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Khazars
The Khazars ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a nomadic Turkic people who, in the late 6th century CE, established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, Crimea, and Kazakhstan. They created what, for its duration, was the most powerful polity to emerge from the break-up of the Western Turkic Khaganate. Astride a major artery of commerce between Eastern Europe and Southwestern Asia, Khazaria became one of the foremost trading empires of the early medieval world, commanding the western marches of the Silk Road and playing a key commercial role as a crossroad between China, the Middle East, and Kievan Rus'. For some three centuries (–965), the Khazars dominated the vast area extending from the Volga-Don steppes to the eastern Crimea and the northern Caucasus. Khazaria long served as a buffer state between the Byzantine Empire, the nomads of the northern steppes, and the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caspian Expeditions Of The Rus'
The Caspian expeditions of the Rus' were military raids undertaken by the Rus' between the late 9th century and 1041 on the Caspian Sea shores, of what are nowadays Iran, Dagestan, and Azerbaijan. Initially, the Rus' appeared in Serkland in the 9th century travelling as merchants along the Volga trade route, selling furs, honey, and slaves. The first small-scale Viking raids took place in the late 9th and early 10th century. The Rus' undertook the first large-scale expedition in 913; having arrived on 500 ships, they pillaged in the Gorgan region, in the territory of present-day Iran, and more to the west, in Gilan and Mazandaran, taking slaves and goods. On their return, the northern raiders were attacked and defeated by the Khazars in the Volga Delta, and those who escaped were killed by the local tribes in the middle Volga. During their next expedition in 943, the Rus' captured Bardha'a, the capital of Arran, in the modern-day Republic of Azerbaijan. The Rus' stayed ther ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sviatoslav I Of Kiev
Sviatoslav or Svyatoslav I Igorevich (; Old Norse: ''Sveinald''; – 972) was Prince of Kiev from 945 until his death in 972. He is known for his persistent campaigns in the east and south, which precipitated the collapse of two great powers in Eastern Europe, Khazaria and the First Bulgarian Empire. He conquered numerous East Slavic tribes, defeated the Alans and attacked the Volga Bulgars, and at times was allied with the Pechenegs and Magyars (Hungarians). Following the death of his father Igor in 945, Sviatoslav's mother Olga reigned as regent in Kiev until 962. His decade-long reign over the Kievan Rus' was marked by rapid expansion into the Volga River valley, the Pontic steppe, and the Balkans, leading him to carve out for himself the largest state in Europe. In 969, he moved his seat to Pereyaslavets on the Danube. In 970, he appointed his sons Yaropolk and Oleg as subordinate princes of Kiev and Drelinia, while he appointed Vladimir, his son by his housekeeper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Khazar Rulers
The following is a list of Khazar rulers. Khazar Khagans (Ashina dynasty) The Khagans were supreme chiefs of the people, holding positions of much influence and spiritual authority, but with little day-to-day command. Khazar Beks The Khagan Beks were war chiefs, military commanders who exercised considerable day-to-day authority, and were sometimes regarded by outsiders as the supreme lords of the Khazar nation. Conversion to Judaism Hazer Tarkhan's army was annihilated at Itil in 737 AD, and the Umayyad Caliphate imposed Islam upon the Khazars. Nevertheless, the Caliphs could not adequately garrison Khazaria, and within a few years the Khazars were once again independent. The famous conversion to Judaism seems to have occurred about this time. The date of the actual conversion to Judaism is a matter of some controversy. According to Yehuda Halevi in ''Kuzari'', it occurred around 740 AD, though some Arab sources point to a date closer to the end of the 8th century or ear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atil
Atil, also Itil, was the capital of the Khazar Khaganate from the mid-8th century to the late 10th century. It is known historically to have been situated along the Silk Road, on the northern coast of the Caspian Sea, in the Volga Delta region of modern Southern Russia. Its precise location has long been unknown. In 2008 a Russian archaeologist claimed to have discovered the remains of Atil in Samosdelka, a village in the Volga Delta approximately 30 km southwest of the city of Astrakhan. This claim has since been disproven. Name The historical Turkic peoples living on or near the Volga region called both the river and the Khazar capital city on the river or ''Atil''. Modern Turkic languages have retained the historical name for the Volga. The Volga is known as '' İdel ''( Идел) in Tatar language, Tatar, as '' Atăl '' (Атӑл) in Chuvash language, Chuvash, as '' Iźelin '' in Bashkir language, Bashkir, as '' Edıl '' in Kazakh language, Kazakh, and as '' İdil '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Turkic People
Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West Asia, West, Central Asia, Central, East Asia, East, and North Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages.. "Turkic peoples, any of various peoples whose members speak languages belonging to the Turkic subfamily...". "The Turkic peoples represent a diverse collection of ethnic groups defined by the Turkic languages." According to historians and linguists, the Proto-Turkic language originated in Central-East Asia, potentially in the Altai-Sayan region, Mongolia or Tuva.: "The ultimate Proto-Turkic homeland may have been located in a more compact area, most likely in Eastern Mongolia": "The best candidate for the Turkic Urheimat would then be northern and western Mongolia and Tuva, where all these haplogroups could have intermingled, rather than eastern and southern Mongolia..." Initially, Proto-Turkic speakers were potentially both hunter-gatherers and farmers; they later became nomadic Pastoralism, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bulan (Khazar)
