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Khazar Orgin Hypothesis

Khazar orgins

 

In studying the annals of medieval and ancient history, no story remains as mysterious, poorly understood, and bizarre than that of the orgins and conversion of the Khazar people to Rabbinical Judaism.

 

 

A brief history of the Khazars:

The steppe of what is now southern Russia has been occupied by nomadic tribes which would often conglomerate into large coalitions and sometime coagulate into empires. Usually these were short lived and broke up due to internicene tribal politics.

Such it was that sometime around 630 ad the Khazars seem to have begun their rise to prominence after their predecessor the Gokturk khaganate lost control of the area following their defeat by the Tang Chinese.

The Khazars founded their capital in 650 formally becoming an empire. They lasted for about 300 years until after pressure from neighboring tribes they were mostly conquered by the Kievian Rus.

During their empire however they were known as traders and pastoralists whose empire was large and powerful, politically speaking they served as a buffer into Europe from nomadic steppe tribes and blocked the northern Arab expansion.

It has been written that the Khazars converted to Judaism sometime in the 9th century AD. I have always found this to be most puzzling as Judaism is not a proselytizing religion and Rabbinical Judaism in particular is very much blood bound. Furthermore I find it hard to believe that a pagan tribe of turkic people would chose to convert to Judaism as such a conversion would seemingly be very antagonistic to their culture and heritage and Islam or Christianity would have been more politically advantageous.

 

I think though that if we are to take a look at the broad picture and analyze the chaotic reality of the near east during this time period a certain focus comes to life on who the Khazars actually are and how their conversion came to be.

The 6th century AD in the middle east can be seen as a time where the region was ruled by two prominent powers: Byzantines and Persians. However for this story there is a particular importance to Mesopotamia, the Jews which had fled from roman persecution had in large part settled in Babylon and had become semi independent from the Persian state going so far as to declare their independence at the beginning of the century. It was while this independent short lived Rabbinate of Mar Zutra II ruled that the Talmud was formally compiled. Though the Rebellion was defeated it showed that Jewish Power in Babylon was quite substantial under Persian rule.

The 7th century in the middle east was one of rapid muslim expansion and the collapse of both byzantine rule and Sassinid rule over the levant, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Persia.

 

Also During this time we have the unification of China under the Tang and the defeat of the Gokturks. The process of making silk is discovered in 500 ad and now a unified China could export it west.

 

This is where my historical speculation begins: the collapse of two major empires in the middle east in addition to Muslim expansion in to transoxonia and India would mean that a new northern route which could pass through more stable regions would be desirable. The power vacuum of the steppes and the and the establishment of a country ruled by Turks and Jews would have been an attractive alternative for the Jews of Babylon as they could ascend socially to the ruling class, instead of entering another country as refugees. I believe the prospect of staying under new muslim rule was not as attractive due to the fact that of their high status under the persian empire would mean a fall from power relatively speaking as the Jewish elite of Babylon would have been replaced by the Arab conquerers. Thus the geo political reality of the 7thcentury would make the establishment of Babylonia Jewish power in the steppes feasible and attractive.

 

It is thus my speculation that the Jews of Babylon which had operated a relatively independent satrapy within the Persian empire fled northward from the conquering Muslim armies, when the Muslims conquered Mesopotamia in 634, came through the Caucus’ and established The Khazarian empire by forming up with the rebellious western Gokturk chieftains. I do not believe there really was a Khazarian conversion, just a relocation of Jewish people in the face of Islamic expansion. If there were a genuine conversion of the people then there would be a lasting Jewish population in the region. Instead what the historical record show us is that the Khazarian empire was a dualistic kingdom, which the imagination brings to mind thoughts of Manichean and Zoroastrian elements, The Turkish Chieftains maintained the Military and the Jews controlled the spiritual/financial. To grossly simplify the Khazars were basically an empire of Turks run by a Jewish elite, and I think as the empire grew and became more entrenched the Jews felt that they could become more and more prominent and less secretive, plus I imagine there was a lot of intermarrying by the later stages. Thus I submit this as then explanation not only for the founding of the Khazarian empire but also for its actions throughout its history. Its invasion of the middle east for example can be seen in the context of maintaining the northern silk road trade.

 

Counter arguments: There is a lot of people online arguing that the Khazars never converted/never were Jewish. This seems to be coming out of the Zionist camp which believes that Khazarian turking blood delegitimizes the Jewish claim to Palestine. Yet even still this may be the case I don’t know enough about this theory and my hypothesis argues from the assumption that the Khazars were Jewish.

 

Another counter argument is that Judaism was already well established in the western steppes/north  caucus and that the Jewish origin of the Khazars comes from these Jews and not from Babylon. Again I don’t know what evidence (if any) there is for a jewish presence before 650 AD in this region exists. However if there was a Jewish community it would not necessarily discredit my Babylonian hypothesis, but could in fact support it as a Jewish community serving as a outpost would help facilitate the Jews from Babylon making their move and establishing relations with the Gokturks.

Theres a lot of rampant speculation and historical inference in my hypothesis, but I thought there was enough meat on the bone to share. Thoughts?

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Timothy Fitzpatrick