
god Tengri, but were heavily influenced by Confucian ideas imported from China, notably that of the Mandate of Heaven. The Ashina clan were considered to be the
chosen of Tengri and the kaghan was the incarnation of the favor the sky-god bestowed on the Turks. A kaghan who failed had
clearly lost the god's favor and was typically ritually executed. Historians have
sometimes wondered, only half in jest, whether the Khazar tendency to occasionally execute their rulers on religious grounds led
those rulers to seek out other religions.
The Khazars worshipped a number of deities subordinate to Tengri, including the fertility goddess Umay, Kuara, a thunder god, and
Erlik, the god of death.
Conversion to Judaism and relations with world Jewry
Jewish communities had existed in the Greek cities of the Black
Sea coast since late classical times. Chersonesos, Sudak, Kerch and other Crimean cities possessed Jewish communities, as did
Gorgippia, and Samkarsh / Tmutarakan was said to have had a Jewish majority as early as the 670s. The
original Jewish settlers were joined by waves of immigration fleeing persecution in the Byzantine Empire, Sassanid Persia (particularly during the Mazdak revolts),[6] and later within the
Islamic world. Jewish merchants such as the Radhanites
regularly traded in Khazar territory, and may have wielded significant economic and political influence. Though their origins and
history are somewhat unclear, the Mountain Jews also lived in or near Khazar territory and
may have been allied with or subject to Khazar overlordship; it is conceivable that they too played a role in the conversion.
At some point in the last decades of the 8th century or the early 9th century, the Khazar royalty and nobility converted to Judaism, and part of the general population
followed.[7] The extent of the conversion is debated.
Ibn al-Faqih reported in the 10th century that "all
the Khazars are Jews." Notwithstanding this statement, some scholars believe that only the upper classes converted to Judaism;
there is some support for this in contemporary Muslim texts.[8] However, recent archeological excavations have uncovered widespread shifts in burial practices.
Around the mid 800s burials in Khazaria began to take on a decidedly Jewish flavor. Grave goods disappeared almost altogether.
Judging by interment evidence, by 950 Judaism had become widespread among all classes of Khazar
society.
Essays in the Kuzari, written by Yehuda Halevi,
detail a moral liturgical reason for the conversion which some consider a moral tale. Some researchers have suggested part of the
reason for this mass conversion was political expediency to maintain a degree of neutrality: the Khazar empire was between growing populations, Muslims
to the east and Christians to the west. Both religions recognized Judaism as a forebear and
worthy of some respect. The exact date of the conversion is hotly contested. It may have occurred as early as 740 or as late as
the mid 800s. Recently-discovered numismatic evidence suggests
that Judaism was the established state religion by c. 830, and though St. Cyril (who visited Khazaria in 861) did not identify the Khazars as Jews,
the khagan of that period, Zachariah, had a biblical Hebrew name. Some medieval sources give the name of the rabbi who oversaw the conversion of the Khazars as Isaac Sangari or
Yitzhak ha-Sangari.
The first Jewish Khazar king was named Bulan which means "elk", though some sources give him the Hebrew name Sabriel. A later king,
Obadiah, strengthened Judaism, inviting rabbis into the
kingdom and building synagogues. Jewish figures such as Saadia
Gaon made positive references to the Khazars, and they are excoriated in contemporary Karaite writings as "bastards"; it is therefore unlikely that they adopted Karaism as some (such as
Avraham Firkovich) have proposed.
According to the Schechter Letter, early Khazar Judaism was centered on a
mishkan similar to that mentioned in the Book of
Exodus. Archaeologists at Rostov-on-Don have tentatively identified a folding altar
unearthed at Khumar as part of such a construct.
The Khazars enjoyed close relations with the Jews of the Levant and Persia. The Persian Jews, for example, hoped that the Khazars might succeed in conquering the Caliphate.[9] The high esteem in which the Khazars were held among the Jews
of the Orient may be seen in the application to them, in an Arabic commentary on
Isaiah ascribed by some to Saadia Gaon, and by others to
Benjamin Nahawandi, of Isaiah 48:14: "The Lord hath
loved him." "This," says the commentary, "refers to the Khazars, who will go and destroy Babel"
(i.e., Babylonia), a name used to designate the country of the Arabs.[10] From the Khazar Correspondence it
is apparent that two Spanish Jews, Judah ben Meir ben Nathan and Joseph Gagris, had succeeded in settling in the land of the
Khazars. Saadia, who had a fair knowledge of the kingdom of the Khazars, mentions a certain Isaac ben Abraham who had removed
from Sura to Khazaria.[11]
Likewise, the Khazar rulers viewed themselves as the protectors of international Jewry, and corresponded with foreign Jewish leaders (the letters exchanged between the Khazar ruler Joseph and the
Spanish rabbi Hasdai ibn Shaprut have been preserved). They were known to retaliate
against Muslim or Christian interests in Khazaria for persecution of Jews abroad. Ibn
Fadlan relates that around 920 the Khazar ruler received information that Muslims had
destroyed a synagogue in the land of Babung, in Iran; he gave
orders that the minaret of the mosque in his capital should be
broken off, and the muezzin executed. He further declared that he would have destroyed all the
mosques in the country had he not been afraid that the Muslims would in turn destroy all the synagogues in their lands.