Bulan (meaning "elk" or " hart" in Old Turkic) was a Khazar ruler, and the founder of the Bulanid dynasty. He is usually identified as being the same with Sabriel, the king who led the khazar conversion to Judaism, and thus he is sometimes referred to as Bulan Sabriel. Reign The exact date of Bulan's reign is unknown, mainly because the date of the khazars' conversion to Judaism is hotly disputed. It should be between the mid-8th and the mid-9th centuries. It is also not settled whether if Bulan was a Bek (military leader) or Khagan (supreme chief and spiritual leader) of the Khazars. The scholar D. M. Dunlop thought that Bulan and his descendants were Khagans, because of the hereditary nature of his lineage and because of the use of the word "Kohen" (priest) by Judah ben Barzillai in the ''Sefer ha-lttim'' (a code of Jewish law). More recent scholars such as Dan Shapira and Kevin Brook instead assume that Bulan was a Bek, due to the references of him leading military campaig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Of Taman
A purported Khazar ruler of the late tenth century CE who ruled over a Khazar successor-state in the Taman region. David is mentioned in a single document dated AM 4746 (985/986 CE) which contains a reference to "our lord David, Prince of the Khazars, who lives in Taman." The document in question is of uncertain authenticity, as it passed through the hands of Abraham Firkovich, who on occasion forged documents and inscriptions. Dan Shapira expressed certainty that the document is a forgery by Firkovich and his viewpoint was adopted by other scholars who cited him including Michael Toch and Kevin Brook. Based upon this text, Heinrich Graetz hypothesized that the Khazars reorganized themselves after 969 in Crimea and the Taman peninsula. Graetz further maintained that the Khazar Jewish representatives summoned by Vladimir I of Kiev to debate the merits of their religion against representatives from Catholic Germany, Orthodox Byzantium, and Muslim Volga Bulgaria were dispatche ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manasseh I
Menasseh ben Hezekiah was a hypothetical Turkic ruler of the Khazars mentioned in the Khazar Correspondence. He probably reigned in the mid to late ninth century CE. He was the son of Hezekiah, the son of Obadiah. Little is known about his reign. Historical authenticity and accuracy of the only document mentioning his name has been questioned. As with other Bulanid rulers, it is unclear whether he was Khagan or Khagan Bek of the Khazars, although the latter is more likely. Menasseh was succeeded by his uncle Hanukkah or by Isaac. References Sources *Kevin Alan Brook. ''The Jews of Khazaria.'' 3rd ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2018. * Douglas M. Dunlop, ''The History of the Jewish Khazars,'' Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1954. * Norman Golb and Omeljan Pritsak Omeljan Yosypovych Pritsak (; 7 April 1919 – 29 May 2006) was the first Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of History of Ukraine, Ukrainian History at Harvard University and the founder and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Obadiah (Khazar)
Obadiah was the name of a Khazar ruler of the late eighth or early ninth century. He is described as coming from among "the sons of the sons" of Bulan, but whether this should be taken literally to mean that he was Bulan's grandson, or figuratively to imply a more remote descent, is unclear. King Joseph's ''Reply'' claimed that Obadiah strengthened Rabbinic Judaism and Hebrew proficiency in Khazaria by building synagogues and schools and inviting Jewish sages to the country. In ''Sefer ha-Ittim'', Judah ben Barzillai's list of Khazar Jewish kings lacked Obadiah's name, and several scholars have concluded from this that Obadiah was a fictional character. He was succeeded by his son Hezekiah. References Sources *Kevin Alan Brook. ''The Jews of Khazaria.'' 3rd ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2018. * Douglas M. Dunlop, ''The History of the Jewish Khazars,'' Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1954. *Norman Golb and Omeljan Pritsak Omeljan Yosypovych Pritsak ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph (Khazar)
Joseph ben Aaron was king of the Khazars during the 950s and 960s. Joseph was the son of Aaron II, a Khazar ruler who defeated a Byzantine-inspired war against Khazaria on numerous fronts. Joseph's wife (or probably, one of many wives) was the daughter of the king of the Alans. Whether Joseph was the Khagan or the Bek of the Khazars is contested among historians. He describes leading Khazar armies which seems to imply the role of the Bek. However, as he does not refer to a co-ruler in his writings, it is possible that by his time the two-king system had been abandoned altogether (see Khazar Kingship). Joseph actively sought contact with Jews elsewhere in the diaspora. He corresponded with Hasdai ibn Shaprut, a rabbi in Cordoba, and invited him to settle in Khazaria. He is also mentioned in the Schechter Letter. Joseph was involved in wars against the Kievan Rus and the Pechenegs, as well as sporadic fighting with the Byzantines in the Crimea. He reported that he was allie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zachariah (Khazar)
Zachariah, or Zacharias, was a Khagan of the Khazars The Khazars ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a nomadic Turkic people who, in the late 6th century CE, established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, Crimea, a ..., reported in the account of St. Cyril. The start and end dates of his reign are unknown but he was khagan during Cyril's visit to Khazaria in 861. References Khazar rulers 9th-century monarchs in Europe Jewish royalty {{royal-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benjamin (Khazar)
A Khazar ruler (probably the bek), mentioned in the Schechter Text and the Khazar Correspondence, Benjamin was the son of the Khazar ruler Menahem and probably reigned in the late ninth and early tenth centuries CE. The only extant account of Benjamin's reign comes from the Schechter Text, whose anonymous author reported a war between Benjamin's Khazars and a coalition of five nations: 'SY, TWRQY, 'BM, and PYYNYL, who were instigated and aided by MQDWN. "MQDWN", or Macedon, is used in medieval Jewish documents to refer to the Eastern Roman Empire, particularly under its Macedonian dynasty (867-1025). "TWRQY" can be identified with the Oghuz on Khazaria's eastern flank. The other three entities are less easily identifiable. In ''Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century'', Omeljan Pritsak argued that "PYYNYL" was actually "PTzNYK" Pecheneg, the misreading ascribed to the degradation of the letter itself. He further identified 'SY with the Asya, who he connects to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
