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List of Khazar rulers

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The following is a list of Khazar rulers.

Early Khazar rulers

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Name Reign Comments
Kozar Eponymous folk-ancestor of the Khazars
Karadach 450 AD Karadach was the king of the Akatziroi, a steppe nation allied to the Huns. He is described in the accounts of Priscus.

Khazar Khagans (Ashina dynasty)

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See also: Ashina tribe and List of Khagans of the Göktürks

The Khagans were supreme chiefs of the people, holding positions of much influence and spiritual authority, but with little day-to-day command.[1]

Name Reign Comments
Ziebel 618–630 Tong Yabghu Qaghan of the West Göktürks ?
Böri Shad? 630–650
Irbis? 650
Khalga? mid 660s? During the period between 650 and 680, one will sometimes see references to a Khalga, mid 660s, and Kaban, late 660s. Researchers should be aware that these names are derived from a single document, the Cäğfär Taríxı, and that a great many scholars have severely attacked this document as a mixture of factual data and outright fabrication.

The Cäğfär Taríxı purports to be a compilation of early Bulgar historical material, assembled (or at least written in its present form) in the late 17th century. It has been used by Volga Tatars to document that their antecedents in their region extend back in time by many centuries.

Critics claim the Cäğfär Taríxı to be a forgery, created by or at the behest of the Soviet Secret Police (then the NKVD) in the 1930s for the purpose of creating divisiveness and factionalism within the ethnic Tatars of that era. The Soviet government did create spurious historical documents on several occasions. The historicity of the people that it refers to is therefore questionable, so until additional documentation comes to light, Khalga and Kaban should be regarded warily at best.

Kaban? late 660s?
Busir (Ibuzir Glavan) c. 690–715 Busir Glavan took in the exiled Byzantine Emperor, Justinian II, and gave him his own sister (baptismal name Theodora). He later tried to kill Justinian to placate Tiberius III, causing Justinian's flight to Bulgaria and his ultimate restoration to the throne.
Barjik late 720s–731
Bihar c. 732 Bihar is the name given in some sources to the Khazar Khagan whose daughter Tzitzak married the future Byzantine Emperor Constantine V. The son of Constantine and Tzitzak was Leo IV the Khazar.
Prisbit late 730s Female. Regent?
Under the Umayyad Caliphate 737–c. 740
Baghatur c. 760 Ras Tarkhan is also mentioned in this period.
Khan-Tuvan
(a.k.a. Dyggvi)		 c. 825–
830 (died?)
Tarkhan 840s Arab sources speak of "Tarkhan, King of the Khazars" during this period.[2] "Tarkhan" can be both a proper name and a military rank.[3] It is unclear whether the sources refer to a Khagan named Tarkhan or make a confusing reference to a general.
Zachariah c. 861

Khazar Beks

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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.

Name Reign Comments
Yazir Bulash It is not entirely clear that these individuals were or were not Bulanids. They may have been simply warlords. Nevertheless, their activity parallels that of the later Beks, and so are included.
Chorpan Tarkhan c. 630
Alp Tarkhan early 8th century
Tar'mach c. 730
Hazer Tarkhan ?–737
Under the Caliphate 737–c. 740

Conversion to Judaism

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Hazer Tarkhan's army was annihilated at Itil in 737 AD, and the Umayyad Caliphate imposed Islam upon the Khazars.[4] 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 early 9th century,[5][6] and more recent scholars have postulated that 861 AD, the date of St. Cyril's visit to Khazaria, was the year of the conversion to Judaism.[7][8]

The 2002 discovery of a coin hoard in Sweden further complicates the issue, as some of the coins bear dates from the early 9th century and the legends "Ard al-Khazar" (Land of the Khazars) and "Moses is the Prophet of God". Since the coins date from 837 AD or 838 AD, some scholars think the conversion occurred in 838 AD.[9][10] Bulan Sabriel was the Khazar ruler at the time of the conversion, but in the list below all the dates up to Aaron I are based on a presumed 740 AD conversion date.

Bulanid dynasty

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Name Reign Comments
Bulan Sabriel c. 740 Joseph corresponded with Hasdai ibn Shaprut, a Jewish vizier to Abd al-Rahman III, Caliph of Córdoba. It is from that correspondence that this list is taken. It is not entirely ruled out that the Bulanids were in fact Khagans rather than Beks, though their power certainly appears to be that of the Beks. Moreover, it is possible that the positions merged in the 10th century, as Joseph makes no reference to a colleague,[11] instead referring to himself as "king of the Khazars."
Obadiah c. 786–809
Hezekiah
Manasseh I
Chanukkah
Isaac
Zebulun
Manasseh II
Nisi ben Menasseh
Aaron I c. 900
Menahem
Benjamin c. 920
Aaron II c. late 920s
–940
Joseph 940–965