Some have speculated that Ashkenazic Jews are the descendants of the non-Semitic
converted Khazars, but no genealogical records exist of Khazar ancestry to today’s Jews. Since
Ashkenazi Jews make up the majority of world Jewry, such speculation is often held in conjunction with the belief that modern day
Jews are not the true descendants of the Ancient Israelites, and that contemporary Jewry has
no rightful claim to the land of the State of Israel. This thesis began to gain popularity among
the Holocaust denial movement during the 20th century, especially after the
establishment of Israel in 1948. It is also popular among groups such as the Black Hebrews, British Israelitists and others who
claim Israelite descent and seek to downplay the connection between the Jewish people and their Israelite ancestors.
Other religions
Besides Judaism, other religions probably practiced in areas ruled by the Khazars include
Greek Orthodox, Nestorian, and
Monophysite Christianity, Zoroastrianism as well
as Norse, Finnic, and Slavic cults. Religious toleration was maintained for the kingdom's three hundred plus years. The
"apostle of the Slavs", Saint Cyril, is said to have attempted the conversion of Khazars
without enduring results. Many Khazars reportedly were converts to Christianity and Islam. (See "Judiciary", below.)
Government
Khazar kingship
Main Articles: Khagan; Khagan Bek; for names of Khazar
rulers see List of Khazar rulers.
![Khazar warrior with captive.[12]](http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/d/d7/200px-Khazar_1.gif)
Khazar warrior with captive.
[12]
Khazar kingship was divided between the khagan and the Bek or
Khagan Bek. Contemporary Arab historians related that the Khagan was purely a spiritual ruler
or figurehead with limited powers, while the Bek was responsible for administration and military affairs.
Both the Khagan and the Khagan Bek lived in Itil. The Khagan's palace, according to Arab sources, was on an island in the
Volga River. He was reported to have 25 wives, each the daughter of a client ruler; this may, however, have been an
exaggeration.
In the Khazar Correspondence, King
Joseph identifies himself as the ruler of the Khazars and makes no reference to a colleague. It has been disputed whether
Joseph was a Khagan or a Bek; his description of his military campaigns make the latter probable. A third option is that by the
time of the Correspondence (c. 950-960) the Khazars had merged the two positions into a single
ruler, or that the Beks had somehow supplanted the Khagans or vice versa.
Army
Khazar armies were led by the Khagan Bek and commanded by subordinate officers known as tarkhans. A famous tarkhan referred to in
Arab sources as Ras or As Tarkhan led an invasion of
Armenia in 758. The army included regiments of Muslim auxiliaries known as Arsiyah, of Khwarezmian or Alan extraction, who were quite influential. These regiments were
exempt from campaigning against their fellow Muslims. Early Russian sources sometimes referred to
the city of Khazaran (across the Volga River from
Atil) as Khvalisy and the Khazar (Caspian) sea as Khvaliskoye. According to some scholars such as
Omeljan Pritsak, these terms were East
Slavic versions of "Khwarezmian" and referred to these mercenaries.
In addition to the Bek's standing army, the Khazars could call upon tribal levies in times of danger and were often joined by
auxiliaries from subject nations.
Other officials
Settlements were governed by administrative officials known as tuduns. In some cases (such as
the Byzantine settlements in southern Crimea), a tudun would be appointed for a town nominally
within another polity's sphere of influence.
Other officials in the Khazar government included dignitaries referred to by ibn
Fadlan as Jawyshyghr and Kundur, but
their responsibilities are unknown.
Judiciary
Muslim sources report that the Khazar supreme court consisted of two Jews, two Christians, two Muslims, and a "heathen" (whether this is a Turkic shaman or a
priest of Slavic or Norse religion is unclear), and a citizen had the right to be judged according to the laws of his religion.
Some have argued that this configuration is unlikely, as a Beit Din, or rabbinical court, requires three members. It is therefore
possible that as practitioners of the state religion, the Jews had three judges on the Supreme Court rather than two, and that
the Muslim sources were attempting to downplay their influence. A Muslim or Christian court can function with only one or two judges.
Economic position
Trade
Map of Eurasia showing the trade network of the Radhanites, c. 870 CE, as reported in the account of ibn Khordadbeh in the Book
of Roads and Kingdoms.
The Khazars occupied a prime trade nexus. Goods from western Europe travelled east to Central
Asia and China and vice versa, and the Muslim world could only interact with northern Europe via Khazar intermediaries. The
Radhanites, a guild of medieval Jewish merchants, had a trade route that ran through Khazaria,
and may ha