Late Khazar Rulers

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In 969 AD, Sviatoslav I of Kiev sacked Itil, the capital of the Khazar Khaganate. Khazar successor states appear to have survived in the Caucasus and around the Black Sea. We know of two later Khazar rulers:

Name Reign Comments
David c. 986–988 The authenticity of the only document that mentions him has been disputed.
Georgius Tzul (of Kerch) ?–1016

Collapse of Khazar power

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Georgius Tzul was captured by a joint Rus'-Byzantine expedition and his state was destroyed.[12] Shortly thereafter, the Kipchaks became masters of the Pontic steppe (see Cumans). However, there continue to be tantalizing references, in Muslim sources, of battles against "Khazars" in the Caucasus well into the late 11th century.[13] Whether Khazar states continued to survive or their name was used generically to describe Caucasian highlanders is unclear.

The fate of the Jewish Khazars is unclear. Jewish travelers of the 12th century continue to refer to them in passing. Khazar Jews are known to have lived in Kiev[14][15] and even to have emigrated to the Byzantine Empire[16] and studied Judaism in Spain.[17] According to some sources the majority may have gone to Hungary,[18] Poland and the Crimea, mingling with Jews in those areas and with later waves of Jewish immigrants from the west.

Notes

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  1. ^ Brook, Kevin A. (2018). The Jews of Khazaria (3rd ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. p. 45, 47–48.
  2. ^ Zhivkov, Boris (2015). Khazaria in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries. Brill. p. 64.
  3. ^ Golden, Peter B. (1980). Khazar Studies: An Historico-Philological Inquiry into the Origins of the Khazars. Vol. 1. Akadémiai Kiadó. p. 210.
  4. ^ Brook, Kevin A. (2018). The Jews of Khazaria (3rd ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. p. 113.
  5. ^ Feldman, Alex M. (2022). The Monotheisation of Pontic-Caspian Eurasia: From the Eighth to the Thirteenth Century. Edinburgh University Press. p. 40.
  6. ^ Brook, Kevin A. (2018). The Jews of Khazaria (3rd ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. p. 100.
  7. ^ Zuckerman, Constantine (1995). "On the date of the Khazars' Conversion to Judaism and the Chronology of the Kings of the Rus' Oleg and Igor". Revue des études byzantines. 53: 250. doi:10.3406/rebyz.1995.1906.
  8. ^ Feldman, Alex M. (2022). The Monotheisation of Pontic-Caspian Eurasia: From the Eighth to the Thirteenth Century. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 44–46.
  9. ^ Kovalev, Roman K. (2005). "Creating Khazar Identity through Coins: The Special Issue Dirhams of 837/8". In Curta, Florin (ed.). East Central and Eastern Europe in the Early Middle Ages. University of Michigan Press. p. 241.
  10. ^ Feldman, Alex M. (2022). The Monotheisation of Pontic-Caspian Eurasia: From the Eighth to the Thirteenth Century. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 43–44.
  11. ^ Brook, Kevin A. (2018). The Jews of Khazaria (3rd ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. p. 48.
  12. ^ Dunlop, D. M. (1954). The History Of The Jewish Khazars. Princeton University Press. pp. 251–252.
  13. ^ Dunlop, D. M. (1954). The History Of The Jewish Khazars. Princeton University Press. pp. 256–257.
  14. ^ Golb, Norman; Pritsak, Omeljan (1982). Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century. Cornell University Press. pp. 21, 32.
  15. ^ Feldman, Alex M. (2022). The Monotheisation of Pontic-Caspian Eurasia: From the Eighth to the Thirteenth Century. Edinburgh University Press. p. 29.
  16. ^ Brook, Kevin A. (2018). The Jews of Khazaria (3rd ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 159–160.
  17. ^ Brook, Kevin A. (2018). The Jews of Khazaria (3rd ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. p. 161.
  18. ^ Brook, Kevin A. (2018). The Jews of Khazaria (3rd ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 145–146.

Sources

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  • Artamonov, Mikhail. Istoriya Khazar. Leningrad, 1962.
  • Brook, Kevin A. The Jews of Khazaria. 3rd ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2018.
  • Christian, David. A History of Russia, Mongolia and Central Asia. Vol. 1. Blackwell, 1999.
  • Dunlop, D. M. The History Of The Jewish Khazars. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1954.
  • Feldman, Alex M. The Monotheisation of Pontic-Caspian Eurasia: From the Eighth to the Thirteenth Century. Edinburgh University Press, 2022.
  • Golb, Norman & Pritsak, Omeljan. Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1992.
  • Golden, Peter B. Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples. Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz, 1992.
  • Golden, Peter B. Nomads and Sedentary Societies in Medieval Eurasia. Washington, D.C.: American Historical Society, 1998.
  • Klyashtorny, S.G. and T.I. Sultanov. Kazakhstan. Alma-Ata, 1992.
  • Mango, C. & R. Scott (trans.). The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor. Oxford University Press, 1997.
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